Former Palm Pre, now Epic 4g user missing webOS fuctionality

[djraw]

Ok, being a long time user of webOS I'm missing a couple of little things that makes my 2 weeks with android, lackluster. First, why the hell can't I take a pic or video while I'm on a call? I could on my Pre. Also, I can't even send a text message while I'm on a call. Also, why can't a join more than 5 entries for my contacts? Speaking of contacts, why doesn't my Epic automatically merge contacts with the exact same names, just from different sources? (missing synergy on my pre) Where are patches for my device? Why can't i rearrange the quick launch icons on my screen? (phone, contacts, messaging)
Why can't I take a screenshot? If android is supposed to be so much better than webOS, why doesn't it do these simple things? Both systems have a Linux core? Are there some patches or tweeks that allow me to do these things?

 

[dtm_stretch]

Well, unfortunately WebOs is dead so you are forced to move on. As a former Webos user I agree with you on some points. Webos was a probably better at integration/synergy across apps and multi tasking than any other OS. Since it is gone though we should move on.

There aren't patches in the same sense as WebOs but there is rooting that will immensely benefit your phone. I suggest you take at look at the Epic 4g rooting sub forum. After browsing over there for a little while I would suggest checking out XDA as that is were all the custom developing is done. Multitasking will get better. Android is still only a few years old and is still lags in some areas but is improving very fast. The main calling of android is its customization over the other OS'.

 

[Stearmandriver]

Ok, being a long time user of webOS I'm missing a couple of little things that makes my 2 weeks with android, lackluster. First, why the hell can't I take a pic or video while I'm on a call? I could on my Pre. Also, I can't even send a text message while I'm on a call. Also, why can't a join more than 5 entries for my contacts? Speaking of contacts, why doesn't my Epic automatically merge contacts with the exact same names, just from different sources? (missing synergy on my pre) Where are patches for my device? Why can't i rearrange the quick launch icons on my screen? (phone, contacts, messaging)
Why can't I take a screenshot? If android is supposed to be so much better than webOS, why doesn't it do these simple things? Both systems have a Linux core? Are there some patches or tweeks that allow me to do these things?

Ive wondered about the camera thing too, and I dont know about linking contacts as I prefer my phone to NOT do that, but I can do everthing else you mention. Some require a rooted device (just like installing Preware patches required root access enabled on your Pre). Also, look into different launchers, like GoLauncher. The text message while on a call thing I really thought was stock, so not sure about your trouble there??

Having had the pre for 2 years and the epic for 4 months, I think that the epic is FAR more customizable. There are lots more options, different ways of doing things, so therefore a bit more to learn.... but the tradeoff is a lot more versatility. Plus, of course, a huge variety of third part developer options. The last year I had the pre, if it didn't come from WebOS Internals, you just weren't getting it, cause no other significant developers cared about the platform!

Seriously... if you liked tweaking the pre, look into rooting/custom ROMing this thing (I can recommend SyndicateROM Frozen for stability and speed). Then look into themes and custom launchers.

 

[Funky Cricket]

I agree on just about all of your points.

I also think the webOS was way more customizable, you just didn't have much in the way of options for applications. I think alot of the lack of customization may be the stock launcher (i've yet to root), but android seems to not do nearly half the stuff it should do correctly, like leaving a video to check a text and not having the video pause and be in the same place. I had to fast forward to it... really? is this windows 98, did it really have to close the app so i can check a text.
Text while on a call. I thought we could... at least I haven't noticed we can't, used to do it all the time, long support calls with vendors, I'd text my wife if I would be late (I work IT support for a 3rd party IT provider, lots of late nights)
I agree about synergy too.. totally miss it. In a perfect world, I could get webOS on epic hardware and use the google app catalog for apps....

I also miss how fast the pre camera was, lots of blurry shots of the kids now, better quality when they are still but toddlers are rarely still.

I'd also rather not have to flash my whole phone so I can see the date in the update bar, rather just put in a patch and then remove it if I don't like, seems like a long way to go for things that were simple in webOS.

Far superior OS, Far inferior hardware, and completely mis-managed by 2 companies in a row, not that i'm surprised HP messed it up, their software is completely crap across the board, no reason to think they wouldn't screw up webOS too.

 

[Stearmandriver]

At least the epic will PLAY flash video ;-)

 

[cyberprashant]

same here. former pre and now epic 4g. for the most part I like the responsiveness of the UI. I found task manager is a valuable app as it's not as easy as webos to know what's open - very much miss teh card view and tossing apps with a flick. I like having the large selection of apps like : citrix, redlaser, kindle, google goggles, epocrates, all which was missing on current pre.

picutres - yeah what's what the motion blurr? o/w quality is awesome. Miss the synergy of combining contacts but can use join.

Notification top bar that you pull down somewhat like webos so that's cool.

one thing I miss - blink notifications - the LED on the epic4g blinks for a few seconds but then goes dark - any patch to keep it blinking once new mail or txt arrives?

 

[arhoolie]

one thing I miss - blink notifications - the LED on the epic4g blinks for a few seconds but then goes dark - any patch to keep it blinking once new mail or txt arrives?

This is probably the one area that I still miss in webOS, too. Notifications for things like this in Android just suck, pure and simple.

 

[rocket321]

Former Palm Pre user here as well with an answer to your annoyance with the notification LED:

[APP] Missed Reminder - xda-developers

This will cause the LED to keep blinking forever for Calls, Texts, and VM's (but not e-mail).

I too miss the elegance of WebOS and the simplicity of having hundreds of OS customization's available through preware with no need for a lengthy root + recovery + flash process. I am regularly disappointed with the lack of functionality in android even with root. Custom ROMs are 90%+ about changing the color of graphical elements in the ui. I would like to try a real rom like MIUI or Cyan but they are not available for the Epic. I think if the i9000 was sold as-is on US carriers just like other countries I would be pretty happy with Android because that phone gets crap-tons of dev support, custom apps, mods, etc. But the Epic with a much smaller dev base gets very little.

I do look forward to the GB source release which should enable Cyan & MIUI, but I suspect none will quite satisfy what we lost in WebOS.

Note to companies looking at licensing WebOS - there are still a lot of us who are ready to jump off the Android ship if you can throw some hardware our way (preferably hardware that will last more than 3-6 months btw).

 

[Stearmandriver]

I'd look at new webos hardware IF it was solid and IF they actually optimized the OS to the point where it was fast and reliable. THEN, they'd have to woo developer interest, which, lets face it, if you're a developer, why would you bother? And that's once they ironed out all the disasters in the new enyo framework. It would maybe be easier to rebuild the OS from scratch, since theyve already abandoned backwards compatibility with the switch to enyo.

HP knows all this, and they've already implicitly told any possibly interested party the very same thing, by announcing, in effect, "hey, this stuff is a total mess. We blew 100s of millions on it, only to realize, after working with it for a year, that it's unsalvageable. Soooo... Anyone want to buy this?" Who would??

Nope, there will be no licensing. Our choices are android or IOS, with Windows a close third and BB a distant (and probably fading) 4th.

Look at it this way... Android is open and will do nothing but continue to evolve and advance. Those webos internals devs will end up here eventually. Maybe theyll bring the best bits of webos to the power of android... Should be a nice change for them from having to try to shoehorn whatever good features of android/ios they can get to fit, and "kind of" work on the pre.

 

[cyberprashant]

Former Palm Pre user here as well with an answer to your annoyance with the notification LED:

[APP] Missed Reminder - xda-developers

This will cause the LED to keep blinking forever for Calls, Texts, and VM's (but not e-mail).

I too miss the elegance of WebOS and the simplicity of having hundreds of OS customization's available through preware with no need for a lengthy root + recovery + flash process. I am regularly disappointed with the lack of functionality in android even with root. Custom ROMs are 90%+ about changing the color of graphical elements in the ui. I would like to try a real rom like MIUI or Cyan but they are not available for the Epic. I think if the i9000 was sold as-is on US carriers just like other countries I would be pretty happy with Android because that phone gets crap-tons of dev support, custom apps, mods, etc. But the Epic with a much smaller dev base gets very little.

I do look forward to the GB source release which should enable Cyan & MIUI, but I suspect none will quite satisfy what we lost in WebOS.

Note to companies looking at licensing WebOS - there are still a lot of us who are ready to jump off the Android ship if you can throw some hardware our way (preferably hardware that will last more than 3-6 months btw).

thanks just what I was looking for!

 

[arhoolie]

On a related note, it looks like Leo A. may not be around HP much longer. The whole company's in a major turmoil, and I'd think the blunders with webOS aren't helping his cause.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/22/technology/hewlett-packard-board-meets-on-replacing-ceo.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

 

[cyberprashant]

For those missing some webos apps, small apps ported so far by me:

What's Shaking (Earthquake app).
EasyPulse (Heart Rate estimator).

Planned soon: Techtray

 

[cyberprashant]

Added to the webos ported apps:

Techtray : https://market.android.com/details?id=com.kliktrayllc.techtray

Previously ported:

What's Shaking : https://market.android.com/details?id=com.kliktrayllc.whatsshaking
EasyPulse: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.kliktrayllc.easypulse