The Things that Worry Me About WebOS

I expect you can call me a Palm fanboy since I can’t write an article titled “What I Don’t Like about WebOS”.  However, I’m something of a smartphone agnostic, and having used other platforms fairly heavily, I know that there is much that I would like to see webOS embrace as they move ahead under the wings of HP.  Here’s my list of “need to haves” in order to get up to speed with other platforms:

• Better integration of services.  When I click to share a picture in Android (on the left) versus webOS (on the right), here are my options for sharing/uploading based on the apps I have installed.  The pictures speak for themselves. 

• 
  

                

 

• More apps. Better apps.  I have 29 apps installed on the Pixi. That includes all stock apps. I have 80 installed on the Galaxy Tab. Among the glaring omissions (for me at least) in webOS are:

·         A better browser (eg Dolphin Browser for Android)

·         Banking apps

·         Amazon.com

·         Documents to Go

·         IM apps for providers other than gTalk

·         Kindle – coming soon, I know

·         Latitude

·         Vlingo – and other voice search type apps

I hate to bash, but I also have yet to find a Twitter app that can hold my place in the timeline.  If an @mention comes in while I’m reading through my newsfeed, I should be able to hop into the mention, respond to it, and come back to the same place in my timeline.  ->* RANT OVER *<- The only other weakness I see in apps in webOS versus apps on other platforms is integration between apps – especially the stock apps like Gmail, Photos…

•  More functionality in the stock apps.  It’s 2011 and I still can’t invite anyone to an appointment from my webOS phone.  Copy/Paste needs improvement.  It’s a small screen, there needs to be an easier way to grab text and copy it.

Everyone likes to root for the “little guy”, that was Palm.  In order to keep the momentum as the “big guy” that HP is, OS functionality has to increase at a very, very fast pace.  No one wants to end up looking like WP7 in 2011… HP has a tall order ahead – hardware has to become competitive.  The Pre3 and TouchPad are a good start.  Software needs to improve – webOS 2.0 is moving in the right direction.  Here’s to 2011 being the year of webOS, and HP granting all of our hardware and software wishes.