Live from the Palm Press Conference: Nova anyone?
by at January 8, 2009 3:04 pm
Sections: CES, Communications, Features, Smartphones, Trade Shows
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That’s all for now. Thanks for joining us for the Palm press conference. Looks like they proven they mean business. Apple, Google, you best be keeping your eyes on Palm. webOS is here to stay.
“…The always-connected OS…”
Very interesting. Ed is back on stage and is talking about how successful of a platform this will be. Says Pandora ported their application to the iPhone in 3 days. Very impressive. He reminds us that all of the apps we’ve seen today were developed in CSS, HTML, and Javascript.
Doesn’t seem like anything too exciting. Maybe they think we don’t already know what Facebook is… hmm…
Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, is in the house to show off some of the great Facebook integration on webOS
The Palm pre will be available on Sprint in the first half of 2009 ASAP.
Now talking about Sprint’s Simply Everything plan… reminds me of those Dan Hesse commercials. “Hi I’m Dan Hesse, CEO of Sprint…”
Dan says Sprint’s 3G coverage is 4 times that of AT&T’s.
I bet Sprint is stoked about this… just when we thought they were on the verge of a slow, painful death…
Dan Hesse, CEO of Sprint gets invited on stage… you know what that means. The pre will be exclusive to Sprint…
Now they’ve just announced a wireless charger for the Palm pre. It’s a plateau looking think that kind of resembles a paper weight.
“I’ve shown you a lot — and with that, I’d like to invite Jon back on stage.”
Applications zoom out when important messages come across so it doesn’t disturb your activity with what you’re doing (take that Apple)
Any application can open popups down in the message area on the bottom of the screen. Looks like they’re going to show all of your waiting messages in one place similar to the old Palm OS.. a much missed feature ever since I switched to an iPhone.
When he rotates the device, the grid rotates as well. Woohoo — popup notifications from apps while in other apps. This is very impressive stuff…
He’s now showing off the new web browser on webOS. Similar to other multi-touch browsers — easily zoom in and out, pan around the screen, etc. if you have multiple windows open, you can zoom out to view a grid of them. You can also turn the device in landscape mode to view it in widescreen.
Applications, contact, calendar, as well as related web results.
He says not everything can be solved with a flick or a gesture — sometimes you really do need a keyboard. webOS allows you to search everything on your phone, similar to Spotlight on the Mac.
In addition to contacts, all of your IM services are collapsed into one list… so you can see whose on AIM, Gmail, Yahoo, etc all from one place like you can on several desktop apps.
Another neat feature is that you’re not stuck in one compose screen while trying to send out multiple drafts at once. You can zoom out with webOS and manage a bunch of compose screens at once!
The email application looks amazing. It supports attachments and inliine images — and allows you to scroll through all of your contacts (Facebook, Gmail, etc) all from one place when sending out. Then you can choose which account you’re sending from. Easy and intuitive.
The calendar app integrates with Google Calendar which is a huge plus already!
Synergy allows you to manage all of your data sources — contacts, calendars — all in one place with no importing. All you have to do is login to services like Google Calendar, Facebook, etc, and it will seamlessly merge with your existing calendar information and other data.
It’s more than just how you flow between apps, it’s about how you connect to the web.
“We bring info together in one place. We call this Synergy. Here’s how it works…”
“How’s that for some newness?”
If you want to close an application, all you do is flick it off the screen and it’s gone! Very cool stuff.
This is very slick. When he presses the “home” button on the bottom of the device, all of the apps zoom out similar to Expose on the mac. So you can switch between apps seamlessly.
“Instead of a desktop where you pile up windows, we imaged a deck of cards — let me show you…”
Swiping up on the screen reveals the app launcher no matter what screen you’re on…. so unlike the iPhone, you can switch to an app without having to go back to the home screen.
Similar to the iPhone, you can flick to scroll through long lists like your contacts…
This new UI does not look like the traditional Palm OS you and I have seen over the years. It is smooth, fresh, and very good looking.
Ahh I forgot to mention there is a nipple trackball on the bottom of the device similar to the newer Blackberrys
320×480 resolution
Matias Duarte is coming out to give us a demo of the new OS
The pre has Stereo A2DP, EvDO Rev. A, 802.11b/g, GPS, Blutooth, 8GB storage, and what he is calling a fast processor. Also MicroUSB jack (USB 2.0), and a portrait slide out keyboard. Why the keyboard? “When you want to jam out an email… you don’t want a cheesy virtual keyboard”
Say hello to the new Palm pre! Kind of looks like an HTC Touch at first glance. It’s full touch-scree oval-shaped device.
Palm webOS is their new platform. If you know XML, CSS, and HTML, you can program for the new platform… sounds like the internet to me.
“How are we going to do that? We had to start with a new platform from the ground up. And we’ve done that…”
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could take that and bring it to you in a really seamless way? To your pocket, so your cal and contacts seamlessly get integrated in one place…
Today, we don’t just have local data, but we have data out on the internet. That’s a new twist on the “too many devices” problem.
In the 80s, people had data everywhere… too many devices — hence they developed the Smartphone. “We combined all of those devices into a single device… the Treo.”
Ed Colligan, CEO, takes the stage.
“You need to have the right phone, and the right platform. Forward looking, flexible, powerful… I can’t think of a better company for this than Palm.”
“I’m so glad you could be here today. I used to work for this cool company in Cupertino.”
Jon Rubinstein, Executive Chairman of Palm takes the stage. Says they have some “cool stuff” to show us… but first he wants to give us a history lesson regarding the company’s past success.
Welcome to Gadgetell’s coverage of Palm’s CES 2009 press conference. We’re about to get started, so get comfy.
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