It’s no secret that the webOS is no speed demon. Sure, it has the most elegant multitasking interface (the fact that it multitasks at all means it bests both Android and iOS), but it’s not exactly fast. This is all going to change. Palm held its Developer Day in New York this weekend, and unveiled its new application development framework, set to replace the current Mojo framework. Not only will this new framework, named Enyo, be a lot faster than Mojo, it will also be designed around multiple display resolutions.
While still a revolutionary application development framework, Mojo has gotten a bit long in the tooth, and apparently, Palm sees no more room for improvement. As such, they’ve been working on Enyo, a reference to a Greek goddess of war (Kratos but with boobs, basically), which will give considerably speed improvements over Mojo, while also delivering several other noteworthy improvements.
First of all, it’s been designed by the same people who developed Ares, Palm’s browser-based IDE, so it integrates nicely there. It’s also capable of handling multiple layouts at different display resolutions, very important since HP/Palm aims to put webOS on a lot of different device types. Palm demonstrated a conceptual email client running in Chrome running at a phone resolution – they then showed the exact same application running in a larger window, with a larger, tablet-friendly user interface layout.
Enyo is also a lot of faster due to, among other thing, reduced code complexity (Palm claims some applications go from a seven second boot with Mojo to just one second boot with Enyo). It’s also object-oriented, has better event handling to eliminate memory leaks and “too many cards open”-errors, and has hardware acceleration built-in.
A developer preview will be released soon so that developers can get a feel of what Enyo is capable of. It’s important to note that Mojo won’t be going away anytime soon – they will just exist side-by-side, but considering the improvements Enyo promises to bring, you’d be a fool not to take advantage of it.
Enyo is ready for war. The webOS may have been off to a rocky start in the marketplace, but thanks to HP’s infusion of lots of money and developers, it’ll be around for a long time to come. HP is fully aware it needs new devices to draw the crowds, and the company stated that we’ll see a whole bunch of new devices coming early next year. I can’t wait.
I’m reasonably sure the reference is to Ares, the Greek god of war (and Enyo’s sister) rather than to a video game character.
Yeah… That’s what I said… The Kratos bit was a joke, obviously.
Kratos was indeed a god and his name means power in ancient Greek (in modern Greek it means state). According to Wikipedia his siblings were Nike (“victory”), Bia (“force”) and Zelus (“zeal”).
That said, I am Greek and fairly interested in our mythology, yet this is the first time I hear of Enyo.
I just wonder if the market will hold off that long, or if by the time HP decides to put WebOS out there the tablet and smart phone markets will have already been won by Android? The market wants what it wants when it wants it and they won’t always wait for best to come along when there is “good enough” available for use now. Even Google is finding this out considering the rate of various Android powered devices coming out despite the company’s very public announcements saying current releases do not run well on tablets and were intended for smart phones only.
People don’t care, they want tablet computing now and will take what they can get. If HP doesn’t get gearing they may find the market already saturated and be stuck playing “me too” to a host of competitors.
–bornagainpenguin
Of course the question is if people purchasing Android phones even know what they are buying. Android phones are sold under various brands, and Android is rarely mentioned.
If HP comes out with really good devices and advertises them properly, they surely stand a chance. They won’t become market leaders anytime soon, but they do have the chance to become a significant player.
One thing is, if it is demoed properly in stores, I think that the WebOS UI stands to win quite a few customers.
On the other hand Android 3.0 is supposed to come out with a much improved UI, so we’ll just have to wait and see. The main thing is that the Smartphone market is growing rapidly, that there is plenty of room for one more player.
If it has a browser and a camera application and a music/video player then “the market” can bear it. People don’t choose their smartphone according to how many crapware they can install. They choose it according to the way it looks and current fashion. I think Samsung sold 3 million bada phones this year. I know people with Bada phones. They don’t even know what Bada is. It is fluid, good looking and cool. That is all they care about. Only OSNews geeks think the OS is important.
a market is never won, the race is never over. A market may diminish ove time though.
*CRICKETS*
….Goes to show how much people care about webOS anymore. We’ll see if this makes any difference when it is released.
Edited 2010-11-22 23:55 UTC
“I just wonder if the market will hold off that long, or if by the time HP decides to put WebOS out there the tablet and smart phone markets will have already been won by Android?”
Whilst having an established king pin makes it hard to enter a market and have success, it’s not impossible. You just have to do it better than the established players.
Some examples:
* XBox came into a market won by Sony and is now the leading console.
* Firefox came into a market won by Microsoft IE as is now a major player.
I’m not saying that Palm will have success, but I do contend that it’s not impossible.
> It’s no secret that the webOS is no speed demon. Sure,
> it has the most elegant multitasking interface (the
> fact that it multitasks at all means it bests both
> Android and iOS), but it’s not exactly fast.
Well, I guess neither Android nor iOS would be a speed demon when running on a device with 500MHz.
Indeed, I am often disappointed with the lack of speed and responsiveness of my Android phone (Motorola Cliq). The phone itself is a nice design but I think the HTC G2 is what I’d prefer in this form factor. That said, I’m still lusting after the Nokia N900 and if they are still available after the first of the year, when my budget allows for it, I may get one. Android is nice, and it’s almost the best smartphone platform I’ve owned but it’s not what I thought it would be.
And no, I don’t believe I should have to root my phone to get an approximation of full functionality. My first smartphone, a Treo 650, is still my favorite out of the ones I’ve owned and never required rooting to bend it to my needs. For that matter, neither did the Blackberries I’ve had over the years, though they all left me wanting greatly regarding processing power. My brief stint with an iPhone, jailbroken or not, left me unimpressed and feeling like I was talking on an iPod with a phone slapped on at the last second.
I’m definitely interested in the N900 as a phone with no boundaries. I’m only apprehensive about two things: Battery life and the resistive touchscreen.
The battery life is not that bad since PR1.3. Actually if you are used to Android, it is not worse. The battery life sucks when you compare it with Symbian phones and feature phones but it is in line with other Android and iPhones. It lasts about 1-2 days in normal usage.
The resistive touch screen sucks though if you are used to Android. In my opinion it is not bad, I actually prefer resistive over capacitive but if you are used to Android you may be disappointed. The advantage is that is is more precise. You can use it to write stuff in Xournal with the stylus. Some applications are not possible without it. The drawback is that you can’t pinch. you have to use buttons to zoom in and out. There is a button for that on top of the phone.
Other than, that the software is just awesome.
Thank you for your observations. Interestingly, the two Symbian phones I’ve used most recently (an N73 and a Nuron) had battery life as bad as my Moto Cliq. With all three I had to charge at least once a day, sometimes twice daily. These days, using my Cliq as a tethered modem via USB, it stays charged though.
That’s another concern I forgot about with the N900; if I switch, will I still be able to tether, and as easily? I’m using Easytether right now and it’s great. I think I could set up an internet sharing link using Ubuntu on the netbook fairly easily, but I dual boot Windows too and I’ve had issues with using shared links in that OS in the past. Perhaps if there is a built-in or third party solution that just turns the phone into a wifi hotspot, I’d be all set.
I do have a spare line on my account which has no monthly fee for the next year (LOVE that promotion), and to my knowledge the N900 qualifies for T-mobile’s $15/month featurephone unlimited internet plan. I may just put it on that line and use it in conjunction with the Android phone for a while, to have a side-by-side comparison.
For WiFi hotspot, you can purchase joikuspot (http://store.ovi.com/content/30743?clickSource=homepage)
or install mobilehotspot (http://mobilehotspot.garage.maemo.org/) for free but it will install a custom kernel (harmless but not supported by Nokia).
If you are addicted to Android, you can dual boot NITDroid (http://www.nitdroid.com/index.php?title=NITDroid_project), which is Android for the N900. Some things are not working yet though, like the GPS and the proximity sensor.
Anyway, Android is not adapted to this hardware (does not take advantage of the resistive touch, etc) but if you are really addicted, you still can install it.
I know resistive touch screen is not trendy but the precision allows some interesting applications. You may check Grimace: http://store.ovi.com/content/58961. The N900 is not just a consumption device but also a creation device.
Multitasking bests Android?
My friend downloads podcasts while listening to others and reading the web.
I listen to streaming music while playing Android games on mine. Copy-paste between active spreadsheets and text messages works fine too.
Though I can only run 1 instance of an app at a time.
It’s not real multitasking. On Maemo you can call someone and surf the web on 3G or play a game at the same time. You can call someone with GSM and another one with skype and chat, and play a network game with caller. This is a lot more flexible.