New Rough Cuts Chapter Up, Previous Chapter Causes a Stir 22
It's that time again, folks! Chapter 8 of Mitch Allen's Palm webOS Rough Cuts has just surfaced. This chapter covers system and cloud services, which include a wide range of things such as alarms, sounds, power management and location services, to name a few.
While chapter 8 may be out now, it appears chapter 7 has caused a bit of a stir in our forums recently. This particular line from the book is the apparent cause of the commotion:
Both Contacts and Calendar will allow applications to add information that will get merged into an integrated view. They don't allow applications to read, delete or update any data that wasn't created by the same application.
Essentially this means we won't be seeing any today-screen apps anytime soon. While a well-done today-screen app can be very handy, the above restriction does make some sense security-wise, especially if Palm wants to try to sell the device to business professionals.
That being said, another reason they may have done this does come to mind. It's very possible Palm wants users to only be able to use the built-in Calendar and Contacts applications to get people used to them and like them. See, if Palm removes the restriction (even partially to just allow reading the data) then developers would be able to make replacement contacts and calendar apps (perhaps DateBk for webOS) and still be able to import synergy via the built-in calendar. Palm wouldn't want that kind of competition, especially while their own apps are still fresh and new.
We do hope Palm will eventually update the SDK to allow such things, but considering it was in chapter 7 of the book, this restriction will probably make it to the first public SDK release. Not that its a completely bad thing. Increased security during a new OS's release definitely has it's advantage and it's not as if the built-in Calendar and Contact apps look bad. So far they look quite the contrary: beautifuly designed and extremely functional.
22 Comments
It's obnoxious and makes apps less useful. For instance, fandango can add a calendar entry, but it can't tell you that you already have an appointment at the scheduled movie time.
And wouldn't it be usefull to know of that conflict before you give your CC# and conclude the transaction?
I completely agree.
Fortunately, and this is no excuse not to allow full integration, you can have your calendar open in another card to manually check for conflicts before purchase.
Still, if Palm were to allow users to choose trusted apps, a user could simply trust Fandango and have full integration.
I hope this is done in a not too distant update.
Ugh. This is exactly the kind of thing I hate about Apple. This restriction means you won't see any kind of integration between mapping programs and contact addresses, birthday management, etc and whatever else developers come up with. Basically another creative roadblock.
Palm - the Pre is a pocket computer - treat it like one. Don't treat it like a featurephone with user installable widgets.
"Palm - the Pre is a pocket computer - treat it like one. Don't treat it like a featurephone with user installable widgets."
Exactly!
Let's hope this is just a short term thing...
I'm okay with this, but only now at the beginning. The Palm OS dev mindset of tweaking the interface, itself (I already have ideas), has to be corralled at first to garauntee the fledgling OS's stability. Hopefully, the intent isn't to break that tweaking spirit, but to set it loose once the homestead's been secured.
I don't know much about operating systems, but it seems like they are starting to put in many limitations. I loved how windows mobile let you customize pretty much anything. The reason I am still interested in the palm pre though is that even although it has tons of limitations about what the user can do, it still seems so much better anyways.
I hope they eventually take the approach of allowing the user to decide which app should have access to their data.
It's my data and I should be allowed to decide for myself if I trust another application with it.
"Palm wouldn't want that kind of competition, especially while their own apps are still fresh and new."
This makes no sense. Palm isn't selling the calendar app, they're selling the phone. The calendar comes with it whether you want it or not, so buying a 3rd party app won't have any effect on Palm's bottom line.
The "new" Palm is sounding more and more like Apple all the time. I'm not sure I'm terribly impressed with this new version of the company. This is just one more example of Palm's new found philosophy that they know what I need better than I do. We've already got one closed platform from Apple, we don't need another from ex-Apple employees trying to be the next Steve Jobs.
please don't become apple palm
+1...million
Did I miss it somehow or is it really true webOS doesn't have *any* 'agenda' or 'today view'?
Because if Palm decided it wouldn't allow third parties to develop such apps, then why did it not include at least a simple solution by itself? Even the simple Agenda view from Palm OS 5.4 would be enough.
Oh Palm, please don't do this to your long time users...
Hopefully, this is corrected in one of the first updates. The only good thing here is that I'm in Europe, waiting for a GSM version... :) So by the time I get one... Dammit! That's not so good... ;)
LOL
See, if Palm removes the restriction (even partially to just allow reading the data) then developers would be able to make replacement contacts and calendar apps (perhaps DateBk for webOS) and still be able to import synergy via the built-in calendar. Palm wouldn't want that kind of competition, especially while their own apps are still fresh and new.
I don't get the logic of that. I know, apple does it too. but why? they don't sell calendar apps, they sell the phone. why would they care what calendar app the user uses? they should be glad that users have the choice for multiple calendar apps.
I wonder if an application could open a view to the calendar app for the user to see without actually having access to it itself. Like a hyperlink on a webpage that gets rendered in the browser but the webpage still doesn't have access to the content. That might scratch some of the itch, though it's still limiting.
The reason isn't to keep people from competing, it is for security.
Calendar events can have sensitive information in them (eg. "Have big meeting about secret background apps in iPhone 3.0 software" or "meeting with AT&T about Palm Pre December 6th launch") so they should be treated as securely as, say, email.
If I wrote a popular app which did something innocuous with the calendar (like try to find the best time to go to the movies) but secretly sent everyone's calendar to my server I could make a killing either selling corporate secrets or blackmailing corporations not to do so.
I would prefer that it worked like Android where the user is asked if they want to give specific access to an application (and there should be the option to just give free/busy times to an app, since that's all fandango would need) but the need for security is real.
I am sure it is not some misguided attempt to keep people from competing with the built in apps (like apple did for a while with web browsers, podcasts, etc)
I agree it's probably not an attempt to keep people from competing...
But I really hope they realize at least a read access to personal data like calendar events is needed (don't really know Android model but I would also prefer a permission system along these lines).
Besides, I would hope their App Catalog acceptance system, whatever it will be - is it just me or we really don't have any info on that yet? - responsible for keeping the apps that do fishy things at bay.
What I really hope for is that they are going slowly (and safely) so they don't have to worry and deal with too much factors that could negatively affect early adopters' impressions, especially early reviews and that they will soon be able to release more control of the device to the developers. At some point in a somewhat distant future I predict they may even open-source the whole system.
Which is why I don't want all my data exclusively sitting up on the "cloud" - on google or facebook or whomever's server. No local hotsync option, no internal memory expansion, etc. Palm wants total control over all your sensitive corporate and personal data - even Apple doesn't demand THAT.
I agree too. The first generation or two of WebOS apps are going to suffer from all types of issues including stability and security. I would love to have the system and apps matured before trusting them with any kind of read/write access to my private personal life. I'd be pissed if my data got erased due to bad and premature code. Developers will make mistakes since this OS is so new. Plus this security helps prevent potential malicious hackers/developers and spammers from firing up. Come on, it's a new OS, what did you all expect?
Anyone ever heard of IntelliScreen? Maybe they will do something for the Palm Pre. I really don't like today screens, to much clutter. I'm used to setting my alarms and alerts when I have appointments. Also setting due dates for my task, and adding task for memos. I say we leave the today screen on Win Mo where it belongs!!
Well, people can just upgrade to a used Treo 755 - full integration allowed, apps like Agendus work great.. Additional benefits: no contract extension, stable history, excellent keyboard, many accessories available, PalmOS compatible.
Sometimes "eye candy" isn't all it's cracked up to be....
If anyone is interested, you can upgrade to my 755p (with all the benefits listed above). I'll be upgrading to the "eye candy" thank you.