Palm might have tried to bottle up that
webOS 1.2 leak the other day, but it looks like it was to no avail -- videos of the new build in action have hit YouTube, and the hacking community has already ripped the code apart and found some new features. Just like we'd heard, the browser's been updated and there's revised and improved copy / paste functionality, but the big new feature seems to be email searching, which Pre owners have longed for since day one. Hidden deeper, it seems like the LEDs in the gesture area can be enabled for notifications by tweaking just a few lines of code, and there's also the somewhat disconcerting addition of remote app kill switch for Palm, which would apparently let it delete apps anytime it wants. We're sure this is just a cover-your-ass move as Palm prepares to open up the App Catalog -- and it's not
exactly unprecedented -- but it's still a little disconcerting given how closely Palm seems to be
monitoring Pre usage to begin with. Oh, but come on, let's turn that frown upside-down -- video of new features after the break.
Read - webOS 1.2 video
Read - LED notifications
posted September 5th 2009 7:28PM
bing... bing... bing
i bing, you bing?
BIG PALM IS WATCHING YOU
They added an option to disable GPS Services.
Nevermind the fact that both Google and Sprint know where you are at all times.
While I dislike this in general, as long as the data is anonymous I really don't care. I mean, there are hundreds if not thousands of other Pre users within the general area so I don't think the data is of much use unless they are trying to hunt you down. In that case, you throw the phone in some guys backpack and run to Canada.
Yeah, it's less of an issue than it may seem... Plus, Palm isn't really that big of a company either, so "Big Palm" is kind of wrong too...
But "Small Palm is Watching You but You Can Opt-Out And It's Anonymized Anyway" doesn't sound that great.
I do not like the big brother stuff that is going on all too frequently. Amazon, Palm and Google are all doing it. Probrably wont stop me picking up a pre in a month or so but still a worrying trend.
I had the 1.2 leak an hour after it was reported, and I love the browser c&p... its nice.
I doubt he knows you can swipe away notifications because I doubt he ever owned a Pre.
thats great and all, but can we get visual voicemail please??
sweet!!! updates coming rapid fire, i like that =)
I think the palm pre's screen is too small. I mean, it's 3.1 inches, but with notifications and the status bar, it's more like 1 inch screen, comparable to most dumbphones.
Nah, the notifications only show up if the user selects them to. The notifications are extremely nice when quickly referencing the phone. Also very rarely do notification stack more than 2.
You should try it, the small form factor is really nice.
actually I had it, and i returned it. I meant even when the small notifications were on the bottom, it was a 2 inch screen, and the staus bar is huge! I couldn't go with such a small screened device.
you know, you don't have to keep all the notifications there, you can flick them away. Thats kind of the point.
One other big feature that I forgot and showed in another video. The browser can now download files directly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ziAAxWpttg
Now that is useful
does the update bring the media player up to iphone standards?
Honestly, I have absolutely no problem with the Pre Music player vs the iPhone's, and while I haven't been able to do too much listening on an iPhone to discern the music quality on that, the Pre does have superior audio quality to iPods.
There's really only a few features missing, and there's an alternate music player in development that will add them, as well as a 'remix' of the original player that adds them.
The main things missing are bookmarking and scrubbing for audiobooks and podcasts. I don't actually use audiobooks at all, I prefer to read myself, but I think the remixed version fixes everything you need for that. For podcasts, everyone should be using "drPodder" and you'll never want to use the built-in music player for podcasts ever again.
Download the homebrew app called Music Player Remix. It basically fixes everything that was wrong with the original app while retaining more or less the same interface.
I have the remix and have had it since it was released. And it has bookmarking. But it is doesn't fix everything. specifically.
1. Genre sorting/browsing is bad. sorts to just a giant song list, rather then to artist and album like the ipod. very cumbersome for large libraries. and considering iphones are up to 32 GBs that can mean searching through 2000+ song titles. that would take a long time to flick through. If that's the case you might as well search with text and thus genre browsing becomes less useful.
2. Does not remember a song's spot, really bad for audiobooks and when you accidentally change the song because again or the song shuts off.
3. List songs wrong. "The Beatles" lists under "T" not "B". It should ignore "The", "A" and And. Same thing happens in albums. So Jay'z "The Black Album" is listed under "T". Makes finding things difficult.
4. Touching anything pauses a song regardless of weather you touch the actual pause button. no idea why any touch pauses anywhere on the screen. Songs keep accidentally pausing.
Podcast support is bad. there's always Dr. Podder but you'd think they'd have an intgrated system.
4. Slow. it's very slow to react to button clicks. Easily as much as 2 seconds lag sometimes.
5. Capital letters cause duplicates entries. That is "jazz" is listed as a different genre then "Jazz". "aerosmith" is a different artist then "Aerosmith".
6. landscape mode would be nice but i just though of that and it's not a big deal to me.
Desktop manager. Not really something fixed by a software update but I've no real idea why i still have to use itunes. Yeah there's doubletwist but it chokes on my very large library. (i even spoke to a developer for double twist who admitted it's a known issue). plus i can't get playlists to work with doubletwist.
and that's added to the Music Remix additions that are needed like the meter, and great background changing.
It's not that i hate the player. And remix does help. But iphone is built primarily on the success of the ipod. So to compete the player on the pre needs to do as good a job to compete. And i think some of the naming mistakes and capital letter issues are sloppy and don't seem like difficult fixes for a company that has paid people there. I like the Pre but i've got an ipod that i still use a lot because it really is a better overall device for music at this moment.
I agree that the music player is a little slow and needs to cache thumbnails of album art rather than loading them every time.
That being said, the only other one that affects me is the ordering of songs that you mention. You're right, it does not ignore A, An, or The, but there's a modification on webOS-Internals.org that I've used to fix that.
i think the issue is the majority of potential users are NOT going to homebrew. They will use the official channels. And the iphone is the standard. If you want to measure up you should do at least what they do as well as they do it. I mean fair enough the issues don't concern you but they do concern others. I don't care about lyrics or bookmarks, buying music from amazon, lyrics, but i acknowledge that some people do so from a business standpoint. I mean i don't use visual voicemail, or facebook, or watch videos on my phone but i know they need to be improved to compete. It's a poorly thought out strategy to respond to potential customers with, "i'm not going to provide the service you want cause i don't want it." It's better to provide the service. It in no way stops a person from still not using it.
Sure, most users won't homebrew, but I see homebrew as a way for many developers to beta-test their stuff. I'd be shocked if 99% of the stuff in there doesn't end up in the App Catalog in the next few months.
Also, if you want the update, check out this thread, more specifically posts 2 and 5, though I suggest some technical knowledge because you have to get into the Terminal and disable updates:
http://forums.precentral.net/palm-pre/201532-link-webos-1-2-jar.html
holy shit his finger was annoying. I had to stop watching
Well if I had any idea it was going to go on Engadget and that you'd watch it, I'd have obviously made it to higher standards.
So what would you rather him use? His nipple? How about his penis? Ya that would help you wouldn't it? It's a touchscreen device. What the hell do you expect? ....jerk
controlling a touch screen with your penis is alot more difficult than it sounds. i would give it some thought before you do it. it is very satisfying when you succeed in swiping away a card though or dialing the number to the pizza place. good times.
If that was apps loading faster I'd hate to see when they were loading slower.
For me personally, closing out every app after I'm done using it is a non-standard use. I generally have at least 8 cards open: Email, Messaging, Twee, Calendar, a web browser or two, the music app, Xbox Live Friends app, FriendsFlow, and WootOn! (Mostly all homebrew, for now). Since they're already open, it's instant switching, no waiting. Sure, it could be a little faster at opening new programs, but I'd take the ability to leave everything open and easily switch between them all any day.
Killian......lol.
Is it faster? Everything is so horribly slow in WebOS. It shouldn't take 10 seconds to open my address book. If they can't figure it out they should just discontinue the product and give up.
I have to ask, why would you EVER open the contacts app on the Pre, rather than just typing the person's name?
Was wondering the same thing...universal search is great. Also, it only takes 3 seconds or less for the vast majority of apps to open on my Pre, and then you can just leave them open all day and you have "instant on" apps. Multitasking is wonderful.
great, i have always wanted that, i thought it was something that the iphone lacked compared to the blackberry. Thats why i didn't get one.
Engadget fail at referencing the original source of the video (jhoff80 in the PreCentral forums).
lol at that nerds voice. dude needs 2000 ccs for Testosterone stat.
Yeah, and you need 2000 ccs of anti-jerk serum.
Who are you, George Costanza?
You can do better than anti-jerk, can't you?
Took about 3 seconds from pushing the app icon to address book being open and ready for use on my Pre.
Wait, where does it say anything about a remote app kill switch in 1.2?
They found it in the webOS-internals chatroom:
http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/9889/webos-12-brings-led-notifications-remote-app-removal/
Ah, thanks. This particular blogger needs to step his referencing game up :P
Actually, I retract that. I need to step my reading game up :(
Its encouraging that a lot of the changes are direct from user feedback. Was starting to think they were taking too long with showing any progress on the updates. Are all these homebrew apps easy to install and uninstall?
Yes, homebrew is ridiculously easy to install. You type in 'upupdowndownleftrightleftrightbastart' to bring up the enable dev mode program, reset the phone, and connect to a program called 'webOS Quick Install' on the PC (or Mac, or Linux computer- it's a Java application) which you can use to install any homebrew. What you can also do using that is install "Package Manager Service" and "Preware" and then you can install any homebrew apps without using the PC.
I'm glad this dude made this little tutorial of the updates. I was extrmemly intrigued upon reading the leaks of 1.2, but was also extremely curious as to what it entailed. So, video dude, if you're reading the comments on this, I tip my hat to you for your time and effort. And despite what Killian said, your fingers were majestic(though, I'm sure it'd be a lot better to hear that from a lady). =P Thanks again, dude. Stoked on the update.
Still waiting for visual voicemail, bluetooth voice dialing, ability to change numeric touchpad (loud-ass) tones when dialing without turning off all sounds, etc. etc. etc.
cant wait palm pre ftw