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When you're HP, you've got money to play around with. Sure, you're not making a much money as you used to, but there's still cash sitting around with which you can do things. You can spin the webOS Global Business Unit off into a new company that's still going to rely on you for [even more] money, and you can plunk down half a million dollars to become a Platinum member of the Linux Foundation. That cool $500,000 was enough to lift HP out of their previous Gold level membership, lofting the Palo Alto company to the ranks of Fujitsu, IBM, Intel, NEC, Oracle, Qualcomm, and Samsung. Making this investment also gives HP a seat on the Linux Foundation Board of Directors, giving them a direct voice in how they want to see Linux evolve in all sorts of manners, especially with respect to HP's own businesses. While Open webOS was not explicitly (or implicitly) mentioned in the press release announcing HP's ascension to Platinum membership within the Linux Foundation, we can't help but think that this could prove to be a good thing for our favorite mobile operating system. webOS has from its start been based on Linux, and the new Open webOS version makes use of the Linux Standard Kernel. While up to this point HP has taken and integrated Linux code into Open webOS, going forward they'll have the ability to influence how Linux evolves in ways that may be beneficial to Open webOS. Money buys influence, influence gets you what you want. read more View the full article

Mobile Nations Podcast Feed Mobile Nations on iTunes Mobile Nations YouTube The Nexus Phone family: Four generations of Android Who needs a Nexus 4 (and why)? Why you shouldn't worry about Android 4.2 updates What does it mean for RIM to be in carrier lab testing with BlackBerry 10? Here's another BlackBerry L-Series image to remind us it's not yet Q1 2013 WHAT IF BlackBerry Messenger had gone cross platform? Checking out the Galaxy Nexus Open webOS port virtual keyboard Enyo 2.1 app framework lands with improved theming and globalization support Galaxy S3 gets the cleanest Touchstone mod yet Tim Cook's Apple iPad mini unboxing and hardware hands-on and iPad 4 unboxing and hardware hands-on iPad buyers guide (Late 2012) and iPad mini vs. Nexus 7: Which should you get? Verizon finally shows off Windows Phone 8 with new tagline WSJ now reporting on a Microsoft branded Windows Phone Overview and review of Windows Phone 8 View the full article

Mobile Nations Network Movember Funds Raised so far: $3858 Ok folks, it's time for our first Mobile Nations Movember update. We'll be bringing you these updates every Sunday throughout the month of Movember (formerly known as November) as we grow out our moustaches and raise awareness and funds for prostate cancer research and men's health issues. We had 82 individuals from around the world respond to our Movember call to action from across our sites, which is amazing! November 1st saw the Mo Bros on the team shave clean to lay the foundation upon which to grow a manly moustache. The next step is to let that moustache grow and to raise money, and we're off to a great start. Members of the Mobile Nations Network have already raised nearly $4,000! Participants are updating their Mo Space pages with status updates and photos. We've collected some of our favorites which you can check out below, along with links to where you can donate to individuals on the team. We also have another video below that will tell you a bit more about the Movember story, in case you're wondering what this is all about. read more View the full article

While HP was able to deliver on their roadmap for Open webOS, spitting out the first version of the open source successor to webOS on schedule at the end of September, Enyo's been lagging behind a bit. The roadmap called for the application framework to hit version 2.1 in April, and it just so happened to land at the end of October instead (if you're doing the math, yes, October is as far from April as one can get before getting closer to the next April). Enyo's seen a number of updates since the first Enyo 2.0 beta was released back in January, but hitting that x.1 mark took a while. Of course, they did have to content with rebuilding the core of the development team; that's enough to delay any project for a few months, so we'll cut them some slack. Enyo 2.1 is here now, and it includes a number of features we're sure cross-platform app developers will find interesting. There's LESS-based theming support, which enables developers to customize the already-released Onyx user interface widgets in a dynamic and variable manner. The global localization library from the TouchPad - g11n - has now been open-sourced with Enyo 2.1, making it easier to format dates, times, and numbers for the locale in which your Enyo 2.0-based app is being used. Additionally, the Enyo team has moved Chrome for Android and iOS 6 to their "Tier 1" support level, which translates to these platforms getting the highest priority when it comes to fixing bugs, correcting for changes in the platform, and other testing bits. They'll be adding Internet Explorer 10 to Enyo 2.1 support (including Windows 8 touch events) as well as the Amazon Kindle Fire HD Android-based platform. Lastly, Enyo 2.1 includes the release of a handful of new user interface widgets to make it easier to build your apps. Onyx now includes a new range slider and localizable date and time picker widgets. The layout library has also received a new ImageView widget that supports multitouch zooming and panning. The Enyo Sampler has been updated with these new widgets, so you can try them out and know how they look and behave before adding them to your app. View the full article

Having successfully completed the build process for the Open webOS alpha on the Galaxy Nexus, I knew that the next time it came around I'd have a better idea of what to do. Mostly because I'd already failed a dozen times before. This time around, armed with a modicum of knowledge, I was able to complete the build process for the latest version of WebOS Ports' alpha without running into any bumps. The reason for running the latest version of the build was to check out the latest modifications made. While behind-the-scenes bits have been improved, what we were most interested in checking out the user interface improvements and the the virtual keyboard discovered and implemented by Josh Palmer (known around the webOS sphere as ShiftyAxel). Palmer's modifications have brought back some of the classic bits of the webOS smartphone user interface, including rounded corners and the bottom-aligned notifications bar. He's also tweaked it so app icons appear at a size more appropriate for the Galaxy Nexus's screen (it's worth restating that the Open webOS released to open source was designed for TouchPad-size screens). But the new virtual keyboard was what we really wanted to check out, especially after tooling around with the practically fun-sized keyboard shrunken down from the TouchPad. The made-for-smartphones keyboard is notably taller than the shrunken TouchPad keyboard. It's also been rearranged, losing the top row of numbers to a more traditional spot hidden behind a '123' key with other special characters. The layout has a lot in common with other smartphone virtual keyboards on the market, including the iOS and Android keyboards. A lot of the old TouchPad functionality is there, including pressing and holding on keys to bring up alternate versions of that character. read more View the full article

If you're taking part in Movember this November, be sure to join our Mobile Nations Network at Movember.com! Full details below... November is almost here which means one thing... soon you'll be seeing loads of self-confident men walking around in glorious moustaches. That's right, November is MOVEMBER and this year we're going to join together across our MO-bile Nations communities to grow out our facial hair and raise funds and awareness of men's health issues. If you're not familiar with Movember, jump on over to Movember.com and learn about it. Once up to speed, make the decision to REGISTER as either a Mo Bro or Mo Sista (that's right, ladies can participate too, no moustache required). Don't overthink it it. Commit to it. Join in as your fellow members, writers and moderators of Android Central, CrackBerry, iMore, Windows Phone Central and webOS Nation put their smartphone differences aside to come together next month for Movember. For those who make the brilliant decision to participate in Movember, be sure to join the Mobile Nations Network we've setup on the Movember website. You can join the network as an individual or as part of another Movember team. Through the Network page we'll be able to track everybody who's participating and see how much we can raise together as a community. Come the end of Movember, we'll be awarding lots of prizes to those who participate. Best Moustache. Most Money Raised. Best Moustache Photo. You name it. Expect lots of awesome prizes and recgonition for those who join in. November 1st is just around the corner. The good news is it doesn't take much effort to prepare for Movember. All you need to do is shave your face clean when you go to bed tomorrow night after eating your Halloween treats. If you're still on the fence, hit up the links below for more information. And if you're ready to join us on our Movember challenge -- YOU ROCK -- and should keep reading for more important details. Learn More About Movember at Movember.com Check out the MO-bile Nations Network Page on Movember.com read more View the full article

Previous efforts to modify Android devices to take advantage of the ever popular Touchstone charger have required at the very least a degree of patience and some non-standard supplies to make wireless charging happen. When Samsung introduced the Galaxy S III back in May, it was supposed to come with wireless charging, though they managed to not show off the wireless charger at the typically odd introduction event. Yet, here we are six months later without the wireless charger publicly available (that's the kind of launch schedule we expect from Palm). Feeling left out of the three-year-old wireless charging party, Hong Kong-based eBay seller hkrc has taken matters into their own hands, and is now selling modified Galaxy S III back covers with the Touchstone inductive charging coil and appropriate contacts for the Android-based smartphone. The wireless charging backs are going for $28 a pop on eBay, a fair price for something that had to be manually assembled. As of this writing there's just one of the faux-metal dark blue covers available, as well as twenty four-white covers and twenty-six white covers paired with a Palm-brand charger, cable, and Touchstone charging puck for $55. It's not quite as elegant as the Nexus 4 and its awkwardly-named Wireless Charging Orb, but if you're like us an have Touchstone chargers all over the place and happen to be rocking a Galaxy S III (not so much like us) this could be a useful purchase for you. That said, the Galaxy S III is still largely running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (Sprint was the first US carrier to roll out Android 4.1 Jelly Bean for the S III, and they did that just last week), while the Nexus 4 will launch with Android 4.2 and its Exhibition-like Daydream mode for the charging dock. When Android 4.2 and its Daydream feature might make it to the Galaxy S III is a big unknown. Or you can just be all boss stick with your aging Pre3 like us. At least until the Galaxy Nexus is running Open webOS at full power. View the full article

Boooo!!! Scared yet? No? Good. We're looking to help you make it a HAPPY HALLOWEEN this year by celebrating with savings across our Mobile Nations stores. Until Thursday, November 1st at Midnight PST, you can save 15% on ALL webOS accessories at the webOS Nation Store using coupon code treat2012 at checkout. And if you have non-webOS devices in the house - don't worry, we won't judge you to your face - you can use the same coupon code at our ShopCrackBerry.com, ShopAndroid, iMore, and Windows Phone stores. Don't forget, we have free shipping on US and Canada orders over $50, and great low cost international shipping options available as well. Don't be scared out of these savings... click the link below to get started! Take me to the webOS Nation Store now! View the full article

The worst kept secret out of Google's Mountain View campus was not about to be ruined by a hurricane. So with their New York City unveiling cancelled on account of Sandy threatening to inundate the metropolis with lots of water and a bunch of rain creating generally unsafe conditions for weary tech bloggers, they instead announced the new Nexus 4 smartphone built by LG through a press release. Our friends over at The Verge were able to go hands on with the Nexus 4 (along with the new Nexus 10 tablet), and there weren't many surprises after the phone had spent so much time getting leaked. But there was one surprise, one that made us go all "Come on!" here at webOS Nation. That's the inclusion of inductive charging in the Nexus 4, by way of a magnetically securing angled desktop dock: the "Wireless Charging Orb". We agree, that name is nowhere near as cool as Palm's old Touchstone. Adding insult to injury, the charger was demoed by none other than former Palm design chief Matias Duarte. Sure, inductive charging is nothing new. Electric toothbrushes have had inductive charging for years. The Palm Pre may have been the first smartphone to offer inductive charging, but it certainly wasn't the last. Today numerous manufacturers offer it, with a growing consensus settling around the Qi wireless standard. But to this point, none of these inductive charging solutions had offered the awesome simplicity and elegance of Touchstone. Hell, Nokia decided they needed an inductive charging pillow. Yeah, a pillow. The Wireless Charging Orb (gosh that's a Googley name) does more than just charge - throwing a Nexus 4 onto the charger activates a new "Daydream" mode on the Android 4.2 smartphone as it charges, where it can display things like photos, news, and other at-a-glance info. Sound familiar, webOS fans? Yep, it's Exhibition. Though in all fairness, with Android 4.2 and Google Now backing it up, Daydream is likely to be leaps and bounds better than what Exhibition on even the TouchPad could accomplish. Touchstone has proven to be a popular feature for webOS fans, with many even going so far as to modify their new non-webOS devices to charge off the old inductive pucks. Seeing as the Nexus 4 is a Nexus device, it's bound to be easily hackable and surely will be a target for Open webOS porting (though we suspect the WebOS Ports team will continue to focus on the older Galaxy Nexus). Could we finally have the inductively-charging modern webOS smartphone we've been waiting for in the Nexus 4? View the full article

Mobile Nations Podcast Feed Mobile Nations on iTunes Mobile Nations YouTube Google: Oct. 29 in NYC, the playground is open AT&T LG Optimus G review Android Central celebrates 1 million members! Brainstorming BB10: A closer look at the Flow experience within an app Proud to be a Black Sheep! BlackBerry Evolution - A look back at the long road of devices leading up to BlackBerry 10 Hands-on with the alpha Open webOS port for Galaxy Nexus WebOS Ports posts instructions for alpha Galaxy Nexus Open webOS port Open webOS booted onto Nook Color and Samsung Series 7 Slate Apple sends out invitations to October 23 iPad mini event iPad mini preview redux Win free iPods touch and nano from iMore! iMore show 320: Selling trucks Microsoft reveals pricing of its Surface RT Windows tablet, starts at $499 AT&T Lumia 920 exclusive for six months and some training videos leak too Xbox Music set to officially start rolling out tomorrow View the full article

When the Palm Pre launched on Sprint back in 2009, little 'ole Palm partnered with Amazon, offering the relatively new Amazon MP3 store (launched two years prior as the first online music store to offer tracks without DRM) as a pre-installed app. It was a good compromise for Palm, hoping to take on Apple's iPhone - remember when they were going back-and-forth-and-back-and-forth-and-back-and-forth-and-back-and-forth-and-back-and-forth with Apple, making the Pre impersonate an iPod when plugged into a computer and Apple updating iTunes to prevent that bit of hackery? Those were fun - and quite hilarious - days. Today, however, it's not so dandy as far as music on webOS is concerned. Sure, there's Pandora and Spotify, but if you want to download music onto your device, it seems you can now count Amazon MP3 out. As noticed by The Linked List, Amazon MP3 is no longer working as it ought to. The app will find albums and tracks just fine, but when it comes time to buy it, things start to fall apart. There are two issues. The Amazon MP3 app can be found on a number of webOS smartphones that were sold in the US, including the HP Pre3. The first problem has to deal with Amazon's Cloud Player streaming music player, a service that ties in nicely with Amazon MP3. Until recently, buying and downloading a song from the webOS Amazon MP3 app would see that song also automatically added to Amazon Cloud Player (the same happens when you from Amazon's Android app or from their website on a desktop). Now, it seems, that's not happening - the MP3 is successfully downloaded onto your smartphone, but the purchase isn't also transferred into Cloud Player. Sure, you can transfer the MP3 off your Pre via USB onto your computer and upload it to Cloud Player via Amazon's synchronization app, but that's just a pain. The other issue is more of a headache, especially if it arises in conjunction with the above. Some users of the Amazon MP3 app have been hit with an error of "Failed to complete that request. Try again later." after hitting the buy button. You might shrug and try again later as suggested, but in the meantime your credit card has been charged by Amazon for the MP3 you wanted but you have not the song in your possession. If it's not on your device and not added to Amazon's Cloud Player, then things get even more frustrating. You're out the money, with no music to show for it (Amazon Cloud Player has become Amazon's backup music downloading solution - all of your purchases are supposed to be in there). Being a decent corporation, Amazon has at least made it easy enough to lodge a complaint and get your money back. When we asked Amazon about the issue, they suggested that we make sure we have the latest version of the app installed from the Amazon Appstore for Android or Google Play (duuurh). It's clear that the webOS Amazon MP3 app has fallen off of Amazon's radar - the app hasn't seen an update since it's release in 2009, and we doubt it'll see an update ever in the future (especially considering that it's a first-generation Mojo framework app and Open webOS does not include support for that legacy framework). Our suggestion: just don't use the app. It's disappointing to not be able to download music anymore from Amazon or other sources, but thems the breaks when you're using a three-year-old-app on an abandoned smartphone. View the full article

Ah, webOS, it's good to see you again. Sure, I see webOS every day on my Pre3 and TouchPad, but they're starting to show their age. And, well, they're getting boring. Still great hardware and all, but just long in the tooth. So when I found out that WebOS Ports was targeting the Samsung Galaxy Nexus as their first Open webOS port device, you can imagine my excitement. "New hardware!" I shouted from the nearest hilltop. Having procured a Samsung Galaxy Nexus, so began the wait to be able to install Open webOS on my shiny new toy. It was an anxious wait, during which time I toyed around with the build instructions, getting to know my way around Ubuntu and Terminal (I'm a Mac guy who likes graphical user interfaces). At least I thought I was getting to know my way around - turns out I'm really only good for copying and pasting the commands given by the fine folks that hang out in the WebOS Ports IRC channel. Earlier this week we got the installation instructions, and after two days of utter headaches trying to hack my way around Ubuntu, swap space, the Android SDK, and the build process with minimal knowledge pertaining to the operation of any component, I finally managed to get Open webOS running on my Galaxy Nexus (again, with significant assistance from the WebOS Ports IRC gang - a number of the hurdles I as a 'normal' person encountered made their way into addendums to the instructions) It's webOS, as we know it on the TouchPad, but seriously stripped down. Open webOS as released to open source by HP is lacking in many areas, which we won't waste your time going over here. Suffice to say that even when the WebOS Ports team gets the Galaxy Nexus port running at full speed and all cylinders, there will still be significant application and services hurdles to overcome. But back to the port. It's still an early alpha state, and there are some things that would prevent you from using this as anything more than a guinea pig right now. It has to be tethered to your computer to boot. There's no working radio support, be it Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or cellular. The accelerometer doesn't work. Everything is absolutely tiny, being formatted for the four-times-larger TouchPad screen but still displayed pixel-for-pixel on the Galaxy Nexus. And it's not super stable or remotely optimized on many fronts. It's a proof of concept at this point that's rapidly evolving to what will hopefully someday be a fully functional device. Even as a development toy right now, it's still a delight to see and play with. Sure, I can't really do much with it so long as there's no radio functionality, but that will come eventually. In the meantime, I'm going to launch Calendar again and start swiping through the empty schedule. Video after the break. read more View the full article

As webOS users we are definitely no stranger to developers leaving our platform. Even before former HP CEO Leo Apotheker killed webOS hardware developers were already abandoning the platform by the boatload for "greener pastures". Fast forward to today where there is no webOS hardware to look forward to, a customer base that is shrinking by the day, and an uncertain future in the open source world and we are truly lucky to have any new app development at all. One has to be a true die hard webOS lover to continue to develop apps for the various webOS devices that we hold so dear. With that said, a "die hard" webOS developer leaving the platform kind of stings a bit. So when we heard the news that developer extraordinaire Syntactix announced that they would be dropping support for two of the most popular webOS apps we were a bit taken back. As of October 16 Syntactix developer Greg Hrebek announced that they will be dropping support for both YouView and Pack 'n' Track. These two apps were prime examples of webOS apps done right and really showed what was possible on the platform. As a matter of fact YouView (a YouMail visual voicemail client) won the Palm Hot Apps contest by a sizable margin earning Syntactix a cool $100k. Their other app Pack 'n' Track also won best Business/Finance app in our Best of 2010 awards. Last but certainly not least we had a nice in depth interview with Greg Hrebek (Syntactix President) a little over a year ago in our Developer Spotlight series. So to say that both Syntactix and their apps played a very big role in webOS history would be a huge understatement. So why if they are so loved and well respected in this community is Syntactix dropping support for their webOS apps? Well both apps are facing ongoing API changes which the now aged legacy webOS hardware simply does not support. Add that to the anemic webOS userbase and you're left with two projects that unfortunately do not justify further development. As much as it pains us to hear that it is the harsh reality of the situation. In closing Greg did say that Syntactix is interested in Enyo 2 and have been monitoring the framework's progress closely. So it wouldn't be too far fetched to imagine more of their great work in the future using the framework which is something we look forward too. In the meantime we here at webOS Nation would like to collectively wish Syntactix the best of luck in the future and thank them for all their hardwork and dedication over the years. View the full article

If you're feeling up for some time in Ubuntu's Terminal and have a spare Galaxy Nexus sitting around, then we might just have a project for you. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you can now get an early build of Open webOS on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus running all on your own. Unless you're like us (i.e. Linux noobs), in which case you might want to hold off for a more straight-forward installation method. The instructions posted by WebOS Ports do require some understanding of working in Terminal, or at least the ability to closely follow instructions and input the commands you're told to input. And, of course, you have to be willing to accept that this could bork your entire device and you'll have to start from scratch on all operating system fronts. Such is life on the alpha edge. The instructions come with a set of big scary warnings, which in essence can be boiled down to "you should at least have a vague idea of what you're doing and be willing to smartly ask for help". The installation process will be streamlined in the future, but for now it's not for the faint of heart. Alpha, people, alpha. At the very minimum you're going to need to install the latest version of Ubuntu Linux (thankfully, unlike the convoluted built process for raw Open webOS OE, it doesn't matter whether you've installed a 32-bit or 64-bit version). You'll also be installing the Android SDK and unlocking the Galaxy Nexus's bootloader, in addition to downloading and building the latest version of the Open webOS port (a process that even in our virtualized Ubuntu machine with two Intel Core i7 cores and 4GB of RAM took less than three hours). Build instructions for the Galaxy Nexus Open webOS port are located at www.webos-ports.org/wiki/Galaxy_Nexus_Build_Setup Installation instructions can be found at www.webos-ports.org/wiki/Testing_Gnex It's worth noting that even once the installation process is done, you're not going to have an Open webOS smartphone. There are still a lot of bit hurdles the WebOS Ports team is going to have to overcome. This build also ins't exactly portable - it's still reliant on files located on your computer. It's still an early alpha, so don't expect miracles. And have some patience too. If you're Linux noobs like we are, you'll need it. View the full article

This tip is currently only for devices running webOS 2.2.4 You always want to make sure that you have a backup of your critical data that you keep on your smartphone, and your contact list should be towards the top of your priority list when to comes to ensuring you have recent backup. If you use cloud-based synergy accounts for your contacts like Google Contacts, Facebook or Yahoo, you are probably less worried about having a backup since you can always go back to the source data and pull it down again. But if you use the Palm Profile or a different "local" account for your contact data, the only way to access your data is on the phone itself, and if the phone is lost or your backup gets corrupted, you run the risk of forever losing that data. Luckily, there is a rather simple method to perform an export of all your contacts to a .vcf (VCard or "Virtual Business Card") file by just dialing a code into the dialer. This is useful to not only create a backup of your data, but also would allow you to easily migrate your data to a different service like Google Contacts. Unfortunately, it appears that since webOS 2.1 this export does not include the "Spouse" or "Children" fields in your contacts, and the URL field is not saved with the right field type. This is obviously not ideal as you will no longer have a complete backup, nor will you be able to migrate all of your data to a different service. In order to combat this, webOS Nation forum member gizmo21 created the "Enhanced Contacts VCard Export" (available in preware) that will fix these issues when you perform an export of either a single contact or all your contacts. Currently, this patch is only available for webOS 2.2.4. If you would like to help gizmo1 test this patch for webOS 2.1 or 3.0.5, reply in the patch's forum thread to let him know. View the full article

There's a decent enough photo viewing app on the TouchPad. But that's what it is - decent. Sure, you can run a slideshow on it, but what about putting in music, changing the display order, and including captions for each photo? Well, that's where an app like the recently over-hauled Slideshow Presentation HD comes in - you can do all that and more. Transitions? It's got twenty-five. Zoom settings? Stretch or fill, even on a per-image basis. Want to do individual folders, or even files? Yep, it can do that. How much would this cost you? Normally it's $0.99, but we just so happen to have 100 copies to give away to you, dear readers. Contest: We have 100 copies of Slideshow Presentation HD 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 100 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 3.0.2 or higher with the latest version of the App Catalog. View the full article

Last month developer Bryan Leasot was kind enough to give us a very early preview of his up and coming Twitter app Neo. At the time the app was in an extremely early beta stage and was a little rough around the edges but showed a great deal of promise. Despite the app’s then rough edges, we really liked the extreme customization options found in Neo. To our knowledge, there is simply no Twitter client that allows such a deep level of customization. In the end we walked away impressed and looking forward to an official release of Neo. So here we are a month later putting the official version of Neo through its paces. Are we still as impressed as we were last month? Once you are signed in to Twitter, you immediately notice just how different the appearance of Neo is when compared to other Twitter apps on the TouchPad. Instead of the expected rounded boxes, gray menus, and webOS icons, you're greeted by a more angular look that is far from typical for a webOS app. While a squared-off interface is all fine and dandy, what makes Neo really stand out is this interface is customizable (although we must say we really dig the stock theme). Customizing Neo can be a rather time-consuming affair if you're as picky as we can be, but considering the number of things you can customize that's to be expected. Thankfully this is all accomplished via sliding bars to adjust the various colors, sizes, and other settings. The end result can be an app that is highly personalized. You can save your custom themes for later use and can even email your custom themes to share with your like-aesthetic friends (or whip up something awful and send them that instead). read more View the full article

Just when you thought things couldn't get any crazier for Open webOS, they have. Industrious developers have already booted the open source successor to webOS onto the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and the Asus Transformer Prime, and are working on getting it running on top of Android. The march onward and outward continues, with two new tablets getting demonstration builds of Open webOS and a new distribution meant to be booted off of an external disc. First up, lets take a look at those tablets getting a new welcoming into the Open webOS fold. We'll go in title order and start with the Barnes & Noble Nook Color, which got a demonstration courtesy of Ping-Hsun Chen of Taiwan. He managed to get Open webOS booting on the book seller's first-generation Android tablet, and much as with other builds there's still work to be done as far as getting it running up to speed is concerned. But it's a start, and the Nook Color is certainly an affordable alternative for those looking to jump into the Open webOS tablet game. Though judging by the speed - Ping-Hsun's build of for the Nook Color is currently lacking hardware graphics acceleration, and thus quite lagging - it might be a while before anybody's going to want to jump in for purposes other than tinkering. Interestingly, the Nook Color port seems to be of the desktop edition, and leverages the already-existing Ubuntu port for the tablet instead of the processor-agnostic OpenEmbedded version of Open webOS. read more View the full article

If your webOS smartphone is active on a cellular account, you probably have your Date and Time setting to automatically pull from the network connection for the time and time zone. However, if you are running your device without a cellular signal, even if it's connected to Wi-Fi, the network time will be unavailable and the time may start to slip. While a one or two minute difference will not affect your webOS experience, a significant difference will cause some things to break in how you use your phone. The clock and calendar appointments / reminders will be useless and you will be unable to perform actions like refreshing a twitter app or logging in to services like Instapaper because they check the timestamp on your device to make sure nothing unnatural is occurring. Having to manually update the time often can become a frustrating experience, but developer content754 has come to your resuce with Clock Sync, available in the official App Catalog for any webOS device that has App Catalog or App Tucketbox access Once you install Click Sync, just open up and app and you have the option to perform a onetime sync by tapping the "Sync Now" button. You can also set the app to perform a "periodic sync" every 2, 6, 12 or 24 hours by switching the toggle to ON and selecting your sync time. Alternatively, you can choose a specific fixed time by choosing the "+ Add new time" option under the "@TIME SYNC" section. Once the app is running, you can tap the icon to view a history of the time syncs. If you swipe down from the top-left to view the Application dropdown menu and choose Preferences, you can also choose some addition advanced features as well. You can select to turn on "Monitor Mode" that will not actually change the date and time during a periodic or fixed sync, but rather just keep a history of how far off your time is from the official time. In addition, you decide if you want to show or suppress notifications for when a time sync occurs Finally you can work with an experimental "Time Shift" feature that will add or subtract a selected number of hours or minutes to your clock's time. If you wanted to use this feature--especially if you do have a cellular signal on your device--make sure that the "Network time" option in the Date & Time app is turned off so this time shift will not be continually reset. Clock Sync is available in the webOS App Catalog for free and is compatible with all webOS devices running webOS 1.3.5 or higher View the full article

Mobile Nations Podcast Feed Mobile Nations on iTunes Mobile Nations YouTube On brand loyalty and blind hate LG's Nexus - here's what we know so far Samsung announces Galaxy S3 Mini BlackBerry L-Series Device appears in video?! Farewell Brick Breaker, I'll miss you Don't believe everything you read, Instagram is coming to BlackBerry 10 CrackBerry Podcast 091: Rusty, Ranty and a whole lotta fun! Open webOS Professional Edition to be how Gram makes money HP challenges claims of Lenovo's captaincy of the slowly sinking HMS PC Shipments Galaxy Nexus port getting a new virtual gesture area Apple iPad mini event indeed likely to be held Tuesday, October 23 iPod touch 5 gallery and iPod touch 5 vs. iPhone 5 vs. iPod touch 4 gallery Barriers to entry: Why Apple is making the iPad mini iMore Special Edition: Subscribe now via RSS or iTunes T-Mobile US officially announces the Nokia Lumia 810. Coming within weeks First look at the T-Mobile Lumia 810 First real pics of the Verizon Nokia Lumia 822 with Windows Phone 8 show up View the full article

If you've been in the webOS community for a while you are probably familiar with the name Arthur Thornton. His various contributions to the homebrew scene, popular apps, two-time webOS Developer Relations internship, and (most importantly wink wink) former webOS Nation writer status has made him pretty well known in these parts of the interwebs. Perhaps one the things that he known best for recently is his awesome TouchPad Twitter client Sparrow. We gave his app a rightfully good review because it turned out to be one of the best Twitter clients to grace our beloved platform. Needless to say, Sparrow is the "go to" TouchPad Twitter client for many of us here at webOS Nation, so you can imagine our excitement when we found out that there was more to come for the future of Sparrow. First and foremost Sparrow is getting a new name. Due to confusion with a very popular Gmail client for Mac and iOS (which was recently purchased by Google), the new name will be the homophonic but differently-spelled sprw (not meant to be said with your teeth clenched to avoid vowel sounds). The name change will also help Arthur better discover users that need help or would like to make feature requests with services like Twitter and in forums (you can just ask fellow webOS developer Zhephree about the troubles he's encountered with names like neato! and incredible!). With that said, most of us in webOS-land are fully aware that Sparrow in our world refers to an awesome Twitter client, so why bother with rebranding? Because the new sprw will be cross-platform, that's why. One of the greatest things about using Enyo 2 to build applications is how easy it is to take said app and push it to other platforms. After Arthur finishes building sprw for webOS, he intends to push forward with builds for other platforms. Shortly after the webOS version of sprw drops our friends over at CrackBerry will be happy to know that Arthur is going to push some awesome Enyo 2 goodness to Playbook users with a version of sprw for them as well. In addition to the Playbook version, Arthur also has plans to hit Android and iOS. Last but certainly not least, there will be an Open webOS build in the near future as well. So when can we expect to see sprw and what kind of new features will it be packing? Arthur will be starting a closed beta for sprw 2.0 later this month, if you'd like to inquire as how to get involved in the beta process, Arthur's accepting requests via Twitter. As to new features, all that Arthur would reveal at this point is that sprw 2.0 will have both a "light" and "classic" theme and that he'll keep the community posted on what he has in store as he moves forward. Ultimately, we're happy to hear that one of our favorite Twitter clients is going to be getting a major update, and as always we whole heartedly appreciate Arthur's hard work and dedication for this platform that we love so much. View the full article

Just a few days ago, Sprint confirmed they were exploring the possibility of selling a majority stake of their business to Japanese telecommunications company Softbank. While the deal hasn't yet been officially announced, Business Insider is reporting that the boards of both Softbank and Sprint have agreed on a $20 billion deal with will see Softbank acquire seventy percent of the third-place US cellular network operator. The deal, which is expected to be announced on Monday morning and still has a a few details to be worked out, will see Sprint transferring $8 billion worth of shares directly from the company, with Softbank buying an additional $12 billion from existing shareholders. The offer stands at $7.30 a share, a healthy 27% premium over the $5.73 closing price for shares of Sprint on Friday. Additionally, Softbank will take over a $3 billion bond from Sprint, clearing the way for the carrier to complete its purchase of the remaining half of floudering 4G wholesaler Clearwire. Clearly, Softbank is betting big on the US cellular market. They've experienced substantial success in building an LTE network in Japan, stemming from a 2006 purchase of Vodafone Japan. They'll have their work cut out for them with Sprint, however. While CEO Dan Hesse has been working for several years to right the pin drop network, Sprint's suffered massive subscriber losses to competitors AT&T and Verizon, dropping them into third place by a significant margin. Additionally, Sprint is playing catch-up with their LTE network, which is currently only available in a handful of cities. While Sprint lays claim to being the first to the market with a 4G network, their WiMAX network never particularly caught on with consumers and has fallen far behind AT&T and Verizon's LTE speeds (and the latter on coverage). According to Business Insider's sources, Softbank hopes to "build on Sprint's spectrum position", which will be enhanced once the buyout of Clearwire is completed, though apparently Softbank is hoping to further expand Sprint's spectrum holdings through acquisitions from and of other operators (say, Metro PCS?). Pending regulatory approval, the purchase is expected to close in six months. View the full article