webOS 2.1 bits: Voice Dial, Exhibition, and an HP logo 96
Wed, 26 Jan 2011 10:50 pm EST
We’ve been getting sporadic reports of a webOS 2.1 update landing on Palm Pre 2 phones with no rhyme or reason, and it appears that Kyron John over at CellOuts.net was one of those lucky few that was able to download and install the update. Through screenshots and word he’s provided a brief overview of what’s new in the update, and it’s not anything we haven’t seen before: Voice Dial and Exhibition.
That said, there are still a few details that have eked out: Voice Dial is triggered by holding down either of the volume buttons or the button on your bluetooth headset, though John did note that the bluetooth can be a bit finicky: hold to short and it auto-redials the last number, too long and you’re apt to turn off the headset (at least most of them). Once you’re past that, though, it works for numbers in your contacts or manual reading of a number.
As expected, Exhibition has gained its own little preferences app, and it launches like a good little at-a-glance display when you drop your webOS 2.1-running phone on a Touchstone. The preferences right now control what app plug-ins are available for your Exhibition viewing, though as of right now just Time, Photos, and Agenda are built-in, with support for Facebook also offered, though apparently not functional.
Apart from that, many built-in apps report an updated version number of 2.1, though any changes weren’t immediately obvious. Others haven’t been touched, and some bugs have been ironed. Also, HP has taken charge of the boot screen, with the round HP logo replacing the pulsating Palm wordmark. That’s your prerogative when you spend more than a billion dollars on something.
Source: CellOuts.net
96 Comments
and so it comes to pass
Call me sentimental, but I'm going to miss the pulsing Palm logo.
I'd just be happy to get 2.0 on my Pre Minus.
Yes sir!
I'm really starting to doubt it's even coming to the Pre Minus.
early march, you will be waiting a long time.
Really wish they would have stayed with Palm branding. HP had a joke of a reputation for mobile devices in the past. Palm would have been an easier sell. Most people won't know that HP sells phones and others won't trust what they don't know. Even though that Palm had a rough road with quality issues on the Pre/Pixi etc, it still would have been an easier sell than an unknown in the mobile device market that is already flooded with Android and iphone devices.
hp has been getting good press for their alternate electronic gadgets recently. i don't see this as a bad thing as long as they keep improving on what palm started rather than just turn it into an hp product.
If this were 2003 I'd agree with you. At this point the only thing people know Palm for is the Treo, and that's not the connotation you want people to have in 2011. I think a fresh start with a 'brand new' (to 90% of the public) OS can only be seen as a positive going forward.
you think palm has a good track record? nope. hp is better than palm for a brand.
but the general public does not know about palm, but they know about hp and will trust hp more than palm
Na, the Palm brand has been too sullied. HP has a positive brand association with most people and I can tell you nobody remembers HP's mobile history at this point.
I don't think the branding matters as much as the naming. No one calls their Android phone by the OEM's name. It's not, "Oh, I love my new HTC." In reality, it's, "Oh, I love my new Evo/Incredible/HD7". If HP comes up with a catchy name for the phone, that's what will stick in people's minds.
The hardware is probably going to continue the Palm branding. It's the webOS branding that is HP, and that makes sense because it will be showing up on HP-branded hardware such as printers.
Getting rid of the Palm brand was the best thing HP could have done. Palm at this point is known for terrible hardware, terrible support and pure failure. Best decision HP could have made.
Better to use the HP logo imo. The Palm logo is full of failures. Poor hardware, failing app catalog, buggy software, poor performance etc. Most people I know that got a Palm Pre were disappointed by how slowness of the device and were glad to get rid of it. You really think those people would trust another Palm branded device?
I don't know of HP's reputation with mobile devices, and I consider myself a tech savvy person. Your average consumer probably won't know HP tried mobile before either.
What problems with Pixi? I haven't had any issues to date! None at all. Would anybody share some with me?
Dont understand why exhibition is not available when phone is being charged without a touchstone. Seems really stupid.
If not, I have confidence that if it's possible, the homebrew genius community will be able to make a patch for that! Now this is just conjecture on my part, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it in Sconix's updates to his Advanced Config for System Preferences superpatch.
To encourage you to buy a touchstone...
i'm sure there will be a patch for that. good ol' webos externalz
thats because exhibition is an extraneous feature that doesnt really make sense. software only to be used when your phone is on a charger..okay....
Got to agree with this point.
My theory about this is that Exhibition mode was really meant to take advantage of Touchstone v2. The rumors are that Tv2 has support for HDMI-out among other things. Maybe Exhibition mode will include some sort of a control for media played on HDMI-out. Maybe play/pause buttons for movies and music?
Is it just me, ("with support for Facebook also offered, though apparently not functional.") or does it seem like it's not quite done yet? I know, captain obvious right? But will we hear on Feb9th that it'll be released in the coming months?
coming months .. later this year .. early in 2012 ..
you should know by now the track record with hpalm is "in the coming months....so be patient"
I call for this to be their new slogan
The waiting for webos 2.0 on my pre-minus is excruciating lol.
But Palms name is still on the back....for now.
for now. ;-) ...see below. ;-)
thanks to the internet, the palm logo will never truly disappear. we will always be able to download it to our screensaver.
Can someone please say that Exhibition Mode is able to be turned COMPLETELY off? A nice black screen when my phone is on the charger a foot from my head at night? It's kinda lame having to keep a black t-shirt handy to throw over it at night...
M.
2.0 allows you to turn off the screen completely when on the touchstone. It is built in right out of the box. Just click the power button when on the touchstone.
Thank you god!
have you tried installing your charger further than 1 foot from your head?
distance doesnt matter, in a pitch black room, things from across the room 'glow'
The Pre 2 does this already.
I lay the "sleeping bag" over my Pre Plus at night. It completely blacks out the light! It works great!
@xanadu73 you post this same damn comment every time there is an article about exhibition mode. have you ever read the replies to your comments?? People have explained to you time and time again that it can be turned off....so you won't have to 'drape it with a black shirt'...
From my experience, the bluetooth button/holding sequence is controlled by the headset not the phone.
hmm, yesterday the "m" on my touchstone back cover came off... now it's just says "pal"
Maybe HP is sending out a special code that will erase all palm logos... even the ones embossed on the phone! ;-)
...boy, that sure would "one-up" apple!
it would be even better if hp could do that to apples .. ap_les .. ap__es .. rebrand them 'apes'
I have lost the P so it says "alm"
Yeah, I'm rocking my "Pa m" logo on my TS back - brings new meaning to the christmas carol "NO EL" hehe
where's the masked defender hiding? PALM!
he went to apple.
N E pre - love?
yeah what happened to the masked man.
Yes I agree, just give the Pre Minus Flash Player
i dont think the pre minus would last more than four hours with the flash player...
...and, for the record, I think "palm" is a great brand name for a device that _actually_ fits in the palm of your hand.
I've always thought of an ad that shows off all the things the device can do, in full screen - then, pulling back to show this small device, sitting in the palm of a hand. (w/ the thumb swiping / flipping cards around / away etc.
The slogan: "Now you really CAN, have it ALL _in the palm of your hand_."
I think it could work...
Haven't heard one word about any new hardware being on Sprint network. All I see is LTE (Verizon) everywhere. I did hear that it isn't a big difference between networks as far as device compatibility. Think LTE is being mentioned just create hype for WebOS and devices will be released on Sprint?? Somebody tell me something good!!
And where is my Pre(-) 2.0!?
Figured the splash screen would be changing eventually.
still same ol...
Ugggghhh... I'm dying! My poor original two year old pre minus is on deaths door.... I was trying to nurse it until the ninth or soon thereafter. Not gonna happen. I really dislike Android and can only hope that HP has some fabulous new phones within thirty days. Please O Please let the phone gods smile upon me.....
your phone will be announced at the event in feb and released in late june/early july. i suggest you get with the program and get an iphone already.
hp can still make it's mark in the handset arena with a winning phone OS. Remember when looking at an HTC Mogal was kinda odd?
I am really looking forward to 2.X. I just installed Uber-Kernal and am running at 1Ghz. I can't wait to get the new software version and have UK running stable. It'll be like a brand new phone for me. The problem is that Verizon will take 6 months to release the 2.X.
Can't wait!
and still nothing for older users, I've supported and defended HP and Palm alot but not getting the latest updates out to us is really taking the pee..
i used to feel like you. then i got an iphone and all my worries disappeared. light years ahead of anything hp is doing right now. and you will be waiting more months for new devices to be in your hands (phones, not tablets)
So how long until there is a patch to bring back the PALM boot screen and when are they (if ever) going to bring the Pre, Pixi, Pre +, and Pixi + up to 2.x?
patches usually mean that the big company didnt get it right the first time.
Who cares about the pre 2 phones? Give us webos 2.0 on the pre & pre plus!
it'll be in early march.
if folks will just wait until 2/9/11, you wouldn't have to complain based on leaks, rumors or incomplete rollouts of updates.
It will be here sooner than later for us all.
what will be here? nothing tangible by then. more waiting after that.
I'm fine with the hp logo. It kind of reminds me of the old Palm logo which had "Palm" inside of a circle. This is clearly a relaunch. Consider the last two years beta testing. Maintaining two brands would be unrealistic. But seeing Palm in the product names would be nice and would leverage Palm's reputation for handheld devices which has seen better days but is certainly much better than HP's.
My interest in voice dial is how it works via BlueTooth built into my car. Would be nice to have access to Contacts w/o loading them to car system.
I think the leaked gsm frankendoctor from mexico had these features.
The HP logo is on the screen which is WebOs. I think we have known for sometime, they were changing Palm WebOs to HP WebOS. Not a big deal to me. Although I do hope they keep the Palm name for the hardware, I will not lose sleep over it one way or the other.
But dude, Palm was and is all about the software... that's where it should get the credit and visibility it deserves. What Palm has done great for years is tha amazing OS. Not the hardware.
two years after its release, and webos really gives it its all by saying, hey, we now have voice dialing! where is the maturation? touchstone is becoming unimportant as third party suppliers begin developing wireless charging mats too. all you do is put your phone on it. done. exhibition is an overhyped 'feature.' so i can gawk and stare at a calendar while my phone is on a charger. this is only news to those who truly love their palm phones because their battery life is so dismal, that they hang onto their touchstones for dear life, having one at home, in the office, rigged in the car, in the bathroom. engineer a phone and an os that has great efficiency, engineer and innovate battery technology, no, they build the software around the hardware.
you will never reach the core of the consumer world if you cannot provide for the majority of the consumers out of box.
As much as I am looking forward to webOS 2.x, I am disappointed to hear how many missing basic functions have not been addressed. Foe a business user like me, a robust and reliable e-mail and calendar are the bare minimum. I am sure the camera has additional functionality for which there is no UI. I still cannot ignore a call with a text message. WebOS 2.0 is already at least six months late (it should have been released closer to it's first anniversary. With talk of running webOS on other devices, it is extremely important that the APIs be available and the provided applications (Phone, E-mail, Photo, Video, Browseer, etc.) must be ready for even more intense use.
I'm glad they are killing the palm brand and marketing "webOS" it has an almost negative connotation now.
First: I'm a Palm/webOS fanatic. That said, does anyone else feel their faithfulness and sense-of-belonging dying every time another piece of "palm" branding gets removed?
That start screen is a JOKE! Likewise, "HP webOS" does not sound cool or special compared to it's former (proper) name. All I see is my circa-late '90's beige HP printer sitting on my desk at home, not the hip, underground, "we're part of something special" palm brand.
...I'm sad. I'm scared palm and webOS will become vanilla, just another soul-less giant. I really hope the next Sprint phone is so impressive it will bandage these feelings of sadness. Goodbye, palm. We'll miss you!!
Yeah, I do agree.
I've owned and used palms for 10 years and they have always served the most innovative mobile OS out there. Think of some AMAZING devices just like the Sony CLIE' UX50. Sony hardware helped a lot, ok, but the operative system was already SOOO cool 7 years ago! I bought it in 2004 and still works great, supports Flash and allows me to send attachments from Gmail (the website, not just the app). They were centuries ahead. And THEIR webOS (since version 1) is also much more powerful and effective than iOS or Android.
Amazing mobile OS: that's what Palm has done for a decade and that's what I'd expect them to keep doing, this time supported by HP hardware and by more aggressive marketing.
That's what Palm's destiny should be, in my opinion: keep their brand on the OS rather than on the hardware. Of course HP bought the company, but it's just extremely sad to see an all-time pioneer disappear behind a giant hardware label with no credit for all that lead to this point.
In Italian we say "give Caesar what is Caesar's": well, I would have loved seeing HP devices proudly mounting "Palm webOS", just like it happened in the past with Sony, Handspring, etc.
I wonder if it's possible to patch the palm logo back in on the boot screen? Not a huge deal, but it's a nicer logo to look at than hp.
I don't care what name it has as long as they release a new webos device. Come to think of it 95% of the population already forgot the palm brand anyways so who cares what they put on it. What's important is that it has good build quality and runs webos...
they should not have removed palm's name. putting hp is fine, but keeping palm there, even if it's right under hp, would've been better. too many people will look at that and walk away from them because of the hp logo. sorry, but hp has a terrible history with phones.
this site is all sorts of messed up. people leave comments and they all just disappear. This thread had 50+ comments and after a reload it only shows 13? Either their boards are messed up or the "powers that be" have filters that remove certain commenters automatically.
UPDATE: Well now the comments are back, so P|C is definitely having issues. BTW, this isn't my browser as I've seen this happen across platforms many times in the past.
Welp, since you can access exhibition without putting the phone on a touchstone, i'd say WebOS now has a servicable answer to widgets...
exhibition for at a glance info, quickactionsfor instant inputs
waiting ... Sorta patiently... For voice dialing! Finally!
and the headset press timing is a problem with the headset, not the phone.
When do we get it??
waiting on a new device... and not a damn tablet.
mine says 'alm' but in any case I'm loving the info coming in. My TS's have been a brilliant add-on. Just wish It was more of a dock then just a stand. Like making the 'palm' or now 'hp' logo leads.
How about VOICE TEXTING??? That is what I was hoping for with this update. I had voice dialing in 2001. I'm glad they added it but it should have been stock with the phone in the first place.
That's sad, would it be possible to patch the Palm logo back?
(edit) sorry for re-posting this question that one has already had, it only showed 15 comments previously.
VOICE TEXTING???
haha, my "p" came off, so now all I got is "alm" maybe there's more to the letter deleting then we thought.
It would have been pretty cool if the hp logo was glowing in a blue color.
I thought holding the volume down button (on the palmpad) muted it? (According to one of the leaks)
anybody know if the "Event!" will be televised or streaming anywhere?
All I really want to see out of OS 2 is:
Flash Compatibility
Office Document editing
amazon mp3 resuming dLs after signal fades & stops thedownloading
Not having to view facebook photo in browser
& it'd be nice if the camera flash could be a flashlight too
The only, and I mean ONLY, HP device that never died on me in exactly one year was my laptop that was covered with Compaq branding. Every other HP system I have ever owned, and I've owned several (you'd think I'd get it at this point, but no...I keep hoping that this next one will be the one that works) will croak on me exactly one year to the date of purchase. To the point that it would cost almost as much to fix it as buy a new system. Every system I've ever built myself just keeps humming along.
By branding what will be my next phone "HP", Hewlett Packard needs to understand that they are cursing me to having a phone that will die in a year. I will do everything I can to remove that curse, including removal of the logo on the back door, replacing the boot screen...whatever it takes, it will be done.
Besides, HP has a corporate and stodgy reputation. It's like walking into a room and saying "check out my wild and hip Dell Dimension". All it does is say "yes, we have big corporate money behind this, so please don't be super scared that you'll have to give up all the apps you purchased in a year from now and switch to some other platform". But that doesn't make it cool, it just means it probably won't die unless the corporate winds change abruptly.
It's my webOS and I need it NOW!
HP is going to make the Pre and anything after into Blackberry. Android is doing so well because Google is not focused on 1 demograph. Going corporate is considered to be safe, but look at Blackberry, Windows, Palm. They are not desired anymore.