webOS 2.0 Overview
by Mithun Chandrasekhar on February 3, 2011 6:05 PM ESTUniversal Search Made More Useful: Just Type
The next major, and what I feel is the biggest, update to webOS is the universal search system. Branded “Just Type”, universal search already existed in previous iterations of webOS and worked quite well in itself. But with webOS 2.0, HP has extended its utility from a simple search mechanism to a very powerful tool. The idea itself is very simple, and yet no one seems to have thought of or implemented it this way.
With Just Type (now prominently displayed on the home screen), you just need to start typing out whatever it is that you want. Contacts, texts, emails, addresses…just start typing them out. As you type out the text, webOS tries to figure out what it is that you’re planning on doing and suggest applications and actions accordingly. Now the applications part of it is quite straightforward; you type out "movie" and it suggests the Youtube application (or other related apps you may have installed) and also displays emails and calendar events related to the search term; type out an address, and select Google Maps from the suggested list to get going.
Universal search re-done, well done
However, the actions part of it is quite nifty. Just type out a message in the search bar, select “New Message” in the Quick Actions list, and your text is now copied into the text app, ready to be sent out as a new message! The same can be done for Calendar events, emails, tasks, and memos. You can also add or select the default application you want associated with an action.
Although it sounds very simple, it was brutally effective in how I started interacting with the phone. No longer did I have to open an app, select compose, and type out an email before sending it out. Instead, I could just start typing out the email itself, right from the home screen and select the “New Email” quick action at the end of it.
The Just Type and Quick Actions functionality can be exploited by developers and websites
And it doesn’t just end there; developers can integrate Just Type functionality in their apps and expose their apps to Just Type’s list of applications to search as well. In addition, webOS 2.0 now makes search engine suggestions when you visit a website that it feels could be added to the suggested search list. I found the last bit to be hit or miss, at least in its current form, as it would suggest I add a particular site to my list just because the site/forum had a search bar.
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Noriaki - Thursday, February 3, 2011 - link
It's nice to have the flexibility of Flash I suppose, but I have little use for it in practice and I usually don't have it installed on my Nexus One. I mostly find it to be a waste of battery.On the nexus one it's a market place app I can install/remove as I like. Is there some way to control/disable Flash support in webOS2 ?
mythun.chandra - Thursday, February 3, 2011 - link
You can enable/disable Flash support in the browser. Also, even if Flash support is enabled, you can toggle whether or not to load Flash content automatically on a page.Noriaki - Thursday, February 3, 2011 - link
Oh toggle to load automatically, I like that!Thanks for the info. I'm pretty interested to see what comes of webOS2.
tekeffect - Thursday, February 3, 2011 - link
I got the pre the day it came out. I liked the OS then but the build quality of that phone was shit. I will never understand how they put that much effort into making a OS and put it on the shittiest plastic/hardware they could find. I'm with Android now with no intention of leaving. I wonder how many people would be willing to go to Web OS after so much time.JHBoricua - Thursday, February 3, 2011 - link
I would, in an instant. But, only as long as the applications are there. That's the only reason I have an Optimus LG now, I got tired of HP dragging their behind and the lack of usable applications on the Pre. The application ecosystem on Webos is pathetic at this time. I couldn't care if coming February 9 HP shows some awesome hardware, if they won't have the apps behind the platform it will be the Pre all over again.I like WebOS. IMHO it beats Android and IOS hands down in terms of usability and the user interface experience is absolutely great, but what is the point if the apps are not there?
DigitalFreak - Thursday, February 3, 2011 - link
Exactly. It's a catch 22 really. Without the apps, people won't buy the phone. Without people buying the phone, developers won't create apps.While WebOS 2.0 may be technically better than Android, iOS, etc., having only one or two phones just isn't going to cut it.
retrospooty - Sunday, February 6, 2011 - link
"I will never understand how they put that much effort into making a OS and put it on the shittiest plastic/hardware they could find"I worked for Palm for 5 years from 02 to 07. They are never able to fire on all pistons at the same time to get anything meaningful done... Alot of good people there, but the management on the hardware/engineering side is useless.
My favorite quote from a Palm employee? "I have never seen so many smart people that truly care and are trying hard, go into a meeting together and come up with such stupid solutions"
firechiefsta - Monday, February 7, 2011 - link
That's the most perfect comment I have ever read about Palm. You nailed it right on, 100%. Great work.I've loved palm since the Vx days, but these last few years have been painful, to say the least.
Sad.
DigitalFreak - Thursday, February 3, 2011 - link
"Build quality aside, the Pre/Pre Plus had the innards to, at the very least, keep up with the competition of its time and the OMAP 3630 in the Pre 2 is the very same found in the capable and well received Droid X."The Droid X will be a year old soon (if it's not already). HP should be releasing a Pre 2 with next gen hardware if they really want to capture any meaningful amount of market share. Being an also ran isn't going to work.
mythun.chandra - Thursday, February 3, 2011 - link
I get that the 3630 isn't exactly the "in" thing...quite far from it. But I honestly feel that the the pace at which mobile CPU's are jumping forward every couple of months in terms of performance, soon we will be reaching a plateau in terms of how much CPU power we really need in a 3.5-4" device. Look at the desktop/notebook sector...apart from the Atom's, when was the last time you really felt the CPU was slowing you down?IMHO, the hardware needs to complement and be able to support the software it's driving. Now whether this means using a slow, low-power CPU with a software stack that almost entirely depends on the GPU (a la Nokia N8), or have it balanced like in case of the Pre 2 and webOS 2.0. At the end of it, it is the experience of using the device that really counts, not whether the CPU underneath is running at 1 or 1.5Ghz.
That being said, the upcoming HP/Palm tablets should also whet your appetite fo raw CPU power :)