Palm: Pre, webOS & app discussion

[editor]

There's a lot to mull ovr with the Palm too: the fact that you could have two emails from different accounts open and active at the same time is a real boon, and having a couple of Word docs and browsers open and copying and pasting between them is nothing less than 100% win.

 

[editor]

The Pre is starting to be seen in celebs hands, which means that a launch must be very close now...
http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/23/palm-pre-handled-handed-out-to-celebrities/

 

[Private Storm]

Palm's website has been updated too, feel a launch coming on soon.

http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/Palm_readies_Pre_for_UK.html

http://www.palm.com/uk/en/products/smartphones/pre/

 

[editor]

That TealOS (webOS copy) interface/skin for older Palms really is superb. The real thing is going to be awesome!

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Not so sure about a launch soon, from I've read no celebs have the Pre they were just allowed to play with a unit.

Also there's apparently been a security issue which has meant more testing, the next round not due to start until April.

June is what I've seen as the likely release date....

 

[editor]

Also there's apparently been a security issue which has meant more testing, the next round not due to start until April.

June is what I've seen as the likely release date....

Business bods are confident:

Palm’s new hail-Mary handset, the Pre, has serious Miracle-in-Miami potential if the latest word from Deutsche Bank is to be believed.

In a note to clients today, Deutsche analyst Jonathan Goldberg was decidedly optimistic about Pre’s chances of lifting Palm (PALM) out of its downward spiral. “After channel checks and a company meeting with Palm at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona we are raising our rating on Palm to Buy,” he wrote. “We see clear signs that they are capable of executing to plan and shipping the Pre at least on time. We found a lot of carrier interest in the device as well.”

That bodes well for Palm, which appears to be well on its way to reversing its long downward trajectory and shifting the company story from also-ran to in-the-running. “Palm has been beaten down for so long that even a modest success could generate significant earnings leverage,” Goldberg concluded. “Numbers in the next two quarters will still be dismal, but the Pre offers a meaningful break with the past.”

http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20090223/palms-pre-salvation-in-sunnyvale/

 

[Kid_Eternity]

It's possible it's Palm pr plan to get people thinking it's coming later so they can go 'ta da!' but I'm not convinced. Something sounds right about the delay to me...

 

[editor]

Cute. Engadget have now made a 'hub' for all the Palm Pre news and info.
http://www.engadget.com/hub/palm-pre

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Very neat, just been browsing that. Can't stop reading about this device, dead excited and can't wait to get my hands on a unit!

 

[editor]

Interesting piece on Wired. It looks like develoeprs are taking an interest n the Pre:

Palm Energizes Developers for the Pre Phone

With the Pre just a few months from launch, Palm is wasting no time courting developers -- the one group that is arguably most critical to the new phone's success.

So far, it looks like developers are taking the bait.

Developing for Palm's new webOS looks like it will be much easier than other mobile platforms, says Chris Sepulveda, vice president of business development for Pivotal Labs. "You can do some great things with the iPhone, but if you are not a Mac developer you have to learn something new," he says. "And there are lot more web developers out there than Mac guys."

Sepulveda's comment is focused on what sets webOs apart from other mobile environments: It only requires programmers to know JavaScript and CSS, which are simpler and easier to learn than other mobile programming languages. That's in contrast to iPhone's Objective C based Software Developers Kit (SDK) or Android's Java based tools.

Sepulveda was one of a group of developers who attended a teleconference tutorial that Palm hosted on Wednesday, with help from O'Reilly Media, to introduce the webOS operating system. Palm CTO Mitch Allen led the conference call, which focused on the technical details of how to create applications for the Pre. During the call, Allen tried to drive home the point about how easy development would be. Allen demonstrated a quick way to build an application even as developers who had logged on wondered if it would be really as easy as shown.

"Palm alluded a lot to what makes the platform and web elements attractive to developers," says Ian McFarland, vice-president of technology for Pivotal Labs."The cost of learning is very low and people can use existing JavaScript libraries to speed up their development process."

Building developer following is important because it is developers who will create specialized, third-party software for the device. That in turn, believe handset makers, will make their phones more attractive to customers -- a strategy which appears to have worked very well for Apple's iPhone. In addition to the developer teleconference, Palm has also courted developers by offering early access to its software development kit (SDK) to a few key companies.

So far it looks like the company has been successful in drumming up interest for webOS. "We had a huge crowd," tweeted O'Reilly Media referring to Wednesday's online tutorial. However, neither O'Reilly nor Palm said exactly how many developers attended the teleconference.

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/02/palm-energizes.html

 

[Sunray]

They have missed a trick. The SDK isn't available and there isn't an emulator.

These should have been released at the launch, that would have allowed people to get to work on it straight away and it would have had a smattering of applications when it finally becomes available.

 

[editor]

They have missed a trick. The SDK isn't available and there isn't an emulator.

Thre wasn't exactly a flood of iPhone or Android apps available at launch, but if the webOS is as easy to program as has been suggested, then apps should come in quickly. The Palm Pre won't be hindered by any Steve Jobs-stye control freakery either, which is good news for consumers and developers.

The SDK has already been released to a private group of developers, and it's been reported that it's not lumbered with pointless NDAs either.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news...jo-a-developer-speaks-about-palms-new-sdk.ars

 

[Crispy]

It'll be interesting to see just how powerful the apps can be. I get the feeling that advanced graphics/sound will be tricky in Javascript.

 

[editor]

It'll be interesting to see just how powerful the apps can be. I get the feeling that advanced graphics/sound will be tricky in Javascript.

I don't think it'll ever compete with the iPod Touch - at least not for a while - but I'm more interested in all round usability and integrated functionality and - so far - it seems to have the iPhone and its rivals roundly beaten on that score.

 

[Lazy Llama]

Unfortunately Palm is currently not opening this developer program to the public and has only released the Mojo framework and SDK to a private group of developers.

So, that'll be under an NDA then, otherwise it wouldn't be a private group for long

 

[editor]

So, that'll be under an NDA then, otherwise it wouldn't be a private group for long

Err, as far as I know they won't be arbitarily banning apps on a whim and forcing developers to never discuss the reasons for the refusal publicly. As far as I can see the SDK is not finished yet, hence it's being kept within a small group while it's being finalised.

See the difference?

 

[Crispy]

The difference between what?

an NDA on a pre-release bit of software, and control over distribution of 3rd party apps are seperate issues

 

[Lazy Llama]

The SDK is currently under an NDA, thus the SDK is absolutely lumbered with an NDA, at the moment.

That's all I was saying, not that Palm are evil and will eat your first-born as Apple blatantly do.

Much in that if someone said the Palm only worked on wind-up power, I'd say that was wrong.

(Though on here they could probably work on wind-up power...)

 

[Crispy]

(Though on here they could probably work on wind-up power...)

 

[editor]

The difference between what?

an NDA on a pre-release bit of software, and control over distribution of 3rd party apps are seperate issues

The NDA Apple introduced to stop developers discussing the reason for their apps being secretly refused from the App Store.

AFAIK, the webOS does not come with such a NDA, and Palm is not seeking total control over what apps the public is allowed to use on the phone they've bought.

That's the difference.

 

[Sunray]

What are they afraid of by allowing the SDK out there?

Making it only JavaScript is a real pain because JavaScript is an interpreted language and its a bit shit if you ask me. The web runs on it but popularity or installed base does not means its a great language.

Being interpreted = slow so don't expect games like you get on the iPhone and the longer they take to execute the more power they consume.

I hope that there can be more direct coding of native applications, its a speedy phone with native OpenGL acceleration so will be able to run good looking games just like the iPhone does. Just not from JavaScript.

 

[editor]

What are they afraid of by allowing the SDK out there?

I'd take a wild stab in the dark and say it's because it's a brand new OS and they'd prefer to have a few select developers push it to its limits and find out the flaws before a general release. It seems a perfectly normal thing to do, if you ask me.

Interesting iPhone vs Palm Pre comparison on CNet:

Perhaps it's the allure of the new and shiny, but Palm's Pre is our new tech crush, and it leaves the iPhone looking like an old maid. The hands-on videos we've seen show an interface as responsive, if not more responsive, than the iPhone's and the combination of the Cards and Synergy system far outshines the linear tree-structure of input into Apple's phone. It really looks like the iPhone but better.

That said, there are so many variables and unknowns that could quickly shift our opinion of the Pre. Battery life and the way it plays with other devices, like PCs, are two concerns that immediately spring to mind. Part of the strength of the iPhone is the ease with which it syncs files from your computer to the phone, but something tells us Palm won't overlook this.

http://www.cnet.com.au/mobilephones/pdaphones/0,239036203,339295147,00.htm

 

[Crispy]

Didn't Palm previously say that synchronisation would be primarily throught the cloud? (spit. is there a less nauseating word I could be using?)

 

[editor]

Didn't Palm previously say that synchronisation would be primarily throught the cloud? (spit. is there a less nauseating word I could be using?)

They did but I think I remember some 3rd party bunch saying you'd still be able to sync to desktops, old stylee. With Google offering more offline features for mail/calendars/to-dos etc I think it'll become academic eventually.

I do like the idea of having my phone automatically sync data to (another spit!) the cloud and it's going to work great with multiple overlaid calendars.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

That's all I was saying, not that Palm are evil and will eat your first-born as Apple blatantly do.

This literally made me laugh out loud!

 

[Sunray]

I'd take a wild stab in the dark and say it's because it's a brand new OS and they'd prefer to have a few select developers push it to its limits and find out the flaws before a general release. It seems a perfectly normal thing to do, if you ask me.

Interesting iPhone vs Palm Pre comparison on CNet:

http://www.cnet.com.au/mobilephones/pdaphones/0,239036203,339295147,00.htm

A review based upon hand on videos and making out that the iPhone is dead because of it is amazing Palm fan boy rubbish.

I can't buy the Pre yet which means all the praise in the world is hot air. There are precisely 0 applications for the Pre compared to the 20,000 for the iPhone, and that's starting to mature a little now. Some of the apps and games are really worth having. Rolando for instance.

I've been enjoying my iPhone for nearly 8 months now, and I've got more music on my phone than the Pre has flash memory.

I'm not doubting any of its creditials but its currently Vaporware. Until that changes its 'iPhone killer' status is very muted.

Remember the iPhone v2 (firmware v3) is due around June time. Apple just bought up the entire worlds supply of flash memory.

 

[editor]

I can't buy the Pre yet which means all the praise in the world is hot air. There are precisely 0 applications for the Pre compared to the 20,000 for the iPhone, and that's starting to mature a little now. Some of the apps and games are really worth having.

But the vast, vast majority of iPhone apps are absolute rubbish and the phone still can't perform basic functions like MMS, cut and paste and video, neither is there anything (yet) to match the Palm's 'synergy' concept which is very exciting.

The iPhone is a great phone but from what I've seen, the Palm serves up a fascinating and innovative 'refresh' that looks to have stolen a match on the handset. For now.

With luck, Apple will respond with an even better phone and consumers everywhere will benefit (so long as they can afford to endlessly upgrade!).

 

[Kid_Eternity]

I have to agree with Sunray, it's pointless comparing a phone nobody can buy with one that's been out for two years. It's just lazy journalism for fanbois in my opinion.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

But the vast, vast majority of iPhone apps are absolute rubbish and the phone still can't perform basic functions like MMS, cut and paste and video, neither is there anything (yet) to match the Palm's 'synergy' concept which is very exciting.

I'm not sure we will ever see MMS on an iphone, its old tech, its all about email. Not saying that I agree, but Apple are very good at telling their users when tech is dead by not supporting it.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

I'm not sure we will ever see MMS on an iphone, its old tech, its all about email. Not saying that I agree, but Apple are very good at telling their users when tech is dead by not supporting it.

They've got it right too (no floppy drives, moving to USB etc)...