So that’s been a long while already! 2 months passed since the last release and we’re finally back with a new release called “Chai Latte”. We have been working very hard behind the scenes in the past 2 months upgrading our various builds & build infrastructure!
Continue reading LuneOS February Stable Release: Chai Latte
Shortly after the end of CES, I searched idly for any news from TCL. You may have read that they recently acquired the rights to make & sell Blackberry hardware. Longtime readers will recall TCL’s announcement at 2015’s CES that they had acquired from HP, the last remaining piece of Palm Inc: The brand name. To create an image for that story, I added Palm’s logo to the image on TCL’s website:
Since that announcement, where TCL encouraged the ‘Palm community’ to participate in developing a device worthy of the name, there has been silence. Now, some have speculated that we could see some kind of combined Palm/Blackberry wonder device, but so far only a Blackberry has been revealed. If you click the link, you can see the familiar keyboard style & this points up the difference between the two purchases: One is a license to manufacture a branded product including hardware & the software that runs on it. The other is just a brand name. Of course, nothing prevents TCL from making anything it wants & calling it a Palm device, but despite it’s recent travails, the Blackberry brand is a going concern with up to date & current technology. Palm is not.
In my search for TCL/Palm news, I of course visited the website & the image at the top of this story is from that site. My only change this time was to enlarge it. Note how the Blackberry logo has been added, then realise that the Palm logo doesn’t appear on their website & to my knowledge, never has.
Two years on from the 2015 announcement, this likely tells us all we need to know about the future of the Palm brand, but there is one optimistic spin that can be put on this: TCL own the Palm brand. There’s a lot more direct benefit from the Blackberry arrangement, but it’s a licensing deal & one that has resulted from Blackberry’s problems in selling it’s own product. TCL’s Alcatel brand has long been an affordable, no doubt profitable, but unspectacular also-ran in the mass market. The team-up gives TCL access to a technology leader, a respected brand & enables Blackberry to concentrate on software, letting TCL worry about selling product to the masses. If TCL succeed, some of the profit will return to Blackberry. If they fail or the deal turns sour for some other reason, they have another brand ready to be painted on a high-quality handset; A brand unencumbered by licensing fees or any other external requirements: Palm. But really, don’t hold your breath!
Merry Christmas! And we’re finally back with a new release called “Cappuccino”, just in time for Christmas and the New Year. We have been focusing on improving the underlying system stability, adding new features and upgrading various system components. Continue reading LuneOS December Stable Release: Cappuccino
We send our best wishes to our readers at this time of year. To those that celebrate Christmas, other seasonal festivals or none at all, be of good cheer for webOS still seems to be here for another year!
News crumbs is where we briefly note stories that may have some interest to webOS users. In light of the season, this one will be a little ‘fatter’. Let’s talk turkey.
That’s it for now. See you in the new year with an announcement about pivotCE.
The traffic sucked all the way there but NDrive on Marc’s Pre3 got us there all the same. It took us through the city instead of around and it was a busy Saturday night so traffic was really bad.
Pi Pizza was delicious as always.
In the picture is Marc, then Gary, then Atif and I took the photo. I took the photo with my Yotaphone 2 mostly to show up the EPD screen and how it winks at you when it takes a picture but also to catalog the attendees.
Gary wanted to know all of our Palm stories. Marc’s was the shortest with only coming over to webOS and the Veer. Gary’s and Atif’s were a bit more storied and mine I think is known at least to our readers.
Marc passed around the Windsornot and a TS2. I passed around my 64GB Go and Palm branded Veer (which I was “driving” that day).
The Windsornot was of course a highlight and a low point. Atif captured the mood well in his forum post.
Marc sells a ton of Veers. He has quite the collection of Veer parts. He brought 4, “seen better days” Veers and gave them away as party gifts. Nice guy.
Gary drove from New Jersey. Atif came from New York. Marc flew to visit me from Chicago and I planned the meetup since he was going to be here. That started the whole idea anyway.
