www.webOShelp.net

UPDATE (02/21): Looks like this was too good to be true. Turns out the images are actually of a fake webOS. TamsPalm reports that the the Centro is running is actually running TealOS, which only "emulates the webOS look and feel on all recent Palm OS devices". The software costs $15 from TealPoint Software. A video of the software in action can be found here.

Just today, TamsPalm was sent images by "an industry source" of a Centro, with the three images apparently showing it using the webOS operating system. Is this just a fancy theme or are they really working on bringing the next-gen OS to an earlier device?

Last week,  Palm Infocenter analyzed several of Palm's "partners in precrime" that were announced by CEO Ed Colligan at the CES 2009 presentation. This week, they discuss another five of the third-party team that Palm is assembling for the launch of their new device.

Part two focuses on Yahoo!, Amazon, MobiTV, Pivotal Labs, and Dataviz. Applications are built using familiar web technologies including HTML5, CSS and Javascript. Native C development will not be an option, at least at launch. There will be true multitasking, synergy with all PIM data, and applications will have access to the pop-up notification area for convenience. Below is a summary of the partners covered in this issue:

Palm Infocenter had a chance to interview Christian Sepulveda, VP of Business Development for Pivotal Labs about developing for webOS. Pivotal Labs is a Bay Area software development consultacy who have worked with big names including Best Buy, Twitter, and Salesforce. In the Palm CES presentation, CEO Ed Colligan named them as one of their primary partners.

Pivotal Labs does a lot of software development directly for clients, focusing on core development with clients' developers, transferring ownership of project and process. They have been working with Mojo and webOS for a few months so far, including a developer camp last thanksgiving before the CES announcement.

InformationWeek reports that social network giant MySpace was on the scene today, with CEO Chris de Wolf stating at a keynote that "MySpace is betting that its mobile version will gain traction and generate a lot of revenue". Their mobile user base has grown by a whopping 400% since last year, with now 20 million users accessing the site through a cellphone or smartphone. Earlier this week, a new version of MySpace mobile was confirmed as coming to Palm's webOS. (02/20)

PC Mag reports Opera Software was on hand today at the MWC, and when asked about porting their browser to the Pre, CEO Jon Tetzchner said "we'll see", and said he would write a version of Opera Mini for "any platform that gets any significant usage". (02/18)

Folks at Precommunity got some hands-on time with the Pre, and suprisingly, the device they previewed was a GSM version of the new handset. The device was handled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, although Palm has not made an official announcement for a HSDPA/GSM version of the device. In photos and a YouTube video of the device, the back cover is removed, revealing a Vodafone SIM card under the battery.

Looks like the Palm Pre is looking more feature-rich by the day. Just recently, Palm announced it is joining the Adobe Systems Open Screen Project, which is an industry initiative dedicated to enabling Flash applications on a wide variety of devices. Almost all desktop PCs already have Adobe Flash player, which is used to view a wide array of web sites for navigation, videos, games and other elements.

According to Bloomberg, Flash player is installed on 98 percent of the world's PCs. By comparison, only about 40 percent of new mobile devices use Flash Lite, and others have no Flash support at all. The iPhone is still lacking this key feature. 

This is part 1 of the "cliffs notes" version of Chapter 1 of Palm webOS "Rough Cuts" by O'Reilly Media.  We're going to be summarizing each chapter as it's released, in case you don't have time to read the whole (in this case, 26-page) doc.  We will also be leaving out stuff that you probably already know (e.g. "Palm webOS is Palm's next generation operating system.")

Tomorrow we'll be posting the rest of the Chapter 1 summary, which gets into more technical details of the Mojo framework. Update: Posted.

Earlier we reported on an interview series with current PalmOS developers, and the main theme appeared to be that webOS would not support backwards compatiblity with PalmOS applications. This was emphasized in Palm CEO Ed Colligan's recent announcement that Palm OS is being discontinued. Already, this is causing headaches among established developers and users of the soon-to-be legacy OS.

An article tucked away at Brighthand however, gives hope to the masses that their old applications won't completely go to waste once upgrading. StyleTap, who already make an application that allows Palm programs to run on Windows Mobile, is considering making a similar program for webOS. While far from perfect, this would at least give users the option of giving their old software a second wind as they make the transition over to the Pre.

The article goes on to describe how Palm's previous strategy in 2007 of "merging PalmOS with a Linus-based operating system" amounts to a broken promise to those hoping to run their old software on the new OS.

So when should we expect such an emulator? Right now, StyleTap is gauging interest in the marketplace for such a program, and those interested should send comments to .

Source