Palm loses webOS notifications architect to Apple

Rich Dellinger might not be a name you instantly recognize, but he is the dude credited with bringing about the unintrusive banner notification system that forms part of webOS' widespread appeal. And, as of today, he's also in the employ of one Steve Jobs. The new Senior UI Designer at Apple, Inc looks to have made his way through Palm's exit doors in the immediate aftermath of the HP takeover announcement, and joins Matias Duarte on the list of significant talent departures from the webOS design team. We expect Rich will be getting his teeth stuck into the iPhone's admittedly tired and obtrusive notifications, and hopefully sprinkling some of that webOS fairy dust into the next iteration of Apple's iOS. Let's be honest, who here hasn't dreamt of an iPre?

[Thanks, Tal]

[Freakin Ijit Posted Jun 9th 2010 8:33AM]

@arash I'm still wondering when Hurd is going to realize that webOS isn't a web =server=.

[Sgt Beavis Posted Jun 9th 2010 8:35AM]

I can't say that I blame him for leaving. HP doesn't exactly treat its employees well these days.

[vasra Posted Jun 9th 2010 8:35AM]

@Freakin Ijit

I think HP bought Palm for their portfolio, some skills and SW, certainly not teams or an entry into making a big dent into the smart phone arena.

[PaultheGeek Posted Jun 9th 2010 8:45AM]

This is definitely a loss for the webOS team, but as an iPhone owner this news made me smile from ear to ear.

[Wesscoast Posted Jun 9th 2010 8:48AM]

oh YES!

A real notifications system! Hello iOS 5.

[jonyah Posted Jun 9th 2010 9:08AM]

I love the mockup. Here's to future awesome hardware for webos!!

[Dionte Posted Jun 9th 2010 9:11AM]

Come on apple, let's roll this out with the announcement of iOs 4 on the iPad

[hulahoophugs Posted Jun 9th 2010 10:10AM]

@Dionte yes! please! I'd be totally happy if only the iPad version got it. The bigger screen could totally fit banner pop ups comfortably!

[TheSeanWilson Posted Jun 9th 2010 9:22AM]

Whoa, hold up. Palm lost someone to Apple? Well, that's a change.

[Schmerzlichtod Posted Jun 9th 2010 4:11PM]

@TheSeanWilson
No. Apple lost someone to Palm, then that same employ came back to Apple.
Poor confused soul.

[aw2011 Posted Jun 9th 2010 9:25AM]

it wont be for the iphone guys. not for another year. what apple can do is use it for the ipad and help make it different from the ipod touch, thats where i think they are going. because they still have not let out the ios4 for the ipad yet and they could do a fix to that. the ipad is like a test for whats next. that would be very smart on apples part to use it for the ipad

[Enellz08 Posted Jun 9th 2010 9:39AM]

Maybe he could help Apple and their 'simple and plan' OS, and a better notification system. Android and webos are quite superior.

[doug Posted Jun 9th 2010 9:56AM]

@ssgadget

agreed...im not a huge iphone fan but this might actually be something worth investing in.

[iJenius Posted Jun 9th 2010 10:05AM]

I haven't dreamed of an iPre, and the notifications on the iPhone don't bother me none either...so...yeah...speak for yourself. Now the webOS noti setup is very nice.

[hulahoophugs Posted Jun 9th 2010 10:06AM]

next iteration?! let's get it into iPhone 4.0! I'm so tired of those popups Or at least get them into the iPad's slightly different version of iOS

[Wesscoast Posted Jun 9th 2010 11:07AM]

@hulahoophugs

Patience young dork. He just got hired. Next year the OS will have that stuff.

[divyamistry Posted Jun 9th 2010 10:09AM]

If iOS gets webOS like multi-tasking and notification, I'd ditch my current contract with ETF and get on $200 iPhone (of course, given that iPhone is not the same semi-ugly-bezel trenched phone that it is right now).

[ianbroadie Posted Jun 10th 2010 12:21AM]

@divyamistry

you have some catching up to do buddy

[divyamistry Posted Jun 10th 2010 11:49AM]

@ianbroadie Catch up to what?

[Grape Drink Posted Jun 9th 2010 10:12AM]

Nice mock up

[elephantexpress Posted Jun 9th 2010 10:13AM]

Forget that, I want Pre's multitasking on there. I love being able to swipe the bottom part of the frontplate to switch apps. The iPhone's frontplate is big enough to allow it too.

[cruncis Posted Jun 9th 2010 10:15AM]

Yeah, the iOS does need a better notification system. Those pop-up dialogs can be pretty annoying. Of course this guy wasn't hired just to add notifications, he's presumably there to work on the iOS 5 UI as a whole.

[jonnykermode Posted Jun 9th 2010 10:22AM]

I must say, this interests me. The notification system was one of the reasons I was coerced in buying a Pre after having the iPhone 3G for 18 months. My contract is up in July 2011 so if there is some sort of WebOS style implementation of notifications on iOS by the iPhone 5 then it would give me yet another excuse to come running back to Apple with open arms. Whilst I love the WebOS system the handset itself is nowhere near as good as the quality of the iPhone and I do miss the App store!

I await good things in 2011!

[nanosman Posted Jun 9th 2010 10:23AM]

dislike

[VivekRean Posted Jun 9th 2010 10:26AM]

I agree with the lock screen being a waste of space. iPhone OS definatly needs a fresh look at.

[AcadiaForumnet Posted Jun 9th 2010 11:10AM]

I know how Apple can fix notifications the very day iOS4 hits the streets. Simply make the (already available) lock screen API one of the 1000 new ones now available to developers and let them have at it. The "LockScreen" notification app available on Cydia is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! I honestly would give up everything else I get via jailbreaking if I could get lockscreen or something equivalent in the official App Store. It's ready to go - right now! Just open this API Apple, PLEASE!

[Ibutsu Posted Jun 9th 2010 11:19AM]

Awesome. A good notification system like webOS or Android is just what iOS needs.

[iName Posted Jun 9th 2010 11:53AM]

I hope we don't have to wait for a new iPhone OS in order to get a notifications system. usually the smaller OS updates dont get major new features :/

[AJerman Posted Jun 9th 2010 11:59AM]

@GAM3R I keep hearing Engadget say how amazing it is, but everyone I've known who got a Pre hates it. I don't particularly like the hardware or the OS, but I've never used them on a daily basis, so I can't say much.

[AJerman Posted Jun 9th 2010 12:00PM]

@GAM3R But, on topic, this is only about the notifications system which could be upgraded on the iPhone. I don't necessarily think it's THAT bad, but I'd like to see the lock screen used for notifications as well.

[bathellfire Posted Jun 9th 2010 12:05PM]

Apple, do something about Unlock Screen. People want widgets! We want weather, email notifications and missed calls notifications on the screen, not some gay-ass popups. All of the solutions for jailbroken iPhone work like crap.

[adilly Posted Jun 9th 2010 12:17PM]

I am going to have to start using my poor little pre plus as a door stop...

[EmGee Posted Jun 9th 2010 12:19PM]

Makes me wonder why he left. Was working under HP that horrendous? Its weird because he stayed with Palm while it was sinking but now that they have some financial backing another person leaves. I imagine by the time this deal closes and they get on their way to making some tech most of the important people would have left by then. Which would suck because theres no way in hell HP could utilize WebOS without the original team who created it. I mean if you brought in a new team to update and work with it, it would takes a while before they could get up to speed not to mention they wouldnt have the same knowledge that the original crew had. By that I mean their vision for the OS would be quite different if you changed the teams significantly. Its like having one guy direct one movie then for the sequel change the director, the actors and part of the storyline, it wouldnt make much sense after that.

[Jerry Rawlings Posted Jun 9th 2010 12:27PM]

Jumping of a sinking ship.

[Prkl8r Posted Jun 9th 2010 1:17PM]

"If you need a well thought out and unobtrusive notification system...you failed!"

[fnztakedown Posted Jun 9th 2010 1:39PM]

that bastarard! That was the only thing I could hold over iphone owners heads!

[msunardi Posted Jun 9th 2010 1:47PM]

Yay! WebOS on iPhone! Wait... it's not? aw.... :(

[Nitrocoot Posted Jun 9th 2010 5:31PM]

this calls for a "NOOOOOOOOooooooooo!!!!!!!" T__T

[saxgod Posted Jun 9th 2010 5:57PM]

I'm sorry SCREW iPre how bout evOS. Hint hint EVO with WebOS instead of Droid. I'm a Pre Gen 1 user and added the EVO as one of my extra lines and I love the tech of the device but WISH someone would format the drive and put WebOS on the damn EVO and then write some apps to access the 4g network lol. Please oh Please someone do this.

[saxgod Posted Jun 9th 2010 6:04PM]

Also there is no way Apple can use WebOS not without HP suing the hell out of Apple. HP owns WebOS and all the ways they do their multitasking and notifying stays with HP. Now if Apple licenses WebOS then yea you will see the way WebOS works on the iPhone but will Apple ever admit that they didn't do it right when it comes to multitasking. I mean they are saying they came late to the party because they are doing it right. Well if they start using WebOS flavoring then wouldn't that be an admittance they were....WRONG. Bum Bum BUUUUUMMMM. I love WebOS. I wish all devices ran WebOS and just fought over tech. WebOS is refreshing and very well organized and the best part its linux based and open which means FREEEDDOOOOMMM, cue Braveheart. So anyway it sucks seeing developers leave Palm, but who knows what that means..

[AbsoluteDesignz Posted Jun 9th 2010 6:48PM]

nice, google and Android seem to be utilizing the failed Palm (sadly) to their 2 superior OS's advantages...bring on iPhone 5 and Android 3.X

[John Doe Posted Jun 9th 2010 8:16PM]

DAMN. Why did it have to be that draconian company. Anyone but Apple at this point.

[FrankDTank Posted Jun 9th 2010 10:12PM]

that picture makes my manhood swell.

Apple of all companies should have a more streamlined notification system.

[ColonelKernel Posted Jun 26th 2010 12:00AM]

I've dreamt of an iPre, but not for myself. Rubinstein said all webOS devices would feature physical keyboards, but I think that is a mistake. Slab devices relying on virtual keyboards are certainly good enough for many considering how well the iPhone and the super-powered Android phones are selling. I would not buy a so-called iPre, but many would, so... why wouldn't they make it.

[SleptOn Posted Aug 5th 2010 9:01PM]

Lockinfo + notifier