WebOS

Half of iPhone users buy at least an app a month

Although iPhone and Android users download and spend time using about the same number of applications, iPhone users are more apt to buy one, according to a report released Thursday by AdMob.

Among mobile-device consumers surveyed by AdMob for its "January 2010 Metrics Report," 50 percent of all iPhone users and 35 percent of iPod Touch owners purchase at least one app a month. Those numbers compare with 24 percent of Palm's WebOS owners and 21 percent of Android users who buy at least one app each month. Results did not include Research In Motion's BlackBerry.

iPod Touch owners seem to be the heaviest downloaders in general, grabbing an average of 12 apps per month, versus iPhone and Android users who download 9 apps a month. WebOS users overall download only around 6 apps per month, which may be due in large part to the scarcity of available apps.

Touch owners are also the heaviest users, spending an average of 100 minutes each month using their apps, compared with WebOS users at 87 minutes, Android users at 80 minutes, and iPhone users at 79 minutes.… Read more

Slacker Radio: Pandora's Palm WebOS rival

Pandora's largely undisputed reign on Palm WebOS-based phones may be over.

On Thursday, Slacker Radio released a version (.0.9.4) of its streaming radio app to the App Catalog in the U.S. and Canada. As with Slacker Radio for other mobile platforms, the free app gives you the run of more than 100 curated stations, or it lets you go into discovery mode a la Pandora and ilk by creating "custom" stations based on songs or artists you like.

Artist bios with photos are on Slacker's Palm menu, as are the buttons to rate … Read more

Google Voice finally on iPhone--in the browser

Google's end run around Apple's App Store is complete: Google Voice is ready as a Web application.

Owners of the iPhone and Palm's WebOS devices can now get in on the mobile Google Voice experience with the Web app, which will run in the browsers of iPhones with the 3.0 software installed and all Palm WebOS devices, said Vincent Paquet, senior product manager at Google. The application should be available for current users of Google Voice--which is still an invitation-only service--as of Tuesday at m.google.com/voice.

Google Voice allows incoming calls to ring mobile phones, … Read more

Palm Pre Plus, Palm Pixi Plus reviewed

Palm didn't make quite as big of a splash at CES 2010 as it did the previous year, but the company still had plenty of news to share, including the introduction of the Palm Pre Plus and the Palm Pixi Plus.

Both WebOS devices will be launching on Verizon Wireless on January 25 and bring improvements over their Sprint counterparts. The Palm Pre Plus is the more exciting of the two, offering double the memory, a more streamlined design, and a better keyboard than the original Pre. Meanwhile, the Pixi Plus didn't receive a makeover, but it did … Read more

AT&T president says Palm WebOS devices coming soon

LAS VEGAS--It's proving to be a big day for AT&T. In addition to announcing five upcoming Android devices, committing to more app development, and launching the Nokia Ovi Store, AT&T President Ralph de la Vega said the carrier would offer two Palm WebOS devices soon. He didn't elaborate beyond that, but perhaps we'll learn more at the Palm press conference on Thursday?

(Via Phone Scoop)

Palm releases Project Ares as public beta

On Thursday, Palm made its new browser-based mobile development platform available to all developers as a public beta. Dubbed Project Ares, developers can now create programs for Palm WebOS simply by firing up their browser (Firefox, Safari, and Chrome are supported) and signing into their account where they will then have access to all the tools they need to build apps.

Project Ares includes such features as:

Drag-and-drop interface builder, code editor, visual debugger, and log viewer Access to full library of Mojo UI widgets Push-button project and scene creation Drag-and-drop file upload SMS and MMS messaging delivery is improved … Read more

What's new with Palm WebOS 1.3.1?

As most Palm Pre owners (and anyone who bought the Palm Pixi, which went on sale Sunday) found out this weekend, WebOS 1.3.1 is now available for download.

The latest version of Palm's WebOS brings new features, such as the integration of Yahoo contacts, calendar, and instant messaging into Palm Synergy; text message forwarding; custom ring tone support; and support for Google Apps and Yahoo Small Business Domain e-mail accounts. In addition, WebOS 1.3.1 offers several of bug fixes, all of which you can find on Palm's Web site.

However, there seems to be … Read more

Google Voice app gDial Pro updates for WebOS

Back in September, we tested out a Google Voice app for Palm WebOS phones called gDial Pro. The free gDial Pro just recently updated to version 0.8.9, and is available now in Palm's App Catalog. While gDial Pro still isn't quite as integrated into the Palm Pre as Google's native Google Voice app is for Google's own Android platform, it remains a good option for Google Voice users on Palm's comeback platform.

In addition to fixing some dialing bugs, the developer made a ton of other user interface adjustments, including changing the wording … Read more

WebOS 1.2.1 fixes Palm Pre iTunes syncing

When WebOS 1.2 didn't refix the syncing compatibility that iTunes 9 rebroke, it almost looked like this bizarre little Apple-Palm standoff had finally just, you know, puttered out. Well, nope, for some reason! Cue WebOS 1.2.1.

Palm's possibly heroic, mostly inconsequential iTunes-molesting theatrics aside, the fix most people were actually waiting for involved an error introduced this week by 1.2, which broke Exchange 2007 EAS syncing for quite a few people. That, along with a few bug fixes, is the main component of 1.2.1, which should be making its way to handsets … Read more

Palm WebOS 1.2 released for the Pre

On Monday, Palm set free its lastest WebOS update for the Palm Pre, bringing quite a number of new features to the smartphone and addresses several security issues.

If you haven't received it already, Palm WebOS 1.2 will arrive as an over-the-air update to your smartphone over the next few days. Notable additions include the integration of LinkedIn contacts, the capability to download songs from the Amazon MP3 Store over a 3G connection in addition to Wi-Fi, and cut and paste for Web pages and e-mails.

Other highlights include being able to search within e-mail folders, download files … Read more