Paid apps in, iTunes sync out

Sep 29, 2009 07:43 GMT  ·  By

Sunnyvale-based mobile phone maker Palm and wireless carrier Sprint have finally decided to unleash into the wild the webOS 1.2.0 firmware update for the Palm Pre smartphone. Leaked about two weeks ago, the update has been pulled rapidly from Palm's website, while its changelog, published by Sprint, has had the same fate. However, the two companies have pushed the new update into the air on September 28, and all Pre owners out there have been probably already alerted on its availability.

The release notes for the new OS flavor include a wide range of new features, improvements and fixes, yet we'll only have a look at the most important of them, such as the fact that users can now purchase software solutions from Palm's App Catalog: “In preparation for e-commerce in the App Catalog, to purchase apps, you can enter credit card information by selecting Preferences & Accounts from the application menu in App Catalog. Credit card information is stored with the Palm profile, not on the phone. You can choose whether you need to enter their Palm profile password each time you make a purchase, or for the first purchase in any four-hour window.”

This one was expected, as many of you might already know, yet other new features are also available when it comes to the App Catalog, such as the fact that users can easily re-download for free an application they've already purchased. Moreover, they can also use the new Share button to send a link to the app page either via email or SMS. Since we're in the content purchase area, we should also mention that webOS 1.2.0 enables users to acquire songs from Amazon MP3 over a phone network connection.

Among the other items included in the firmware's release notes we can count backup for the bookmarks to the Palm profile; the possibility to choose whether to transfer a call from the phone to a previously paired car kit when getting into the car; synchronization of photos without needing the full-resolution originals; JPG, BMP, and PNG formats supported by the Photos app; Google contacts, Exchange and Palm profile contacts are pulled from the phone by Sprint Navigation; or a series of security enhancements that Palm included with the new operating system version.

A wide range of other improvements, fixes and new features are also available, aimed at the Web capabilities of the device, Tasks, System, Phone, Music, Messaging, Memos, Email, Contacts, or Calendar. The entire list can be seen here. The one thing that hasn't been addressed with the new webOS release is Pre's connectivity to iTunes. Given the fact that the USB-IF has recently ruled against Palm when it comes to this issue, the company has decided to not re-enable the connectivity it seems.