Archive for April, 2010

HP acquires Palm and the most admired WebOS

Apr 29, 2010 News

Finally HP has acquired Palm for $1.2 billion , with this massive move HP  plans to integrate the WebOS platform in its own devices and reshape the mobile industry .

WebOS is the only key to the deal , HP is really not interested in the Palm hardware . WebOS has been a very successful OS in the past and was the main reason for the sale of palm devices . After Radio shack decided to stop selling palm’s two new flagship devices : Palm Pre and Pixi , palm’s share nearly turned worthless and things started getting worse. Palm’s share value has been falling down since mid 2000 and has stepped down to $5.7 per share of common stock. But after weeks of speculation Palm has been acquired by HP and the threat of sudden death to the WebOS and Palm has been taken off .

HP has made significant investments in R&D of their TouchSmart interface , there may be a possibility that we see a WebOS powered HP tablet soon , and this is really going to bring back WebOS development once HP integrates the OS in its devices which generally run on Windows OS , like the HP iPAQ  which hasn’t done well so far . HP has its own OS now , it’s a question whether HP would continue with Microsoft or stick to its own OS , they have gone from a key partner to a serious competitor in a single afternoon .

Along with deal comes the list of over 1,500 patents that Palm currently controls , those were the main reason HTC was interested in the company and maybe a reason why Apple never attempted to sue Palm . Even if in future HP plans to abandon WebOS , they still have these patents catalog . It’s really tough in the Smartphone biz when every company around can throw patent infringement suits at you , but when you got thousands of patents as your arms , competitors are going to be lot more careful before stepping over you .Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein is expected to stay with the company .

We hope this acquisition gives Palm developers a great sign of relief with the WebOS coming back in the mobile ecosystem  .

With a really low number of applications for WebOS and indefinitely low count of WebOS developers  WebOS mobile development was on the verge of extinction but with this acquisition we hope the platform grows and brings in new possibilities for HP ,  WebOS users and developers also.

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Palm shows concern for WebOS development

Apr 26, 2010 News

Palm the word which gives you the first thought of either a takeover or a shakeup . Now the company is planning to change the topic and is coming up with something new and refreshing . The WebOS is going to get new advancements and features like direct API access to microphone, camera , new security and cryptographic features which would help WebOS developers to make beautiful media apps and support for apps like bonjour , zero configuration networking , and Bluetooth serial port profile that should help adding a new variety of accessories with the device , never seen before .

Developers are also going to see a new set of extensions called Mojo Core that would convert web apps to WebOS apps in a faster and easier way .  Palm is also adding support for asynchronous background services with Javascript support for data-intensive apps . Palm hasn’t revealed when they would come up with these services , but we are sure they will .

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Palm Trying To Retain Its Employees

Apr 20, 2010 News

Palm is implementing a retention program for certain key employees including officers despite the equity awards and cash bonuses
provided to individuals serving a two years term period , Michael Abbott the head of software and services , the main in charge of WebOS is leaving the company . And moving to Twitter as the company’s new Vice President .

As the part of retention program Jeffrey P. Devine, Palm’s Senior Vice President of Global Operations, and Douglas C. Jeffries, Palm’s Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer,  both received a grant of restricted stock units of Palm’s 2009 Stock plan and cash bonus of $250,000

Such packages have been seen in many sale situations . They help to maintain continuity during the change over . Is it a wise decision that Michael Abbott moved to twitter and how far is it going to affect WebOS development . Maybe Palm could also have some sort of WebOS developer retention program , so that the Palm pre and pixi could see few apps before the sun set .


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New Virus Found On Windows Mobile

Apr 20, 2010 News

Recently Windows Mobile was reported waking up automatically and dialing out international numbers

Soon other users also started  reporting the same and after some investigation it let to the conclusion , yes of course it was a virus and was caught up by xda developers team . The virus is quite alarming because it has the potential to cost a lot of money to the mobile phone owner .

The Virus come with a game “3D Anti Terrorist “ , so avoid it . And if you are unsure of your mobile being infected with this virus just check your dialed calls history and if you find some unknown international number , follow these steps

While Kaspersky mobile Anti Virus can detect the threat as malware , you can also use it for removal of this threat .

While the application developers are still working on steps involved in cleaning the app for further use , infected users are busy either formatting their cellphone or following steps for removing the virus .

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Microsoft Apologizes For Its Kin's ad

Apr 19, 2010 Windows Mobile

Microsoft’s newly unveiled Kin is a handset that aims primarily at social networking for teenagers which has led Microsoft in so much trouble.

The Ad depicts a bunch of youngster at a party , towards the end of the video a guy snaps a pic of his chest and sends it to a young girl in the party , who is amused to see the topless pic .

Microsoft has apologized for the Sexting issue which has been reported for the Kin’s Ad by the consumer reports which made this ad a big issue for Microsoft . Sexting which the Wikipedia defines as “the act of sending sexually explicit messages or photographs electronically, primarily between mobile phones.”. Microsoft has now edited the ad after all these problems came in and the new ad doesn’t contain any offending content rest of the video is the same .

A spokesperson said, “Microsoft takes the issue of sexting very seriously and it was never our intent to promote it in any way.”

I think Microsoft has done a wise thing by pulling out the advertisement .

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Palm Goes on Sale

Apr 13, 2010 News

As reported by Bloomberg , Palm is finding a buyer for the company. Palm has been a smartphone pioneer but in the recent years the company has been ailing , the palm pre and pixi couldn’t make it ,and now the company is working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Frank Quattrone ’s Qatalyst Partners to find a buyer , HTC and  Lenovo are showing keen interest in buying the firm , Dell also came up with a proposal but apparently has already taken a pass.  Palm has declined to comment on the same .

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iPad Wi-Fi issues

Apr 5, 2010 News

The iPad shows no or very low Wi-Fi signal strengths even in areas with adequate signal whereas other devices perform well in the same atmosphere, also problems with Wi-Fi were faced when joining a Home network , it was never the same with iPhone. This issue has constantly been addressed by users who grabbed the iPad the very first day, and the problem doesn’t seem to restrict itself to a single user rather a bunch of complains have been coming up and piled up in the Apple’s unofficial forums.

The only place where the iPad works well over the Wi-Fi is near the router, these type of issues have been already seen in Macbook Air, the issues are generally hardware and design issues, and a software patch cannot fix them completely, maybe Apple was trying to run it on low power and save battery life,   but that’s ugly a device with a faulty Wi-Fi is very unattractive when it comes to performance.

Read more on solutions here :

WI-FI FIXES FROM APPLE

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iPad Cannot Read iBooks in the Sun

Apr 5, 2010 News

No its not the fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating which prevents you do so  but the internal heat up of the A4 chip .

So want to use your iPad in the Sun ? Maybe you need to wait till the Summer ends, or you may see an error , termed as “ Cool Down Mode “ .

This is caused when your device reaches a preset temperature range which is supposed to be 45 degrees , in this condition the device cannot be used , neither will you be able to charge it  until it get backs in the normal temperature range .

Users have reported this mode occurs every fews hour on continuous usage of device , and if you are on a nice Californian summer day reading your iBooks , remember to get your mini ice box with you and Thanks Steve ,hope your fans wont burn their thighs now .

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IPad App Store Counts Over 3500 Apps

Apr 5, 2010 News

With over 700,000 iPad’s sold the very day of the launch , iPad App store could not lag in terms of applications , the store’s App count has drastically ran up since the day of launch and almost doubled in just three days . According to wall street journal 2300 iPad apps were available on the iPad’s launch day , and the went up to around 3500 today morning .There are a lot of iPad users still finding new apps every hour .With hundreds of apps coming in every few hours ,half the paid apps accounts for around 80% of the total Apps available on the App store with an average cost of around $4.99 , f the paid apps are games and also around 160 paid eBooks are available on the store , if you are not planning to invest on these paid apps the app store still has a whopping 600+ free apps  on it , which include 150+ free games . Cost of the entire collection of apps available is estimated to be around $ 13,000.

Games like Real racing are also now available for iPad at 9.99$ almost double the price of iPhone app , but that’s the price you pay for the extra pixels on your screen. On an average every day around 500 new Apps are being added to the App store, with these increasing number of apps, iPad development is predicted to take up iPhone’s app market in the next few months .

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Is Your Website iPad Ready ?

Apr 5, 2010 iPad Development

Since Apple unveiled iPad earlier this year there has been a continuous buzz about the iPad not supporting Flash.

Yeah, it’s true that Apple’s new iPad doesn’t support Flash yet it has everything you need. It comes with Apple’s Safari which is built on WebKit which gives developers the option to develop great web apps on HTML5, CSS3 & JavaScript. You don’t even need to take the pain to download separate plug-in as we do it for flash to consume the Flash content. So, no plugin means no separate process for CPU, which saves more CPU cycles and still we can experience the fantastic web apps on our iPad.

Well, here are some already iPad Ready Web Sites which you can access right from day one, when you get your iPad this weekend.

  • CNN
  • Reuters
  • New York Times
  • Vimeo
  • Time
  • Major League Baseball
  • The White House
  • Virgin America
  • Sports Illustrated
  • Flickr
  • People Magazine
  • TED

Is your site taking advantage of the latest web standards? If so, submit your site to http://www.apple.com/ipad/ready-for-ipad

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