Common Paradox Tech Blog

Forget about over-the-top aesthetics and loud color schemes, MSI is having no part of it, at least not with the latest entries to its Classic series notebooks. Instead, MSI’s new CX420 and CR420 keep it relatively simple with an "exclusive Cross-Hatch Color Film Print patterning" the company claims gives them a "fashionable appearance."

Looks aside, it’s what’s on the inside of these 14-inch notebooks that count, and it all begins with Intel’s Core i5 platform. The CX420 also sports up to 4GB of DDR3 800 or 1066 memory, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 graphics with a 1GB frame buffer, up to 500GB of HDD storage, a 4-in-1 card reader, 1.3MP webcam, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, 10/100/1000 Ethernet LAN, 6- or 9-cell battery, and Windows 7 Home Premium

The CR420 boasts an almost identical spec sheet, except the built-in graphics share the frame buffer with system memory, and the onboard Ethernet LAN tops out at 10/100.

No word yet on pricing or availability. 

Image Credit: MSI 

Got a Palm Pixi but still need to run some old school Palm OS apps? Right now, there’s no way to go about it while your Pre-toting friends can fire up Classic and get the action going. Never fear, for MotionApps hears your pain and is in the process of cooking up a version of Classic that will work on the Pixi and even make use of the device’s smaller screen.

Currently, Classic on the Pre shows up with a classic Palm OS D-pad and device buttons meant to emulate the physical controls on the older PDAs and Treo smartphones. These controls are dropped below the 320×320 Palm OS screen, using the remaining 160 pixels on the Pre’s screen. The Pixi, however, has a shorter display and only 80 extra pixels below the Palm OS screen, which means that any controls would have to be squished. Or they could be done webOS-style for maximum space utilization, as MotionApps posted on their Facebook page. It’s a pretty darned slick solution to what could have been a nasty problem.

[via: Palm Infocenter]

We would have thought that with the App Catalog now out of beta and the app limit no longer in play that there would now be an explosion of apps as Rubinstein keeps promising. But it seems that our expectations were a bit off, as yesterday was another light day in the App Catalog. The list of newness follows.

New Apps:

• Bible Reader Dictionary, $1.99, by webOZ Mobile Apps: Look up nearly 4000 biblical terms and names.
• BOFH Excuse Generator, $1.43, by GoML Software: Random excuse generator with ‘ad-lib’-style options.
• Mem Card Game, $0.99, by NeoLink Net: It’s a memory tiles game with a twist – there are some tiles you just don’t want to flip.
• Quick Contacts Lite, Free, by Silver Spoon Software: Quick and easy photo dialing, free version limited to 9 contacts and fewer number options.
• Spanner Banner, $0.99, by Dijit: Check out the tunes of Jamaican reggae artist Spanner Banner.

Updated Apps:

• Classic, Free

We would have thought that with the App Catalog now out of beta and the app limit no longer in play that there would now be an explosion of apps as Rubinstein keeps promising. But it seems that our expectations were a bit off, as yesterday was another light day in the App Catalog. The list of newness follows.

New Apps:

• Bible Reader Dictionary, $1.99, by webOZ Mobile Apps: Look up nearly 4000 biblical terms and names.
• BOFH Excuse Generator, $1.43, by GoML Software: Random excuse generator with ‘ad-lib’-style options.
• Mem Card Game, $0.99, by NeoLink Net: It’s a memory tiles game with a twist – there are some tiles you just don’t want to flip.
• Quick Contacts Lite, Free, by Silver Spoon Software: Quick and easy photo dialing, free version limited to 9 contacts and fewer number options.
• Spanner Banner, $0.99, by Dijit: Check out the tunes of Jamaican reggae artist Spanner Banner.

Updated Apps:

• Classic, Free

Oh, Nokia, when we sniffed at your desire to focus on just mid-to-low end phones for 2010, we didn’t mean for you to rush out and paint your 6700 Classic in 18-carat gold. [Nokia Conversations]

We know that there are some of you out there that have a Palm OS app that you can’t do without. The folks at Palm and MotionApps also knew that, so they created the Palm OS emulator Classic so that you could still run Agendus and Epocrates and other Palm OS apps on your webOS device. But where oh where to get the apps? How about PreCentral? Yep, that’ll do. We’re pleased to be able to announce that PreCentral has partnered with MobiHand to create the PreCentral Classic App Store where you can browse and buy your favorite Palm OS apps and download them straight into Classic.

More than 150 apps are available from the PreCentral Classic App Store, several of them free. There are apps for the business and finance crowds, dozens of games, reference apps, and even apps for personal healthcare. Check it out at http://software.precentral.net 

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Bad news for those of you who need to edit and create Microsoft Office documents while on the go and were hoping for a native webOS solution before years end. DataViz, developer of the popular Documents To Go suite of software (and the company responsible for Doc View in webOS) have confirmed on their website what we were speculating about last month: that they won’t be releasing the webOS version of their software until "early 2010":

As Palm’s document solution of choice for over 10 years, DataViz is happy to tell you that we currently plan to release Documents To Go for webOS in early 2010, allowing you to edit and create Microsoft® Word, Excel® and PowerPoint® files on your Pre!

Their website had previously stated "later this year" for a release date.  Not all hope is lost for those who still need that functionality, however.  While this solution may not be as elegant as a native webOS app, remember that you can still use the PalmOS version of the document editing software in Classic to tide you over until Docs To Go is finally released sometime next year. 

This makes webOS the only major smartphone platform currently not supported by Documents to Go, which can’t be a good thing if you’re a small, struggling smartphone maker trying to gain traction in the corporate market.

Thanks to mwchambers7 for sending this in!

Id Software has released the Godfather of all first person shooters, Doom Classic. [$6.99 - iTunes Link] The game has been ported nicely while including a completely new episode not found in the original along with a few other extras sprinkled in for your gaming pleasure.

Play the legendary first person shooter, DOOM, with an iPhone [...]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Quick App: Doom Classic for iPhone

Your Pre syncs just fine with Google and it’s nice to have all your contacts up in the cloud. But you also find yourself using Classic and needing some way to get to those same contacts. Since webOS is apparently stingy and doesn’t want to share its stuff with Classic, you could say that you’re up a digital creek without a paddle.

Fear not, for Classic 2.0 came with the ability to quickly install a slew of free and trial Palm OS applications. Amongst those apps is GooSync, which will synchronize your Google Contacts and Google Calendar to your Palm OS device, or in this case the Palm OS emulator on your webOS device.

While the GooSync that ships inside Classic is a free seven day trial version, the full version with support for multiple calendars, automatic syncing, contact groups, tasks (lets see webOS do that!), and more. Both GooSync Lite and Premium are subscription-based services, with Lite available for £5.99/year and Premium running £19.95 for 1 year, £34.95 for 2 years, and a lifetime subscription at £39.95. Hopefully you won’t need to spring for a lifetime subscription, as waiting two years for an app to transition to webOS or for a suitable webOS replacement would be kinda sad.

Thanks to brum for the heads up!

Disappointed that you haven’t been able to try the recently released Classic 2.0 PalmOS emulator that brings with it enhancements like full HotSync and Bluetooth support, because you’ve already evaluated an earlier version? 

You can now put that disappointment rest. MotionApps has announced the availability of a new 10 day trial of Classic 2.0 for anyone to try, whether you have an expired trial of a previous version or not.

You can grab the latest iteration of Classic from the App Catalog.