Palm Pre - WebOS

Along with the new phone, Pre is getting a totally new OS. The Palm OS hasn’t been changed greatly since the beginning. It went from monochrome when color was unheard of to a colorful version of a monochrome OS. It was meant to be used more like a PDA rather than a phone, and in fact the PDA aspect was the only option when released.

When more companies got into the smartphone market, the Palm OS died fast. So Palm had to go back to the drawing board and catch up with the twenty-first century. They started fresh, with something completely new and nothing like the earlier Palm OS.

Palm calls this the new OS WebOS. The name comes from the way it’s made. It’s based on Linux, a popular OS to build upon. Developing for the OS will be based on XHTML, JavaScript, CSS, and HTML. Palm said anyone that can use these languages to build programs and web pages can build applications for the WebOS.

Palm did this for two reasons. The first is to prevent programmers from having to pick up yet another programming language, when it seems like each device uses a different language. The second, along the same lines, is to encourage people to make apps, which really helped the iPhone.

Since the OS is completely new and nothing like the old one, backwards compatibility will be nonexistent. This is a killer to some people, but I think most will understand. Palm will provide the same apps that have been built into its old OS for years for the WebOS as well. Of course they will be updated and fit well within the WebOS. The OS will rely mostly on touch input, just like the Palm OS, but will also have support for physical keyboards as well.

The web browser will be based on a web kit, and support many different media streaming capabilities. Notably missing is Flash support, though Adobe and Palm are working on something now. Microsoft hasn’t said anything about support with Silverlight, though if the platform grows large enough, a version could probably be made. The biggest killer I have come across is that the SDK won’t be able to access all the hardware features, unlike other devices. This means that 3D devices probably won’t be possible, at least for now.

WebOS will bring some really interesting features to the phone. The biggest feature for business people is the ability to sync with Exchange servers, which Apple finally implemented. The Pre will have this out of the box. They also will have support for Google calendar and Facebook calendar. Props to them for supporting more than one type, as not everyone has an Exchange server. Microsoft still doesn’t have the ability to sync their Live Calendar with mobile devices; something many people would love to have.

This new personal information management is part of Palm’s new Synergy technology. They are trying to move away from a “sync” device to a push device, meaning that they want to remove the need to synchronize all your data with a single computer. They are attempting to use methods more akin to a cloud PC approach, meaning that everything is up-to-date at all times, and not just when they sync up two devices. But an important question comes out of this: will it kill battery life? Apple has attempted this same thing and it’s failed and has become a massive nightmare. Let’s hope Palm has learned from Apple.

Microsoft’s Windows Mobile is horrible at multitasking; Apple seems to have a better idea of how to multitask a mobile device. Palm has what they like to call activity cards. Each card can be flipped through so you can go from viewing a web page to your music to an email by flipping through the cards. It’s a great idea for keeping everything open and yet putting the focus on the current window. The biggest downfall here looks to be resources. Mobile devices aren’t the most powerful in the world; can the Pre keep with the demand?

When you want to search for something, you have to find your medium to search, such as YouTube, Google, yellow pages, or your contacts. Palm wanted to combine these into one search, so you have a search that will turn up the application, website, or contact you want. It’s a great take on a simple task. It will be interesting to see how long the search takes over using one for a certain area of search. If it takes twice as long or longer to load, then I think people are going to get impatient waiting for Joe Six-Pack to come up in their contacts.

Messaging is becoming a lot more complex. There’s instant messaging, with many different programs, emailing, and texting. With all of these different mediums, it’s hard to figure out the best way of contacting someone, and also managing conversations over different mediums. WebOS is looking to solve this. You are going to be able to integrate all of your texting, IMing and emailing into one conversation. It’s an interesting concept; I don’t see a huge need for this, but it is a nice feature. No other company has a feature similar to this, so this could be a huge selling point for the Pre and any future devices that use this WebOS.

One aspect that has really been a big hit with the iPhone and Google’s G1, is online music stores. Palm, like Google, will be using Amazon’s online music store. I would assume they plan a similar store for apps as well. I’m sure Sprint and other vendors aren’t too happy, but charging $3 a song to download to your phone is unethical. Songs should be 99 cents through Amazon.

Next: Availability >>
 

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