Tams Palm

History tends to repeat itself, albeit with different commanders on both sides. DataViz managed to dispatch both MobiSystems and QuickOffice in the Palm game some time ago – and QuickOffice now seems to get the upper hand.

A statement on the DataViz Facebook page reads as following:

We regret to announce that we have made the difficult decision to not produce a Web OS version of Documents To Go. We understand that our delay in this area has caused much disappointment to our current and very loyal user base. We would like to explain in more detail the reasoning behind our decisions thus far.

Our intention had been to replace the Palm Viewers, which were based on the Documents To Go technology, with a full editing, aftermarket version of Documents To Go. In order to do this in a way that we felt would be most intuitive to users, we wanted to have the full version seamlessly replace the built in viewers. To do this, we needed some technical help from Palm. Because Palm was focusing on other areas at the time (including their very survival), and there was no official information available allowing developers to help ourselves, i.e., an SDK, there was a delay in getting us this information. Rather than do a substantially larger project that would result in a “sub-optimal” user experience, we decided to wait. This wait was much longer than anyone at DataViz expected. During this wait, we focused our efforts on other smartphone platforms, not because we were not loyal to Palm, but because it made “business sense” to do so. We have now come to the realization that it is not in DataViz’ nor our users’ best interests to continue the wait and produce the full version. We understand that another developer has chosen to create an editing Office product for webOS and we wish them the best. Again, we apologize to our users for taking this long to reach, what is for DataViz and many of our users, a disappointing conclusion.

This also explains why the attempts of another third party to get a guaranteed amount of sales from Palm has failed – looks like QuickOffice is the new DataViz for Palm.

P.S. Anyone want to bet whether DataViz’s viewers will still be in webOS 2.0?

Mobile Declaration and Mobile Declaration + Constitution is now available @ Palm’s App Catalog. Here are some screenshots:

Download:

-Mobile Declaration (free)
-Mobile Declaration & Constitution (0,99$)

In Austria and Germany, independant retailers have long bundled all kinds of crap to (overpriced) phone contracts.

My special friends at T-Mobile Austria have now taken this one step further. They teamed up with Microsoft and offer a free license of Office 2010 with a mobile internet contract.

The contract in question will run for 24 months, gives you 15GB of traffic and an USB modem for 15 Euros a month. The Home and Student license remains your property afterwards.

IMHO, Microsoft does this mainly to fight piracy – as almost all Austrian carriers charge an Euro for the GB, the margin for Redmond cant be too large…

Industry insiders have had access to webOS 2.0 for some time – so far, journalists and common users were not told what to expect from the next version of the operating system.

Palm has now uploaded a page showing a few new features:

• Card stacks
• Improved keyboard usability (find, start actions via KB – the latter is notably absent from many new-age OSses like bada)
• Improved TouchStone support
• HTML5, JavaScript changes

As of this writing, it is not known whether an upgrade will be offered for existing devices. Find out more via the URL below:
http://developer.palm.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2109

If you have app stores, you have astroturfing – this age-old rule has been valid ever since the first ESD opened its store and added a rating system.

Unfortunately, the recent FCC rules for online news services also affect astroturfers. The New York Times (a questionable source for mobile, but usually OK on legal matters) now reports that the FCC has settled a case against a PR firm which openly admitted to writing reviews for its clients:

…

The Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday that a California marketing company had settled charges that it engaged in deceptive advertising by having its employees write and post positive reviews of clients’ games in the Apple iTunes Store, without disclosing that they were being paid to do so.

…

Even though small-scale cases of astroturfing are unlikely to be noticed, better move your server to Panama if you plan larger campaigns…

E-Paper is not a new technology – devices using it (think Kindle) have sold hundreds of thousands of times in the last years.

So far, these screens were immovable and monochrome. According to PCWorld, the mass production of (transformable) color e-paper devices will start very soon:

…

The company expects to begin mass producing 9.7-inch color and 19-inch flexible e-paper, according to an SEC filing it made on Friday. E-paper, or electronic paper, is a display used in e-readers on which text appears as it would on printed paper.

…

So far, the slow response time has made the display technology useful onbly for e-readers (see a sample device in action here) – let’s see what hardware designers will cook up next…

Popular devices get “cloned in China”. Usually, the cloners try to get the UI at least “somewhat right” – our “mini review” of a fake N97 shows what to expect.

MicGadget.com now shares the image of a Pre knockoff below. The UI is copied from – you guessed it – an iPhone:

Not much to add here…

We covered HP’s – IMHO bad – idea to motivate employees to create webOS apps in the past.

HP’s Phil McKinney now posted the following to his Twitter feed:

As Tamoggemon also has a (small) webOS department, I am naturally not happy about a new competitor – let’s see what apps the folks created and how they will be priced.

P.S. Think about it like this: these boys get their fixed wage from HP. They can thus easily outprice a developer who has no second income stream…

Even though I personally do like the Pre to some extent, there is no way to deny that the hardware of the box is getting older and older as you read this.

PhoneDog.com claims that Verizon will kill its Pre Plus soon:

… followed by the Palm Pre Plus on October 21st. Interestingly enough, the Pixi Plus is scheduled to continue in inventory until March 31, 2011, leading me to believe that those rumors about a high-end webOS device coming in October are true.

…

Given the recent leak of the Roadrunner HD (and the age of the Pre), the timeframe looks sane to me…

DataViz’s decision to give Palm the finger with the webOS Office tool could backfire on the company significantly – their old rival QuickOffice seems to be more than willing to fill the void.

A posting on the official blog reads as following:

… At Quickoffice, we’re extremely excited to see this development and the increased focus webOS is deservedly obtaining. We’ve already seen increased competition driving innovation in the market, with Android’s Froyo, BlackBerry OS 6, iOS and now the potential of webOS 2.0. We’ve always maintained a mission that we’ll provide robust mobile applications for our users, across all the major mobile platforms, and this scope includes webOS. I think users, and the industry in general, watching webOS will be pleasantly surprised if they continue to watch Quickoffice and our continued leadership in the mobile space.

…

As of this writing, neither a release timeframe nor a feature list have been provided – watch this space to find out more about QuickOffice for webOS!

PocketGear definitely isn’t too popular among developers – especially as the folks have shown a few very stupid stunts in the past.

Nevertheless, venture capitalists seem to be more convinced of their ideas. Mobile Business Briefing currently reports the following:

… mobile apps store PocketGear has secured US$15 million in ‘series B’ funding, with investors including Trident Capital, BlackBerry Partners Fund and TomorrowVentures, the personal fund of Google’s Eric Schmidt.

…

This should be especially interesting for all developers planning legal action over their recent bork-ups – if you plan to get cash, go for it now!

When it comes to cell phone metrics, culling the important from the unimportant is difficult at best.

ABI Research is a long-standing market research company, which gives their numbers a nice bit of credibility. Their stats on Q2 2010 are below – keep in mind that the data looks at devices sold to retailers and does not count carrier-branded boxen:

Vendor Shipments (in millions) Growth 2Q 2009 1Q 2010 2Q 2010 QoQ  (1Q10-2Q10) YoY (2Q09-2Q10) Nokia 103.2 107.8 111.0 3.0% 7.6% Analysis from ABI’s Michael Morgan: While Nokia’s handset shipments increased QoQ, Nokia’s market share slipped to 34.6 percent in the second quarter. The world’s largest handset OEM has been juggling some serious re-organizations and R&D has been aligned closer to business priorities. Currently Nokia is trying to update Symbian, launch MeeGo and drive adoption of its Ovi services in the hopes gaining new service revenue streams to compensate for decreasing handset margins. While the Nokia handset platforms are selling well at lower price points, its position as top dog becomes increasingly tenuous as the Android OS and Samsung continue to etch away Nokia and Symbian’s market share. Samsung 52.3 64.3 63.8 -0.8% 22.0% Analysis from ABI’s Michael Morgan: Samsung ended a seven quarter winning streak of increasing QoQ market share dropping to 19.9 percent in Q2. This decrease is attributed to weakened economic conditions in Europe. Samsung has consistently delivered feature packed handsets that are the hallmark of South Korean handset OEMs and has championed the use of touchscreens in the feature phone segment. In the last month of Q2 Samsung’s newest smartphone the Galaxy S sold 500,000 in its home market of South Korea. In Q3 Samsung will release this device on all four major U.S. carriers, a market with six times the potential of South Korea. This could be the push Samsung needs to achieve 10 percent of the smartphone market. LG 29.8 27.1 30.6 12.9% 2.7% Analysis from ABI’s Michael Morgan: Although LG’s handset shipments increased 13 percent QoQ, revenues only increased 6 percent due to lowering ASPs in the feature phone market. With 52 percent of LG’s volume going to North America and Europe, it has become imperative that LG develops a solid foothold in the smartphone market to ride the higher margins and shipment growth. Historically, LG’s range of mid- to high-end feature phones has delivered consistent market share growth; however when looking into the future, this segment is being squeezed by smartphones on the top and low cost handsets at the bottom. ABI Research believes it is imperative that LG makes its move in 2010 or it may experience the same troubles as Sony Ericsson and Motorola. RIM 8.0 10.5 11.2 6.7% 40.5% Analysis from ABI’s Michael Morgan: RIMs position in this vendor ranking is unique as RIM does not offer lower-priced feature phones and has risen to the No. 4 spot solely through the sale of smartphones which only account for 20 percent of the overall market. In this space RIM has delivered a portfolio of smartphones, supported by the famed Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) and the BlackBerry Messenger Service (BBM). The combination of BBM and Qwerty Keypads have become a real hit in the youth and emerging markets where the free (between other BB users) and secure texting service offers the cost conscious all the ‘CrackBerry’ they can handle. RIM has released its latest OS (6) with the hopes of delivering improved browsing, media and touchscreen capabilities that will drive future growth. Sony Ericsson 13.8 10.5 11.0 4.8% -20.3% Analysis from ABI’s Michael Morgan: Q2 represents the 7th quarter in a row that Sony Ericsson has lost market share. Sony Ericsson handsets have historically focused on the feature phone segment and specialized in music or camera phones. Consumers have become more demanding, wanting a phone that does it all, making strength in one feature less desirable than mediocrity in all features. Sony Ericsson has decided to answer this call through the development of a smartphone portfolio with its flagship device the X10 landing at AT&T with SE’s custom UI platform over an Android OS (1.6). While this may not be the highest end of smartphones, it does fit nicely in the middle of the road…much like the rest of Sony Ericsson’s strategy. Apple 5.2 8.8 8.4 -4.0% 61.5% Analysis from ABI’s Michael Morgan: Apple rang in its best quarter ever in Q4 with 8.7 million iPhones. The iPhone continues its role as a global smartphone ambassador with successful arrivals in South Korea, China, new carriers in Western Europe and a growing cult following in Japan. Speculation as to how Apple will top the 3GS with the next iPhone iteration has already begun with Steve Jobs promising consumers a home run. ABI believes some pro-sumers may have trouble deciding whether to spend their money on the iPad or the new iPhone, but either way Apple will continue to own much of the mobile devices market mindshare. Motorola 14.8 8.5 8.3 -2.4% -43.9% Analysis from ABI’s Michael Morgan: Beginning in Q4 and carrying through Q1 and Q2 Motorola has delivered top of mind smartphones such as the Droid, and most recently the Droid X. While Verizon Wireless’s Droid ‘sub-brand’ and marketing dollars didn’t hurt the situation,  Motorola did deliver quality Android smartphones and prove that it can move away from its dwindling feature phone sales. It is imperative that Motorola make their smartphone strategy stick as Motorola has consecutively lost market share every single quarter since 3Q 2006! ZTE  – – – 3.7% 13.5% Analysis from ABI’s Michael Morgan: ZTE is one of China’s largest telecommunications manufacturers who produce a variety of hardware products including base stations, handsets, switching systems, optical transport etc. ZTE’s global strategy has developed relationships with major telecoms in every region. ZTE has made a name for itself with low cost handsets in emerging/developing markets and has built relationships with tier I carriers in the U.S. through their cellular modems and tier II carriers with low cost handsets. Leveraging manufacturing locations in 50 countries, ZTE is able to deliver low cost handsets either under the ZTE brand or white-label devices for carrier-branded handsets to large operators such as Vodafone. ZTE has recently announced an Android 2.1 smartphone for China Unicom priced at $179, which should allow ZTE to ride the rapidly growing smartphone market in China and migrate its brand image from low cost to affordable value. HTC  –  – – 66.7% 83.3% Analysis from ABI’s Michael Morgan: The counter point to Motorola’s Android success is HTC and its Droid Incredible and Evo 4G smartphones. HTC and Motorola together accounted for over 50 percent of all Android smartphones sold in Q2. A year ago, HTC stated it would focus on improving its brand recognition in the U.S., and today it has delivered a 400 percent increase in brand recognition with plans to replicate the process in China. With ownership of its own production facilities, custom ‘Sense’ UI and a solid range of high- and mid-range smartphones it can be expected that HTC will become a regular in the top ten handset vendors list. Huawei – – – 41.5% 48.0% Analysis from ABI’s Michael Morgan: Much like ZTE, Huawei is one of China’s leading telecom infrastructure companies, with a strong global reach in all regions. Huawei is also in the business of making low cost and white label devices along side their branded devices. Huawei has extended its low cost capabilities into the smartphone space with the T-Mobile Pulse, an Android based entry level smartphone for prepaid consumers. Huawei also carries aspirations of penetrating the U.S. market and is actively developing its portfolio to meet the tastes of U.S. carriers. However there are concerns around whether the U.S. will welcome Huawei’s advances amid security concerns. Total Top 10 241.0 252.5 263.4 4.3% 9.3% Total Handsets Shipped 269 303 321.2 6.0% 19.4% Source: ABI Research

via FierceWireless

Sometimes, listening to conference calls from companies is interesting. This seems to be especially true of HP.

PreCentral reports that the webOS tablet will ship in “early 2011″:

… HP publicly confirmed that a webOS Tablet is coming in the timeline we were expecting, saying they will release “a webOS-based product in Early 2011.” …

Not much to add here – let’s see whether it will turn out to be the Roadrunneer HD leaked recently…

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Even though the Pre and Pixi are decent devices, their hardware is starting to show significant signs of age. We’ve heard rumors of new devices in the past – but have not seen anything substantial so far.

A webOS software house called KillinItLLC has spotted the following in its logs:

As of this writing, not much more is known. We could be looking at the long-rumored webOS tablet here, or at a new device intended to rival the iPhone 4G’s retina display.

When Palm shipped the T5, many believed it to have been a rechristened Palm TE or TE2. The appearance of the two devices was extremely similar after all, even though the T5 turned out to be a bit longer.

An individual from evilgeniusstudio now claims to have purchased the device pictured below:

This post ends with the request to insiders reading this: speak up – your identity will be protected…

Very few topics are as popular as sorting algorithms – if you want to write a book, covering these is a safe bet for finding a publisher somewhere .

The YouTube video below shows the process of various sorting algorithms in an “audible” form – each element has a frequency, and a sine tone is played whenever the algorithm accesses an element:

Call it 90 seconds of work-safe fun…

Thanks to Summeli for pointing this out

Thanks to our long-standing relationship with Aceeca, we were given access to a very early prototype of the PDA32. Due to this, we have refrained from performing system performance and battery life evaluations – the tests we performed on the beta unit are below:
Aceeca PDA32 – first impressions
Aceeca PDA32 preliminary review – size, 1
Aceeca PDA32 preliminary review – size, 2
Aceeca PDA32 preliminary review – physical
Aceeca PDA32 preliminary review – screen

Minor technical details aside, the PDA32 is an interesting device. It is huge – but has a very ergonomic form factor which makes the device comfortable to hold during use. The screen also is best described as very good.

On the other hand, of course, this large size makes transporting the device difficult. It barely fit my trouser pockets – which is a fact you need to keep in mind.

Compared to the TX, the weakness of the larger size is obvious. However, the 32 is more comfortable to hold and has the significantly better screen. Plus, it seems well-built, can soon be bought fresh off the assembly line and comes with a warranty.

As an industrial device, there is little not to like about this 200USD handheld – for size-conscious consumers, deploying this device is an option only if other OS’ses like Windows Mobile are not an alternative.

Stay tuned – we will update this review the moment we get a production device!

Given all the recent press about RIM having to open its email services to some governments, I felt like taking a look at another frequently used communications tool: Skype.

The famous German lawyer Udo Vetter reports that the German government can now listen in on Skype 2 Skype calls:

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I asked the prosecutor if he could – now – check onto Skype to Skype calls. He confirmed this.

The Judge then went on to tell me that she saw some Skype protocols in very recent suits.
…

Given Vetter’s excellent reputation in German IT circles, I consider his statements true – looks like all the encryption hubbub was but marketing hyperbole…

Even though the datasheet differences between the Palm Pre (offered by Sprint) and the Pre Plus (offered by other carriers) are minimal, the significantly improved hardware of the latter device makes it attractive for hardcore Pre heads.

A group of hackers has now figured out a way to put a Sprint transmitter into a Pre Plus. Minimal requirements are the following:

1. Activated Sprint Pre
2. Palm Pre Plus- It can be Verizon or AT&T, it doesn’t matter. It also doesn’t really matter if the ESN is clean or not, I used a brand new Pre Plus I got off Craigslist with a clean ESN, however the ones with bad ESN’s tend to be cheaper on Craigslist or Ebay. Buy whatever you can get the best deal on.

Given that the hardware changing process is described as difficult by the modder itself, I recommend you to apply extreme caution before following the instructions at the URL below:
http://forums.precentral.net/palm-pre-tips-information…