Palm Adding Yahoo, LinkedIn to Synergy, New Facebook App too! 35
Not everybody’s in love with Google, not all of you have an Exchange server that you can hook into, and the all-or-nothing Facebook sync approach leaves some to be desired. Thankfully, Palm’s seen fit to work with more cloud-based PIM repositories to expand the functionality of Synergy to include Yahoo! and LinkedIn sync support.
LinkedIn sync will allow you to access all of your LinkedIn contacts, including pulling down their job titles. Yahoo! support, meanwhile, will bring contacts and calendar synchronization, along with integrating Yahoo IM into the Messaging app alongside Google Talk, AIM, SMS, and MMS. Yahoo’s support also comes with push email.
This functionality will ship standard on the Pixi, but no word yet when the Pre will see it - perhaps it will come on the 1.2 webOS update, perhaps on a later build. The version of the webOS I saw on the Pixi today was 1.2, but it was clearly a later build than the version of 1.2 that we've all seen before.
Palm also demo'd the new Facebook application. It unfortunately doesn't look all that feature-filled. It primarily works off your friends feed, letting you browse status and wall updates, look at photos posted (in a very nice gallery interface), and update your own status. In all, it's a 1.0 product for sure, it definitely lags behind the iPhone app and in many ways lags behind the Facebook web interface. No word yet on when it'll be available for the Pre.
35 Comments
LinkedIn is already in the leaked 1.2.
wow i hope facebook is in the final 1.2 we are getting
Wasn't there a battery-sucking bug ID'ed in the Messaging app for if users had AIM turned on (via Google Talk) by the first rash of reviewers? Has that been fixed? If it hasn't, then, based on the duration of even my extended battery, I don't think I'll use the IM portion of the messaging app...which makes this feature, as useful as it could be, essentially useless, no?
Yes there was a battery-sucking bug on the AIM portion of the instant messaging. Fortunately, this got fixed in the following update (a few updates ago). So basically no, not useless. Im quite excited to see yahoo added onto synergy and IM. It would be very useful.
I hope Pre 1.2 has Yahoo!!! That is what I have been waiting for...should I have waited on the Pixi???
I'd almost guarantee that anything the Pixi gets, the Pre will get, and vice versa. The only differences will most likely be a few system-wide CSS files to account for the resolution differences.
Let's hope that the new Facebook app isn't finished and they will try and add chat before the final drop of it. The huge selling point to facebook app that the iPhone has over the pre is chat. Facebook is a social networking tool, WE NEED CHAT to come with it please!!!
let's hope facebook makes their own app that's decent. isn't that what they do for iphone. seems like this is a half assed effort that will only have people complaining about how bad it is. Not looking forward to that. hopefully someone will make a good one soon.
We need more than chat with the Facebook app...
I know we can post pictures from the Pre's photo gallery, but I'd sure like to have a way to do it that allows me to attach a comment or two as well.
I'd also like to have a way to use the groups of friends I've already set up on Facebook as a way of filtering the live feed.
I'd like to have a way to delete comments.
If they really want to do something over the top that would also probably be a good selling point, how about working with Zynga to see if there's a way to adapt Mafia Wars on Facebook to work with the Pre? This would also provide a significant "leg up" on the iPhone... Then maybe Palm won't have to worry about fixing iTunes anymore... :-)
It doesn't matter, it's the same exact operating system. Updates for one phone will be applicable to the other.
Besides that, this is clearly the low-end Palm product, where the Pre is the (current) flagship. Of course the Pre will still be updated.
The webos 1.2 on the pixie looks great. I would be happy with yahoo integration and the lackluster facebook app that they have featured here for the next 1.2 update for the pre. The current 1.2 leaked updates i have seen are also welcomed additions. I'm definitely sticking with my pre, it's only going to get better.
What about MSN Messenger?
I think you can sync your msn contacts with yahoo.
I would like to see a feature in Facebook where you can choose the list you want to sync.
Better question are they going to do this for the Palm Pre. it is nice that we are seeing this for the Pixi. But this should have been for the Pre first. I love my Pre, but I am not going to downsize for a phone that does not even have WiFi. Any and every smartphone should have WiFi, correction has Wifi. It is like having a car without the engine. At least with the Pre you can update here and there. And that is mostly through this website. Palm is too focused on one upping IPhones. They should be more focused on making the product better for the people not Apple.
Again, I love my Pre I love the fact that I can prioritize my contacts. And calendar kicks ass. As well as the web. But the should have put video they should have put Y messenger. And battery life is terrible, so much so that I have to get a battery from another service other than Palm itself. Overall the Pre is a great phone. But if they want to reel in mmore customers "kill the shit" out of the Pixi. Put in Wifi put in Video as well as taking pictures. Make is better and easier for the public. That way people will say, "this is the easiest smartphone to use". As opposed to "this is too slow, battery life sucks, and can they make it faster". If Palm can do that I would be the first in line for the Pixi. Until then I am sticking with my Pre which I can modify at the drop of a dime. I am sorry that I am ranting and raving. But it just feels like nobody s really giving the Palm Pre a chance. And it feels like Palm is just pushing off the Pre tot he side for this "Pixi". But hey I can be just wrong.
I dont think they want to 1 up the pre. From my point of view, the pre will keep being the flagship phone for a while.
All i wanna do is Yahoo IM and copy/cut/paste/forward a texts message like every other phone I've owned since I began texting...
Regarding the Facebook app, is there any word on whether they are improving the photo upload interface to facebook? In the iPhone and Blackberry facebook apps, it is simple to caption and tag a photo as you upload it, on the Blackberry, you can even do this from within the Camera app, right after you snap a photo, making it very convenient for sharing life-in-action shots.
Coming from that world to Palm recently was somewhat disappointing and took a bit of adjustment. Sure the camera is a lot better, and my pictures are nicer to look at, but it takes 10x as much effort to share and present them with my friends as it used to with my old Curve.
I literally have to load up the browser, open the regular facebook site (x.facebook.com doesn't allow photo re-captioning or tagging), browse to my pictures, zoom in to the interface elements because it's hard to hit those tiny links with my fingers, and then change the captions, and add tags, panning around on the litle screen, because I'm zoomed in so much.
Would be so much nicer if there was just an interstitial to add the metadata to the photo as I was uploading, like the Berry and iPhone app offer. This really should be part of the basic upload interface anyway.
You can upload photos to Facebook directly from within the Photos app.
Yes, but the Photos app doesn't provide all the necessary functionality to really make using photos with Facebook useful.
Isn't Pixie for Pixies? =)
I just hope that all this becomes available in Europe at the SAME time as in the States.