I’m a Palm Pre owner, and a fairly happy one at that.  There’s a lot to love about webOS and the Pre, and the future looks pretty good too.  But, there’s no denying that the EVO with Android is out there and looks impressive, and of course the iPhone with iOS 4.0 was just released this week.  Am I thinking of switching?  That seems to be the current question, for me and for a lot of people.

The quick answer for the iPhone is no, but maybe not for the reasons you think… I’m an avowed Apple hater, even though I own an iPad and frankly like it quite a bit.  That doesn’t change the fact that I detest many of their practices and philosophies, and I absolutely despise Steve Jobs in particular.  None of this is news to anyone that knows me.

What may be news though is that I’d have a very difficult time not getting an iPhone if it wasn’t for one thing: AT&T.  I’m a Sprint customer, have been for a long time, and I have almost nothing but good things to say about them.  The service has always been solid for me, and the price is unbeatable.  They have a decent lineup of phones nowadays, which wasn’t always true.  In fact, the lack of good phones a few years ago chased me to Verizon temporarily.  But AT&T is pretty awful.  The price isn’t great and the service is pretty crappy from what I hear (although interestingly, it seems to be a bit improved with the new iPhone).

I don’t think I could ever bring myself to suffer AT&T’s service for the iPhone, even though the device itself is something I’d be interested in.  It’s still got all the same downsides as any Apple device: lack of freedom, overhyped (but generally pretty good) operating system, some missing features I’d hate to be without… but it’s also got a lot of positives that largely overcome the negatives… excellent hardware (Apple has nearly always gotten the hardware right, and usually better than most others), tons of apps, most of the features I want in such a device.

Yes, if the iPhone was available on Sprint today I’d frankly have a very difficult decision to make.

EVO is the other competitor in my mind, and hardware-wise it seems to be a winner… although, I’ve seen some issues reported early on, but I expect they will be solved in future production runs.  Regardless, it’s hard to argue it doesn’t have some killer hardware lurking under the covers.  What about the OS?  Well, Android, in my mind, is just OK at this point.  It’s got warts for sure… interestingly, I think it has more warts than webOS despite having been out longer.  I haven’t seen any showstoppers though, but lots of little thing that would probably annoy me.

Still, Android is relatively open, which is a positive.  There’s a good and growing number of apps out there, which also is a big positive.  With Google backing it I expect it’s going to continue to improve rapidly, which is a third positive.  I think the bottom line is I wouldn’t be at all against owning an Android device, but the EVO is the only one I’d currently consider, given it’s available on Sprint and given that it has killer hardware.

And then there’s webOS and my Pre.

First, I’m still burnt that I can’t have a Pre Plus on Sprint.  I’m sure exclusivity was a dependency in getting the phones onto Verizon, which Palm had to do to try and build the user base.  Makes sense.  But it still sucks big-time for us Sprint early adopters.  It sucks because it goes a long way to solving some of the lingering annoying problems with webOS, primarily the “too many cards” errors.  Yes, they still happen, and more so now with the PDK-based games.  It’s frustrating to say the least.  Not to mention that I can’t have all the music and videos and eBooks I want on my phone now because the memory is constrained.

So, that sucks.  The Pre in  general, hardware-wise, is behind the curve for sure at this point and the gap is widening greatly.  I mean, I can’t really compare a Pre to the new iPhone or the EVO and have too much positive to say.  In  fact, the Pre having a physical keyboard is about the only positive thing I can say.  We’re starting to get some hints about new devices coming in the next few months, but those are already 3-4 months late in my opinion… I hesitate to say they are too late because if they come out in a few months and are top-notch then all would be forgiven… my fear is that any new Palm device will always be a few months’ behind the kings of the hill in terms of hardware…

…which means that webOS has to REALLY impress and make up for the lack of hardware.  Any you know what?  For the most part, it does, and it’s really the only thing keeping me with my Pre.  Look, to be clear, iOS and Android have their strengths and weaknesses, as does webOS.  I love how smooth iOS is under nearly any circumstance (based on my iPad and iPod Touch experience) and I wish webOS was always as smooth (it certainly is some of the time, but I can’t honestly say even most of the time).  Then again, webOS beats the snot out of iOS and Android when it comes to notifications.  Pluses and minuses to all of them.

Taken as a whole though, I’m still very much smitten with webOS and especially its development model (sans the PDK, which I personally don’t have too much interest in at the moment).  Palm still has the very best multitasking implementation out there.  Synergy still kicks the crap out of any alternatives on other devices.  As I said earlier, notifications are still unmatched.

I guess at the end of the day it comes down to this to me: I’m not switching, at least not right now.  I won’t get an EVO because I like webOS more than Android, and I like it enough more to overcome the EVO’s superior hardware.  I won’t get an iPhone because I won’t go with AT&T… but if Sprint offered it, I’d have a tough decision to make.

The takeaway here for Palm is this: I’m still a happy customer, but there really had better be a killer hardware refresh coming in the next 3-4 months.  I think webOS is fine.  I know you’ll continue to improve it of course, but I think you’re in good shape there.  The hardware though… it’s starting to take away from your great OS work and is looking worse and worse practically by the week compared to your competitors.  If I don’t have a new device from you in my hands in a few months, and not just a Pre Plus, well, I may be looking with longing eyes to an EVO… and at some point I MIGHT even be willing to take the AT&T hit to get an iPhone (that’s a lot less likely… maybe 5-10% chance… but I won’t rule it out completely).  I can be patient, and I understand the whole acquisition thing (I’m going through an acquisition at the moment too actually, and it’s the third I’ve been through in the past 15 years, so I really do understand the effect it has!)… but the window is closing.

Don’t let me down Palm!  Let’s see some new hardware that compliments what I still think is the best mobile OS out there… let’s see the total package that can go head-to-head with the EVO and the iPhone 4.  And get’er done sooner than later!  I know there’s some things brewing, but don’t make me wait too much longer or I may not be able to resist the temptations out there…

I’m weak, I need a greek fix soon!!

On the flight back I saw the news that Apple has opened litigation against HTC claiming infringement on 20 patents (as per Android Central’s reporting).  This of course led to almost an hours’ worth of debate between myself and my boss on the drive home.

In short, this seems to me like the absolute stupidest move Apple could ever make because it puts them in serious jeopardy.

And plus, it’s in no way, shape or form about HTC or what they may or may not be infringing!  No, this is a proxy war between two (and possibly three) very big dogs.  And it’s a war I don’t see any way Apple can win.

To be clear, I don’t for a second believe Apple cares one bit about HTC directly and what patent infringement might be going on with them.  This is about one thing and one thing only: the threat that Android and Google pose to Apple’s place in the smartphone market.

Android has been gaining ground steadily since its release, which is frightening to Apple’s “we must thoroughly dominate the market” mentality.  They won’t be content with 70% or 80% or even 90% of the market.  No, it’s all-or-nothing for King Jobs and his minions.  The Nexus One in particular is a scary proposition for Apple because aside from being a pretty damned good smartphone by all accounts, it comes unlocked, which means it has the potential to penetrate the market much more through flexibility and availability on multiple networks alone.

Google is all but synonymous with cloud-based living at this point.  How many people rely on Gmail and Google Calendar and even Google Docs these days?  More and more, people are becoming comfortable with living their digital lives in the cloud, and Google has for a while now been positioning itself as the gatekeeper to that world.  Apple’s Mobile Me is in direction competition with that.

Now, tie smartphones to data in the cloud, which is what all the big players are doing now, and you see where Apple looks over at Google and says “woah, hey, THAT’S the primary threat”.  Not hard to come to that conclusion at all.

So, how does Apple deal with it?  Well, how they SHOULD deal with it is simply to continue to make good products.  They should compete on merit because, regardless of how you feel about them, you have to admit that they CAN compete on merit!  That’s what most normal people and companies would do… but then, most people are not, and most companies are not led by, over-the-edge egomaniacal control freaks.  Apple is, so the rules aren’t the same.

Back to smartphones for a moment… who makes Googles’ Nexus One?  Well, not Google… no, it’s our friends over at HTC.

And that exclamation of “AH-HA!” you just heard is Steve Jobs and his room full of lawyers realizing a strategy.

Apple doesn’t want to attack Google directly, really in any way, because that’s one helluva dangerous opponent.  Apple has more cash reserves at the moment, but Google isn’t exactly hurting in that regard by any stretch, and their market capitalization is pretty similar at the moment.  Google is certain to have a real nice patent portfolio by now with which to fend off Apple if they had to.  There’s probably some intangible assets they could deploy in such a battle too.  Whoever ultimately won, Apple would be wounded in that confrontation pretty badly.

What they CAN do however is attack a lesser opponent, someone Google depends on.  HTC fits the bill nicely.  How much of a dent would it be in Googles’ plans if HTC went bye-bye?  A pretty big one I’d say.  Google wants the Nexus One to succeed because that’s the business model they want to pursue.  They ultimately do want to own the hardware and the OS, just like Apple, and the Nexus One is the first iteration of that.  Sure, they could find another partner.  Motorola perhaps.  But HTC has a strong track record in this space and they are in many ways the best option.  Besides, if Google went to Motorola instead I’d expect they’d be served with a legal filing from Apple a short time later too.

And on the surface, it’s not a bad strategy.  Unless HTC has some strong patents to fight back with… and they’d have to be strong enough to be able to get injunctive relief against Apple almost immediately otherwise Apple could just litigate them into the ground over a prolonged period of time… then Apple stands a real good chance of winning that battle.

Here’s where it can get dangerous for Apple though…

Google isn’t likely to jump into it directly just like Apple wouldn’t attack them directly.  This is very much the United States and the Soviet Union fighting each other via Vietnam… neither side wants the fallout that would result from a direct confrontation, but you can be sure Google has a HUGE stake in this game and WILL be involved.  One way they could do it would be to hand HTC a bunch of patents to use against Apple with the understanding that Google has a perpetual, free license to those patents.  They could even decide to buy HTC outright, assuming they had the money.  I don’t think there’s any real chance of that though… what would  be the upside to taking on the litigation themselves?

There’s a much larger 800-pound gorilla in the room though, and this is the part that Apple may not be counting on enough.

Microsoft.

I think there’s a real scenario where Google and Microsoft team up against Apple.  Why you ask?  Do you know who makes a lot of Windows Mobile devices?  Yep, HTC again.  So far I’ve seen no hints that Microsoft is looking to produce their own hardware with Windows Mobile 7, so it’s  not at all far-fetched that they’ll be working with HTC again as a premier partner.  They won’t want to see HTC be destroyed either.

They of course don’t want to see Apple have the smartphone market locked up so tight that Windows Mobile 7 has zero chance right form the start either, and since Android is really the only viable competitor right now (as much as I love Palm’s webOS, to be fair, Android has more momentum as a competitor to Apple right now) they can’t afford for Google to be knocked down TOO far either.  Android doing well, at least for a little while longer, in a bizarre sort of way is actually good for Microsoft.

Microsoft getting into the fray, whether publicly or privately (and I strongly suspect we might never know if they do get involved) is a real bad thing for Apple because Microsoft has a MASSIVE patent portfolio.  And they’ve got patents on some pretty basic stuff that, let’s face it, EVERYONE is infringing on (and yes, you can make that same argument for Apple, IBM and a lot of others).  Microsoft PLUS Google though… that’s a battle almost no one could win (IBM could maybe pull it off, but that’s probably about it).

To put it in simpler terms: Apple runs the risk here of hitting not one but TWO hornets’ nests and then standing there laughing at them.  If Microsoft and Google decide to play the old “the enemey of my enemey is my friend” game then Apple is in for a world of hurt.

Then of course you have HTC, stuck in the middle, possibly having their value reduced massively…which is another angle to this: Apple could in fact be looking to purchase HTC.  I admit I just don’t see any reason they’d want to, but assuming they do, filing patent infringement cases can be a good way to reduce the value of a takeover target enough to make purchasing it far more attractive.  I pretty much discount this scenario though as it doesn’t make much sense to me in this case.  It’s not at all an unheard of tactic in business to be sure, but in this case it just doesn’t fit in my mind.

No, I think it comes down to Apple wanting to hurt Google without going after them directly.  So, we get to witness a fascinating little proxy war.  Apples’ boardroom calculus (or, Steve Jobs’ insane inner voice, depending on what you believe) says this will work… and it could, if Google stays out of it.  I don’t see how they can though… I don’t think Google can afford to let HTC fail; one way or another they’ve GOT to get involved.  The question then becomes if Microsoft feels threatened enough to get into it too, which is a huge gamble for Apple to take because while they can almost certainly beat HTC, and MIGHT be able to beat Google alone, there’s NO WAY they come out on top against both Google and Microsoft (plus HTC don’t forget).

Patent wars NEVER end good for anyone.  They’re a shitty, almost desperate tactic that frankly only bullshit companies pull.  And they ESPECIALLY never end well for the initiating company if multiple other companies gang together in common cause against them.  Only time will tell of course, but Apple quite possibly just sealed their own fate here.  If they miscalculated, if Google and Microsoft both get involved even if only under the table, that’s real bad news for Apple no matter how you slice it.

And that leads to the question of who’s driving this whole thing in the first place?  Steve Jobs is all but an absolute, infallible dictator at this point, so it’s completely reasonable to think he fell in the shower one morning and awoke an hour later with this plan in his head.  That wouldn’t surprise me.  Jobs has arguably almost ruined Apple twice, and he’s about due for a third try I’d say!  Maybe this is it.  Then again, maybe the entire executive committee got together and dreamed this up.  You know what, maybe Apple LEGITIMATELY feels like they’re in the right and that’s it!  That could be the case.  I don’t for ONE MICROSECOND think that’s it at all, but to be fair, it could be.

To conclude… ask yourself what the benefit of suing HTC is for Apple.  What do they stand to gain?  Do they need any added income from patent licensing fees?  No.  Is HTC any sort of direct threat to them?  No.  Is this really a matter of principal where they truly feel their IP is being infringed and they want to fight for their rights in that regard?  Could be, but I just can’t believe that.

What POSSIBLE reason is there for them to go after HTC at all?

There’s only one in my mind: Google.  (And maybe Microsoft to a lesser extent)

Patent infringement cases like this are the equivalent of the nuclear option.  Apple has clearly just pressed the button.  Let’s see who lobs ICBMs back their way and who has less scorched earth when all is said and done.  No matter if you agree or disagree with me I think we can totally agree this is going to be very interesting to watch!

They said (essentially) that if you own a brick-and-mortar store you can choose to sell any merchandise you want and reject any you don’t want to sell.  You can do this for any reason, no matter how stupid to everyone else, and it’s acceptable.  They went on to say, by extension, Apple should have the same right and that’s why it would be OK for them to reject Opera Mini (if they do… apparently Opera hasn’t submitted it yet, or at least hasn’t heard an answer yet).  That’s why it is OK for them to reject any application for any reason and nobody should complain about it.

The person is of course correct about a store in the physical world.  It is well within the rights of the owner to sell or not sell whatever they want.  Shouldn’t the same right extend to Apple and their store?  Surely the fact that it’s not a physical store doesn’t make a difference, does it?

No, it doesn’t make a difference, and on the surface it seems like a perfectly reasonable, correct comparison.

The problem is, it’s not.

I’m reminded of the words of Jean Luc Picard from one of my favorite Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes “The First Duty”… while talking to Wesley he says “You told the truth up to a point.  But a lie of omission is still a lie”.

Now, the talkbacker wasn’t being dishonest.  No, he simply made a mistake in his argument, but one based on the same principal: you can make something false appear true simply by omitting a troublesome detail from the argument.

What’s the flaw you ask?  Simply put, there are other stores in the physical world that you could go to in order to buy something the first store doesn’t offer.  That’s how it’s meant to work.  Walmart doesn’t have the DVD player you want so you head over to Target for it.  You may be annoyed at Walmart for not carrying it, but you can’t claim they did anything wrong by not carrying it.  That would clearly be a ridiculous argument.

In the case of Apple, there is no other store to choose from.  You buy from Apple’s store or you hack your device and run afoul of crappy legislation (I’m looking at you DMCA… and by the way, if we ever meet up at a party I’m gonna bitch-slap your punk ass!)  No other store means that Apple is an absolute gatekeeper to anyone wanting to sell merchandise (read: apps_.  No such gatekeeper exists in the real world.  Sure, you may not be able to find anyone who wants to sell your product in their store, but you have many options to try, not just one with an absolute final say in all matters.

To go further, I’ll say what some won’t: Apple does have a monopoly (which in and of itself is not a legal or even moral problem) and they are in fact abusing it (which very much is both a legal and moral problem).  In my opinion they should be brought up on antitrust charges.  There’s certainly no shortage of people that would testify about abuses they have experienced.

What about the competition?  Well, Palm lets you install apps from outside their store, officially now in fact (and even before it was official they were at worst agnostic).  Microsoft of all companies, in light of their legally-proven monopoly abuses of the past, has always allowed this with Windows Mobile and unless they intend to change that now with their new app store, will continue to do so.  I’m frankly not sure where Android or Blackberry stand on things.

I do know that only Apple has seemed to be abusive about it if you go by nothing else but public outcry… well, maybe “public” isn’t the right word there… developer outcry perhaps.  Certainly the public doesn’t seem to mind very much, they are quite happy with their iPhones and the app store.

And therein lies the rub, as they say.  I can sit here and, as I see it, be right about all of this, but at the same time still be wrong!  If the public at large doesn’t have an issue with it, does it matter if it’s wrong legally?  After all, things are only illegal or wrong because society at large has deemed them so, and as public opinion changes so too do laws (we’re likely to see marijuana legalized in our lifetime for example).  Even taking the legal aspect out of the debate, iPhone owners are, by and large, very happy customers.  They don’t care if Apple rejects some apps for dubious reasons.  If they did, the sales numbers wouldn’t be what they are both in terms of phones and apps.

But in any case, I don’t think the comparison to real-world stores is valid.  Until there is another store someone can buy an iPhone app from, or Apple decides to allow “sideband” installs without jailbreaking… neither of which is likely to happen before marijuana is legalized!… it’s just not a valid comparison in my opinion, and because of it, to me, Apple is illegally abusing a monopoly position and should be prosecuted for it.

I’m not a lawyer of course, but that’s the way I see it.

(and yes, I’m pretty sure this means you won’t see me writing a book on iPhone programming any time soon!!)

What did we get?  Let’s run down at least some of it:

• The PDK (Plugin Development Kit).  For code monkeys like me, this is the biggest announcement.  It allows us to write native applications in C/C++ that, from what I think I’ve understood through reading, wind up running essentially as browser plug-ins to the Webkit engine that provides the webOS UI (hence the PDK name).  No question this is cool and opens up a whole new world of applications.  In fact, one of the surprises Palm pulled off was a bunch of titles released into the App Catalog concurrent with the announcement that are pretty awesome.  I’ve downloaded a couple myself already and they are clearly head and shoulders above anything we’ve seen on a webOS device before.  However, all is not right with the world here, but I’m going to come back to this later because it’ll wind up being the main thrust of this post I suspect.

• The Pre and Pixi Plus and Verizon availability.  I used to be a Verizon customer but I’ve been a very happy Sprint customer for a number of years, long before the Pre.  To be frank, I could care less about Verizon and Palm being on their network, except for one key point: it opens up a whole new base of users to sell apps to.  In this regard alone this is a huge bit of news.  We of course knew this was coming for some time, although the devices themselves were kept pretty quiet until the past few days.  I am pretty pissed that I can’t get a Pre Plus as a Sprint customer though and my hope is Palm and Sprint make it available in the not too distant future.  The problem however is if its six months out say, which doesn’t seem like a crazy guess, then I’d bet we’re beginning to talk about a Pre v2 then (or v3, depending on who you ask) and maybe it’s better to just skip the Pre Plus.  The point of course is I want the damned thing NOW, so boo-hiss to Palm on this one.  I’m sure it makes sense from a business perspective… I’d guess Verizon made them being the exclusive provider of the Plus devices part of the deal, and Palm realizes that it’s more important to get webOS-based devices into the hands of more users and that us Sprint customers who get pissed are just a bit of collateral damage.  Makes sense for them.  Sucks for us though.

• The news about webOS 1.4 was where I think there were some surprises.  Certainly I didn’t really anticipate video (although I was hoping).  It sounds like a real nice upgrade all-around and kudos to Palm for continuing their free upgrades at a rapid clip.  Now, where the hell is voice recording guys?  I’m hoping it gets slipped into 1.4, or is there already and they just didn’t mention it.  This is one thing I REALLY miss from my Windows Mobile days and it’s surprising that a modern smartphone doesn’t have it.  Palm, if you’re listening, I can’t imagine for a second this is a difficult or time-consuming thing to implement… slip it into 1.4 and make at least me a very happy person!  Please!  I’ll name my next child after you… Palm Zammetti has a nice ring to it : )

• Flash is coming soon.  This is awesome news and will of course greatly expand the webOS application landscape.  I’ll be very happy to be able to show people Happy Tree Friends, Weebl and Bob and The Lonely Astronaut on-the-go again!  Here’s the one key question though: how is it implemented?  Is it the case that we can visit a web page and have Flash content work?  That’s a given.  However, will I be able to “install” a Flash app and launch it directly from the launcher?  In other words, will I be able to run a Flash application in such a way that it looks no different than any other webOS application?  That’s my hope.  Knowing the architecture of webOS I frankly EXPECT it to work that way.  Now, how “installation” works, I’m not so sure, but at the end of the day since webOS is essentially a browser for all intents and purposes, and Flash is a browser plug-in, I certainly think it SHOULD work this way and if it doesn’t then I’d say Palm has missed an opportunity.  Maybe it’s not up to them, maybe it’s 100% on Adobe, but I know if I was Palm I’d exert as much influence as possible to ensure this was the case.  At this point, if I had to bet, I’d bet it does work this way because it seems too obvious… but we’ll see.

I may have missed one or two things, but I think those are the really major items.

Ok, so now I want to talk about two things that I see as negatives about the whole native app thing that I haven’t seen mention of elsewhere.  First, stability.

Yesterday I was playing Asphalt5, which by the way is an awesome game!  However, it crashed on me twice in a ten minute period.  This was a hard crash too: I had to literally pull the battery to get any sort of reaction.

This is very much the risk you run with native applications.  We can talk all we want about the stability of Linux, how things are compartmentalized and all that jazz, but at the end of the day, its C, its pointers, and that’s a dangerous combination in the hands of lesser developers (hell, even good ones!).  It would be easy to say maybe we’re just looking at one poorly-coded game in my case, and maybe I’m making an unfair generalization from it.  The problem is that it’s a generalization that’s always been true on every platform out there!  The closer you get to bare metal, the more dangerous your code becomes, regardless of what safety the OS provides.  So, we may see some stability issues from this native capability, and unfortunately that’s going to wind up reflecting badly on Palm.  Remember, most users aren’t developers… they don’t know from C, or web versus native development, they just know that their Pre crashed hard playing The Sims, and they’ll blame Palm (and the company who created the game of course, in whatever ratio they deem correct).

I’ll be honest though: the sooner I see a Commodore 64 emulator ported over the sooner I’ll be 100% in love with the native capability : )

However, there’s a much more subtle negative… or, to put it more correctly, POSSIBLE negative (it very much depends on your point of view, as Obi Wan once said!).

So here we have Palm all along telling us the web application development model is the future.  They’ve built their whole operating system around that concept and in fact have I think effectively bet the future of their company on it because if webOS turns out to be a failure it could ruin them.  From the very start they’ve been telling us that HTML+CSS+JavaScript is all you need to create robust, top-notch applications for webOS, and I know that I for one believed it, in fact did before Palm said anything, and I still very much believe this to be the case.

So, do we now take the native apps as a tacit admission that the web development model doesn’t quite cut it?

I know what you’re going to say: only for a certain class of applications that might be true.  3D games still are not generally possible with web technologies (a few tech demos and even one or two relatively simple games that do exist being exceptions).  And to a large extent I agree with you… what web developers can do increases seemingly every day as the technologies and standards develop, but today, right this minute, there are clear limitations  Why should Palm say that only the web development model is right then for everything?  Why shouldn’t they say that maybe for certain types of applications there needs to be a different approach?

I’m ok with that in general I suppose.  I’m ok with saying “if you’re going to write this sort of application, the standard SDK is fine, and if you’re going to write this other sort of application than maybe you should be using the PDK”.  That makes sense to a large extent.

Where I see it as a negative though is from a philosophical perspective.  Palm is really the first company that has delivered in a mainstream way what many of us have been talking about for a few years: a web technology-based operating system.  To now have to admit it may not be all it’s cracked up to be (if you agree with interpreting it that way) is depressing to those of us that have bought into that model completely.

I was in a sense looking to Palm to push the boundaries on this web development model to new heights because I think they’ve positioned themselves better than any other company to do so.  And I believe they still will do just that, but I think now providing this native capability might serve to muddle the picture somewhat.

To be sure, I think there’s SO much more potential in the web development model, even for games, than what we’re seeing now.  There are a few games in the App Catalog today that actually begin to show what’s possible, and I really wanted to see Palm develop the tools for that model more.  And in fact, I’m 100% sure they are anyway!  If you read the developer site carefully, where they talk about the PDK, they also state that they are working on bringing JavaScript APIs to us developers that give us access to that sort of native power form the web technologies perspective.  Awesome!  That’s what I really want to see!  In fact, I will state for the record that I wish THAT was the primary announcement at CES… as cool as the native apps are, as neat as I think the PDK will be, I would much rather have heard how there were some new JavaScript APIs that gave us more robust hardware access.

I would have preferred that because, philosophically, it’s more inline with what Palm has been preaching all along: the web model.  It’s almost like there’s a dual message now, and from one point of view it’s good, but from another it’s bad.  If the web model was really up to task today we wouldn’t need the PDK.  The fact that it exists in a sense shows that it’s not, and I would have preferred Palm push the boundaries in that area more.

Still, philosophy is debatable, as are these points of view.  Palm did a great job at CES and I for one am VERY excited by what they announced.  I think they made the right moves, all things considered… so long as stability doesn’t prove to be a huge problem with the native apps (only time will tell) and as long as they continue to push the envelope on what the web development model can do.

On the later point, I think they will, but here’s my concern: how easy would it be for Palm to say “ok, we can relax a little now because when people want to code a Twitter client they can use the web model, and when they want to code Halo they can use the native model”.  I think that would be the wrong answer.  The RIGHT answer, to me, is “we’re going to work to make the web model so powerful that you never again need the native model, but FOR NOW, this is the temporary solution we offer”.  That’s cool with me… but over time I should need that PDK less and less, if Palm is doing things right!  If it doesn’t go that way then as far as I can tell they will have admitted the web development model was a mistake.

There’s one other possible third negative that I’m not even sure I agree with, even though I’ve thrown it out there as a possibility in discussions already, and that’s that this native capability might be a bad thing for small-time developers (like me!).  With the EA’s and GameLoft’s of the world in the mix now porting, who can spend so much more on development and, more importantly, ADVERTISING, than I ever could, it’s going to be harder for one and two-man type shops to make a buck.  I think those large development houses might effectively eat our lunch.

Now, some have responded to this by saying that it’s a shame not everyone can be successful but that’s the way the free market works, and I agree.  The difference however is that small-time developers really can’t compete against those bigger companies in most regards.  Like I said, advertising if nothing else.  Oh, to be sure, there WILL be successful small-timers…when it comes to games, a good, fun concept trumps the largest development and advertising budget you can name.  Word of mouth is an extremely powerful thing.

But, if that’s ALL you’ve got going for you, it’s a HUGE gamble to even develop a game.

I’m not sure how this is going to play out… some claim that it hasn’t had a negative impact on the Apple app store,   However, I’ve looked at a number of reports about the top-selling games of 2009 for the iPhone, and guess what?  Most of the top-selling games come from two sources: EA and GameLoft.  Hmm, I just might be on to something here, unfortunately.  Believe me, as someone who develops games and has a few projects gearing up that I hope to make some money off of on webOS, I certainly HOPE I’m wrong and I even WANT to be wrong!

One other thing I want to touch on, and that’s Ares.  I was going to write a rather lengthy blog post about that a week or so ago, but I decided not to because I wanted to think about it a bit more.

Here’s my basic opinion… technologically, it’s cool as hell.  The developers working on it deserve all the credit in the world, they are doing fantastic work.  And, it’s going to be useful for some people.  In fact, just being able to do some of the layout and have the basic skeleton code generated, that would be worth it to ME, someone who otherwise wouldn’t need it.

If I was running the show at Palm, would I have built Ares?  Probably not and here’s why: I don’t really think it’s necessary.  The barrier to entry with webOS is already so low that I don’t think Ares buys you much there.  As far as source control and emulation and all that stuff?  Any developer worth their salt has those bases covered anyway.
Who is Ares really for?  I don’t think it’s really for someone like me who has a strong web development background already.  The SDK and Eclipse plug-in gives me all I really need.  No, I think it’s for people that aren’t as accomplished a developer.  If I was running the show, I think I would have had a different set of priorities, a different resource utilization map (I also got some inside information on this aspect of it, which I won’t divulge because it was a private conversation… suffice it to say some reasonable arguments were made in rebuttal to my thoughts here… one thing I will say is that Palm certainly seems to have a vision and isn’t just doing things for the sake of doing things… whether a given decision turns out to be right or wrong, good or bad, having a vision is a key to success).

And here’s where that could be a problem: Palm has said for a while that they want quality over quantity in the App Catalog.  We’ve already seen hints that they’ve strayed from that a bit… might Ares push that goal further away?  If less talented developers can easily develop for webOS, will that result in a ton more “craplets” out there?  Maybe.

My suspicion about Ares is that at some point down the road we’re going to look at it and say “wow, Ares was a cool product, a neat idea, but there wasn’t much point to the exercise”.  Now, I want to make sure I say here that I could very well be wrong!  I spoke to someone at Palm about this and he mentioned that Ares is a forward-looking product, they see it as something that will be appreciated more down the road.  I think that’s a fair thought, and it might even prove to be correct… it may at some point down the road be recognized as a stroke of genius.  As we sit here today looking at it though, I personally doubt it.

Still, like I said, Ares is very impressive from a technology standpoint and I very much want to commend the team working on it.  Even if it winds up being a bust in terms of real-world usage I do think it’s pushing boundaries and showing us what a new model of developer tooling might look like.  In and of itself, that’s very much worth something.

One last point before I go… I’m going to deduct a few merit points from Palm for one thing: STILL NO **USABLE** FREAKING AUDIO API FOR JAVASCRIPT APPLICATIONS?!? I’m getting sick of silent games, or games using the same set of system sounds that everyone else uses.  Please, for the love of all that is good in the world, audio API yesterday please!

I’m not going to go over the movie’s plot point by point, but some things will get mentioned that, if you don’t want to know anything about the movie before you see it, you won’t want to read.

—- SPOILER ALERT OVER —-

So I went to see Avatar tonight with a buddy of mine and my 9-year old son.  We went to the local Carmike movie theater, which isn’t anywhere near as nice as the Regal 24 20 minutes away that we usually go to.  But, it was a good choice because (a) the theater was only about half-full so there was plenty of seats and plenty of buffer space between people, which I like, and (b) this theater actually has better projectors and sound systems than the Regal does!  So, you trade a much better concession stand, arcade, stadium seating and an otherwise nicer facility for an overall better movie experience.

And for Avatar, that was the right choice.

So, as the title here says, I think the movie is fantastic, put simply.  No, I don’t think it changes cinema as we know it, as some have claimed.  No, it’s by no means perfect.  Is it Jim Cameron’s best?  Maybe.  It certainly doesn’t rise or fall too far above or below his other work (I still think The Abyss might be singularly his best work, but Avatar isn’t too far off and, after I give it some thought, it might jump out ahead).

But in any case, man, it’s damned good!

Now, let me give you the reaction of my friend… he didn’t like it much at all.  I *think* his main problem was just that it didn’t have enough action and was a bit too, I don’t know, wishy-washy maybe?  There’s no question that a big part of the story is a love story, and I’m not sure he’s the type of guy that ever allows himself to like a movie like that.  It’s also definitely “slow” in parts.  This isn’t a criticism of him at all… everyone gets to decide for themselves what they think of a movie, and whatever his reasons, he didn’t like it much.

My son?  I think he’s mixed on it.  He was generally well-behaved throughout, which is usually a sign that he doesn’t hate what he’s seeing.  I’m not at all sure he totally got the movie, but I know he picked up at least some of the key points because he talked about them a bit afterward.  Still, for him, there wasn’t enough action for sure.  I think because the action that was there was really good, it was passable for him.  But yeah, overall I think he’s mixed.

Me though?  I loved it.  Start to finish, I thought it was excellent.  The story, in one sense, is pretty simplistic, and really isn’t anything too original (maybe the idea of the avatars themselves is at least somewhat original, but in a way it’s not a hugely important aspect, as weird as it is to say that given the title of the movie!).

No, at its core, this is a high-minded, new-age-themed movie.  Creatures in perfect equilibrium with their environment, who commune with it and are connected at a fundamental level to it?  A global consciousness that all the inhabitants of the planet are a part of?  The ability to store the memories and “spirit”, in some sense, in that global consciousness?  Yeah, that’s some left-wing hippy crap right there for sure!

But, it’s an incredibly positive idea.  The whole world of Pandora is so beautiful, and not just in a visual sense.  The way these creatures live in perfect harmony with each other, that’s a beautiful thing.  It’s something we can only wish and hope for here on Earth.

Now, that theme leads to one or two bad moments in the film.  There’s practically a dance number (repeated twice in fact) that I groaned a bit during.  It was a little *TOO* hippy-influenced!  It really did look like a few thousand people at Woodstock who got a hold of some bad acid while some happy-happy-joy-joy music played in the background.

But, it’s over pretty quick, so I can cope.

The love story angle, again, was a really nice thing to watch unfold.  Everyone’s always looking for that “soul mate” connection, and that’s what we wind up with here.  It didn’t feel like two creatures hot for each other that just wanted to snog; it really felt like it was much deeper than that.  At the same time, it’s not an overpowering, wimpy kind of romance thing… you know, the kind of love story guys generally HATE to watch.  No, it was very much in service of the overall story and worked well.

The journey the main character takes is really what makes the movie work IMO.  Like I said, it’s not a complex story, and there’s no twist to speak of, it all plays out pretty much exactly as you expect it to.  If you’re looking for a movie full of surprises story-wise, this most definitely is NOT it.  But, a straightforward story doesn’t mean it’s *simplistic*.  There’s a subtle difference.  You can have a story with complex themes that plays out straight as an arrow, and that’s what this is.  How Jake Sully evolves over the course of the story is really the key here.  It’s the journey of someone overcoming his own narrow-minded view of things.  It’s the journey of a man awakening in a mental and spiritual sense in a way he never dreamed of.  It’s the journey of a person becoming at peace with the world around him.

In short, it’s the journey we all ultimately want to take, even if we don’t know it.

Simple exploration is also a big theme here, and that’s a concept that is near and dear to me.  One of my favorite activities is simply going for a drive somewhere I’ve never been.  I absolutely LOVE that sense of discovery.  I’m also a person who loves the feeling of learning something new, not because it’s new information I can make use of, but just that simple moment of discovery when something I didn’t understand or know before now is suddenly clear in my mind.

That’s the reason Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which most people seem to think isn’t so great, I think is one of the best ST movies.  It’s all about the unknown, about discovery and exploration (yeah, it’s about those things under the threat of imminent destruction, but still!).  The act of exploration and discovery, whether anything comes of it afterward, is worth it in and of itself.

Throughout this movie, the main character Jake is exploring an alien environment, discovering about it and its inhabitants and learning about things he had never been exposed to before.  There are times when the simple joy of this comes through clear as a bell, and I absolutely loved being along for the ride!  The fact that Pandora doesn’t exist doesn’t matter because it exists in Jim Cameron’s mind, and now on the screen, and exploring it is effectively as real as exploring a real planet.  He’s also learning about himself, which is one journey of discovery we’re all on whether we want to be or not.  Discovering our fears, exploring our limitations and learning about our motivations and values is the very definition of the human experience, whether it’s on Earth or Pandora.

What about the FX you ask?  Simply stated, magnificent.  Is it the best-looking movie I’ve ever seen?  Well, if not, it’s damned close.  There’s so much detail here, and the blending of the practical and CG is just unbelievable.  I still think the shot of the alien ship floating of Johaanasburg in District 9 is the best reality/CG blending I’ve ever seen, but there’s some of that here as well.

Over the past few years we’ve seen some amazing advances in blending computer-generated graphics with the real world, and this is certainly a big step in that direction in terms of characters.  The expressiveness of the CG Na’vi really can’t be understated.  This most definitely is the next level of motion-capture.  It’s really is amazing in parts and you’ll absolutely forget you’re looking at creatures that don’t actually exist at times (it’s not perfect though… every now and again you notice something that’s not *quite* right, and it jars you for a moment… which is really telling you how good it is the rest of the time!)

I was also struck by the quality of the sound.  Like I said, this theater has a killer sound system, and that most definitely helps, but especially during the scene when the humans first attack the Na’vi in force, the explosions were truly magnificent.  You could feel them force of them from the sound coming out… just the right volume and tone, and of course perfectly matched to the visuals.  And frankly, that really helped heighten the emotional experience of this scene.  It’s a truly sad moment, and if you’re at all empathizing with the characters at that point then I think you’ll notice that the sound plays a big role in getting you there.

Now, there’s definitely some parts that aren’t as good as others here.  There’s a few lines of dialog that are groan-worthy.  There’s a few logical problems here and there (My biggest one: no Na’vi thought of the trick Jake does to get the big flying creature???  Really?!?  They’ve been doing that for like 100′s or 1000′s of years and THE MOST OBVIOUS SOLUTION IN THE WORLD NEVER DAWNED ON THEM?!?).  But, if you are willing to not nitpick, you’ll be fine (and nothing really knocked me over the head and threw me for a loop, I only saw relatively minor things).

Cameron also hits you over the head more than a few times with an obvious left-wing agenda.  Now, I’m OK with this because I agree with most of the agenda… but there’s a few instances were it’s *SO* obvious, and more than a little preachy, that it’ll pull you out for just a second.  I think you’ll recover quickly though.  But, if you’re of a right-wing mentality, be prepared: you’ll probably want to blow up Hollywood after this.

Some people will see this movie as something of an anti-technology movie, and I think that’s wrong.  Technology isn’t the enemy, its our usage of it that is.  It’s forgetting that life without technology is possible and that what’s really important in life isn’t your iPhone or your PS3 or your Audi.  Those things can enhance an otherwise good life, but they can’t make a life good, and if you’re one of those people that thinks they can… I don’t know how else to say this except: you’re wrong.  Conversely however, giving up technology altogether isn’t a ticket to instant happiness.  There’s got to be a balance.

So, overall, great movie.  It’s definitely NOT for everyone though… if you’re expecting 2 1/2 hours of non-stop action, you’ll be disappointed.  If you can’t allow yourself to enjoy a love story, you’ll hate it.  If you aren’t accustomed to thinking about “meaning of life” sorta stuff, you won’t get it and won’t like it.  If you’re bothered by beings that don’t look exactly like you (i.e., you’re a bigot) you’ll probably hate it.  But, this isn’t a movie for people like you.

This is a movie for people who believe the world would be a better place if we got along with each other better, and everything in our environment too.  This is a movie for people who realize that a simpler life is often-times a better life.  This is for people who are capable of caring about others and allow themselves to feel emotions based on a story.  Too many people these days see emotion as weakness, and that’s a load of shit.  If you can’t or won’t allow yourself to be emotional based on nothing but ideas, if you can’t put yourself in a hypothetical situation and feel the emotion of it, then this isn’t a movie you’re going to like.  And if all you want is explosions up the wazoo, well, you’re going to be happy for only about half this movie (you’ll totally LOVE that half though).

And, while I haven’t bought a Blu-Ray player yet, I definitely imagine this is the movie that will make me do so.  If you see Avatar and think it’s anything but one of the top three best-looking movies ever made, I frankly question your sanity.  And if nothing else, you’ll enjoy the audio/visual aspects of it for sure, story aside.

But if that’s the ONLY aspect of it you enjoy, I’d say you completely missed the point.  This is a good story, even a great story I think, even if it’s very predictable and not overly complex… but it’s a movie that definitely isn’t for everyone.

And, come to think of it, that’s very sad because it really SHOULD be for everyone.  The story really SHOULD affect everyone in a similar way and it really SHOULD make you realize that the human race probably isn’t on the best path right now… I like to think we’re not doomed or anything quite that drastic, but when you look at the Na’vi and Pandora in this movie, you’ve GOT to realize how far we really do have to go.

http://apress.com/book/search?searchterm=zammetti&act=search&submit.x=0&submit.y=0

Hope you enjoy it and Happy Holidays… eh, screw that politically correct crap: MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I thought folks might be interested to see what I submitted to Palm via their feedback page.  I absolutely encourage anyone else with an interest in this to do the same, but of course, be respectful!  It never advances the cause if you “get loud” on companies.

That being said, here’s what I wrote (in typical author form, it’s wordier than it probably needed to be!)…

———-

Hello.  Let me start by saying I think you guys have done a fantastic job with webOS and the Pre thus far.  I’ve seen almost nothing but good things coming from Palm of late!  In fact, I am in the final stages of writing my book on webOS development for the Pre (scheduled for release this December) and I have become more and more excited with the platform as that process has progressed.  I use my Pre on a daily basis and definitely love it!

When the book is complete, I have quite a few applications planned that I anticipate can bring some revenue my way, not to mention make webOS more attractive to end users.  However, there is a massive gorilla in the room at the moment, a hurdle that I’m looking at and thinking “oh boy, this could be a deal-breaker”.  I’m referring to the application install limit.

As I understand it, the /var partition where applications are installed is sized to 253Mb.  I know that in my case, this amounts to ~30 applications installed.  Unfortunately, there are at least a dozen more I really want installed, but I simply can’t.  This represents a huge problem for me.

I understand that a lot of the issue comes down to how developers design their applications.  Those that have large data sets that don’t “live in the cloud”, or those that don’t make efficient use of compression techniques (CSS sprites and image optimization for example) make the situation worse.  That being said, 253Mb seems to me to be far too small a space for the amount of applications I believe a typical user would want to have installed.

Especially having coming from a WinMo background where I could install apps to my spacious 8Gb memory card, it’s an unacceptable limitation.

I understand there are security considerations, and especially as a developer with an eye on making money on the webOS platform, I’m in agreement with that generally.  I’ve sold WinMo applications in the past, and I also know that those applications were pirated along the way.  It’s always debatable whether that sort of activity really costs someone in my position sales, and I’m very strongly against copy protection that inconveniences customers in any way, shape or form.  But, simply installing applications to a hidden partition that isn’t (easily) accessible, especially when the user doesn’t really know or care about that, seems perfectly fine to me.

Except that the user DOES effectively know about it as soon as that “not enough space” alert popups up trying to install a new app.

Palm has followed the Apple model by, conceptually at least, mimicking the “there’s an app for that” motto.  There’s nothing inherently wrong with that model, but it does necessitate a very high limit on the number and size of applications that can be installed.  I view this limitation as it currently stands as the single biggest detriment to the long-term success of the webOS platform and I believe it *NEEDS* to be your #1 priority above all others.

It is a bit bizarre to me to see Palm spending time and resources constantly re-enabling iTunes sync, a feature I firmly believe most end users don’t care much about, instead of  fundamental limitation like this.  Especially given the advent of paid apps in the App Catalog, I think Palm is setting itself up for a huge failure by not addressing this issue ASAP.  I know I personally could care less about iTunes sync, and while I completely understand if your market research indicates otherwise and you therefore think it deserves attention, that’s fine with me, but I think it’s a real mistake if that is ever prioritized over addressing this limitation.

Obviously, if a fix is in the works already then by all mans, ignore this entirely   However, if that is the case, please take my recommendation and make that work public knowledge as quickly as possible!  One of the things I’ve liked about what Palm has done over the past few months is there has been a good feeling of transparency overall.  You guys seem to very much “get it” in terms of communicating with your customers and especially the developer community.  I know that during the course of writing my book I’ve been very fortunate to get some help from some Palm employees that, without a doubt, made it possible for me to even start the book.  For the most part, we know what you’re thinking and doing all the time, which is great, and in stark contrast to some other companies I could name.  You’ve built up some good will to be sure, and I for one want to see that continue.  Obviously we don’t expect or need to know every nuance of your plans as customers *OR* developers, but on something like this, where there’s no competitive advantage to be concerned with giving away, it can only help the good-will that you currently enjoys from us Pre owners and developers to continue.

In conclusion: thank you for a great product in the Pre, I love the direction you’re going with webOS, but please don’t overlook this, in my opinion, very significant problem!  Palm has shown a lot of forethought and intelligence, and I think it’s fair to call it a resurgence in the relevance of your company, but I firmly believe this is an issue that has the potential to derail your efforts ultimately, to at least some degree.  If a fix is on the way, please let us know that!  Declare it from the rooftops as loudly as you can!  If one is NOT on the way, please, adjust your priority list and move this straight to the top ASAP!

Thank you very much,
Frank

Frank W. Zammetti
Author of “Practical Palm Pre webOS Projects” (coming 12/2009)
and “Practical Ext JS Projects with Gears”
and “Practical Dojo Projects”
and “Practical DWR 2 Projects”
and “Practical JavaScript, DOM Scripting and Ajax Projects”
and “Practical Ajax Projects with Java Technology”
(For info: apress.com/book/search?searchterm=zammetti&act=search)
All you could possibly want is here: zammetti.com

The question to ask though is whether it’s truly a viable competitor to Apple’s venerable iPhone?  Is it just another competitor that will eventually be left by the wayside?  Is it really the savior of Palm itself, as some have claimed?

Well, you didn’t think I’d be with an opinion on all of this, did you?

I’ve been compiling a list of things I’ve noted about the device, and perhaps more importantly, its operating system, webOS.  Really, when you get right down to it, they are two separate products, which quite conceivably might have very different fates.

In any case, here are some of my thoughts:

• Overall, I like the Pre, and I like webOS more.  I don’t love either by any stretch, but I definitely see the potential, particularly of webOS.  I think that Palm has put forth a great concept: the idea of developing web applications using standard web application technologies.  This to me is a far better situation than Windows Mobile or the iPhone or all the phones that use Java ME.  This technology stack means that, potentially, Palm is opening up the platform to a much wider audience of developers.  It’s a gamble to be sure: can you really exploit the full power of a modern smartphone with just web technologies?  Time will tell of course, but I for one am enthusiastic.
• Seeing the potential is one thing, but the current state of affairs is another, and I think my overall impression is that the Pre, and webOS itself, have a lot of rough edges.  Some people have said it’s a beta effort, and I don’t think I’d go quite that far, I think they are better than that.  But, there’ s definitely rough edges, and even some very legitimate gripes, and that’s what most of the remainder of my bullet points are.
• The keyboard is actually a bit better than I thought, and frankly, the more i use it the more I like it.  I didn’t have much hope to begin with, it looks extremely small and uncomfortable, and certainly it is small.  Palm has however made some smart choices that makes it tolerable, if not pretty darned good.  First, the keys are raised.  This makes finding your mark easier.  Second, the keys are rubberized, so your fingers aren’t slipping all over the place.  Third, the spacing is a little better than I expected.  All put together, it’s a decent experience.  The one big downside though is a simple mistake I think: the top row of keys is far too close to the screen housing, making them difficult to get.  It’s more of a nuisance than a real problem, but that’s really my only complaint.  That, and that it’s a little awkward to slide open, especially with one hand.
• Having to use my PC to delete a video, or music file, or anything else, is lame.  The Pre does not come with any sort of file manager, even the most basic one.  In fact, until just a few weeks ago, when the vibrant homebrew community produced one, there was nothing even on the horizon.  What’s worse is there’s not even a way to delete a video in the video player!  I could have lived with the idea of an application can delete the types of files it works with in the absence of a proper file manager, but you don’t even get that.  Lame, and really one of my biggest complaints.  All I can say is thank Jebus for the homebrew scene!
• The inability to delete, or at least hide, the built-in application is a big annoyance.  I understand there must be a deal with Sprint for things like Nascar and Sprint TV, but in the end it’s *MY* phone and I should be able to get rid of them.  I’m not asking to be able to uninstall them, or reclaim the space they use, I just want to be able to hide the icons (without hacks I mean… there are in fact ways to do this, but it’s not what you’d call end-user accessible).
• This thing gets hot!  I mean, it’s not exploding like an iPhone, but the bottom back of it gets quite warm just surfing the web.  I think I’m also seeing some slight discoloration on the bottom of the screen as a result of this, but nothing I’m worried about.
• The sound out of the built-in speaker is, in a word, awful.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not expecting a Bose Wave Radio experience here, but it’s quite bad.
• Overall the Pre is fairly snappy, although there definitely are occasions when I notice slowdowns.  Launching apps is maybe a little slower than I’d like, but nothing I can’t live with.  Still, a slightly beefier CPU wouldn’t hurt I think, but mostly I think there just needs to be some good software updates.
• I totally love the wall charger that Palm packages with the Pre.  I especially love the fact that I can use it to charge other USB devices (of which I have fewer now because of the Pre, but still).  I don’t know why I never bought a wall charger like that before… oh wait, yes I do: they run about $50 by themselves!  Kudos to Palm for including one.
• The Pre by default can’t sync with Outlook on my desktop, and that sucks.  This is one symptom of something many are saying about the Pre that I sort of agree with and that’s that there are some relatively basic (for a smartphone) functions that the Pre, and/or webOS, doesn’t yet include.  Now, it’s one thing to say they will be taken care of with future updates, and I suspect that’s the case.  But it’s another to be missing this functionality on day one.  I personally count Outlook syncing in that category.
• The overall build quality of the Pre feels so-so.  To be sure, it’s not poor, doesn’t feel like a toy, nothing like that.  It generally feels pretty solid.  There is one nagging problem though: there is a TON of play between the upper half (the screen) and the lower half (the keyboard).  It’s pretty disconcerting, and some people have experience what’s been dubbed “the Oreo effect”, which is where a Pre owner can literally twist the top half something like 90 degrees from the lower half, but somehow without breaking it!  I haven’t had this happen, but it certainly feels like I could do it without much force.  I’d say that’s the only build “issue” I’ve seen with mine, but it really needs to be rectified (oh yeah, and that USB cover… pretty crappy… fortunately, that’s not a big deal).
• By default, the web browser (which is otherwise extremely good) doesn’t let you download files.  Umm… WHAT?!?  You mean I can’t download a PDF to read later?  Oh, and by the way, it doesn’t even recognize that it IS a PDF and so won’t open it with the included PDF viewer.  That is just outright broken in my mind on both counts.  Problem association of file types (and let me modify them please!) is a must, and so too is downloading of files.  Thankfully, the homebrew scene is here to help with the downloading part at least.
• Battery life.  In a word: it’s practically got none!  I can get from about 9am to around 6pm before I start seeing low battery warnings, and that’s with what I consider average use (no GPS, an hour or two of wi-fi, not using it as a music player, some web browsing).  It’s poor by any measure.  I have an extended battery on the way that, from what I read, will alleviate this, but out of the box it’s quite poor.  Just because there is the cool Touchstone charger available doesn’t justify an obviously underpowered battery.  Credit for making the battery easily swappable at least, that’s definitely a good thing.
• I’ve found multiple UI usability problems throughout webOS.  Just one example: the Palm apps like to have little circle icons along the bottom that there’s no way to know what they’ll do until you try them.  Really, why can’t I tap-and-hold and get a tooltip?  It’s a pretty basic usability tenant: icons without text are a bad idea in general, but they need to be 100000000% obvious to EVERYONE if you’re going to go that route.  I’m no idiot, and there were some icons I couldn’t figure out.
• The gesture-based UI is very nice and I find it intuitive and easy to use.  One caveat here is that they kind of broke that paradigm by including the center button right in the middle of the gesture area.  I see no real point in that button at all, and certainly not where it is.  I’m not entirely sold on the gesture area in general frankly, but it would be a lot better without that button in the middle.  Especially when there’s a simple gesture (swipe up from the gesture area) available all the time that does exactly what that button does, I think it’s a completely superfluous piece of hardware.  Get rid of it and drop the price by a quarter!
• There is no way to delete all, or even multiple, eMails at one time.  Oh, now THAT is annoying!  This again is one of those basic functions that you can’t believe is missing.  There is already homebrew solutions for this, and I fully expect a future update will include this, but there’s ZERO reason it wasn’t there day one.  In fact, the whole “swipe to delete” idea works fine when you’re only deleting one or two items, but when you have more than that it VERY quickly becomes a big hassle.  This applies to all apps it seems, unless they specifically go out of their way to do things differently than the Palm-supplied apps do.
• The Synergy concept, that is, combining all your contacts and other PIM information from multiple accounts into one view, is neat.  However, there’s some hiccups here and there.  For example, in the calendar, events are not color-coded in the month view based on the account it came from.
• Universal search is anything but.  It doesn’t search calendar entries, so right of the bat it’s usefulness is greatly decreased.  Still, it’s a nice idea, and being able to jump out to the web to do a search instantly is definitely nice.
• Not having a simple detail list in the memos app is something I miss from my previous Windows Mobile device.  Sure, the corkboard and sticky note interface looks hella-cool (one of the neatest things about the Pre out of the box IMO), but it’s usefulness is diminished by not being able to switch to a simple view.
• I’ve heard many complain about the lack of apps in the App Catalog, and while it’s true that the number isn’t too high, the quality so far has been pretty good.  I can live with that.  Especially when there’s a very vibrant homebrew community out there, it’s not so bad.  I don’t think apps are a problem, so long as they keep coming, even if only at a trickle.

so, again, overall I have a relatively positive impression of the Pre, and more so of webOS.  I think Palm is on the right track.  Whether they are more successful, or just as successful, as Apple, I don’t know.  I think they have a horse in the race though for sure.  But, there are without question some rough edges, and some are a lot rougher than others.  So long as updates come fast and furious and incremental improvement is made then you can count me a happy Pre customer.  There’s definitely a lot to like here!

I have to admit, for a very long time, I whole-heatedly agreed that animation was pointless.  That was until I did some research and began to understand the reasoning behind why people were starting to do more and more of it.  Contrary to what you may think (and what I frankly thought), it’s not just about a “coolness” factor (although that undoubtedly plays a role sometimes).  No, there is some very good reasons for doing it.

It all comes down to some interesting facts about cognitive science, that is, understanding of how the human brain processes information.  You see, the human brain, more specifically, how it deals with visual input (although it’s true to some extent of your other senses too), doesn’t react too well to sudden changes in the environment.  You can of course convince yourself of this pretty easily just by thinking about what happens when someone sneaks up behind you and throws a hand in front of your face suddenly.  You get startled, most of the time at least, right?  There is of course some basic survival instinct at play here: it stems from the fact that sudden changes in the environment are interpreted immediately as being potentially life-threatening and steal your attention suddenly, jarringly.

However, the more interesting fact is that your brain has trouble believing itself, in a sense, when things just suddenly appear, once it determines there’s no actual danger (which, unless you’re working on a nuclear submarine is usually true of computer interfaces!).  You see, your intellect knows that things, generally, don’t happen that way.  Things don’t usually appear out of nowhere (unless they appear suddenly on the periphery, which is expected, but here we’re talking about things suddenly appearing in your primary field of focus, i.e., right in front of your face).  So, when your brain receives such a signal from your vision subsystem, it basically goes “WTF?!?”  And, it’s jarring, which is the problem.  Your brain has to do a massive context-switch at that point, and context-switching is bad, m’kay?

Now, imagine sitting at your desk and thinking to yourself, “Self, I gotta write a note, so go pick up the pencil”.  Your hand moves, grabs the pencil, and it gradually moves into your field of view (we’ll assume you grabbed it without having to look at it).  There is a gradual motion here, the pencil moving from the position in space it occupied before you moved it, to the position it ends up occupying when it’s in position to write.

Your brain has no problem with that, you see, because it happened over time and your brain was able to track it.  Or, to put it in a way that fits the context of the post: its position in space was animated!  It moved, gradually over some period of time that was above the minimum threshold at which your brain has that “where the hell did that pencil come from?!?” reaction.

Now, going back to UIs… if a window just suddenly appears, even if you don’t perceive it, your brain will be taken aback a little bit by that.  True enough, working on a UI that works that way long enough will minimize the effect to the point where it’s more or less irrelevant, but it’s always there.

That’s why animation is a helpful thing and not superfluous eye candy: it effectively helps your brain comprehend what’s happening in the UI faster, easier and with less cognitive dissonance, which is a term that refers to the mental gymnastics your mind has to do when confronted with two seemingly contradictory ideas (in this case, the fact that the window wasn’t there one moment and now suddenly is).

The other important factor here is that animation actually helps you use the UI more effectively.  When something happens in an animated way, your brain can track the change far more effectively and your reaction times improve.  It’s pretty easy to understand really: the amount of time it takes your brain to overcome the cognitive dissonance of a non-animated change can often times be greater than the amount of time the animation itself would have taken if implemented, plus the time it takes you to literally react to the change, thus you respond faster.

To boil this all down to something succinct: animations in UIs help the user to experience less cognitive dissonance, comprehend and even notice changes more effectively and ultimately lead to faster, smoother UI interaction responses.  They are by no means superfluous and aren’t just something pretty to impress your friends with!

We have seen over the past few years a lot more animation in UIs.  Partly this is because the necessary hardware power became available to support it, but also because the basic understanding of its benefit were realized.  Apple has probably done more than most others to demonstrate this.  Virtually every UI Apple has done for some time has some form of animation, from the iPod to the Mac to the iPhone, they all have it.  Very often it’s so subtle that you barely notice it, but that’s exactly the point.  And isn’t it true that most people agree Apple produces some “smooth” UIs?  Guess what?  Animation plays a key role in that judgement!

Now, all that being said, it’s also 100% true that you can royally screw up animations and wind up with a large negative impact.  Animations need to be quick, in fact just quick enough to be perceivable, and also need to be fairly mundane, in a way, or you might even say realistic in some way.  Those windows that explode in a million pieces when minimized may look hella-cool for instance, but they aren’t really helping the user any, certainly not as much as a simple shrink-to-the-taskbar kind of animation, because it’s not something anyone typically expects a window in any context to do!  So, it can do a lot more harm than good in the end.

Also keep in mind that the term “animation” isn’t limited to motion.  For instance, you can animate the color of an element across some range, say highlighting a message in yellow briefly and then fading gradually back to the standard background color.  This is a very common UI trick referred to as the Yellow Fade Effect, and it is also a form of animation!  Animation just means a gradual change of some property of an object over time (usually a visual property, but not necessarily).

So, the next time you’re working on a UI design, and you want to impress your boss by putting in some cool-looking animations, you can sell her on the fact that it’s not just something cool and isn’t just pointless work to make your little programmer heart be into the project.  No, there are legitimate, scientific principals at work there that, when done right, will have a positive impact on the human-machine interactions you’re building.

But yeah, they can *still* be cool too!

Check it out

(Yes, that’s really the entirety of this blog post!)