Palm has introduced an update to its WebOS, the platform run by the Palm Pre
and the Palm Pixi, both of which, in the United
States, are exclusive to the Sprint Nextel
network.
With WebOS 1.3.5, available as of Dec. 28, Palm offers updates, improvements
and a housecleaning of what were likely irritating, early snafus. For example,
files with a .3g2 extension now correctly play as audio files, not video files;
the Web browser now supports animated GIF files; and a user’s default e-mail
signature now displays the Pre product name correctly.
Palm has also improved the application download experience for its App
Catalog, and users can now download multiple applications at once, as well as
pause, resume and cancel downloads. They can also enable downloads to continue
in the background while other screens are navigated and use the full storage
capacity of the phone for downloading apps.
A full erase of the device can be performed more easily with 1.3.5, and
users can edit forwarded text for all e-mail account types and launch Sprint
Navigation from an address in an open contact entry. Apps can now also be
purchased from U.S.
territories.
There are additionally small conveniences—when the screen is locked, the
time is displayed in a different font—and bits of streamlining: When the user
has “network time zone” enabled, the city and country are no longer
displayed.
In September, Palm announced it would stop launching devices running
Microsoft’s mobile operating system, in favor of focusing on WebOS, which
is gradually gaining market share. According to AdMob, which measures ad
requests, Palm garnered 4 percent of U.S. Web market share within two months of
the Pre’s debut. In September, Palm smartphone traffic accounted for 13 percent
U.S. smartphone
traffic, which put it in fourth
place, just behind RIM and HTC. The clear
leader, with 48 percent of smartphone ad requests, was Apple.
To view images of the Palm Pre, click here.
On Dec. 17, Palm announced greater-than-expected quarterly losses, but said it had shipped 783,000 smartphones during the
quarter, which was a 41 percent improvement over the last year and exceeded
analysts’ expectations.
The update for the Pre is available here, and the update for the Pixi is here.
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