LinkedIn syncs with Synergy on the Palm Pre
In June, I was excited to announce that LinkedIn launched a native application for the Palm Pre. Since then, we’ve gotten quite a bit of feedback about the new platform, and as expected, quite a few feature requests.
I’m happy to report that as of today, as part of Palm webOS 1.2, the most common feature request from LinkedIn members has now been delivered: seamless syncing of your LinkedIn connections to your Palm Pre, via Palm Synergy. Now every application on the Palm Pre can benefit from the information provided by your LinkedIn network.
The process is incredibly simple:
- Make sure that you have received the new webOS 1.2 over-the-air update on your Palm Pre. LinkedIn is only available with Palm webOS 1.2 or later.
- Click the “Contacts” application
- Select “Preferences & Accounts” from the menu
- Click “Add An Account”
- Select LinkedIn, and enter your LinkedIn email address and password.
That’s it. You’ll find your address book, available to all applications, is now sync’ed daily with your LinkedIn connections. The following fields will be automatically updated with every connection:
- Email address
- Title
- Company
- Photo
In addition to integration with Palm webOS, we’re also pleased to announce that we’ve uploaded the v1.0 of our LinkedIn for Palm Pre application. It features a number of performance improvements, and offers an improved user experience for search, the number one feature for mobile professionals. Now there is even less excuse to walk into a meeting without taking 30 seconds to type in their name and get the full detail about their professional experience.
We appreciate the feedback that you’ve given us on our first Palm Pre application, and we hope you enjoy these improvements. Stay tuned, we’re planning to roll out additional LinkedIn mobile enhancements in the near future.
Tags: adam-nash, palm-pre-linkedin-application, palm-pre-synergy, palm-synergy
trackback
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LinkedIn syncs with Synergy on the Palm Pre | Pablo Gil Blog - Mobile Technology and Software September 30th, 2009
[...] Blog Linkedin [...]
David September 30th, 2009
This sounds great. I’m just wondering when us blackberry users will get the same functionality. I’m puzzled as to why blackberry wouldn’t be a higher priority than pre…
Jacob Cynamon September 30th, 2009
David, I’m similarly surprised that Palm Pre was supported before Windows Mobile, iPhone, Blackberry or even Android. Each platform has a substantially higher user base and each of the four continues to grow, whereas the Pre has already been steeply discounted from its original retail price and it’s questionable how it is faring on market penetration.
I know that the Pre OS has support for some unique social networking integration, but I don’t know that this is the most strategic roll-out that LinkedIn could make into the mobile space. As a Windows Mobile user, my Windows Live contacts sync directly into my Contacts and the native Facebook application allows me direct access to all of my Facebook contacts for phone calling.
As an avid LinkedIn user and supporter, I’m a bit disappointed that Pre was the first platform supported with a native mobile application. If LinkedIn would be more open with their API, I’m sure several of us in the community would jump at the opportunity to develop intriguing applications integrating LinkedIn data with the broader world. I can’t profess to understand LI’s API strategy, but it seems to be a bit divergent from most other major tech players these days.
Adam Nash October 1st, 2009
David,
The Blackberry platform is one of our highest priorities for LinkedIn mobile. We hope to have some great news to announce for our Blackberry users in the coming months.
Palm Synergy integration for LinkedIn is a part of webOS 1.2 itself, developed by Palm. We’re extremely excited about it, and it reflects Palm’s dedicated to providing deep support for LinkedIn in its platform.
Hope this helps.
Adam
Adam Nash October 1st, 2009
Jacob,
The question is totally understandable, although I need to correct some facts here. Our first native mobile application was launched for the iPhone, weeks after that platform launched in 2008. The iPhone truly revolutionized support for third party application development and distribution, and LinkedIn jumped at the opportunity to provide the convenience and performance of a native application.
As you mention in your comment, Palm Synergy is technology built into webOS itself to manage synching with cloud-based services like LinkedIn. This has enabled them to rapidly develop and launch integration with LinkedIn.
We’re actively working with a large number of partners to bring LinkedIn to as many mobile platforms as possible. A vast majority of professionals are heavy mobile users, and we want to ensure that they have access to their LinkedIn services whenever (and where ever) they need them.
Adam
Jacob Cynamon October 1st, 2009
Wow, color me embarrassed. Somewhere deep in the recesses of my mind, I knew that there was already an iPhone app – I am always seeing the banners on LinkedIn to promote the app. Not sure how that slipped my mind.
Adam, thank you for the prompt and clarifying response. Regarding the API access, are there plans to open up the API more publicly in the near term? At this point, the API currently appears to be somewhat available pending a thorough vetting from the LinkedIn API team. Why such a protective layer between developers and the API?
LinkedIn Makes Profile Organization Easier - Programming Blog October 2nd, 2009
[...] Profile Organizer can be found in the contacts tab. This week LinkedIn also launched a native application for the Palm [...]
solarpoolwoman October 3rd, 2009
thanks for the seamless syncing of LinkedIn connections to Palm Pre, via Palm Synergy. I love it, makes things easy for me.
Jim October 3rd, 2009
Thanks for this. We’re loving the Palm Pre, and many at the office have converted to Palm Pre from iPhone and Blackberry. It truly does have a terrific user experience. The iPhone is so “2007″. Don’t believe any of the popular press on Palm’s woes. They’ve got a real winner here.
J
Dan Yurman October 3rd, 2009
Well I realize that the iPhone is the hot ticket, but Linkedin on a Blackberry isn’t much fun. Given your role as a “business network,” I puzzled why there isn’t a better mobile application for the service.
Marc K October 9th, 2009
@Dan, I would agree, and go so far as to say that the Blackberry is the ideal platform for the LinkedIn service.
As an example- Take a look @ the Facebook Blackberry app. They offer the ability to link Friends to contacts that already exist in your address book, and if they exist in your address book, but your not friends with them, FB looks up their email address and allows you to add them.
All this is done directly from the phone. With Blackberry’s stronghold on the corporate business environment, and such an incredibly large address book, I would find this functionality with LinkedIn to be almost essential.
But, while I’m on the subject, I’m also surprised that while LinkedIn allows for the importing of contacts through Gmail, they do NOT support hosted Google Web Domains. Sites such as gist.com allow an API call to select gmail.com OR Google hosted domain. Since having a domain name as opposed to @gmail.com is more professional, I would think that this would be ideally supported by the LinkedIn platform; and am quite disappointed that it is not.
Palm Pre – In Depth « Girls n Gadgets October 26th, 2009
[...] is open to the development community, and LinkedIn have recently added synchronisation. It’s an absolute triumph, and one of the most interesting pieces of software I’ve seen [...]
Ivan October 30th, 2009
People, that’s because app development like linkedin is the easiest on WebOS, it’s a no brainer for linkedin to take advantage of the Synergy feature. There are still many missing basic features still missing from the Web OS 1.2.1, but Synergy is the best way I’ve seen in all mobile OS to centralize contacts and profiles.
If you wonder why this feature isn’t done on Blackberry nor iPhones yet, you should have started with the question why those devices don’t have Synergy-like features.
Palm Pre « dale lane October 31st, 2009
[...] get some of the new versions of third-party apps I’ve read about in the US – like the LinkedIn app with Synergy support to add your LinkedIn contacts to the Pre’s contacts [...]
Palm Pre – In Depth | GirlyGeekdom November 5th, 2009
[...] is open to the development community, and LinkedIn have recently added synchronisation. It’s an absolute triumph, and one of the most interesting pieces of software I’ve seen [...]
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