WebOS

WebOS: Pre Palm Pre Reviews

WebOS makes its first official public appearance to the world on the Palm Pre.

So far, WebOS has been the consumer satisfaction factor for me when it comes to the Palm Pre. It was the tipping point reason I got the phone over the iPhone, and it hasn’t disappointed yet. Visually speaking, every movement and animation is slick yet efficient, and functionally speaking, the gestures really fit the ergonomic and natural movements of the human hands. Most importantly of course, is that it is the first mobile operating system that truly multi tasks. You can start a web page loading through 3G on one app, while you track your friend’s flight in another, and then flip over to see if the Rocky Horror Picture Show’s on at the Rialto next.

Palm webOS Launcher with 5-icon Quick Launch Bar Below

WebOS features a quick-launch dock at the bottom of the screen similar to the iPhone. One of the icons in the dock is the launcher (default far right icon), and it launches the view of the rest of the icons. Turning pages in the launcher to view other apps is as easy as flicking your finger across the touchscreen like a book. Different than the iPhone, you can also scroll up and down to fit more apps on one page.

Launcher Only Allows 3 Pages

That’s right, although you can put as many apps as you want on a page as you want, Launcher gives you three pages with no way (yet?) of adding more pages. This will be a problem for anyone with just the slightest tinge of OCD such as myself who needs to have apps separate and categorized.

How to Move Apps Around in the Launcher

To move an app to a different location in your Launcher, tap and hold down the app icon with your finger until you see white rings form around the app icon. This signifies that you can start dragging the app to the destination you want. On each page in the launcher are little white lines on the botton left and right sides that indicate how many pages of Launcher there is to the left and right. To move the app you are dragging to another page, simply hover the app over the white line(s). This can be tricky, but usually works the second time if it didn’t the first. If the page isn’t turning immediately as you hover over it with the app, try putting it down and trying again. It should do it right away.

You can also add apps to your quick-launch dock by the same method described above. You can only hold a maximum 5 apps in the dock, the Launcher icon cannot be moved out of the dock.

Missed Calls, Texts, and Emails Notification

The Palm Pre will tell you if you’ve missed a call, gotten a text, or have emails downloaded in three little icons at the bottom right of your screen. There will also be very obvious notifications as soon as you turn your phone on for the first time. You can dismiss the notifications by swiping them off-screen to the right. You can save the notifications to remind you again the next time you turn your phone on, you can do the back swipe in the gesture area.

Locking/Unlocking

If you turn the phone on with the button in the top right corner of the Palm Pre, the touchscreen will prompt you to drag the unlock icon up to unlock the phone. The same movement is required when you are receiving a phone call. To avoid this action you can also slide your phone’s keyboard out, and it will achieve the same desired effect with a motion easier for some.

Launching Menus in Apps

This was somewhat of an adjustment for me because, coming from a Treo 700p, I used a button to launch file, edit, etc. menus. On the Palm Pre it is a bit more intuitive, but also more exacting. You have to tap the menu tab in the top left corner of the touchscreen right on, and it will launch the drop down menu tab.

Downloading Apps

Adding apps to your phone can be done through the App Catalog, which is an orange and white shopping bag app you can find in the Launcher. Downloading an app is extremely intuitive, you simply select the app you want to check out, view screenshots of the app, and a download bar at the bottom of the screen allows you to either test drive the app or download it. When an app requires to know location data and other bits of data that have any privacy issues, the phone warns you before you download the app.