What do you want in webOS 2.0? 239
Now that we have official confirmation that webOS 2.0 is due later this year, it's time to ask: what do you want to see in it? Obviously we know (trust us, we know) that the biggest need out there right now is new hardware and we'd like to think that some of the features of webOS 2.0 will be driven by whatever hardware Palm has on the roadmap - ex if we have a slate coming, we know that a virtual keyboard is going to need to be in the works.
webOS 2.0 will presumably work on existing hardware, though, so let's focus on features that would make sense on the Pre and Pixi. Join us after the break to see what we know is coming, what we think might be, and since it's a lazy August Tuesday, a little pie-in-the-sky stuff too, in order of how likely we think it might be.
What we will see in webOS 2.0
Palm has already provided a close look at some of the features and functionality that are coming in "the next version of webOS." We don't know for sure whether this will be webOS 2.0 or some interim version, but either way we know for sure that Palm is working on the following list of stuff and that it will be included in webOS 2.0 - whether it arrives sooner or not.
- Background Services in Javascript: Currently, webOS does their background services in Java, but they're switching to Javascript for a few reasons - they can parse it faster and it is a better fit for their web-centric philosophy
- db8 Databases and Sync: webOS will soon start storing its data in a database called 'db8.' What does that mean to you? It means that it's faster to store and access data and, more importantly, it's built from the ground-up for wireless syncing with databases in the cloud. This should make everything that's connected to Syngery - from email to contacts to calendar - faster and more elegantly connected to the cloud
- Speed: The two things above add up to the most important thing that Palm detailed back in April at Dev Day: Speed. Those back-end improvements that should speed up the OS quite a bit, but there are also improvements coming in their HTML5 rendering - which will speed up everything since this is, you know, webOS. Hardware-accelerated CSS transformations and animations are on the dockett.
- APIs for Developers: Microphone, media, bluetooth, bonjour, and more all en route.
For more on these nitty-gritty back-end features, see the Palm Podcast below.
What we hope to see in webOS 2.0
Back-end features are nice and speed is most-welcome, but those aren't features that make the big headlines. We don't have any magical insight into the hivemind at HP and Palm, but there are a few things that we think are pretty obvious consumer-facing features that webOS needs. Everything below is, we hope, either blindingly obvious or based on past hints we've seen.
- Better Google Integration: We're not talking Android-class integration here, but the quality of the gmail and google maps experience on webOS leaves much to be desired. If the excellent BFGMaps app has taught us anything, it's that getting googlemaps improved on webOS is more than possible.
- Virtual Keyboard: Because it's time, folks
- Printing to HP printers directly over Bluetooth or WiFi: Hey, you know it's coming, they may as well bring it now.
- Proper document editing: Whether Palm makes an office suite themselves or helps a third party do it, it has to come and soon. We saw a QuickOffice icon on the Chinese Palm Pre last month and we're also still holding out hope that DataViz still plans to bring DocsToGo to the platform.
- Flash: Yeah, we hope we don't have to wait until webOS 2.0, but if it's not here by then, it's a problem.
- Mojo Messaging Service / Push: Palm needs a push solution and right quick. It will bring battery improvements, improve notifications for developers, and generally get them on par with BlackBerry and iPhone. Palm said it was coming, it's time to get it done. Bonus: we could actually leave IM on and connected if this happened.
- Improved Social Network Synergy: Palm led the way with Synergy, but everybody else has caught up. Other platforms deeply integrate both Twitter and Facebook into their entire OS, from contacts to apps. We should be able to go to a contact on webOS and see their most recent notifications and, yes, even see their most recent notification when they call. Palm already has the groundwork laid for this in Synergy, it's time to expand it and make it best-of-class again. (Oh, and please give us the option to filter which contacts we sync over, kthxbye!)
- Improved Multimedia: Now that the iTunes sync experiment is a distant memory, it's time for Palm to improve both the media sync and media experience on webOS. HP bought a music streaming company, we'd love to see that on webOS. Heck, we'd settle for an improved music app, video and picture gallery, and a much-improved camera app.
- Improved Palm Profile management: When the tablets, printers, slates, and toasters running webOS come, we're going to need to get our apps and data on multiple devices with minimal hassle.
What other much-needed improvements do you see coming for webOS 2.0?
webOS: Your phone, anywhere
Look, the sort of stuff you're about to read from is the the sort of stuff that usually makes us groan - if technology wishes were fishes we'd have seen the release of the C40 by now. But we know that Palm and HP like to think big (and maybe get ahead of themselves sometimes) so we're going to present our one crazy, 'wouldn't it be incredible idea' for webOS that would help them leapfrog the competition instead of merely keeping up to the current par.
Here it is in a nut: your webOS phone mirrored on the web and on any webOS device. The feature that we know is coming that might be the most exciting is the db8 / cloudsync / couchDB improvements. Most webOS apps are built using HTML/CSS/Javascript. You know what's really good at displaying that? Your web browser.
If Palm is laying the groundwork for their webOS devices to quickly sync massive amounts of data with the cloud and their OS can be displayed in a web browser and they are looking to have multiple webOS devices in multiple form factors... it seems clear that the thing to do is have all those devices just be different ways to access the exact same data - apps and all. HP's Phil McKinney hinted at this when he talked about separating devices from data and webOS is the OS that's best suited to this kind of strategy. If Palm wants to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack, this is a great way to do it.
Naturally, it would get complicated. Would 'native' PDK apps work on your browser? Would the necessary interface differences from device to device be too complicated to make it possible? Would it be secure?
Like we said, pie-in-the-sky - but if you think about the basic structure of webOS and the effort going into more efficient syncing with the cloud, it starts to seem a little less crazy and a little more crazy-like-a-fox.
So those are our predictions, from 'most likely' to 'yeah, we're dreaming here.' How about you, dear reader? Tell us what you'd like to see in webOS 2.0 and whether you think it's likely to happen.
239 Comments
I want WebOS 2.0 to be delivered in the U.S. now and have the functionality of 1.4.5.
I want 2.0 to be stuffed full of NEW HARDWARE!!!
Announce something already! At least give us a quarter we can look forward to!
Looks like this is a good article; but i'm driving.
Օ dbd
p.s.
And i'm NOT gonna say "FIRST!!" because that's just cheesy, wack, corny, stupid.
LOL !
It is against the law in Georgia to text while driving... what is your license plate # ?
My entourage of lawyers say that; technically, i wasn't texting.
I was posting.
A nearby city, Missoury City, just began enforcing a new anti-text-and-email law. Realizing the argument, "I was not texting, I was "emailing"", The Missouri City ordinance bans the use of wireless communications devices to
They tried that in a township here in PA, they had it for about a year, but then it got overthrown because something about it was unconstitutional. They actually had to refund many of the people that their fines that received tickets for this. The problem was that there's no way for someone passing through that township to know that that law existed in that township. It ended up possibly being a way for that township to make money for themselves by having the police issue tickets for this.
I don't know why some people think it's a good idea to text and drive. When your texting your motor skills (I spy a pun!) are not impared, their non existant (this is caused by the human races lack of ability to multitask. If only we ran WebOS). If your drunk your motorskills are impaired, but you still have them. This actualy makes you a worse driver than if you were texting (I would say your decision making is still intact if your not drunk, but if your texting and driving then you don't have very good decision making to begin with.)
I would say something about reading articles and driving but I'm just as guilty sometimes.. Mainly in Chicago traffic jams.. That are probally because of people like me. Or the fact they are filming Transformers 3 here right now and there's some traffic rerouting..
At any rate what I would like to see in WebOS 2.0 is Verizon and AT&T stop holding up the updates with their nitpicking slow as molasses approval process for releasing updates.. Makes us Sprint users sit and wait on reasons why we didn't choose Verizon or AT&T.... Wheres 1.4.5 here in the states people?!
well I would love to see faster everything, flash the stuff covered in the article says it all....what do I really want out of palm? A bigger faster palm pixi!!! Screw the touchkeyboard...keep physical keyboard, and make the phone bigger so the screens bigger and the keyboard as well!!! Think droid X size!!!
hope you crash for being such a jackass.
I didn't crash, but thanks anyway, you very nice idiot.
I txt while drive and I bet I am still a better driver then you and most others!!
I'll take that wager.
Have you guys seen the droid X? that thing is huge! I don't really know if we want something that big (wouldn't know, I haven't really experienced using big screens for very long.) If only there was some kind of compramise. Some way we could have massive screens but a phone where no one can say "Is that a palm in your pocket or are you just...... I'm not going to finish that.
JOHNNYDIGITAL>>I txt while drive and...
Snappier response (so I don't have to overclock!) Better battery life!
The funny thing is, even if they made it super fast, we'd still overclock it.
This is true.
Im sure less people would though, Im sitting here running thunderchief on the pre, and I didnt see the need to OC my EVO at all. I still would have someday I am sure, but probably just for fun, not out of "necessity"
+1, the GPU should be used for the interface. Stability and battery life would be two other things. IMO the Pre is a great device, just work out the bugs and add more software. A legitimate way of customizing the device would probably bring a lot more people, too. I'm happy patching, but the average user isn't going to patch their phone to change themes and add all the cool extras.
get me 1.4.5. first then we'll talk 2.0
but of course new HP/Palm hardware would be nice
A VPN Client for PPTP/IPSec/L2TP support is a must especially if H/Palm wants to market to the corporate world. I carry 2 devices for this purpose and I want to be able to use just my PRE.
My needs are simple.... TRUE INTERNATIONAL FRIGGIN APP CAT'
and then all the other cool stuff mentioned above :)
Yeah! INTERNATIONAL APP CATALOG
I have my Palm for one year now and I still can't buy an application. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!?
great article!! However, all that great software would be all for nothing if the battery life continued to suck. Palm should probably address their hardware issues first...
here's your sign....
I think they know...
I want...EVERYTHING
Bluetooth File Transfers
How about a more complete Bluetooth stack, complete with serial and HID profiles, like most smartphones and even some dumbphones has been doing for quite some time...
Make .wma files playable so I don't have to convert to .mp3
Thanks
can we get Vorbis support while we're at it?
EML attachment support.
Ability to invite others to appointments.
Better PDF support.
Yeah before we get into webos 2.0 we need 1.4.5 we're gettin too ahead of ourselves. But in any case I want Adobe Flash, Skype, Better Tv, sprint tv blows. Thats all I realy want.
Flash is not developed by Palm. We need to wait for Adobe to release it for the webOS.
Intensive testing must be done first before releasing it on an already bothered battery life span.
Adobe did release it to Palm. It is now in Palm/HP's hands, not Adobe's.
Also Palm needs to work on the boot up times, that boot-up time is ridiculous!
+1 !!!!!!!!!!
ditto
I would like voice commands, a Hulu app (flash), and better google integration (as stated above).
second that, voice command would be awesome
Um, third that - I've been desperate for voice commands - why isn't this a no-brainer to Palm? Love my phone, but really.......!
Indeed, Bluetooth Voice Dialing! My ancient Nokia with no internet and no color screen could do voice dialing over Bluetooth. Using a touchscreen to dial calls while driving is irritating and dangerous. I live in a state where it is illegal to use your handset to make calls while driving. Give us voice dialing!
I want them to look at the patches that people are doing and put the most popular patches as options or permanent changes.
for instance, read all/ delete all emails, icons 4 or 5 across, delete from notification, glass effect, add remove pages.
I am tired of having to take all of them off before each update. of course the updates are getting less and less so the pain in my butt is getting less and less
but frustrations for being left behind Apple are getting more and more.
It is a rare situation that a patch needs to be removed before an OTA update. 99% of them are perfectly safe to be left installed during an update.
I guess in terms of apps and face time, yes, but for the more important true multitasking, NO.
how about multi-tasking apps or apps that have multiple cards and share info between them.
I want it to work. My bride is stuck with a Pixi that thinks "Restore Required" every few days is fun. It's practically a brick.
Email me at evan.wilbrecht@palm.com, I might be able to help!
I want the ability to record telephone conversations.
What?! What?!
I'm not sure what is unclear about his post?
Google Voice + press 4
IANAL, but you do realize that in some states, it's illegal to record phone conversations without permission from both parties or a warrant...
Visual Voicemail!
Great article! I hope we do get a full 100 on the ACID3 test and HTML5 test...'cause this is *web* OS afterall. We should be 100% standards complient. And yes, this is just to live up to the name xP No harm in hoping..
I'd settle for just having regular internet protocals that allow file transfer and downloading currently supported file formats.
From a developer's stand-point, we need:
- Better canvas support (exporting images, specifically)
- Camera and Microphone APIs in the SDK and not just the PDK like I'm fearing
- Ability to set a custom User Agent when making AJAX calls
- Native OAuth support/library
- Better access to Contacts
And probably more.
I'd also like to see tighter integration of Social services with the OS. See http://blog.zhephree.com/post/893916714/how-palm-can-improve-weboss-synergy
I want snappier email and messaging apps.
1) Boot time improvement, I want it to work within seconds of turning it on
2) Voice control, I want to be able to push a button, and give voice commands to pull up an app, navigate an app, and do searches
The calendar was THE best component of the Palm OS devices that I had in the past (Palm IIIxe and Palm T|X). I can
Yes, yes yes! Meeting creation is a must.
Also: Better support for webpages that have no tables and CSS width information. With Android, when I zoom in on them, the text gets bigger. On the Pre, the text just stays in fixed position and I have to scroll around. Annoying.
Yes -- it would be nice to change the browser font size for sites that wrap to the width of the browser so that you can read without horizontal scrolling.
And speaking of calendar, how about support for .ics files?
Better "glass" phone app, local hot synch capability with Garnet PIM, easier customization (like how long an app holds the screen on). Built in emulater from Garnet. Native doc editting.
start with feature parity with PalmOS Treo/Centro.
That means individual volume controls, voice dialing, categories, page names, search for local data (memos, etc), a real memo app that syncs with exchange, and about 80% of Jason's patches... those are table stakes to be in the smartphone game and have a level laying field where innovation can make a difference.
Then innovate by turning on the stinking GPU, adding undo (it's already on the clipboard for copy/paste), integrate twitter, skype client, integrate theme changes, user replacable search engines... I guess I'm looking for a PC!
Fixing up Synergy so there are more options about filtering incoming data would be a nice addition.
I'd like it to be faster and have better battery life. Virtual keyboard as an option. I'd like some sort of expanded notification area, where i can see all the dashboard widgets on a full card. Also being able to tab through messages and emails from the notification area would be great. Better media. I hate waiting 20 seconds for photos to render or albums to load.
-Option to add the next few events in calendar to the lock screen.
-Bluetooth voice dialing.
-Option to scroll past all open cards and display my wallpaper. I would leave more cards open if they didn't cover my wallpaper when I'm not using them. That would solve most of the speed issues.
then let's remember to fix the palm profile so I can EXPORT MY CONTACTS.... geesh
Is Apple the only company with employees dumb enough to take a prototype new device home with them, go to a bar and get liquored up, leave said device behind for a tech blogger to get ahold of, resulting in photo's of the device, it being taken apart and analyzed, etc? With all of the former Apple people at Palm I would have expected something like this to happen sooner. Come on Palm, make it happen!!
I don't think anyone finding a Palm prototype would care enough to keep it.
Battery Life
any new features introduced from RIM today, like media Sync over Wifi?
Love both of your suggestions - imagine how great that'd be?
I think what they really need a internet based management console for each palm profile (or device) that allow us to filter synergy contacts, media syncing, and app data backups. Something that is an advanced version of Palm Desktop that allows direct manipulation of the cloud. An SDK should also be made available that is kind of like Ares that allows for web apps to be made that allow the user to manipulate the devs portion of the cloud and the apps that the dev makes.
I swear Palm left all of there cloud syncing to it's launch partners (ie. Google) and didn't make any software or services the user could use. For example the iTunes war, Google everything as default, no desktop syncing, and no Synergy filtering. I think this would solve a lot of problems.
1. Voice Integration!
For Dialing, IM's, Email - just like my wife's Droid
2. A truely useable Calender like my old Palms. I would like to be able to see 2 weeks at a time with the actual events listed.
Good ideas. But most of the above suggestions are "catch-up, me too" issues which (of course) need to be done, but don't make the OS compelling.
The "Holy Grail" of mobile computing is a hand-held device which is easily extensible and powerful. If you can produce a device which is powerful and can be easily connected to a larger screen and keyboard for serious work, but can be put into your pocket when it's done... you will have a winner. Right now, nobody is really touching this.
HP's advantage over everyone else in the race is their experience with hardware. They need to play that hand.
(HP, please have your engineers working on programming core OS functions and leave app catalog submissions to others)
Here are some options:
1) Build the next gen Palm device which can be docked easily into a monitor and keyboard. (Even if only with their PC hardware).
2)Visualization technology which allows me to use my Palm device in a virtual way on any internet connected computer and when I'm done the data is synced back to my Pre2 (or whatever it's called) automatically.
(This would also fully bring back one of the best features of the classic Palm... get a new device and restore all of your data and setting with the push of a button)
If users are paying $200 for a phone and another $300 to $400 for a iPad type device and maybe even a laptop or netbook too, why not pay 400 for a device which lessen the need for any of these other things.
A well deployed move in that direction would totally change the game almost overnight.
I think this is exactly where they're going based on their comments so far. Hopefully they pull it off.
Great ideas above. I'd like to see a true universal search like my old Palm's had - where I could search internally for text: memos, contacts, calender, etc... Why is it I can now search the WORLD for information, but have lost the ability to search the device in my hand!?
I want a new phone. :(
Talking about software:
- Preware preinstalled :)
- Extreme long battery life
- Integration of all social networks
- Bluetooth contact and file transfer
- GnuPG integration for E-Mails
- Selection of automatically checked IMAP folders
- Sticky information and gadgets on the background
- More sync options (remote, local, cloud, ...) and
- editing facilities
- Camera zoom
Talking about hardware:
- Much beefier hardware
- Extreme robust chassis
- Amazing high resolution display
- Video telephony
- Compass
- Beamer
- Extension slot
I probably forgot something ... yawellnofine ... :)
Along with what others have mentioned:
The ability to jump to an item in a form field list by typing a letter or number instead of having to scroll
Some great ideas here. This is more of bells and whistles type addition.
I would love to see a more powerful use of the wave bar. I use the hide icons patch so I access everything though that bar which expands on the concept of a gesture based OS. It also maximizes screen real estate.
There have been some interesting ideas in the forum about how to make it more powerful. I'd love to see some type of fly out options or even the ability to add more icons.
I didn't use the wave bar unless I was in an app but now I use it exclusively and it really adds to the UI experience.
How about a wave bar on each side and from the top?
Wifi capabilities to sync with PC, Better calendar: faster and icons in month view, better browser, with alteast 98 on acid test and around 200 on HTML 5 test. Better cloud syncing, plus syncing of all data, including text messaging, photo's, call logs, app data. Ability to have multiple back up storage points, with ability to browse them.
Media player that can sync with PC, Video chatting, bigger battery, dual core processor.
Media Player = Media Monkey which now syncs with WebOs very well.
- Bluetooth file transfert
- Camera zoom
- Resolve some bug in existing application (camera, photo, messaging)
- improve mail application
- Navigator
- upgrade hardware
My wishlist:
Full automated backup and restore for all applications and ability to move information to a new or replaced device.
Sync plugin for iTunes that won't break with upgrades of iTunes.
Improved Music and video player apps
Calendar-month-view style date-picker widget (existing date-picker widget is a terrible implementation)
backlight off option when on Touchstone.
Optionally display more info on Touchstone screen (w/api).
WIFI PROXY! Come one, seriously!
I agree with most of the suggestions. But after watching the video blog for the new Blackberry I'm officially a tad upset that we have heard nothing of a new hardware offering. I'm not moving over to the Blackberry but if everything pans out, that will be a great device for RIM (which I'm happy about, creates competition). What frustrates me is it is time for a new device from HP/Palm. I know that WebOS is a star we just need some movement so others see it too!
At the very least:
*Date/Time info saved or Text Messages.(even the most basic phones have this)
*Improved Keyboard Accuracy
*Extra Homescreens
*Visual Voicemail
*GPS Navigator
Unless HP/Palm isn't interested in attracting customers.
Profiles - ability to change ringer volume, wireless on/off and other settings like that simply by changin the profile. Examples: Home, Work, Outside, Weak Cell Cignal Area, etc.
Display recent communication history for a given contact within that person's contact. Phone calls to/from, txt messages, emails, Facebook messages, etc.
Proper media sync - if Apple is going to block it, I'm sure that Microsoft wouldn't turn devices away from syncing with their Zune desktop software.
Better Exchange support. I'll even settle for being able to schedule a meeting request from my phone.
Dynamic widgets that can be pinned to the wallpaper desktop.
Ability to configure default search engine & map software. Currently restricted to Google, but would be nice to have Bing as an option.
Ability to delete text messages that are older than X days. Currently you can delete individual messages or the entire message history for a given contact. Would be nice to have somehthing in between.
Ability to access text messages, photos and other files that are sync'ed to the cloud from a web browser. Similar to what MS did for the Kin devices.
Desktop Widgets. Currently, the desktop of the phone is just wasted space. You have a couple icons at the bottom and a big blank area. It would be nice to be able to put a weather widget or twitter widget on there.
Also, I would REALLY like to see the ability to put the cards on the desktop. Currently, you can only 'minimize' them to a horizontal line of apps. This leads me to just close apps. Since this is a multitasking OS, I would rather place the minimized card anywhere on the desktop. It would be quicker to find open apps, but keep my OCD at bay about closing the open items.
+1 for something on the desktop, weather would be nice, maybe rss feeds. Have it turn into a card when opening up other cards and leave the background black or just a default pic and bottom row.
Yeah, just do something because the new blackberry torch just stole Pre's thunder...its a quality Pre done right with all the features the Pre's been missing.
SD card for local, complete backup, and, of course, additional storage.
Desktop (sync with cloud, if desired) - one place to see, edit, and backup everything.
No waking up to a wiped phone. Full control of what gets put on and taken of the phone.
Dual CDMA/GSM radio [I'm on Sprint and travel a lot and want one phone for wherever I am.]
The lack of expandable memory and no SIM card slot are really the two things that made me think twice about buying my original Pre.
I am still glad that I bought it, but these two things would go a long way towards me plunking down for new hardware.
nnb
Basically, I want webOS 2.0 to have the same features as the Torch, except with a Palm logo and not the Blackberry one.
Just the same abilities my Treo700P had.
- Birthday/Anniversary Field populates in the calendar
- Option to alert X days before birthday/ anniversary as well as the day of.
- Ability to mask/hide contact records (I want people in my contacts so I know who it is when they call in, but I do not want to accidentally call them)
oh and I almost forgot the ability to integrate my cloud contacts into my palm profile.
ie. import data from facebook and google, delete what I dont want, and save to palm profile.
I want a true backup software that will successfully backup/restore all my SMS/MMS text messages without breaking anything. Ridiculous we can't do that yet!
Blutooth file transfer would be nice,
Also a desktop sync manager of some sort
Better music player (*cough* nanplayer) better video support, zoom for the camera,
Future devices should also have bigger screens, slimmer, more spaced out keyboard, better res screen, hd video recording, better battery, and atleast a 1ghz cpu..so we canoverclock it to 2ghz :)
Please finish up all the stuff that looks kinda unfinished at the moment:
Facebook chat (XMPP is already supported (GTalk) and credentials, contacts etc from facebook are already stored, it's integrated in Synergy but we can't chat...)
sync birthdays back to Google calendar
agenda-style overview of upcoming appointments
Other basic things:
IPSec/PPTP VPN options
something to cover your wallpaper with. Unused space seems like a waste. Maybe at least put a clock and the date there. As of now, the lock screen is more useful.
more useful: upcoming appointments, due tasks, weather forecast
show birthdays/anniveraries from contacts in calendar
Calendar week and month view need more detailed landscape mode
Stuff from patches:
4x4 Icons
Character counter for messaging app
Close slider to end calls (except headset)
Improved Photo Naming
New card per convo
Ringer switch icons
Things that really should be more sophisticated and/or prettier:
Google Maps
Memos
Tasks
App Catalog
Music player
i'd like to see a better spell check. Something like WM or android has now...
+1 for this one
Infrared port.
webOS 2.0 should primarily be a bucket of optimizations. Apple has pinch-to-zoom as smooth as liquid on 3G hardware, so Palm can definitely remove the choppiness that we see today.
I used to think that the animation choppiness was due to poor coding on the part of Palm engineers until I installed Uberkernel and Govnah.
Then I just realized that the darn thing was too slow...so yeah they can get rid of that choppiness easily i think.
Nb
I get iPhone envy when I see how smooth it is. Of course, if the options are multitasking vs. smoothness, I'll take multitasking, but some improvement would be appreciated.
WiFi Proxy Support
Speaker & Microphone APIs for developers so we can get a voice dial app
I LOL at "Battery life that can go a weekend without recharging."
Of course we all want this but we know the technology just isn't there.
It's not that the technology isn't there, but it more of a hardware design issue than an OS 2.x issue. You can buy third-party batteries and replacement backs that allow more than twice the volume of battery in existing Pres.
If there existed a reasonably priced, Touchstone-compatible battery cover and battery for the Pre, I would own one right now. The current third-party options are far too expensive primarily due to economies of scale, or have a reasonable price but lack Touchstone capability.
It's a trade-off of volume/size to battery and so far the designers have leaned towards smaller devices with smaller batteries.
Don't get me wrong, I really like the form factor of the Pre, but if I could have a slightly larger device with superior battery life, I'd take it.
Indeed a couple of days is quite doable in recent history. The 7 series Treo's had these battery options. If you were going to stream 3 hours of video, you'd probably hit a snag, but gentle surfing and talk time, no big deal.
Of course over a year ago the Treo was "too big". Oddly now, Motorola and to a lesser extent HTC, think big is back 'in'. I liked the initial Bold that came out, it was also upsized for the form factor. I see they've downsized it to Curve stucture now, but I can find appeal for the Pre form factor and the old Treo form factor as well. Options are nice.
Here is one for HP marketing. I WOULD PAY, CASH, FULL PRICE for a second device, if I could toggle my active phone between a Pre size and a Brick form factor. One active at a time, Pre goes in the pocket for the workday, Brick goes on the weekend trip sans chargers and gets stuffed in a jacket or knapsack.
How does HP's enterprise target clients feel about that? Some sort of an electronic SIM card to be passed via bluetooth perhaps. In my little "innovation leadership" world, each of your WebOS devices, could take the "electronic SIM token" and adopt the wifi and 3G privileges of the accout. So, your WebOS membership could enable multiple phones, tablet, netbook, toaster, etc, to take over the highest level of access it can handle (not expecting the toaster to make phone calls, yet).
nothing preventing that now. Once they have each been activated, you can do it yourself any time you want... at least on Verizon.
I'm looking for simple and clean. Press an icon on the Pre labeled "I am here". The BRICK produces a notify and card that says "Pre wants the ball" OK? and proceeds to give closure to any cloud or 3G related apps before going to airplane mode.
It it that simple in VZ world, or even close?
I want;
the only thing I envy on Android. Widgets and customizable backgrounds.
a speed contact ribbon (where i can text or speed dial my favorite contacts similiar to what was on the Treo700wx)
the current ribbon to go away or be expanded
contact groups or grouping for easier contact browsing
my ringtone to play over my bluetooth earpiece
Camera Zoom
a VPN client.
voice Dialing
Google Layars and other Google functionality
A more fun phone unlock method.
I want everything else mentioned above.
some way to view the home screen with cards still open
shortcuts on the homescreen or at least ability to modify whats in the launcher.
autofocus (do other phones actually have moving lenses inside or is the autofocus possible with 100% software)
microphone/earpiece API's
more icons in app launcher (or option to choose how many in columns/rows)
better google maps(does any phone besides android have google nav?)
virtual keyboard
swipe to prev/next email (like on the instinct)
I know some have been said but Im just throwing in my votes.
also, this cant really be done unless the current hardware is left out of 2.0, but another hardware button for the menu would be cool. I hate having to go to the upper left corner to that tiny little button to access the menu. I guess if they implement a virtual kb, you could set the current hardware to access the menu by double tapping the gesture area...
There's already arrows in the subject area of all emails that allow you to go to previous / next email.
yeah, you have to press that little triangle.
Im talking about "anywhere" in the body of the email swiping left or right to get to previous or next. of course that would conflict with the fact that you may have pinched to zoom into the email, but maybe set it up so that if it is zoomed out, you swipe left or right, zoomed in, a long press zooms back out and then while still pressing, swipe left or right and the succesive emails either way are already zoomed out so you can continue swiping to whichever email you were looking for
How is "view home screen with cards open" different than a launcher page over open cards like it does today?
well, its different because the "launcher page" isnt the "home screen"...
I know I can have cards open and still drag up the launcher and open the "launcher page" or whatever its called, but its not what Im talking about.
that screen that you choose different background pictures for, thats the thing I want to be able to fully see while still leaving apps running with the cards minimized somewhere, but not "closed"
Bluetooth serial port support! So we can have wireless keyboard and mouse support, Open Office or Docs to Go, etc.
With BT Serial we could have wireless Auto OBD/CAN support for scanner, diagnostics, datalogging, and even PCM reprogramming!
PC remote control so I can leave the phone alone on the charger and use a virtual phone on the PC able to access all of the features and media from the phone and use a PC headset to talk.
Ability to use the phone's camera and mic as a webcam both directly from the phone but also from a PC.
and of course all of the other stuff being mentioned above!
Easy:
One button Voice Dialer
One button Voice Google Searches
Customizable Home Screen like Palm OS so I can have my schedule always visible.
Resident Maps and a quick gps so I don't need a data signal. Try driving through Colorado mountains with this...
Faster rendering of everything. Frustrating paging though Calendar. Damn...I picked up my old Treo and it flies through the Calendar..I almost forgot how good that function was.
I still would love to just hotsync to my desktop and leave the cloud as an option.
oh, and searchable contacts in the dialer like in android, or at least how HTC sense dialer works.
as you dial the number it matches any number with that sequence as well as names with sequence of letters possible from the keys pressed.
Where is 1.4.5 on Sprint?
BETTER HARDWARE. Yeah, I'm running the Blackbird kernel. I run at 500/800 screenstate, but sometimes when I know I'm going to be working it hard, I switch up to 1.2ghz. Yeah, I have a Chuck Norris Pre. But how about some hardware that supports 1+ ghz naturally. Soon? PleaseKThxBye! How about a screen on par with the recent cryphone. That screen is freaking gorgeous!
BACKUPS. I _ DONT _ TRUST _ THE _ CLOUD _ I _ WANT _ TO _ CONTROL _ MY _ OWN _ DESTINY _ WITH _ MY _ OWN _ DATA. It's 2010, Palm. Give us a teensy little webserver in the phone, or some way of hitting a buttons and saying "back this whole mother effer to this computer over wifi". And I don't mean just the pittance it backs up now. Everything. Attachments. Messages. Call logs. EVERY THING.
And while we're on this subject, put a freaking MicroSD card slot in the damn thing. Then we could have programs that automagically back it up to the card. Drop it in a lake? No biggy, drop the Micro SD card into a new device and voila! Restore. Done.
So, I have to plug in, hit "USB Drive" and lose phone functionality. To upload music or backup pictures. Seriously? Really? It's 2010 Palm. WiFi sync of (everything). The phone is a linux computer. How about a Samba share on the phone, that we can connect to with a Windows PC (or Mac).
Liquid interface. Reference the cryPhone. Click, swipe, gesture, whatever. It's fluid and smooth. I should not flick a menu list and have it stutter visually. This is epic fail when it happens.
Voice dialing. Bluetooth keyboard / headphone.
Voice Dialing
Voice Commands
Yahoo Messenger Support, Live Messenger Support, Enable all of the chat options supported by the underlying library.
The ability to use Google, Bing or whomever I choose for maps and search. I don't like being tied to Google that's why I don't have an Android phone.
I have Yahoo Messenger on mine? I use it all the time.
Sockets API would be nice
Expanded use of touch in the gesture area including multitouch.
It would great to be able to assign gestures to bring up an app such as double tappping to bring up the phone app or touch two fingers at the same time to bring up the calendar.
It would also be cool to do pinch to zoom from the gesture area.
Palm and HP need to hurry because Blackberry and AT&T just announced the Blackberry Torch which their claiming to be the best Blackberry device ever. It's a slider like the Palm Pre.
I'd like to see:
1) Contact birthdays/anniversaries automatically placed on the calendar. 2) Assign special numbers that can be called while the phone is locked. 3) Asign numbers to automatically be ignored. 4) E-mail distribution groups? I've tried different tricks and haven't goten it to work yet. 5) MSN Messenger / better MSN integration. 6) Change default search engine. 7) The ability to forget wifi networks without being connected to them.
I'd also like to use the Pre as a presentation remote.
I'd really like a better home screen experience. I think if this OS is going to rank against the competition, it's going to need to increase it's slick factor, especially with it's smaller app draw. I'd like home screan widgets. 3D card scroll like WiiFlow, not just flat. GPU aided transitions and animations. better memory cleanning- once I close all cards, I should never get a too many cards error-NEVER! Open up api's for the Mic for developers. Voice command/dial/search. The carriers Nav program should show up in universal search.
I'd really like a better home screen experience. I think if this OS is going to rank against the competition, it's going to need to increase it's slick factor, especially with it's smaller app draw. I'd like home screan widgets. 3D card scroll like WiiFlow, not just flat. GPU aided transitions and animations. better memory cleanning- once I close all cards, I should never get a too many cards error-NEVER! Open up api's for the Mic for developers. Voice command/dial/search. The carriers Nav program should show up in universal search. Definitely 4x4 and add launcher pages as options.
Time zones in calendar (like Treo had). Road warriors will never accept WebOS without this.
Agreed, big time. I went from Chicago to California this weekend, and the time zone change screwed up my calendar notifications. It would be great to be able to specify which ones stay with the original time zone (Chicago) and which ones I want to reflect the new time zone (California). Didn't realize the Pre didn't have this until Sunday.
I just want the main PIM apps to have feature parity with the old PalmOS apps.
new hardware for it to be put in. how about 1.45 in the USA before all this talk.Flash would be nice been talking about that for over a year. seen the beta but still a no go come one Adobe Palm Sprint HP get you shit together already.
I would definitely like to see zoom/autofocus pushed in the update. The camera is definitely capable of doing so - if it only had the internals to back it up. If my friends Mytouch from 3 years ago could scan a barcode and find different prices on amazon, buy.com, and etc - why can't we have that now?
Apart form, in addition to and duplicating everything above - I must agree...
Google Voice integration (native)
Better battery life
Infrared port
Calendar invites with other people
but more importantly
more information released on upcoming features/hardware. You gotta keep people interested if you want them to keep writing/using/buying...
I would like all the parts of PalmOS that made it a PDA (calendar, todo, events, etc.) included in WebOS and to actually included the same is not better functionality. I mean really, what happened? Event the new calculator does less then the PalmOS one...
If they do all the stuff listed above and soon and get a bit of new hardware to boot then I'm fine with it.
I want to snap a picture with my new webOS Smartphone, and select "Send to toaster." My HP webOS toaster-printer will then heat up a tasty printout for me. Something like this:
http://gizmodo.com/5048572/scan-toaster-prints-text-photos-from-the-inte...
How about ripping off the few things Blackberry didn't rip off from Palm for the Torch?
I think the best way to make WebOS shine is to pay all the Patch creators for their patches and integrate the patches into the OS.
Facetime-like functionality. We will need it to compete. EVO already has it. Wave of the future and all that. Maybe team up with Skype.
Surely we would only need it to compete if it was actually a feature which the type of people who have the sense to research their phone care about. Only iSheep will tell you that the iphone 4 is better because it has a front facing video camera. I ezxpect eventually all phones will do but at the moment there is little infrastructure to support it and Palm is better off focussing on the other stuff listed in the article.
Never said iPhone is better, but we will need it. People like cool features. Facetime, like it or not, is awesome. I would love to have the ability to make true-to-life video calls, and I am not the only one. This would be great for people with relatives/friends/kids that live far away.
Features sell phones. We need to take away any excuse to choose the iPhone, which currently rules mindshare. Everytime someone says, "my iPhone/Android does _______", we should be able to say, "my Palm does that and better, and check out the easy multitasking."
I wish you ppl would get off the "new hardware" thing. It's really annoying...especially when the article acknowledged the "need" so you don't have to further talk about it. Geesh!
On to a more productive comment. I have a few wish-list items for WebOS 2.0:
- swappable components (allow to install our own dialer, launcher, contacts app, browser, PDF reader, lock screen app, etc.)
-- We can ask for more features all day long, but if can have swappable default components, then devs and fill these desires to have a truly morphable phone to meet everyone's needs
- custom schema handlers
-- piggybacking off the last one, because this is webOS, every new action should be associated with schema (i.e. phone://8882221234)
-- this feature would allow apps to register to handle certain schemas
- Compcache optimization (UberKernel has smashed the glass memory ceiling on my Sprint Pre)
- hide-able apps in the launcher (could be handled by a custom launcher as in my first request. This is just a "prettiness" request)
- some way to do basic functions w/o looking at the phone (i.e. voice control, text-to-speech). This is a safety feature for driving and makes phones so much cooler.
The top two are most important because they really open up the platform. Like PalmOS of old, suddenly webOS can be anything you want it to be with these new features. It just takes some 3rd Party dev elbow grease.
Oh, and how about some New Hardware!
4 inch screen on 1Ghz slider: I carried around beautifully clunky Palm devices then the Treo for years: I'm still carrying my Treo, because all of my Memos are on there!! Compact size is of no importance, bigger is now better!
That is *your* preference - and that is fine.
But don't assume that everybody else shares your priorities.
I'd welcome a device that has a slightly larger screen - but would rather not have one of those 4"+ bricks.
Many of us have bought the Pre partly for its form factor. That's probably even more true for people who bought the Pixi.
Compact size if of great importance and bigger is not always better (want an 8" phone? :-) ).
The best solution of course is for HPalm to sell several new devices - so everybody is happy.