Widgets for webOS: A guide to "widgetizing" your webOS device 105
Widgets, what are they exactly and why do we always talk and about them? Better yet, why do we want them? Read on and find out more about the world of widgets and more importantly, widgets for webOS. A widget in dictionary terms is a “gadget,” which of course could mean anything. In the tech world a widget is a type of mini application. That’s it, no further explanation needed. The term widget is so loosely defined, that if you think a mini app is a widget, it probably is.
Why do we want widgets? Is it because they pop off the screen and look really cool? Well, not really. But yes. Widgets can definitely add that graphical cool factor, but essential widgets really boil down to useful information at a glance. Any mini app that can deliver at-a-glance information without having to delve into various levels of an app or copious amounts of screen tapping gets a thumbs up as a ‘widget’ worthy download. The bottom line is that we do want widgets, eye candy and information, lots of it.
Before we proceed let’s make one clarification for the home team: while webOS isn’t known for fantastic widgets like Android and its iconic-gigantic weather clock, the base webOS operating system is chock full of widgets. Technically webOS notifications are widgets and powerful ones at that. So while many smartphone communities may think of webOS as widget-free, nothing could be further from the truth. While webOS widgets seldom run on the wallpaper or homescreen in typical widget fashion, the entire webOS construct is an eye candy, multitasking, notifying, information at-a-glance, widgetized marvel. (Okay, I’m inventing words. But you get the point.)
Finally as promised, here are some of the current webOS widget apps and what they do. Keep in mind, the apps that allow you to match your app background to your device wallpaper have the most traditional widget feel as they more closely emulate your wallpaper/homescreen. Starting with my personal favorites first and otherwise in no particular order, here they are, with a brief description of the look and information each app offers:
ActiveCard 2, $3.99, by forwebOS.com
- Widget info: Time, date, weather, news, speed dial, note pad, app launcher.
- Widget highlights: Eye candy all the way. When paired with TealSpeed Dialer as a launcher, expands the one or two touch accessibility of Palm’s built-in launcher. Worth the price with the recent update (widget-locking finally built-in).
TealSpeed, $4.99, by TealPoint Software
- Widget Info: Speed launcher for apps, contacts, emails and web sites.
- Widget highlights: Includes an extensive library of Palm and homebrew apps to the launcher capabilities. Although a little complex it can look like and launch almost anything in almost any number via the scrolling screen.
MyClock, $1.50, by abesapps
- Widget Info: Time, alarm, current temp and weather conditions, RSS news feed, and 4-day weather information.
- Widget Highlights: Simply one of the better looking digital clocks with current temperature. Works perfectly whether in full view, card view, mini card view or landscape.
ClearCard, $0.99, by Clear Water (free and trial versions)
- Widget Info: No info mode (clears space to see your wallpaper), clock/wallpaper only mode and clock/date/wallpaper mode.
- Widget Highlights: Clean and simple way to enjoy your wallpaper with time and date or no info at all. Works equally well in all three viewing modes.
WidgetClock, free (beta), by Abesapps
- Widget info: Time, day, date, current temp and weather conditions.
- Widget highlights: Clean and functional with a smattering of graphics. Highly adjustable in opacity and height to tweak the final look. Works well in all three viewing modes.
Weatherman 2.0, $1.99, by Wizard Apps
- Widget info: Homescreen weather widget with current temp and four day forecast.
- Widget highlights: One of only a few widgets that interact on your device wallpaper/homescreen. Nice graphics so long as your wallpaper isn’t too busy.
Stickyman, $2.00, by Wizard Apps
- Widget info: Personal sticky notes, user defined notes to self.
- Widget highlights: Again, one of only a few widgets that interact on your device wallpaper/homescreen. Note that it conflicts with the Weatherman app by the same dev.
Sports Live!, $7.99, by More Solutions
- Widget info: Via webOS notifications, live sports scores and live game info.
- Widget highlights: Option to update live sports scores including some very robust features like visual base count (baseball). There are number of specialty versions available, including College Football Live!, US Soccer Live!, and more.
Music Player (Remix) 2.0 Beta, free, by DanPLC
- Widget info: Via webOS notifications, next track cue, current track player, current track position/scrubber.
- Widget highlights: Can be configured to one, two or three line notification mini player.
More widget-like apps worth mentioning and certainly no less functional are the following: SimpleWeather, Super Contacts Plus, weatherIcon... the list goes on and on.
Lastly, widgets for webOS (or any OS for that matter) most basic in function are the active icon widgets. Here the app icon updates information allowing us to see voicemail count, temperature, sms count and so on by simply glancing the app icon. Included is a screenshot of many of these little widget icons you may or may not be aware of.
With webOS 2.0 on the horizon, widgets and webOS are likely to turn a corner that redefines our current stable of information at-a-glance apps. This is good news for webOS users, and good news for the likes of Android and iOS users as well. Not only are eye-popping visuals with information seem to be more and more of a requirement of smartphones users of all OS ilk; the improvement of any platform drives all the competition forward. We know you’ve got your own widgety apps and features you like; hit up the comments with your widgetizing ways.
105 Comments
can't measure up to android
Agreed. Widgets and developer interest are the only things that webOS truly lacks IMHO. Well, that and new hardware. =P
Dear god, just buy a freakin Android if you want stupid widgets all over the place.
See, that's not very creative. I'm all on board with widgets if there's a full api for connecting them to larger scale apps. Notifications are great, but sometimes you need a little more "umph" to deliver more complex, task related information, and that's where a widget really comes in handy.
For example, you have a service that runs silently that connects to a server and grabs stock quotes. You have an app that functions as an administration dashboard that lets you choose the stocks you want (substitute football team scores or whatever here if you like). Now, I don't want some page open all the time, and I routinely get multiple notifications from a number of different things and I let them stack up a little. But I really would like to see something pop up from time to time and let me know that my stock just went up a few cents (or my team scored a touchdown), and I could just clear it however I like.
I like to think of that as using a widget as a notification on steroids. I rarely would leave such a thing open all the time...but then again, maybe I would. Maybe I want Pandora to have a widget that, instead of the Pandora icon, flashes the band's name and a picture of the album that the song I'm hearing is from, or something like that, open all the time, but I don't want the Pandora app maximized as a card all the time. There is a valid use for them.
here here!
I thought it was "hear hear"
I thought it was "hear hear"
sports live or it's sub brands (baeball live, football live, etc) can be set to notify you when score changes. You can have it notify via sound and led.
I like webOS best because of the fact that there are no widgets. I really enjoy the clean look. I like just seeing my wallpaper. What good is cool wallpaper if you can't see it?
I've never had an Android phone... can you have a clean page for just wallpaper enjoyment and a page for going widget crazy?
YES!!! That's what's so amazing about android, its the best of everything, apps, personalization, huge selection of phones, support of carriers, devs, people who matter etm.
And to answer your question, there are 7 homepages on sense phones that you can customize to your liking. Basically android can do everything webos can do jut better in 90% of things.
What's amazing about android is... It looks nice, it has a lot of apps, it runs on some great hardware (very little lag) but try to run many apps at once, switching back and forth quickly... Can't do it! Try to interact with notifications... Can't do it.
I liked the EVO 4g but went to a Pre Plus overclocked. Personal preference. Android is winning the mindshare and market share battle because of the number of carriers putting the FREE OS on new phones literally every month. By comparison that would be a new webOS device every month, which of course, happened only in my dreams.
HP/Palm may have something to say about the mindshare war here soon. I sure hope so.
Both of your "can't do it" comments are wrong.
While certainly not as slick as WebOS's card system, you can hold down the home key to get a list of recently run applications. Just click on one and it's there.
I'm also not sure what you mean about interacting with notifications? Are you talking about swiping them to remove them? You can just hit the clear button if you want to remove them. Clicking on a notification take you to that application and clears the notification.
Again, WebOS is much slicker in it's implementation (I love my wife's Pixi Plus), but you can do it in Android. If you can't, there's probably an app that can be downloaded to enable it.
John
Notifications are fully functional applications. Widgetized applications, if you will. Most applications simply choose to use it to simply launch the application.
Now you know.
True, holding down the home button gives you the last 8 apps run. But open the task killer and you'll see everything that is running unlike whipping through your cards on webOS and seeing any number of apps actually running in real time.
So yes, if you're talking about 8 apps, and no, if more. I usually have about 8-20 apps open on my Pre Plus. Running a task killer is so Windows Mobile. Not elegant or fast.
The notifications on Android are either too much or too little. The entire top of the screen drops down to fill the screen (overkill) instead of having small icons turn to slightly larger icons that you can interact with by ignoring, swiping (deleting) or tapping in various locations to do various things. Just far better organized and far more useful.
I liked the EVO. Especially the screen size and some of the apps. It just felt clunky compared to webOS.
I total agree with what your saying. I posted in the forums basically saying what you're saying (Cross Platform Chat). However, I'm disputing a couple of your claims because I'm not seeing the same problem.
I have never once had to kill a task. I have run a task manager just to see what's going on, but I can honestly say that a normal user would never have to do that. You don't have to manage what's running, the OS does it for you.
It sounds like you use the notification on WebOS like I use widgets on my screens. I really don't need to even pull down notifications because all that information is front and center for me. I can also interact with with the widgets, even scrolling through them.
As far as running 8-20 full blown applications, why? On Android, I'm running widgets to get me a view of the data. I can then click on the widget to go to the full application. Sounds like we're getting at the same data, but in different ways. I am curious on why you keep 20 application open though. My wife usually has 4 open, tops. Normally less.
John
The average user would never have to kill a task? Probably depends on your hardware. Everyone I know on Android (including my wife) needs to kill tasks once the phone begins to slow down. If you couldn't kill tasks, Android would be a reboot nightmare... sure sounding more & more like windows!
My sprint pre is a "reboot nightmare" too, even running at 1ghz
Sorry, but... "looks nice"? I've played with most of the recent Android phones and I still have yet to see anything that looks like it was designed by a designer instead of an engineer.
The real problem with Android is that a year after a new device is released the manufacturers and service providers stop supporting it.
HTC Sense... it does look nice. The 5 homescreens interacting with the wallpaper was eye-catching as well (kind of a 3d effect). But I get your point. Android 2.2 feels very engineered, not necessarily in a good way.
Yes, you have multiple screens. The number of screens depends on the launcher, but is usually between 3-5 (some are configurable with the number of screens you want).
You can configure each screen to have as many or as few widgets or shortcuts as you want. You can then just flick to the page you want (or tap the home button twice to get a view of all the screens in miniature fit on one screen).
It's a nice way to get information at a glance. For example, my default screen has my work agenda and email as well as the current weather. It also has a couple of frequently used application short-cuts. If I flick to the right, I have news on the top, sports scores in the middle, and stock on the bottom. If I flick to the left, I have a blank screen currently.
John
Too bad all of the apps are nowhere near as good as Android widget wise.
And to the people who don't want widgets for WebOS shut the hell up!!! Dear god, if you don't want then and WebOS gets them, THEN DONT USE THEM!!!
The "widget" I created for Music Player (Remix) is a lot more convenient than an Android widget. Notifications in webOS are always 1-tap away.
In Android to access the music widget, I'd have to go back to the home screen, then find the individual screen with the music widget. I might as well just open up the music app if I'm going to go through all that trouble. But with Music Player (Remix)'s widget (which I call the mini-player), it's always a single tap away no matter what app I'm currently in.
But I agree that there are certain situations where an Android-style widget would be useful (weather update, stock update, etc.). The problem is that webOS's home screen is used for card management. I really don't see how we'll ever have true Android-style widgets. But at least we have some of these alternate solutions mentioned in this article.
THANK YOU!!! Exactly right! Trying to talk about functionality to Android fans is like telling a child there is no Santa...
But, it runs Flash... and the screen is big... What did you say about Santa?
>Notifications in webOS are always 1-tap away.
..this is very one-sided view of things. Notifications are 1 tap away, just because there's nowhere near as many of them, as Android widgets. WebOS's screen is not made of rubber, it cannot stretch. Just ONE as advanced notification as your app, and half of the screen is gone. Hum, hum. You can do the same as well with Android, by using just one home screen, put so restricted number of widgets on the screen (like music app widget), and claim it is "always one click away" (home button). And let's do not forget, that you'll have way more pixels to play with, on the latest & greatest droids.
>In Android to access the music widget, I'd have to go back to the home screen, then find the individual screen with the music widget
...only if we assume, that one cannot configure his/her main screen to his/her likings. And remember how much many more widgets you can fit on these many screens, comparing to Notification area.
I remember using SPB Mobile Shell on WinMo (very similiar UI metaphore to Android's, practically the same), and I was perfectly fine with just three screens: main screen, swipe to the left for "entertainment" screen, swipe to he right for "productivity" screen. And I was happy bunny, and let's do not forget it was on 240x320 screen.
As much as I like WebOS, I'd like very much to have FLEXIBLE & CONFIGURABLE, and THIRD-PARTY ENABLED widgets added to the mix, please! I know it would be slightly against the system's metaphore, but I guess it could've been doable, somehow. It might be even some "special" card - as long as it is fully configurable AND expandable by third party developers. I am thinking about something like Active Card, but integrated, and pluggable/expendable by others.
regards
I doubt we'll ever see Android-style widgets on webOS because of its card multi-tasking system. It is the central principle behind webOS and takes up the screen real estate needed for pinned widgets.
But maybe Palm can implement some way to access widgets via the notification bar. Just off the top of my head, here's one way of doing it:
- If the user swipes up on the right-side of the gesture area, the card view would come up.
- If the user swipes up on the left-side of the gesture area, the notification/widget panel would come up.
- The user could switch between the active notification list and widgets by swiping left-to-right (or right-to-left).
- If there are no active notifications, the widget panel would be displayed automatically when the user swipes up in the gesture area.
- If there are active notifications, the notification list would be displayed automatically when the user swipes up in the gesture area.
- Users can arrange widgets anyway they'd like on the widget panel by holding and dragging them.
DanPLC, there is a reason your apps are so good! Good idea!
I like the idea of different functionality to each side of the gesture area. I was also thinking of something similar for the wave bar. One side pulls up the apps, and the other side pulls up a list of favorite contacts or something like that. WebOS has some much room for improvement and innovation.
There are so many options around this.
One of which is to install "quickdesk" and put your music app widget on it. It basically gives you an additional home screen that slides over your current app and can be loaded up with widgets, apps, shortcuts, etc. Now your music widget is a double click away.
Another option is to put the music widget on your main homescreen. Now your music widget is a single click away.
There are other ways to deal with this, of course.
What's interesting is how some claim that swiping through 20 open apps is fast, but now we are saying that swiping through 7 homescreens is slow. :-(
Swiping through 20 open apps is definitely slow, but I'm not sure how that is relevant to this discussion. I wouldn't dream of having that many cards open. But what is relevant to this discussion is that tapping once (in the notification area) is faster than swiping through multiple home screens to gain access to a widget.
I just looked up Quickdesk and that would be a great solution for webOS as well (similar to the idea I posted earlier in this thread).
Android is definitely highly customizable, much more so than webOS in many ways, and Quickdesk is one example of this.
Good point, except that in Android some of the apps reset as you multitask back to them. Making as if it were never open in the first place. Also, usually when working with a bunch (8, 15, 20, whatever) open apps in webOS, I can quickly reorder them to instantly switch back and forth between any combination of 2 or 3. In Android it's always a minimum of two or more taps, or many more depending on how long ago the app was used and if other apps were used in the meantime (taking up the most recently used slots). In webOS in mini card view one swipe can take you through 6 apps per swipe, no more than 2 swipes to see almost anything up to about 13 apps.
Not saying Android isn't without merit. Just not as slick in OS functionality.
can't measure up to android
lol, troll.
lol, jealous much?
dkmrules... "cant' measure up to Android" in terms of widgets? True. But I think the point is there are widgets of sorts if you want them. Now can Android measure up to webOS in multitasking and notifications? I say no. Bigtime no. I had an EVO 4g. I'd have liked it if I hadn't used webOS first. After one week I took the EVO back and got a Pre Plus.
So I'll take the widgets that "don't measure up" in exchange for the OS that runs multitasking circles around Android.
Hate widgets. It's like you get Windows 7, leave them there because they look cool, and then remove them when you realize what a nuisance they are.
brndilion and flash2252,
What I like is options. If you want a clean look, thn you leave webOS as is with the wallpaper of your choice.
If you would like some widgets so certain information is available at a glance (as I would) then you should be able to have them.
So stop being such tools. There is no reason webOS should be only one way or the other and no reason you should be criticising other owners simply because what they want webOS to be is different from you.
Do you know what happens when you build in a buttload of options to please eevery tom, dick or harry? You bog down the OS. Keep is simple, stupid. Palm isn't going to build in widget functionality. Get over it or move on.
the criticism isn't because what they want is different from what I want.
It's because it's contrary to the whole design of WebOS. If you want widgets, you don't want WebOS, pure and simple.
And to those who want to stick with Palm the brand out of some sense of customer loyalty instead of because it's the best phone for you, there's a four letter word for you. Dupe.
You could be right. Although I'd be surprised to see Palm actually say widgets aren't for webOS. Especially since "widget" can mean almost anything.
Brendilon, congratulations on your selection as the final arbitor of what is appropriate and not appropriate in webOS funtionality. How proud you must be.
Unfortunately I am going to have to be a dissident in your little kingdom.
Personally, I would like a hybrid between the Android look, webOS, and iOS. I would like 2 rows of quick launch buttons (which disappear when you bring up the app's screen) with room at the top to place a couple widgets if I so desire.
What I like about webOS has much more to do with functionality: multitasking, swiping to close apps or delete e-mails, card view. THOSE are what make webOS better than the others for me.
So if you want more limited functionality from your webOS home screen, great, you should be able to have what you want. Me, I want a bit more, which doesn't mean I don't want webOS.
all I know is this is the first palm product I have ever owned and by far the best phone. Now my wife and I have palm pre plus' and my kids have palm pixi plus'. We will stick with palm and web is tyvm.
all I know is this is the first palm product I have ever owned and by far the best phone. Now my wife and I have palm pre plus' and my kids have palm pixi plus'. We will stick with palm and web is tyvm.
Android is not a better OS. It gets put on one new device after another, each one generally with better or different specs than the last. It's ingenious as the race is between manufacturers, not google who is responsible for the OS.
So Android is on better and better phones with more and more apps. Otherwise, Android is like a really good version of Windows Mobile with apps from the here and now.
Why the hell are all these Android fan boys on here this is PreCentral not AndroidCentral. You have your very own website to go to and declare how amazing Android is. If you have nothing better to do than put down competing operating systems I feel sorry for you. Please just stay on your own site we have no need for trolls here!
Well said. I rarely if ever go to Android Central/Android Forums.
First and foremost, I do not consider myself a Android or webOS fan boy, I am a realist and realize that each OS has its own pros and cons.
Why am I here? Because I have a Pre. My wife has an EVO and loves it. I like certain things about it and don't like certain things about it.
I post here on these types of topics because I am sick and tired of all the "if you want widgets go to android", or "I choose webOS simply because there are no widgets, I like looking at my wallpaper".
On adroid, widgets are there by default, but there is no reason why you can't remove them if you don't want them. I have a friend who previously owned a Pre. He switched and android and dumped all the widgets off his home screen because he liked the clean screen. My wife has five pages chock full of widgets because she likes to scroll through the pages and see the info without have to open apps.
To each his own.
I can hang out happily on my Sprint Pre for several more months. If we make it through the holiday season without a new webOS device, I will most likely jump to Android for at least a year. Who knows, maybe there is a lot more there than I know about because I haven't used one day in and day out.
Mikey47, HTC and Motorola hardware feel so good. But the Android OS itself doesn't live up to the devices it's put on in my opnion. I just got to mess with a Verizon/Samsung Fascinate... I actually liked the functionality of it better than HTC Sense... but it was still basically Android... can you say "task killer?"
Anyway, I agree with your point. To each his own.
Funny, the guys at the Sprint store wanted to put ATK on her EVO, I told him know, I could do it later if needed. She has had it for two months and has awesome battery life (better than my Pre, but my Pre battery is starting to show its age). So, task killers are not necessarily completely necessary.
If you have an interest in widgets on webOS, this thread might be for you, it has slowed down, but I keep hoping that it will pick up enough steam to get some results.
http://forums.precentral.net/web-os-development/
251957-call-open-widget-framework.html
I'd still like to see some home screen customization natively on webOS coming from Palm. It's nice that the apps have some workarounds that let you have widgets, but just like the multi-tasking on Android and iOS, it all feels fake.
I'd like to have some battery hogging widgets on webOS please, oh and multiple homescreens or "desktops" :)
Why does anyone need widgets? To have weather, notes, other useless crap running on your home screen? If I wanted to keep everything running on my pre, Id just leave the cards open. Easy as that.
Widgets!....
Look at all the Androidbots come running out of the woodwork!
does anyone know where the Widgetclock is for download???? I clicked the link to download from my browser didt work and i cant find in preware. help anyone???
Post says you can get it from the developer as a beta. Hope that helps.
everything seems to be a dead link to it. I would like to try it too. Anyone been able to find and download it?
I got it from the dev by emailing him. He's the same dev that has Weather Icon and MyClock, amoung other apps. It's Abesapps.
I don't know if he's still doing it. Ask nicely. Better yet, buy one of his apps then ask.
Okay, I'll make this really simple.
Palm & iOS = Sleek, graceful OS design
widgets = clutter, distractions... Opposite of sleek and graceful.
It doesn't matter what you want. The very idea of widgets is antithetical to the whole design of WebOS, Palm will never add them.
Man, I can't wait until HPalm does, just to see how many people here on P|C suddenly change their tunes and say how wonderful they are (just like they have on saying "we didn't really want Flash anyway").
+1 billion. You make the most sense out of everyone who replies to these news feeds.
Besides the calendar app and weatherIcon which apps have active icons?
SimpleWeather, Govnah (for that matter--battery temp), Agenda (Homebrew), YouView... All of these do. I'm sure there are others.
Thanks! I'll have to check these out.
Author: Quit with all the "we" talk, please. Not everybody wants widgets.
I think it's the proverbial "we" meaning, just a manner of speaking, not to be taken literally.
thank you can we actually talk about how cool web os is and not how we are better than everyone is point less we love and hate palm is a love hate relationship
I absolutely despise widgets! When I look @ my Pre, I only want to see my big sexy wallpaper staring back @ me. It makes no sense to me why people on this site/forum rave about how wonderful WebOS is and then try as hard as they can to change it into Android and iOS.
> When I look @ my Pre, I only want to see my big sexy wallpaper staring back @ me.
Heres the deal for ya: go & buy Evo (or Dell Streak for that matter), remove all widgets from it's main screen, put your "sexy wallpaper" on, and then you'll know what "BIG sexy wallpaper" means.
> (...)how wonderful WebOS is and then try as hard as they can to change it into Android and iOS.
Jaysus Christ, what on earth is wrong with you people, that you must INSIST so intensely, and object to get MORE functionality??? Does it hurts, if someone asks for more, and not less?
What a nonsense.
Widgets don't change webOS... webOS is about a lot of things, but mostly, it's about a super functional UI and user experience. How do widgets hamper functionality? They're just an option if you want them... I for one like them in moderation.
Android is functional, but it looks like Windows 98, be honest. It has to be the ugliest and clunkiest looking OSD out. Even symbian is more cool.
How PATHETIC are all these Android fanboys coming over to PreCentral to talk about android and crap on WebOS.
I mean seriously; get a life.
Widgets are useless, they're useless on desktop OSs and they're useless on mobile OSs. The only reason people want for widgets is because they've become accustomed to them, they're like a security blanket.
Well, they are pretty useful for getting information at a glance. On my MBP, I do a single gesture and I get all of my important information in one shot. Similar on android. It's not something I got "accustomed to". Widgets made certain things streamlined.
> Widgets are useless, they're useless on desktop OSs and they're useless on mobile OSs.
You forgot to add: "for me" (that is: they are useless for you)
The rest of pseudo-psychologic analysis I will skip, kindly
Exhibition in WebOS 2.0 seems to be an innovative Home screen if you can imagine that.
And I'm sure there will be a patch to enable it as a screensaver when not on the Touchstone.
Just reading all this bitchin & moanin about Droid versus the Pre platfoms proves to me that Droid users like complications in their lives. Palm users like the simplicity they have and have a great time saving and undertsandable format that doesent control their time.
Droid users that coninue to argue who is best on this Pre Central site need to calm down and grow up. This site is a Pre informational site not a Droid argument site. Droid users please stay on your own side of the fence. Palm users try and ignore these Droid bullys that spend way too much time making a fool of themselves and enjoy your phone. I'm not saying the Droid is bad, but you get what you pay for..... Love my Pre!!!
Considering the amount of patching that goes on in webOS, I'd say there are definitely techie types (allowing for complications in their lives) on both sides of the fence.
Nothing wrong with that in my book.
I agree with you. Isn't it nice how easy the patches are to use with Palm. I have over 380 apps and patches on my Palm
Pre. If I don't like one I just remove it. I've never felt the need to blast a nasty opinion about a patch or app or a phone, especially on a site that it doesn't pertaint to. There are so many patches & apps to choose from to suit different peoples needs. I just believe this site is imformational to us that use the Palm phones not for Droid or others to be trashing what we use. If they would stay on their own side of the fence it wouldn't take so long to learn what Pre Centrel is trying to teach us. I'm sure they can find a chat room to cry in and leaves us Palm users to our awsome classroom. Thanks for your comment.
The Android folks are really getting annoying. But, let's face it, why are they here? Jealous, maybe?
Me thinks yes.
Jealous of what? An OS that runs on plastic lemons that fall apart if you look at them wrong? An OS that requires user created patches to run at an acceptable level of performance and functionality? An OS that developers have avoided in droves?
Can't be that.
Maybe they're jealous of the people who rush to web polls in order to spam as many votes as possible? Or maybe they're jealous of the people who run around begging Android and iOS developers to port their apps to WebOS. Or maybe they're jealous of people who make up 50 different release dates for the next WebOS phone.
Yeah, it's gotta be that.
While I think some of the pro-Android comments in this discussion have been a bit over-the-top, I think it's a good idea to look at other mobile OS platforms to see what they're doing and contemplate ways of making webOS better. Widgets are just one example of this.
Android doesn't have the same elegant interface that webOS has, but it has some other things that Palm should really take note of. For instance, being able to customize the lock screen (and other OS-level attributes and behaviors) is a great feature. Exhibition is one step forward; however hopefully Palm won't limit it to only devices on Touchstone devices.
> Love my Pre!!!
love tends to be blind. I rather USE my Pre, I even like it and marvel at it's many beautiful little ergonomics, that make it so complete and pleasure to use package, but... It could be better, still.
Glanceable widgets, that would make use of my 480x320 pixels all the time, are one of the things I am missing since day one with my Pre.
It is not Droid vs. Pre, it is "let's try and make the thing better, if someone have something working well, why don't follow?".
regards,
Exactly. I love webOS, but that doesn't mean I can't admit when another OS has a feature I'd like. We're not detracting from webOS - we're trying to add to it. So please stop calling us Android fans and dismissing our input as whining.
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I think some widgets could be useful for quick glances. I'm still not sold on it especially with the battery on the pre, but with the next model it might be ok. Or even with 2.0 if it has further batter optimization.
I think having a widget home screen would be too much. So my idea would be to have 2 tiers, but the top one is hidden. For example, right now we use the swipe up or the center button to back out of an app. To close it, we swipe up to throw it away. Swiping down does nothing right now, but what if it could bring the top tier down. We could have cards open on the bottom and "widgets" on top. When one of the widgets has an update, the bottom of the top bar would glow along with the notification system that pops up on the bottom. This way, people can have a clean background and when they need the widget functionality they would just swipe down on a clean home screen. Plus there would be no clutter and everyone would be happy.
The launcher bar can only show 5 apps and I think the widgets could relieve that limitation. I guess having the launcher bar with different "pages" would be another option, but that just seems awkward and hard to use.
Maybe this could be a patch if 2.0 doesn't have this. I would like to get credit if anyone uses this idea please, ahem palm. =D
maybe I missed it but how do you enable active icons?
me personally had a Evo with my pre since it launched and ultimatly took it back weeks ago. I also had a droid incredable, and a G1 I enjoy trying out devices and cooking roms since the palm pilot, and windows mobile 5 days. Of course Android is a bite off of SPB shell on windows mobile 5, but thats another story. To me I love the fact that Webos is completly different then any other OS out there. I love the notification system, the gesture area, the card Idea using every OS out there to me its not only the easiest and most elagant, but its non intrusive, and sleek. I dont mind developers giving us options of widget based applications, but I would mind them trying to copy, or implement widgets to Webos. To me that would destroy the Idea of Webos. Let Android have the widgest everywhere, and if you like that then get a Android device no one will hate you for leaving Webos, or IOs for it its a preference. To me having a major difference in a OS makes the company, not only why I chose to try out Webos last year when it launched on sprint, but the reason why Im still on it, even after using the Evos, iphon 4, and droid increadables. Dont get me wrong they are all nice, but Webos in paticular is just for me, and thats what everyones reason for buying a phone, is because it works for you, not for anything else. So to the back and forth of whats better or not its pointless because opinions are based on what you prefer, not whats really better. Its like taking the EVO's specs and design side by side with webos running on one and android on the other, the difference is the OS, and thats should be the reason why you;ll pick what you pick.
It's unfortunate that too many people don't realize that there can never be one phone/OS for everyone. Different tastes and needs will dictate that. While I have always been a hardcore power user, and not one afraid to delve deep into an OS, I love WebOS for the same reason why I prefer Win 7 over most desktop Linux distros: it's simple to use, easy to get things done, but it's got enough stuff to tweak under the hood when I get the desire to flex my power user muscle. With WebOS, I just get things done, and that's what works for me.
I'm still amazed, every time I use it, that this OS is so slick and easy to use and get around in. When I have to do something on my wife's 8530 BB Curve, I just want to pull my hair out. I know how to get around, but it's just a total pain in the backside. It would suck to leave WebOS, so I'm in until Palm's out.
Very well put. I'm with you. And by the way everyone, I drive a Ford F250. I bet all you Droid users drive a ....... Haha, just thought I get something else going here. Please ignore the Droids that post and maybe they will leave Pre Central, our CLASS room.
Well said. Product differentiation is good. I cant understand what the big deal about widgets is. Here are two OS's, one with widgets the other without. The choice should be straight forward as no body is being forced to have either.
I would not mind more customisation within applications too. I chose WebOS because it meets my requirements closes. The use of 1.2GHz kernel has made using webos a joy for me, so a faster processor as standard would be nice.
I vote Boo for widgets. Go get an Android POS if thats what you want.
Got sick of the android argument so I skipped to the end. Not sure if anyone mentioned Ultimate Wallpaper. I use it for my weather, or feeds.
HOLY CRAP PEOPLE! If you are going to have a flame war, have it IN THE FORUMS!!!
A new class of notification icons, that only show up in Card View, would provide much of this functionality.
Idea for widgets to add to those others posted here.
The one area of webOS that doesn't allow for gestures is the launch bar. Sure we can tap one of the five icons to launch apps and the launcher, but what it we could either swipe left or right on the launcher and that swipe, moved into position a full screen widget layer. Then with these blank widget pages you could hold/tap in areas to add widgets that aren't associated with the homescreen, launcher, etc. They are their own UI's and screens activated instantly and only by swiping the launch bar left or right.
webOS in every other respect would be unchanged.
Widgets do have a nice place in the mobile OS world. Everything is about speed of info. A widget does exactly that. With that being said obviously the user needs to have the end all decision of whether they prefer to display the widget or not. Coming from having a Pre for over a year and now an EVO for a few months I can say that easily WebOS is a nicer more fluid and user friendly OS. Notifications on Android blow comparing the 2 OS's. And Multi-tasking is not true multi-tasking on Android...regardless of holding the Home button. Try playing a game then getting a text message and see what state your game is in when you come back to it after deciding to reply or ignore the text. Guess what Android....you fail here.
Bottom line is WebOS needs phones; every one wants the bigger, faster, better, more reliable and fancier phone. So they can do more, impress more and function on a different level in their everyday life. If WebOS can get some new hardware out there, and stir up some good development projects with large companies, then I will most likely jump ship back to WebOS. HP/Palm please don't fail here.
With this said I will unfortunately rock the EVO as it is the next best thing. Better and more reliable hardware, more devs and apps, but much more clunky OS. If someone spent a week or so on a good running phone with WebOS and the same apps on an Andorid device (both devices running with high hardware)...hands down WebOS is far nicer. But that is a big IF, and until that day I will use the EVO and keep my Pre for development work and testing and learning. I will also remain an active reader in BOTH forums as I use and like both flavors of the mobile environments.
I dont care about widgets on homescreen anymore (because they would be obviously behind cards most of the time), but still would like to see something like easy accessible and simple "today screen" with api to export data from applications (calendar, stock, weather, rss, etc.)..
Having just returned from a short dance with Android (& hating it), I must admit I miss the widgets. I found many of them to very time saving & productive for me.
I would very much like to have that big fat HTC clock/weather widget on my home screen.
But that's just me.
WEBOS4LIFE !!!
Maybe the Android guys just come here because they love your responses when they troll you. Use some basic psychology on them, don't feed the bully attention and they'll get bored and go away. I know it's hard to not respond to little sarcastic snotty comments but it's the only way to get rid of them.
Honestly, I'm no expert on all the platforms out there, but I've used Windows Mobile, Android, the old Palm OS, and now WebOs. It seems like the issue boils down to user preference much like the Mac vs. the PC. My wife uses the new Epic 4G and I use the Palm Pre on Sprint. She has access to a tone of great apps, but hands down my Pre blows her phone away in about every category. Obviously her phone has newer and better hardware, atleast until a new Pre device is released. When it comes to functionality she is always a few clicks and swipes away from what she wants to do. At most I'm two away. I'm running multiple apps at once with easy and quick access to them all. Having used all the os's out there, I prefer WebOs and in my opinion the choice isn't even close. It's similar to when I switched to a Mac. I resisted and hated all the new short cuts you had to learn, but when I had to use a PC again I quickly found out the Mac was so much more user friendly. The same is true with my Pre. Having learned how to use it, you couldn't pay me to go back to an android or windows mobile. Now I do use an IPod touch, and that UI is good, not WebOs good, but close. The only reason I use it is to play IMobsters since it's not on WebOs. Now that SUCKS!!
I had a Pre, my wife, son and daughter all have Pre's. I switched to the evo because I'm getting older and my vision sucks without reading glasses. I am happy with my EVO but I have to say that webos blows away android with sense. It is my hope that hPalm comes out with a new device with a huge screen so I can switch back. One area that android slays web os (not Palms fault) since android is google created....All things google perform a magnitude better plus google has some AMAZING apps for their phones that I wish were available for web os..... Just my two cents
HTC HD and HTC Desire faces look the same. The use of widgets android users rave about are the HTC Sense versions which were already available on HTC windows Mobile phones.
I think windows mobile does not natively come with widgets, but HTC has added the home screen widgets which android users now claim to be their invention.
I would not not mind stock webOS not having Widgets but have the ability for developers to design widgets to customise their phones. SPB also had something similar for windows mobile and the people who wanted them added them.
If webos was licensed to HTC I am sure the HTC sense would probably appear on it and the people who like widgets would buy.
Just dont force widgets on the native WebOS, just give others who want it the ability to pay for it and have it.
Android itself supports widgets (natively). In fact, many of the HTC Sense widgets sort of break what a widget is in some cases. There would be nothing wrong with webOS supporting widgets natively as it would still be up to the user to decide if they want to use them or not. Native support for widgets does not equal "forcing widgets on the native webOS".
While I love widgets, I've played for hours with them on my cousins Evo 4g and completely customized his phone. I don't see the need for them on WebOS. With the card system you can just have the apps open and scroll through cards. Why would I want Widgets when I have this more cleaner look and not to mention it would be a full functioning app and not a stripped down mini version. All we really need is better hardware to sustain more cards properly and we are good to go! With the new look of WebOS 2.0 the way the cards stack behind each other, I see even more no reason we need widgets.
One reason to want them is that they are always there once configured. If all you have are cards and you turn off your phone, you'll have to launch all those apps again just to have the information ready. With widgets, you wouldn't have to worry about it after the initial configuration.
i personally hate widgets, think they're stupid. I'm glad webos doesn't have any.
I currently use Android, and I can't be bothered with any widgets. I have one, off on a different screen, and that's only because it's shortcuts to wifi on/off, bluetooth, etc, and there's no simple menu anywhere else. If it had a simple menu for that like webos does, I'd have no widgets at all.