webOS 1.3.5 coming to CES: better performance and more app storage, says Palm CEO
By Ross Miller 
posted December 18th 2009 10:26PM
posted December 18th 2009 10:26PM
Here's something to glean from Palm's recent quarterly call, besides the still less-than-profitable fiscal number, of course. CEO Jon Rubinstein divulged that yes, we will indeed be seeing webOS 1.3.5 during CES early next month. Even better, we got some insight into what we'll be expecting from the update: more application storage (hooray!), better WiFi / app performance, improved battery life, and "increase Pixi speed and responsiveness" -- interesting that Pixi is called out solo for that last one, but we're not about to read too much into that just yet. Good news all around, but let's hope there's still a surprise or two left in store come January 7th.
This is Awesome News. Hope all goes smoothly. I really want Palm and WebOS to live on. WebOS is the best thing to happen to Smartphones in a long time. I will they would just market themselves better
@Damionix
screw that, i want them to live too but why cant they release the damn thing unlocked for the same price as a Nokia E71????????
WEBOS LIVES ON!!!
I love how its already a great brilliant, champion, distinguished, excellent, expert, first-rate, great, master, outstanding, superb, virtuoso OS, that just keeps on getting bett-AH!
I second that... I really do hope they drop something new hardware wise @ CES... Even if its just some refreshed Pre / Pixi hardware for Verizon... Also hopefully Flash and GPU enabling in the cards soon as well
I dnt see Pre 2 being talked about quite yet for the simple reason that it will probably be coming out in Mid-Summer season... and they no longer need to give a long wait time to build anticipation for it like they did with the original Pre...
@mrkalel I hope we will see something new, hardware wise.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but they do need to introduce it in January to get the whole FCC rigmarole finished by June. It seems the pattern for smartphones is to announce in January, and deliver in June.
@krishnac I hear what you are saying... But it seems to me... all the recent android phones... and actually the iPhone rehashes all are released pretty soon after they are rumored and info is released on them...
Take the "Nexus One"... its seems that it will be out in less then a mnt after the first rumors have been "leaked"
@mrkalel
Yes! What the WebOS needs is a sexy and beastly device!! 3.2" screen is on the Pre appalling!! I think the software is already really really awesome, but improvements are always welcome.
Does it resolve iTunes syncing issues?
@aeth
Why doesn't Palm just make some music management software?
If I had a Palm Pre... I would be technically able to play the run-around game with Apple.
But, the average person is not. Does Palm/Sprint actually tell their customers "you can use iTunes to put music on your new phone... maybe... every other Thursday... not really..."
@Michael Scrip Why should Palm make such an app, when there are already many apps that do it already, such as Winamp. Just put the PRE into USB mode and run Winamp, it will ask if it should manage the music on the device. BAM done.
@tavisjohn
So... are those the official recommendations from Palm?
I'm talking about a solution for regular people... take off your Engadget reading hat...
@Michael Scrip I presume they don't write some music software because it would take resource (and time) that they don't have. Palm have thrown out a couple of devices, but remember the company is still a shadow of its former self.
@tavisjohn Palm need their own software for the same reason Apple provide it - because it provides a unified, improved user experience. Same goes for Outlook syncing.
How about releasing more phones *cough* gsm!
@Hydra
Yeah, enough with CDMA shit!
Proper app catalog for Europe please.
Well, Rubenstein said that they'd improve Pixi "speed and responsiveness" but also said before that that there'd be "improved application performance". The latter suggests for both the Pre and Pixi. And maybe if we're lucky, it'll be the Calendar application that gets the most improvements in performance, because it's just so damn slow.
But mainly, I'm just hoping for bug fixes. 1.3.1 introduced some great features, but also is the buggiest release of webOS I've seen to date, and I've had my Pre since June 6 at 9am (same one too, no build quality issues here).
But is a very minor update CES worthy? Not sure why they'd bother with it unless they've got some new hardware. And i don't mean a Pre with bumped up storage.
@cardfan
I bet they will demo WebOS 2.0 features at CES, and release 1.3.5.
2.0 will be released with the Pre 2.
improved battery life, improved battery life, improved battery life, improved battery life, improved battery life: improved FUCKING battery life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@craiglernerymailcom I don't actually have any inside information, but I wouldn't get your hopes up TOO much. There's only so much that you can do to optimize battery- the cell radios are the biggest power drain.
There's of course things like SmartReflex and CPU scaling that many have applied to their device, but there's only so much that you can do.
That being said, I wouldn't be surprised to see SmartReflex applied by default in 1.3.5. There seems to be no performance decrease, and the stability of it is perfect for me in 1.3.1 (though in earlier versions of the OS that wasn't the case.) I believe that most who are having stability issues with it are also overclocking their devices to 600mHz.
@craiglernerymailcom
My battery life is alright. The main problem I have is my house is a low signal area (which I believe is the Pre's fault) and it keeps trying to find the signal which uses more battery power.
If I turn off data and keep WiFi off, I can get really great battery life on the Pre, but not if it keeps searching for signal/has low signal. Other than that, take out the crappy facebook sync. There's no way I want 200+ more contacts added to my phone when I barely have 30 contacts anyways.
give us PowerVR SGX
Immensely happy with my Palm Pre. They aren't communicating what a joy it is to use to those that don't already have one in their hands. That, and in the UK, the O2 store employs die-hard iPhone fans.
Using an iPhone is, although an fantastic experience, incredibly inelegant when compared to the Pre.
Is there any way to get SIM Toolkit working on the Pre/WebOS? I'm thinking of getting the Pre in 01/2010, but since I need the SIM Toolkit, I'm kind of undecided yet...
I don't know how much longer I can put up with my Pre's sluggishness. It's almost unusable at this point. If they can't offload some of the heavy lifting to the GPU and make the phone more snappy ASAP I'm going to switch to something else.
And no data while roaming is a real kick in the junk. Just sayin'.
@JerkyChew
yeah i was put off by reports of this. i got fed up by no end in sight and bought the new bold and i am very happy.
@dannyry
i had to send my back because half the time i closed the screen i got corruption, and waiting on a replacement.
I only had it a week but the lag was killing me compared to my work bold or personal iphone3g.
webOS is really bloody nice, but its way to slow and i really hate having to double tap stuff all the time. now im looking at either the milestone or hd2
i will at least have the pre for 1.3.5 we will see if it speeds it up. i doubt it will till they get the GPU working on it :(
@JerkyChew I have data service nearly all the time when roaming...you may have your phone settings wrong (there's a software switch that turns on/off data roaming that you may have disabled accidentally).
I really hope they fix the call waiting busines
I own a palm pre and Web OS is fantastic in so many ways that palm doesn't market, or even attempt to market, which boggles my mind. Their advertisements hardly even talk about the device in most which confuses me even more.
I hope this update increases the speed and reliability of the music player. Also: Has anyone had trouble with the headphone jack causing problems? Mine seems to be lose or something...
MOAR!
Damn. Word on the street was that 1.3.5 would be out in the middle of December. Previous words on the street have been spot on, so hopefully this delay is a hint of something big coming. Flash would be nice, as well as putting the GPU to some use, or maybe webGL if we're lucky.
Although any one of those features alone would warrant a bump to 1.4...
@Roisen
"Anticipation is already building for webOS version 1.3.5, which will also be highlighted at CES. Among other things, this update will let customers download and store more applications, enhance WiFi and application performance, improve battery life, and increase Pixi speed and responsiveness." -Jon Rubinstein, Palm CEO
The keyword is highlighted. Whether that means that they will be releasing 1.3.5 on or around or CES, or that they will just be highlighting the latest version of their OS that was released much ealier remains to be seen.
Although the Pre is the best phone I've ever owned, it definitely is in need of some of the things mentioned, including app speed and a bump in battery life (best phone ive had but worst battery life ive had on any phone). Heres hoping that they really do give another fairly big announcement with this too, as they need some pub right now with the droid taking the eye of the public most recently. Verizon sure knows how to market
The "better performance" is partly the fact that webOS now erases (and doesn't sync) appointments older than 3 months.