Why developers should be pumped for webOS 2.0 57
We've covered the new features (that we know about) coming in webOS 2.0 from a user-perspective with a side of development. But the real focus of today's announcement is the webOS 2.0 Beta SDK availability. This new SDK is a Big Deal for two reasons:
- webOS is even more compatible with web-technology
- It's easier than ever to create differentiating features that can only happen on webOS 2.0
The former is a big deal for bringing more developers into the fold. The latter is a big deal for any developers who want to see webOS succeed. Read on for our thoughts on what opportunities for cool apps and features can be found in the new APIs coming with webOS 2.0.
webOS 2.0 makes it ridiculously easy to turn web apps into native apps
We won't know for awhile whether it's fair to say that webOS 2.0 leads the smartphone pack in terms of compatibility with the latest HTML5 technologies we're seeing on desktop browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. We do know that Palm is packing in as much as they can in the time between now and release: hardware-accelerated CSS transitions, Applicaiton Cache, Offline Mode, Geolocation.
If Palm's transition from Java to Node.js-based Javascript for background tasks doesn't excite you, take a look at some of the stuff Palm's own Dion Almaer writes about here. Then think about this: webOS makes it ridiculously easy to turn a web app into a native app. While Google is busy creating interesting web apps for Android and iPhone - for the time being they're still relatively annoying to use as they get relegated to the browsers in those platforms. With webOS 2.0, web developers can create webOS apps based on their web apps with very little work and very little changes to their original code.
The magic happens with Mojo Core, which is a set of APIs designed to allow standard web-app code to talk to Palm's own webOS/Mojo code. Instead of recoding portions of web code to work on webOS, developers can keep their curent engines and just add a few small calls to Mojo Core APIs to turn their apps into fully-native webOS apps.
Add in the earlier-mentioned HTML5 features coming in webOS 2.0 and functionality like geolocation and local storage shouldn't need to be rewritten either.
Basically: any site with a decent HTML5 web app designed for mobile webkit browsers should require very little work to turn their page into a native webOS App and supporting that app shouldn't be a large additional burden as the mobile site is updated.
We're looking at you, Google, justsaying.
webOS 2.0 offers a unique set of features that aren't matched on other platforms
While we're excited by the possibility of seeing more web apps and PDK apps ported over to webOS, what's really exciting for the platform is the possibility of seeing apps that take advantage of functionality that simply can't be reproduced on other platforms. Unique features can drive adoption and adoption drives more development and all of the sudden we're looking at a virtuous cycle of developers and users flocking to the platform. That's the idea, anyway. So what does webOS 2.0 bring to potentially jumpstart this cycle?
Synergy is now open: Palm is letting any developer create Synergy services for Contacts, Calendar, and Messaging (though not, as of yet, access to data brought in by other Synergy streams). Developers looking to make webOS the premier phone for, say, SalesForce or Lotus Notes or any other custom contact service could find a big opportunity here. Developers looking to hook up users with calendar/service sites like Upcoming or Eventful should also sit up and take note. Most of all: developers looking to integrate more instant communication like Twitter or PingChat should take a long, hard look at how they can integrate into both Contacts and Messaging now.
Exhibition could bigger than you think: We're not sure whether we'll be wowed or underwhelmed by Palm's Touchstone-mode, but the more we think about it the more we're warming up to what developers might come up with. In Exhibition mode, you know that the device is powered, so pinging Twitter and Facebook and what-have-you as often as you like shouldn't pose a significant problem. An exhibition that pulls from a configurable set of services and displays their info in a real-time stream, well, that sounds pretty keen to us.
Quick Actions make your app part of the OS: Just Type is both the rebranding of Universal Search and, we think, the most important philosophy behind webOS 2.0. For most users, this is how a typical action goes:
I want to do Action X. I need to open App Y for that. Where is App Y? Ah, there is App Y. Ok, App Y open. How do I initiate Action X in App Y? Ah yes, here is the button for Action X. Action X begun. ...And done.
This is how it can happen with Quick Actions:
I want to do Action X. Action X begun. Let's execute it with App Y. ...And done.
This is a 'Command Line Interface' (CLI) philosophy and until you've used it on a desktop with something like Quicksilver or Google Quick Search, it's hard to describe how powerful it can be.
When your app supports Quick Actions, it's essentially the same as making it a service available across the entire device. Your app will be as natural and immediate as the Just Type feature itself. Your users won't be able to imagine using webOS without it.
Hybrid PDK Apps combine speed and power: You'll be able to code up parts of your app in the standard webOS app with the standard webOS speed and ease of development without having to give up native code and you'll be able to have the power of native code (compiled pretty much however you'd like - Palm's not too picky here) without giving up the speed and simplicity of standard webOS code.
What else?
We're still expecting more robust support for some of the standard stuff: Microphone, Camera, Media Indexer, etc. Those sorts of APIs should come and soon. From a developer-perspective, Palm still needs to fill a lot of API gaps and hopefully they'll be bringing plenty of development-spackle to shore up the holes between the bricks we listed above.
What we're really curious to know is this: what development possibilities do you see in webOS 2.0? Users, Developers: tell us!
57 Comments
Is this webOS 2.0 screenshot from PreCentral or Palm? Curious to know as I find a few things interesting: 1. The way cards are stacked off kilter vs. straight up (which I'd prefer--or just some other way of "stacking" altogether) and 2. It appears the launch bar is also slightly different, at least graphically. Does that imply any additional functionality to the launch bar?
Curious to know.
And by the way, not sure how stoked I am to have more cards open (stacked) if I don't have a new device. Seems like more card functionality will only further tax my Pre-Minus (Sprint Pre)...
Let's hear about new devices Palm! Please!
@mjrei
Err... Sprint Pre EASILY handles 6-8 apps all day long with nary a TMC in side (clean apps notwithstanding) and 10-12 in the "red zone". I've said it before and I'll keep saying it...Poor 3rd party apps cause TMC's.
Remember Sprint Pre = iPhone 3GS from a hw perspective. 3GS is still relevant and mainstream. Ever use a 1.x iPhone? Not the speedy device it was before iOS4.
While I'm sure there are some 3rd party apps that have memory leaks, TMCs cannot be completely attributed to them. My wife has a Pre and doesn't use any 3rd party apps. She uses Email, Web, and Messaging. That's about it. Yet she gets many more TMCs than I get and I use a ton of 3rd party apps. Since she uses the Web app more than any of the other ones, I suspect some of the web sites she visits results in memory leaks in the web browser.
No, it doesn't handle 6-8 apps easily all day long with nary a TMC. It depends upon the apps that are open. Even just opening three browsers can kill a Sprint Pre. And what happens if you want to keep a 3D game open along with a couple other apps. It does not handle it well.
I know, I know, get UK with Compache, which I have, but you have to remember that webOS 2.0 is going out to the masses and that VAST majority of users have stock Pres and HPalm will not advise, or require, them to patch just to take advantage of base OS functionality.
So, that means one of three things: webOS 2.0 will never come to the Sprint Pre, or webOS 2.0 will come to the Sprint Pre but people will see lots of TMCs when trying to stack multiple apps, or lastly (which I think is the most likely scenario) HPalm will include functionality very similar to what Compache does with the newer kernels.
Actually, since many users have jumped to the EVO or are now jumping to the Epic, maybe the only Sprint users left will be those that hang around these parts and homebrew and patch their Pres.
Exactly! And yes, yes and yes to those disagreeing with the nary a "tmc" error. I rarely get the TMC error specifically because I have overclocked my Pre. Prior to the overclocking era (Spring of this year) I was ready to can my Pre for the EVO 4G.
I do still get the TMC error with or without third party memory-leaking apps! The Palm camera for instance... Not sure why but if I have 5-6 cards open and then open the camera app, forget about it! TMC or poor performance. Either way, when you can't productively use something as basic as your camera, the thought of new software HAS GOT TO BE FOLLOWED UP WITH NEW HARDWARE! Right?
@All
See this post....
http://forums.precentral.net/webos-internals/251227-technical-analysis-t...
We've tested the h3ll out of the stock Pre and can say with some certainty what the limitations are.
Let's see if this posts the whole link: http://forums.precentral.net/webos-internals/251227-technical-analysis-t...
But what does this have to do with HPalm doing anything about it? Do you know something that we don't for webOS 2.0. Unless HPalm incorporates a lot of the excellent work done by webOS Internals then all is lost and the TMC error will continue for all the stock Pres.
EDIT: Nope, the link must be too long to post, here it is in two parts (you'll have to paste together):
http://forums.precentral.net/webos-internals/
251227-technical-analysis-too-many-cards-error.html
I use http://bit.ly to shorten URLs that won't fit in a comment.
Here is the URL you posted in shortened form:
http://bit.ly/cGAU4S
You can also see how many people clicked on the link using Bitly's site. Apparently someone already created a shortened version of this URL back on June 14th and it has received 256 clicks.
caution: only click on shortened URLs from folks you trust. You never really know what site they will take you to.
agree with dan..i used to get a TMC error with just the palm web app open. one card.
The "off-kilter" aspect is because the stacking is done with each stack's cards in a fan. (This was mentioned in one of the other articles, or maybe the comments section to it.) It'll be more apparent with three or more cards, of course. Take another look at the picture--the card on the left is still straight up.
What looks different at the top (that I see, anyway) is the search area--either that's coming up automatically in card view or there's some way to trigger it that's not clear.
Just Type will be integrated into the wallpaper, or atleast that is how I interpretted it.
Looks way cool. New hardware please.
"And by the way, not sure how stoked I am to have more cards open (stacked) if I don't have a new device. Seems like more card functionality will only further tax my Pre-Minus (Sprint Pre)... "
To mjrei. Overclock, overclock, overclock!!! I've had my Sprint Pre running at 1GHz for a week now. No problems, and soooooooooo fast!! Don't think about it. Do it. It will change your life, and most definitely enhance your patience as you wait for new hardware.
What I'm hoping for is greater battery capacity to handle this behemeth 2.0.
Go Palm!!
I want to switch from 800 to 1GHz, but I am scared. I bought my phone used off of eBay, so I have ho hope of getting it replaced if I fry it. What are the chances of damaging my phone? Anyone know?
"Overclock, overclock, overclock!!"
So, tell me -- exactly how is HPalm going to advise all of their users on Sprint with Pres to void their warranty just so they can use the software they are delivering?
I appreciate the comment, but, I've been overclocking, overclocking, overclocking... since the beginning back in the F104 beta days! Overclocking and my love for webOS are why I still have my Pre (although I also love the portrait slider form factor as well)!
So, you're preaching to the choir. I'm usually the one telling people to overclock. I guess I have to put an "overclocking" subtext to all my future posts.
Yawn, didn't notice flash yet... Wake me up for that or new hardware. Slingbox? Hello? Yoo hoo? Bueller?
Nobody wake him up. Ever.
I've been using a pseudo Exhibition ever since NoDoze was released. Combined with any app that maintains active home screen info I get everything from my wallpaper with an embedded clock (Clear Card) to the latest sports scores (browser opened to MLB.com). Not needing NoDoze and it being auto[magic] will be nice.
I think Quick Actions will be strictly for power users. No way I could teach my Mom how to use it (as easy as it is for me to understand).
Open Synergy will be nice but I can see some users getting flooded and overwhelmed. Look at the "IM wars" on PC. Until Trillion or Pigeon, people had to have 3-4 clients installed. All bringing their own form of ads and cpu/memory [ab]use. I still have friends who refuse to use anything but the official programs for their IM clients. Makes my head spin just thinking about it.
As with any feature, user friendliness will depend solely on implementation. Which we (and HPalm) wont know until it's in the hands of the masses (no pressure).
I'm psyched about some of the changes. I agree we need hardware that keeps up. Personally, I could probably live with my Pre+ if they would develop a battery that lasts through a day without having it set on a touchstone--and fits into the same form factor as the current battery. I don't think of myself as a power-user, but I watch that battery life go down to the danger zone really often.
PLEASE, tell me that Just Type will search through everything. I miss my PalmOS ability to search through my calendar, contacts, notes, tasks all at once.
If the API for the mic is finally be opened up, that'll be a huge plus, but give us voice to text abilities too. Android is letting people speak their SMS. As more states are banning texting, it's a great selling point.
@atremorer
Voice to text is great until you have to use it outside your bedroom with everything off and the door closed. We have a decent group of 'droidians' at my job and I have yet to see Android's voice-anything work properly. This is on several flavors of phones mind you. Niche feature at best (ala the "no-longer-actively-used-Shazam)
You are spot on, Cobrakon. There are many apps whose sole purpose is for "bragging rights". They are novelty apps that show off the phone but that people don't really use often:
- Text to speech
- Voice search
- Augmented reality
- Certain games
- Shazaam
There will of course be exceptions to this. Some folks may not be able to live without one of these. However, I personally feel many people will download these apps so they can pull the phone out and have a pissing contest.
I know, because I am one of those people. :-)
Yeah, I would put the silly "wave" in webOS on that list too.
i actually use the so called silly "wave" alot, even more so that i have the launcher bar hidden...like the clean look of the phone...
I am pumped. Im downloading the new SDK as soon as i get home :)
uberkernel makes the wait for new hardware at the very least bearable. The only two gripes I have with the phone atm in part due to the overclocking is the battery life and the keyboard issues. I could warranty mine but I don't feel like dealing with uninstalling everything on my pre (even though it's easy as pie).
Even without the overclocking the battery just simply isn't up to the task. I'd gladly take a phone that was larger if it meant more battery power. If they don't address that key issue I'll probably stick with my current pre until it dies and then upgrade. Either way, I'm not due for one until January. I also have zero desire to switch to android, in part because of the awesome work the homebrew community has put out.
No widgets? No dice.
If you want widgets, get an Android phone. I for one, prefer my clean home screen.
Makes complete sense with one exception. If widgets are optional, you will never see them and you will have your clean screen.
Why not allow HPalm to add this, just because you don't want it, why would you want to disallow it for someone who might?
You guys just don't get it. You want to have your niche OS that performs exactly (and only) the way you want it. If you want to appeal to the masses it has to be customizable. Without customization the webOS user base will not grow. I will also say that that customization has to be build into the OS itself and not JUST provided by patching and homebrew. I love patching and homebrew, but we have to remember that we represent a small portion of the webOS user base (although with all the defections to Android we are growing percentage-wise). I have a friend who was a former Pre user, and he too loved the clean screen. He switched to an EVO and guess how many widgets he has on his home screen? None.
You can have a clean screen on an Android phone also...seven of them it you want.
dp
Get a droid. You aren't likely to see widgets on a WebOS phone any time soon. Hopefully never.
These are some great changes. It would be great if new developers, instead of registered devs with apps already in the catalog, could have access to the beta SDK.
No mention of a Map SDK or better maps app? LAME. I'm sure everyone here will blame Google though.
They didn't mention ANY apps. This is about the OS, not apps.
Yes. And nothing about a Maps _SDK_. Which Android & iPhone have had for what, a solid year and a half?
Some nice features, but still by far the worst debugging facilities of any mobile OS (and therefore the worst dev experience imo)
I would like to see palm introduce Adobe Flash Player, improved battery life, In-phone spell-check and an easier way to back track when typing (editing previously written text) at the moment you have to just put your finger where you want the cursor to move; which is not very accurate to say the least... I would like to see a similar feature to the iphone (hold finger in place and the screen allows you to accurately move the cursor to the required position. Battery life is a serious issue, my Pre goes down about 60-70% overnight and I even have email and facebook set to sync manually and my GPS turned off.. It's ridiculous, I can't even listen to music for 10 minutes without my Pre losing 15-20% battery life. Surely Palm can find a way to reduce the energy consumption inflicted by their Operating system and apps.
To move your cursor within previously written text, simply hold down the white (orange) button and move your finger up, down, right or left on the screen to move the cursor. Took me a while to figure this out, but works great.
If this comes with no BT Dialing (a real safety concern and legal concern in some areas) then what the hell is Palm thinking. My wife's crappy Motorola flip phone from 2005 has this. Seriously, this is a damn phone.
BT Dialing would be a sin, but also without 4G for Sprint this is just a pretty yesterday appliance. Sure, it might be cool and work better, but a big WTF to HP and palm if it doesn't include both a basic feature and also keeps up with the HTC and Samsungs.
I've had palm devices going back to 1996 and still in many ways feel like an Apple Mac fan of the same era. Cool isn't cool when it has too many misses.
While the "just type" feature appears to be a nice upgrade, I would be more intrigued if HP/Palm can integrate a "just talk" feature, that is, being able to speak the command instead of typing.
How hard would it be to implement this feature?
Very, if you want it to work internationally. Androids is garbage for example...doesnt recognise my accent at all. Stick to type!
any speed improvements to the GUI to use the video processor? The sluggish movement of icons and lag is the biggest problem.
Yes. The GPU accelerated CSS transitions mentioned by Palm and reiterated here at Precentral means a smoother, faster UI.
The fanned out card stack strikes me as eye-candy similar to the ribbon task bar that was a big part of the webOS launch but ultimately ignored by users.
I complete agree with the ribbon talk. The only time I ever use it is by accident when swiping up to get to by launcher pages.
Too bad, I use mine exclusively via the Hide Quick Launch Bar patch and no-one can believe how fast I get things done/launched on this phone. It's a great feature!
Glad it works great for you!! My biggest problem is that you can only put four shortcuts there.
how many items would you like to be able to have?...its a quick launch bar....though being able to replace the launcher button would be nice.
i currently have phone, messaging, camera, and calendar on my quick launch bar, and i have organized my 'pages' page 1 has my Favorites page 2 games, etc...
...but hey, to each his own...
Yeah, let just hope Palm sells more than the one percent market share so that someone might show some interest enough to want to use these tools to develop for webos, right now they SUCK.
Okay, I know this might be redundant: I'd like to see voice recognition to make hands-free calls, More options to adjust how I use my phone, Better Sound options (My phone may have the red switch on, but when I open an App that has sound, it still plays. What is that?)...
Anyways, overall I feel like my old, cheap LG phone had more user options.
Good god, naysayers.
Look at how far Palm has come. What they've been though. The patience and kindness they've shown us. The amazing innovation they've shown in WebOS, which has influenced both the Android Froyo AND iOS4 interfaces.
PUT UP or SHUT UP.
Want a phone with a 1ghz processor, enourmous app store, widgets, voice recognition, right now?
Then get an Android phone. Go on. Off you go. Noone is stopping you.
I for one would welcome a PreCentral populated by fewer users with better attitudes.
(For the record, for hardware and financial reasons I'm using an Android. It has all those things. I'd still swap it in a heartbeat for a Pre).
+1
has anyone else taken a close look at the picture on this article?
The email says "Absolutely hilarious! And spot on, ofcourse. Thanks for sending..."
Weird comment about a story that is clearly about an "Environmental Catastrophe" invovling "Millions of Barrels of Oil"
Does Palm and its new owners support oil spills? Does the environment pose a threat to HP's future success? My job is just to ask the questions, its up to you to take action!
Take a closer look. The article is from "TheOnion" (http://www.theonion.com) it is a satire site, and is indeed quite a funny "spin" on current events.
Here is the link to the article that you see in the card view, it is quite hilarious: http://onion.com/bbuE76
Now, why would they use a screen shot like that instead of something more "business like"? My guess is that it was a developer who took the screen shot and not the marketing department (who would be worried about someone just like yourself thinking they thought oils spills are "hilarious").
The bigger question is why are developers having time to go to sites like this -- they should be writing code ;-). Also, they could have given some props to P|C and shown that page and the email could have been a "tip email" to Derek about webOS 2.0.
Let's put things into perspective.
Apple deserves credit for catapulting the smart-phone business, period. However, the iPhone's popularity is more about the iTunes and app store ecosystem and its cool factor then anything else. The aforementioned, includes it presently seeming to have a marginal OS and UI which is due to increased competition and innovation by webOS, and Android advances.
Android, has found it's own niche without selling music, video, eBook,and such. This is because Google didn't try to be Apple: Google developed a strategy of providing integration with everything they offer in their "Free" catalog. In other words, Google developed it own ecosystem by tapping into what it already offered online into its Android OS users.
This leaves us with webOS which may be the best of the three (iOS, Android, webOS) smart-phone OS', in my humble opinion (and, I currently own an iPhone 4.) However, if HP-Palm fails to develop its own ecosystem that will draw customers and show them that without a webOS device they are missing out on something big, webOS will go nowhere.
In essence, Apple's iTunes and App Store, and Google's integration of its online offerings act as "web syncing portals."
Simply put, HP-Palm will stagnate if it doesn't provide users a syncing portal for their phones to compete with what it is that customers want with mobile devices; more integration with everything they do in their lives. And,no, printers are not going to get people to buy webOS mobile devices.
The answer maybe to take what's best from both ecosystems/business models. For instance, provide an iTunes lite "like" version for syncing your phone's music, video, and eBooks and such, so that they can not only be used on your computing devices, but also stored when you want to free up space on your mobile device.
In addition, webOS' strongest feature, Multi-tasking, providing integration with everything possible. This means, designing a portal that from the home page a user can easily open app cards and use them on your other computing devices. Imagine connecting your mobile device to your home computer then opening up a "webOSync" window where you could manage everything with the multi-tasking capabilities of webOS: listen to your music app while reading your Yahoo email from the app/card, you can open another email app/card, let's say Gmail, client and copy and paste information cross email platforms. At the same time, attach photos downloaded from your phone or on your computer to the email and send. This portal might not be necessary for other webOS devices but more people have Microsoft Windows and a growing number are using Apple OS X at home. Lastly, this webOS portal can also provide online surfing through its browser app/card so that you could copy and paste straight from any website onto any app/card.
I hope someone at HP-Palm reads my suggestions, researches and develops an ecosystem that no one else provides becoming a game changer.
Do you think webOS can survive without its own ecosystem?