webOS 1.2 now available, brings support for app purchases
By Nilay Patel 
posted Sep 28th 2009 4:03PM
posted Sep 28th 2009 4:03PM
Here are some major changes listed by Palm:
- Search is now available in the email app, allowing you to find by subject, from, to, or CC fields (no message search yet).
- The web browser now supports cut, copy, and paste within a webpage (text only).
- Music purchases via Amazon can now be done over EV-DO. It's not clear if they mean that you can download the tracks, or just queue them (that would be lame, however). Anyone test this yet?
- A new gesture has been added which allows you to swipe down from the top of the screen to open the application or connection menu -- which should be a huge help to everyone missing those small targets!
- You can now download files from within the browser, and Palm has created an easy method to open a link in a new card.
Update:
Update 2: Tested. Don't expect to sync with iTunes, everyone -- it ain't happening.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
1.2 not 1.2.1
but whatever, hooray for updates.
downloading now :)
and now its a fixed,
well that just confirms i check engadget too often
yaaaaaaaay! I had a feeling
have they fixed the sluggish movement oh the web browser when moved from portrait to landscape and vice versa?
i played with a Pre at the sprint store and thats the only thing that bugged me about the device.
And Apple still have a long way to go to reach the 6.1 Windows Mobile is on now.
Multitouch was first demonstrated by Bell Labs about 20 years ago, using pretty much the same gestures Apple uses now.
The first real commercial multitouch device was the jazzmutant lemur input device.
Since when did only "touch" supported OS's count? Besides, Windows Mobile has had touchscreen support since 2000. If you're looking for good finger touch support, just look at HTC's recent Windows Mobile phones.
So? They're still OSs. Additionally, you never mentioned MULTItouch as a requirement...
Take a look at the HTC Leo, why don't you.
Apple are suing Palm because they hold some patents pertaining to multitouch. These patents are actually covering things that other people had done before, rendering them invalid... additionally, apple's patents are nowhere near as strong as people think they are. No sane court would rule in Apple's favour.
Google removed multitouch at a time when their boss was on Apple's board. They didn't want conflict. And they're putting it back in a future version of android.
because that's mature...
@Phoenix "And Apple still have a long way to go to reach the 6.1 Windows Mobile is on now."
Never let it be said that Apple haters have (or "has" for you Windoze fans) the smarts required for good grammar...or the intelligence needed to choose a decent phone.
Can Apple buttplugs eat a bullet already
@ DR House "And if apple didn't invent it why are they suing the pre then?"
Apple has NOT sued Palm over the Pre. If they did, they'd open themselves up to a huge countersuit by Palm for infringing all Palm's competing patents, plus they would risk their precious multitouch patents being invalidated (which they probably would be). Get your facts straight.
(And to everyone else, I know, I know, don't feed the troll)
Wow, the speed boost is incredible.
Hey, Hairy Palm Pre boys, how's that iTunes syncing going? Zzzzzziiiiinggggg!!!!!!!
im glad dumb people are downranked into oblivion.
despite what people said about engadget's comment sys, im still loving it!
How's having to rely on crappy iTunes working out for you Apple fanboys. Options... heard of it? Didn't think so.
Amazing to me how it took less than 2 months for Palm to come out with features that Apple took years to do (full copy and paste anyone?). The future is very bright for this company.
OMFG its so much smoother usually when i have a big website with a lot of pics and text i couldnt open more than like 3 apps before it tell me i have too much going on now it handles cards effortlessly and switching from app to app is seamless no more jitters
IM FRICKIN LOVING MY PRE!!! (i was thinking* of switching it out for a hero but not anymore)
*not really but still
oh yeah and quick question are there any limitations to what email i can sync to my pre like yahoo, hotmail, student email, i seem to only be able to sync my gmail
Yippee! I can't wait to download those dozen apps to my Pre. Palm, you are the man.
wooo! if only I had a Pre...
Haven't got one yet?
Here is the top reason to get a Palm Pre:
Palm wants to return the stolen USB vendor ID.
79 MB over the next couple of days?
WHAT THE FCK?
umm you can just click download now and it'll download instantly over evdo or wifi.
beats being forced to connect my iphone to the computer
@lawyer bird: +1!!! I can't wait until Pre becomes GSM. I really want to get rid of this unstable crashing iPhone... I'm on my 4th in 6 months.
Dear Apple: Your Macs are great. Please fix your mobile phone division, the software's crap. Thank you. Sincerely, me.
Sorry Palm, but iPhones already have had updates before you. You're just copying Apple's innovation of updating firmware.
bad sarcasm is bad
simply Brilliant!
Sarcasm was invented by Apple.
Try again.
Yeah, Sony copied Apple with their PSP firmware upgrades as well. *rolls eyes*
Lookin' good, Palm!
The speed boost is amazing so far! I tested this site (which sometimes locked up upon loading) and it loaded within 8 seconds. Plus the scrolling/rotating is much improved.
Any word if it breaks MyTether?
It breaks WiFi tethering if you have the free version. (USB and Bluetooth still work)
The latest paid version works 100%, though.
WOOT! cause I use the USB part of it!
Can someone please test iTunes 9.0.1. support? Only thing related in release notes has to do with iTunes Photo syncing but nothing stated about iTunes 9
It doesn't work.
It's even live on Bell. Yay!
It adds copy and paste from the browser.
Good. It needed this.
"... the big new features is..."
Maybe it's just me, but lately the number of grammatical errors in the posts have been increasing. Not enough coffee around at Engadget HQ?
This is good news; a family member is in (desperate) need of a new smartphone, and since she's still on Sprint, I've been recommending the Pre for months now. She'll love this thing.
mmm.... webOS 1.2 goodies. Updating now. As long as it doesn't break Preware I should be golden.
This is working golden for me. homebrew apps still work.. havent tried copy paste yet.. I love my pre.. now only if I could have got it for 99.. or even 75...
How is your battery so full in that screen shot!?!?
I think my Pre will die before it finishes downloading the update.
wow, that's a lot smaller than iphone updates. they're around 280 MB; 3.1 took a while to download even my universities (usually) fast network.
lol at downloading for the next couple days
OVER, not FOR
OVER: Sometime during the next couple of days
FOR: The download itself will take days (not the case here)
Took about 5 minutes here in Des Moines to install. Love Sprint's network out here.
@Karl
Thanks...with out your clarification I was lost
Hey, The Next Couple of Days is my best friend and I'd download anything for her!
Has anyone heard anything about Palm coming out with a diff style phone. I don't like the vertical layout of the Pre....the buttons are just too damn small for my thumbs. I think they could have actually made it slightly bigger IMO. I'm not interested in the Pixi either.
Anyways....a horizontal slide-out qwerty with the Web OS software would be sweet...
You could try using the homebrew on-screen keyboard? Really this phone has been so good to me thus far I would be willing to overlook such things, especially with the amount of activity in the homebrew scene. Just a suggestion, though.
I've always been able to queue up tracks in the Amazon app over EV-DO, so I'm assuming this means actual music purchases. Sweet!
Downloaded in about 5 min for me. I really want them to update the notifications and let you have more choices for your notification sounds. I always get the bing-bong and it is a twitter update that I could worry about later. Need to be able to set custom sounds for everything.
BurningBeard I completely agree! Try being in a room with 4 Pre's and now knowing whose is beeping at any given time.
Root your Pre and get the My Notification app. Actually if they've added functionality to download from the browser I'm sure you could just to toe precentral and find it and download it straight from your Pre!
Yeah I'm using the Hunter's scream from L4D for mine. Great when people turn around like wtf!
Does the download work over WiFi? I'm in my office with a crappy cell signal and when I try to connect over WiFi it says "unable to connect. Try again later."
Mine is saying the same thing even when I'm on EV-DO.
Wait, it's working now.
More options are always nice, but I think horizontal qwerty keyboards suck.
I like ice cream, and that's the on the reals for reals!
Okay, I know I didn't click on the Reply button for you BurningBeard. It was for some stupid post on here and for some reason went to you. Again, my apologies
Yo palm, imma let you finish, but the iPhone already has this!
and the pre already had mms.... whats your point.
The point was to see how fast people jumped on this comment. 2 minutes, not bad.
the point is kanye is a gay fish!
The real point is.. the Kanye joke is dead. It's not funny anymore.
You just explained my grief perfectly. Everyone has a Pre where I work...bet you can guess where that is.
Apple?
AT&T?
NASA?
The University of Oregon track team, circa 1972?
Preware still works as most of my other homebrew apps. I didn't have to uninstall anything (except the keyboard patch). UI felt snappier.
how do you get the % battery to show on the status bar?
I don't know about you guys but it feels a bit quicker
so far all homebrew is working that I have installed on my device, UI seems to have gotten snappier the copy paste in browser as well as the ability to save files is very nice. No itunes sync yet but I'm pretty sure the incremental 1.2.1 will fix that.
Pre isn't bad I keep telling my sister to get one since I can't and I wnt because I have the iPhone. It's good that the iPhone has a competition, both has really good hardware & software.
Thanks for the update on the update!
I'm loving these updates.
What do you think? There seems to be a lot more craziness (in a good way) with the WebOS app store than there is with the android one. Now, of course there will be differences in how things work, and marketing, etc - but, I just thought it seemed that way.
Palm does seem to to be going on the same model as apple - one device (for now) one carrier (for now) and a push for that household name. We all know android is essentially the same, but they (google, etc) are branching out into other carriers.. so. will this hurt or help palm in the long run to keep things on one carrier/device.
They've already announced the second device in a different form factor to be sold alongside this one...
The phone does feel a bit quicker
100% agree!
anybody else's app catalog unavailable?....new apps?
i already know they're working on video.. but is there anything going on with SMS forwarding?
update is almost done :)
SMS Forwarding is available through the WebOS Quick Install program. Has been for a while.
The "out of memory" glitch when trying to install apps or updates of apps, even with plenty of memory, still exists in 1.2. Palm... what kind of joke...?
Upgrade went great, but I hate the new security policy that requires a lock password if using exchange acount. I think I'm responsible enough to be able to keep my phone secure without having to enter an unlock password everytime I want to use the phone after the screen has gone black.
But the guy who steals your phone and sells your companies secrets to the highest bidder isn't as responsible.
See if there's an exchange lock kill app in Preware.
it basically should let the device recognize that there is a passcode lock in place, but doesn't actually enforce it.
I have the iphone equivalent from Cydia.
it really sucks having to put in a passcode each time you unlock, especially for something so trivial as an Outlook Calendar since I don't synce my work email, just my calendar.
Hey, how were you guys able to get the battery percentage to show up next to the icon? Looks cool; interested in using that myself.
THis burns..... I'm on an assignment for work in a rural texas area with horrible signal, and there isnt wifi signal anywhere.
When i try to down load it basically tells me my connection sucks and to comeback when i return to civilized society
that's actually a funny and mildly interesting story you tell, thank you.
WOW! 79MB's over the phone. No thanks, I'll stick with the iPhone, it can still sync with iTunes. LOLZ!
Actually, I downloaded the update via the Sprint network and it only took 5 minutes to download. Yea, slow if you were comparing it to wifi, but actually over the network, that's not bad. Besides, it updated while I was at work...I didn't have to do it once I got back home.
...what an idiot...and I bet he doesn't realize that the smart ones don't update their iTunes to keep the functionality. Otherwise we use better applications that run much quicker. Or just drag and drop from anywhere... LAWLZ
Our company is waiting for ONLY one thing: The option to accept a private security certificate from a private mail system. Other than that, we see no reason why all of our people shouldn't drop their iPhones and grab some Pres. But without that single feature, we can't use 'em.
Haven't seen a Pre in the wild yet! and I live in L.A., California
One of our report specialist at my company has one.
She loves it
Perhaps you should leave your house once and a while. I have seen quite a few Pre's in the wild.
With less than 500,000 sold, no iTunes support and a financial loss, why would any company want this phone? I know I wouldn't want to spend money on something that won't last.