HP to Contribute webOS to Open Source. Guess they finally figured out what to do with it. Interesting to see if anything happens now....
Found on Everything Pre about the Palm Countdown showing (currently) just over 3 hours until the future of WebOS to be revealed (noon PST).
This actually interests me way more than the latest batch of Android tablets. WebOS had a unique interface (definitely not me-too iPhone-like UI) and was sadly hobbled by horrible (IMHO) hardware and (as I understand) horrible carrier contracts. I'm intrigued to see what they do with this.
Also isn't this OS going on the "iPad Killer" that HP announced last year that was going to run Windows 7?
Update: Some news on the release, and the Live feed link from Engadget.
Update2: A few quick thoughts. They have the Veer (tiny smartphone) the Pre 3 (bigger, "business" phone) and the Touchpad. I'm not a fan of the slider keyboards, and I hope that the Pre 3 doesn't suffer from the horrible "feel" that I had from the original Pre. Also the 8/16G sizes are ok, but compared to the 16/32G on the iDevices... well, I like lots of media lets just say, but I know I'm not the norm.
Also for a company that claims to innovate, this shot looks really similar to something familiar.... Their "stacks" way of doing multitasking and showing running apps is pretty awesome though, as does the "Exhibition mode" the phone OS goes into when you put it down and the fact the tablet and phone work nicely together.
These are available summer/fall, and that's a long time. In theory the iPhone 4s or 5 and iPad 2 will be out by then, both with probably bumped specs and more refinement in the OS, meaning that while the new Palm/HP warez look good for now (maybe even a bit ahead if you look at the tablet having front/rear cameras), in 6 months when they actually see the light of day, they could be fairly behind the Apple/Android leaders of the pack.
However it's great to have a 3rd (or 4th if you count Windows Phone 7) horse in the smartphone/tablet race.
9-5 Mac has the scoop on the new webOS 2.0, along with a nice laundry list of features in press release such as multitasking, "just type" to start creating content without opening an app, Flash, Skype (verizon only wtf), plus more.
I'm not sure if this will bring Palm HP back into the game for mobile smartphones, but it's definitely good to see it giving a go. I wonder if this is now their last last chance?
Some interesting stuff in the details for webOS 2.0. Some interesting stuff for sure, but I'm wondering where it will appear, and if whatever device(s) it's on have a chance of gaining market share, with or without the most awesome UI ever. As we've seen time and time again, the best does not always "win" :)
Jamie has dumped his Palm Pre and has gotten an iPhone.... sounds like it just wasn't working out. I'm actually a bit sad about this, as much as I love the iPhone, I also know that for it and the smartphone market in general to flourish, there has to be competition. Not that JWZ indicates that the Palm is dead, but a high profile techie giving the thumbs down to Palm gives a certain indication...
He does have a list of irritating bugs, but says that the biggest reason he went to the iPhone is "it just fucking works", which IIRC, is the battle cry of Apple fanboys.
The Palm Developer Blog has details of the just-opened Palm app store. Maybe they're going to be the ones to take advantage of the PR fails that the Apple app store has had recently. Hopefully Palm will learn from Apple's mistakes, and have as much success as they've had. They have a long way to go to get the 50,000 (or however many they have) apps that Apple has (though I'd say 80% of those are crap anyway).
Remember how Palm said their Pre would sync with iTunes, and everyone said "oh, wonder how long that'll last?". Then Apple released iTunes 8.2.1 which "fixed" iPod authentication issues (and restricted access to Palm devices? And as expected, Palm webOS 1.1 is now available and it fixes iTunes 8.2.1 syncing.
Anyone want action on an iTunes 8.2.2 release that fixes the unfixing of the fix? Or maybe some sort of deal, or law suit, cause really, this is going to turn stupid really fast.
Well, there's only 50 sold out there (I kid, I kid), Evernote has created Evernote for the Palm Pre. I'm a big fan of Evernote, so this is good news. The software has the standard bits, image recognition, sexy interface, take a pic, use a pic, etc. It also has some nice pre-only extras, like 'recent notes' (wish the iPhone app had that) and viewing multiple notes at the same time (using the cool "card" system that the Pre uses).
If you haven't discovered evernote yet, I encourage you to check it out and sign up for the free version.
Tom Reestman over at the Apple Blog (note: may be a bit biased) has some thoughts on some of the Palm and Sprint screwups in the Palm Pre release.
Palm Central (so you know this might have a bit of a slant) has their Palm Pre Browser vs iPhone 3G, vs Android G1 Showdown. Sadly the speed tests are pretty unscientific. The browser does seem pretty sexy, I have to admit. I'd love to get a test version to play with and review (hint hint). The actual meat of it starts around 3:30 if you want to skip some of the fanboying at the start (though it's good to see what the browser is capable of.
Yea, the jokes just keep on coming and coming. You'd almost thought it was a pre-mature time for the Palm Pre-views to show up, but I guess since it'll be released this Saturday (anyone lining up?), it's good to get an idea of what the new handset is capable of. As usual, Engadget does a great job.
Sprint has announced some details on their Palm Pre page. The details? $199 with a 2 year contract and available on June 6th.
Very interesting, and some good discussion on the MacBreak Weekly last week about the timing being so close to the new Apple Event in June, and the (theoretical) announcement of the next generation of the iPhone. Palm's danger is now everyone will compare this to the new (theoretical) iPhone, or if they had announced later, it'd be lost in the shuffle.
Personally I'm pretty interested in the Pre, even though it isn't going to be available in Canada as far as I can tell. New and interesting technology is always cool :) I do hope that Palm can pull it off, cause competition is always good :)
Gizmodo - Palm Pre's First Apps Hands On: Seriously Good-Looking Programs - Palm Pre Apps
I have to admit the actress's voice is a tad creepy :) Gizmodo - New Palm Pre Promo Vid Shows Fandango, Pandora Apps; Multitasking Galore - Palm pre video
demo video of the Pre in action
Rumor: Palm Pre Beta Tester Gives April 30th as Planned Release Date
Rumor: Palm Pre Beta Tester Gives April 30th as Planned Release Date
Obvious: Palm CEO Confirms That, Yes, There Will Be More WebOS Phones
