Can a Palm Pre multitask better than an iPhone?
Palm's comeback attempt rests squarely on the notion that it has found a better way to manage your complicated digital life.
Ever since its January coming-out party at the Consumer Electronics Show, Palm has generated buzz for the Pre unlike any other phone released since Apple's iPhone arrived in June 2007 (that includes impressive phones such as Research in Motion's BlackBerry Bold and HTC's G1 Android phone.) The two phones will be forever compared--not just because of their consumer-oriented styles and emphasis on gesture-based user interfaces, but because of the very real enmity between the proud team that worked on Apple's historic iPhone breakthrough and the ex-Apple executives and engineers attempting to rebuild Palm.
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While the iPhone has set the standard for future smartphones, Palm's WebOS delivers two important improvements that the iPhone can't yet match: true multitasking between applications, and a subtle notifications system that doesn't interrupt your train of thought. It does that while unveiling its own stamp on the multitouch user interface that Apple introduced to the masses with the iPhone and finding room for a slide-out hardware keyboard favored by CrackBerry addicts.
There are several reasons why no one should expect the Pre to turn the smartphone world upside down just yet. Business users still love their BlackBerrys and RIM is aggressively courting the consumer. Apple has a killer brand, great audio and video player technology, and more than 35,000 applications inside an easy-to-use App Store that grows by the hour.
All the same, Palm has taken a few steps forward that developers and users should take seriously. Until we know how much it's going to cost, it's impossible to predict how many other smartphone users will see value in these improvements, but they (and the competition) will notice. The Pre is expected to arrive sometime within the next few weeks, although all Palm has said is that it will be out in the first half of 2009.
Let's examine the subject of multitasking first, which has been a major criticism of the iPhone almost ever since it was released.
Outside of a few core applications, such as the phone and iPod player, an iPhone user must completely exit out of one application in order to use another. For example, you can return to the home screen and select another iPhone application while staying connected on a phone call, but you can't move back and forth between two applications while allowing the first application to run in the background, making it harder to use applications like instant messaging or streaming radio.
Apple has said these limitations are necessary to prevent battery life from dropping off a cliff and to ensure application stability. That is perhaps part of the reason why Palm has chosen a different development model.
WebOS applications will be created with standard Web development tools such as CSS, JavaScript, and HTML that run on a version of the Webkit engine. This doesn't mean they are "Web applications," which require a connection to the Internet to work. It does, however, mean they are (in general) more lightweight and less-resource intensive than iPhone applications, which are developed using the Objective-C programming language.
Palm's "cards" view for switching between applications in WebOS.
(Credit: Palm)That may limit the performance of WebOS applications. Don't expect the sophisticated gaming community, for example, to embrace the Pre. But Palm's approach means it will be very easy for anyone who has developed a Web application to get up and running on Pre development, which could help expand the number of applications in the early days of the device if the smartphone world likes what they see.
Other mobile operating systems--notably Android and Windows Mobile--allow multitasking, but Palm has developed an elegant way of switching between "cards," something vaguely akin to a combination of Windows' Alt-Tab switching and Mac OS' Expose, or switching between tabs on a Web browser. New applications can be launched using the "Launcher" software button on the bottom of the home screen, and users navigate between different applications by flicking finger left or right.
It remains to be seen how many open WebOS applications it will take to crash the Pre. (Palm product managers at CTIA 2009 refused to speculate, but said it would be very hard to overload the phone.) But Palm's implementation of multitasking is slick, as is its method for delivering notifications.
Notifications are the lifeblood of the mobile computer: if I'm carrying an always-on, always-connected computer, then I want to know right away when something has happened. With the release of iPhone OS 3.0, Apple plans to expand its notifications service to third-party applications, whereas right now it only works for core applications such as incoming phone calls, text messages, and calendar appointments.
If you want to ignore an incoming message, it will disappear into a thin notification bar that's present almost everywhere you go in WebOS.
(Credit: Palm)But Apple's system for notifications uses a pop-up window that interrupts you in the middle of a task, pauses the application, and forces you to make a choice (close, view) before proceeding. Palm's notification bar is much less obtrusive.
When a Pre user receives an e-mail or text message, that alert will pop up on the lower part of the Pre's screen as a horizontal bar. But the alert won't interrupt the application, and if the user chooses simply to ignore that alert, it will soon retreat to the lower edge of the screen to be accessed later when the task at hand is completed. That alert will always be at the bottom of the Pre's screen no matter what application or view you've selected, along with some brief information such as the sender or subject line.
Apple's approach lets you dismiss the alert and continue what you were doing but forces you to remember that you received notifications from a specific application, such as the ESPN Alerts application demonstrated at the iPhone 3.0 event. A number outlining how many alerts you've received will appear over the icon for that application--just as you can see how many e-mail messages await you--but if you're in a different sector of the home screen, you won't necessarily see the alerts for that particular application.
Some may dismiss these differences as simply user preferences. But multitasking and notifications are among the most important reasons to own a mobile computer, and few companies have managed to come up with something that advances the game along those lines since the iPhone OS made its debut. Palm has.
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Internet search, including Google, Yahoo, online advertising, and portals, as well as the evolution of mobile computing. He has written about traditional PC companies, chip manufacturers, and mobile computers, spending the last three years covering Apple. E-mail Tom. 
Will Palm make enough advancement with the help of its partners to have great processing power, graphics, battery life? A good mix of hardware and good software will be keep to its success. If Apple's acquisition of PA Semi and key brains from other companies brings forth expected results, it might be very hard for Palm to beat Apple.
How much will Palm be able to also control the hardware will be a determining factor.
both the G1 and the iPhone already have horrid battery lives !
I wonder how the pre will fare with multi-tasking etc. !
My iPhone doesn't do too bad. I don't have to have wireless on all of the time, nor do I keep location services on. Just like any other mobile device, its up to the user. I don't have to charge my iPhone up but once every two to three days -- of course, I'm also not playing Assasin's Creed or any other CPU intensive application that gobbles up the battery.
the cards interface is the only real killer feature after-all
you cant really compare notifications to true multi-tasking
also Notifications is a weak point of the iPhone
the implementation is very Old school and obtrusive IMO
right now Android seems to have the best notification system in my book
and palms system seems nice too !
but having said all this
It's funny that the iPhone has the largest app store and apps
So if added Multi-tasking/Notifications
will make a bigger impact on the iPhone than the Pre
because of all the apps, cause I don't really see palm store becoming as big
The rest of my notifications get very obvious, but unintrusive, numbers attached to the app icons. I put my important apps that I expect to see updates from on my first couple of pages. Not a problem. Much rather that than lose some of the screen real-estate in another app that has been designed to make use of the whole screen. That Apple "can't" offer multi-tasking has yet to be seen -- the most honest answer is that they have yet to implement it for third-party software for unknown reasons to do with security and user-experience.
As Apple discussed at MW09, notification infrastructure for third party developers has been slow to roll out completely. This is because the demand was great. ESPN demoed their OS 3 app that will send multiple notifications daily to their over half a million subscribers. ATT are not providing this infrastructure. Apple is building out the whole notification server structure.
Who will do it for Palm? Good luck to them with that. Will Sprint or an other carrier take on board a special service to make Pre's potential all that it can be? For a price maybe. Of course, BB has a special system and this is what they are known for -- their push/notification server system they sell to corporate customers. Apple's system is be wide open to all developers and consumers. Don't count it out until you see it! Of course, "computer guys are not just going to walk into the phone market and make it" (as famously said by pres of Palm). Well, they have, and they aren't done yet.
On the contrary, all this talk about this and that iPhone-Killer-feature of Pre is a little, I think, PREmature. Their were real, high profile developers and companies at MW09 showing new apps, and indeed revolutionary new uses, for a "smart phone" (insulin level analyser, etc.). I keep hearing how maybe one or two people actually got in the small room with a PRE and saw a real one up close. The rest of us have seen a few screen shots and mocked up, animated web videos that I could produce in Keynote, and that may or may not be a real PRE actually in use as far as anyone really knows. The card feature of PRE looks like the page-switch in iPhone Safari (again, already in use by 40 million people on their iPhones, and not just, for all we know, an animation on a web video). Do any developers out there actually have something tangible to go on? iPhone developers at least had the SDKs AND a simulation program of the iPhone for testing their apps, six months before the iPhone came out -- and during that time real people reported real contact with the prototypes, prototypes were seen, and websites reported hits by the prototype. I just don't understand why, if the PRE is supposed to be out in a couple of months, there is nothing really tangible about the phone itself, or its OS. This close to iPhone debut, people knew where, when and for how much they could get their hands on one.
All this debate is about something very real against something not so real yet. Many developers and companies have gone on record saying they are dropping all development on other platforms, the iPhone OS is where it is at. Thousands of new SDKs were actually delivered into their hands in January to completely open up unique functionality, including connecting to and controlling all sorts of other devices. If developers for the PRE get a head start because they can use their web and Java code, then more power to them. And, oh, Palm doesn't put developers in "prison" -- great, the developers get to worry about hosting, marketing and maintaining payment gateways for their own apps. Other than that kind of statement, there seems to be little in the way of detail about why developers with any thought of expanding their repertoire from web apps and java, should care about the Apple platform. But others sure seem to think there is a real shift afoot, from the limited outlook of recent years where all the players could just rehash the technology that was already out there, put a few new icons on it, and hope the carriers didn't cripple them too much.
I hope there really is something to all this PRE talk. Other sites I have read think it is just take-over bait for Palm to talk itself up so MS or someone will come along and take them out of their misery.
Many of Palm's oldest customers still access data from these legacy formats. It would be a bonehead move for Palm to orphan their most loyal customer base.
As for the Pre - Well done Palm. From what I've seen it looks great and shows some really good out of the box thinking. Looking forward to trying one out.
Nokias and blackberries have had great batterylife for years
but they don't really cant be compared to the iPhone and other multi-touch phones !
What about, depends on how well it works, depends on the apps, not I have a phone other than the iPhone that I'm happy with?
So despite a high degree of technical merit, perhaps more than both iphones and Blackberries, it really has to be accepted as a game changer to make the impact it desires. I applaud the approach of the Pre and Palm, but doubt they will reap the rewards of their efforts. I think it will be fighting for a bronze medal place at best, despite showing gold medal form in a number of areas.
Task Switching:
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Many blackberry users put the task switcher launcher on the left convenience key. Then, with the cilck of a button you can select between open applications alt-tab style. While not as impressive as the PRE's approach, it is worlds beyond the iPhone approach.
Notifications:
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This is something that the blackberry has really nailed solid, and is the reason for the "crack" in crackberry. It all comes down to the blinking red light and or sounds + vibration. Whenever a notification arrives, my blackberry vibrates in my pocket without annoying the people around me. If I pull it out of a holster, immediately it shows me the message that just arrived. If I'm in the middle of using an application, the red light indicator starts flashing, at which point I just hit the "hang-up" button, and from the message in box can see a summary of all the notifications I have listed on the header bar, and then a stream of all the notifications from all applications in one spot (email, SMS, facebook, etc...). It's simple and elegant, and works great especially if I get 300 messages a day because I can quickly see a summary of all the activity. The pre offers that neat little message bar, but practically speaking offers very little benefit over the blackberry approach on this.
Also, if you have newer OS builds on your Blackberry, holding down the Menu button will bring up the task switcher. It has been like this on the Storm since release and my 8900 now has that. This leaves the convenience keys for something else (Intelliberry comes to mind - universal search app).
This is great, when can I buy one.
they emulate virtual buttons and old UI on a multi-touch screen
can you tell me how thats useful ?
Yes...the kernel of Web OS IS Linux !
And before some head in the sand iPhone user poo-poo's the Pre , let me assure you there will be apps that are not just web-based apps. Remember , this is Linux and Linux can do/be anything they want it to be...without all the Jobsian walled-garden limitations of Apple products.
And unlike Apple's walled garden app store (prison) , apps for the Pre will be sold from many vendors.
Is'`t choice nice ? This isn't Communist Red North Korea after all.
[CNET editors' note: Prohibited content deleted.]
Citation, please.
The touch doesn't multi task. Citation. I use one of the things. Oh, wait, you can listen to music and do something else at the same time. There you go. Limited multitasking.
@AppleSuxLeo
OS X is a rehash of Unix. Unix is the root of Linux. Apparetnly they are all on the right track.
@AppleSuxLeo: While I agree with you on many points, your attitude towards the product doesn't really help your point. I have huge qualms with my iPhone and I'm somewhat jealous of the Storm. I'm also looking really forward to the Pre. I'm extremely disappointed with AT&T's service, though I have no clue if Sprint would be any better, however I know Verizon would be. My iPhone has apps that crash all the time, calls fail more often than my previous phone (still at&t). However, even with these pitfalls, I'm still overall impressed with the phone. I don't think its the greatest phone ever, but its definitely not terrible. You're allowed to not like the iPhone and still think its a decent phone. I don't own any other Apple products other than my iPhone. I use Windows and while I know it has some issues, its not as bad as Apple users think, but Apple isn't as bad as anti-Apple people think.
Why can't people just not be so adamantly against one OS or another, whether it be on a phone, desktop, etc.
datum226: You tether and talk on Sprint? I was not aware that this was possible.
However, I really don't understand the fuss about multi-tasking. There are very few scenarios where multi-tasking, as it is understood on a desktop, makes sense because you can only use a single application at one time on such a small screen. Given this there is little difference between switching between running applications and starting/stopping applications that effectively retain their state. At the moment I can only think of applications that play audio or do VoIP as really needing the ability to run in the background, and for VoIP applications that is only so that the user can make use of other applications during a call much like they can with the iPhone's own call application. Personally, I don't have much use for true background applications so not allowing them really has no impact and I appreciate not having to manually manage running applications as I did with my old Windows Mobile PDA. You own mileage, however, may vary...
Honestly, I'm surprised you'd even have to ask why multitasking would be useful. Either you're not using a smartphone or you're not using one extensively.
But I don't need a GPS to track how far I've run. I don't use VOIP (it's an iPhone I use, not an iPod touch.) And the upcoming push notification service seems just fine for my IM and social networking needs.
On the other hand, it does seem kind of silly to force developers to not use background apps instead of simply recommending against it or letting the free market decide which way is better. The iPhone can perform some seriously processor intensive operations that, if running in the background, would force the device to a crawl and I think most users would find that unacceptable. Such apps would then theoretically be shunned by users. I guess Apple just doesn't want to deal with supporting such situations. I wouldn't be surprised if when the hardware platforms become more powerful and more power efficient that background apps will be allowed on the iPhone.
But why should the consumer have to hack his phone OS to have such a basic feature? I mean seriously joe six pack doesn't want to or doesn't know how to. Not every consumer is a geek we need to remember that.
I really don't think that there is any need for a messenger application to run in the background since a notification service is quite capable of delivering what you are expecting without needing the IM application itself to be running. The Palm Pre certainly has a better notification system than the iPhone (from what I can tell) but it can still deliver those messages via a notification service rather than having the application itself running in the background.
Radio applications I certainly admit that they would need to run in the background, much like VoIP application that are arguably much more important.
No, you are not going to be checking your email while in the middle of doing something. I absolutely guarantee that what you want is a notification that you have received new email and then you'll be switching to your email application before switching back to whatever it was that you were doing before. Under no circumstances are you going to have 2 applications on-screen on a screen as small as that as a smart phone. Done correctly the time required to shutdown and restart an application is negligible versus the time required to switch from one application to the other.
Trying to force the desktop paradigm onto a smartphone is just dumb because is simply is not necessary or even desirable. There are special cases when running in the background is necessary but make no bones about it, those cases are very few and far between and the sooner that people grasp that idea the sooner we can stop having this silly discussion.
example:
Say that while i'm browsing the internet on my phone i decide i would like to download a movie trailer. Lets say that this movie trailer is fairly big and might take 30 minutes. Now lets say during these 30 minutes i get an important text message. If this were the iphone (which i dont think it would be because i dont think it can download movies) you would NOT be able to finish the download. You would have to EXIT the browser and open the SMS app. In doing this you would have cleared the page you loaded and the download. On multitasking phones you could write an essay or whatever you wanted while it downloaded.
This is just one of thousands of everday applications for multitasking. You just need to use your noggin more and see why there are reasons these things get debated over
The iPhone will never be an option for me. I won't allow iVirus, some of you may know it as iTunes, on any of my computers.
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS149874+18-Mar-2009+BW20090318
The problem with iPhone is that they try to squeeze mac thinking into little box. It is pretty, it works, it attracts "shiny-toy-loving" crowd (that is why most downloaded apps are games), but it is mac. Where mac succeeds, iPhone fails. It fails to be THE device for business world. And if palm can beat my BB and make it easier to do more, I will never look back.
I am not not talking about mac as THE device for business. I am saying that iPhone is an attempt to put mac in a small packaging. I was making the point if mac is the perfect device for business communication, iPhone is not.
2 myles taylor
I am a mac fan. That is the reason I have iPhone. But as much as I tried to use it for my work, I never made it a success. BB does much better job.
Perhaps you would find people more accepting of your point if you can illustrate a way that the BlackBerry achieves something that the iPhone does not due to the presence of background applications. I'm willing to bet that when that scenario is analysed that the problem is not related to background applications that that it can be achieved in a more efficient manner.
In fact, I find it rather interesting that Palm is actually using Apple's multi-page/window safari interface to implement their multitasking feature. Sure, they glitzed it up and added the "card" rearrangement and throw away features, but it's basically the same interface safari on iPhone already uses to manage multiple open web pages. I wonder when Palm's gonna release that back to the community since the webkit project that safari and webOS browsers are both based on is open source?
I do like Palm's notification interface although my biggest complaint about notification on the iPhone aren't the pop-up messages that others complain about, but the phone feature itself. If I'm playing a game and a phone call comes in, the app is shutdown and the phone app is displayed with the option to answer or ignore. Too bad I couldn't ignore the call before the game was shutdown. Most of the time I would rather keep playing the game without any interruuption and call the person back. I haven't seen how the Pre handles this yet, but hopefully they use the same philosophy of non-intrusiveness for their phone app. And maybe one of them can also figure out how to get the wife to understand that walking in front of the TV during a COD4:WAW deathmatch is just as annoying.
- by kool_skatkat May 6, 2009 6:48 AM PDT
- I wonder if third parties will make slide out keyboards for the iPhone 3.0, since it allows hardware to be plugged in. NetBook in disguise?
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- by pjhenry1216 May 6, 2009 7:51 AM PDT
- I'd never *ever* want to use my iPhone 3G as a NetBook. It'd make a terrible netbook. Worse than Windows 7 for netbooks (though that may not be true, it may just be for third world countries) that only allows 3 apps to run at a time. The iPhone allows only 1 app to run at a time. It makes a handy web browser for quick things like looking up quick bits of info, but nothing too complex. If the webpage wasn't designed for the iPhone, it generally tends to be a pain to use.
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Showing 1 of 3 pages (104 Comments)Plus, you're still only able to use apps approved by Apple. If I have a netbook, I'd want the ability to install what I want.
Though, to be honest, you'll probably see a mini keyboard for it. Plus, a lot of people will say it meets their needs for a netbook, but all that really means is that they really didn't need a netbook, just a physical keyboard for their phone.