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App: Super Ads XL Developer: AClass Apps Price $2.49 intro sale $1.49 For many, the Super Bowl is a time to gather around the tube in anticipation of watching the year’s two best teams go head to head. For others, it’s a time to checkout the latest of what has become a tradition itself: the Super Bowl Ads. Now thanks to AClass Apps, we are able to enjoy the collection of Super Bowl ads from the past right on our TouchPads, and soon across a variety of other devices thanks to the power of Enyo! At the time of this writing Super Ads XL has already made its way into the Google Chrome web store. For this review, we are focusing on the TouchPad app. Setup The setup could not be easier as there is nothing to it. Simply download the app, open it, choose your ad, and enjoy. As soon as the app is installed you are instantly able to checkout and watch the ads that are available from a number of Super Bowl games. UI The UI for the app makes use of the normal sliding panels we all know and love on the TouchPad and other Enyo apps. Each pane makes use of a styled background that is representative of a football field. The left pane displays the groups of ads, sorted by games, along with an option to view your favorite ads. After selecting a game, the list of ads are displayed on the right pane where you can click to view the ad or click the large star to make it one of your favorites. Each video is displayed in a popup window that houses an embedded YouTube player. Clicking the button on the bottom right corner brings up the full-screen mode just like any other YouTube video. Exiting the full-screen mode is done by clicking the center home button. The only feature I felt was missing was a way to share ads via email or other social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. Luckily, a share feature is said to be included in a future release. We are also told there are plans to include a Villo chat room in the app, which should round off the social side of the app in coming updates. Function This app is perfect for people who enjoy the Super Bowl ads, more than the game itself. It’s a fun way to pass some time, and the ability to look back at past videos is great. There were many great ones that I simply forgot about. Currently, the app is limited to the past four years of ads, however we are told that more ads will continue to be added as they are found and the app is updated. Pros Price (introductory sale currently!) Simple to use Enjoying the ads all over again Cons No sharing ability currently (said to be in future update) Currently limited the past 4 years worth of ads Bottom Line Who doesn’t love watching the Super Bowl ads? For $2.49 (currently on sale for $1.49) you can easily browse and watch the ads on TouchPad at any time. Super Ads XL Demo & FAQ View the full article

Feeling like spreading some open-source love to the webOS community, HP posted information regarding the Isis Project on February 14th. This project includes the open-source release of the Isis browser. Additionally, this is the announcement of HP’s progress in incorporating the latest web technologies such as QtWebKit and JavaScriptCore into webOS. Info on the Isis Browser and features, along with the source code can be found on the project’s site isis-project.org and github. What this means is that HP is holding true to continuing development on driving webOS towards their commitment to the open-source community. Additionally, QtWebKit promises to bring cutting edge support for the latest web features and standards, something that the current web browser has certainly been a bit behind on. QtWebKit was originally developed and has since been open-sourced by Nokia, and has been powering other mobile browsers on various platforms. This also marks the first release of any open-source components from the webOS platform itself after originally announcing the plans and releasing the EnyoJS open source dev framework. Furthermore HP goes on to clarify that UI Enyo widgets will be released by the end of February. In related news, we have also heard that WebOS Internals are in discussions to incorporate a “tech preview” release for the TouchPad via Preware. This package is said to include the new QtWebKit package and allow it to run along side the current stock browser. Once released, this preview should allow anyone to easily download it via Preware to test out some of the improvements and features of this new framework. If you are like us and love all the work WebOS Internals has put into the community, feel free to donate to their cause. Source: HP webOS Developer Blog View the full article

In celebration of President's Day you can save 15% on all your TouchPad and webOS smartphone accessories at store.webOSnation.com. To get your 15% discount, be sure to use the coupon code pres12 during checkout. This offer is not valid with any other coupon and expires tonight Midnight PST Monday 2/20/2012. Don't forget about our Fast Free Shipping on US orders of $50.00 and higher! So go ahead, grab that extra charger, a screen protector, and a slip case - George and Abraham would want you to have them. Enjoy the Presidential Savings! Start your Shopping Now! View the full article

Mobile Nations Podcast Feed Mobile Nations on iTunes Mobile Nations YouTube Android app permissions - How Google gets it right Editorial: Why is the stylus coming back? Google counting down, building up to Mobile World Congress New pre-release BlackBerry 10 OS images surface BlackBerry Wireless Media Server - Stream content from your BlackBerry Start Building the Love. It's time to setup a BlackBerry USA division CrackBerry Podcast 082: Back on Track Whitman: Google+Motorola could lead to closed source Android, drive manufacturers to webOS Open webOS governance model modeled after the Apache Way HP releases Open webOS' new browser Isis, JavaScript core, and Enyo UI widgets Back to the iPad: What Apple should take from OS X Mountain Lion and give to iOS 6 It’s time for AT&T to stop aggressive unlimited data throttling, or stop the unlimited plans Verizon and AT&T might be getting a 4G LTE iPad 3, but what about the rest of the world? Microsoft in talks with record companies for new music service? Bing Search updates for Windows Phone detailed Palringo IM hits beta in the Windows Phone Marketplace. We try it out View the full article

Interval training is defined as physical training that alternates between high-intensity work and periods of low-intensity work. For maximum effect the high-intensity workout is supposed to be near maximum exertion, while the low-intensity recovery period should be much toned down, even to the the point of complete rest. An example of interval training would alternating between sprinting for a full minute and light jogging for a minute. The idea behind interval training is to boost cardiovascular strength and aerobic capacity, making for stronger, faster, longer-lasting athletes. You may not count yourself among the ranks of "athelete", but interval training can be of use to you as well. Thanks to SpeedyMarks' $0.99 Workout, you too can try out interval training. Workout is about as basic as an interval training app can be, and it doesn't need to be much more than what it is. Upon launch you're presented with three fields, a feedback selection, and a start button in a purple box. The fields let you set your work and relax period length (in seconds) as well as how many times you want the cycle to repeat. Feedback can sound a chime at each interval or be silent. Hit the start button and the purple turns a pulsating red, ordering you to work. Your position in the current cycle is listed at the top of the red with a period countdown time below. A trio of Skip/Pause/Stop buttons at the bottom let you slow things down or speed them up, depending on how the workout's going. Once your work period is up, the block turns red and advises you to relax. Each switch between Work and Relax is accompanied by a high-pitched chime sure to cut through your labored breathing. Workout is somewhat ambiguously named, being that it's an interval trainer and nothing more. But it does what it's supposed to do, and it does it with minimal fuss. Workout by SpeedyMarks is available now in the webOS App Catalog for $0.99 for all devices. View the full article

We've all got a few. Even the most physically-fit and mentally-sound among us carry a few around with them every day. They're bad habits, and the science of understanding the formation of habits and what it takes to break them has been the subject of intensive studies by both academic and corporate interests for many years. Academics want to know for the purposes of understanding how habits are formed and what it takes to break them, while corporate interests are interested in how they can predict and take advantage of them. The New York Times last week published a fascinating look into corporate data collection that reveals the equal parts impressive and disconcerting efforts put into and results of shopper data collection, in particular the work done by US retailer Target. So how does this factor into habits? Target's analytics work indicated that shoppers fall into very strong habits with regards to their shopping patterns and it generally takes a major life-changing event (moving to a new city, a divorce, having a baby) to put those habits into flux. By analyzing the shopping patterns of their clientele, Target was able to identify female shoppers who they suspected to be pregnant, and within a few-weeks range how far into the pregnancy they were. By knowing this, Target could target specific advertisements (coupons on receipts, mail-delivered flyers) to those shoppers with subliminal hints that they should do their baby shopping, and eventually other shopping, at Target - identify the pattern and manipulate the habit formation. We all have many habits that aren't bad. Times author Charles Duhigg acutely points out that we learn habits as "chucks" of tasks in response to an input. For instance, backing a car out of the driveway or even a parking spot is a habit. Remember the first few times you tried that? Never-wracking, wasn't it? Heck, the second time this blogger tried he backed his father's car into a ditch (as you might imagine, Mr. Kessler was none too pleased). Brushing your teeth after breakfast is a habit. Reaching for your phone after hearing a tone or feeling the vibration is a habit, even if you aren't waiting for a message you can't help but wonder what came in. read more View the full article

Way back in the day when you went for a run, you just ran. Then came the Walkman, which brought music. Pedometers gave us our first logging capabilities, but that was fairly rudimentary. In recent years you could go with a fairly rudimentary and exceedingly expensive GPS-based tracker, but the user experience of those almost always left something to be desired. Fast forward to today, a time where every smartphone platform has multiple inexpensive apps that not only can track your run live, they log it with more information and analysis at your fingertips than we've ever had before. One such app for webOS is JogStats, a $3.49 creation by Rusty Apps. JogStats brings a level of polish and webOS-ness that some other run tracker apps lack, and has the added bonus of being mostly functional. Unlike some other run trackers, JogStats does not have a cloud backend, which while this means you can't automatically backup your runs and look at them from other devices, it also means (1) you don't have to deal with needed a data connection (GPS tracking is going to drain your battery fast enough) and (2) you don't have to futz around with online systems that change while the webOS app is left abandoned. The question is how willing you are to live without web access to your logs. read more View the full article

We'll make this work... View the full article

The quest to get thinner, stronger, faster, and healthier with webOS Nation and Mobile Nations continues! We’ve survived two whole weeks! And while some of us have faltered — due to illness, travel, or simply the lust for burgers and fries — we’ve also rebounded and renewed our commitment! We’re feeling better. We’re looking better. And our community is doing better than ever! It’s the age of eHealth and eFitness — or iHealth and iFitness — where the phones and tablets we love have gone beyond being communications and computing tools and have started playing more and more crucial roles in all aspects of our lives. We don’t just listen to music or chat on the phone while jogging anymore. We use the data our devices collect to measure our progress, motivate our activities, and manage our mobile lives. We recorded a special edition of Superfunctional chock-full of tips to stay motivated and stay moving. But on to week 3! Once again, we're setting reasonable, attainable goals, and we're going to take advantage of our awesome community to make sure we attain them. As always we're running everything through our Health and Fitness Forum to keep us focused, keep us accountable, and keep us keeping on! Oh, and we're still giving away a TouchPad Bundle, an Xbox 360 Kinect, and more! Weekly drawings for an TouchPad Touchstone. We’re giving away 4 total, one each week! Grand prize drawing for a 32GB TouchPad Bundle (includes Touchstone, Bluetooth Keyboard, and Folio Case)! Bonus prize drawing for an Xbox 360 Kinect (Check out ZEN and TECH for details). So get into gear, head into the forums, and get moving for week three! View the full article

In our very first edition of Themed we took a look at webICS, a theme that applied an Android 4.0-layer of Ice Cream over the webOS UI. A lot of theming work is done to make one device look like another - this blogger at one point had a Windows XP-running Tablet PC outfitted to look and generally look like Mac OS X. webOS themes are no exception to this make-it-look-like-something-else, uh, theme, and some are more ambitions than others. webOS Nation forum member fraincs took to the forums with a theme of his that's a work in progress, but it's one that we couldn't help but find interesting. He's taking webOS and reskinning it to look like something unexpected: Windows 8.Yeah, the next generation Microsoft operating system for desktop, laptops, and tablets. The work-in-progress theme doesn't throw a layer of blocky flat Metro UI onto your TouchPad, and it's not likely to ever do that. What it does to is reskin the aspects of webOS like the Quick Launch bar, Just Type search box, and phone app emulator to give them a Windows 8-inspired appearance. That means flat color boxes and square corners, very much in opposition to the rounded corners and heavy gradients that give webOS depth where Windows Metro is flat. While the Windows 8 theme is a work in progress right now, we couldn't help but give it a once over. If you're feeling the urge to do the same, go ahead and jump into the forums to check it out. View the full article

The tablet wars are heating up! Apple is getting set to announce the iPad 3 next month. BlackBerry is going to release a major PlayBook OS update any day. The Kindle Fire is hot as is the Transformer Prime in a sea of Android tablets. And Windows 8 tablets are getting ready to enter the battle. With so much going on we wanted to take a moment and find out where you weigh in on the tablet wars. We have five quick questions (and one bonus) that will take you less than a minute. Hit the link below. Take the Survey! View the full article

Yesterday HP CEO Meg Whitman spoke at the HP Global Partner Conference in Las Vegas, touching on HP's multi-year commitment to webOS. It's stuff we like to hear - that even though it will take a lot of time and investment, HP will stick with webOS over the long term. And then Whitman went and said that webOS has an opportunity for adoption with Google's recently-approved purchase of Motorola. The idea is that the Google+Motorola hook-up could eventually lead to Android become closed source or a closed system as the two entities become more closely tied. While we have little doubt that Google will eventually play a strong hand in the planning, design, and execution of Motorola's portfolio, we also have little doubt that Android is going to go away any time soon, a point we discussed at length yesterday. We don't need to go over again the points behind why Whitman's statement was off base. What we do feel the need to touch on is the attitude that could bring about such statements, the attitude that for webOS to succeed, Android must falter. read more View the full article

Kevin, Phil, Derek, Daniel, and Rene discuss RIM's new CEO and what it means for BlackBerry in 2012, the unstoppable Android, iPad 3 vs. Windows 8 tablets, Chinese working conditions, and apps and your privacy. This is Mobile Nations! Our podcast feed: Audio | Video Download directly: Audio | Video Subscribe in iTunes: Audio | Video Subscribe in Zune read more View the full article

It was just yesterday morning that HP outed their new Isis browser for webOS and the QtWebKit rendering engine, and now our favorite webOS homebrew team is buckling down to make it work on current webOS devices. While the Isis webpage says that the browser is compatible with webOS 3.0.5, the currently released set of Enyo code does little-to-nothing-at-all when installed on a TouchPad. Mostly because all it does is install a new undetectably-different UI skin (if that) on top of the currently existing web browser. We can't exactly recommend you waste your time doing that. The QtWebKit engine is where it's really at, and that'll take some more doing to make it happen. Just so happens that WebOS Internals Chief Rod Whitby and WebKit guru and former HP webOS WebKit coder Donald Kirker (also of Internals) today had a call with HP to discuss their strategy for taking Isis and the QtWebKit tech preview and installing it on current TouchPads. We chatted with Whitby about what this means and he confirmed that since "all the Isis and QtWebKit items are open source now, there are no legal barriers to releasing a package in Preware" that would install this stuff onto current devices. Of course, there are some hurdles to overcome, and Whitby expects it to take at least a few weeks to get this done. But considering that they had a call with HP to discuss the strategy on how to make this happen, it stands to reason they'll have HP's support in making it happen. We're glad to see HP already working with outside groups as part of the Open webOS project, and also happy to see Rod already flexing his newly-anointed Community Development leader muscles. Source: WebOS Internals (Twitter) View the full article

webOS and Android both have something very fundamental in common - they're based off of the Linux open source kernel. Up until the decision to go open source, Palm and then HP used a custom proprietary version of that kernel to power webOS, but with the OS going open source over the coming months, HP's changing over to the Linux Standard Kernel instead to open up webOS to the wide world of, well, other devices (since HP's not currently making their own). And that brings us to today, when webOS CTO Sam Greenblatt tweeted the following: "All drivers of Android will be included in Linux kernel 3.3 the LSK. Isn't that interesting?" Yes, Sam, that is interesting. The merger of Android and Linux kernels with version 3.3 has been going on for a while, but mostly in the circles that are frequented by the uber-techs: the Linux Foundation. They're incorporating a lot of the open source drivers from Android into the open source Linux Standard Kernel, the end goal being to make it easier to install Linux and its derivatives on a wider range of devices. So what does this mean for Open webOS, now that it's poised to adopt the Linux Standard Kernel? It means that it will be easier for end users to install webOS onto a wider range of devices and get greater support for the hardware inside. Of course, there are plenty of things you can expect to not have support even with Android drivers getting rolled into the kernel. For one, the cellular radios in Android smartphones are powered by proprietary drivers from the manufacturer and won't be included in the Linux Standard Kernel. Still, it's a big step forward for making it easier to install webOS and other Linux-derived operating systems on a whole universe of Android-powered hardware. Source: CNXSoft; Via: Sam Greenblatt (Twitter) View the full article

HP CEO Meg Whitman took to the stage at HP's Global Partner Conference in Las Vegas today, and what she said was both encouraging and left us with our mouths hanging wide open. According to reports from the event, Whitman reiterated HP's commitment to webOS as an open source platform, stating that "it will take 2-5 years to fully play out" the impact of webOS on the mobile ecosystem. So HP is committed to webOS for the long haul, that's a good thing. But then Meg went a little off the rails, suggesting that Google's now-approved purchase of Motorola Mobility could lead to Android going closed source in the future, opening the door to licensees for webOS. We'll be the first to admit that such a scenario is the dream sequence of events for HP and Microsoft, but it's not going to happen. The only way Google makes money off Android right now is by serving ads to mobile websites and through apps. That's it. Unless Google could dramatically grow Motorola device sales to cover the hundreds of thousands of daily activations Android sees today and in the future, Google has no reason to take Android closed source. Now we have no doubt that Google is going to play a strong role in the development of Motorola's Android products going forward, and that no doubt will worry and irritate other Android licensees. Could that drive them to adopt Windows Phone and webOS to mitigate the risks posed by competing with a supplier? Sure, that could happen. But we don't see anything as drastic or insane as the closed source switch-up Whitman is suggesting. Source: PCWorld, Business Insider View the full article

You're typing away on your TouchPad, pounding out a good paragraph or two in response to an email from the boss. You look it over, noticing that you wrote horde instead of horse, and you're not certain Carl would appreciate being compared to a band of barbarian warriors. No problem, it's just one letter, an easy fix. You tap on the screen, right above the d. The cursor lands after the s. You tap again and it's after the e. Another tap puts the cursor a llne above, smack in the middle of the word interspace… wait, that's supposed to be interstate. If you own a TouchPad and have typed, well, anything on the tablet, you've run into this situation. Truth is, for as awesome as the webOS 3.0 virtual keyboard is, webOS is lacking so pathetically in cursor placement that even the BlackBerry Playbook is laughing at us. iOS lets the user tap-hold-and-drag to pop up a magnifying loupe to refine their cursor placement. Windows Phone users can move the cursor just by tap-hold-drag. Android can be a bit of a crapshoot, with some phones have physical or virtual arrow keys on their keyboards, others requiring you tap-tap-tap like a TouchPad to get the cursor where you want it (Android 4.0 supports tap-and-drag, but with only one device out so far it's hard to say what other manufacturers will do). Heck, even our good ole' Pre, Pixi, and Veer smartphones have cursor placement, albeit by the less-than-obvious hold-opt-and-drag method. Our enterprising homebrew community took the initiative to address this problem by adding arrow keys to the TouchPad keyboard, but the average user shouldn't have to resort to patching their device to address a fairly regular occurrence. We'd honestly be perfectly fine with a Windows Phone-style tap-hold-drag implementation, no fancy loupe or bubble required. But if you want to get fancy, we won't argue, so long as it works. Have your own thoughts on this webOS Wish List entry? Of course you do - the comments are below. Surely you have your own ideas as to what ought be on the webOS wish list, and so we've created a forum thread just for what has proven to be an awesome discussion. View the full article

Our webOS phones have not been known to have the greatest capacity when it came to battery life, no one would argue otherwise. While there has been improvement between each version of webOS and iterations of devices, they typically would not make it a full day with normal moderate use on a single battery, without of course charging intermittently during the day. Luckily for owners of the original Pre series up through the Pre 2 there were some options for extended batteries, or simply spare batteries that were all interchangeable with one another. This helped people to swap batteries throughout the day as needed, or with the use of the larger options that were available; requiring a larger replacement cover. Then, there was the announcement of the Pre 3 which was larger than its predecessors and required a new battery. Not a big deal, surely there would be the same battery options available as in the past once the phone would be released, right? Only that did not exactly happen, and a full on release never came about. The official release of the HP Pre 3 was limited to Europe right around the time HP announced ceasing all webOS hardware production. Luckily, devices that were headed for AT&T stores and even a few Verizon branded devices made it to eBay. The problem here was, how would those of us with this device get a spare battery without purchasing a spare Pre 3 to go with it? What about getting a larger capacity battery? Who would want to make batteries for a device that really was never released in full force? What would someone do when the stock battery inevitably lost its useful capacity to hold a charge? Purchasing a spare Pre 3 just for a battery isn’t really a cost effective solution. Seeing that there were a lot of Pre 3’s hitting the market, either via eBay or importing from Europe, caught the attention of Mugen Power Batteries. Now, we all know Mugen is no stranger to creating batteries and have made spare and extended batteries for the Pre and Pixi in the past. Mugen decided to get in touch with the community and find out just how much interest there really was in spare and/or extended batteries for the Pre 3 by setting up a survey. It didn’t take long, since it was only a matter of hours before Mugen announced enough support to produce both an $46.95 “SL” 1400mAh battery and a rather massive (by Pre standards) $98.95 “XL” 2800mAh Battery, which includes a larger back cover. Pre-orders for these batteries were opened in December. Stock Battery Mugen "SL" 1400mAh For reference, the stock battery that comes with the Pre 3 is rated at 1230mAh, certainly nothing to write home about, but it does the job. These new Mugen batteries would give a boost of roughly 14% and 128% for the “SL” and the “XL” respectively. These batteries began shipping earlier this month and they kindly set us up with some batteries to test out and review. Up first we will take a look at the “SL” 1400mAh battery. I will note that the 1400mAh battery was being detected as being 14060mAh, 60mAh more than it is marketed as having. Who doesn’t like freebies right? Per Mugen’s recommendation I let the battery run through a couple cycles of letting the battery fully charge, and discharge to below 10% before charging again. Even during this calibration stage I noticed the bit of improvement that it was giving. Once this stage was done, I put it through its paces using it as I normally would on any given day. I had the typical background tasks running; Exchange syncing, Gmail, another email accounts checking at 30 and 1 hour intervals, Twitter keeping tabs in the background, sending texts, browsing the web and more. What I noticed was that on average I was seeing what would amount to an extra hour or 2 of use. I had roughly 10% or more capacity higher at any given time than the stock battery. This doesn’t mean I could go a full day and into the night without a charge let alone last even the day under heavy usage. What it did give me was a bit more breathing room and the ability to have a spare battery if the need arose. It was certainly worth it to me. What would I do if the stock battery failed or simply wouldn’t charge anymore? Another nice thing about this battery is that it is the same physical size of the stock battery, so it fits right in and I had no issue with charging on the Touchstone. I will say that this battery is a no brainer for any Pre 3 owner. This battery would be the go-to battery for many as it’s aimed as being a replacement or spare to the stock battery. Additionally, who doesn’t like a bit of capacity enhancement without needing a new back cover? The rest of the community must feel the same since it also took the lead for best sellers of 2011 according to Mugen. Mugen currently has the “SL” battery on sale for $44.95 and you can receiving a 7% coupon code if you “like” them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter at @MugenBatteries. .wp-flattr-button iframe{vertical-align:text-bottom} View the full article

You know who you are. You're the one that lives and breathes webOS. You've racked up hundreds of dollars in App Catalog charges, use your TouchPad more than your laptop, roll with your own custom-coded kernel, and have a stash of spare Pre3 phones and TouchPads in safety deposit box for a rainy day. Or you just happen to find webOS fascinating and love using it and just want a chance to write about it on the best webOS blog with the biggest readership and most awesome and engaged community you'll find on this side of open source. By now you've likely figured out what topic we're introducing here - we're looking for new, exciting, and engaging souls to write for webOS Nation. webOS is obviously near and dear to our hearts here, so it really helps if it's the same to you. We're looking for hardy individuals who love (and sometimes hate) webOS apps, those that can hack through Enyo code like a mutant combination of Bear Grylls and Chuck Norris, or those that know the webOS community better than the back of their own hand. What we're not looking for: columnists, editorialist, or angry badgers. It's important that you be able to dedicate time to this endeavour. For this to work we need a few dedicated souls who can take the time to write at least a few times a week. We won't lie, the pay won't be good enough for you to quit your day job anytime soon, but for the chance to get paid by writing about something you love, is there anything better? Okay, there's bacon, but this is a very close second. Here's what to do: send an email to [email protected] with the title of "writer [your full name here]" as the title. Except, you know, put your full name in the space where the brackets are. Your email should include some information about who you are, what you love about webOS, and a link to your webOS Nation forum profile. You should also include two plain text samples of your writing about webOS (show some variety if you can, review an app and rewrite one of our awfully-composed news items if you so like). Do not send us attachments, links to Google Docs, or smoke signals. Also, you must be 18 years old or older - we appreciate your enthusiasm, dear youngster, your time will come. Derek's going to be evaluating these applications personally, and he gets angry when directions aren’t followed. We do appreciate creativity, and there's plenty of space for creativity within these bounds - go out of these pretty wide bounds and we're apt to skip over your application. Interested? You made it this far into this rambling call for writers, so clearly you are. Follow the guidelines set out above, get your applications in by February 29th, and come a day in the near future you might just find yourself writing for the world's best webOS site in the world. View the full article

Georgia and Rene discuss sex and dating tips for Valentine's day, whether you're single, broken up, just starting a new relationship, ready to get serious, or been together forever and looking for new ways to re-light the sparks. This is ZEN and TECH! Our podcast feed: Audio | Video Download Directly: Audio | Video Subscribe via iTunes: Audio | Video read more View the full article

Today saw the release of HP's February code commitment from the Open webOS roadmap. Also on the roadmap for this month was the governance structure HP intended to implement for the open source project, and as we had anticipated and hoped, HP has adopted a model based on "the Apache Way." In essence, the Apache model the same basis of the ethos behind WebOS Internals. HP's take on the model will be such that anybody is allowed to submit code to the project (which itself will be segmented into multiple sub-projects), with each sub-project overseen by a Project Management Committee "comprised of committers elected from within the project's community." This PMC will also be responsible for their project's release strategy and distributions. There will also be a board and corporate officers to guide the PMCs, though they are still "expected to act individually." The PMCs will also be expected to guide their projects to meet the core criteria from HP and follow the "legal, branding, and infrastructure related requirements" of the Open webOS project. So it won't be a complete free-for-all. To start the committers that comprise the PMCs will be appointed from HP - you've got to start somewhere. From there the PMCs will "use a system of meritocracy as a guide for adding contributors" to the project. The level and quality of your involvement will dictate the views of your contributions, which could see you move from a layperson contributor to the mighty level of committer. Doer to decider. The Open webOS board will be announced in April, but in the meantime HP has set forth the leaders of each PMC. webOS CTO Sam Greenblatt will be the Overall Project Owner (no surprise there), Manish Patil will lead Open webOS, Matt McNulty will be in charge of Enyo (no surprise there either), Leonid Zolotarev is the lead for webOS WekKit, the Kerenl and System Manager lead has yet to be announced, and we're proud to say that WebOS Internals chief Rod Whitby will be leading the Community Development side of Open webOS (which he probably would have done anyway). Press release after the break. Source: HP webOS Developer Blog read more View the full article

Today HP is delivering on the roadmap they laid out last month and releasing all at once their February commitment. On the docket are the UI widgets needed for Enyo 2.0 app development, how webOS will integrate JavaScript core, and the new QtWebKit-derived Isis web browser. JavaScript core isn't exactly something we can illustrate (though we were previously told to expect a significant performance boost as a result of trading it in place of the current V8 JavaScript implementation). The UI widgets for Enyo 2.0 are also up for a release, following last month's release of the Enyo 2.0 source code. What's interesting is the new implementation of WebKit taken by the webOS team. Under the lead of former Nokia Meego VP Ari Jaaksi, HP has adopted QtWebKit (developer and open sourced by Nokia) as the new engine behind webOS. Seeing as webOS is based around web technologies, this change will affect the entire OS. It is said to "offer unrivaled speed and standard compliance" for both the browser and Enyo apps, which is a change from the partial standards implementation we've had to deal with for the past few years of webOS. QtWebKit will back up the new webOS browser, which just so happens to be named Isis. Yes, another Greek gods reference, this time to "the ideal mother" and matron on nature and magic. HP's internal benchmarks have fount Isis to be "extremely responsive" in comparison to other popular browsers, with extensive support for HTML5 and CSS3. Said HP: "Standards-compliance is important to developers because they can use technologies like Enyo to develop cross-platform web applications that already work well on webOS." We couldn't agree more. In a surprising move, given the industry move away from such things, Isis will also provide "enhanced support" for "legacy products" such as Adobe Flash and other plug-ins, even though this won't be an X11 environment. We're glad in a way to see Flash support provided, but still uncertain about the future of mobile Flash given Adobe's abandonment of the project. HP's delivering on their commitments for the Open webOS roadmap, and just so happens to do so on Valentine's Day. Are we in love? Not sure, but you might be able to describe us as slightly smitten today. Press release after the break. Source: HP webOS Developer Blog read more View the full article

Little known fact: Chinese checkers is neither checkers nor Chinese. The game originated from 1892 Germany, and was itself an evolution of a square American board game caled Halma. But that doesn't matter, because you can now play it on your TouchPad, thanks to the Chinese Checkers game by PJ Nation. As any Chinese Checkers ought to do, it supports up to six players, human or computer, and in our experience is quite skilled at kicking our butts to all six corners of the board. Feel like getting your butt kicked by the computer, or just want to kill time with a partner (or five)? Good, because we've got fifty copies to give away! Contest: We have 50 copies of Chinese Checkers to give away. Just leave a comment on this post to enter. Contest ends next Sunday at midnight US Eastern Time after which time we will select 50 random entrants to win. Please only leave one comment, multiple entries won’t count. Promo codes are only valid in countries serviced by the App Catalog, and users must be running webOS 3.0 or higher with the latest version of the App Catalog. View the full article

We're not going to sugar coat this one - the camera on the Pre3 is the best camera to grace a webOS device, and it's okay. It's not great, but it's decent. But it's saddled with the same camera app that webOS has had since practically day one. You can toggle between video and stills, cycle beetween auto, on, and off flash, and hit the shutter/record button. Missing, in comparison to competing smartphone platforms: using the front camera, multi-exposure HDR photos, a timer, white balance, automatic panoramas, and much much more. Truth is, the webOS camera app isn't built to handle these features - adding a camera switch button to the TouchPad Go's camera app crashes the tablet. The camera app needs an overhaul so users can at least do their best to make up for the shortcomings of the sensor. Our suggestion is to utilize Enyo - put in a pull-out settings tray where users can access all of this more advanced stuff plus the everybody-does-it-because-it-looks-cool basic filters (sepia, black-and-white, pop colors, etc). And if the user doesn't want that stuff, they don't have to touch it. And while we're at it, something's frustrated us for a long time when taking pictures with webOS smartphones - the image fills the entire screen, going under the shutter button. This isn't in and of itself a problem, except that the camera takes 4:3 ratio photos and the Pre series smartphones have 3:2 and 5:3 screens, meaning the top and bottom of photos are always cut off when trying to frame things up. Everybody else has solved this by framing the entire image on the screen and putting primary controls off to the side - there's no reason webOS shouldn't either. Have your own thoughts on this webOS Wish List entry? Of course you do - the comments are below. Surely you have your own ideas as to what ought be on the webOS wish list, and so we've created a forum thread just for what has proven to be an awesome discussion. View the full article

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