Update: As we secretly feared, everybody read a little too much into the notes posted up at Ajaxian. From their update:
We don’t comment on our specific SDK plans, and while we are personally excited about the Web gaining GPU acceleration via technologies like WebGL and CSS Transforms, and we would like to see webOS gain these capabilities to allow web developers to better leverage our fantastic hardware, we were answering a question about our personal opinion on what we’d like to see happen to the platform. We don’t believe the term “immediate” was even mentioned by us, and we are sorry that people have read too much into this particular topic.
Windzilla points us to this article over at Ajaxian [via EverythingPre] about a talk Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer gave out in London. Those two, you'll remember, are the rockstar hires Palm made back in September. Apparently we can expect more speed to come to webOS, courtesy of CSS transformation support:
On ease of use, multitasking has been great; UI latency is still an issue even though the hardware is comparable to 3GS. The problem is the path to the GPU didn’t exist, but now with CSS transforms, that will be solved in the immediate future
CSS transformation is essentially animation using CSS (some examples here for you coders). The two also noted that Palm is still considering options for obfuscating code (since looking at another developer's source code on webOS apps isn't much more difficult than hitting 'view source' on your browser).
Back to the speed front, we are also pleased to hear that OpenGL support is very much on Palm's collective mind:
However, they can’t say when all this will happen, as they’re evolving the platform pragmatically and they feel other things might have more immediate impact, e.g. OpenGL support.
We still hold out hope that OpenGL will come to webOS via WebGL, which is already in the latest builds of WebKit. Speed-hunters should also remember that Palm just hired Matthew Tippett, AMD's now-former engineering manager.
Now that we've confirmed that webOS 1.3.1 is coming down the pike, we've been wondering what the 'big new feature' was that would justify a full point update. The whisper is speed, let's hope that's the case.
Comments
God bless Palm's hiring committee!
I'm in heartfelt agreement.
Sorry guys, this update does not enable the GPU.
Before March '10, though.
go Pre-racer, go Pre-racer, go Pre-racer gooooo.
... would be very nice. Don't forget custom text & email alerts, making LED notification enabling mainstream, visual voicemail, etc. :)
You mean repeating LED *AND* audible notification nag/reminders...
This could turn out to be a rather fortuitous hire after all...
Please God, let it be so!
multiple simultaneous bluetooth connection with multiple protocols. PLEASE!
Any word on about when it might come out or what the rumor is that is supposed to be?
Next week.
major speed improvements would be the single best "feature upgrade" since the Pre was released
Hopefully adding speed to the Pre will enable Palm to add more core features.
This sounds like excellent news. Along with Flash integration and a laundry list of updated tasks, the Pre strikes back!
I've been a loyal skeptic for a while now, going along but not really buying into the 'hype', but this post got me all excited.
I didn't even read the post. That graphic had me.
(But seriously, this is excellent news.)
This would be amazing! Along with some other frustrations, speed is a major reason I'm starting to give some loving glances towards Droid. Give me speed and GPU usage and I may be able to overlook Sprint's coverage issues. :)
Just wondering where you live that you have bad sprint coverage? I'm in the military and move around alot, but i really like sprint and am hoping on keeping them as long as they are in business, but i am moving in 4 months to a smaller state/town. So i'm just curious.
i still want video camera update
I 2nd the Video Camera update. I thought it was supposed to come b4 the end of the year and well, we've heard no word of it? what's up w/ that?
I don't care about forwarding texts, video capabilities, or much besides searching the calender. Frustrating but I love and will stick with my Pre!
I do care about video and text forwarding. :/
But I also care about speed!
SPEEEEEEEED PLEASE!!! It can never get fast enough.
a webos speed update will be great!hopefully it comes true soon
Speed is always good, but I could definitely use an update to the calendar app
Well, hopefully the speed will carry on to the calendar app. The calendar, 5x faster, would make it more than usable.
I'm not holding my breath. Are you?
Nope.
ye of little faith!
Speed would be great, but my calendar still does not sync properly with Google Calendars. There are no zoon capabilities on the camera, no video. All the PIM functions are below par. There is still the memory issue that needs addressed for applications. We have 12 days before the Pixi is released. Lets hope this update happens on or before that date. My facebook contacts do not sync unless I initiate it. This OS needs a lot of work.
Not sure why your calendar doesn't work. Mine's always been fine.
Zoom on a non-moving lens consists of crappily blowing up a part of the image--something better done by cropping than on a phone.
No video does kinda suck but I don't shoot video on my phones usually. Still, a legit gripe since it is on most devices of this caliber now the iPhone finally got it.
PIM works fine for me. I can track tasks, contacts, calendar, and email and have it sync with my Google and Exchange seamlessly.
The memory thing sucks but luckily there is a simple tweak to fix it.
Sounds like you have a lot of issues most people don't have.
This Mother should snap like a Marine on review!
That, and get another 25% better battery life :)
the speed is OK... Just give us Better Battery life!
I second battery life.....
I am all for more speed but not if it means less battery life which is very poor as it is!
But like some others here, for me, fixing/improving the calendar and providing proper Memos like PalmOS (and ideally porting old stuff over) is key!
The battery life is on par with other large touch screen devices. I charge mine overnight and when I get home from work in the evening I'm around 35-40% so I put it on the charger when I get home if I am going out later.
Until battery tech improves in general, this will be the case. Making it faster in this case isn't something like raising clock speed that will drain more power. It is a more efficient way of doing things and as such should actually help battery life if anything.
please let's get some more substantive evidence other than an off-hand remark at a conference stating "immediate future"...
I'm skeptical because in the last article on 1.3.1 there was something about the features not being that big of a deal
This sounds wonderful!!! I do have a question though about code obfuscation. If palm enables that, will that prevent all the wonderful mods and hacks that this community has developed?
This is aimed mostly at apps, from what I understand. Keep people from stealing each others' code. Now if Palm started using it on their native stuff... we'll see.
like getting present
when does the droid come out? Because you know all the reviewers will be pitting the pre up against it. The pre can easily surpass the iphone with just the right fixes (gpu). Most smartphone shoppers look at speed alone to determine the best.
Palm JUST hired Matthew Tippett. I doubt that in a week or so, he'll have that big of an impact.
I like to hope as much as the next guy, but let's be real here. We more than likely will not see the fruits of some of his labor until the end of 2009 at the earliest, which could qualify as "immediate future".
That being said, we'll see improvements in speed with 1.3.1, but it will be due to optimization, if I had to guess.
Um, I assume that you don't actually develop software and have never worked in that industry?
A really sharp person can come into an organization, spot holes in code, and optimize the crap out of it in no time.
You know what they say about assuming?
Anywho, I'm not denying that he'll have an impact on the upcoming release, but "optimize the crap out of it in no time." ???
It would've been done by now.
You're trying to convince me that Palm, with all of it's programmers since before June 6th, couldn't accomplish what this one guy, you would have me believe, will accomplish in mere weeks?
It would've been done by now.
This is the best news I have heard in the last few weeks. I hope it turns out to be true.
We need an update to pick which facebook friend we want to port over. Also have access to all of our social media via content such as photo albums through the pre's contacts application like the HTC HERO.
I think you need to understand Pre is not suppose to copy over your Facebook contacts. Pre only mirror what's on your Facebook account. A better search could be useful, but I don't think select which Facebook contact make sense.
A meaningful resolution is for Facebook to allow a priority setting on friends, so Pre can say only mirror highest priority contacts. But the data has to be centralized on Facebook, not copied to Pre.
If Pre has to copy the contact, there has to be a flag set on each contact to indicate if a user, you, have reviewed the contact or not. Otherwise, after a reset, you have to go through the whole selection process again. This also means the flag has to be on the Facebook contact, not just on Pre, which means it is kind like a priority as I suggested.
So this is not a problem for Pre, but a problem for Facebook. You are barking off the wrong tree.
I had never thought of it like that, it being needed to be done by Facebook, but I can see it would be the preferred way. Surely a way round this would be selecting which contacts you want removing, they get placed in a repository. I understand there is still the issue of what happens if the pre is wiped, but surely which contacts were removed can be memorised in your palm profile?
As for the update, I am not fussed about speed unless it brings better battery life. I love the hardware but really wish they had gone with an OLED screen. The same concept was used on the sony NWA3000 to great effect, look it up, the black one looks a little like the pre but with a better hidden screen. I also loved that hardware though, really sturdy and with a stainless steel trim. The inline remote was awesome looking too, so simple and elegant. That is something the pre needs with a better media player.
I am with everyone else on the calendar, it needs sorting. There also needs to be a fix for the facebook 8 hour offset issue, if facebook won't do it, then we need an option to offset certain accounts. I went for the pre over android and iphone as I thought it would be the best pda, I was wrong. iPhone has a better calendar, so does android which also has great email. If it wasn't for the rest of the phone being great, very promising tech and having the best core technologies (synergy) I would have returned it.
FIX THE CALENDAR!
Oh I would also like a proper facebook app, facebook chat in messaging as an account in synergy and in photos, a section that syncs phone copies of all of my facebook photos and links to photos with me in! Plus MSN/Windows live messenger.
Does anyone use airfoil with airtunes? That would be amazing as an app for pre.
A Better Media Player, More Decent Apps, A Video Camera, More Synergy Accounts and Improved Gaming won't hurt either...
speed is nice but where is the promised video recording capability? Where is the ability to forward text messages or transfer media through Bluetooth/MMS (besides pics) or have the sounds be different for different notifications or the better battery life...there are so many core features lacking in this device but yet Palm thinks that speed is a necessity for the masses. Address some of the other issues Palm, read the forums, get clued into your user base and their wants/desires. If you do that and make those wishes come true then perhaps you can keep a little loyalty when the Android devices start eating away at your base of customers. You are trying Palm, but not necessarily focused on the main points of what your customers want.
How about categories for Calendar and Memos, you know, like PalmOS had. At this point, I would settle for something as good as my Treo650, which had an intuitive easy-to-use Calendar application without so many layers of menus.
my Pre is fast enough that I don't need it to be even faster. I would rather see SPEED being pushed on Palm. As in speeding up on things this phone is missing. SPEED it up Palm!
I was showing my Pre off to an iPhone user at work today and the iPhone was clearly faster and more responsive. I'm just glad it didn't decide to pull the "too many cards" message with zero or one cards open stunt it's been doing lately.
I'm incredibly hopeful that the lag issues will be addressed by this. As part of the Real Reviewer process, I shoot updates over to a contact at Palm every week or two about how I'm using the device. The last major conversation I had with them was regarding the calendar lag issue, and it's associated post here at Pre|Central. My contact was (and has been) very welcoming of both positive and negative feedback, including the lag issue.
The most important thing he said was, regarding Pre|Central posts:
"we read them religiously and incorporate suggestions into future products and updates, believe it or not."
The calendar lag post had one of the highest number of comments of any frontpage I'd seen on Pre|Central in a while... So bear that in mind folks, they're listening.
Speed is nice, but that falls under optimization. Come on Palm. This is ridiculous. Stop tweaking the product and actually fix the actual problems (app storage problem, calendar problems, synergy issues). This phone is nothing like what Palm promised us when they announced it last January. All of us have been holding on, waiting for Palm go through the beta phase, and they're dragging their heals. Palm needs to stop this now. If they don't, they're going to go under. And then they'll be sitting there dumbfounded like they didn't see it coming.
I agree slow speed, as in slow or sluggish response times moving between apps or getting email or calendar stuff or even starting the camera, is pretty noticeable - my centro and even my old treo was sooooo much faster - why are we going backwards PALM?....I just visited an apple store and played around with the iphone and I have to admit it was quite shocking how responsive everything is - I dont understand why the PRE is so slow to do anything ....at least from the hardware specs we are so similiar. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let this story be true....I am tired of having to defend my Pre to my iphone friends...:-(...I want THEM to be envious!
It seems that most people want actual progress to happen with WebOS. Speed throughout WebOS as well as phone features that dumb phones take for granted is the general chant of the masses.
I'm no expert and I gather that Palm as a company is a tiny little thing but wouldn't it not be a good idea to ease back on the hiring expensive heads of other company divisions and employ some coders/software engineers?
Many fan's, devotee's and brave yet intelligent people have taken the risk to buy into Palm's last stand when the whole world shouts iPhone at them and all they want is what was promised when they first saw the demos so many months ago.
I think while the phone has so many basic features to be added to it maybe directing what little resources Palm has at the iTunes sync tennis isn't such a good idea and will only anger this pretty amazing community that is supporting Palm and wants them to succeed.
We are two months away from WebOS ver 1.5 and therefore halfway to WebOS ver 2.0. Shouldn't there be something to show for reaching such milestones?
I feel a little re-focusing is in order.
"We are two months away from WebOS ver 2.0."
What makes you think this is true? Palm hasn't put out a roadmap for webOS updates.
Sorry for the confusion. Based on an update per month it would be fair to guess that in two months time we could expect WebOS 1.5.
1.5 being halfway to 2.0.
So 7 months from now it wouldn't be odd to expect version 2.0 based on the same update per month pattern.
That's some pretty faulty logic there. Versioning is a tried and true part of software development. About the only time you see a 1.9 leading to a 2.0 is when you don't want to call it 2.0b.
I will be shocked/disappointed if WebOS gets to 1.6. 1.5 is pushing it, but they get a pass because of the introduction of the Pixi. If it was just the one model on the market they shouldn't have to go past 1.4.
I'm sure you know more than I do about versioning and i'm sorry for giving the impression that I do. That was not my aim. I did say it was a fair guess though.
Whether my guessitmation is accurate or not on the timing of WebOS releases, chronologically the Pre will be Half a year old in two months. Uncanny I know.
How long should people wait for a significant progression in WebOS? was my point. Would it be asking too much for WebOS 2.0 after the platform has been on general release for a year?
1.3 - 1.0 = 3 updates
November (11) - June (6) = 5 months
How do you get one update per month?
Cover me in custard and release the bears!
OK it seems that rather than comment on my points and the lack of WebOS progress, the focus has moved to proving me incorrect when I was merely using the current frequency of WebOS releases as a gauge for..... GUESSING!!!.
Which I clearly wrote in the first place and then re-iterated twice now, but for the readers who like to shoot fish in a barrel, please continue.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, WebOS is still slow enough for iPhone fans to point and Scoff at the Pre when this should not be the case.
I'm waiting patiently for my contract to run out so I can get the UK GSM Pre but at this rate it will still suffer from a lack of speed and basic dumb phone features like having the ability to create groups and send mass message sending or to change the message tone without a need to patch your pre.
I have been cursed with an HTC Touch Diamond for far too long and that was very slow when it was first reviewed.
HTC updated the Rom and increased the speed before I bought my phone weeks after its release, not months!
I didn't have to know what version of the software I was running or when the next update was being released.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think creating a path to the GPU and actually implementing it in the GUI are the same thing. Once the path is created, it could be another update that actually rewrites the UI to use it.
Also, the slowness on the Pre that is bothersome isn't that of the animations, it's the slowness of programs loading. CSS transforms aren't going to help me see that picture I just took in the photos application in under 10 minutes.
Speed is great and more of it is very welcome, but fixing the app space limit is the absolute must here. Palm should have had that fixed months ago. For many average users, the app space issue is a deal breaker and it's a slap in the face to developers.
I, like everyone else would love to see a speed improvement, but this is all speculation at this point in time.
I'm worried that if ver 1.3.1 has some other upgrade instead of the speed you're speculating on, you may be setting peoples hopes for a big let down.
Whatever the upgrade may be, it's good to hear WebOS is heading in the right direction.
I want to subtract ALL animations from the phone app. That's it.
Agreed, I feel like the call app should work in a similar way to the launcher sliding up.
In fact it would be nice to be able to choose which apps can multitask and which don't. The possibility of having hybrid apps works for me, ones that only become a card if you open another app.
How about all apps on the quick launch work that way? I don't mind how the iphone works in general, going into email or sms after going to do something else it is still how you left it, but I need webOS multitask for a lot of other stuff.
I really despise these 1.3.1 stories and forum posts that are
just *pure* rumor and speculation. Either someone knows
what's going into it, or they don't. If they don't, then I
don't want to hear what they *hope* will be in the
next release. It's just totally pointless.
Rumor and speculation? Two Palm employees stated that the Pre will get a big speed boost... very soon.... That's so not a rumor and so not speculation... that's official word. Whether or not that will be in 1.3.1 or not is a different story. You can only assume yes due to how they mention it'll happen soon. "Soon" is also the same time the Pixi will come out...
"Two Palm employees stated that the Pre will get a big speed boost"
that's your interpretation. there is not mentioned anything about a *big boos*. beside this, they just mentioned some css transforms. that wont make loading apps faster. that wont make the calender faster.
I'm not at all interested in a speed increase. My Pre works fast enough for me. What I'm interested in is getting rid of the app limit. It's my understanding that the app limit is primarily a function of Palm's attempt to obfuscate application code. If that's true, then any change to their method of obfuscating code is great news to me. I deplore having an 8GB phone and only being able to install 256MB worth of apps.
I don't completely agree as SPEED is ALWAYS an improvement (unless it kills the battery even worse) but I do agree 100% with that stupid deception of having an 8GB Pre and only being about to use less than 300MB of apps!!! Yes I know there are work arounds but that should NOT be the case, if you are going to sell an 8GB device make sure that it can use that space for what the consumer wants or at least sell it as "8GB of media storage device with limited app space" - Really you mean that would cause people to NOT buy it? Huh go figure! Then make it work the way that it is ADVERTISED - 8GB of storage should not be limited to only Media!!!
Just my 2cents!
PALM U HAVE REALLY DISAPPOINTED ME SO FAR...........
HOPEFULLY BEFORE THE END OF THE YEAR AN UPGRADE WILL TAKE PLACE. ITEMS THAT NEED TO BE INITITATED:
CUTOMIZING TEXT, EMAIL AND VOICEMAIL ALERTS, BESIDES THAT SINGLE TONE. ANNOYING!!!
LED NOTIFICATION WHEN RECEIVED TEXT, EMAIL AND VOICEMAIL
"LIKE HTC HERO HAS NEXT TO EARPIECE"
VISUAL VOICEMAIL.
TEXT FOWARDING.
PROBABLY A FEW OTHER TWEEKS THAT I CANNOT THINK OF NOW.
BUT I AM SURE U GET THE POINT....PLEASE LISTEN TO YOUR PALM PRE FANS.....LET'S DISGRACE THE IPHONE AND AT&T
PLEASE DON'T FORCE ME TO SWITCH TO AT&T AND APPLE IPHONE.
I AM ON THE VERGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There's a solution I can offer you for visual voicemail, even though it comes from outside Palm.
Google Voice lets you re-assign your Pre's number to the Google Voice service, so you can let Google Voice's visual voicemail handle the Pre's calls. Then it will e-mail your visual voicemail right to the Pre.
Honestly dude, the stuff that you want improved can be (and will be) improved for sure. We know changing tones is really easy. I'm not sure why they're holding off on it, but we know it's easy to do.
And we know that the LED notification and more than 3 app pages is already done, but unreleased (again, we have no idea why they're holding off on it, but there has to be a reason since they've done it but have disabled it).
Those things in my opinion are minor in that I can easily see that coming relatively soon. The bigger issues in my opinion is how much they can fix other things that aren't so easy.
Good, I'm glad there's a speed boost coming. 1.2 actually helped speed a crapload. It went from being embarrassingly laggy to "hey, this is a little laggy but liveable".
The overall snappiness and responsiveness can be helped for sure, but at this point it's like 90% of where the iPhone is at (pre 1.2 I would say it was at 60% of where the iPhone 3G is at... notice that's 3G, not 3GS).
But certain apps are just... ugh. Contacts, Music, and Photos are really slow. Calendar is acceptable but really should be a little faster too. Contacts really needs to fully load immediately and also needs a "quick jump to letter" thing. Music should be replaced with Music Remix (and sped up too). Palm just needs to pay that guy for the app and release it instead of their own.
I just heard from a palm representative today that 1.3.1 is being released on the 9th. I hope that is true. Also that the Pixi is 4g capable. Love to see both!
I heard from palm rep that 1.3.1 is coming on the 9th. Hoping that's true!
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