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

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.

In what, 2 months?

[Rix]

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

Re:Oops

[Pezistential]

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

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.