Of the three items in the "improved" product line, one is vaporware.
How Dead is WebOS?
21–30 of 61 posts
Re: How Dead is WebOS?
#22HP will be shipping WebOS on all its laptops and desktops. They are the #1 computer maker. You do the math.
Here's my math. It seems to me there are two possibilities:
WebOS fails on the laptop and desktop (e.g. is perceived as crap/bloat-ware or simply ignored). In this case the math doesn't look good.
WebOS succeeds on the laptop and desktop. This means that a whole bunch of users are willing to give up on Windows for their computing needs. Long overdue, since most people's computing needs are met by a web browser and a few other programs you can get for free. If this looks like happening, it's open season on the PC industry business model. Apple has already taken away the high margin market... this will be like a horde of hyenas ripping into a wounded wildebeest. I'm not sure this is actually a better outcome for HP.
Re: How Dead is WebOS?
#23"That fragmentation is driving developers to embrace frameworks such as PhoneGap, which WebOS has wholeheartedly adopted. " Honest question: really? Is anyone actually using this stuff in a serious way? I ask because I use only iOS basically so I may genuinely be missing this revolution that is taking place, but at least on iOS I have never downloaded an app that was phonegap, nor do I think any significant charting…
I've seen quite a few apps written in phone gap work really well on iOS devices. I think many people are surprised how well an apps experience can be with this tech... granted, lots of people don't know that large numbers of apps are really just a web view wired to a minimal obj-c shell so I think the approach is pretty successful if not the framework itself.
A counter-example is Safari To Go - Safari Book Online's iPad app, which they withdrew due to bad review: http://blog.safaribooksonline.com/2010/11/24/ipad-app-safari...
Most people agreed that PhoneGap was the wrong framework. It's not that PhoneGap is intrinsically bad - it is not - but that it is not for every task, and more likely, it is not good for most tasks that are more than a short load-lookup-leave cycle.
Re: How Dead is WebOS?
#24They've taken a great OS and put it in a somewhat poor smartphone. I found they keyboard on the initial Pre to be very bad. I've heard it has improved since then, but as they saying goes, first impressions count a lot.
I really thought with HP they would make significant enhancements to the hardware, but so far I haven't seen anything too compelling. Still, it's a great OS and I wish them luck. I may take another look at it in the tablet form.
Re: How Dead is WebOS?
#25I've developed a fairly well known (to the webos community) application. I had a top 10 app in Palm's million dollar contest. I've been on their print and web promotional tools and featured several times in their app catalog... yet I feel and felt that HP and Palm both have dropped the ball when it has come to developing for WebOS. They have terrible, poorly documented API's. I think its all fine and dandy that they…
I know absolutely zero about WebOS development so this is probably a very naive question. Isn't Node.JS available to WebOS, couldn't you use something like http.request()? http://nodejs.org/docs/v0.4.7/api/http.html#http.request
Re: How Dead is WebOS?
#26HP will be shipping WebOS on all its laptops and desktops. They are the #1 computer maker. You do the math.
HP has been shipping Splashtop (as "HP QuickWeb" and "Voodoo IOS") and on many models for several years now and nobody cared. Why would they, when Windows is right there?
WebOS (though better than Splashtop) faces much the same problem. It's going to take bolder moves than just making it available.
Re: How Dead is WebOS?
#27I was given a free Pre2 by Palm's Developer Relations Team as a development device. After a week with the thing, I fully expected to be clawing at my iPhone, performing 40 Hail Steves, and vowing never to stray again. Instead, I haven't touched the iPhone for eight weeks. WebOS is a delight, and I wish I'd had the guts to try it sooner; not only is the OS better thought out in many ways (multi tasking, global app men…
I got my free Pre 2 on Thursday and have been using it as my main device. My biggest gripe with the Pre 2 is the small screen. It is a great OS, but my enjoyment of it is hampered by the small screen.
I agree Just Type, multitasking and notifications blow iOS's counterparts out of the water.
I will be very tempted to try out the Pre 3 (with its larger screen) and have been excited about the TouchPad even before I set fingers on the Pre 2.
There's a lot of competition for #3 in the phone space, but HP could easily take #2 in the tablet market given how rushed Honeycomb and the Playbook appear to be.
Re: How Dead is WebOS?
#28HP needs to push the web angle even harder. If WebOS were the chromeOS of phone it would have something to really differentiate itself. To do that they have to go all-in on making the browser really kick ass. The biggest problem with the mobile web today is the browsers are not nearly as good as the desktop counterparts. If HP/Palm would make it a priority to have a javascript engine that comes close to desktop counterparts, to support all of the cutting edge html5 features, and continually iterate on that, I'd definitely strongly consider making a switch. They should drop native apps all together and instead suggest developers use WebGL and html5 (keep the App Catalog but make it just be for app review and discovery).
Re: How Dead is WebOS?
#29They've taken a great OS and put it in a somewhat poor smartphone. I found they keyboard on the initial Pre to be very bad. I've heard it has improved since then, but as they saying goes, first impressions count a lot. I really thought with HP they would make significant enhancements to the hardware, but so far I haven't seen anything too compelling. Still, it's a great OS and I wish them luck. I may take another loo…
Agreed. The Pre's battery life was atrocious.
Re: How Dead is WebOS?
#30I've developed a fairly well known (to the webos community) application. I had a top 10 app in Palm's million dollar contest. I've been on their print and web promotional tools and featured several times in their app catalog... yet I feel and felt that HP and Palm both have dropped the ball when it has come to developing for WebOS. They have terrible, poorly documented API's. I think its all fine and dandy that they…
So if writing a browser extension in C++ is hard, then what about writing whole application in Objective C instead of writing in JS? I'm genuinely interested what do you consider easier platform to develop, since I've just tried out Enyo and I really like it.
It's not really about the language, it was more about the API's available. I write iPhone apps also and the frameworks that Apple has developed are far superior and far more reaching than anything Palm/HP has done.
Their API's available to the browser extensions are basically just opengl related.