Late last year, Open webOS was renamed to LuneOS, and they’ve released a new version. The post is dated 9 January, but for some reason, it only showed up for me today (no idea why).
- Initial support for IM and SMS messaging
- Mobile data usage is now functional but needs an unlocked SIM card and be manually enabled through the settings app
- Extended dashboard support
- Location service with WiFi based position source only (using Mozilla’s location service; see https://location.services.mozilla.com/)
- Charger status on Nexus 4 is now correctly detected
- Improved image quality in some apps and the card shell
- Screen recording support (see https://github.com/webOS-ports/luna-next/pull/93 for details)
- Backend support for MMS messages but not yet integrated with LuneOS services
- Several metadata cleanups
As far as I can tell, it’s still limited to the Nexus 4 and HP TouchPad for now.
If they keep changing the project name, they’re going to experience two impacts. First, with each name change, an initial rush of interest from people who first hear of it, and exclaim, “oh boy! a new project! I wonder what it is?” followed by the adrenaline CRASH of people saying, “Oh. It’s just the N’TH rebranding of PalmOS”.
Second, they’ll encounter the perception that it’s a fly-by-night group’s desperate attempt to pretend to still be relevant or interesting, and people will start thinking of LuneOS as “PalmOS-or-WebOS-or-whatever-they’re-calling-themselves-this-week,” which will rob them of whatever credibility they may have left at this point.
Once they reach the point where people think of them as, “PalmOS-or-WebOS-or-LuneOS-or-whatever-they’re-calling-themselves-TO DAY,” they’re basically toast. They have to balance the excitement of a new name, (the novelty of which will last about 30 seconds,) with the difficulty people will have keeping up with the name changes. First they were Palm, then HP, then LG, I can’t keep up anymore, and don’t want to anyway.
Imagine if in 2013, Radioshack renamed themselves Coolhut!, then in 2014, as sales continued to decline, they started telling people to call them “BlastAwesome!” but people know what they actually are, because the only thing that’s really changed is the name.
We should start a pool, regarding what animal, foodstuff, plant, stellar body, famous person, etc., LuneOS NEXT name will be reference to.
I’m sorry, but what are you talking about?
First, webOS has nothing to do with PalmOS except Palm being the company that developed them both (before the break up in Palm Inc. and Palmsource, IIRC).
Second, AFAIK there was only one name change, from “WebOS Ports Open webOS” to “LuneOS” (see http://www.osnews.com/story/27925/Open_webOS_renamed_to_LunaOS_new_… for a reference).
Great analogy, except that it isn’t: HP bought Palm Inc., then LG bought webOS from HP, it’s not the same company with a new name, you know.
I don’t know how to respond to that…
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Anyway, on a lighter note and more on topic: I have an HP TouchPad and I have installed a previous version of LuneOS and I must say that I’m not really impressed with what it offers right now but still it’s a promising start.
I’ll see if I can flash this new version and give it a more thorough test this time.