HP webOS: 5 reasons to keep it!

The Gadget Show  Monday 22 August 2011

HP’s decision to axe the HP TouchPad and HP Pre 3 is likely just the first step in the company abandoning the webOS operating system it acquired when it bought out Palm last year. We think this is a shame as despite its flaws, webOS has a lot to recommend it. Here are 5 reasons we think HP (or someone) should keep webOS going.

Task management

From the start, webOS has had the edge over rivals with the way it handles multitasking. The unique ‘card’ interface lets users flick between running processes in an intuitive way and is arguably the only multitasking interface for tablet or mobile that makes it obvious to new users that they have multiple apps running, let alone how to deal with them.

Web apps

As the name implies, webOS makes it easy for developers to create applications using the technology of the world wide web. Apps can be written in HTML and Javascript and most are – this enables rapid development and should in theory enable more people to start creating apps for the webOS platform. If you need to do something a little more graphically intensive, a development kit is available to give access to the native hardware, enabling some impressive-looking games and other apps.

Notifications

Android’s notification system is widely admired (and pinched by Apple for iOS 5) but webOS has an innovative notification system too – one that we think is as useful and unobtrusive, if not more so. New notifications are displayed on the top bar but also appear in an unobtrusive op-up box that doesn’t steal focus, enabling you to keep working or playing but still be aware of events and alerts.

In fact, webOS notifications are so good, Apple hired their designer, Richard Dellinger, to work on iOS.

Just Type

Just Type took its cues from the popular OS X app launcher and search UI, Quicksilver. Just start typing (hence the name!) in the Just Type box and you can launch a web search, find and run an app, jump to a web page or start an email. The clever software works out what you are trying to do or offers you a choice if it can’t decide. It’s like the iOS search page on steroids and a feature we would miss if webOS went away for good.

Choice

iOS is everywhere, Android is everywhere else. Windows Phone is playing catch-up and even Microsoft don’t seem to know where the dividing line is between it and full-blown Windows.

webOS represented a real choice – something to keep the big players on their toes while still offering a streamlined, unique take on a mobile and tablet operating system. For this reason alone, we hope HP is able to grant webOS a stay of execution.

Here’s a video of the webOS in action on the HP Touchpad