Pradeep over at wmpoweruser.com has published an email that is being sent out to the (apparent) legions of developers jumping ship from WebOS to Windows. The email is from Brandon Watson, top man at Microsoft’s Windows Phone developer relations.

You have to hand it to Microsoft: They really do know what they’re doing when it comes to developers.

Here’s the first part of Brandon’s note:

First things first. Thank you so much for reaching out to the Windows Phone team to signal your interest in bringing your talents to our platform. To be honest, we didn’t expect this level of response, so we were caught a bit flatfooted. It took a few days (on the weekend) to pull all the mails together into one place to allow me to respond in a smart way and not retype every mail by hand. Consider this a first step in building a relationship with the Windows Phone team. We are psyched to have you aboard and to see what your imagination can do on the Windows Phone canvas. Read on

Brandon goes on to list out the names and email addresses of every single Windows Phone ‘mobile champ’ in a whole list of countries.

He also points out that free phones are available — something that, ultimately, any successful developer is going to want. I get the impression that if you can prove your credentials to your local champ, they’ll sort you out with a device or two.

It’s unclear how many WebOS developers there are flocking to Microsoft. Irrespective, it’s nice marketing from the Microsoft team. It’s continuing to get the word out. This is just what Microsoft needs at this point as Mango ships and new devices (particularly from Nokia) begin to step into the light.

You can find out more about developing for Windows Phone at create.msdn.com/.

They could've been a contender, eh?

I was going to write a big post on HP and WebOS. I was working away on a ‘What now for WebOS?’ post … until I caught the news that this, too, was dead. Here’s PC World’s overview: HP’s WebOS crashes under Apple, Android Pressure.

Goodness me it’s been quite a week for big movements.

Robert Scoble neatly summed up HP’s news thus:

Windows 8 wins
AKA
Oh, HP, kills TouchPad after only a month in market
AKA
The third party developers are in charge.
AKA
No apps, no sales.

I think this is the (very costly) new reality for manufacturers.

Scoble also points out something I think we’ve known for quite sometime — developers are only thinking about 3-4 platforms, period. That’s it. No more. He quotes one leading developer thus:

Developers like him keep telling me “Apple is first in my mind, Google is second, and I don’t have time for #3, but if I do, looks like Microsoft has the best future.”

For Microsoft read Nokia. Nokia’s made themselves business critical to Microsoft’s success in the mobile ecosystem. Although Scoble is no doubt operating under a highly polarised Silicon Valley viewpoint, it’s a viewpoint that’s increasingly becoming de facto across the Western world. Once America got control of the mobile ecosystem, it was game-over for anyone else not willing or capable of innovating at the same pace.

The legions of Symbian fanatics who still passionately hate Nokia’s Stephen Elop may come to see a different point of view when Nokia is growing firmly under Windows.

But dear me, what about HP? What a way to screw it up, gents.

I really did buy the HP koolaid. I was hoping for a bit of a fight from them. I was hoping for some decent corporate venturing to challenge the status quo. There’s no doubting that WebOS is was phenomenally nice. I did enjoy playing with the tablet back in Barcelona. Back in March I remember meeting the enormously charasmatic Richard Kerris, who headed up WebOS developer relations, who explained that HP was aiming to have 100 million WebOS devices in the market by the end of 2011 (mostly through integrating it into printers and also adding support for the desktop).

Here’s what I commented back then:

A hundred million devices? That’s easily achievable if you assume some nice healthy Palm device sales and you include most of the company’s consumer desktop/laptop and printer sales.

I bought the concept, though. I was sitting back and waiting though. Unfortunately it seems everyone else — especially the developers — were doing the same thing.

It just goes to show that one quarter can change everything. It was only a few months ago I was in San Diego watching HP’s Jon Rubenstein absolutely slate Nokia on stage. Now HP is no more as far as we’re all concerned. Apart from the odd printer and scanner (and of course, data centres), they’re largely irrelevant to the mobile world now.

I’m frankly embarrassed.

I’m embarrassed that a company with revenues of one hundred and twenty-six BILLION dollars (thanks, Wikipedia) couldn’t hack it in the consumer mobile space. It would be laughable if the sad reality wasn’t so sobering. Come on, seriously? Is it really that difficult to compete? Or did you ham-string everything from the start with the usual corporate shenanigans?

The new reality of apps-apps-apps is confirmed once more with HP’s demise in mobile.

WebOS isn’t completely dead though. Not completely. It looks somebody else might be able to license WebOS in future. Don’t hold your breath.

Sidenote: What about RIM?

This is the real issue that we’re all going to need to deal with shortly. It’s one that’s been bugging me for quite a while. I have been largely silent as I’ve been observing the market. I’m such a huge fan of the devices — their latest BlackBerry Bold 9900 is a masterpiece of messaging joy. I worry that they won’t be able to escape the Scobleist Reality of apps, apps, apps. How many times do you need folk to say, “RIM is dead,” before it starts to become reality? Thankfully RIM is not dead. They’re number-one in a gazillion markets — they practically own Latin America’s smartphone market. They still continue to shift a massive amount of product. People are still buying their phones. We’ll need some good leadership from RIM over the next 3-4 quarters.

HP TouchPad

Here’s the press release from the team at HP:

BRACKNELL, United Kingdom, June 9th, 2011 – HP today announced that the Wi-Fi version of HP TouchPad will be available in the UK from mid-July.

HP’s first webOS tablet will be available in the United States, France and Germany on July 1st , with availability scheduled to follow later this year in Ireland, Italy, Spain as well as in Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Singapore.

HP TouchPad will be available direct from HP, selected retailers,  and commercial resellers with the option of either 16 GB or 32 GB of internal storage(1) for £399 and £479  (recommended resale price), respectively. (2) Preorders will begin June 19th.

“What makes HP TouchPad a compelling alternative to competing products is webOS,“ said Jon Rubinstein, senior vice president and general manager, Palm Global Business Unit, HP. “The platform’s unmatched features and flexibility will continue to differentiate HP products from the rest of the market for both personal and professional use. This is only the beginning of what HP’s scale can do with webOS.”

With webOS, HP TouchPad users have a next-level multitasking experience, access to the web, premium audio playback with stereo speakers and Beats Audio™ technology, the ability to find information on the device or in the cloud by the Just Type feature, integrated access to their information with HP Synergy, and HP’s exclusive Touch to Share capability for sharing web addresses between HP TouchPad and compatible webOS phones. (3)

Optional accessories for HP TouchPad include the HP Touchstone Charging Dock, the HP TouchPad Wireless Keyboard and the HP TouchPad Case (sold separately).

More information about HP TouchPad, including product features and specs, is available here.

First, the background.

I remember being really excited by the introduction of Palm’s all new WebOS and the Palm Pre. At the time, I remember rating WebOS slightly higher than the bog-standard first edition of iOS. I remember Palm being a forced to be reckoned with. I remember when the ultra-geeks I knew were seriously debating whether to buy an iPhone or ‘wait for the Pre’.

It all went wrong though. I remember filming in the Palm stand a few years ago at Mobile World Congress. We’d just finished doing the overview of the Pre and we’d gone on to doing an interview with one of their new partners when the PR lady physically interrupted and told us to get out.

“You can only film Palm, here!” she screamed. Our man Ben, who was conducting the interview calmly explained that we were filming with one of their software developer partners. The PR lady was furious.

“Get out!” she said.

We did get out. We still published the interview and the device review, but I think it’s fair to say I thought, “Screw you, with bells on,” at that point.

I don’t remember writing much about Palm after that. The company began to experience financial troubles — and with award-winning public relations like that, it’s not difficult to see how the industry’s viewpoint on Palm began to wane.

The devices and, in particular, WebOS, remained pretty nifty. I remember privately lamenting the fact that Palm had left the stage when the industry really, really needed their involvement against Apple and Android.

I’d have liked to have seen how a Nokia-Palm or RIM-Palm future would have panned out. Badly, I suspect.

But an HP-Palm future?

Love it.

I always felt HP had more in the tank than just simply knocking out Windows Mobile 6.5 devices like the very worst OEM provider. No love. No care. And absolutely NO excitement whatsoever.

The HP mobile story didn’t really gel with the company’s rather impressive efforts in the printing, laptop and desktop world. Their devices were looking nice, functioning well and attracting buyers in spades. But there was a big hole in the mobile segment.

Palm has filled that, beautifully.

The new devices are looking simply wonderful. They’re genuinely inspired. I’m rather excited to see how the market reacts to the ultra small Veer — a smartphone to rival the size of the very popular Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini.

And then we have the tablets. I got a good look at the company’s WebOS devices and was pleased to see they’d done some out-of-the-box thinking (like the ability to send photos between devices just by touching/flicking).

But HP Palm? A bit player, surely?

Well, not so fast.

HP’s working on placing WebOS at the centre of their consumer device strategy. And by device, I’m not just talking mobile phone. As a quick reminder — and as an illustration of the company’s might — HP ships two PCs and two printers every second.

Here’s what HP have to say about their intentions:

Smartphones and tablets are just the beginning. HP intends to bring webOS to PCs, printers, and so much more. webOS is key to the HP mobile strategy, and HP is placing its full marketing and distribution resources behind webOS, showcasing how HP products allow people to pursue their personal and professional passions.

And their App Market?

With HP’s global reach behind webOS, there’ll be an enormous market for webOS apps. No one has the reach and scale of HP when it comes to meeting the needs of technology consumers, whether they’re in the home, a school, small business, government, or large enterprise. By developing for webOS, you have an opportunity unlike anything else today.

I particularly like the words, “No one has the reach and scale of HP.”

I sat down with HP’s Richard Kerris recently. He’s HP’s World Wide Head of Developer Relations for WebOS. And he means business. He talked me through their strategy and then we did a piece to camera that I’ll be publishing shortly.

Richard made a few key points. First off, he expects to see over one hundred million WebOS devices in the market by the end of this year.

I had to sit back and think about that one.

A hundred million devices? That’s easily achievable if you assume some nice healthy Palm device sales and you include most of the company’s consumer desktop/laptop and printer sales.

Does WebOS on a printer count as a device? I think it does. Just imagine the cool things that could be enabled by that!

The second point Richard made is that, HP is serious about developers. Very, very serious. The chap himself knows a thing or two about the power of the ecosystem, given the fact he used to run Apple’s Worldwide Developer Relations Group (and most recently was CTO over at LucasFilm).

I was particularly impressed by the chap’s manner. Radiating confidence, he left me in no doubt that he’ll be executing swiftly to ensure that the HP Palm developer ecosystem begins growing dramatically.

Richard also explained that whilst they’ll be working to deliver every possible assistance to developers looking to get involved, that will not include ‘buying love’. (Other platforms have been helping boost adoption of their operating systems by covering the development costs or in some cases, simply paying developers to write apps for their ecosystem). Richard reckons that just doesn’t work. You get a short-term benefit (i.e. an app in the store) but since it wasn’t made with passion and care, the long-term outlook for that app is rather bleak. For instance, unlikely to be supported beyond a cursory look from a developer now and again — and there’s unlikely to be future development or enhancement either.

This, I think, is a very fair point.

That’s not to say HP doesn’t intend helping out. Oh no. They’ve got big plans to support their developers both online and in terms of physical events. I’ll be bringing you more on this shortly.

I’m very excited at HP’s entrant into the mobile marketplace with Palm. I think the company has the resources, people and talent to make it work really, really well. And with people such as Richard on-board, I reckon WebOS is set to be a very big success over the coming years.

For far too long Apple has been the default ‘number one’, carrying the candle of [perceived] innovation, excitement and leadership in the marketplace. I’m pleased to see HP joining the table with Palm and WebOS.

Let’s see what you’ve got, HP… blow us away!

Now to the nitty gritty: The SDK for WebOS 3.0 was released last night — if your teams are already developing with Palm, they can get access right away. If not, they just need to register.

If your teams are heavily focused on iOS, converting or adding WebOS as a platform is — I’m told — simplicity itself, especially if your team’s current focus is OpenGL/SDL.

For all those in charge of allocating budget and attention for mobile platforms, I suggest you look carefully at what HP are doing now and where they’ll be in the future to make sure you’re not left behind. This, I suspect, is the time when you should be talking with HP to discuss what you might be able to do together.

If you’re working on some big projects and you’d like to talk at a high level with HP about possibilities — or perhaps get an introduction to Richard himself, drop me a note by email and I will connect you.

Meanwhile, standby for the video interview. I’ll have that up shortly.

Design

First of all, Topaz looks like an iPad with an HP logo on it. As far as I can see, there’s absolutely nothing unique about it. It is unclear whether the body will be plastic or metal. It appears that HP is more focussed on technical capabilities and prefers not to bother with the housing. Just like their laptops? The Topaz doesn’t look as ugly as the Slate, but it appears like a cheap replica. Whether the back is plastic (cheaper) or aluminium (better) it is still likely to be inferior to Apple’s latest developments. Aluminium itself is a very light and flexible metal prone to deformation (like if you drop it). A thin aluminium casing will be no match for Apple’s proprietary alloys, which are light and durable. They get better and better with every iteration of Apple’s devices.

The Market

The market has moved on, and will move further by the time Topaz is released. Looking into the future, I predict that its release will not be sensational at all. I even dare to say that HP Topaz will not be competing with the iPad, but with budget tablets which (as we saw at CES) are sure to flood the market soon. Yes, HP, think carefully about the pricing strategy. Your device should cost half the price of the next iPad to even be considered for purchase. The next iPad? Yes! By the time Topaz hits the market, there will undoubtedly be a new iPad, more powerful, more capable, probably better looking, lighter and more attractive.

HP can’t do anything better than printers, or can they?

Well, scanners too, but I’m afraid that’s pretty much it. Take HP’s last few generations of Windows Mobile Smartphones – bulky and slow, inferior to the competitor’s products, such as HTC mobiles. HP laptops? I’m currently typing on one, must have the worst ever cooling system to be released. However, things have changed now that HP owns Palm. HP’s WebOS promises to be, “Amazingly powerful. Surprisingly simple.” – sounds bold, but will it live up to our crazy-high expectations? Why would HP, who never were really good at making anything but printers, be able to come up with a breakthrough OS to take over the world?

One can but hope.

Here are some of the key features of WebOS:

Admit it. You need a quick refresher, right?

“One view of what matters to you”

Integrating Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MSN and Yahoo instant messages in one single view. The system will identify the person sending it, no matter which IM platform they’re using. Sounds a bit complex rather than “Surprisingly simple”. Never seen this before, have we?

“Multiple Applications”

Amazing! We’ve never seen that before!

“Intuitive Interface” – “HP webOS uses multitouch gestures and a touchscreen…”

Wow that’s totally innovative. No need to comment here either!

The list of amazing new features goes on. The system supports “Notifications” and “Universal search” too! So far there is no obvious reason for HP to be any better than the competitors (read: Apple, Samsung) who are already well established in the market.

This said, I am reasonably excited to see:

USB Host

The days of the Palm Pilot are over, yet Palm devices did have some cool features even before the recent collapse of Palm. Palm smartphones could act as a MiFi! Yes, your phone, in your pocket, working as a WiFi hotspot, very cool! Now there is a planned USB Host feature for the HP Topaz. This means you can plug your USB flash drive or your camera directly to the tablet and transfer information. Maybe even charge your phone via USB? Now that’s not innovative thinking!

Wireless Charging

Wireless charging is likely to become very popular with mobile devices in the near future. How does it work? Inductive coupling is not new, it’s used in electric toothbrushes to avoid short circuit as they might be wet when you push them onto the charger. Looking amazing at first, Wireless Charging is nothing but a coil on the base unit with a current running through it, which creates a magnetic field picked up by another coil in the wirelessly charged mobile device. The technology is pure electromagnetics and has been around for a while. Still cool.

Let’s hope the Topaz arrives and impresses the hell out of us.

In nearly a month from now, Mobile World Congress will be over, done and dusted, put to bed, an ex-event, acabado – finished.

What are we expecting to see, what are we likely to experience, what will astound us and what will we all be talking about five weeks from now?

From what we’ve already seen aired at CES and the meeting requests with various companies – the following is what we believe will be the main themes from the event. Along with the topics that could be addressed, and the avenues of discussion that we suspect will be throughout the event.

Let’s start with the elephant in the room, the very large grey beast that is the OS. We doubt the whole event will be taken up by talk of platforms, but they will have a significant presence at this year’s MWC.

With the inclusion of Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer as a keynote speaker, the attention will turn to the next generation of Windows Mobile on phones. At least we’re assuming he’ll be there to announce a product, as we doubt he’s just going along to increase his air miles.

Rumours have been around for a while now as to what Windows Mobile 6.5 will most likely contain, from the likes of multi-touch to the known IE version 6 being included. All that anyone can really wish for is that the new OS will fix the issues that plagued 6.1. Saving us all the bother of downloading cooked ROMs from the xda-developers website to resolve them.

Motorola has already spoken publically about their new handsets running this OS, due in the second half of this year which realistically means Q4. We’re wishing good things for that company too, as they need all the luck they can get right now.

We’re assuming, as most will be, 6.5 will be more of a service pack than a long term OS that will be with us for many years to come. As we’re hoping the attention will be on Windows Mobile 7 at MWC. If we’re all led to believe the hype, this will include the likes of Zune-esque features and an integrated live mesh mobile version.

With the world’s economy being what it is right now, the cost of Windows Mobile will be undoubtedly drawn in to the argument this year. As the alternatives around will be surely weighed up as a comparison, now they’re all here and phones around running them all. At the end of last year, a slide was shown at Orange Partner Camp just highlighting the cost associated with WM as compared to the others. To quote a tweet from Rafe Bladford “in open platform session – cost of platform – Symbian, Limo, Android = $0; Windows Mobile $14 (est). not often you see that slide comparison”. Seeing this in black and white just hammers home what Windows Mobile will have to achieve, if it wants to survive in these times.

There’s bound to be a heated, intense discussion of this nature, which we’ll enjoy and throw some spanners in to the works in order to get some decent feedback. Arguments will be made from all corners, which will be interesting to say the least on what everyone will say. Some will be diplomatic on the costs, although we’re hoping to hear from the European against the North American perspective. As it’s no secret the Americans love their Windows Mobile handsets, so we’re unsure if they can give a balanced opinion.

It’s been a year since Android was first shown off on a few phones at last year’s MWC, and only a few months since the HTC manufactured G1 came out. Since then there’s been a lot of rumours as to who will have the next Google OS powered device, who will be the first to market, who will be known as leader with these handsets in the future and not tied solely to a network.

CES saw a few models of not all that well known companies doing the rounds, with a few whispers of who really will be next. With leaks of late coming from HTC, Asus and others all showing they supposedly have Android phones in the mix. Perhaps one of those will show up with a ready-to-market model. Let’s not forget that only two months ago 48 of the biggest players in the mobile world all signed up to the Open Handset Alliance, so we’re all expecting good things from everyone soon.

We have it on good authority, the next one will be around very soon so keep your eyes peeled and stay reading MIR. We are expecting everyone and their dog, to be making some noise over their Android handsets either publically, or behind closed doors. Our money goes with HTC and we’re taking good odds on that spread right now.

They’ll also be talk of the next Android version or the updates, in the form of ‘cup cake’ and possibly how this will be rolled out. If not that, then at the very least what it will possibly contain, if not how the development is going. Although most of what’s what is already known, there’s bound to be some news to be aired as they’ve been rather quiet of late.

Not to be out done, and in the realm of keeping up with the Joneses, there’s bound to be news from Nokia’s Symbian platform. This time last year the world was completely unaware of the grand scheming going on. As far as we all knew Symbian was just a good OS running phones, which included Nokia and that was that. A few months later, the landscape of the platform world would change forever, with Nokia announcing its intentions.

We doubt we’ll hear anything great from Symbian at the event, perhaps some minor announcements but nothing too much. We do however expect to hear rumblings from Nokia, perhaps leading with an update on the N97 and when it’s actually due. Perhaps more on location based services, along with how well Ovi mail is doing on the Series 40 handsets, plus how that service will be expanded.

Some other rumours we’re hearing are that nVidia possibly, maybe, could be, might have something to say at MWC this year. This is all to do with them entering the mobile graphics world on phones, with a possible association with HTC being in the pipeline or so we hear. Whether or not this holds any water is yet to be seen, but it sounds like an interesting concept and partnership.

There’s bound to be noise over LTE, WiMAX and HSPA+ with some networks, carriers and handsets being spoken about. Don’t hold your breath in seeing any of this on the horizon anytime soon, just watch and read with glee and think of flying cars.

We’re even hearing completely unsubstantiated mutterings that even DELL will be making an appearance. This is with a view to be showing up with a Smartphone in tow, of all things. This rumour is picking up even more and more worth in the last week, as more and more sites have begun reporting on it. Why not have a phone; DELL seems to have everything else. They’re turning out to be like a large Sainsbury’s, a one stop shop for everything you need.

Other keynotes that have been booked in already come from large companies such as Vodafone, to even MySpace’s CEO and its co-founder. With the latter obviously appearing to let everyone know MySpace is still around, despite the fact Facebook jas stolen all its limelight and people have completely forgotten about them.

Many CES delights will surely make an appearance, there’s no getting away from that. The LG watch phone and the palm pre will be shown off to the coos and the wonderment of the Europeans. It’ll be interesting to see if the Palm phone and webOS will have the same reception as it did in Las Vegas, also if they’ll be tougher questions to answer now the dust has settled on the announcement.

It’s bound to be a veritable smorgasbord of mobile delights and treats, we’ll undoubtedly bring you as much information as your eyes can handle.

All hail the newest Smartphone on the block, the one, the only – the palm prÄ“.

On first impressions the handset looks uncomfortably like the very first HTC Touch. Then its slider drops down, the keyboard is exposed and all preconceived notions and subsequent lawsuits are dropped.

As expected it comes along running the new platform which we assumed would be announced at the same time, which they more or less had to anyway. It’s the newest mobile phone operating system out there, which now goes under the title webOS.

Aesthetically the phone has some nice curves which also puts you in mind of the HTC Touch once again, with all its non-sharp smooth edges. The accompanying blurb to the handset is full of words such as smooth, rounded and ergonomically designed to feel natural in the hand. We concur with all from first impressions, we just can’t wait now until we get our grubby little mitts on the prÄ“ ourselves.

Its display is a 3.1-inch touch screen, not the most common screen size around and we’re not sure if we’ve ever come across those dimensions on a mobile before. To put it in perspective the HTC T-Mobile G1 has a 3.2-inch display, whilst boasting the same half VGA resolution of 320 x 480 as the prÄ“.

Built in are a variety of usual sensors, which they wanted us to be drawn to in the press conference for some reason. There’s the accelerometer, ambient light and proximity gauge which are all present and correct. With the latter being used to disable the touch screen when the handset is held up to the ear. Let’s hope they don’t cheat and just turn the screen off completely. This is one of the biggest irks with the HTC Diamond and other Windows Mobile devices. As the amount of times the screen is needed for accessing the likes of voicemail surely out ways the usefulness, or uselessness of this so called feature.

From the initial specs we’ve seen it appears to be UMTS HSDPA when it ships outside the US, with WIFI and GPS being standard all around. They harped on about the USA version which will be exclusively on Sprint, so the final details for other markets are a little sketchy. Onboard is a beefy 8GB of memory, although there doesn’t appear to be any further expansion possible in the form of a microSD slot.

Running the whole show is the Texas Instruments OMAP3430 processor. It’ll be the first Smartphone on the market to include this, with Palm saying it provides a laptop like performance. Hurrah!

Palm made a joke at the press conference about including a ‘removable battery’ for popular demand; the audience got the gag, laughed loudly and applauded. This was obviously and without any possible illusions a clear dig at Apple, which was very well received and only their first swipe at the iPhone with more to follow.

The product spokesperson unveiled slider in the presentation, showing off the full QWERTY keyboard. He added the accompanying line of – providing a ‘cheesy’ virtual keyboard just won’t cut it. This, if you’re keeping score, is dig number two at Apple and the iPhone.

They might however have been taking a knock at the BlackBerry Strom, but a later slide showed who they’re pitching the prÄ“’ up against and it wasn’t there. A slide which had three other phones silhouetted, as not to cause the wrath of lawyers. Seeing as 93-percent of the world’s lawyers are in America, it was probably a smart move too. The three phones were very easily recognisable as both the iPhone generations and BlackBerry Bold. Just showing who they’re wanting us to see they’re taking on with the prÄ“, and in a very not so subtle way.

When opening the phone to its fullest size the screen slides straight up leaving the keyboard exposed at a slight angle. They’re calling this ‘ergonomically curved’, we’re just calling this slightly tilted as it is no more than that. It does however put you in mind of the arc slider on the HTC designed Sony Ericsson Xperia X1, in the way the screen slides up only at a much more acute angle. If the rumours that we’re all hearing have any worth or merit to them, then the phone has been designed by those very same people.

Palm believe this curved format is much more comfortable to use and hold for typing, presumably as compared to a regular run of the mill straight slider. One nice touch they’ve added here which we’re mightily glad about, is that it will work as a phone both open, and closed. Others we’ve seen in the past struggle with this – it appears Palm has made some ground here. Double hurrah!

Palm mentioned, as they began talking about the underlying new OS to the prÄ“, they’ve always been known for the simplicity of their UI. True some of their phones have been rather simple, but we doubt they were trying to make that point. Without being too facetious, they were just trying to show their platform is much more easier to use than others. After not being overly impressed with the OS layout to the Palm Centro, it would have been very easy to assume they were trying to apologise – they weren’t.

Instead they were just trying to say the webOS works seamlessly with this phone, invisible if you will – as if you weren’t even aware of its presence. This is all very well, but what happens when the next phone featuring the same OS comes out. Palm can’t really say the same line then, as the OS surely has to stand on its own two feet. It was a confusing message they delivered. And one we doubt was fully underlined and looked over by marketing and public relations. More than likely an over excited product manager produced this presentation, without thinking ahead and towards the future of webOS.

They have running along the base of the prÄ“’s screen quick start icons, which looks rather akin to the HTC Touch Diamonds UI. Did someone mention there’s a lawyer in the room? These icons launch the applications whilst being pressed and held down, not double tap here needed.

Scrolling through long screens on the phone is performed in much the same way as on the HTC Touch Diamond. This was demonstrated on a large contact list from the phone, by touching the screen then sliding a finger upwards – where the phone just runs through the content on the screen. It does appear that Palm seem to be taking the best of other phones and including them in the webOS. As this feature alone does look like the iPhone’s functionality within this area, there’s even the ‘bounce’ when you pull a page down and it springs up again.

Underneath the display is what Palm is calling the ‘gesture area’. On this part of the phone minor screen operations can be evoked and controlled. This was demonstrated by swiping a finger from right to left whilst on the contact page. Here a light appears on the right part of this area, indicating pressure, then another light on left becomes alit when that area has been reached. This action reverts the screen back to the previous page, which can also be performed in any other application. This functionality just shows the screen won’t be used a great deal for everyday use. Meaning unsightly fingerprints and smudges won’t be the issue it is with other touch screen devices.

Holding a finger on the gesture area and swiping up opens up the main application launcher, this can be done at anytime and in any screen. It’s an easy way to cut down on the screen’s usage by a small margin. All of which seems eerily familiar; we hate to harp on about the HTC connection but we shall. The swiping from left to right was a feature from the original Touch handset, albeit on the actual screen. This swiping functionality was heavily promoted by them, in fact so much so one title ran a news piece ‘HTC takes a swipe at the iPhone’.

Palm has added a more complex gesture for quick launching of the favourites, these are the most commonly used applications that apparently the users want. This harks back to the trÄ“o and its four application buttons, that were also on the original Palm Pilot of yesteryear. In launching this, a finger once again is dragged from the gesture area up the screen only this time it’s held there. A wave looking bar appears where the finger stops, with those four main applications are then listed across the screen horizontally. Wherever the finger is then moved from left to right, the wave moves up and down accordingly. The actual app required is then launched when the finger is taken away from the screen, on that icon. This all emanates from one action access to everything needed, something they mentioned a few times throughout the press conference. It’s a nice touch and feature, and it’s that good continuity is rife.

Accessing all the running applications, if there are many applications running at once, is also done from the gesture control. Pressing the main button at the centre brings up what’s currently running, where scrolling from left to right moves through the apps. It’s even possible to rearrange the order by just dragging and dropping them into a different arrangement. Palm doesn’t want to think this way of multitasking as applications running on a Windows platform. Which they referred to as a list of apps running like sheets of paper being stacked on top of one another. Instead, they like us to think of this as a deck of cards – wasn’t that the way the HTC designed Xperia X1UI was laid out?

When the user is done with a particular application, it can just be dragged to the top of the screen where it’s shut down. The data here is all saved and can be resumed exactly where it was left off, on the next time it’s launched again. Palm insisted there are no save buttons anywhere on this new OS.

This was clearly a move to distance the webOS from Windows Mobile, and possibly themselves in the process. This could have been a ‘read between the lines’ moment, highlighting no further association with Microsoft. With the new mobile OS finally being a contender to Windows Mobile and Palm no longer needing to lean on Microsoft to run their phones. We’ll just have to wait and see the outcome.

Palm appears to has taken a leaf from the INQ playbook and have integrated social aspects of the web into the prÄ“. In viewing someone’s contact page from the webOS, they’ve also presented various possible means of getting in touch with said person over Outlook, Gmail and even Facebook. With what appears to be webOS actually taking content from the likes of Facebook, and then automatically adding those details to a person’s contact entry. Without being prompted, details such as phone number, email address are all brought over and populated into the prÄ“’s address book. Even the photo used by the webOS contact application to identify that person, is brought over from their Facebook profile picture. Outstanding!

The crosspollination doesn’t end there either. Data from a users Gmail calendar is brought into the webOS and then goes on to self populate appointments and meetings in the diary and calendar features. There are even separate colours to distinguish which calendar entry comes from which source, with auto-synchronisation being kept up. We weren’t told as much, but we’re assuming this can work both ways too.

Email plays a big part with the new webOS and the prē, where the inbox can be presented in a number of fashions. All the email accounts on the handset can be accessed from a single list, in where the emails can be seen altogether or separately by their individual accounts.

Palm has thrown in a nice feature where multiple instances of the inbox and emails can be accessed, and not just one at any one time. If a user were in the middle of writing an email and wanted to open up another they would have to save the email before carrying on, in a different platform *cough*. With the webOS and the prÄ“, the user can simply launch another instance of the inbox in the regular way, whilst gaining access to other emails. Where with that other OS, the original email would have to be saved as a draft, only to be retrieved later from the draft folder.They’re trying desperately hard to mimic the functionality of a computer on a mobile phone, which everyone else has being striving to do also. This type of feature with the email makes some ground, and goes some way in our book to coming close.

Palm kept mentioning ‘synergy’ throughout the launch of the prÄ“, without really dazzling the audience along the way. When they began to show off the conversation functions on the device, this caught our attention. From here, a user can view in chronological order IM chats and text messages and all combined. All the usual methods of contacting someone are available from inside conversations, whilst logging any and all details along the way for continuity. This looks great for interoperability, and a feature that could better the INQ in this way.

The only possible downside is the varied access to multiple IM’s and what’s on offer. There wasn’t a list made available to what’s onboard, which arose our suspicion instantly. When we find out more, we’ll report back but it does appear they’ve left out Windows Live Messenger.

Palm has said that the applications in webOS and on the prÄ“ are all made up from the likes of CSS, XHTML and JavaScript. All meaning it will be easy to develop applications for their phones in the future. Nothing has been said about existing applications they have for their current phones, and if they can be run out on webOS. The word around from other sources has it as a big no, nada, it’s not happening – you get where we’re going with this. This has got to upset some out there, if not many, as we’re getting the vibe from Palm this will be their main OS for some years to come.

They seem to have built-in a good all round search function, one similar to that of Windows to a degree. Just by starting to type a word from the keyboard on the main screen, the webOS starts searching that word across the whole handset. Results are instantly brought up from emails, contacts and applications. If nothing is found, the webOS automatically starts searching the web and in an intelligent way until the results are found.

The web browsing comes across well on the prÄ“, from what we’ve noticed. Fully integrated is the accelerometer for both viewing of website in portrait and landscape modes. Palm, or whoever made it for them *cough* has also brought in multi-touch technology. Where two fingers pinched together can be placed on a webpage, the fingers are then parted and moved away from each other whilst the webpage zooms in further. Zooming out is performed in the exact same way, only in reverse. This has been seen in other handsets before, just not with Palm and it’s good to see. Windows Mobile is still lacking this feature, leaving them somewhat behind at the party.

Another useful feature that Palm has included in webOS is notifications. These appear as a scrolling ticker on the base of the display. It’s useful when the application running is at full size, taking up the whole screen. They’re appear fairly unobtrusive, popping up showing previews of IM’s in a single line of text, SMSs arriving or alarms. The notification messages can be read in full at a later date, as the webOS stores them up just in case you missed one.

Some of these features sets are going to impact on data charges quite heavily we feel. Then we noticed in the small print ‘Unlimited usage data plan strongly recommended’, which we also concur with although we’re unsure if the webOS abilities can be toned down. If not, the handset wouldn’t really be for all customers as it would leave those on pre-pay tariffs somewhat distressed.

It’s been said before don’t fix something that isn’t broken, and the highest form of flattery is mockery. The unbroken features from other phones seem to be in webOS and also the mockery is here too – in the form of straight out copying some of their functions.

It does appear a lot of the features in the phone have been seen elsewhere, from its look to its software. Let’s hope they’re presenting themselves as an alternative to these other phones, whilst accrediting them along the way.