Palm webOS

Palm webOS is a mobile operating system running on the Linux kernel with proprietary components developed by Palm. The Palm Pre smartphone is the first device to launch with webOS, and both were introduced to the public at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on January 8, 2009. The Palm Pre and webOS were released on June 6, 2009. The second device to use the operating system, the Palm Pixi, was released on November 15, 2009. The webOS features significant online social network and Web 2.0 integration.

Features

webOS's graphical user interface is designed for use on devices with touchscreens. It includes a suite of applications for personal information management and makes use of a number of web technologies such as HTML 5, JavaScript, and CSS. Palm claims that the design around these existing technologies was intended to spare developers from learning a new programming language. The Palm Pre, released on June 6, 2009, is the first device to run this platform.

Platform

Palm publishes a webOS software development kit called Mojo, which was released July 20, 2009. Developer mode can be accessed from the launcher screen of the Pre by typing the phrase "upupdowndownleftrightleftrightbastart" (well-known as the Konami code) or "webos20090606" on webOS 1.1+ (the United States release date for the Palm Pre). webOS has a built-in application catalog, and APIs for extending JavaScript in order to access hardware features of the device. Although many of the pre-loaded applications available on webOS are based on the original PIM applications available on Palm OS, webOS is a completely new platform using Linux.

The web browser uses the WebKit layout engine. It supports streaming video in RTSP, H.263, and H.264 formats. On February 16, 2009, Adobe announced that it will be developing a Flash Player for webOS.

Palm commissioned MotionApps to develop a Palm OS emulator, called Classic, for webOS.

Background

Further information: Palm OS

From 1992 to 2002, personal digital assistant maker Palm Computing (later renamed Palm, Inc.) was the developer of the Palm OS software platform. In 2002, Palm created a wholly-owned subsidiary for its software division, naming it PalmSource. PalmSource was later spun off as an independent company which was subsequently purchased in 2005 by Japanese developer ACCESS Co. Ltd. ACCESS used the Palm OS as the basis for its ACCESS Linux Platform (ALP), an open source platform for mobile devices.

Palm licensed Palm OS for continued implementation in its PDAs and smartphones. They also licensed Windows Mobile for their business smartphone line. Palm started developing a completely new platform, as they had no intention of using ALP for future products. After the presentation of webOS Palm will not introduce any new devices with old Palm OS.

Both Palm and ACCESS now promote competing independently developed smartphone platforms, webOS and ALP respectively.

The article is based on materials from wikipedia.org.