More webOS details unveiled at All Things Digital
Taking the stage as the grand finale at the “D: All Things Digital” conference today, Palm’s executive chairman Jon Rubinstein and Elevation Partners’ managing director and co-founder Roger McNamee celebrated the excitement surrounding webOS by sharing a few new details about the hotly awaited platform.
In an onstage conversation with Walt Mossberg, personal technology reporter for The Wall Street Journal (which produces D) and veteran technology reporter Kara Swisher, Jon and Roger shared details about Palm media sync, a webOS feature that synchronizes seamlessly with iTunes to easily transfer DRM-free music, photos, and videos to your Palm Pre. Media sync complements other methods for getting media onto Pre, including USB file transfer and WiFi downloads from the Amazon MP3 store.
The addition of Twitter search to the universal search capability of webOS was also unveiled at D. With universal search, a Pre user simply starts typing and webOS offers up matches from your contacts or applications or– if there are no matches– from your choice of search results from Google, Google Maps, Wikipedia, and Twitter.
D attendees also got a preview of some of the applications that will appear in the beta version of the App Catalog that will be available when the Pre launches on June 6. The App Catalog will include webOS applications such as Fandango, which takes advantage of Palm Synergy and location-based services to find and provide directions to nearby movie theaters and automatically transfers ticket purchases onto your calendar.
On the lighter side, Jon and Roger also shared a short video poking fun at all the hype surrounding webOS and Pre.
Palm Media Sync
Palm media sync is a feature of webOS that synchronizes seamlessly with iTunes, giving you a simple and easy way to transfer DRM-free music, photos and videos to your Palm Pre.(2) Simply connect Pre to your PC or Mac via the USB cable, select "media sync" on the phone, and iTunes will launch on your computer desktop. You can then choose which DRM-free media files to transfer.
"We designed Palm media sync to be an easy and elegant way for you to take the content you own and put it on Pre, and it’s just one of the ways we think you’ll be amazed by webOS," said Rubinstein. "We’ve had an overwhelming response since we introduced Pre at CES, and with availability just days away, we can’t wait to let everyone see firsthand what the excitement is all about."
Pre also acts as a mass storage drive, letting you side-load your media content. Once connected to a computer using the USB cable, Pre will appear as a drive on the computer desktop. You can drag and drop music, photos or video files onto your Pre, or drag files from your Pre to the computer. And, just like a digital camera, Pre works directly with your computer’s default desktop photo software to seamlessly import photos captured with Pre’s built-in 3-megapixel camera.
In addition to listening to music transferred from your desktop, you can use the on-device Amazon MP3 store to purchase individual songs or full albums over-the-air. You can search by artist, song and genre, and preview and purchase music files. You can then download purchased tracks when you’re connected to a Wi-Fi network.
Twitter in Universal Search
Palm also announced that Twitter search is integrated into webOS universal search.(3) Universal search is about finding what you want quickly, whether it’s an on-device contact to call, a place you’re trying to get to, or a Wikipedia article for encyclopedic information. Just start typing and Pre will figure out if you’re looking for a contact, an application, or even let you search the web via Google, Google Maps, Wikipedia and now Twitter. Universal search uses Twitter’s search service to sort through real-time current events and news, so universal search now covers every aspect of search on the web: general info, location, encyclopedia, and news.
Twitter’s ability to show what’s going on right now is a perfect fit for what universal search and Pre are all about. You don’t have to be a Twitter user to benefit from Twitter in universal search. It’s available for all users, even if they don’t have an account, so anyone can keep on top of real-time news and the latest trends.
App Catalog
Rubinstein and McNamee also gave conference attendees an advance look at the beta version of the App Catalog, which will be available on Pre at launch. The beta version will feature applications from developers such as AP News, Citysearch, Fandango, Pandora and uLocate.
"We’ve received excellent feedback from participants in the Mojo SDK early access program and look forward to the SDK’s public release. Developers are very enthusiastic about the platform’s ease of use and industry-standard development model," said Rubinstein. "We’re excited to launch Pre with the beta version of the catalog, which will give a taste of how the overall webOS ecosystem will work."
The App Catalog was demonstrated at the conference using Fandango’s webOS application, which takes advantage of Palm Synergy(TM), a key feature of webOS. It also uses Pre’s location-based services to find theaters near you, and lets you watch trailers, buy tickets, add showtimes to your calendar and get directions to the theatre.(1) Also included in the beta App Catalog will be Pandora, which makes use of the platform’s multitasking capabilities, running elegantly in the background while you’re using other applications. It highlights a unique aspect of the notification bar that lets you know what song is currently playing, and control pause and play without having to go back into the application.
The Palm Pre phone will be available from Sprint on June 6 for $199.99 with a two-year service agreement and $100 mail-in rebate. More information is available at www.sprint.com/palmpre and www.palm.com.
About the Author: Gareth
Seasoned tech blogger. Host of the Tech Addicts podcast.Subscribe
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