Scripting News - Latest Comments in Palm Pre a possibility? (Scripting News)

Re: Palm Pre a possibility? (Scripting News)

Palm Pre Geeks — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:18:39 -0000

I think Sprint will make sure it can tether. Anything that cannot tether in this day and age shouldnt be sold. I also dont think it will be as locked down as the iPhone

Re: Palm Pre a possibility? (Scripting News)

Palm Pre — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:21:58 -0000

The Palm Pre will be coming out in a GSM unlocked version as well

Re: Palm Pre a possibility? (Scripting News)

Rita — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 13:05:29 -0000

This is a very good review on Palm Pre. Another comeback for Palm. I saw another review and a couple of videos at the below link. Check out if anyone wants to know more:-

http://www.kanbal.com/index...

Re: Palm Pre a possibility? (Scripting News)

Jake Savin — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 17:03:30 -0000

Yeah, it certainly would be a trip, but unfortunately it doesn't. It might be possible to port, depending on how well matched the Win32 API is with the native API on Windows Mobile, but I don't know enough about it at that level to say.

Windows Mobile is a full OS. It's got a filesystem, a scheduler, is multi-threaded, etc. And Visual Studio is a primary environment for building software that runs on it, so that might mean a port wouldn't be super difficult.

Regardless, it has a web browser (Pocket IE), and there are at least three other browsers available (Opera Mobile, Opera Mini, and Skyfire come to mind). It does email (POP, IMAP, Exchange, and Hotmail), and the Sprint Touch Pro that I'm using these days comes with a podcast-capable RSS aggregator built-in.

I'm actually using my WinMo device as my main podcatcher, but not with software made by MS, Sprint or HTC (the hardware manufacturer). Instead I'm using a couple of shareware apps that have the features I want, and are cheap or free.

The aggregator is called Egress (shareware). It's got some bugs, and the UI isn't as slick as the RSS Hub app that ships with the Touch/Touch Pro, but it has one must-have feature that I want, which is that it saves mp3 files in sub-folders, one for each feed. I need this so I can see in my media player, which feed's files I'm looking at. Most others that download podcasts either store in weird locations, or rename files, or both, making the filesystem opaque for the purposes of playback UI. I think they think this is fine since they intend you to use their apps to play your media back as well, but none of the integrated players seem to have the features and/or ease of use I want.

The other side of the equation is a media player. I'm using Mort Player (free), because it has a few key features I need:

1) It reflects the folder hierarchy from the aggregator easily, and I can choose a folder to play all the items in the feed. This is really useful for feeds like NPR Science Friday which often has lots of short items, and you don't have to choose each one to play one at a time (impossible while driving).

2) It's got an audio-book feature that saves your last played time optionally for each folder, or for each file. This means I can stop listening in the middle, and just launch the player to start up where I left off. You can choose for each folder in your library whether to treat it as an audio-book, or as music (not saving the play position in each file).

3) You can assign a hardware button to the delete-file function. When I get to the end of a podcast, I can hit this button and delete the file (with confirmation), and reclaim my storage space.

I'm a geek, and I've got a highly customized experience. Many people might not have the patience to set this up the way I did, but for folks who want to take an easier approach, you can just use the RSS Hub that ships with Sprint's devices, or use one of the other free aggregators that do podcasts, like BeyondPod, or something else.

Also I should note that I *do* use the RSS Hub for my non-podcast RSS reading, since it's got a nicer UI and integrates well with the touch features that the device is made for.

Anyway, I've been a happy Windows Mobile user for about 2 years now, and the future of the platform looks bright. I switched from Symbian (Nokia 3650), when I needed Exchange mail support for work. Plus the MS corporate discounts don't hurt. :-)

Happy to share more details, links, favorite apps, etc, if you're interested... Either here, on my blog, or privately.

Cheers,
-Jake

Re: Palm Pre a possibility? (Scripting News)

ipodforumcom — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:00:32 -0000

The Pre's Web OS UI and and UX really looks great. After watching (and using) for 20 minutes, It rarely looked (or felt) unresponsive, choppy, or laggy and it's clear a lot of thought was put into the design, especially with regard to how the phone would be used with fingers, as opposed to a stylus or d-pad
Discuss a little more at http://www.PalmPreForum.org

Re: Palm Pre a possibility? (Scripting News)

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Re: Palm Pre a possibility? (Scripting News)

dave — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 15:58:37 -0000

Yo Jake! Long time...

I haven't looked at Windows Mobile phones.

I wonder if the OPML Editor works on it? That would be a trip if I could actually write code that ran on a phone. That would get me to switch right away.

Re: Palm Pre a possibility? (Scripting News)

Jake Savin — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:25:14 -0000

Have you looked at any of the recent Windows Mobile phones? The Sprint Touch Pro (a.k.a. AT&T Fuze) is quite cool. And Windows Mobile is an open platform with hundreds of free, shareware and commercial apps available including at least three good RSS aggregators that support podcasts over the air, and many good media players. Add an 8GB or 16GB SDHC card, and you'll have plenty of space for all those podcasts.

It may not be as slick as the iPhone, but it sure is a more open platform.

Re: Palm Pre a possibility? (Scripting News)

Han — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:04:55 -0000

According to: http://www.treocentral.com/... it can Bluetooth/phone modem tether. The real question is, can you WiFi tether to the EvDO network?

Re: Palm Pre a possibility? (Scripting News)

ampressman — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 14:04:47 -0000

I still can't for the life of me fathom why the iPhone's Bluetooth implementation is so unbelievably lame - not supporting stereo headphones, laptop tethering or external keyboards, for example. The weird thing is that other phones on Verizon's network do have good Bluetooth profiles. Bizarre.

Palm's Pre page promises in the "details" listing that it will have laptop tethering via Bluetooth and support stereo headphones via Bt too.

Re: Palm Pre a possibility? (Scripting News)

Dan Guy — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:49:03 -0000

My T-Mobile G1 will tether; I can have it masquerade as a WiFi network and share its 3G connection to all the laptops in the vicinity. Android is open and very hackable.

Re: Palm Pre a possibility? (Scripting News)

Gaines — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:23:51 -0000

I'm a pretty loyal Windows Mobile user, however what I've seen so far is very impressive and may entice me to switch. We've even started a community over at http://www.SprintPre.net to chat about it.

Re: Palm Pre a possibility? (Scripting News)

PaulS — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 11:42:02 -0000

Holy shit, something innovative came out of Silicon Valley!

Re: Palm Pre a possibility? (Scripting News)

Todd — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 07:33:38 -0000

I'm happy that Palm has finally come out of its coma and decided to get in the game. From what I have read/seen the Pre just brings them up to 2009, and not forward of or ahead of the pack ( iPhone, Android ).

Lacking is an eco system built around a viable “social object” ( iTunes music and App store ) that’s in the hands of non-geeks. Not that Palm couldn’t create one, the vaguely described "Mojo" developer framework has potential, but is too geeky for the vast majority of Palm peeps.

Without a social object for an eco system to gravitate around, the Pre will never succeed in the way Palm and its share holders hope.

Re: Palm Pre a possibility? (Scripting News)

kenny — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 07:26:26 -0000

Totally agree, here is the a post on the 'phone' I'm looking for....errr the netbook you are looking for.
http://sourcetonuts.wordpre...

Re: Palm Pre a possibility? (Scripting News)

Steve C — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:38:52 -0000

Dave,

Palm says it has bluetooth tethering

http://www.palm.com/us/prod...

Re: Palm Pre a possibility? (Scripting News)

Ari Turetzky — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:14:41 -0000

I have a sony W300i from AT&T that I use for tethering with my EEE via usb cable and a cheap $5 bluetooth dongle. AT&T seems to only prohibit that on the iPhone. for most of the other phones they offer including some with 3G they list it as available. there are a few phones that have close enough features to the iphone/pre that should keep you happy. of course if your tethering a netbook some of those features get less important. Mostly I'm just waiting for a netbook + 3G bundle. Asus offers one in england I believe

Re: Palm Pre a possibility? (Scripting News)

John Tokash — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:13:21 -0000

Dave, I know exactly what you mean. Although I was excited to hear what Palm was going to come up with, I did not consider that it would be fast AND inspirational. If it ends up being as strong as it looks when it ships.... WOW.

The best part is that it looks like someone is finally stepping up and putting something out there that could make Apple really nervous. Competition in this space is key.

Re: Palm Pre a possibility? (Scripting News)

Ari Turetzky — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:06:13 -0000

I have Sony Ericsson W300i through AT&T that I tether my EEE 900 to. AT&T seems to allow tethering on everything but the iPhone. in fact due to firewalls this tethering is how I keep up with twitter/friendfeed all day. I don't know what your needs are for a cell phone, but dropping the iphone for something else from AT&T could get you the tethering.

Re: Palm Pre a possibility? (Scripting News)

PXLated — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:47:12 -0000

Dave - Looks like it will be awhile before it's out, cost more (according to Palm) than the iPhone and who knows, it could be totally locked down.

Re: Palm Pre a possibility? (Scripting News)

Micah Alpern — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:42:45 -0000

I'm curious to know more about their "Mojo" developer framework:
http://developer.palm.com/

and how it compare's to apple's SproutCore framework.

Micah

Re: Palm Pre a possibility? (Scripting News)

Matik72 — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:32:45 -0000

I sure am hoping so as it would be a nice combo.

Re: Palm Pre a possibility? (Scripting News)

jim forbes — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:28:16 -0000

Dave, you better believe that the the new Palm was partly designed to be used with a laptop. Thats one of the reasons why Palm and others work first with Sprint (rather than Verizon).

but, look at the new OS, it appears to have been designed for netbooks. And theres a less expensive, but similar sub 99 new Palm in the workd for release in about six months.

I hear Palm also has not given up on the netbook but that all of its resources are behind this and the other forthcoming new product.. i just hope they can hit one out of the Park with the new Smart Phone.

Best
jim Forbes

Re: Palm Pre a possibility? (Scripting News)

KevinCTofel — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:16:26 -0000

Dave, it's way too early to get answers to some of your excellent questions, unfortunately. ;( I spoke with a developer who works on the Palm Pre browser and they still have work to do on the phone and the OS. And with no pricing or news out of Sprint yet, they're not going to get into the details of the voice/data plan (assuming they would be any different from today's offerings).

I suspect that since they went with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to create apps for the phone, it should be relatively open, but that's just a guess on my part. No word on when you can get your hands on one; we barely got to touch it! Palm says sometime in the first half of the year for availability.