14 DAY TRIAL // Sunnyvale-based mobile phone maker Palm released at the beginning of this week a new software update for all owners of a Palm webOS-based handset on Verizon's network, after releasing it for Sprint users, and now a few more details on the matter emerged. Among them, the fact that webOS 1.4 brings along the Bing search engine on Pre Plus and Pixi Plus handsets, replacing Google on these devices.
According to a recent article on PreCentral, “Verizon Pre Plus and Pixi Plus owners are reporting that 1.4 brought with it […] the ability to change the default Web search engine for the browser and for Universal Search.” The result of this is that, when the option is changed, in the Browser preferences menu, Bing replaces Google in the Universal Search.
It seems that the feature has been observed only on Pre Plus and Pixi Plus handsets available at Verizon, while the rest of the Palm Pre and Palm Pixi phones out there have Google as the only option in the default search engine field. For what it's worth, this move might be seen as a beneficial one for Verizon's users, since the rest of the Palm webOS-devices owners out there cannot change the default search provider.
However, those who cannot wait for Palm to offer them the possibility to change the default search engine on their handsets can use various patches and tweaks available via Preware and webOS Quick Install. These solutions will enable webOS phone owners to change the search providers that are available through Universal Search, yet there are also chances that Palm will deliver the ability to them too.
In the meantime, we should note that the webOS 1.4 software update has landed in Canada too, and that Bell users can also benefit from the features it brings along. Among them, in case some of you might not remember, we can count the ability to record videos with the handset's camera, as well as the support for Flash Player 10.1 announced a while ago by Palm.