All info can be found here: GPS Tracking @ Pre Dev Wiki

This little modification will allow you to track your Palm Pre if it ever gets lost or stolen.  Just ask this guy what he thinks about GPS tracking on his iPhone.

After implementing this GPS tracking method, your Pre will email you updates with GPS coordinates based on a predefined schedule.  The email you receive will contain the Pre’s battery information as well as a Google Maps link of where the GPS coordinates are pointing to.

pre gps track gmail emails

pre gps track gmail emails google maps

To start, you’ll need to have a rooted Pre with SSH access.

Instructions:

  1. Mount the file system with read-write access.
    mount -o remount,rw /
  2. Make a directory for the GPS tracking script we’re about to make.
    mkdir /home/scripts
  3. Add the code below to the beginning of the /etc/event.d/crond to enable the cron daemon at startup.
    start on stopped configure
    stop on runlevel [!2]
    description "crond"
  4. Create a crontab entry and schedule the tracking script to run. NOTE: I’m using nano as the text editor. If you do not have nano, you can install it using the Optware package feed, or just use vi as the editor.
    mkdir -p /etc/cron/crontabs
    nano /etc/cron/crontabs/root

    Add the following to /etc/cron/crontabs/root:

    */5 * * * * /home/scripts/track.sh

    The */5 means the script will run every time the number of minutes is divisible by 5. E.g. at 5, 10, 15 minutes, etc.  Increase the denominator for less frequent updates.

  5. Finally, create the track.sh script in the /home/scripts directory created in step 2.
    nano /home/scripts/track.sh

    Copy/paste the code below, but be sure to edit line 2 to include your email address

    #!/bin/sh
    DEST=YOUR_USERID@DOMAIN.com
    
    pos=$(luna-send -n 2 palm://com.palm.location/startTracking '{"appId": "ILovePalm", "subscribe": true}' 2>&1 | tail -1 | cut -d, -f4,5,8 | sed -r 's/[^-\.0-9,]//g')
    
    lat=$(echo $pos | cut -d, -f1)
    lon=$(echo $pos | cut -d, -f2)
    spd=$(echo $pos | cut -d, -f3)
    bat=$(grep BATTERY: /var/log/messages | tail -1 | awk '{print $8}' | sed 's/%,//')
    
    now=$(date)
    
    # Enable this below if you want to keep logs - not sure where to write them /var/home/root not the best place.
    # echo $now,$lat,$lon,$spd,$bat >>mygpsdata.log
    
    #Build a message variable for all the data to be logged.
    msg=$(echo $now,$lat,$lon,$spd,$bat )
    
    #Build message content to be sent
    msg2=$(echo $now Speed:$spd  Battery Level:$bat  URL http://maps.google.com/maps?q=$lat%2C$lon)
    
    ret1=$(luna-send -n 1 palm://com.palm.messaging/sendMessageFromCompose '{"recipientJSONArray": [{"value": "'${DEST}'", "contactDisplay": "'${DEST}'", "prefix": "to$A", "identifier": "palm_anon_element_8"}], "messageText": "'"$msg2"'"}' 2>&1)
    
    exit
  6. Reboot your phone to start the cron daemon and you’re finished.  You should now see emails coming into your inbox with the GPS coordinates of your Pre.  I just archive the emails in Gmail to keep my inbox from becoming cluttered.

Here’s the tracking in action:

pre gps track google maps


{ 2 comments }

Here are some followup pictures of my three day old InvisibleShield install on my Palm Pre (see the original install here).

Most of the air bubbles worked their way out, but there’s still one on the right edge that refuses to go away.  It gets smaller day by day, so maybe it’ll just take some more time before it vanishes completely.  The edges were OK at best; there’s some overhang on the front bottom edges.  However, the battery cover installation was pretty much flawless and looks great.

Had I taken a little bit more time, I may have been able to get a perfect install.  The good thing is, you can just send your InvisibleShield back and get a brand new one, which I’ll probably do once I get my replacement Pre.

Before:

palm pre invisibleshield front skin install

After:

palm pre invisible shield 3 days after install pictures palm pre invisible shield 3 days after install edges

UPDATE: 4 days after installation, the bubble is gone!

palm pre invisibleshield post install 4 days after


Before:

palm pre invisibleshield back after install

After:

palm pre invisible shield 3 days after install back cover palm pre invisible shield 3 days after install back cover 2

The skin certainly looks much better than it did immediately after the installation.  Just remember to work slow and get out as many air bubbles as you can before the skin starts to dry.  The edges are staying stuck on really well, even on the bottom edge where I screwed up.

http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/ericcnguyen%40gmail.com/private-c535451a4804d3f301b8e027ece16325/basic

{ 6 comments }

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The first thing I did before [...]

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Palm Pre How To Guide – Enable Tethering Over Bluetooth!

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Credit goes to fish199902 for this one.  Basically, you setup an SSH tunnel to the Pre, which supports running as a SOCKS proxy.  You then configure your browser to point to this proxy and BAM, you’re tethering away.
First, you must have rooted your Pre and installed/enabled SSH.
Connect to your Pre’s NAP (network access point) via [...]

99 comments Read the full article →

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Now, these aren’t your typical GUI applications, these are Linux console apps.  For 99% of the users out there, this doesn’t mean squat.  However, the hacker and developer community probably shat their pants earlier today (I know I did).
Programs are installed through the Pre’s built in ipkg package manager.  Installing programs is as easy as [...]

3 comments Read the full article →

Palm Pre Hacked – Enable Developer Mode and Gain Root Access!

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Hot damn, only 4 days after the release and people have already figured out to gain root access to the Pre!
Credit goes to dsevil from the PreCentral forums for discovering the now infamous Easter Egg left by the Palm developers.  Those sneaky, but hilarious, developers found a way to incorporate the “Konami code” into WebOS.  [...]

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iPhone 3GS – Part Success, Part Fail

June 9, 2009 PDA / Smartphones

Straight from Apple’s site:
http://www.apple.com/iphone/iphone-3g-s/
Let’s take a look at the new features:
“The Fastest iPhone Ever” – Claims that the new 3GS is up to twice as fast as the 3G model.  Seeing as we don’t know any hardware specs, nor can we trust Apple’s tainted advertising reputation, we’ll just have to wait till the phone comes [...]

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Palm Pre Multitasking and Speed Test Video Demonstration

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Alright folks, here’s what was lacking on most all review sites: a good demonstration of the Palm Pre’s multitasking capabilities.  In the video, I’m opening some commonly used apps and switching between them via the Card view.

As you can see, there was very little slow down, even after multiple apps were opened. Try doing the [...]

3 comments Read the full article →