RIP Palm, Long Live webOS
Palm is now officially dead, but will live on in spirit.
The new phone is just like my phone, but with a 3.6 vs. 3.2in screen (granted, higher resolution), a 1.4ghz processor vs 500mhz (which is pretty big), 5mp vs 3mp camera (meh), and 512mb vs. 256mb RAM (good, but not amazing). One cool thing is that it is now a worldphone, which is nice
And by spirit, I mean operating system.
The New WebOS HP/Palm
webOS, Plam's last chance at survival was... well.. fantastic from a software point of view, and a complete and utter failure from a marketing point of view. Someday, someone will write a case about this, because it really was an incredible screwup.
How good is webOS from a technical standpoint? Android has heavily ripped off webOS since it was launched, including a new home screen they called "more webOS like." Apple has tried but failed to copy webOS's fantastic notification system. Symbian and Win Phone 7 have ripped off the "card" system. And finally, the new OS found on the BlackBerry PlayBook is a complete and direct ripoff of webOS. Basically, everyone else knew that Palm had created the easiest to use, most intuitive, and most advanced mobile OS. They just failed to sell any phones.
However, along with killing off Plam, HP did have some good news for us true believers.
First is a nice big tablet, swinging spec for spec with the Xoom and iPad, and runing webOS, which should be damn nice.
Also, is the Palm Pre 3. I'll be honest here, the difference between the Pre 3 and my Pre 1 is really not all that much. Given that my Pre will be 2yrs old when I go to upgrade in the fall, I will have to seriously evaluate my options.
Let me explain why:
Palm Pre 1 | HP Pre 3 |
| Dimensions | 59.6 x 100.7 x 16.9mm | 64 x 111 x 16mm |
| Processor | 500MHz TI OMAP | 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8x55 |
| RAM | 256MB | 512MB |
| Display | 3.1-inch 480 x 320 | 3.58-inch 800 x 480 |
| Camera | 3 megapixel with VGA video capture, no secondary | 5 megapixel primary with 720p video capture, VGA secondary |
| Storage | 8GB | 8GB or 16GB |
| Cellular radio | GSM / HSDPA or CDMA | GSM / HSPA+ and CDMA |
| WiFi | 802.11b/g | 802.11b/g/n (dual-band) |
| Bluetooth | 2.1 + EDR | 2.1 + EDR |
| Gyroscope | No | No |
| Accelerometer | Yes | Yes |
| Touch-to-share capability | No | Yes |
| Battery capacity | 1,150mAh (mine is ~3,000mAh) | 1,230mAh |
So, will I get the Pre 3? Yes. But, I was really hoping for more form factors. I suppose that is what I was most frustrated by. However, one damn cool feature is that if you touch a Pre/Veer to the TouchBook tablet, you can instantly transfer directions, website URL you are currently looking at, and a few other things through near field communications.
They did release a phone to update the Pixi as well. The real issue here you can see from the pictures: the one thing about the pixi that was much much better than the pre was the keyboard. It was as good as a blackberry keyboard. Now they have made just a smaller Pre, which is kind of cool, but means you get the harder-to-use pre keyboard, though you do also get a very small and highly capable smartphone.
Palm Pixi Plus | HP Veer |
| Dimensions | 55 x 111 x 10.85mm | 54.5 x 84 x 15.1mm |
| Processor | 600MHz Qualcomm MSM7x27 | 800MHz Qualcomm MSM7230 |
| RAM | 256MB | 512MB |
| Display | 2.63-inch 400 x 320 | 2.6-inch 400 x 320 |
| Camera | 2 megapixel | 5 megapixel |
| Storage | 8GB | 8GB |
| Cellular radio | GSM / HSDPA or CDMA | GSM / HSPA |
| WiFi | 802.11b/g | 802.11b/g/n |
| Bluetooth | 2.1 + EDR | 2.1 + EDR |
| Gyroscope | No | No |
| Accelerometer | Yes | Yes |
| Touch-to-share capability | No | Yes |
| Battery capacity | 1,150mAh | 910mAh (non-removable) |
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