Palm Pixi » Palm Pixi

Sprint Palm Pixi Gets Wi-Fi Courtesy Radio Board Hack

Matt — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:07:04 +0000

There's good news for Sprint Palm Pixi users who complain about the lack of Wi-Fi capabilities on their devices. A PreCentral forum member gitit20 has created a neat hack to rip the radio board off a Verizon Palm Pixi Plus and then transplant it into a Sprint Palm Pixi. After you install the new radio board, your Sprint Palm Pixi is well and truly 'Wi-Fi capable'. Smart piece of thinking and very innovative too!

The hacker claims that Sprint & Verizon Palm Pixi are exactly identical sans the Wi-Fi capabilities. All you need to do is swap the radio boards and run the Sprint webOS doctor - you should be all set to access Wi-Fi internet on your Sprint Palm Pixi. And if you want to do it yourself, checkout this handy step-by-step video on how you can make your Sprint Palm Pixi Wi-Fi capable.

The only apparent drawback of this hack is that Sprint Nav no longer works and is replaced by Verizon Nav - not a big deal if you are not a heavy GPS user. However, if you frequently use your Palm Pixi for navigation purpose, think twice before you apply this hack on your phone.

I wonder if this hack will be a lesson for Palm & Sprint in order to release a Wi-Fi capable Palm Pixi sooner than later. After all, the Palm Pixi desperately needs a facelift!

FlightTrack App Now Available on Palm Pixi (and Palm Pre)

Matt — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:19:21 +0000

FlightTrack, one of the best mobile flight tracking applications earlier available on Android, iPhone and Blackberry phones, is now available as a webOS app. The app is now available for Palm Pixi and Palm Pre users. The application is developed by Mobiata, a company which specializes in developing some of the most popular mobile travel applications available in the market today.

The app is available for download through Palm webChannel store for $2.50 (50% discount on the original price of $4.99) and runs on any Palm device running webOS 1.0.0 or higher. The application tracks nearly 1,400 airlines at 4,000 airports across the globe. The app offers the following features

Check Gate numbers, cancellations & delays
A beautiful, interactive map integrated within the app to track flights in real-time
Easily search by flight number or by route based on departure or arrival date
Quick access to real-time information on flight departure and arrival times
Complete terminal, gate and baggage claim information
Ability to save flights for future reference
Automatically updates your flight info

It is rated as a 4-star app on Palm webChannel store. Mobiata gave a lot of importance to the design principles & user interface of webOS platform in order to develop this app for Palm Pixi and Palm Pre phones. If you are a frequent traveler looking for a decent flight management app at a great price, the FlightTrack webOS app is a must for you!

Palm Offering 50% Discount For Nearly All Apps in webOS App Catalog

Matt — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 09:49:06 +0000

There's good news for all Palm Pre and Palm Pixi owners - Palm has halved the prices of nearly all the apps in the US Palm App Catalog and Palm web channel. The promotion runs from June 18th through July 9th, 2010. As a Palm customer, you are entitled to a cool subsidy of 50% on your favorite webOS applications. If you were thinking of the buying any of the following bestseller apps from Palm - Need for Speed Undercover, Jump O'Clock, or James Cameron's Avatar, the time is now!

If you are a developer, you need not worry. Palm will subsidize the cost of the discounted price for developers; payments to developers and revenue tracking for the Hot Apps contest will continue to reflect the full price of all eligible applications throughout the promotion. The promotion is a win-win situation for both developers and customers - the former still get their full revenue share from Palm and the latter enjoy a cool savings of 50%. To know more details, check the Palm Developer FAQ.

Palm has often been criticized by the developer community for not doing enough to promote their cause. Apple and Google have developer-friendly programs and leave no stone unturned in order to spread the word so it's hardly surprising that Palm is trying to catch up with the biggies. The move is also aimed at boosting the sagging App Catalog revenues and injecting new life into the carrier's online app store ambitions.

Go ahead and enjoy the 50% discount!

Ping.fm for webOS: Update all your Social Networks from your Palm Phone

Matt — Thu, 06 May 2010 11:45:00 +0000

Fed up of having to update each of your social networks one-by-one? Too many passwords to remember? Ping.fm is a cool application which can update all your social networks in one go. All you need to do is configure your social networks with ping.fm and it takes care of syncing all your social networks. The good news is that Ping.fm is now available as a free webOS app in the Palm App Catalog. The app has been developed by Erik C. Thauvin.

The app allows you to post from anywhere, to anywhere. So, you can update your Facebook account, your twitter feed and your blog all at the same time. From what I've seen of the app so far, it works like a charm on Palm Pre and Palm Pixi. However, if you are not an existing Ping.fm user, I'd strongly advice that you sign-up and configure your social networks through the ping.fm website. Attempting to do so through the app is not exactly a pleasing experience. Once your social networks are configured, the app allows you to use your Palm Pre or Palm Pixi phone as the gateway to all social networks.

What's more, ping.fm also supports email mode so I can send my update as an email to a pre-defined email address and it gets reflected on all my social network profiles. If you are a social media addict (like me), I'll strongly recommend that you try out the Ping.fm webOS app. I simply loved it and I'm sure you'll do so as well.

Sprint Offering The Palm Pixi For Free With Contract

Matt — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 12:27:21 +0000

Sprint is now offering the Palm Pixi 'free with a 2-year contract' through its online portal. Sprint retail stores may not be stocked with these free Pixi handsets and therefore the online option is the safest bet. The catch is that you’ll have to agree to a two-year contract, which is livable if you’re a long term Sprint customer anyways. Sprint's two year contracts range from $69.99 to $189.98 per month.

For a phone which features a full physical QWERTY keyboard, 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth and a removable battery, it's a pretty good deal. Speculations are rife that Palm might be planning to launch a new device - perhaps the C40 or Palm Pre 4G and hence it wants to clear out the Palm Pixi inventory. Another theory is that webOS might be soon replaced with Android. Lack of WiFi was always going to be a big issue in Palm Pixi and we highlighted this as early as November last year. The slow processor has further dampened Palm Pixi sales.

Going by Palm's dwindling fortunes and rumors about a possible acquisition by Lenovo, Palm needs a gigantic effort to clear-up its Palm Pixi inventory. I'd hardly be surprised if the Verizon’s Palm Pixi Plus starts selling for free in the not too distant future.

Palm Pixi, Twitter and Facebook

Matt — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:00:57 +0000

Just in case you missed the earlier twitter session on Palm Pixi, you can find the crux of the Q&A session here. Facebook's Palm page has another and slightly better organized version of the Q&A session here.

The Palm Pixi Fan Page is slowly but surely getting more fans every day. The kind of buzz and excitement around Palm Pixi is amazing and mobile enthusiasts/ social networkers are finding every possible avenue for gaining more insights into Palm Pixi before it's launch. After all, Palm Pixi is a social media centric smartphone and allows users to access Facebook, Google and Exchange ActiveSync, so it's hardly surprising that these social networks are buzzing with activity for the Palm Pixi release.

Here's a video which talks about the various goodies that Palm Pixi offers and about the social media aspects of this phone. It talks about the display and gesture areas of the phone, the QWERTY keyboard and the sleek design of this phone. As far as social media support is concerned, it showcases the new Facebook Application especially developed by Palm for this smartphone.

When Pre was launched, Facebook was integrated into Contacts, Calendar and photo upload features. This is now being wonderfully complimented with a dedicated Facebook application that comes only with the Palm Pixi. You can do a bunch of stuff with this Facebook application

Update your status
View your Newsfeed
Comment on other friend's status
View your friend's pictures
Zoom in/ Zoom out on pictures
Comment on pictures
Pretty Much everything that you can do on Facebook on a computer

All in all, the Facebook application on Palm Pixi looks pretty cool and seems to work like a charm!

Limited Edition Palm Artist Series Due Early December

brian — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:10:37 +0000

One of the advantages of Palm Pixi is it's focus on look and feel. A large part of that feel comes from it's extremely thin form-factor. The look, on the other hand, may be due to the Palm's Artist Series plates.

Palm Pixi Artist Series

The Artist Series plates come in limited editions of 5000 - each signed and numbered by the artist. So to paraphrase Beyonce... if you like it, you better put a buy on it. With an average of 100 per state, there's probably a good chance you'll never run into anyone with the same phone. This individuality will set you back $50. That might seem steep considering you can buy the Palm Pixi for $30 at Wal-Mart. However, these plates aren't just about vanity. They are also Touchstone compatible. Just a plain black Palm Pre touchstone back cover runs for $23 on Amazon. So you could say that you are getting the style for about $27 (provided you actually use the Touchstone functionality).

If none of the designs really strike your fancy (the Red Barn is really the only one I like), there is good news. Once the original set is gone, Palm will release new designs and new artists. If you are on the fence about a design, you can ask them questions via Twitter. I'm not sure how all it will work, but it will take place at November 23 at 10:30 AM PT and I'm guessing you'll tweet questions with an @palm and a hashcode that has yet to be determined. For now it's just best to follow @palm and their blog and wait for more information.

Let's hope that someday, Palm will even take it another step and let you design your own via a CafePress-like process.

Palm Pixi for $30 at Wal-Mart

brian — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:26:24 +0000

The $99 advertised price (with 2-year contract) is just a starting point for the Palm Pixi. As we predicted there will be better deals almost right away. Well the Pixi isn't even out yet and Wal-Mart is offering it for $30 with free shipping. This is exactly the kind of pricing we like to see for a device geared at a younger audience. Some people might have trouble scraping up the $200 for an iPhone 3GS (or even $100 for the iPhone 3G), but $30 is very much in the range of an impulse buy (except for the contract). How can you go wrong when it's less than a couple of DVDs?!?!

Palm Pixi Wal-Mart Sale

It's back-ordered until Nov. 24th, so you might have to make a tough choice. Get the Pixi right away for $100 (after waiting for your mail-in rebate), or wait 9 days and get your Pixi for $30. I'd go the later, but I'm kind of cheap.

Developing webOS Applications for the Palm Pixi

Matt — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:28:41 +0000

While the world is eagerly looking forward to the launch of Palm Pixi, mobile developers around the world are working long hours getting their applications ready in time for this launch. So, what does Palm Pixi have in store for the webOS developer community? Will your Palm Pre applications run seamlessly on this new phone? Will the lack of WiFi in this phone have any effect on your applications? To find answers to all these questions, just read on

First things first, let's look at the webOS application compatibility between Palm Pre and Palm Pixi. As far as applications are concerned, there are only a couple of differences between these two phones - Pre had a resolution of 320x480 while Pixi has 320x400 and Pre had WiFi while Pixi doesn't have WiFi. So, unless your webOS applications are resolution sensitive or use WiFi functionality, be rest assured that your Pre applications will work like a charm on Palm Pixi as well.

However, if you have applications which fill up the whole display screen and do not use Mojo widgets, you'll need to make some changes to get them working perfectly on the new phone. Thumbs up to Palm for starting early enough on this issue and publishing this document to make all developers easier. Palm also provides instructions on how to configure the Emulator to test your webOS applications at resolutions compatible with both phones. Good going! Nothing pleases a developer more than clear instructions and some easy to use tools for testing

If you are a WiFi freak, there's not much good news for you. WiFi webOS applications which worked flawlessly on Palm Pre will need to be developed in a way to work using an alternative communication mechanism other than WiFi. It's tough from a developer's perspective as you have to virtually re-write most part of the application. Most mobile experts believe that it's a matter of time before Palm rolls out another variant of Palm Pixi with WiFi capabilities. Much will obviously depend on how the WiFi-sans version does to attract consumers.

Like many of it's peers, Palm is a latecomer in the online application market place. However, the good part is that the Palm developer community has become very active in a very short span of time and is churning out one useful application after another. Let's face it, Palm is no Apple and the webOS is not even a distant competitor to macOS in terms of application development. Though Palm initially offered plans for free webOS applications, Air Hockey for webOS marks the launch of first paid application from the Palm Developer World. The response from customers has been pretty amazing for this first paid application and surely sets the bar higher for all future paid Palm Pixi applications.

Palm Pixi – Worth The Wait ?

Matt — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:57:44 +0000

The market buzz and release date rumors about Palm Pixi are shooting up by leaps and bounds every day. Palm has clearly won the first part of the battle by getting mobile enthusiasts and business users lusting to get their hands on this one. So, why so much fuss around a smartphone when there are thousands of them already available in the market?

Is the Palm Pixi just another smartphone amongst the crowd? Or is it worth the wait to buy this phone - touted by many to be the future king of smartphones? Sprint gets the first mover advantage for Palm Pixi and it's leaving no stone unturned to generate a huge fan base for this phone well before it hits the shelves. The Palm website offers a link which allows mobile enthusiasts to be notified as soon the phone is available. There's no shortage of websites spreading rumors about the release date either; some claiming that it will hit the stores as early as 20th October, others claiming a Christmas release while some others even going to ridiculous extent that it won't hit the market before 2011. As to how true these rumours are, your guess is as good as mine

So, let's leave apart the rumors and dive deep into Palm Pixi and it's features. What is it that makes this phone so special? Palm has a great reputation for providing unmatched technology at very competitive pricing. Does this assumption hold true with Palm's latest offering? Let's take a look at the goodies first.

8 GB storage is much better than 4 GB, the more the merrier
Full QWERTY keyboard with typical Palm finishing
Great aesthetic looks (Artistic Series)
Palm Developer Network is gearing up to launch a huge range of interesting applications for Pixi

Like any other phone, the Palm Pixi has it's own pitfalls as well. It's a well known fact that while Palm is hard to beat on technology front, it certainly has a few lessons to learn as far as looks and styling go. Here is the list of things which could have been better.

No WiFi in a smartphone is a bit of shocker. Palm seems to have a habit of throwing in such nasty surprises once in a while
2 Megapixel camera with flash. The Palm Pre has a 3 MP camera.
Smaller screen as compared to Pre

On the whole, it's a complete package. There's no clear indication on the pricing as of now but Palm is considered to be fairly generous on that front so it's expected that the phone will carry as reasonable and affordable price tag. As to what that price will be, let's not spread any more rumors and wait for the official announcement. If you are obsessed with Palm Pre, chances are that you'll like it's younger sibling as well. If you can't spell WiFi, Palm Pixi won't disappoint you.

Just make sure you watch this space as we uncover each and every aspect of Palm Pixi in the build up to it's release.