Palm Pre 2 - First Impressions from an iPhone user

I've been an iPhone user for about 3yrs now. And, while it's a great phone, I've never developed any software for it. Why? Well, I didn't really want to learn Obj-C (no good reason), I'm an Ubuntu user and I could never justify the Mac hardware prices. I'd prefer to stick with Python or HTML/CSS/JS. Yes, I could do C/C++ and have support on nearly all the platforms, but I think HTML5/CSS3/JS is a more versatile cross platform approach.

I've been really riding the fence on Android, but I really couldn't get myself excited about Java development again. It would take all the fun out of it.

Anyway ... HP WebOS caught my eye. I noticed Palm has a $200 rebate for app developers to go towards a Palm Pre 2. But it's only for the US. I pleaded my case and HP was very quick to get me into the program. Naturally I had to prove I could find my way around the emulator, build tools, SDK, PDK and app store registration stuff. These were all easy to do (certainly better than another not-so-well-run developer program). No hidden costs and, since I already have a registered company, signing up for the app store was simple.

It's only been a couple of days and I'm still getting into it. The tools are nice and development is pretty easy. Apparently a Linux emulator is going to be available soon, so I run in a VM image for now. The tutorials are sparse and the videos are arduous, but it's better than a Readme file. I've hit a couple of snags with some trivial things; fortunately the community is supportive, as is the company. I'm looking forward to getting into a little WebOS development now ... and not just because of the incentives. WebOS is actually really cool.

As an iPhone user I was really concerned how the touch interface would compare. There are some definite quirks, but overall it's an easy transition. The Pre products have a "Gesture Area" where the iPhone home button is. You can do some basic swipes in the gesture area to go backwards, etc. But the real strength of the gesture area is in managing your multi-threaded apps. WebOS has a really cool card management UI metaphor that works nicely over all applications. Since the apps are mostly in HTML managing your apps and managing your websites have all the same look and feel to it. Creating a new browser page is just creating a new card in the stack. That page can sit next to your other apps and you can create stacks of these cards around function, not application. It just feels right.

WebOS has a "launcher" which does feel a little clunky though. I prefer to have the icons on the main screen instead of a separate operation. Instead WebOS has a "Just Type" area. You can start entering an email, sms, tweet, etc while the thought is fresh and then say "send this as an email", "tweet this" or "SMS to ..." It's going to take some getting used to for me.

Notifications are handled better on WebOS than the iPhone, but I do miss the "going dim" warning on the iPhone that says the screen is about to shut off. I think I also miss push notifications, but they were always a love/hate thing anyway. And, I'm of two minds on the slide out keyboard. It's a little small for me. Perhaps the Pre 3 would be better? I'm also keen to see more of the stuff WebOS is doing for sharing data between the devices like the HP Tablet with the "tap" metaphor. I will miss Beluga Messenger, my IRC client, TweetDeck and InstaPaper. Skype is coming soon though and Flash is supported.

I was easily able to get my calendars and email synced since they're all on Google. But now I've got to cut the tether on iTunes for my music. I'm not too worried. The Pre seems very open. It has a removable battery, uses a standard USB cable and can act as a fully operational USB drive when plugged in. No magic. And the app store isn't a military lock down zone. So I think making the move will be easy.

Naturally, the app store is a little bare. But hopefully other developers will appreciate this platform and jump in to fill the void. I'll let you know when I get my first app in the app store.