Europe Gets webOS 1.3.1, Fixes SIM Incompatibilities

Posted By: Tim Carroll Monday, November 23, 2009 2:42:33 AM

SIM CardRight on cue, webOS 1.3.1 has been turned loose on European Palm Pres, finally bringing sweet, sweet parity to the world of webOS. The full changelogs for the UK, Irish, German, and Spanish models are up for perusal, but the really good news for international importers of the unlocked German Pre is that an option is now available to manually configure your wireless Internet & MMS APN details, putting an end to those nagging SIM incompatibilty issues. Hit up the Preferences menu in the phone app, and under Network you'll find an option for Manual Settings. Screenshots after the break.

It also wouldn't be an update without issues: something appears to have broken the App Catalog, with your correspondent having been denied access since updating a few hours ago. Here's hoping Palm fixes it yesterday.

Thanks to palmdoc for the tip.

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Palm Marketing is farked

stonehat @ 11/23/2009 3:19:54 AM # Q
So Palm is trying to make it easier for us Yurpeans to buy a QWERTZ keyboard Pre from Germany *but still won"t let us buy one in our own countries with a proper keyboard* ?!

Do they think that is a good solution ?!

RE: Palm Marketing is farked
Tim Carroll @ 11/23/2009 4:11:20 AM # Q
I feel your pain, brother. But Palm has made a conscious decision to focus strongly on only select carriers with their first generation of webOS devices, so we early adopters are stuck with it. Their "good reason" (and I don't really think it is a terribly great one) is that they don't want to spread themselves to thinly, and more importantly, better second-gen hardware is coming within the near term (very likely on Verizon first, if the rumours are to be believed).

Honestly, though - QWERTZ ain't that bad. If the issue is touch-typing, then you can use the WebOS Internals Meta-Doctor to remap the keys (and Jason Robitaille is working on a more user-friendly version of that). But otherwise, you'll find yourself adapting pretty quickly.

The main problem is the warranty issue. If your imported Pre breaks you'll have to ship it back to Germany for an exchange, which sucks big-time. I can justify such a risk for myself - I blog for a Palm news site, after all, and it's really hard to constantly report on something you don't own yourself - but not sure I can do the same for others.

RE: Palm Marketing is farked
stonehat @ 11/23/2009 6:27:58 AM # Q
Meanwhile, the millions of potential smartphone customers in these countries beyond the Pale are:

a) Waiting for a mythical second-gen Palm phone to become available in their country.

or

b) Signing up for an Android/Nokia/Motorola/... on a two year contract.

Meanwhile, the thousands of potential Webos developers in these countries are:

a) Re-reading Mitch Allen's book until the pages fall out

or

b) Buying an Android and a Nokia N900 and hacking away.

I'm a former Palm developer and we are interested in porting our app to Webos, but we have trouble believing it is worth putting in the effort when Palm themselves seem to be failing to promote their own cause; think they have time they don't have; won't support native apps; and seem likely to be gone in a year or two anyway.

( Tim, I appreciate I'm preaching to the converted here :-) )

RE: Palm Marketing is farked
Tim Carroll @ 11/23/2009 12:42:37 PM # Q
Apparently (and this is v. unofficial) there is a plan to offer unlocked phones for developers in early 2010. Not sure what the conditions of access would be, though.

Still, would have been much nicer if they'd had something in place from the very start...

RE: Palm Marketing is farked
hkklife @ 11/23/2009 6:44:04 PM # Q
I agree heartily but I shall refuse to again repeat my "Palm should release a limited run of WebOS-based PDAs to diehard fans and developers" mantra of ~January-July 2009.

I fear that "early" 2010 is FAR too little and much too late to make a difference. They should have been sending out unlocked GSM/CDMA radio disabled Pre/PDA Pre at least 4-6 months ago to try to stir up development enthusiasm. WebOS dev camp a few months ago certainly didn't light much of a fire under anyone...

P.S. Where'd you hear that little tidbit of info, Tim?
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->?

RE: Palm Marketing is farked
NJB1957 @ 11/24/2009 5:07:52 AM # Q
I think Palm have taken the wrong tack too. I have had a Palm since the Palm Pilot in 1997. My most recent Palm was a T3, but it was beginning to show its age. I actually had two of them (one bought second-hand). Both were giving problems, and I wanted to upgrade. But the Palm OS is no longer a current device, and WebOS won't be available in Australia till next year sometime according to reports. And Palm weren't making it easy for people to upgrade from Palm OS to Web OS. If it is going to be an effort, why stick with Palm? What was I to do?

So I jumped ship to an iPhone in October this year. I could buy the equivalent of all the software I used on the T3, and in some cases not need to buy anything at all with my Palm purchases carrying over. The PIM part is the pits. I've taken a backward step there, but I love everything else about it. I am hoping that in due course the PIM will improve. But once my two year contract finishes, I can't see that I'll have much incentive to jump back to Palm. In effect, Palm will have lost me completely unless Apple do something really stupid with the iPhone. All that might have been different if the Pre had been available in Australia this year. I would have waited a month or two for it. And I wonder how many others were like me?

RE: Palm Marketing is farked
Tim Carroll @ 11/24/2009 5:27:17 AM # Q
kris:
P.S. Where'd you hear that little tidbit of info, Tim?

From a developer who's been bugging Palm for such things for quite some time. Nothing is confirmed as of yet, but they've been in dialogue for awhile now.

RE: Palm Marketing is farked
Tim Carroll @ 11/24/2009 5:33:27 AM # Q
NJB1957
In effect, Palm will have lost me completely unless Apple do something really stupid with the iPhone. All that might have been different if the Pre had been available in Australia this year. I would have waited a month or two for it. And I wonder how many others were like me?

I know at least one person - I had a friend who was real excited for the Pre when it was announced, but after waiting for six months, caved and bought an iPhone instead. Can't blame him, really. Before the unlocked German model was announced I was getting ready to jump ship myself...

But tech moves fast, and the iPhone won't be the darling forever.

RE: Palm Marketing is farked
Gekko @ 11/24/2009 5:42:15 AM # Q

the Pre is an absolutely terrible device. poor cheap fragile build quality with high defect and return rate. buggy chuggy laggy non-intuitive GUI/OS. poor and limited PIM capabilities. few Apps. dubious multitasking. non-ergonomic obtrusive slider and gesture area. a network effect of almost zero. and the added bonus of the parent company spiraling into financial oblivion.
RE: Palm Marketing is farked
jca666us @ 11/24/2009 5:43:03 AM # M Q
iphone hasn't stood still - and three years is a long time in the tech industry!


RE: Palm Marketing is farked
stonehat @ 11/24/2009 7:28:29 AM # Q
I can't agree with Gekko - I have a borrowed Pre to play with, and while its shortcomings are clear, it is still nice to handle, and the interface is satisfying.

Which only makes it more frustrating not to be able to use and develop for it due to Palm's genius marketeers >-(

RE: Palm Marketing is farked
hkklife @ 11/24/2009 4:02:05 PM # Q
Semi-OT:

Does anyone know of some kind of roundup or article that discusses the native PIM strengths/weaknesses of the current crop of mobile OSes? Are diehards like Geko and me the only ones who really care about PIMs anymore?

I know it (PIM) is a very subjective thing but I just wanted to see what the general concensus is w.r.t. whatever "modern" OS is closest in ease of use and capability to the classis Palm OS PIMs. I'm thinking that for better or worse it's probably WinMob, with iPhone coming a distant 2nd and BB and Android right behind bringing up the rear.


Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->?

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OT: Classic is Partially Broken Too

DarthRepublican @ 11/23/2009 5:26:17 PM # Q
Ever since upgrading Classic has been extremely unstable even while running in safe mode. I often have to reboot just to get it to run without crashing. Grrr.
Palm Apologist
Shouting down the PIC Faithful Since 2009
Screw convergence
Palm III->Visor Deluxe->Visor Platinum->Visor Prism->Tungsten E->Palm LifeDrive->Palm TX->Palm Pre
Visor Pro+VisorPhone->Treo 180g->Treo 270->Treo 600->Treo 680->T-Mobile G1->Palm Pre
http://mind-grapes.blogspot.com/
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