Oct 05

Flash 10.1 announced for just about anything with a screen, webOS and WinMo betas this year (update: Pre video!)

Posted in: adobe, Android, flash, NVIDIA, qualcomm, RIM, snapdragon, symbian, tegra, Today's Chili, webos, Windows Mobile, WindowsMobile

Flash 10 already supports HD video on the desktop, but 10.1 — announced this week at Adobe’s MAX conference in Los Angeles — is being billed the first to really reap the full benefits of the Open Screen Project by unifying feature sets across a wide variety of platforms on the desktop, the laptop, and the pocket. As usual, Windows, Mac, and Linux will all get hooked up with the latest release, but public betas of 10.1 for Windows Mobile and webOS will be hitting before the end of the year as well followed by Android and Symbian in “early” 2010. RIM’s also gotten official with its rumored membership in the Open Screen Project, though the lack of a timeline for 10.1 support in BlackBerry OS is a stark reminder of the long technical road that lies ahead for Waterloo as it tries to match the smartphone competition tit-for-tat in the multimedia space. At the end of the day, mobile Flash means nothing without the horsepower to properly drive it, so let’s hope that Tegra, Snapdragon, and next-generation architectures like OMAP4 start to come on board en masse just as these builds come out of beta.

Speaking of fast chipsets, the other big news out of the show is that Flash 10.1 will take advantage of GPU acceleration on a number of key mobile platforms, including both nVidia’s Tegra and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon alongside ION for smooth (well, theoretically smooth) 720p and 1080p video on the latest generation of netbooks and smartbooks.

Update: Added video of the Palm Pre running three instances of Flash in parallel after the break.

Read – Flash 10.1 announcement
Read – RIM joins the OSP

Continue reading Flash 10.1 announced for just about anything with a screen, webOS and WinMo betas this year (update: Pre video!)

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Flash 10.1 announced for just about anything with a screen, webOS and WinMo betas this year (update: Pre video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Oct 2009 01:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 04

Flash 10.1: Full Flash for Everyone But iPhone, Actually Playable HD Vids

Posted in: adobe, Android, BlackBerry, cellphones, flash, nvidia ion, symbian, Today's Chili, top, webos, Windows Mobile

A ton of good news about Adobe Flash 10.1: Full Flash is coming to Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, WebOS and Windows Mobile. and it’ll be actually GPU accelerated, meaning you can play back YouTube in HD perfectly. But the bad news?

Nothing for the iPhone. “Still a closed device and not much progress there,” Adobe told us as they gleefully detailed that Flash was invading basically every other smartphone. Also, we gotta wait until mid-2010 for the full rollout.

But, betas for Windows Mobile and WebOS are coming this year, with Android and Symbian early next, meaning you can get your mobile Hulu on before then. BlackBerry will be a bit longer, since RIM just joined Adobe’s Open Screen project. Supposedly, Flash won’t run like total garbage on phones, either, like Flash Lite. Fingers crossed, guys!

The GPU acceleration for Flash is the real deal, for sure, though—I watched a Star Trek trailer on YouTube HD on an Nvidia Ion-powered HP Mini 311 output to an external monitor, even, and it ran flawlessly. Which, if you’ve ever tried to play an HD Flash clip, even on full-fledged systems it molests CPU cycles, so just working on a $400 netbook very nearly deserves applause.

Flash 10.1 has a few other tricks too with full support for multitouch, gestures and accelerometer input—meaning it’d be perfect on the iPhone, if Apple would ever let it through. And make no mistake, Apple is the roadblock there, since Adobe said engineering work has continued (10,000 years later). The fact that full Flash will be on basically every single smartphone platform also makes that pretty clear.

If you want to spin that positively (my coffee cup is half-full, after all) the iPhone is now basically the only place you can go to flee from Flash, which basically covers everything like a pulsating squid thing with icky tentacles and stuff, ceaselessly stretching out to ensnare more. There is no escape. Except the iPhone. (Which kinda makes no Flash a feature, right?)

Oh, and the new Adobe AIR—TweetDeck, the NY Times Reader and other software runs on top of it—will slightly be less abominable, gobbling less memory and acting more like a real application, with USB mass storage support, multitouch and gesture input, and p2p powers for stuff like Skype and gaming.

Bottom line, It’s a Flashy world, we just live in it.

Adobe Unveils First Full Flash Player for Mobile Devices and PCs

Close to 50 Open Screen Project Participants Support New Browser Runtime for Multiple Platforms

LOS ANGELES – Oct. 5, 2009 – Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today unveiled Adobe® Flash® Player 10.1 software for smartphones, smartbooks, netbooks, PCs and other Internet-connected devices, allowing content created using the Adobe Flash Platform to reach users wherever they are. A public developer beta of the browser-based runtime is expected to be available for Windows® Mobile, Palm® webOS and desktop operating systems including Windows, Macintosh and Linux later this year. Public betas for Google® Android™ and Symbian® OS are expected to be available in
early 2010.

In addition, Adobe and RIM announced a joint collaboration to bring Flash Player to Blackberry® smartphones, and Google joined close to 50 other industry players in the Open Screen Project initiative.
Flash Player 10.1 is the first consistent runtime release of the Open Screen Project that enables uncompromised Web browsing of expressive applications, content and high definition (HD) videos across devices. Using the productive Web programming model of the Flash Platform, the browser-based runtime enables millions of designers and developers to reuse code and assets and reduce the cost of creating, testing and deploying content across different operating systems and browsers. Flash Player 10.1 is easily updateable across all supported platforms to ensure rapid adoption of new innovations that move the Web forward.

The browser-based runtime leverages the power of the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) for accelerated video and graphics while conserving battery life and minimizing resource utilization. New mobile-ready features that take advantage of native device capabilities include support for multi-touch, gestures, mobile input models, accelerometer and screen orientation bringing unprecedented creative control and expressiveness to the mobile browsing experience. Flash Player 10.1 will also take advantage of media delivery with HTTP streaming, including integration of content protection powered by Adobe® Flash® Access 2.0. This effort, code-named Zeri, will be an open format based on industry standards and will
provide content publishers, distributors and partners the tools they need to utilize HTTP infrastructures for high-quality media delivery in Flash Player 10.1 and Adobe® AIR® 2.0 software.

“With Flash Player moving to new mobile platforms, users will be able to experience virtually all Flash technology based Web content and applications wherever they are,” said David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president, Platform Business Unit at Adobe. “We are excited about the broad collaboration of close to 50 industry leaders in the Open Screen Project and the ongoing collaboration with 19 out of the top 20 handset manufacturers worldwide. It will be great to see first devices ship with full Flash Player in the first half of next year.”

“We are excited to join Adobe and other industry leaders in the Open Screen Project,” said Sundar Pichai, vice president of Product Management at Google. “This initiative supports our common goal to move the Web forward as a platform and to spur innovation in the industry through technology such as Adobe Flash.”

“Adobe Flash technology provides a key experience on new Windows phones, enabling people to enjoy rich Flash based games, videos and other interactive Web content on the go,” said Stephanie Ferguson, general manager, Product Management, Microsoft Corp. “We look forward to bringing in the new capabilities of Adobe Flash Player 10.1 to the Windows phone browser when it becomes available.”

“Motorola is excited to be one of the first handset manufacturers to ship Android based devices with Flash Player support early next year,” said Christy Wyatt, vice president of software applications and ecosystem at Motorola. “As the No.1 platform for video on the Web, uncompromised browsing of Flash technology based content is essential for a rich mobile experience and something users expect from Motorola today.”

“As a longtime partner of Adobe, and more than 400 million Nokia phones shipped with existing Flash technology to date, we are excited to see Flash Player becoming a reality for mobile phones and other mobile devices,” said Purnima Kochikar, vice president, Forum Nokia. “Nokia is excited about full Flash Player coming to devices and we are committed to supporting Flash Player 10.1 on mobile devices in 2010.”

[Adobe]

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Oct 04

How To: Install Homebrew On Palm Pre 1.2.1

Posted in: feature, palm, palm pre, pre, Today's Chili, top, webos

WebOS 1.2(.1) is here, and yes: It broke homebrew. Amazingly, it only took devs about two days to bounce back. Here’s how to bring hundreds of free apps, tweaks and themes to your Pre, without flashing your firmware.

Why Homebrew?

Paid apps are due in the official App Catalog any day now—actually they’re running a little late—meaning that the app selection is probably about to get a lot wider, and basically better. But webOS development is limited in scope, and App Catalog applications will never be able to theme your device, access 3D APIs that aren’t in the MojoSDK, change your homescreen layout, or add an onscreen keyboard.

Pre homebrew is as much about adding apps that Palm has been so slow to approve as it is tweaking your handset. Think of it like jailbreaking an iPhone, except that it’s easier to do, and the benefits are much, much greater.

(This guide owes a huge debt to the PreCentral forums, where the developer of WebOS Quick Install, with others, have collected most of the necessary resources. Recognition is nice, but donations are better. If you find WebOS Quick Install useful, send Jason a few bucks.)

What You Need

Some downloads! The only app you’ll need to run on your computer is a Java app, so it’s completely cross-platform. This guide should work for Windows, Mac or Linux.

1. WebOS Quick Install:
This is the desktop program that effectively opens up your Pre for business. It’s got quite a bit of power on its own, but one of its greatest talents is the ability to install package managers like Preware, which make installing homebrew apps to your Pre, from your Pre super-easy.

2. WebOSDoctor ROM (Sprint, Bell): This is just a restoration ROM for webOS, which WebOS Quick Install needs to work. It should be saved into the same directory as WebOS Quick Install, then left alone.

3. Java SE 6: Make sure you’ve got Java 1.6, or SE 6, so you can run these apps properly.

And one trick:

4. Dev Mode: Switching your Pre to dev mode is either sort of fun or sort of tedious, depending on your capacity for nostalgia.

All you have to do is type “upupdowndownleftrightleftrightbastart” on the keypad. That’ll open a search query that’ll uncover a new app on your Pre called “DeveloperMode.” Run it, and it’ll switch your phone into, you guessed it, developer mode.

Running WebOS Quick Install

5. Plug your Pre into your computer. When prompted for connection type, select “Just Charge”

6. Open WebOS Quick Install, making sure that the WebOSDoctor ROM is in the same directory as the Quick Install JAR.

You’ll get this message:

Heed it.

7. When you reopen WebOS Quick Install, you’ll be prompted to choose which kind of device you want to access. Choose “USB Device,” which’ll install the drivers necessary to crack into a physical Pre, not just an emulator.

8. Follow the driver installation prompts through to completion.

9. Open WebOS Quick Install again. You should see the app’s home screen. Click on the bottom button in the right panel, as indicated here:

10. Select “WebOS-Internals Feed (all)” from the download list. Select both “Package Manager Service” and “Preware” from the resulting list. These will enable you to download and apply the tweaks and apps you want.

11. After download, they will be added to the previously empty list in the app’s homescreen, where you should highlight both, then click “Install”

There you go!

Getting the Most Out Of Homebrew

Now that you’re set up and ready to go, it’s time to do stuff. Launch the Preware app on your Pre—at first load, it takes a while to sync up with all the repositories, so be patient—and explore the 200+ apps included by default. (You can add other repositories on your own, but most of the good stuff is already here.)

The “Package Manager Service” installation doesn’t just enable downloads through Preware—it enables a whole range of WebOS Quick Install tweaks, which you can access through the Tools ->Tweaks menu. WebOS Quick Install may prompt you to install a few patches; just go along with it, it’ll only take a second.

Once you’re in the panel, you’ll see a wealth of useful tweaks, from a 4-icon-wide app launcher, to a browser ad-blocker, to a user agent string changer, so your Pre asks for snazzier iPhone mobile pages instead of standard mobile fare. Generally, each tweak will restart your Pre.

Themes are managed either through Preware, which has a selection of over 200 that you can install with a single button press, or through the WebOS Quick Install menu, at Tools -> Themer. To install a new theme from WebOS Quick Install, you’ll have to manually download from an external site, which you’ll be directed to automatically. Once you’ve downloaded the theme, it’s just a matter of loading it into the app. Preware is probably your best bet for this, though there isn’t really a way to find out if a theme is any good without actually trying it.

As for that onscreen keyboard? You can install that through WebOS Quick Install: It’s in the same place you found Preware, in the “WebOS-Internals Feed (all)” section of the package downloader. A word of warning: It’s only officially supported up to WebOS 1.2.0, so you might be best advised to wait a few days until the developers have worked out any bugs with 1.2.1.

Anyway, the Pre Homebrew community is rich and fast-moving, so I’ll let you all take it from here. Some great resources to get you started:

• PreCentral
• WebOS-Internals
• PimpMyPre
• PreYourMind

And again, a gajillion thanks to WebOS Quick Install Developer Jason Robitaille and the users over at the PreCentral forums.

If you have more tips and tools to share, please drop some links in the comments-your feedback is hugely important to our Saturday How To guides. And if you have any topics you’d like to see covered here, please let me know. Happy homebrewing, folks!

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Oct 03

Palm WebOS 1.2.1 now available, ‘fixes’ iTunes media sync

Posted in: breaking news, BreakingNews, firmware, itunes, palm, pre, Software, software update, SoftwareUpdate, sync, Today's Chili, update, webos

The game’s back on. Palm just announced the availability of its 1.2.1 update to WebOS for the Palm Pre and, well, that’s it for the time being. It fixes Exchange mail syncing issues experienced by some users, which is nice, but for everyone else it re-enables media sync with iTunes 9.0.1, with or without the USB-IF‘s support. In fact, Palm has signaled its commitment to its rogue approach by improving synchronization with the Photos app to keep the album structure in tact while allowing lower-resolution images to be synced to the Pre. Oh happy day — enjoy it while it lasts Pre owners.

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Palm WebOS 1.2.1 now available, ‘fixes’ iTunes media sync originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Oct 2009 04:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 01

Paid apps hitting the Pre tomorrow?

Posted in: apps, palm, palm pre, PalmPre, pre, Today's Chili, webos

The release of webOS 1.2 got all of the stars aligned for a barrage (or, at the very least, a trickle) of paid applications to start hitting the Pre, and the word on the street is that the first of those will be dropping tomorrow, October 2 — for users in the US, anyhow (Canadians apparently need to wait a while longer, a problem that Android users up there are all too acquainted with). The company will smartly be tying purchases to users’ Palm Profiles, meaning you’ll be able to redownload previously bought apps on any device you choose as long as your account is currently tied to it. Of course, the big question is what apps will be available to blow some cash on in the first round of Catalog approvals — what’s everyone hoping for?

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Paid apps hitting the Pre tomorrow? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 28

webOS 1.2 now available, brings support for app purchases

Posted in: breaking news, BreakingNews, palm, pre, Today's Chili, update, webos
http://www.engadget.com/media/2009/09/updates_2009-28-09_160135.png

The tips are flooding in — webOS 1.2.0 has just been released, and downloads are starting all over. Obviously the big new features is support for app purchases in the Catalog, but we’ve heard there are a ton of little fixes and improvements in addition — we’re checking it out now, let us know how it goes for you in comments!

Here are some major changes listed by Palm:

  • Search is now available in the email app, allowing you to find by subject, from, to, or CC fields (no message search yet).
  • The web browser now supports cut, copy, and paste within a webpage (text only).
  • Music purchases via Amazon can now be done over EV-DO. It’s not clear if they mean that you can download the tracks, or just queue them (that would be lame, however). Anyone test this yet?
  • A new gesture has been added which allows you to swipe down from the top of the screen to open the application or connection menu — which should be a huge help to everyone missing those small targets!
  • You can now download files from within the browser, and Palm has created an easy method to open a link in a new card.

Update: We haven’t tested it yet, but the Media Sync section of the release notes doesn’t make any mention of restoring iTunes compatibility — looks like Palm’s not going to poke at the USB-IF any more than it has to.

Update 2: Tested. Don’t expect to sync with iTunes, everyone — it ain’t happening.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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webOS 1.2 now available, brings support for app purchases originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 25

Video recording hacks for the Pre making nice progress

Posted in: palm, palm pre, PalmPre, pre, Today's Chili, video, webos

The Pre’s proven to be an eminently hackable platform pretty much from day one, and given that, it stands to reason that major “missing” features are going to either be added in the hard way or a few good programmers are going to die trying. The virtual keyboard developments are seen as a big win for users, and next up is true video recording — something inexplicably missing from the device considering its ample (well, theoretically ample) processing power. Work on homebrew recording tools seems to be moving along nicely, with some open-source tools already available — so far, they’re apparently able to push it to 480 x 320 at 30fps, but it comes out encoded strangely and doesn’t resemble anything your average end user would want to be dealing with. That’s where Palm hopefully comes in with a future webOS update, but for now, at least we’re able to play around. Follow the break for video of the hack in action.

[Via PreCentral]

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Video recording hacks for the Pre making nice progress originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 23

Palm’s App Catalog is swamped with submissions, bursting with flavor

Posted in: palm, palm pre, PalmPre, pre, Today's Chili, webos
Palm's App Catalog is swamped with submissions, bursting with flavor

Palm’s App Catalog for the Pre properly launches tomorrow, and right now the question on most peoples’ minds is just how many paid apps will be in there when the doors open. Based on the latest word from the development team, the answer could be quite a lot. Apps submitted late to the party are apparently being added to approval queues so long Palm is having a hard time keeping track of them all. Developer Community Manager Chuq Von Rospach has indicated the approval group has “more applications than we could handle well,” apologizing because they have “dropped some things on the floor.” We’re hoping they’ll be picked up and dusted off quickly, because the five-second rule is not something to be messed with.

[Via PreCentral]

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Palm’s App Catalog is swamped with submissions, bursting with flavor originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Sep 2009 09:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 20

GSM Palm Pre now looking at ‘autumn’ launch in Germany

Posted in: germany, o2, palm pre, PalmPre, pre, Release Date, smartphone, Today's Chili, webos

You know, we admire Palm’s patience. We knew a GSM Pre was in the works about 8.43 minutes after its CES presser ended in January, and we’ve been waiting all this time for some carrier in some part of the New World to grab hold of a GSM version of the world’s first webOS handset. If you’ll recall, we last heard that O2 Germany would be giving its loyal users the chance to get that very handset before the holiday season, but now an updated image on the site clearly indicates that it’s coming this fall. As in, before winter. As in, within the next few months. As in, not nearly soon enough.

[Via PreCentral]

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GSM Palm Pre now looking at ‘autumn’ launch in Germany originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 20 Sep 2009 10:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 18

Palm’s App Catalog getting paid apps on September 24?

Posted in: Today's Chili, webos

Digital Daily’s stumbled across a leaked document apparently addressed to webOS devs that shows a timeline for bringing paid apps to the webOS App Catalog, and one date in particular stands out: September 24 for go-live. The infrastructure’s been in beta for a while now, giving everyone some time to get up to speed on the process and iron out the bugs, but for end users, the launch will likely happen in concert with the webOS 1.2 update we’ve been expecting this month and a redesigned Catalog app designed to support payments. Now, how long before we’ve got a bazillion-dollar I Am Rich app in there?

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Palm’s App Catalog getting paid apps on September 24? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Sep 2009 13:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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