New York, June 7, 2009
The Economic Times
Move over, iPhone. You've had two years on top of the smart phone world. Now there's a touch-screen phone with better software: the Palm Pre.
In a remarkable achievement, Palm Inc, a company that was something of a has-been, has come up with a phone operating system that is more powerful, elegant and user-friendly. The Pre, which goes on sale Saturday for $200 (after a mail-in rebate) at Sprint stores, makes it easier to do more things on the go.
With webOS, Palm's new operating system, you can keep multiple applications open at once. They're organized like a row of cards that stretches off the screen, and you flick the screen to switch between them. For instance, if you need to quickly check your calendar while writing an e-mail, you can bring up the calendar application, then flick back to e-mail, then keep switching between them as you try to work out your schedule.
On Apple Inc's iPhone, you can run only one application at time. To switch between calendar and e-mail, you have to go back to the main menu every time.
Also unlike the iPhone, webOS will notify you of events that need your attention, no matter which application you're in. Notification icons for e-mails, calls and over events appear at the bottom of the screen. If you tap on the e-mail notice, for instance, the message pops up. So webOS makes the iPhone look clunky, which is stunning in itself. It also thoroughly shows up Microsoft Corp's Windows Mobile. That operating system has had multitasking for years, but few users have appreciated that. Rather, Windows Mobile has been blamed for making phones clumsy and slow. Now, webOS comes along and does multitasking right.
Also very cool is that webOS aggregates contacts and calendar items from multiple sources, like Google, corporate Exchange servers, and even Facebook. You know how lots of phones have space for a photo for each contact? The Pre automatically pulls your friends' Facebook photos into your contacts list.
1 comments:
It is interesting to compare the Pre webOS, windows mobile and iPhone OS. I tend to go with things that have a long history as a first step and then depending on several other variables such as short and long term requirements, cost of ownership, and others tend to round out the decision process. I think it is too soon to jump into the Palm Pre pool at this moment and with the recent release of windows mobile 6.5 and announcement of the Zune HD, I will likely stick with Microsoft technologies and be hopeful that windows mobile 7 lives up to the fact that it is a major release. I don't think we will be disappointed. But, this is definitely an interesting time for mobile os's and the next generation devices (netbooks, etc). In the end us consumer will win because we have incredible technology that fits into our hands doing things not thought possible just a few years ago.
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