webOS 2.0 Overview
by Mithun Chandrasekhar on February 3, 2011 6:05 PM ESTWhat 2.0 Brings to the Table
Unlike what the ‘2.0’ suffix may suggest, webOS 2.0 is more of a thorough evolutionary update to the platform than anything else, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. As I had mentioned earlier, webOS already had a pretty solid user experience to begin with and with this update, HP is tidying things up and tying loose ends. There still are some issues with the platform in its current iteration (with the mediocre email client being a major one), but considering the fact that it hasn’t been released to the public in its final form, there still may be tweaks and improvements coming. Anyway, we have enough here to get going. If you’re new to webOS or want a primer on what you get to begin with, you can have a look at our Pre review.
Stacks
What can you do when you already have one of the best renditions of multitasking on a mobile platform? Try and make it even better. Using “cards”, webOS made it easy to get in and out of applications in a rather straightforward and seamless manner. If you realized that you had to send your boss an important update while you have a 0.25 second lead over your competitor in Need For Speed, tap the gesture area. The game minimizes, you tap the email app, type and send out the email, tap the game card again, and you’re back to fighting for first place, exactly where you left off.
This made it very easy and quick to switch applications while maintaining their state, but this also encouraged you to have multiple app “cards” running, making it a bit unwieldy and cumbersome to swipe across multiple cards to get to the one you wanted. If only there was a way to somehow stack these cards.... That’s exactly what we get with webOS 2.0: Stacks.
(Left) Multitasking in webOS using cards, (Right) Stacking cards in webOS 2.0
You can now drag cards and drop them over existing cards to create a stack of cards. In addition, any cards resulting from actions in an app will now automatically stack on top of the main app card. And finally, when it makes logical sense, webOS will stack related cards automatically. I found this very useful as now all my calendar events are bunched together with the calendar application, instead of being spread across multiple cards. You can also reorder the cards within a stack, if you choose to do so. While it takes a little practice to get used to dragging and dropping the cards or reordering them, the process in itself is quite logical and easy to grasp.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
46 Comments
View All Comments
ssj4Gogeta - Thursday, February 3, 2011 - link
Well, that sounds pretty bad. Google needs to advertise Android as a Google product. That will definitely help.Belard - Friday, February 4, 2011 - link
"4 OS Smartphones"? Uh, theres more than 4 on the market. But if WebOS(HP) can make a dent in the market place, it would be 6th major contender. Linux would be 7th and its dying out - killed by Android (Which is based off Unix).Around 2010, the smart phones :
1 - 36% = Symbian (Nokia - blah)
2 - 25% = Android (Samsung, Motorola, LG, HTC, SONY)
3 - 17% = iPhone
4 - 15% = RIM (Blackberries)
5 - -3% = Windows Mobile
6 - 2% = Linux (and getting smaller)
7 - -1% = WebOS 1.x and everything else including Sony's old system.
WebOS 2.0 is competing with 4~5 solid major competing systems.
A bit of fun. First SMART Phone is by IBM. The Simon from 1994. It has a huge mono-LCD touch screen, no actual buttons. Use your finger or a stylus to operate.
Looking at the screensshots, it looks great. Clean and simple. In ways, there are still issues with Android. I'm still on 2.1 with my Galaxy which isn't perfect, other than its screen.... and there are some interface issues that are harder than it should be.
Setting up an alarm, in which the screen button display is alpha numeric?!
rhangman - Friday, February 4, 2011 - link
Don't forget Samsung Bada. Surprisingly decent OS and the hardware is essentially the same as their Android/WM7 phones.Conficio - Thursday, February 3, 2011 - link
I like webOS too. sounds quite a bag of good ideas.But the hardware spec seems to be last years boat. by the time that hits the networks we are talking about dual core A9, etc.
The interesting part would be if HP could use this to build UIs for all its devices: phone, tablet, printer, scanner, monitor/TV remote, monitor OSD, cameras, notebook instant on, netbook instant on, etc.
Ahh, and make it open source and engage many hardware manufacturers. Google has done it, webOS does need too.
One more question, what is the app install story/marketplace? That is key for developers, isn't it?
Cyborg7th - Friday, February 4, 2011 - link
The pre's specs are last years boat... or more to the point, mid 2009. But at the time of release it was just as powerful, and in some areas better, than the other phones on the market.HP does plan on using webOS on tablets and printers so far that I know of, and possibly more in the future.
As for open source, webOS has Android blown away in that department. I have full access to everything on my pre, including a terminal interface which I can run shell commands on. Thanks to the homebrew guys/gals you can change almost everything on the phone, including overclocking it. My pre is curretly clocked at 1 ghz with custom voltages.
The last question is where I feel HP needs to step up their game on the software side of things. The current app store sucks to be blunt. I never use it anymore after loading preware onto my phone. But while webOS doesn't have a ton of apps available, a lot of them are free.
ChronoReverse - Friday, February 4, 2011 - link
That seems like a curious thing say about "blowing away Android" when the examples you provided are all possible on Android as well. Perhaps you meant to say iOS?Cyborg7th - Saturday, February 5, 2011 - link
Possible on Android... sure... now get back to me when you can do it without rooting your phone first.tenkom - Saturday, February 5, 2011 - link
It is not exactly officially supported on webos either and over clocking does require you to flash a new kernel. Many android phones are very easy to root so I don't think that is a very good argument.Cyborg7th - Saturday, February 5, 2011 - link
That was the arguement to begin with. My statement was about webos being more open than android. Out of the box, webos on any of the phones does not have to be rooted.Conficio - Thursday, February 3, 2011 - link
I'd think that many of these app features would be great as kind of a dashboard on Windows/Linux as well.So make a virtual phone as a dashboard (many laptops have multi finger mousepads and desktops start using it too - Apple?). Then sync the the phone and the dashboard app, allow any sort of sizing, make it a screensaver, etc.
Same for media access on your media settop box?
HP has the ability to do it, especialy if they OSS it.