Hate to kick a dog when it’s down, but this just seems like another Palm misstep. When WebOS 1.4 came out a week ago, I lamented that a “forward swipe” gesture in the gesture area no longer went forward in the web browser. Not a huge deal, I guess I figured Palm was just killing a little used feature for consistency. Today, I noticed that Paintr Lite, a great webOS drawing app, is also affected. Once you are in full screen, Paintr Lite uses the forward swipe as the command to bring up a drawing toolbar. Surprisingly, this command no longer registers as of 1.4. Maybe the forward gesture was never part of a documented API and has been intentionally removed system-wide, but it just seems like an oversight. Anyway, here’s a drawing of one of Lucas’ imaginary friends, Tomboos.
Jake tried to embed a YouTube video in his last post, and even though the site seems to be set up to embed the video, it didn’t work (strangely, it didn’t even linkify the URL). My first thought was that it was his blogging client, and Lance pointed out that my troubleshooting may not have worked because I tried to embed videos in a comment.
So, let’s see what happens when I try several different ways to embed a YouTube video, like Jake did:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sMvteXZmmU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sMvteXZmmU
…and the same from Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44124369108@N01/4401108773/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44124369108@N01/4401108773/
Did anything work?
** EDIT, 5 March. Trying what Lance suggested below. Using the [youtube= ] syntax didn’t work, and when I use the Wordpress post editing tool (rather than my blogging client) and insert the video using the method described on that page, it looks like HTML:
Jake\'s Pre video
Just a quick test, to see if I can embed a video using WordPress tools. The code on YouTube didn’t seem to work. In all its cheesy glory, my first Palm Pre video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sMvteXZmmU
Well, that didn’t work at all. Mike, can you take a look at this page, http://codex.wordpress.org/Embeds and see what happens when you change this setting, ‘(Check the “Auto-embeds” check box in Administration > Settings > Media SubPanel.) ‘ Thanks.
While the headlines may read Apple sues HTC, it’s quite obvious that the real target is Android and, by extension, Google. Engadget has a detailed breakdown by their resident lawyer. What it illustrates more than anything is what a patent thicket exists in the smartphone world. If all these patents were enforced, there wouldn’t be any on the market. Apple is now stranger to lawsuits, and most relevant is likely the Nokia vs. Apple battle that is destined to last half-a-decade or more. What does all these mean to the tech world? My quick take is that Palm is the big winner, or at least smaller loser, being able to sit on the sidelines. Palm’s a pretty poor target for a lawsuit, since they have such meager revenue & boatloads of patents in the smartphone/ PDA/ touch computing realm.
What’s in store for this Battle of Silicon Valley?
So I’ve seen that Kelvin has favorited A LOT of my photos on Flickr–30 in total, possibly more than anyone. I’m really glad Kelvin digs my photography. Or more accurately, the my photography & choice of subjects. You can see them all using FD’s Flickr Toys. Just for fun, I decided to breakdown those 30 photos, Harper’s style.
Photos that feature Lucas: 20
Number of Lucas photos taken by Kelvin: 5
Photos featuring Montana: 4
Photos featuring Serena: 7
Pyslent group photos: 4
Number that are sepia-toned: 1
Cameraphone shots: 3
Photos that include Kelvin: 14
Number where only Kelvin’s hands are visible: 4
Photos of Jake: 8
Number featuring Jake holding a sign: 1
Total number of photos featuring 1 or more members of the extended Pyslent family: 28
So the fortunes of Kelvin and I have taken a turn for the worse the past few months, especially the past few weeks. The big “news” is that analysts are reporting that sales are slow at Verizon and store employees have been recommending Droids over the Pre. These concerns have caused shares to fall, and the momentum seems to be self-sustaining… it’s almost as if these analysts are making recommendations and setting targets as they chase the stock price up or down! Nevertheless, this is either an epic buying opportunity or the end of any early retirement plans I may have dreamed of.
Now, since the quarter ends on Friday, we should expect Palm to warn about a revenue miss on Monday or Tuesday of next week. Monday would be appropriate, as it’s the 10-year anniversary of both Palm’s debut as an independent company and Palm’s high-water mark in share price. In for a penny, in for a pound at this point. Normally, I wouldn’t be worried, but the mainstream “me-too” media smells blood in the water and are really pushing the Palm-is-doomed storyline, which could very well hurt sales. Palm will set their story straight on March 18 or sooner. Any guesstimates about how Palm will do?
Well, more of a tidal surge from the looks of it. This might have been the largest of a half-dozen waves that struck just outside of the Mavericks Big Surf competition. This is the best video yet found, but there must be dozens out there. Take a look.
Edit, looks like I can’t embed YouTube videos. Drat. Here’s the link.
Can’t believe that nobody’s said anything about the new Windows Phone 7 OS! Completely threw out the old Windows Mobile, to the point that it sounds like old apps won’t run on it without emulation. I haven’t dived too deeply into it, but from the screenshots I’ve seen, it looks like a completely new idea of a smartphone OS. Aesthetically, the extended desktops look really nice, but the tile interface (pictured) looks awkward, and I can’t figure out whether it’s actually functional or not.
Still, Gizmodo characterizes Windows Phone 7 as nothing short of game-changing:
The three most significant companies in desktop computing—Apple, Google and Microsoft—now stand to occupy the same positions in mobile.
The core organizing principle of Windows Phone 7 is this idea of hubs, which sounds pretty cool — really gets at the idea that your information, not your apps, should be the core of the device (that we think in terms of people to contact, not which app to use to contact them) — kinda like Synergy, but more pervasive through the whole OS, from what I’ve gathered. Guess you have to hope that your developers are onboard with all that. All info syncs over the air (no desktop sync in sight), and of course, there’s a marketplace.
So what do you guys think, does Microsoft have a chance here, or are they simply too late to the game?
Not quite shredding (I’m on skis). But having a nice time on the slopes. Weather is amazing!
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I can’t remember the last time TiVo scheduled an “event” but it looks like they’re finally releasing something new. A decade after pioneering DVRs, is TiVo ready to upgrade its interface? Will they raise the bar with the next-generation of HD DVRs? Or will TiVo just polish their perfectly fine, best-in-class product where everyone is already happy with good enough?
There’s some discussion over at Zatz Not Funny. Any guesses?
Kelvin March 9, 2010
