Recovery Tool Includes Leak of Palm's WebOS 1.2

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."

Comments

Oops

[Anonymous Coward]

New job opening: Release manager. Send your resumes.

Re:Oops

[Pezistential]

Heh... Maybe the headline should drop the word "recovery"... it'd still be accurate

Introducing WebOS 1.2 by Amiga Inc.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a modern day Amiga. Hopefully whoever buys them (HTC?) will not blow it Commodore-style.

Looks like the Pre still can't make my bed for me

[mantis2009]

Way to go, Palm!

accidental

[wizardforce]

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.

Re:accidental

[DesertBlade]

As many companies believe QA is optional or takes to much time, I do believe it is accidental.

Re:accidental

[whatajoke]

In even moderately large software projects, manual+auto testing is usually done on internal builds. Final or RC builds usually are only subjected to automated testing.

Re:accidental

[wizardforce]

It sounds to me that these moderately large software projects should invest in the occasional manual check of their Final/RC builds.

Re:accidental

[nethenson]

I was thinking the same thing, but then I remembered the time that Asus put software cracks, serial numbers and confidential documents in their recovery CD.

So yes, it can happen accidentally. Nevertheless, the question still stands: was it an accident?

Re:accidental

[Fallen Seraph]

They probably uploaded the wrong build image to their repository. WebOS Doctor, the app which caused the leak, is meant to basically reflash the OS onto the phone. It's not inconceivable that some intern or something copied over the wrong files to the repo. It's not like it's been like this since launch, this likely happened in the most recent update of the repo.

Torretz?

[Runaway1956]

Is there a torrent yet, or should I wait til morning to search for one?

In what, 2 months?

[Rix]

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

Re:In what, 2 months?

[drizek]

I like the Blackberry Tour, it is a really nice piece of hardware, very well built and with a great keyboard and great battery life, but the OS is just plain ancient compared to the Pre.

The Pre is missing some of the more advanced features that are present in the the blackberry, but missing a button or an option in the email client is different than missing the entire browser. From the hardware point of view, having a slightly superior keyboard does not make up for the complete lack of touch screen on the BB. I do wish the Pre had an android-like touchball instead of that button though. One of my biggest missing features in the Pre is the lack of Public Transit directions in Google Maps app, but on the other hand it has both wifi and multitouch on a larger display, which makes the whole experience a lot better. Public transit can be easily added in to the app later, but the blackberry will always be constrained by the lack of any navigation device other than the trackball. Switching apps requires using hardware buttons and menus, whereas with the Pre it is as seamless as can be.

The Blackberry will always be king for certain business users, but I think the Pre is a more well rounded device. Besides, it runs Linux. You can SSH into it and get it to spit out a value from the ambient light sensor, how cool is that?

Simple

[QuoteMstr]

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.

Re:Simple

[saurik]

I hate to be the one to break this to you, but the Palm Pre is about as open as Apple. They have a website where they claim to distribute the source code to their platform, but it is only what they are legally required to distribute. In fact, even that they fall short on: many of the packages aren't compilable as they are holding back on critical header files.

The libpurple-adapter, in particular, must be licensed under GPL (as libpurple itself is), but Palm has been telling representatives of the open source community that they would have to sign an NDA to get access to the full set of files required to make it work, which only be distributed only under a very restrictive temporary license. As someone who has spent a lot of time fighting similar causes with Apple (I'm the developer behind Cydia) I can say that they would /never/ pull shit like this: when I've sent GPL complaints Apple has always fixed the issue rapidly, and I would even receive e-mails from all related departments apologizing for the mixup.

Seriously: if Palm can't even compete to Apple's standards for openness, then you know something horribly evil is going on over there.

Re:Simple

[DCstewieG]

Yes...I think there's a good chance that in two years I could be hooking mine up to a USB hard drive and making it a great low power FTP/torrent/media server. If I'm lucky, there'll "be an app for that."

Re:Simple

[ConfusedVorlon]

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.

Re:iPhony

[ahoehn]

Was that mac-bating, or a joke? I'm not sure. I've had a Pre since release day, and there are some things I like quite a bit better than the iPhone, and some things I get jealous about.

The iPhone wins at:

• Apps - it's got a gajillion, the Pre has like 40 in the App store, and like 50 homebrew.
• Autofocus & Video (In the 3GS)- The Pre's got a good camera, but no autofocus, and no video. I personally don't care about video too much, but it does seem lame to not include an autofocus camera.
• The Compass - I'm not really sure what I'd do with the compass, but I wants it.
• iTunes Ecosystem Integration - The Pre's pretty flexible about syncing media, but its media player kind of sucks, and it's integration with Amazon's MP3 store isn't perfect.

The Pre Wins at:

• Price - At the moment, both phones are exclusive to one US carrier. If I were to replicate my Sprint plan on an iPhone, I'd be paying an extra $60/mo for my wife and I. $1,440 over the course of a two year contract.
• The Keyboard - I like the slide out physical keyboard better than the onscreen keyboard.
• Linux - The Pre is a little linux box. I can download a terminal app, then type in things like, "sudo apt-get" etc... How awesome is that? It means I come much closer to really owning this device than I would with an iPhone.
• Multitasking - This is the one thing that really bugs me on an iPhone. I've gotten so used to switching back and forth between apps on my Pre, that it feels ridiculous to not be able to do it on an iPhone.

The Conclusion: Different strokes for different folks. They're both great devices - but I think for the Slashdot crowd, there's plenty to love about the Pre.

Re:iPhony

[markdavis]

># Apps - it's got a gajillion, the Pre has like 40 in the App store, and like 50 homebrew.

50 homebrew apps?? Try *200* apps, and homebrew has really been only active for a month! Where have YOU been?? At this moment there are 50 in the app store. That means in only a few months after release, there are already 250 apps.

How many did the iPhone have after a few months? Oh that's right! They had NONE! There was no app store and no homebrew for a looooooong time.

Re:Oh please

[jisatsusha]

By living in a country that doesn't have such ridiculous laws.

Re:iPhony

[Thinboy00]

• Linux - The Pre is a little linux box. I can download a terminal app, then type in things like, "sudo apt-get" etc... How awesome is that? It means I come much closer to really owning this device than I would with an iPhone.

Wait, the pre comes rooted?

Re:iPhony

[Planesdragon]

Wait, the pre comes rooted?

So close to as to not matter.

Re:iPhony

[Penguinshit]

Total joke. I am quadriplegic and haven't held any phone for over two years. Nice write-up though; hope you grab some Informative points.

Re:Oh please

[Gregg M]

... approved software... on an iPhone without violating the DMCA? The DMCA involves copyright protection. It doesn't stop people from unlocking their phone.

Re:iPhony

[markdavis]

The iphone was released on Jan 2007. The app store opened on July 2008.

Do the math. That means iphone users had to wait ONE AND A HALF YEARS before getting any apps.

The Pre was released on June 2009 and the app catalog was available IMMEDIATELY, and two months later there were 250 apps between the two catalogs.

Now who is the "F***ing reject", you anonymous iphone fanboi