Palm Pre hacking woes
It seems that Palm’s new webOS operating system – as introduced on the new Sprint-distributed Pre smartphone – is incredibly easy to hack.
Popular blogs are picking up on reports that the Linux/Javascript/HTML-based operating system firmware seems to be very easy to modify – and that’s exactly what is being done.
All sorts of interesting hacks have been discussed including an emulator for Nintendo’s Entertainment System (NES) and even a way to simulate a Sprint phone activation.
There are reports that Palm is forbidding the Pre Dev WikiWebsite from posting one such hack – allowing the Pre to work as a wireless modem – during the Sprint exclusivity period, and apparently politely threatening to have the site shut down if it happens.
Sprint would probably object to someone signing-up for unlimited wireless text services and running other devices instead, They do not offer a “tethering” service plan.
According to Engadget:
“We have been politely cautioned by Palm that any discussion of tethering during the Sprint exclusivity period (and perhaps beyond-we don’t know yet) will probably cause Sprint to complain to Palm, and if that happened then Palm would be forced to react against the people running the IRC channel and this wiki.”
I guess this sort of thing is exactly why Apple, Google and Research in Motion keep tight control over the applications written for and distributed to their iPhone/Android/BlackBerry smartphones.
Sadly, my test sample has been sent back to Palm but you can see what I thought about the phone in my TSC video review: