AfterDawn: Tech news

Palm switching over to Android with WebOS UI?

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 23 Mar 2010 2:19 User comments (2)

Palm switching over to Android with WebOS UI? Last night Slashdot received an anonymous tip claiming that Palm was actively considering dropping the arguably superior mobile operating system WebOS for Android. The tip says Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein will release an internal memo on the matter in the near future.
Says the tipster of the memo: "While Palm is incredibly proud of our engineers who spent timeless work and effort to bring us this advanced operating system, consumers simply have not caught on. To provide a better future for ourselves and our customers, the only logical choice is to transition our hardware and software to the Android platform."

The tipster also notes that the WebOS UI will be integrated into Android, similarly to the popular HTC Sense interface which runs on top of Android 1.5-2.1.

PreCentral, the site which is pretty on top of Palm rumors, accurate or not, says the tip is likely a completely falsification, and we at AfterDawn are inclined to agree. The engineering necessary to create a working WebOS UI to work with Android will take too much time that Palm does not have.

Previous Next  

2 user comments

123.3.2010 21:18

andi hope they dont. unless they go down, i hope they dont at all. though webos + andoid would be geek jizz

225.3.2010 07:30

Originally posted by shaffaaf:
andi hope they dont. unless they go down, i hope they dont at all. though webos + andoid would be geek jizz
Although this does on face value look crazy, is webos also uses linux which helps from the start.

But assuming they create the webos in layers (kernal/drivers/interface) it safe to assume that you could take the interface layer, extract what you wanted, complile this to an android app/software and instead of re-writing all the hooks from webos to android, you could just add an api (call interface layer) which would translate the interfaces webos calls and interface them with android. Ok its not as nice and as clean as doing it for android from scratch and it creates a tiny overhead that you dont really need. But look at the htc version its exactly the same as sense 2.5 on wm6.5, they already had all the functionality core code and images/videos created so bundeling it into an android app cant have been that hard.

It maybe also possible with webos's interface code to simply replace the api calls with the android ones without to much of a problem. But if they have root access device so its not like they have to write it using the android dev kit for apps, if there code runs at root level it can call what the hell it wants.

http://www.webosroundup.com/2010/01/the-...bos-vs-android/

Not sure why this guy thinks that you cant upgrade android devices software (os) with a later updated version ?? check xda developers u douche.

But from palms point of view it maybe a good thing, 1 the dont have to run their own app enviroment, ok it does mean less profit but does open the door to far far more apps than webos has.

It also means a much smaller focused development team writing their version of google than developing an entire os and maintaing it.

If in the coming years the smartphone market does continue to expand further its likely that webos would eventually fall fowl to the big 3.

Blackberry is in the same boat, they make lots of money out of making people pay to access their email through blackberry exchange, which is a completely pointless system as far as i can see, both in the business world and personal world as you can do the same things on other devices without the need of paying blackberry. The appear to continue in this world of brainwashed users who think you must have a crack berry to do email... anyway the point im getting at is they are not likely to jump ship as its a big money spinner forcing people to use blackberry exchange of some flavour. But at some point very soon i feel they are going to start to see their market share start to really shink further and feel the pinch as the next gen of other devices come to the market.

The wild card in this all is windows 7 phone it could be all hype but if its not and microsoft at least re-claw their market share to pre android and iphone times, it doesnt leave much for people like blackberry or palm.

Comments have been disabled for this article.

Latest news

VLC hits milestone: over 5 billion downloads VLC hits milestone: over 5 billion downloads (16 Mar 2024 4:31)
VLC Media Player, the versatile video-software powerhouse, has achieved a remarkable feat: it has been downloaded over 5 billion times.
2 user comments
Sideloading apps to Android gets easier, as Google settles its lawsuit Sideloading apps to Android gets easier, as Google settles its lawsuit (19 Dec 2023 11:09)
Google settled its lawsuit in September 2023, and one of the settlement terms was that the way applications are installed on Android from outside the Google Play Store must become simpler. In the future, installing APK files will be easier.
8 user comments
Roomba Combo j7+ review - Clever trick allows robot vacuum finally to tackle home with rugs and carpets Roomba Combo j7+ review - Clever trick allows robot vacuum finally to tackle home with rugs and carpets (06 Jun 2023 9:19)
Roomba Combo j7+ is the very first Roomba model to combine robot vacuum with mopping features. And Roomba Combo j7+ does all that with a very clever trick, which tackles the problem with mopping and carpets. But is it any good? We found out.
Neato, the robot vacuum company, ends its operations Neato, the robot vacuum company, ends its operations (02 May 2023 3:38)
Neato Robotics has ceased its operations. American robot vacuum pioneer founded in 2005 has finally called it quits and company will cease its operations and sales. Only a skeleton crew will remain who will keep the servers running until 2028.
5 user comments
How to Send Messages to Yourself on WhatsApp How to Send Messages to Yourself on WhatsApp (20 Mar 2023 1:25)
The world's most popular messaging platform, Meta-owned WhatsApp has enabled sending messages to yourself. While at first, this might seem like an odd feature, it can be very useful in a lot of situations. ....
18 user comments

News archive