Hasta La Gadget!

CES 2009 was a biggie for Palm, what with webOS and the Pre and all. Will they top it in 2010? And if so, how? A Verizon partnership seems plausible, if not likely — but otherwise, your guess is as good as ours. Anyhow, keep it locked right here next month and you’ll be finding out just as we do!

Palm invites us to ‘see and hear what’s new’ at CES 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s getting harder and harder to pick a smartphone, with options like iPhone OS, WebOS, Android, and Windows Mobile making the choosing difficult. Life would be easier if you could pick two, and that’s what virtualization giant VMware is working on, the ability to run dual OSes in one smartphone. The company already has Android/WinMo and other prototypes running, but phones featuring the tech now aren’t expected to hit market until 2012 — a big delay from the earlier indications of a release this year. Those prototypes rely on ugly boot menus, whereas the vision for this tech would see users switching between environments on the fly, taking and making calls in either whilst juggling chainsaws and dazzling their friends. The company pledges it’ll be a seamless experience, but we’re doubtful given how even stepping out of HTC’s SenseUI into the OS below can occasionally result in mild nausea. The bigger question is who would want this, and it’s easy to think the answer is “basically nobody,” but picture the poor corporate souls who must carry one phone for work and another for play. This tech could finally let them ditch that holster, and wouldn’t the world be a better place then?

VMware wants dual-OS virtualized smartphones, no ugly boot-loaders originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 06:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Even in a world full of racket, it seems that the squeaky wheel still gets the grease. In yet another blow to this whole “cloud” agenda, a vocal segment of Palm users began to notice that information transferred from their online Palm Profile was only a fraction of what it should have been. Today, both Palm and Sprint have issued a joint statement acknowledging the issue and promising to work much, much harder in order to avoid having something like this ruin your life once again. To quote:

“We are seeing a small number of customers who have experienced issues transferring their Palm Profile information to another Palm webOS device. Palm and Sprint are working closely together to support these customers to successfully transfer their information to the new device.”

Between this mess and the T-Mobile fiasco, we’re pretty certain we’re being forced to stay on the manual backup bandwagon for the foreseeable future.

[Thanks, Mike]

Palm and Sprint issue statement acknowledging Profile backup issue originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Man, the Pixi has a tough life. For starters, it launches at a price point that simply makes no sense when you consider that the Pre could be had for the exact same price via third-party channels. Next, Palm’s second-ever webOS device falls to just $25 on contract, making it worth a glance once more. Nary two days later, Amazon has chopped the price of the Pre to just $79.99 with a 2-year contract, and to boot the $36 activation fee is being waived. We always heard sibling rivalries were the worst — guess mum wasn’t kidding around.

Palm Pre slips to $80 on contract, makes the Pixi that much less attractive originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just in time for the Pixi’s grand debut, webOS devices (that’s just Pixi and Pre) now have their first official Facebook app, joining the ranks of iPhone and Android… and we’re sad to report that it’s about as barebones as they can get. It pulls from the raw live stream, seemingly unfiltered — even if you said “no” to Farmville updates on your main feed, they’ll show up here. Clicking a YouTube link brings you to the YouTube app, clicking links go to browser. You can update your status or upload a photo, but that’s about it. You can’t seem to search Facebook for any info, view events, or anything else, and clicking on someone’s name or photo brings up their contact info. And that’s about it — can someone give Joe Hewitt a ring? Still, it’s better than nothing. WebOS 1.3.1 is required, not that you had any reason to hold off upgrading.

Filed under: Cellphones

Facebook finally comes to webOS, not with a bang but a whimper originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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