.FLYINGHEAD PRODUCT REVIEW
.TITLE TealOS: great Palm software you are prohibited from buying
.AUTHOR Heather Wardell
.SUMMARY TealOS is a "skin" for existing Palm devices that gives them the look-and-feel of the upcoming Palm Pre device. Fired up by David’s letter and curious about this software she hadn’t heard of, Heather Wardell went looking for TealOS. She expected to take a quick look, think, "Not bad," and move on. Instead, she bought it five minutes after downloading the trial.
.OTHER
At the end of March 2009, Computing Unplugged Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz published [[http://www.computingunplugged.com/issues/issue200903/00002349001.html|an open letter]] to Palm CEO Ed Colligan, decrying his handling of TealPoint’s TealOS software. TealOS is a "skin" for existing Palm devices that gives them the look-and-feel of the upcoming Palm Pre device. Palm demanded that TealPoint stop selling the software since it either used Palm’s intellectual property (or at least looked like it did).
.CALLOUT Using TealOS makes me want to buy a Pre. Watching the Palm corporation in action does the opposite.
Fired up by David’s letter and curious about this software I hadn’t heard of, I went looking for TealOS. I expected to take a quick look, think, "Not bad," and move on. Instead, I bought it five minutes after downloading the trial.
Bear in mind that I wrote an article for Computing Unplugged about the Palm Pre. I spent hours reading other articles and Palm’s documentation, researching every aspect of the new device. You’d think I’d have known what it was like.
But trying out TealOS made me want a Pre a million times more than I did before. It’s like the difference between looking at a picture of a tropical beach and actually digging your toes into the sand.
.H1 What were they thinking?
As a writer, I am fully in support of protecting intellectual property. I wouldn’t want something I’d worked hard on being taken from me and used for someone else’s gain without my permission.
But why didn’t Palm give their permission? David’s letter suggested Palm should license TealPoint to use the design of the Pre, and that would certainly have worked. They could also have bought the software from TealPoint, at a fair price, and then given it out for free on their own Web site.
In March of 2006, Palm reported that over 34 million devices had been sold. Even if only a fraction of those devices are still in use, Palm could have had millions of people trying out the Pre’s interface before it’s even available, building demand for the product.
Not only that, but TealPoint has been a huge supporter of Palm. They have thirty products available, all for the Palm OS, and they’ve been making Palm software since 1997. They’d even begun work on porting many of their applications to the Palm Foleo, and all of that work was lost when the Foleo was abruptly cancelled. Certainly, that’s a risk of developing software for a new platform, but I’d imagine Palm’s latest slap in the face makes it even harder to take.
Using TealOS makes me want to buy a Pre. Watching the Palm corporation in action does the opposite.
.H1 About TealOS
I’m going to give you a brief review of TealOS. TealPoint is honoring its agreement with Palm and no longer sells the software, but I did manage to find it for sale online at a source where it’s no longer available. Regardless, I think it’s an important program and worthy of notice, and perhaps Palm will be smart enough to reconsider.
.CALLOUT I used to be a Palm advocate, but in the last few years their odd decisions have weakened my faith in the company, and I know I’m not alone in this
Figure A shows the main start-up screen of TealOS. At the bottom is the Quick Launch bar, a five-item button bar for frequently used applications. I like the rounded corners and the sleekness of the layout, and I also like that the color scheme is fully customizable.
.FIGPAIR A You can see the TealOS main screen.
One of the main features of Palm’s webOS is the card metaphor, in which your various applications can be sorted and shuffled as if they were cards [HyperCard (from the 80s) anyone? -Ed.]. While current Palms cannot do the multi-tasking that will be part of the Pre, TealOS does incorporate the cards, as shown in Figure B.
.FIGPAIR B The card metaphor in TealOS is purely for selecting a program to run, but it works well.
You can choose how many cards are kept (up to twenty) and you can shuffle through them, delete them (by flicking them up to the top of the screen, which is insanely fun), and click on one to start the application in question. There is also a swipe mode for moving between cards while in another application.
The most exciting part of TealOS, though, is the Wave Launcher. My screen shot software was unfortunately not able to capture this in action on my Treo, so I have borrowed Figure C’s screen shot from the TealOS documentation. The Wave Launcher opens with an upward stroke from the bottom of the screen in any application, and gives you access to another five commonly used applications. The sleekly curving Wave Launcher is unlike anything I’ve seen on a Palm before, and it’s hugely functional as well.
.FIGPAIR C The Wave Launcher lets you easily access one of five applications.
If you’ve been keeping count, you’ve got ten applications easily accessed through the Quick Launch bar and Wave Launcher, and another twenty available as cards. All of the hardware buttons are still active, of course, so you can set even more applications to run from those buttons.
But if all those applications aren’t quite enough, there’s also a more traditional launcher screen, as shown in Figure D, from which you can choose any of your other applications. If you look closely, you can see the same background (a picture of my mother’s golden retriever puppies) from Figure A; the launcher screen is translucent by default, giving the launcher a very modern appearance.
.FIGPAIR D The launcher screen gives you access to the rest of your applications with a clean and modern style.
Is TealOS perfect? No. I do find it slightly slower than the default launcher, and it’s not always quite as responsive as I’d like it to be. However, it hasn’t crashed on me once, and it’s truly changed how I interact with my Palm.
It’s also changed my opinion of these more fluid interfaces. I spent a few minutes playing with a relative’s iTouch and didn’t quite see the appeal, but after working extensively with TealOS I get it, and I want my next device to work this way.
I used to be a Palm advocate, but in the last few years their odd decisions and lack of technical support or upgrades has weakened my faith in the company, and I know I’m not alone in this. The Pre is probably Palm’s last chance to get back into the game.
I’m also not alone in wanting Palm to reconsider TealOS. After David’s open letter ran, reader Cynthia Green sent us this note:
.QUOTE I’ve been a loyal palm user for many years. I have a T|X and am ordering one or 2 spares so I can go on after they no longer make them. My whole life is in that darned thing.
.QUOTE I hope Mr. Colligan is smart enough to step back and take your advice.
Having lots of people using TealOS and becoming attached to the Pre’s interface could only increase the device’s sales when it finally comes out, but Palm instead chose to slap down one of the few Palm-only developers left. It’s unfortunate, and I hope they reconsider.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product lack-of-availability and resources
Read [[http://www.computingunplugged.com/issues/issue200903/00002349001.html|An open letter to Palm CEO Ed Colligan about finding the win-win position]].
Learn more about [[http://www.tealpoint.com/softos.htm|TealOS]].
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO
