jackson71

Microsoft assumed 3rd Place not that long ago, so no, BB isn't hanging on to anything but a thread at this point.

Difference is, it generally says, "Beta" right on the tin.

Lest we forget SixDegrees.

On #3, you want to ensure that the CSS is externalized and the class name non-obvious.

The amount of additional processing power it'd take to surmount this (and the other methods) from a spammer's end at scale would be incredibly prohibitive, and that's kind of the point.

A couple of ways I've handled the spam situation in the past:

1. Base64-encode your form field names and decode them server-side prior to processing, or...

2. Create one-time use field names using md5 hashes of random numbers, map them to their true fields and store them in a session. Then process against those on the server side post-submit and clear the slate. (I used this method more often than not.)

3. Control the visibility of the honeypot field with CSS rather than "type=hidden".

Using #1 OR #2 in addition to #3 I've never had to use CAPTCHA nor human tests. A few paid spammers have come around from time to time, but since automated software isn't sophisticated enough to pick apart which field's which it either doesn't even try or it throws whatever it can at the fields, getting locked up in server-side validation.

Bigger question:

How does Flash jive with responsive web design techniques, meant to provide one flexible interface for desktop and mobile form factors?

Answer: It doesn't.

There's pros and cons to both systems; it's merely a preference of mine after having a mixture of both Android and webOS devices for a couple of years now.

Installed it on my 32GB Touchpad last night; here are my observations so far (YMMV).

Pros:

+ It's an alpha, but impressively stable. No more than a couple force quits all night. No random reboots.

+ It feels a world faster than webOS already.

+ Battery life isn't optimized, but wasn't horrible, either.

+ Touchstone worked for me; even had a chime when docked.

+ Many apps I restored to the device worked wonderfully.

+ Did I say apps? I'll say it again: Apps.

Cons:

+ Obviously, not all apps work perfectly.

+ Wi-Fi was flaky on 802.11n (5Ghz). Turning on and off a few times fixed it.

+ Market reported being offline when everything else on the unit was connecting fine. See above Wi-Fi fix.

+ Market is filtering many apps, but here's a fix: http://forums.precentral.net/other-tablets/303534-how-guide-...

+ Unexplained slowdowns from time to time. It's Alpha. It happens.

+ Will wipe your /media/internal directory for repartitioning. Back it up first.

Overall, I'm really impressed with the speed and result of the CM7 Team's effort although I find myself missing the multitasking/switching component of webOS (but not the slowness).

The Pre3 and the Touchpad are the right thing? They may have been the right thing in HP/Palm's eyes at the time, but they're dead now. Flatlined. Time to let go.

I hope the hardware engineers land on their feet at other companies, but I have a hard time believing for a moment that 525 folks comprised the Hardware division alone and nobody else was caught up in this. Developer Relations and webOS Development seems to have escaped the axe this time, but if I were working there I'd be looking over my shoulder more than a couple times a day.

Unless webOS gets a new lease on life through either a coherent strategy or new hardware licensees (preferably both) VERY soon, it's dead. They had one massive dry spell during the transition to HP that killed what market share and most of the developer mindshare they had; they're not going to make it through another one and have both consumers and developers give it yet another chance. All but the most dedicated webOS developers have already left as it is.

My prediction: Once the CM7 (Android Gingerbread) port hits, most of the people who bought the Touchpad at firesale will evaporate away from webOS along with whatever developer revenue was left to be had, dual-boot or not. webOS will end up an embedded OS for menu-driven appliances and other applications of their ilk, but never see another non-enterprise consumer mobile device again.

Which leads you to wonder...525 people were assigned to hardware development? Really?

SHOUTcast's recent week-long on and off outage and subsequent crippling of their APIs is evidence enough of how seriously (or lack thereof) they take some of their properties.

Anecdotally, webOS devs, given the low threshold of competition and influx of new Touchpad owners, are doing pretty fantastic sales right now. Good for a quick return at least. Since HP's also being charitable and giving away 6-packs of apps for free (and paying the dev for each one at full regular 70% share), a couple of those devs picked found themselves 5-figures richer overnight. No idea how long they intend to keep doing it, but it seems ongoing for now.

Good platform for quick wins. Mid-term and longer, it'll largely depend on whether webOS finds new hardware with which to keep it alive.

On webOS, there's already the PDK.

This was the tactic all along in theory; the idea that web developers could immediately leverage their existing skills into the mobile space.

In reality, though, they never really focused on driving this point IMO, deferring to their own "webOS Meetups" and sending representatives to mobile conferences when they should have been sending their developer relations reps and evangelists to web development conferences such as An Event Apart.

You can already use jQuery, and you can package non-Enyo apps to submit and install as "native" already. A good number of both webOS 1.x, 2.x, and 3.x apps do this because of the familiarity.

- The Xoom and Droid commercials are nothing but derivative, dystopian futurist fluff, and the Verizon Android (read: non-Droid) commercials involving their retail outlets are seriously contrived crap speaking to easily-swayed lowest-common denominators in the crowd.

- The Touchpad's commercials are boring and tell me nothing about the device. Like others are saying, they tell me jack crap about the device, and the Russell Brand commercials that actually do? They might not be my tea, but at least they have some personality (comedic value debated). Haven't seen them on TV. Brilliant strategy there, HP!

- Apple's commercials are so well-received that rolling a commercial out based on a feature (see: Facetime) can generate sales because they know just who to market to and, by focusing on one device per form factor, have a history of trusted quality through said long-term focus on each of them. People actually know the models as opposed to the ton of "ManufacturerName Droidbot AspirationalPhraseHere" models being cranked out. They know the history. And, well, Apple's products "Just work" 99% of the time.

Disclosure: I own an Android tablet and an HP Touchpad. Fanboys amuse me.

It's a conspiracy!

The Pixi is nice as a form factor, but 1) it's incredibly old comparatively, and 2) will not officially run webOS 2.x, and especially 3.x.

I know others who loved the form factor and feel of the Pixi; I'm hoping HP decides to throw them a bone in the future to get them back.

WP7's suffering from its own developer adoption woes. The only problem with webOS' adoption, from my perspective as a webOS dev, has been marketing and hardware. Developing for webOS has been fun from Day One and continues to be nearly two years later.

The hardware part they look to have taken care of based on the Pre 3, Veer, and Touchpad I got to see and mess with back at their Dev Reception in February, and I'm pretty sure they have the money to market the product line now.

Having had a Pre since the day Sprint launched it in 2009, it's truly a hackerphone for those that want to customize their experience, and one of the primary reasons I've evangelized the platform and my experience developing for and tinkering with it to all the developer friends of mine that'd listen.

They got it right from the start. No bootloader crap or jailbreaking necessary. Preware from webOS Internals is just icing on the cake.

You want to be working on current-gen hardware if you're baselining future development efforts at 2.x going forward.

What you don't want to be using as your sole dev/test unit is a two year-old device using an unofficial workaround to get an OS version installed that was never intended to be used on it.

It's fine if you want to support those people that decided to use the workaround by having one of these franken-units around as a secondary edge-case device to test on, but it should never be the only device you use to develop and test with. I have a 1Ghz overclocked Sprint Pre at 1.4.5 as my "daily driver" and another Sprint Pre I've upgraded to 2.0 for testing such cases.

According to the HP webOS Developer Forums' Hardware Section, the offer's done. In fact, a lot of developers who took part are still waiting for theirs from back in February/March. The Pre 2 giveaway to developers really could have been executed better, IMO. Some folks who were approved back then don't even know if they'll still get one, which is disconcerting. Google can drop 5,000 special-edition Samsung tablets in a day, and HP's had almost three months to fulfill.

I respect that they could have just not given any away in the first place, but HP's in a critical spot right now trying to keep webOS relevant with developers--especially given that many in the first wave of webOS developers from '09-'10 have already long left the platform. Better communication on the status of the program and fulfillment would have gone a long way. I'm really hoping they can work the kinks out of the system when it comes to things like this with the resources HP has on-hand.