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Recovery Tool Includes Leak of Palm's WebOS 1.2

Posted by timothy on from the are-any-modern-leaks-accidental? dept.

El Royo writes "Today, Palm leaked version 1.2 of the webOS operating system that powers the Palm Pre. According to PreCentral, the new version was inadvertently included in a recovery tool Palm makes available. New features include support for the forthcoming App Catalog changes, copy and paste from Web sites, improved e-mail search and faster boot times."

4 of 43 comments (clear)

  1. accidental by wizardforce · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I am sorry but how do you "accidentally" leak a copy of the new Palm OS? Even the most basic testing of the tool before release should have caught this.

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    Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
  2. In what, 2 months? by Rix · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I didn't know Blackberry had a standards compliant web browser. Does it pull contacts from Facebook too?

  3. Simple by QuoteMstr · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I have a Palm Pre because:

    • it's completely open in terms of hardware and software
    • it's fast
    • the applications are written in easily-modified Javascript
    • the operating system is a bog-standard Linux install that works just like I'd expect, including being able to ssh into the thing

    .

    It's simple.

    1. Re:Simple by ConfusedVorlon · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I can't argue details of the GPL compliance. GPL non-compliance is not cool and I'll be surprised if Palm fails to fix that.

      In terms of code openness, Palm goes way further than apple in in some interesting ways.

      for example - can you see the source to MobileSafari, or Apple's contacts or camera app?

      They're written in the same javascript that I use to write my own apps - and they provide a great way for me to see how Palm are going about things.

      I have those for the pre in my development folder (and the source for all the other palm apps)
      I can tweak them, repackage them and run them on my pre. No code signing, no developer keys. For my own apps, I can distribute the package and anyone can install them directly to their Pre without me needing to go through the store or get device ids for limited 'ad-hoc' releases.

      Sure it is a byproduct of the way the device is designed -but Palm have chosen not to minify or obfuscate their code. Presumably that's because they are cool with me looking at it and learning from it.

      They have history of this. Way back when, Palm released some limited sourcecode (Palm Os 4 limited sources) for their key apps in the Garnet Operating system for developers to examine and learn from.

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