When talking about the webOS, one of the main complaints is often that the operating system feels sluggish, especially considering the Pre has the same hardware as the iPhone 3GS. At a webOS Developer Event in London, Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer (the Mozilla guys who joined Palm) talked about why this is the case, and hinted that it will be fixed sooner rather than later. They also addressed The One Question: will Palm ever open source the webOS?
The Palm pre sports more or less the same hardware as the iPhone 3GS, but Apple’s baby is considerablyfaster than the Pre – or at least, appears to be. As some of you might know, the Pre does have a powerful GPU; it’s just not being used. This is about to change, according to Galbraith and Almaer.
On ease of use, multitasking has been great; UI latency is still an issue even though the hardware is comparable to 3GS. The problem is the path to the GPU didn’t exist, but now with CSS transforms, that will be solved in the future.
Another problem with the webOS was the lack of raw 3D power for developers to tap into. This is apparently also being worked on, in the form of OpenGL support. It is worth noting that Palm recently hired AMD/ATI’s Linux engineer; he should certainly carry some knowledge on the subject. Getting proper OpenGL on the Pre (WebGL, maybe?) would open the door to more engaging games, too.
In their talk, the two former Mozilla guys also stressed that Palm is not in the business of selling APIs; as such, the company is involved with the BONDI and W3C widgets standardisation efforts. “Palm pays us, but they didn’t pay us enough to sell out,” they said, further adding that they are not going to tell developers to use “our funny proprietary API, you’ll love it”. The webOS Mojo SDK uses standard web languages, making it easy for people with experience in the field of web development to join in on the fun.
And, as promised The One Question. Will Palm open source the webOS? If it’s up to Galbraith and Almaer, the webOS would indeed be released as open source, but for now, it’s probably not likely.
In any case, when will Pre owners be able to profit from any possible speed improvements? It is possible that the release of the Palm Pixi, on November 15, will also provide an opportunity for Palm to release the confirmed webOS 1.3.1 update. Pre owners are currently wondering why the version number gets bumped from 1.2 to 1.3 – could speed be the reason?
This article mentions they are going to be using the GPU more…
http://www.prethinking.com/home/2009/11/3/huge-speed-improvement-co…
According to what I’ve read, the iphone battery lasts 2 to 3 days, and less than 10 hours when heavily used. The batteries die after 2 to 3 years of use and can not be replaced.
I take longer battery life over better 3D effect on my mobile phone any day.
I have a friend with the original iPhone. No battery problems yet. I call FUD.
[edit]
Actually I have two friends with the original, no problems.
Edited 2009-11-05 16:00 UTC
iPhone 3Gs
Talk time: Up to 5 hours on 3G, up to 12 hours on 2G3
Standby time: Up to 300 hours
Palm pre
5 hours talk / 250 hours standby (maximum)
And this is official estimate. Every reviews I read made negative comments on the Palm pre battery life.
And for some reason, it is harder to find battery life specs for the palm pre than the iPhone. Google only give article about “how to improve Palm pre battery life” when you are searching for specs.
I don’t know where they dug that little gem up but I bought a Pre abount a month and a half ago and I’ve never seen anything remotely close to that in battery life. I would estimate it more at 2-2.5 hours talk time and *MAYBE* 48 hours standby on a lucky day (if all features are turned off). I suppose you could possibly get 50 – 60 hours standby if you keep the phone in “Airplane Mode” but that sort of defeats the purpose of having a cell phone now doesn’t it.
*Edited for typos*
Edited 2009-11-05 19:42 UTC
every report indicates that the Pre doesn’t last as long as an iPhone for battery life.
You can also bring in an iPhone to any Apple store and get the battery replaced over the counter.
In fact, the Pre likely uses way more battery power by using it’s CPU all the time instead of the GPU.
I own a Pre. The battery life does suck, and I would doubt it lasts as long as an iPhone. But I would venture to guess that the problem lies deeper than a GPU vs. CPU processing issue. As the pre matures and its background services, libraries and apps are better optimized, battery life will likely increase. My Pre already lasts slightly longer with WebOS 1.2.x than it did with prior releases. I hope this trend will continue with each WebOS update.
I’m not so sure about this. Right now, the GPU sits relatively idle and consumes an unknown baseline of energy while the CPU manages graphics calculations. Enabling the GPU would just transfer those graphics calculations from the CPU to the GPU–thereby raising the amount of energy consumed by the GPU. In the end, you’re merely shifting power burden from one component to another. The real question is whether or not the GPU is more power efficient than the CPU for these calculations.
In practice, GPUs tend to consume more energy than CPUs. You also need to keep in mind that the GPU and CPU will now be active simultaneously. Performance and latency issues will improve, but battery life may not.
As a pre user, however, I *reallllly* hope it does improve.
And that will be even worse if they use the GPU more in my opinion.
Indeed, but that is not equal to be able to change the battery yourself. I have a phone that last easily 2 weeks with normal usage. I can not afford to miss a call, so I always have a battery replacement in my pocket. With the iPhone, when it’s exhausted, you can not even ask a friend for his battery. You can put your sim card in his phone (I hope you can) but you don’t have your data (phone numbers, etc..). A phone with no battery is useless. For me, removable batteries is a must, and I can not understand why the iPhone can’t have that in 2009. What did they think? Do they charge for replacing it in the store? I can not even find a store in my town.
While battery life is pretty pathetic compared to classic feature phones it’s enough to last the day – after which I put it on the touchstone and it’s recharged pretty quickly. Not a big deal actually.
Other smartphones are only slightly better and the Pre is still young with room for optimizations.
Anybody who needs days of use between recharging should avoid smartphones. What makes them smart, nice and cool also makes them use up energy and nobody wants to carry the bricks around it would need to make an Iphone or a Pre work for a week or more as classic phones cold.
I don’t think RIM has _ever_ participated in either of those two groups. They’ve certainly never participated in the W3C effort to standardize widgets at the w3c and I’m pretty sure they are not part of BONDI. Where did you get the info that they had contributed to any standardization effort from?