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Why Geeks Should Love HP WebOS

developer.palm.com

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Re: Why Geeks Should Love HP WebOS

#91

Post by potatolicious »

jsz0 wrote: post #64

I was hoping Palm would eventually license WebOS to companies that could make better hardware and offer more desirable form factors. WebOS is nice but the original Pre was just truly awful hardware. Under powered, fragile, terrible keyboard, screen was too small, etc. It doesn't look like the other WebOS devices released since have really improved on this much. Unfortunately HP would never consider licensing so hopef…

I agree, but this is a problem that plagues Android too, though it's slowly getting better.

Even now though, hold an iPhone 4 in one hand, and hold the Nexus S in the other. Both are fine, fast phones with a wide array of features... but one feels plasticky and cheap, while the other feels solid, almost as if it was hewn out of a solid piece of glass.

Samsung, LG, et al really need to get their shit together. Apple sets a very high bar for manufacturing precision, materials use, and industrial design. I feel like the OEMs are slowly getting the design aspect sorted out, but every time I see a new Android device I can't help but be disappointed at the cheap materials and generally good-but-not-great assembly.

Re: Why Geeks Should Love HP WebOS

#92

Post by GeneralMaximus »

sigh

I remember getting excited when the Pre first came out. Sadly, it wasn't available in India. It still isn't. This is why Android will take over the mobile world: it's ubiquitous. Also, Samsung and HTC, the two largest players in the Android market, actually care about markets other than the USA and Europe. The Galaxy S II, for example, will launch in 120 countries.

Re: Why Geeks Should Love HP WebOS

#93

Post by windsurfer »

superppl wrote: post #48
daniel_solano wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried Maemo? With Maemo, I can just launch an xterm and ssh to my heart's content. For that matter, I can also set up an SSH server and ssh into the device. I'm guessing Meego probably has the same support. In my experience, it's the closest experience to have a full Linux box that I can stick in my pocket.

Maemo is brilliant, except it's a dead end in favor of Meego, whose future is uncertain.

What's wrong with a dead end? Isn't SSH a dead end, since we haven't seen any major modifications ina while? Maemo still has SSH, it's still linux, and it's still debian. There are community projects to update software and fix bugs.

Re: Why Geeks Should Love HP WebOS

#94

Post by jackson71 »

rsanchez1 wrote: post #83
slowpoison wrote: post #66

If HP really wants developers behind it, they should consider giving away these devices to the developers. Even a $500 phone is a cheap investment with high returns, when made on a developer who's going to invest time (and money), is going to learn mostly by herself, and release an app in the market, even if in the hopes of making money for herself. With Android already doing well, I don't see a developer risking her…

They were giving away Pre 2's. They probably still are giving them away if they still have them in stock.

According to the HP webOS Developer Forums' Hardware Section, the offer's done. In fact, a lot of developers who took part are still waiting for theirs from back in February/March. The Pre 2 giveaway to developers really could have been executed better, IMO. Some folks who were approved back then don't even know if they'll still get one, which is disconcerting. Google can drop 5,000 special-edition Samsung tablets in a day, and HP's had almost three months to fulfill.

I respect that they could have just not given any away in the first place, but HP's in a critical spot right now trying to keep webOS relevant with developers--especially given that many in the first wave of webOS developers from '09-'10 have already long left the platform. Better communication on the status of the program and fulfillment would have gone a long way. I'm really hoping they can work the kinks out of the system when it comes to things like this with the resources HP has on-hand.

Re: Why Geeks Should Love HP WebOS

#95

Post by comex »

"You don’t have to jailbreak or root your device. What other platforms call jailbreaking or rooting, we call entering developer mode."

As an iOS jailbreaker,

I mean, it removes a bit of the fun, but still.

I ought to get a Pre.

Re: Why Geeks Should Love HP WebOS

#97

Post by jackson71 »

warthogkernel wrote: post #51
mhd wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Care to elaborate on the hardware? Speed seemed decent enough (compared with e.g. the first iPhone) and I personally really liked the "pebble" form factor. Sad that it'll never see webOS 2...

webOS 2.1 can be installed on the Pre if you make use of the Meta-Doctor. Some additional hoops to jump through but it's entirely doable along with overclocking, you end up with a pretty snappy device. http://www.webos-internals.org/wiki/WebOS_2_Upgrade

You want to be working on current-gen hardware if you're baselining future development efforts at 2.x going forward.

What you don't want to be using as your sole dev/test unit is a two year-old device using an unofficial workaround to get an OS version installed that was never intended to be used on it.

It's fine if you want to support those people that decided to use the workaround by having one of these franken-units around as a secondary edge-case device to test on, but it should never be the only device you use to develop and test with. I have a 1Ghz overclocked Sprint Pre at 1.4.5 as my "daily driver" and another Sprint Pre I've upgraded to 2.0 for testing such cases.

Re: Why Geeks Should Love HP WebOS

#98

Post by jackson71 »

comex wrote: post #95

"You don’t have to jailbreak or root your device. What other platforms call jailbreaking or rooting, we call entering developer mode." As an iOS jailbreaker, I mean, it removes a bit of the fun, but still. I ought to get a Pre.

Having had a Pre since the day Sprint launched it in 2009, it's truly a hackerphone for those that want to customize their experience, and one of the primary reasons I've evangelized the platform and my experience developing for and tinkering with it to all the developer friends of mine that'd listen.

They got it right from the start. No bootloader crap or jailbreaking necessary. Preware from webOS Internals is just icing on the cake.

Re: Why Geeks Should Love HP WebOS

#99

Post by jackson71 »

jallmann wrote: post #62

I love WebOS because it has the only sane development model of all the smartphone platforms on the market. edit: I actually think wp7/silverlight might fare well too from a dev perspective, but i haven't spent time with it yet.

WP7's suffering from its own developer adoption woes. The only problem with webOS' adoption, from my perspective as a webOS dev, has been marketing and hardware. Developing for webOS has been fun from Day One and continues to be nearly two years later.

The hardware part they look to have taken care of based on the Pre 3, Veer, and Touchpad I got to see and mess with back at their Dev Reception in February, and I'm pretty sure they have the money to market the product line now.

Re: Why Geeks Should Love HP WebOS

#100

Post by jackson71 »

DaveBowman wrote: post #77
plainOldText wrote: post #23

I think WebOS is great. But all the Palm devices are sliders which kinda sucks. I wish they'd come up with something comparable with Nexus S or iPhone 4. A simple, but cool nice little piece of smartphone. But, that's just me.

The Palm Pixi is not a slider, and I love it.

The Pixi is nice as a form factor, but 1) it's incredibly old comparatively, and 2) will not officially run webOS 2.x, and especially 3.x.

I know others who loved the form factor and feel of the Pixi; I'm hoping HP decides to throw them a bone in the future to get them back.

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