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Looks like the preview of the Pre packaging and print materials yesterday has revealed some details regarding data migration to webOS, FCC, and earpiece compatibility with hearing aids, reports a forum member and article on Precentral. While nothing groundbreaking was found in the fine print, a few interesting points were noted: 

• The Palm Pre SKU is is PALM100HK, suggesting that this link will take you to the Pre once it is released on Sprint.
• Data migration will be handled through your Palm Profile. Once your profile is verified through e-mail, a link will take you to a website where you can transfer data from other sources such as Palm Desktop and Outlook. You can only do this once, and it transfers your old Palm smartphone data to your Pre.
• Palm's FCC Grantee Code is O8F, and on the side of the box it reads "FCC Equipment Authorization ID number: O8F-CASC". Therefore, the Pre has now suitably passed FCC testing (earlier rumors suggested it was not yet approved).
• The Pre earpiece is rated M4 for hearing aids. "M" denotes microphone, while 4 is the highest rating. This means that in the standard microphone setting, the phone should be compatible with most hearing aids. However, the Pre won't support Telecoil (a "T" rating), so those who require a T-coil, or when not in microphone mode, may only hear a loud buzzing noise.

While there has been a steady stream of release date rumors (most recently the weekend of June 7th being the strongest contender), Palm and Sprint could be finally setting the record straight. Boy Genius got a scoop from a "proven tipster", who claims that the companies will make the big announcement in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, May 19th.

Sprint has already advertised the Pre in a Monday issue of the WSJ, but the big features for the Pre and webOS may be yet to come. So mark it on your calendars and save some change for a copy, as the date is fast approaching.

An hands-on preview of the Pre packaging has come by the way of Chinese website MaxPDA (translated page here), including a gallery of the Palm Pre box, manuals, and other goodies. If you're a fan of carefully saving the boxes of all your favorite devices, then this could be an exciting peek at what to look forward to. For the rest of us...where's the beef? (or Pre, that is)

What's interesting is the inclusion of a "Phone Pouch" and stereo headset in the contents list, so looks like you'll be ready to hit the road with your webOS device on day one (sans the sexy Touchstone dock, of course). More photos after the break.

Indicators can be used to show that activity is taking place even if it's not otherwise visible, or as a progress indicator.

Mojo has two types of indicators:

• Activity indicator: animates without showing progress.
• Progress indicator: shows activity and progress

Activity Indicators: Spinner

Spinners are appropriate for applications with limited available space, or when it is difficult to estimate the duration of the activity. They come in two preset sizes: 128x128 and 32x32. The spinner is used in the core applications on every activity button.

Click here for an example of how to set up a spinner.

Progress Indicators

• Progress Pill: a wide pill which is styled to match the View menu and the .palm-header scene style
• Progress Bar: a narrow horizontal bar with a blue progress indicator
• Progress Slider: intended for streaming media playback applications

Progress Pill

Progress pills are styled to match the Mojo button and header styles, and can be used to display the progress of a download or any long-running operation.

The indicator is desitned to show a pill image that corresponds to the model's value property, where 0 is no pill and 1 is a full pill. By updating the widget's model with values between 0 and 1, the pill will display varying stages of progress.

Palm recommens the use of an interval timer to update the progress pill display. At each callback, incase the progress indicator's value property and call the updateModel function.

Click here for an example of how to set up a progress pill.

Progress Bar

A thin horizontal bar indicating progress. Managed the same as the progress pill.

Click here for an example of how to set up a progress bar.

Progress Slider

A slider and progress pill in one handy control; ideal for streaming or progressive download media applications.

The Progress Slider is configured the same way as as Slider widget, but its value model property can be incremented like a Progress Pill, increasing from 0 to 1. Palm has not yet revealed an example of a slider in code; we'll update this article when they do.

That does it for indicators. Stay tuned for the scroller widget!

This is one of many daily development-related webOS articles. Grab the RSS feed to stay in the know!

Much of the information in this article was presented in Chapter 5 of Palm webOS by Mitch Allen.

Earlier, the Palm Pre was spotted running a YouTube app, and numerous screenshots from the webOS SDK emulator leaked out. Today, there is more good news for Pre enthusiasts, with Precentral spotting new icons for Documents to Go and Adobe Reader in the recent Palm Pre Podcast video. Other icons include a "Sprint" app (possibly for account management), Nascar, YouTube, and Sprint TV.

This is a strong indicator that the Pre will support Office 2007 docs (as noted by a Sprint insider) and have native PDF viewing, which the iPhone still lacks. In addition to the physical keyboard, could business functionality encourage mobile professionals to swap their iPhone for a Pre? Guess we will have to wait and see. What other apps would you like to see on the Pre?

New Mojo SDK screenshots have also surfaced via the Palm webOS Blog, including what the device will look like in Airplane Mode, as well as screenshots of the emulator loading screen and an unexpected kernel panic. Pictures after the break.

The last week has seen some potential gains for Palm, with Sprint expanding employee training and news that Canada and Australia could be next to adopt the new webOS handset. However, the outlook has not been all rosy. Palm could be facing an uphill battle leading up to the release of the Pre. We review a couple issues including supply and demand, poor quarterly numbers by Sprint, and skeptical analysts.

Possible Pre shortages; issues with suppliers, price = DOA?

Palm could face a serious supply crunch if their new webOS device flies off store shelves, Bloomberg suggests. According to six analysts, the median estimate of Pre stock at launch will be about 375,000. This is in comparison to Apple's 1 million 3G iPhones that sold in only three days after launch. Sprint employees have already been told to wait a few months before buying a Pre for themselves, reports PreCentral.

In addition, "the Pre has to live up to the hype or else they'll lose their momentum to rival products," states an analyst from Gartner, Inc, possibly referring to a new iPhone model that could be unveiled at the Apple WWDC on June 8th.

As for their supplier, rumored Taiwan-based Chi Mei, they could be experiencing some manufacturing issues due to little experience with mobile devices, TamsPalm notes. Collins Stewart analyst Ashok Kumar elaborates via CNBC, stating that "due to multiple hardware and software issues, Palm has dramatically reduced its production orders for Pre with its ODM partner." Smartphone growth has also been slowing, while the playing field has become more crowded with competitors.

Palm also needs to tread lightly on the issue of pricing; previous reports had the device pegged at $300, but recent reports predict it could be as low as $150 after rebate. "If Sprint does not match or beat AT&T's subsidized iPhone price of $199...the Pre is DOA", Kumar warns.

Sprint posts $594M quarterly loss ahead of Palm Pre

Sprint has recently been absorbing heavy losses, as has Palm, with their net losses expanding from $505 million last year to $594 this quarter, an 18 percent drop. They also dropped off 182,000 subscribers this year, down to 49.1 million.

This is certainly not new; they have been shedding revenue and subscribers for some time; however Electronista notes that member losses have been slowing as of late. The increased retention was largely due to Sprint pushing their $50 unlimited plan on Boost Mobile.

Company cash flow has also been increasing, which bodes well for Sprint readying for the Pre for a possible June 7th release date. "We generated more than enough cash...to pay all of our 2009 debt maturities," states Sprint CEO Dan Hesse. Could their accelerating Palm Pre ad campaign pay off for them in the end?

Menus are a common part of almost every modern application. A webOS application can have standard menus available in every scene or context-sensitive menus that vary between scenes. It can have dropdown menus, floating menus, or button-based menus.

Like simple widgets, menus are instantiated by setupWidget(). Unlike simple widgets, however, menus use the commander chain to propagate menu commands between stage assistants and scene assistants. The commander chain will be covered at the end of the tutorial.

Mojo supports four types of menu widgets: Application Menu, View Menu, Command Menu and Submenu. The first three types are very similar, each using a single model definition with an array containing the menu items. They are instantiated in the usual way by a call to setupWidget(), specifying the menu type, attributes and model. The types include:

• Mojo.Menu.appMenu
• Mojo.Menu.viewMenu
• Mojo.Menu.commandMenu

Selecting an item in a menu generates a command that is processed by a commander registered in the commander chain.

A menu's model is composed a visible property to set the menu to visible or invisible and an items array, which contains menu items and menu item groups. Menu items in groups represent a second level of selectable items. Each item can have a label and and icon (either a custom image or a standard framework icon) and a command value, which is propagated to the command chain when the item is selected. Submenus have many of the same model properties as the other menu types, but is instantiated and managed differently.

Menu widgets are different from standard widgets in that they are not declared in a scene's view file with an x-mojo-element; they are instantiated and handled completely from within the scene assistant. Menus are attached to the scene's window rather than the scene itself, so they always appear above other scene elements and cannot be positioned using HTML or CSS.

Let's take a closer look at the different menu types.

Can't wait for the Pre to arrive, but want to give your iPhone or Blackberry Storm a makeover? Below are a couple ways on how to do just that. Although the cards functionality found in the discontinued TealOS skin for Palm OS devices was not reproduced, could Palm still take an issue with these kinds of webOS imitators?