Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 9th Jan 2009 11:34 UTC
The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is filled to the brim with product announcements and new useful (and useless) gadgets, but some stand out more than others. One item that topped the headlines the past few days is Palm's announcement of its brand new operating system.
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Member since:2005-07-06
Yes it is because you've just said non-sense. How the iPhone can be outdate when in a first place the Pre has obviously taken a lot of design and interface ideas from it?
I think that what he meant was that the Pre took some of the ideas from the iPhone and improved them, something that, in my opinion, no other company managed to do so far.
Member since:2005-07-06
How the iPhone can be outdate when in a first place the Pre has obviously taken a lot of design and interface ideas from it?
This has got to be one of the most stupid utterings I've ever heard. Compare: "How can the Ford Model T be outdated when new cars have obviously taken a lot of design ideas from it?"
Edited 2009-01-09 13:36 UTC
Member since:2005-08-12
We don't know yet if this IS better. A few comments from easily impressionable tech writers means nothing.
While I see some good things here, I see some strange, and possibly backwards ones as well.
We also don't know how well any of these features will work. just because they are there doesn't mean that they will work properly, or usefully. The metaphor is also being overhyped. no matter how you look at it, it IS program -centric.
I see nothing here that is revolutionary.
Member since:2005-06-29
Apple has chosed by purpose (like Eugenia pointed out) the single task/app approach.
And do you recall why, exactly, Apple chose to limit the multitasking capabilities of the iPhone? Exactly, it couldn't come up with a decent enough UI paradigm that made it easy for users to understand, and they claimed it would eat too many resources.
What Apple is basically admitting here is that they were unable to come up with an interface in which multitasking on a phone would be easy enough and usable.
The Palm engineers DO come up with a way of handling multiple applications, by developing a new paradigm for them. Palm has been able to do what Apple couldn't.
And the Pre does not give away the idea of windows anyway, as cards are composed of different windows
Then you really haven't been paying attention. The cards aren't ordinary windows. They're not applications. They are tasks - they combine the functionality of various applications and present it all in a logical way. This is fundamentally different from the approach taken by other smartphones - including the iPhone's.
Yes it is because you've just said non-sense. How the iPhone can be outdate when in a first place the Pre has obviously taken a lot of design and interface ideas from it?
Because Palm took all that is good from the iPhone, and created a completely new paradigm where you focus on tasks, not applications; in addition, they added an understandable form of multitasking, which is something the iPhone cannot do.
So yes, the iPhone feels outdated compared to what Palm has shown us.
Edited 2009-01-09 13:35 UTC
Member since:2006-03-20
The gesture interface is silly. It's far simpler to just click a button than having to move my finger around.
In the video, they talk about 'applications', so applications have not gone away.
I don't see any 'revolution' or 'evolution' in this interface. Windows are obviously there (but they don't have a caption or a close button), applications are there as well (disguised as tasks), and the way to achieve things by dragging your finger across the screen is the silliest way of spending your valuable time.
Member since:2007-05-12
...Exactly, it couldn't come up with a decent enough UI paradigm that made it easy for users to understand, and they claimed it would eat too many resources.
What Apple is basically admitting here is that they were unable to come up with an interface in which multitasking on a phone would be easy enough and usable.
The Palm engineers DO come up with a way of handling multiple applications, by developing a new paradigm for them. Palm has been able to do what Apple couldn't.
What Apple is basically admitting here is that they were unable to come up with an interface in which multitasking on a phone would be easy enough and usable.
The Palm engineers DO come up with a way of handling multiple applications, by developing a new paradigm for them. Palm has been able to do what Apple couldn't.
Yes, and Palm's solution is HTML/CSS/JS applications - no way to leak memory there, no way to step outside your sandbox, but also very little control over performance and functionality you can implement.
Then you really haven't been paying attention. The cards aren't ordinary windows. They're not applications. They are tasks - they combine the functionality of various applications and present it all in a logical way. This is fundamentally different from the approach taken by other smartphones - including the iPhone's.
I don't see how cards are different from applications, with possibly the exception of cards displaying web pages and web applications, which cannot be distinguished from "local" cards and basically making web apps a first class citizen, in contrast with other platforms where the entity behind the web app is still the respective browser.
Because Palm took all that is good from the iPhone, and created a completely new paradigm...
I agree that Palm did a great job identifying the good UI of the iPhone and expanded on it in their UI, but "completely new paradigm" it isn't (and that expression is so overused that it's becoming meaningless).
Member since:2005-11-06
Apple has chosed by purpose (like Eugenia pointed out) the single task/app approach.
And do you recall why, exactly, Apple chose to limit the multitasking capabilities of the iPhone? Exactly, it couldn't come up with a decent enough UI paradigm that made it easy for users to understand, and they claimed it would eat too many resources.
And do you recall why, exactly, Apple chose to limit the multitasking capabilities of the iPhone? Exactly, it couldn't come up with a decent enough UI paradigm that made it easy for users to understand, and they claimed it would eat too many resources.
Have you used MobileSafri´s tabs? They are represented as cards which you can flip between, and expand to fill the screen when selected, exactly like the Pre.
So, it's not the lack of a "decent enough UI", since they already use the cards approach in Safari, but a deliberate choice. The point is avoiding the constant "my phone is running slow, I have to close some apps from the process manager" that plagues many other platforms.
Personally, I think a better choice than iPhone's "not allowing several active apps" would have been something like Android does: "active" apps are not directly controlled by the user but by the OS, which unloads them (saving the state) automatically as needed. The iPhone actually does this to some level, but only for a subset of Apple's own apps (like Mail).
In any case, I really like many of the interface decisions made for Pre's Web OS. This helps raise the bar of what users expect from a phone. I can't wait to see what the iPhone OS 3.0 & Android's next version bring as a response.
edit: messed up the quote tags - can't nest quotes, apparently
Edited 2009-01-09 14:13 UTC
Member since:2009-01-09
The Palm engineers DO come up with a way of handling multiple applications, by developing a new paradigm for them. Palm has been able to do what Apple couldn't.
What?
Thom, the Pre's "applications" are what Apple calls webapps. They have been a feature of the iPhone from the beginning. Not only that, but iPhone's Safari has supported a multi=page interface from the beginning.
Palm is imitating the iPhone here.
So yes, the iPhone feels outdated compared to what Palm has shown us.
That's just silly.
Member since:2005-08-12
I really don't think you understand what is going on here.
It's easy to make it LOOK as though the apps don't matter, but in the end they are what is being called, no matter what the "window" is supposed to be.
Apple didn't limit multitasking because of the UI. What are you talking about? They did it because phone cpu's bog down from doing too many tasks at once. it's very likely that this phone will bog down also from too many background processes.
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Member since:
2005-11-16
To me, it seems as if Palm is the first smartphone manufacturer to develop an interface from the ground up specifically for a mobile device, without windows, applications, or other desktop-centric ideas. Oh, and it does copy/paste.
This is not true, the iPhone is far to be a phone designed with a desktop centric idea, this is actually the total opposite. I mean, come one, nothing besides the windows makes it behave fundamentally like a desktop environment. And the Pre does not give away the idea of windows anyway, as cards are composed of different windows, either your devise works as the Pre or it works like the iPhone where Apple has chosed by purpose (like Eugenia pointed out) the single task/app approach. So it remains to be seen how the Palm's card approach works for the user and how having many cards can affect the battery life.
But again, Apple has clearly designed the iPhone's interface from the ground up for a portable devise, and i would say that Palm has taken the same way with its own ideas compared to other solutions like windows Mobile or Android which basically work a lot like the computer desktop. More on the side of Windows mobile than Android, but Android much more than the iPhone or the Pre.
While it's dangerous to make any such statements, I do believe that Palm has out-Appled Apple on this one: the iPhone already feels hopelessly kludgey and outdated.
Yes it is because you've just said non-sense. How the iPhone can be outdate when in a first place the Pre has obviously taken a lot of design and interface ideas from it?