Recently I overclocked my Pre. Now it’s lightning fast, seemingly as fast as an Xperia X10. Then there is Preware. It’s a fantastic collection of all the stuff you ever want to put on your Pre or Pixi, including live and beta applications, patches, kernel mods to modify almost every aspect of how your phone operates. One example is the app called Govnah that let’s you control how you want to overclock your phone. The new screenstate profiles will bump up the CPU speed as you like only when the screen is active. This way you save a lot of juice when the phone is in standby.

All these new features coming with webOS 2.0 like Just Type or Stacks are definitely something to look forward to. Just Type will expand the scope of your search into apps. Quick Actions like Twitting or sharing stuff on Facebook will be done from Just Type as well as starting a new email. Stacks will organize your cards into groups for a better overview. The Exhibition mode will allow you to use your phone as a widget booth when it’s on the Touchstone.

For me all this means that Palm is moving forward in a slightly different direction from all the others. I like the fact that webOS is not trying to copy the iPhone or Android. It’s a different solution to the same problem and it’s good.

[via PreCentral]

Let me start off by saying that I don’t think this is going to happen. And a number of people I’ve spoken with today don’t think this is going to happen. But it’s something interesting to think about and discuss nonetheless. Following HP CEO Mark Hurd’s resignation today, what if the Board were to appoint former Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein to be their new leader?

Again, it seems a bit far-fetched simply because there are a range of other candidates out there who are probably more qualified to run the company as it is currently constituted. But that’s the thing. From what we’ve been hearing, HP is very interested in reinventing itself. From what we’re hearing, they’d like to be more like Apple. Only a bigger Apple. One with webOS at its core. And you know the funny thing? They may have acquired the perfect guy to do that when they bought Palm this past April: Rubinstein.

As a refresher, prior to Palm, Rubinstein was a long-time Apple executive who was in charge of the iPod division. When he left the company in 2006, the iPod was Apple’s most successful product (the iPhone didn’t exist yet — let alone the iPad). This guy knows Apple (or knew it).

Of course the main argument against Rubinstein may be that he was unable to turn Palm into Apple. As Executive Chairman and later CEO of Palm, he was clearly attempting to do that with the launch of the Palm Pre smartphone — a device which some initially viewed as the first real “iPhone killer.” Of course, it did not kill the iPhone. Nor did it even hurt the iPhone. But nevertheless, the phone was very impressive — particularly the webOS software. In fact, I would argue that it was really only the lackluster hardware that was holding it back. At the time of its launch, webOS was much better than other rivals (not named the iPhone) including the still-young Android platform.

But Palm was a relatively small company, and despite repeated cash infusions from Elevation Partners, they were unable to compete with Apple and the Google-backed Android platform in the smartphone market. But with HP’s billions and emphasis on hardware, Rubinstein would be getting dealt a pretty nice hand this time around. If he still couldn’t win the pot, it would be on him, obviously. But is HP willing to take that chance?

For the third time, probably not. Especially with people like Todd Bradley, the HP executive believed to be responsible for the Palm deal, on the bench. Interestingly enough, Bradly used to be the CEO of Palm as well back in the day (2001-2005). And his track record of growing HP’s core PC business speaks for itself.

But again, going forward, this may not be about the PC business. This is about a shift towards mobile (which Bradley also runs) and a complete ecosystem built around webOS. Does HP’s board (Board Director Marc Andreessen is leading the search) have the cojones to appoint Rubinstein? Or will they go with the safe bet: Bradley, perhaps with Rubinstein as his new right-hand man?

via PreCentral

In fact, I couldn’t be happier for Palm. A recent perusal of HP’s line-up including their new Envy line of laptops show that, unlike Dell, they can produce a beautiful and powerful product at a nice price. Palm, in short, needed out of the hardware business and this gave them that chance.

It’s hard to run a standalone hardware company these days. Name one product besides TiVo that has mass appeal and adoption and is produced by a company whose sole purpose is the production of that product. The boutique model of hardware manufacturing is dead and the big guys – the Dells, the Apples, the HPs – are the only ones with the scale and energy to propel products into the market. In a world where Sony can barely make a sale anymore, how many Palms did they think they’d move?

Fanboys will rage and claim their beloved WebOS will live on – and maybe it will in HP’s portable line – but one course of action I could see is the WebOS UI being HP’s equivalent of HTC’s Sense but with a built-in kernel and underlying OS.

Don’t cry for Palm. They had a good run and they caught the world’s attention. This HP acquisition will change Palm irretrievably and probably for the good.

This was likely not an easy decision to make for Spaan, she’s been with the company for 14 years. In fact, she may have been the last of the old school team in place before Jeff Hawkins (Palm founder), Donna Dubinsky (former Palm CEO), and Ed Colligan (also former Palm CEO) left to form Handspring (which merged with Palm in 2003).

Following a very bad earnings report in March, word started circulating that Palm was looking for a buyer. Yesterday, Financial Times reported that CEO Jon Rubenstein is committed to Palm surviving as an independent company but admitted that they’re open to other ideas. Ideas, including, letting other manufacturers make phones with Palm’s webOS software, and yes, looking at takeover bids.

Earlier today, Reuters reported that Lenovo is now the leading candidate to take over Palm. But the bad news continues, the same report had HTC dropping out of the acquisition race after reviewing Palm’s numbers.

Update: And as we’ve just heard, the latest rumors have Rubenstein possibly being out as well.

What to make of this WebOS exploit? It was discovered by the Intrepidus Group security firm, and it has to do with the way the operating system handles SMS messages. Basically, WebOS doesn’t perform a common security check on incoming SMS messages, meaning that any craftily formed SMS can essentially take out the entire phone.

There’s a video that explains what’s going on. That’s it up there, yes.

It should be noted that this flaw only affects WebOS versions older than 1.4, so if you’re plugging along on an older revision of the operating—why?—be sure to upgrade ASAP.

Shame, too, since WebOS is the nicest-looking of the modern phone operating systems (Android, iPhone OS, and BlackBerry).

via Bit-Tech (love the new layout, guys!)

My original salesperson, upon hearing me say I was there for the Palm Pre, immediately mentioned that they were running a special on the Droid. I said terrific but I’m here for the Pre. The salesman finally got one out for me but no one at Verizon had any idea how it worked, how to set it up, or even how the screen functioned. It took Verizon over 3 hours just to the Pre “set up”, apparently because “the guy” who knew about the Pre was not there. I lovingly took my Pre home.

And got worse. Generally, it feels like Verizon and, to a degree, Sprint, have lumped WebOS in with the rest of the feature phones OSes. It’s not flashy enough to be an iPhone killer nor is it popular enough to beat Android in the mindshare game. It’s a floater, friends, and we all know where those eventually go.

Palm’s webOS is certainly one of the more polished operating systems out there; the others being the iPhone OS and Android. It’s clean, simple to use and attractive. However, it was available only on Sprint’s network for the longest time until recently when it arrived at Verizon on the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus. Now it looks like another carrier will be picking up the new OS.

According to BGR’s sources, T-Mobile is going to get Palm webOS in the form of a Pixi-like device. According to the source, T-Mobile and Palm are in the final stages of getting a device set and ready for T-Mobile’s network. There isn’t much else in the way of this news, but T-Mobile customers who are getting a little bored with Android might have some nice options to look forward to.

A WebOS port of the popular GB/CGA emulator is pretty rocking’, even though it only runs at 90% speed on a good day. The hackers who figured all this out will get it back up to speed shortly but don’t expect to download this at the Apps Market or whatever Palm is calling it. This is pure homebrew.

Click through for Zelda.

via Giz and PreCentral

The release of the apps follows earlier launches of Android, BlackBerry and iPhone applications.

The Nokia app can be downloaded from the Ovi Store already and should run fine on all Symbian S60 5th Edition phones, including the Nokia N97 and the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.

Brightkite curiously doesn’t use its own brand name for the Palm app, which was baptized Parafoil instead. The application was custom-developed for Palm’s WebOS platform and is compatible with the Palm Pre and Palm Pixi devices.

I’m told the reason that it isn’t named Brightkite, is because the program was actually developed by two Brightkite users, John Barker and Kyle Johnson, based on the startup’s open API.

As you can tell from the third screenshot embedded below, Brighkite has adopted the ‘check-in’ moniker to let people update their friends on their current locations and what they’re up to.

Brightkite says the United States remains its biggest market, but that international markets are growing in importance, which prompts the company to expand its range of handset support. The company adds that it currently sees about 2 million people using Brightkite on a monthly basis, across all platforms (though the vast majority uses it on a phone).

Alternatives to Brightkite include Foursquare, Loopt, Gowalla, aka-aki networks and Rummble.

If you’re in the market for a WebOS Plus device then they’ll cost you $150 for the Pre and $100 for the Pixi whenever Verizon launches them.

We’re pretty bullish on these updates but obviously you’re your own person now and can make your own decisions.

via PhoneArena via Giz

To be honest, I don’t really care which is the better smartphone (or super-duper phone): the iPhone 3GS, the Motorola Droid, HTC’s Droid Eris, Google’s Nexus One, Nokia’s N900 or the Palm Pre.

It’s just great to witness this seemingly never-ending advancements in mobile technology, both on a hardware and software level, and to see increased competition drive innovation at such rapid pace. Just compare the market today to five years ago, and you can’t help but be amazed by how far we’ve come – I still remember my epic struggles to get my previous phone (HTC S710 with Windows Mobile) to do half of what I really wanted it to.

In short: if all phone manufacturers keep on pumping out better phones, I’m a happy camper (for the record: I’m still very pleased with my iPhone 3GS as my primary device).

But comparisons will be comparisons, and MOTO Development Group this morning announced the results of its DIY touchscreen analysis, based on some touchy testing of the capacitive screens of the Nexus One, the iPhone, the Motorola Droid and HTC’s Droid Eris.

MOTO has a lot of experience developing products that use capacitive touch, and its team members have put their fingers on a good number of smartphones over the past few years. After using DIY techniques to test touchscreen performance (see video below) in combination with more sophisticated testing tools, MOTO has concluded that not all touch-screens are created equal. And that the iPhone’s screen performs slightly better than that of its rivals.

Below is a visualization of the test results, based on MOTO’s drawing of straight diagonal lines across the screen using both light and medium pressure of the fingers. And in its own words why the iPhone has a slight edge over the Nexus One, Droid and Droid Eris:

The iPhone’s touch sensor showed the most linear tracking with the least amount of stair-stepping. The Droid Eris and Nexus One tied for second with only faint wiggling – but actually performed best at the edge of the screen. Last in the line-up was the Motorola Droid, which demonstrated significant wavy artifacts or “stair-stepping.”

Are you happy with your smartphone’s touchscreen performance?

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=8569827&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=c9ff23&fullscreen=1

The service, created by Stephen Hood, the former product team lead for Delicious, and Dave Baggeroer of Stanford’s Institute of Design, works because they keep it simple. You load up the application on your mobile device, it locates you, and you leave a message. This can be whatever you want: A note about a good cafe, a tip of something in the neighborhood to watch out for, a request to borrow something that someone else may have in the neighborhood, etc. When other people also using the app come upon the area that you’ve pinned your “Chalk” (their word for message) to, they’ll see it on their screen in a stream of Chalks.

And you can do a bit more with these Chalks. With the service’s new iPhone app, if you use the syntax “[here],” BlockChalk will put in your exact location. You can also attach a link to a location on a map by inserting an actual address in those same brackets. If you don’t do either of these, BlockChalk will hide your exact location, and keep your message pinned to the general area instead.

Once you drill down to a specific Chalk, you can choose to “Chalkback” (respond publicly to a message), “Reply Privately” (respond just to the user who left the Chalk), “Bury,” or “Share,” the chalk.

While I noted the service’s new iPhone app (which you can find in the App Store here as a free download), it’s already available on a number of other platforms thanks to some more advanced web technology. For example, you can use it on Android phones (or the mobile web of the iPhone, for that matter) because the web-based version of BlockChalk uses HTML5 to access location through the browser, Hood tells us. Obviously, that’s a vital part of the app. There is also a webOS BlockChalk app already that will work on the Palm Pre or Pixi. Hood notes that they are currently working on native apps for Android and BlackBerry as we speak.

Thanks to this mobile web usage, BlockChalk is already available in some 93 countries, 6751 cities and 10910 neighborhoods. And while the obvious integration with Twitter’s new location feature is pretty loose right now, Hood tells us that in the next release, it will be much tighter.

The company is in the process of raising a seed round of funding. And while obviously they’ve declined to say how much they’re looking to raise, we hear Hood’s old Delicious counterpart Joshua Schachter is interested. That shouldn’t be surprising given his recent location-based investments.

Learn more in the video below:

If you visit the regular Techmeme site now on devices like an iPhone, a Palm Pre, or the new Verizon Droid, you’ll see a site optimized for touchscreen phones. The site include three main tabs, “Top, ” More,” and “New.” These represent the three key areas of Techmeme’s main site. This tabbed navigation allows you to easily jump through the sections. Each section contains the main headlines and a right pointing arrow which you click on to see the discussion items.

As you’d expect, clicking on any headline opens that story (in a new browser window). Thumbnail pictures are also pulled in for main headlines. And there’s a ‘back’ button to make navigation easy.

Even if you don’t have an officially supported device, anyone can access the new site by visiting techmeme.com/m/. But why not do a native application, such as an iPhone app? “We might make a native app in the future, but with Android phones multiplying and capable browsers appearing on so many devices, it just made sense to start with something with broader support,” founder Gabe Rivera tells us.

Just yesterday, Techmeme announced that it had doubled it staff to 6 people.

A new feature in Gmail Labs allows you to change your contacts’ circular chat status icons in Android logo status icons. But the key is that these icons only change for users who are currently online on their Android phones.

Google’s official stance on this is as follows:

These icons can help you decide whether to tailor your conversation to the type of device that your chat buddy is using. For example, when you know the guy on the other end is using his Android phone, you may decide to send shorter, more concise chat messages.

Of course, they don’t tailor these icons for any other type of phone, just Android. It seems if Google really wants to help with mobile chat experiences, they could also have BlackBerry icons, Pre icons, etc. I would bring up iPhone icons, but Apple would probably sue Google if they tried to use that — I wish I were kidding.

This is a fun little feature for Android users, and as I said, totally innocuous. But I do wonder what else Google has up its sleeve for cross promotion as they continue to move into new businesses. Remember, the Droid was already advertised on Google’s homepage, something they rarely do. And remember too what got Microsoft in trouble in the 90s: Bundling products with its dominant operating system.

Again, before everyone gets their panties in a bunch, this example clearly isn’t a big deal. But think forward a bit as the web becomes more and more of the dominant platform rather than the operating system. And Google controls that domain. And product creep is happening.

In making our decisions, we looked at these phones from the standpoint of the consumer. Thus, developer struggles, business security, and other such problems were not taken into account. Instead, functionality, price, and the overall usefulness of various smartphones made up the criteria which we adhered to during our reviews. These phones can be found on a multitude of carriers, operating systems, and continents.

Feel free to comment below on the merits of this list of the best smart phones currently available.

iPhone 3GS

You know you’re on top when phone manufacturers are constantly struggling to produce an “iPhone killer”. The iPhone 3GS boasts a massive App Store (with nearly 100,000 apps now), the largest developer base, and is simply put, the best phone on the market.

Status: Launched June 19th, 2009 on ATT
Screen: 3.5-inch 480 x 320-pixel resolution at 163 ppi widescreen Multi-Touch display
Dimensions: 115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3 mm; 135 grams
Camera: 3 megapixels w/ AutoFocus, No flash
Battery: 1150 mAh Li-Ion
Standby Time: 300 hours
Talk Time: Up to 12 hours on 2G; Up to 5 hours on 3G
Processor: Samsung S5PC100; 600 MHz
Internal/External Memory: 16GB or 32GB
Extras: 3.5mm Headset jack, accelerometer, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS enabled
Operating System: iPhone OS
Price: $199 for 16 GB; $299 for 32GB

Motorola Droid

If any phone is going to challenge the iPhone’s supremacy, it will be the Verizon Droid. The Droid is on a superior network than the iPhone, and will be running Android 2.0 which has a much improved user interface over previous versions of Android.

Status: Rumored to be announced October 28th; Verizon Wireless.
Screen: 3.7-inch/480×854 Full Touchscreen with Full QWERTY Slider
Dimensions: 60 x 115.8 x 13.7 mm; 169 grams
Camera: 5.0 Megapixels with AutoFocus
Battery: Li-ion 1400mAh
Standby Time: 450 Hours
Talk Time:7 Hours
Processor: Texas Instruments OMAP 3430 processor; 600MHz
Internal/External Memory: 512MB Flash, 256MB RAM/MicroSD (16GB capacity)
Extras: 3.5mm Headset jack, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS enabled
Operating System: Android 2.0
Price: Unknown

Palm Pre

The Palm Pre signaled the resurrection of Palm. It is well-designed, and has a very promising OS, which if tweaked and improved slightly, can challenge any OS on the market.

Status: Available June 6th on Sprint. Available October 13 in Germany and October 16 in UK and Ireland
Screen: 3.1-inch touch screen with 24-bit color 320×480 resolution HVGA display and full QWERTY keyboard
Dimensions: 100.5 x 59.5 x 16.95 mm; 135 grams
Camera: 3 megapixel camera with LED flash and AutoFocus
Battery: 1150 mAh
Standby Time: 250 Hours
Talk Time: 5 Hours
Processor: Texas Instruments OMAP 3430 processor; 600MHz
Internal/External Memory: 8 GB
Extras: 3.5mm Headset jack, accelerometer, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS enabled
Operating System: Palm webOS
Price: $149.99

HTC Hero/T-Mobile G2 Touch/Sprint HTC Hero

The inclusion of HTC Sense makes the Hero the best Android phone currently on the market. It is fast, stylish, and easy to use.

Status: HTC Hero Launched July 24th for Orange UK. T-Mobile G2 Touch Launched July 29th.
Screen: 3.2-inch/ 320×480 HVGA resolution; Full Touchscreen/TFT-LCD touch-sensitive screen
Dimensions: 112 x 56.2 x 14.35 mm ; 135 grams
Camera: 5 Megapixels with AutoFocus
Battery: 1350 mAh Lithium-ion battery
Standby Time: Up to 750 hours for WCDMA, Up to 440 hours for GSM
Talk Time:Up to 420 minutes for WCDMA, Up to 470 minutes for GSM
Processor: Qualcomm® MSM7200A™, 528 MHz
Internal/External Memory:288MB/MicroSD 2.0
Extras: 3.5mm Headset jack, Wi-Fi, accelerometer, Bluetooth and GPS enabled
Operating System: Android
Price: $179.99

BlackBerry Bold

The BlackBerry Bold is RIM’s crowning achievement thus far and the impending Bold 9700 should see widespread adoption.

Status: Available on AT&T; Bold 9700 available November 2nd, 2009
Screen: 2.6 inch Half VGA resolution Dispay Screen; 480 x 320 pixels; 65,000 colors
Dimensions: 114 x 66 x 15; 136 grams
Camera: 2.0 MP w/ AutoFocus
Battery: Li – Ion, 1500 mAh
Standby Time: 324 hours
Talk Time: 4.5 hours
Processor: 624 MHz
Internal/External Memory: 1 GB
Extras: 3.5mm Headset jack, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS capable with extended ephemeris
Operating System: BlackBerry OS
Price: $199.99

HTC Magic/T-Mobile MyTouch 3G

The MyTouch 3G is an easy to use, stylish Android phone. The absence of a standard 3.5mm headset jack is a bit of a disappointment, but otherwise this phone is quite powerful and useful. Furthermore, Mike quit the iPhone for the MyTouch, and that has to mean something.

Status: HTC Magic Launched May 1, 2009 and July 10th, 2009 in Japan; MyTouch 3G launched July 8, 2009. Available through T-Mobile, Vodafone, and Docomo
Screen:3.2″ /320 x 480 HVGA Touchscreen/TFT, TFD, LCD 262k
Dimensions: 113 x 55 x 13 mm; 118.5 grams
Camera: 3.2 Megapixels with AutoFocus (MyTouch has a 5MP camera)
Battery: 1340 mAh Lithium-ion battery
Standby Time: 420 hours
Talk Time: 7.5 Hours
Processor: Qualcomm® MSM7201a™, 528 MHz
Internal/External Memory:192/288 MB (Underclocked)/ MicroSD up to 32GB
Extras: HTC ExtUSB Headset Jack, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS enabled
Operating System: Android
Price: $99.99 (T-Mobile MyTouch $149.99)

BlackBerry Storm 2

The BlackBerry Storm 2, while an improvement over its predecessor, still lacks the “wow” factor necessary to push it higher up on this list.

Status: Available on Verizon Wireless October 28th, 2009
Screen: 3.25 inch 360 x 480 pixel touchscreen; 65k colors
Dimensions: 112.5 x 62.2 x 13.9 mm; 160 grams
Camera: 3.2 Megapixels w/ LED flash and AutoFocus
Battery: 1400 mAh Li-Ion
Standby Time: 270 hours
Talk Time: 5.5 hours
Processor: 528 MHz Qualcomm processor
Internal/External Memory: 2 GB/16 GB microSD
Extras: 3.5 mm headset, GPS, bluetooth, and wi-fi enabled
Operating System: BlackBerry OS
Price: $179.99

BlackBerry Tour

Our biggest qualm with the BlackBerry Tour is its lack of Wi-Fi. Other than that however, the Tour is a great phone if you’re a chronic email user or if you text message a lot.

Status: Available on July 12, 2009 through Verizon and Sprint.
Screen: 2.4 inch 480×360 pixel display screen; 65,000 colors
Dimensions: 112 x 62 x 14.2 mm; 130 grams
Camera: 3.2 Megapixels with AutoFocus
Battery: 1400 mAHr removable/rechargeable cryptographic lithium cell
Standby Time: 336 Hours
Talk Time: 5 Hours
Processor: 528 MHz Qualcomm processor
Internal/External Memory: 256 MB RAM
Extras: 3.5mm Headset jack, Bluetooth and GPS enabled. No Wi-Fi nor accelerometer
Operating System: BlackBerry OS
Price: $149.99

Nokia E71x

The Nokia E71x is a sleek and stylish phone, but like the Magic, lacks a 3.5mm headset jack. Nonetheless, this phone is just right for those on a budget, given its $99.99 price tag.

Status: Available on AT&T
Screen: 2.4″ LCD (Color TFT/TFD) display screen; 320 x 240 pixels (QVGA); 16.7 million (24-bit)
Dimensions:114 x 57 x 10 mm; 126g
Camera: 3.2MP w/ Autofocus and Flash
Battery: BP-4L 1500 mAh Li-Po standard battery
Standby Time: 480 hours
Talk Time: 4.5 hours
Processor: ARM 11, 369 MHz
Internal/External Memory: 110MB/ MicroSD
Extras: 2.5mm Headset jack, bluetooth, wi-fi, and GPS enabled
Operating System: Symbian OS
Price: $99.00

The phone includes a slide-to-unlock feature along with analog TV and FM radio playback and “Java Application.”

The Ophone OS is essentially China’s answer to Android with a number of standard features built-in over the Android kernel. It’s essentially free and is pretty close to what you’d expect out of a smartphone clone. No pricing or availability.

Anyone who has seen the 1997 British film of the same name will realize that such an act would certainly be more open. But will it work?

Open Apple

If there has ever been any question as to who Palm sees as its main rival in the quest for next generation smartphone domination, just look at its ranks. The company is filled with ex-Apple employees, all the way up to the top with CEO Jon Rubinstein (who was in attendance tonight), who is the man often credited for being instrumental in the creation of the iPod for Apple. And if that’s not enough, just listen to the rhetoric:

“Open, open, open, open.”

The reason Palm kept repeating that tonight is because it’s the one sure weakness it perceives in Apple’s currently dominating mobile application model. And Palm is hardly alone. Everyone from Microsoft to Google have taken subtle, and some not-so-subtle, shots at Apple’s system.

The problem with this, of course, is that Apple’s system keeps growing at an ever-increasing pace. The number of apps in the App Store (85,000) is growing at a rapid rate, while the overall downloads (2 billion) are speeding up. Rubinstein announced tonight that Palm had somewhere around 125 or 127 apps available for webOS right now. And those apps have been downloaded some 7.5 million times. It’s not exactly fair to compare the two stores since Palm’s app store is much newer. But um, those are pretty big gaps regardless of start times.

Open Web

We learned tonight what Palm believes is its solution going forward: Be more open than any other platform. And do things like utilize the web for distribution outside of its own App Catalog. Given that webOS is an entirely web-based language, this seems like it could be a smart play, and lends synergy to Palm’s overall goals for the OS.

Oddly, Palm seems to be betting on the web as the future of development more than even Google is, which has its Android platform that runs Java-coded apps.

And that’s why it was also wise of Palm to bring in two Mozilla veterans, Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer, to run its developer relations team. As anyone who has ever read Ajaxian will know, these two have been drinking that Kool-Aid for a long, long time. And now it’s their task to preach their Kool-Aid to a development community that has been drunk on native apps for the past couple of years.

And Palm is also appealing to the open source community by allowing them to develop and distribute apps for free. But when you open up your system on multiple fronts, things can get confusing. So let’s review what Palm’s new strategy (which will start in December) really is:

• If you wish to develop for webOS, you must pay a $99 yearly fee.
• But if you use code that is open-sourced, Palm will waive that $99 fee.
• If you wish to then distribute your app in Palm’s App Catalog, there will be a $50 per-application fee.
• But if you distribute via the web, you can do so for free.

So depending on how you mix and match those, development for webOS can range from free to roughly $150 a year.

But there are also rules with regard to the screening of the apps:

• If you want to distribute your app in Palm’s App Catalog, it is subject to review by Palm.
• But if you do web distribution, there is a “fast” self-certification process.

So why put your app in the store at all? Well first, unless you have your own advertising means, Palm’s store will undoubtedly be a better place for discovery on a large scale. Second, with apps that are sold in the App Catalog, Palm offers a 70/30 cut, with 70 percent of the gross revenues going to developers. (Which is the same deal that Apple offers). And third, apps in the Catalog will also get access to detailed analytics (stats, ratings, etc) that will be shared with the rest of the community.

The Hardware

Here’s what it appears that Palm’s hope is: That the development community will begin to rally around this idea of openness, and that will in turn also feed its not-so-open App Catalog system. Palm, like Apple, sells its own hardware, so the 30 percent cut is not as vital as growing the development community to move more hardware units. But Palm, unlike Apple, is not awash with cash, and any little bit will help.

But with so many ex-Apple employees and a firm eye always on its rival, Palm has to know the key to their ultimate success does reside with the hardware sales. The Pre is good, but it’s not great. From a sheer hardware perspective, it’s not the iPhone. And it hasn’t sold well compared to the iPhone (despite investor Roger McNamee’s ridiculous quote from several months ago), and it’s no stretch to think now that it never will in its current form.

And I believe Palm agrees with me. Tonight, Rubinstein and the others made several remarks indicating that Palm’s position was a long-term strategy based around webOS, not around any one phone. Again, that’s similar to Apple’s position, it just so happens that all of Apple’s phones bare the same name.

The Palm Pixi might be slightly better, but it really just seems like the same phone as the Pre in a different form factor. If that’s the case, that won’t be good enough either. They need better, faster, stronger hardware to match the software.

The Software

WebOS is impressive in a number of ways, but the hardware does not do it justice right now. All the Palm employees tonight seemed well-versed on the key talking point of “multi-tasking,” which, of course, is another jab at the iPhone which cannot run third-party applications in the background. But the truth is that given the relatively slow speed at which the Pre handles multi-tasking, the iPhone 3GS’ application switching system is actually faster in many situations.

Of course, you can’t argue with things like instant messaging running in the background, but relying on that argument is not a sound long-term strategy: Eventually Apple will offer that too.

Palm is pitting webOS versus the iPhone OS, and that could well be a fair fight, but the hardware side is skewing that right now. That needs to change.

The Network

Also skewing the fight is the carrier limitation. We all complain about AT&T, but the fact is that it’s a much larger network than Sprint. The Pre has undoubtedly helped Sprint gain some customers, but it has not been the same as the iPhone with AT&T. And one reason for that may be a reluctance to sign up with a network that is smaller.

If Palm is able to work out a deal to get a device on Verizon’s network, that would be a huge win. But most indications lately seem to be that Verizon is still demanding control over various aspects of the device, like any app store — and it may have something to say about this new open idea. We may realize that such a move is silly on Verizon’s end because its own app store sounds like more carrier BS, but as the nation’s largest network, they are in a position of power.

Apple Marches On

Meanwhile, Apple is busy talking up the iPhone as the new gaming platform. Given webOS’s web-based nature, that’s an area Palm is going to have a hard time matching Apple in. And don’t think that Apple doesn’t realize it.

Remember, Apple originally envisioned development on the iPhone as being entirely web-based (for third-parties). But the community wanted something different, and so Apple relented. Now, because of that, it can take advantage of doing things like gaming.

Palm had better hope that Adobe’s new Flash plans play out in a way that allows some sort of better gaming experience on its devices.

The Gamble

While it’s hard to argue with open, there is a real potential problem with Palm’s position: While this all sounds great to us in the press who have been covering some of Apple’s shadier app dealings, and also to a number of developers who are fed up, the public at large simply doesn’t seem to care. As we already stated, Apple has huge numbers with regard to the iPhone and the App Store, and amazingly, they’re still accelerating. And that has happened in the middle of situations like this whole Google Voice fiasco.

The fact is that most users simply have no idea about any of this stuff. They see a sexy phone, with 85,000 apps to choose from, and they want it.

Now, maybe public perception of Apple will change, but unless they make an iPhone that’s a dud, that seems unlikely. And where the people are, the developers follow. In an ideal world, these developers might forgo the idea of potential riches in the App Store, to embrace a more open environment, but we don’t live in that world.

The Right Stuff

To be honest, I was surprised by how well Palm’s presentation went off tonight. There is absolutely no doubt that they are saying the right things. And I think Mitic, Rubinstein, Galbraith, and Almaer all laid out a vision for a mobile platform that we all want to see.

The problem is that if their own goal is to topple Apple, I just don’t see it happening. And between some of what they said tonight and some of the silly stuff, like iTunes syncing, I’m concerned they are too hung up on just one rival. One would hope they see the reality: They don’t have to topple Apple to win. Rubinstein himself noted that we’re in the middle of a fundamental shift to a post-PC world where mobile devices are king. And in such a world, there is definitely room for many players.

That said, Palm does have some financial issues that it needs to be concerned about if it doesn’t start moving units. In my mind, the key to that is to get better phones, and to get on more networks. Obviously, that’s easier said than done. webOS is pretty intriguing in a number of regards, but it needs some room to spread its wings. Or to throw open its jacket. The full monty.

The two, along with Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein and some other executives spoke at length about the hardware, the platform, and the plan going forward. The message was pretty clear: Web development is the future, and openness is the way. They also made a few big announcements.

The first is that they’re allowing developers to fully distribute their apps via the web. What this means is that developers can simply submit their apps to Palm, and Palm will return to them a URL that they can then blog, tweet, do whatever they want to share it. When a person then clicks on that URL they can easily install the app, bypassing any kind of store. And while Palm is providing the URL, it is not going to be reviewing the apps in any way — a clear dig at Apple’s approval process.

Palm did note that they will still offer their App Catalog (their app store) for developers who want that too. Presumably, any app developer who wants to charge for their app will still have to go through the store. And for those developers, Palm will charge $50 for the apps to go into the Catalog.

The next announcement is that Palm is waiving the $99 yearly fee it normally charges to developers to make webOS apps if those apps are going to be open source. Galbraith and Almaer with their Mozilla backgrounds are big proponents of open source, as are many that were in the audience tonight, so this move drew cheers.

On top of that, Palm is opening up all of its analytical data to any developer who wants to access it. Again, this is different from Apple which keeps much of the analytical data for itself, and shares little.

And finally, in an effort to spur development for the platform, Palm announced that it is giving to every developer in the audience a free Pre, and its new wireless charger. On top of these, everyone will get a month free of Sprint service to use the device and tinker with developing for it. “Just hack on it,” Galbraith said.

So now Palm has had its “Oprah moment,” just as Google did a few months ago at Google I/O where they gave a G2 to everyone in the audience. That was a much bigger audience, but the gesture is still a good one from Palm. Here’s the takeaway from tonight: Galbraith and Almaer are the new sheriffs in town and they want to open things up and get you developing for webOS.

When your smartphone drops from $299 ($199 with contract) to $79 over a summer, you have to wonder what’s going on. Two rumors are circulating this AM, one that Palm is laying off folks, perhaps in the Windows Mobile team.

UPDATE from Palm: “We are not laying people off. As we continue our transformation we are better aligning our staff with our business objectives.”

The estimated sales for the Pre topped out at somewhere under the 810,000 range (Palm reports it sold 810K units last quarter and states at least half of those where Pres) at the end of August and they went from $299 ($199 with contract) to about $79 in about eleven weeks. While this might be normal for a feature phone – the subsidy kicks in once they’re sure that the early adopters who simply must have the LG Chocolate have had their fix – this isn’t good for a smartphone that was supposed to be the lead invasion force for a new WebOS smartphone renaissance.

Finally, Palm has backed off over iTunes Syncing. The latest WebOS update doesn’t sync with iTunes and won’t be syncing with iTunes any time soon. After using brute force and then running to the USB standards body, the company may have finally given up.

The end of Palm will come quickly this time. They’ve been idling for too long – since about 2004, in fact – and if they can’t push through their first year with at least some modicum of success it’s over.

For more info about Palm’s numbers check out Jason’s post about the 810K figure.