Precommunity.com has posted an interview with Sprint and Palm executives that uncovered a few interesting tidbits about webOS:
Palm confirmed that, while the SDK will not be entirely open to modification, it would be broad in its flexibility. A Palm OS emulator, for instance, would be both possible and permitted, though the company themselves have no plans to create one. webOS will also support over-the-air (OTA) firmware updates, rather than requiring a full plugged-in ROM reflash as on previous Palm devices, and tasks such as pairing Bluetooth devices and switching between them have also been streamlined.
The data connection is constantly open in the background, serving the open apps; according to Palm the amounts of traffic involved are small, but we’d still expect Sprint to be pushing an all-you-can-eat data plan with the Pre. The handset will support push messaging with Exchange, though not with any other app or service, and messages and other details are cached so that they can still be accessed even without a network connection.
A couple of questions come to mind: How will legacy Palm applications perform within a webOS emulator?
At this point we're looking at at least 3 levels of interpretation before we hit the hardware: Legacy app --> Mojo Framework --> webOS --> hardware. Users aren't going to be happy if running their favorite "to-do" application drains their battery in an hour (of course, the Pre wil come with some sweet new Palm-designed PIM applications so hopefully most users won't be reaching for their legacy date book software).
Secondly, having the data connection constantly open could be a battery drainer, especially if in addition to the native Pre Synergy-enabled applications the user installs other applications that run in the background and access web services. Let's hope Palm can pull out another surprise with a higher-capacity battery or below-expected pricing on the Touchstone charging dock so the battery will become a relative non-issue.
Head on over for the full article.
0 Comments