The last post covered the top five things that should be in the Palm Pre 2 (or whatever it’s called). Here are five things that should NOT be added to or changed from the original Palm Pre:

1. OLED Screen: One of the Pre’s greatest strengths is its screen’s legibility in direct sunlight. For a mobile device, this is a must, and OLED is simply terrible in brightly lit environments. No matter how big Palm makes the screen on the Palm Pre 2, let’s hope that they avoid OLED and use a nice, transflective screen.

2. Landscape Slider Keyboard: Palm has always produced devices, particularly smartphones, that are optimized for one-handed use. Ultimately, this means a physical keyboard in portrait orientation–onscreen keyboards aren’t as usable in general (a matter of opinion, of course, but it holds true for many), and landscape keyboards are simply too cumbersome for one-handed use. It might be tempting for Palm to change their formula, particularly considering the perceived need for a larger screen, but hopefully they’ll stick to their guns on this one. The Pre is an outstanding design, and likely only needs an improvement in the overall build quality to remain competitive.

3. Glass Screen: This is very much a personal preference, but I tend to drop my phones more than I scratch them. So, I’d be more worried about breaking a screen than I am about scratching one. Also, screen protectors can take care of the latter, while retaining plastic’s advantages. Note that my original launch day Pre has never had a screen protector and remains flawless. Glass screens also add significantly to a device’s weight, and can’t take easily on the same sort of curved face as the Pre’s.

4. Overly Powerful CPU/GPU: The Pre’s current processor/GPU combination seems plenty powerful enough while providing decent (if not quite so optimized) battery performance. The next generation, such as the Cortext-A9 with matching GPU, should be plenty fast enough and still provide good (if not improved) battery life. More power with significantly reduced battery life or serious thermal problems wouldn’t represent a good tradeoff.

5. Ultra-high Megapixel Camera: Cramming more megapixels on a tiny sensor chip means horrible low-light performance, overly large file size, and only marginal picture improvement (if any). There’s simply no need for more than a 5MP camera, at most.

What are the things you don’t want to see in the successor to the Palm Pre?

Tags: Palm Pre, Palm Pre 2, Palm Pre Plus, WebOS

Whatever it’s called, Palm Pre 2 or something els entirely, the successor to the Palm Pre/Pre Plus will be scrutinized mercilessly. While the Pre has been well-received and apparently successful (as mentioned in the last post, Palm still hasn’t release sales figures for the Pre), there are certainly real and perceived limitations and issues with the build quality and feature set that Palm can improve on in their next iteration.

Here’s a quick list of some things that Palm might want to consider implementing in the Palm Pre 2 to both improve on the Pre and better leverage the strengths of webOS:

1. Compass: Yes, I agree: this seems a bit silly on the surface. However, the lack of a compass means that the Pre and Pixi are unable to run a whole new class of applications, namely augmented reality. Layar is a good example of the kinds of applications that are being showcased on the Android and iPhone platforms and that are impossible on current webOS devices due to the lack of a compass.

2. Autofocus camera: At first glance, the extended depth of field capability of the Pre and Pixi cameras is a good thing. It allows for much quicker responsiveness when taking pictures and generally good results compared to a camera with autofocus. What it does now allow, however, are good macro pictures, which locks current webOS applications out of another class of applications. In this case, we’re talking about barcode scanning applications like Red Laser, which are popular on the iPhone and Android platforms for comparative shopping–just scan in the barcode of a product and get comparison shopping information from other local merchants selling the same product.

3. SD Card Slot: Rather than constantly playing catchup with the competition in terms of internal storage, Palm should simply add an SD card slot.

4. WiMax: Sprint has been rolling out and heavily advertising its upcoming 4G network for months now. Adding WiMax capabilities to the next webOS device would make perfect sense for both Palm and Sprint (whose likely to be the release partner for Palm’s newest), dramatically increasing the device’s competitive position. It looks like Sprint might be releasing an Android smartphone with WiMax, so this could become less of a nicety and more of a necessity for the next Palm device.

5. 1GB of RAM (or more): Multitasking is both one of the greatest strengths of webOS and one of its greatest weaknesses. Palm’s implementation of multitasking sets the Pre and Pixi far above the competition terms of ease of use and productivity, but it also creates performance problems. It’s already been verified that the Pre Plus can open far more cards than the original Pre given the former’s additional RAM (512MB vs 256MB), and doubling the RAM again could make the Palm Pre 2 vastly superior in multitasking than any other device on the market.

What are you hoping to see in the Palm Pre 2?

Tags: Palm Pixi, Palm Pre, Palm Pre 2, WebOS

While Palm has done a bang up job of continually updating and improving webOS, some mysteries remain–areas where it’s just not clear why something’s not been fixed or made available. Some examples (in no particular order):

1. Docs to Go: This one’s not directly Palm’s responsibility, but one really does have to wonder why Dataviz hasn’t released on of the most anticipated products for webOS. The mystery is compounded by the fact that Docs to Go was expected soon after the Palm Pre’s release on 6/6/2009 and then by the end of the year. Here it is in February of 2010, and nothing from Dataviz but the same nebulous promise of a release “early in 2010.” It makes one wonder if there’s some fundamental limitation with the webOS SDK or even webOS itself that makes an application like this difficult to write.

2. How many webOS devices have been sold?: Palm has been curiously silent about exactly how many webOS devices have been sold in the seven months or so since the Pre’s initial release. Various press conferences and analyst reports indicate that the number is probably something over a million devices, but nobody but Palm seems to know. It might simply be that Palm understands the dynamic of such information–they’re probably damned if they do announce the numbers (what number would be big enough to impress compared to the iPhone?) and damned if they don’t (the silence feeds speculation that the numbers are poor). Palm is probably just simply playing it safe. At some point their silence has to hurt the platform, however, because one has to wonder how many developers are so far avoiding webOS because they simply can’t guess at the return they might realize from writing webOS applications.

3. No MSN/Live Messenger Support: webOS supports Google Talk, Yahoo! , and AOL messaging, but not MSN/Live Messenger. Why? There wouldn’t seem to be any technical reason why it’s not supported, and there are certainly enough users to justify its inclusion. What does Palm know that we don’t?

4. No microphone access in SDK: The lack of access to the microphone limits the SDK significantly, making voice recording and other apps that capture sound impossible. Shazam is one such application, and it’s popular on other platforms. Given all the noise about using a cellphone while driving, this limitation is potentially even more important because it makes the requisite handsfree (i.e., voice) dialing impossible. Unlike advanced gaming that requires access to the GPU (and, ironically, has already arrived via the plug-in development kit or PDK) and video recording that stresses the CPU, access to the microphone would seem relatively easy to implement in the SDK. Since the video recording app coming in webOS 1.4 records sound along with video, perhaps that’s when Palm will enable sound and voice recording. If not, then this mystery just deepens.

5. Delay in Paid Apps Internationally: Applications rule the smartphone market, and so one really must wonder why Palm continues to delay releasing paid apps outside the US. This would seem to severely limit Palm’s success in those markets, and it’s not obvious why this delay remains in effect. The App Catalog should be completely available everywhere in March, and that’s not a moment to soon.

What are your top webOS mysteries?

Tags: Palm Pixi, Palm Pixi Plus, Palm Pre, Palm Pre Plus, WebOS 1.4

Haven’t had much to talk about in Pre land lately. Verizon has rolled out the Pre and Pixi, and there’ve been a few hundred new apps added to the App Catalog. Palm’s Hot Apps program is in full swing, and the Palm faithful are waiting (im)patiently for the Flash beta and/or webOS 1.4.

There are a couple of new Verizon ads, and I like them:

And:

What do you think?

Tags: Palm Pixi, Palm Pre, Verizon, WebOS

An interesting paragraph in MacWorld’s review of the Pre Plus:

I was able to connect five devices with no problems. And while connected to the Mobile Hotspot, I could still receive phone calls and texts without interruption. If one of your devices goes idle (like another smartphone, for example), the Mobile Hotspot will disconnect it from the network. Once you activate it, however, it reconnects instantly. The range is pretty decent, too. As long as your devices are in the same room, they’ll stay connected. [Emphasis added.]

If true, that part in bold would seem incredibly important. Is Verizon going to start enabling simultaneous voice and data in general? Is it possible to enable it for specific apps only? Is this already a Verizon advantage that I’m simply not aware of (if so, then the AT&T commercials are incorrect)? Or is MacWorld simply confused here?

What do you think?

Tags: Palm Pixi, Palm Pre, Verizon

Palm blogged about a few nifty Universal Search shortcuts that can be used to call up a variety of applications. Here they are, for your time-saving pleasure:

• vid: Videos and YouTube
• cat: App Catalog
• sms: Messaging
• store: App Catalog
• pic(ture): Photos
• sms or text: Messaging
• time: Date & Time and Clock
• add(ress): Contacts
• todo: Tasks
• eve(nts): Calendar
• note: Memos
• net: Wi-Fi

An example:

WebOS "sms" shortcut

Very nice, Palm.

Tags: shortcuts, Universal Search, WebOS

The first official WordPress app for WebOS, Post’er, has been updated to include image uploading and support for tags and categories. So far, I’m finding this to be a very stable and usable application. Update: a name change to “Poster” was also part of this update.

This post was written using the new version, and the only thing I’m missing over Firefox is spellcheck.

Here’s a quick screenshot:

Tags: Post'er, Wordpress

After some extensive testing, I can verify that, for my Pre at least, battery life was significantly improved with WebOS 1.3.5 (and remains with 1.3.5.1). With WebOS 1.3.1 and earlier, I was averaging a discharge rate of roughly 10%/hour given my typical usage, which was mainly email and texting throughout the day with a few short phone calls mixed in. With WebOS 1.3.5, that has improved to around 7.5%/hour, a 25% increase in battery life.

This has been extremely welcome, because my Pre will now last from 7:00am when I take it off its Touchstone until I return home at around 6:00pm, with a little room to spare. Previously, it needed a charge at around 3:00pm.

Palm has stated that WebOS 1.4 will bring additional battery improvements, and I’ll update this post once we see if they succeed. In the meantime, feel free to post your own battery experiences in the comments.

Tags: battery life, Palm Pre, WebOS 1.3.5, WebOS 1.4

Palm announced at CES last week that WebOS 1.4 will be released in February, and with it a number of long-anticipated features and enhancements. In addition to video recording and Flash 10.1 (which should also be released as a plug-in for the current version, WebOS 1.3.5.1), WebOS 1.4 will bring speed and battery improvements.

Of course, as much as Palm has accomplished with WebOS so far, there’s certainly room for improvement. A slew of capabilities remain undelivered that are available on competing smartphones (primarily the iPhone and Android), and that were hallmarks of devices based on Palm’s previous operating system, PalmOS.

Here are a few things that are missing or limited in WebOS 1.3.5.1, that would be great to see in WebOS 1.4. Note that the predicted likelihoods have little or no basis in fact.

• Voice recording and dialing: Palm has yet to provide access to the microphone in the Mojo SDK, and so voice recording applications and voice dialing remain (somewhat surprisingly) unavailable. It’s likely not terribly bold to predict that Palm will provide these capabilities in WebOS 1.4, and with them the platform becomes roughly check box-complete relative to the competition. In addition, enabling access to the microphone would enable other recording applications such as Shazam, which would be welcome indeed. Predicted likelihood: 50%.
  
• GPU-enabled user interface: Using the GPU to power the WebOS UI would improve performance in the same way that graphics accelerators have improved PC performance since the earliest days of Windows. Not only would the GPU speed up the UI itself, but using it would relieve the CPU of the task of drawing windows and handling graphical UI events. Palm has stated that they are looking into emerging technologies, such as GPU-acclerated CSS transforms, but frankly there’s absolutely no indication that a GPU-accelerated UI is anywhere close to realization. Predicted likelihood: 5%.
  
• Improved Synergy: As powerful as Synergy is, and as easy it is to forget it’s working in the background, improvements are needed to achieve its promise. For example, the ability to choose which contacts sync from sources like LinkedIn and Facebook would help with managing one’s information, and more data sources would help expand its reach. This could be as complex as selecting groups to sync, and as simple as selecting individual contacts to ignore. As it stands, Synergy is a powerful tool that requires some polish to realize its full potential. Predicted likelihood: 25%.
  
• MSN/Windows Live IM support: WebOS supports GTalk, Yahoo!, and AOL Messenger. It needs to support MSN/Windows Live, an odd omission considering the number of people running Windows Messenger on their Windows PCs. Palm has been curiously silent on the issue, but they can’t ignore this user base forever. Predicted likelihood: 75%.
  
• Enhanced Universal Search: I stand by my position that Universal Search should be limited to just a few ad hoc categories, leaving other search tasks to per-application search engines. The beauty of Universal Search is that it’s fast and pulls up actionable information, such as applications, contact options, and Web search criteria that one can act on immediately. Adding in too many other variables would create a jumbled mess that would obviate much of the tool’s advantages. However, the ability to customize the search options (e.g., add in Bing, remove Google) would be a nice addition, and some people with very busy schedules might like to see Calendar search included. Of course, even more customization, such as the ability to add and remove what’s included in a search, would also be welcome and might alleviate these concerns altogether. Frankly, however, I think Palm is happy with Universal Search as it is. Predicted likelihood: 5%.
• Expanded backup: I’m fine with backup to the cloud, and don’t share some people’s desire for offline/local backup. However, I would like to see backup include messaging, which is the only bit of information I lose when I re-image my Pre. Predicted likelihood: 50%.
• More customization: WebOS isn’t a terribly customizable operating system, particularly when it comes to system sounds and the like. Palm could at least enable tools to allow third parties to easily create themes (such as are currently available via homebrew). Predicted likelihood (of any additional customization options): 25%.
  
• Security: The ability to password protect data is completely lacking on the Pre. This should be changed. Unfortunately, I’m not sure how strongly Palm agrees with me here. Predicted likelihood: 5%.
• Tasks and enhanced Memos: These are by far the weakest of the WebOS native applications. Tasks lack categories and usable alarms, and Memos lack… well… just about everything one wants in a note taking app. There’s also no way to sync either, which doesn’t make a great deal of sense since syncing Tasks, at least, is already supported via EAS and Google now supports standalone tasks as well. Until these two applications are improved, and in particular Tasks, third party solutions are required to make WebOS a serious time-management tool. There’s nothing wrong with third party software, of course, but covering at least a few more of the basics would dramatically increase the usefulness of these particular core apps. Predicted likelihood: 25%.
  
• Enhanced Email: The Email app is decent enough, but could benefit from some specific enhancements. For example,  it would be nice to be able to move messages from one folder to another, to delete more than one email at a time, to easily remove deleted emails from trash, etc. In this regard, Palm is a bit behind the iPhone, and way behind the Blackberry. Predicted likelihood (of any enhancements): 50%.
• Scrolling enhancements: The Contacts list in particular can be very, very long, and scrolling such long lists in WebOS can be tedious at best. Palm should add features to make scrolling and/or moving to specific parts within lists more efficient. For example, scroll bars would be nice, as would alphabetical anchors/filters. Predicted likelihood: 5%.

This is a long list (and, it’s not exhaustive by any means), but it’s not intended to imply that WebOS isn’t an outstanding operating system. It is. However, as with any 1.X version of a product, it has a ways to go before it can be considered polished and complete. Palm has made incredible strides since announcing the Pre just over a year ago, having released nine updates since the Pre was released in June of last year, and WebOS 1.4 looks to be a very significant upgrade. Palm should be commended for first producing an outstanding new platform and then enhancing it regularly.

Feel free to add what you’d like to see in WebOS 1.4 in the comments.

Tags: Palm Pixi, Palm Pre, WebOS 1.4

Here’s a short video that demonstrates some Flash 10.1 games running on the Palm Pre. It’s also does a great job of demonstrating how smoothly WebOS can switch from one instance to another.

Tags: Flash 10.1, Palm Pre, WebOS