Common Paradox Tech Blog

Webos-internals writes to let us know that they’ve wrangled Darron Black onto the team – Black is the developer who created the Qt port for webOS. Qt, if you don’t recall, is Nokia’s cross-platform application development framework, and it’s a major win to see it up and working on the Palm Pre. 

If you open up Preware right now you can find a 7 demo Qt apps (Go to Applications, switch the button at bottom to ‘feeds,’ and then go into webos-internals and demo). 

The plan is for Qt to run on the "WebOS Interals Development Kit," which is essentially the homebrew edition of the Plug-in Development Kit. What does that mean to you? More Qt apps – head on over qt-apps.org for a list of the sorts of apps that currently exist in Qt and start slavering.

While the relatively short new list from yesterday might be dominated by a new “WordPegs” series that melds the quotation app with the wallpaper app (thankfully even the parts are more than the sum of some others in those maligned categories), there are still some gems in the list. Notably among them, the worshipped travel guide Zagat, in this instance Zagat To Go from Handmark. That’s not all, as homebrew graduate bubek has released a feature-packed version of the popular TimeTracker app, christening it TimeTracker Pro. Of course, two apps and some quotation wallpapers don’t say it all, so head on after the break to see the rest.

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We were pleasantly surprised by the significant upgrade Palm made to its Facebook app a few weeks back, one that brought us the ability to view profiles, check events, manage our inboxes, and more.  The newest iteration, currently available in the Beta channel, brings the ability to view Facebook video (something the iPhone app can’t do), utilize shortcut keys, and use enhanced mailbox management options:

On the heels of the release of Facebook 1.1, comes the first Facebook Beta application with some cool new features such as Facebook video support – play Facebook videos in your stream, Shortcut keys – jump to sections by holding down the SYM key and : N = news stream, P = photos, S = search, I = inbox, U = your profile, E = events;Facebook comments stand out colored Facebook blue and access updates and joining messages and Sent mail, along with a bunch of bug fixes and enhanced error messages.

The Developer Relations Team, who have used the rewrite of the app as an exercise in "dogfooding", have promised that they will iterate on the app early and often. They’re definitely making good on their word. 

Palm has finally rolled out its Developer Purchase Program, allowing developers to purchase webOS based phones without a contract for 20% off, with free 2 day shipping thrown in to sweeten the deal.  That 20% discount lets you to pick up the Pre for $439 , the Pre Plus for $479, the Pixi and Pixi Plus for $319.99 for every carrier currently selling the devices. For now, shipments are limited to US and Canadian addresses only.

There’s no AT&T Pre to choose from just yet, but know that one can always purchase the UK O2 Pre and use the webOS Meta-Doctor and use it domestically with WiFi-only data connectivity.

Palm has finally rolled out its Developer Purchase Program, allowing developers to purchase webOS based phones without a contract for 20% off, with free 2 day shipping thrown in to sweeten the deal.  That 20% discount lets you to pick up the Pre for $439 , the Pre Plus for $479, the Pixi and Pixi Plus for $319.99 for every carrier currently selling the devices. For now, shipments are limited to US and Canadian addresses only.

There’s no AT&T Pre to choose from just yet, but know that one can always purchase the UK O2 Pre and use the webOS Meta-Doctor and use it domestically with WiFi-only data connectivity.

Falling in line with the pricing available for other smartphones on other European networks, you can now get a Palm Pre for free on contract with O2 in the United Kingdom. In fact, so long as you’re willing to sign up for an 18 month contract for at least £30.00 a month, you can get a Palm Pre for free – and that £30.00 a month comes with unlimited data and texts (but just 100 minutes). Amusingly, O2 is also touting that the package comes with 3 free EA games, otherwise known as the games that are being given away for free in Europe anyway.

Google has updated its Product Search for Mobile, allowing your search queries to to check the stock levels and availability of products in your area, bringing the overall experience closer to that of what you’re used to on the desktop.  To use the new features, enter in the product you’re looking for, hit the "more" button in the upper right hand corver, select "shopping", and you’re ready to go – vendors that stock the product you’re after will display a blue dot and an "in stock nearby link".  It appears that only larger companies are participating in the program so far, but it’s looking like Google is eager to include to smaller ones as well.

Thanks to John for the tip!

While Verizon is no longer exclusively doing mom-based marketing for the Palm Pre Plus, those of you hoping they’d dropped it like a hot rock should probably adjust your expectations. An anonymous tipster has sent in some internal Verizon missives detailing some of their work educating employees on the Pre Plus. The focus, as you’ve no doubt guessed by now, is how the Palm Pre Plus helps moms. Verizon recently sent out a raft of Pre Plus phones to "Mommy bloggers" and the results are in: they like the Pre Plus:

Calendar Syncing – This has been TREMENDOUS! I have 4 sons and my husband travels for work. Actually, ironically enough… I’ve been traveling more than him in the last 8 weeks. It has been essential and a lifesaver to have my calendar and my husband’s and my sons all synced to one spot. What would always through us off would be… I’d have something planned for us – a playdate, dinner with friends or family – and then I would discover my husband wouldn’t be home or he had a meeting during that particular time. It has been wonderful having everything (quite literally) at my fingertips.

Can’t say we disagree – in fact we whole-heartedly think that the Pre Plus is a great option for moms. We also think that the Pre Plus has a serious chance to catch some business attention – the Mobile Hotspot functionality is big for that (although not quite enough to offset the pain of no document editing). Verizon agrees – they’re also trying to push business apps a bit.

In all, we hope that Verizon continues to get their rank and file sold a bit more on the Palm Pre – Project JumpStart is a start, but until their retail employees stop trying to get customers asking for the Pre to go Droid it’s going to be slow going.

Two more internal images after the break.

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DoubleTwist, one of the more popular non-iTunes media syncing solutions for webOS, has received a significant upgrade bringing the ability to search for and automatically sync audio and video podcasts utilizing the "largest integrated pocast search engine in the world".  DoubleTwist already has Amazon MP3 integration, and the ability to take care of all of your podcast catching and syncing needs brings this program closer to being one of the most robust in this category.

Sure, the excellent drPodder podcatching app finally hit the Catalog this week and should satisfy the podcast consuming habits of most, but there’s something to be said about being able to manage and sync all of your media from one program.

The update is Windows-only for now, but Mac support should be coming soon.

What is there to say about yesterday’s app drop? There were apps? Yes, that there were. Were there updates? Yes, plenty of those too. Were there exceedingly cool and useful apps? Well… What do you mean “Well…”? You see, we can’t get awesome every day. We can’t? No, we can’t – if we did, then awesome would cease to be awesome. It’s like trying to define a beautiful day in Hawai’i; if every day is beautiful, what makes it beautiful in relation to other days. Why are you talking to yourself in text? I… don’t know. Just look at the apps listing after the break, okay? Fine.

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