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Sep 01

Palm Previews WebOS 2.0: Tablet Ready?

Posted in: HP, palm, Tablets and E-Readers, Today's Chili, webos

Since his company was bought out by HP, Jon Rubinstein and what remains of the Palm team have kept busy. Due out later this year is WebOS 2.0, the OS that we expect HP to use on a tablet device, and Palm has given us a sneak-peek of what’s new.

Stack was the thing we liked best about the original WebOS. It puts each app or task onto a “card” and lets you swoosh them around the screen to either stack them out of the way or flip between tasks. New in 2.0 is auto-stacking, which will group card by type. Think iOS folders, only with running windows instead of apps.

The next biggest change is with Quick Actions, the universal search function. If you have ever used an application launcher like Quicksilver or LaunchBar on the Mac, or Launchy on the PC, you’ll know what to expect.

Tap the rebranded Just Type box on the home screen (it is always there) and, well, just type. You can launch apps, search contacts and so on, but now Just Type is opened up to third party apps, letting you search within them. This is big, and something iOS still doesn’t do.

There are more tweaks and additions detailed over at Pre Central, but the last one we’ll look at is call “Exhibition”. Essentially, this lets you choose an app to display when the Pre (or whatever device it ends up on) is charging in a dock. Thus you could display a Twitter stream, a weather widget or anything else. I like this one a lot.

The WebOS is looking more and more suitable for a tablet. It has the simplicity and polish of Apple iOS which will appeal to a mainstream user: something that Android is getting closer to, and Windows is hopelessly lacking. Look out for the WebOS when it comes: it could be the first proper tablet since the iPad.

webOS 2.0 details: Stacks, Just Type, Exhibition, and more! [Pre Central via ★]

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