Palm Pre WebOS 1.2 Update Available Today

For those of you without a Pre, this means nothing. For the rest of you, the latest WebOS update is finally here. This adds a few things that I'm glad are here like copy and paste within applications and an updated App Catalog. Just go to "Updates" from your Pre's launcher and download the approx. 74Mb update.

webOS 1.2.0

• Version information
  
• New applications
  
• Feature changes to existing applications
  

Version information

• Version: webOS 1.2.0
  
• Release date: 28 September 2009
  

New applications

NONE

Feature changes to existing applications

Amazon MP3

• Songs can now be purchased from Amazon MP3 over a phone network connection. A Wi-Fi connection is no longer required.
  

App Catalog

• In preparation for e-commerce in the App Catalog, to purchase apps, you can enter credit card information by selecting Preferences & Accounts from the application menu in App Catalog. Credit card information is stored with the Palm profile, not on the phone. You can choose whether you need to enter their Palm profile password each time you make a purchase, or for the first purchase in any four-hour window.
  
• If you want to reinstall a purchased application you previously deleted, you can open App Catalog, search for the application, tap the app name, and tap Download again for free. You do not need to pay for the application again.
  
• A new Share button enables you to send a link to the app page in an email or text message.You can select whether to enter comments anonymously, using your first and last name, or using your first initial and last name.
  
• You must accept an end-user license agreement to purchase apps.
  

Backup

• Web browser bookmarks are now backed up to your Palm profile. After a restart or partial/full erase, the bookmark is restored in Web when you go to the web page.
  

Bluetooth

• If you are on the phone, get in a car with a previously paired car kit, and turn on the car, a notification appears asking whether you want to continue talking directly into the phone, or transfer the call to the car kit. Previously, the call was automatically transferred to the car kit.
  
• The types of car kits to which contacts can be transferred has been increased. You can transfer contacts to Toyota and Lexus car kits.
  
• You can make a Bluetooth connection to a computer even if the computer's Bluetooth device name field is blank.
  

Calendar

• On the event details screen, the Map Location application menu item is now called Event Location and has two submenu options: Show On Map, which displays the location in Google Maps, and Get Directions, which provides directions from the current location in Google Maps.
  
• The options for changing a calendar's display color and choosing whether to show or hide a calendar in All Calendars view are now accessed by opening the application menu > Preferences & Accounts > Calendar View Options, or by tapping the Calendar View Options list item in the list where you switch between All Calendars and an individual calendar.
  
• If you tap Snooze on a calendar event notification, the notification no longer reappears after the event end time.
  
• If a calendar note contains a phone number, you can tap the number to dial it.
  
• In Day view, you can press and hold the orange key/Option and tap an event to delete the event. Options displayed include deleting just this event or deleting the whole series for recurring events.
  
• Calendar now recognizes the 7th day of a given month as the first Monday/Tuesday/etc. of that month, not the second. If you choose a repeat option for an event on the 7th, the list correctly shows the option Monthly on 1st [day]. Previously, the repeat list for an event on the 7th of the month showed the option Monthly on 2nd [day].
  
• Untimed events included in calendar data migration from your desktop now appear on the correct date in Calendar.
  
• If you create an all-day event and then switch the phone's time zone, the event continues to display correctly.
  
• When you select a month for a birthday, the month displays correctly.
  
• Responses to meeting invitations are correctly sent back to the organizer. If the organizer of an event requests not to receive responses, responses are not sent to the organizer.
  

Clock

• The volume of alarms set in clock matches the ringtone volume, not the system sounds volume.
  

Contacts

• On a contact details screen, a Send Contact option is available on the application menu, with options to send the contact to a car kit or send it as a vCard attachment to an email or multimedia message.
  
• On a contact details screen, a Copy All option is now available on the Edit submenu in the application menu. Selecting this option copies the entire contents of the contact entry as plain text.
  
• LinkedIn is now available as an online account in Contacts. As with Facebook, a LinkedIn account set up on the phone enables you to download contacts from that account. LinkedIn contacts cannot be created or edited in Contacts.
  
• If a contact contains an instant messaging (IM) address, the contact is linked to the IM account buddy entry.
  

Email

• You can search for messages in any email folder simply by opening the folder and typing. Search returns any matches found in the subject, From, To, or CC field.
  
• If a message contains an inline image, you can act on the image by pressing and holding the orange key/Option and tapping the image. For all images, an option appears to share the image as an attachment to an email message. If the image is in JPG, BMP, or PNG format, a second option appears to copy the image to the Photos app.
  
• Support for paragraph text selection, copy, and paste is now available in Email. A yellow highlight appears to indicate paragraph selection.
  
• If you have multiple Exchange accounts, you can now use Exchange policies on all these accounts; previously this was restricted to one account. Additionally, IT administrators no longer have to deselect "allow non-provisionable devices" on the Exchange server in order for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync policies to work on the phone.
  
• If you change synchronization of email in a POP account to Manual, the account no longer continues to sync email automatically.
  
• When addressing a message, searching for a linked contact whose contact entry does not contain a complete last name (such as John S.) now returns the contact match correctly.
  
• When you accept a meeting invitation, the response is now correctly sent.
  
• Forwarded messages now correctly display the original message text with the formatting maintained.
  
• When you save an attached file—for example, a Word file attachment saved to Doc View—the file appears with the correct name in the application.
  
• An error message appears if you cannot send a message from an Exchange account because the account mailbox is full.
  
• The Email application always enforces EAS security policies—such as entering a password—when you try to access your Exchange account in Email.
  

Media Sync

• Media sync now allows for synchronizing photos without requiring the full-resolution originals. This provides faster display of high-quality full screen images and enables you to store more photos on the phone.
  

Memos

• Tapping text in a memo moves the cursor to the point that was tapped.
  
• When you send a memo using the Email Memo menu option, the memo formatting is maintained in the copied memo.
  

Messaging

• When you are in a conversation with an IM buddy, the buddy's online status and custom message are displayed on the conversation screen.
  
• In Conversations view, a Copy All option is now available on the Edit submenu in the application menu. Selecting this option copies the entire contents of the conversation as plain text.
  
• When addressing a message, searching for a linked contact whose contact entry does not contain a complete last name (such as John S.) now returns the contact match correctly.
  
• If a contact contains an instant messaging (IM) address, the contact is linked to the IM account buddy entry.
  
• You can receive vCard contact entries as part of a multimedia message.
  

Music

• If playback of an audio file is paused or interrupted, when you resume playback, playback resumes at the point where it was paused. This applies to audio files for which the Genre field is defined as podcast, speech, spoken word, netcast, or audiobook only.
  
• You can use music playback controls on the dashboard even if the screen is locked.
  
• If the ringer switch is turned off, music playback is not interrupted by an incoming call.
  

Phone

• You can now turn carrier data services on or off in the Phone application by opening the application menu > Preferences > Data Usage > tap on/off.
  
• Default ringtone volume has been increased.
  
• Adjusting the volume of a call now works even if the screen is off. Reducing the volume level to zero sets the call volume to zero.
  
• Contact entries in the call log now show both the phone number and type.
  

Photos

• The Photos app can now display photos in JPG, BMP, and PNG format.
  

Sprint Navigation

• Sprint Navigation now pulls Google contacts from the phone, as well as Exchange and Palm profile contacts.
  

System

• You can open either the application or connection menu by dragging down from the upper corner of the phone onto the screen, as well as tapping the upper corner of the screen.
  
• When you press and hold the orange key/Option and drag onscreen, the cursor now moves one word at a time instead of one character at time in Email, Memos, and other apps. The cursor still moves one character at a time in the Web address bar and Messaging body text entry field.
  
• Notifications, including incoming phone calls, now show above the onscreen lock icon, so they can be seen when the keyboard is locked.
  
• Notification sounds play softly when you are on a call, regardless of the system sounds setting.
  
• If you copy text from an application and open the Launcher, you can paste the text to start a universal search.
  
• Universal search contact matches include an Add Reminder option that allows you to add a reminder to the contact.
  
• In universal search, pressing the orange key/Option + a letter key now searches on the letter key's alternate character (for example, 5 for F), not on the letter key.
  
• In universal search, you can enter keywords to search for applications. For example, entering "addresses" returns Contacts, "SMS" returns Messaging, and "pictures" returns Photos.
  

Tasks

• Tasks that are assigned a category now retain the category when they synchronize between the phone and your desktop. Other information including start date, status, reminder setting, and privacy setting is also retained.
  
• A new Hide Completed menu option is available. If you select this option and mark a task as completed, the task disappears from the current view.
  
• A menu in the upper-right corner of the screen showing all tasks enables you to sort tasks by due date or priority. You can also manually reorder the tasks.
  

Web

• The browser now supports downloading files from a web page. To download a file, tap the file name.
  
• The browser now supports paragraph selection, cut, copy, and paste on web page text. A yellow highlight appears to indicate paragraph selection.
  
• You can press and hold the orange key/Option and tap a link or image. Options displayed include opening the item in a new card, sharing the link or image via email, or copying the URL. For images in JPG, BMP, or PNG format, an additional option to copy the image to the Photo app is displayed.
  
• If you tap on a text field, the page zooms to a level at which it is easy to read the text being entered.
  
• If you copy text in the address bar or in the body text of a web page, a notification appears stating that the text was copied.
  
• You can accept self-signed certificates through the browser.
  

Security

This release addresses several security issues with Palm webOS software.

Palm Pre and iPhone Top Market Mindshare

If you haven't heard me say it by now, I love my Palm Pre. As a power user of many gadgets I have come to know exactly what I want a device to do and how well I think it should do said function. I've tried many devices and without a doubt the Palm Pre and iPod Touch are two of the best devices I've ever owned. They are intuitive, functional, stable, and they just seem to do things right.

At current time, the iPhone is obviously the most sought after phone available and for very good reason. About the only flaw I see with an iPhone is Apple's decision to go exclusively with AT&T and their terrible data network. The best alternative for a phone that shows as much promise as the iPhone is the Palm Pre, and it is evidenced in the following case study:
PDF: Signature Smartphones: Gaining Mindshare in Order to Gain Market Share

To sum it up, the report reveals how Palm has managed to get a huge slice of mindshare with the Pre despite being massively disadvantaged in the market. It is second only to the iPhone 3GS in the metric, which looks at three driving factors behind smartphone purchasing decisions: 1. A belief that the phone is "smart", 2. A belief that the phone is "hip or cool", and 3. The belief that the phone will make them more productive.

They rated lots of phones ranging from the BlackBerry Curve and Storm, to the Google G1, and Windows Mobile phones. The report found that only the iPhone and the Pre balanced the three factors so well that they actually deserve the price tags associated with the devices. In fact, only the Pre and the iPhone were able to even strike a balance of the factors at all, the other phones were lopsided in their balances.

There's not much more info in the study, but it is interesting to see how Palm managed to put itself back into the forefront of handheld devices. I guess having a product that is actually cool helps a lot.