Like most things involving WebOS and the new Palm devices, the Facebook app for WebOS is underwhelming. Actually, it’s worse than that, considering how far app development has come since the smartphone app craze started. Maybe they should get Joe Hewitt involved? I hear he’s done with that other project he’s been working on.

The problem is just a total lack of features. You get unfiltered news feeds, even if you’ve unselected application updates in your profile, and videos and links pull you out of the app. Sure it’s nice to multitask but to do so unnecessarily is just silly. There’s seemingly no search feature, no way to access events, and clicking another person’s name seems to bring up little more than contact info.

What can you do? Well, you can upload pictures and post status updates and…well that seems to be about it. Another compelling reason to get a Palm Pre.

Rumors that Nokia might take a look at purchasing Palm resurfaced today, giving Palm stock an eight percent bump. It’s a deal we’ve been hearing about for months, though not always with Nokia as the buyer. There have also been rumors that Dell or Microsoft could nab the struggling mobile company.

Let’s consider the Nokia thing for a minute, though. I would be amazed to see it drop the estimated $2 billion to purchase Palm, especially since Palm isn’t exactly going gangbusters. Stock dipped 30% after this same deal failed to mature in September. So why would Nokia spend so much just to acquire the company, not to mention the marketing that Palm needs to stay alive, when the Finnish handset manufacturer is bleeding market share to Apple every day? It just doesn’t make sense.

Palm’s struggling stock is a clear reminder that the company needs help, but I don’t think it would bring enough value to any of the potential buyers to make a deal reasonable. If anything, Nokia could license WebOS for a facelift on a few devices, but even Palm’s operating system seems to have an expiration date looming in the near future.

Palm has finally given in to the idea that open development is the way to go on the Pre. At a conference today where the prime topic was the future of WebOS, the company announced that it would be allowing developers to distribute free apps over the web.

I would call this the Pre’s saving grace if it weren’t coming so late in the game, because it’s an incredible idea. Developers simply submit the apps to Palm on a review-/censor-free basis and receive a URL back for full distribution. On top of that Palm is waiving the $99 fee for developers using the free distribution method. Regular app submission for the App Catalog will still cost $50. The last brilliant stroke in Palm’s terribly tardy plan was giving each of the developers at the WebOS conference a free Pre with a month’s service and a Touchstone dock. The whole thing is really a great idea…3 months ago.

At this point developers are working with such a small user base that even free phones and unbridled distribution may not be enough to win them back. The Pre needed to see healthy app growth at launch. Instead the store was stagnant as Palm struggled to get the SDK out on time. This new program could have fostered explosive growth then, but now it will probably look more like Palm’s last flash in the pan.

Source: TechCrunch

For a phone that’s billed to do things differently from the iPhone, Palm sure has gone to a lot of trouble to make the Pre sync with iTunes. The company released WebOS version 1.2.1 recently, which brings back iTunes sync along with a few maintenance fixes.

The funny thing is, the Pre could sync with iTunes via an xml file, which is an Apple approved and supported method for third-party devices. Instead, Palm keeps trying to find ways to make the Pre look and perform like an iPod, something about which Apple is none to happy. So why bother? Why keep fighting back against every new iTunes update that breaks the functionality?

Craig Hunter, a mobile developer who we’ve talked about for his tough review of the WebOS SDK, said it best:

Clearly, other companies know how to sync painlessly with iTunes music (see RIM’s Blackberry Media Sync for example), so why doesn’t Palm develop a syncing solution for their own hardware? …I seriously question the strategy and brains of any company that ties critical product capabilities to the unsupported use of their competitor’s software. I mean, really? Can it get any more ridiculous? Can you possibly send a more mixed, less confidence-inspiring, “we’re a bunch of hacks who can’t provide our own sync software for our products” message to customers?

Well put, Craig. Well put.

Palm’s Pre has been getting price cuts all over the place since launch, proving at once that Palm really wants to get the phone into your hands and that consumers don’t like it enough to pay more than they would for a messaging dumb-phone. There’s even a deal for the next couple days to get a Pre for free. Palm could be selling the Pre for full price, though, if they would just get it together already.

By get it together I mean release a full-fledged app store. The App Catalog is still a pathetic shadow of what it could be, with too few apps and no paid support. With the 1.2 WebOS update that just went live users can finally re-download previously purchased apps for free, but the update really didn’t do much else. Nevermind that enormous changelog, which is mostly just optimization of existing features, Palm needs a major update to make the phone desirable. Until that happens, they can plan to watch Apple’s own store grow exponentially, shrinking Palm’s potential user base one iPhone at a time.