Palm's WebOS - the mobile platform that almost was – Jon Wise
Summary
TLDRCe script de présentation passionnante retrace l'histoire de webOS, du lancement de Palm Inc. en 1992 jusqu'à son avenir après l'acquisition par HP en 2010. Le narrateur partage son parcours avec webOS, l'évolution de l'interface utilisateur et les innovations qui ont influencé les smartphones modernes. Il explore également la vitalité de la communauté webOS qui, malgré la fin officielle du système d'exploitation, a continué à le maintenir et à le développer, montrant comment les applications webOS, basées sur des technologies web, sont toujours pertinentes et fonctionnelles sur de multiples plateformes.
Takeaways
- 📱 Le système d'exploitation webOS a été sauvé et maintenu par une communauté de passionnés après sa fin officielle.
- 👥 Il y avait une époque créative dans l'industrie des téléphones avant l'ère de la domination de deux géants, où les téléphones étaient le produit et non les utilisateurs ni leurs données.
- 🏢 Palm Inc. a traversé plusieurs étapes, y compris des fusions et des acquisitions, avant de devenir indépendant à nouveau en 2000.
- 🛠️ Les premiers appareils mobiles de Palm ont évolué, passant de l'utilisation de systèmes d'exploitation tiers à la création de leur propre plateforme, Palm OS.
- 📈 L'acquisition de Palm par HP en 2010 a été suivie d'une tentative de redémarrage de la plateforme webOS, mais elle a échoué face à la concurrence.
- 🔧 La communauté a continué à développer et à maintenir webOS après son ouverture, y compris la création de nouvelles versions du système d'exploitation et de nouvelles applications.
- 🌐 WebOS a introduit de nombreuses innovations qui sont devenues courantes dans les smartphones modernes, telles que la multitâche basée sur des cartes et la charge sans fil magnétique.
- 🛰️ La plateforme webOS a été reprise par LG, qui l'utilise toujours dans leurs téléviseurs intelligents.
- 👾 Les applications développées pour webOS étaient basées sur des technologies web et étaient donc remarquablement portables, un concept aujourd'hui connu sous le nom d'applications web progressives (PWA).
- 💻 Le développement d'applications pour webOS était accessible, offrant une expérience de programmation similaire à celle des applications web modernes.
- 🗃️ Des efforts de préservation ont été réalisés pour archiver et restaurer les applications et les ressources associées à webOS, y compris la mise en place de services et de documentation pour la communauté.
Q & A
Quel est le sujet principal de la présentation ?
-Le sujet principal de la présentation est l'histoire et l'impact du système d'exploitation webOS, y compris son développement, son évolution et comment la communauté l'a maintenu vivant après sa fin officielle.
Pourquoi les téléphones d'avant l'ère de la duopolie des smartphones étaient-ils plus créatifs selon le présentateur ?
-Selon le présentateur, les téléphones d'avant l'ère de la duopolie étaient plus créatifs car ils exploraient des formes factorielles intéressantes et des idées novatrices, et étaient centrés sur la création d'expériences utilisateur excellentes plutôt que de considérer les utilisateurs et leurs données comme des produits.
Quel est le lien entre Palm Inc. et les Palm Pilots mentionnés dans la présentation ?
-Palm Inc. était l'entreprise à l'origine derrière les Palm Pilots. Elle a été fondée en 1992 et a développé le Palm OS, le système d'exploitation utilisé par les Palm Pilots.
Comment la communauté a-t-elle géré la fin officielle de webOS ?
-Après la fin officielle de webOS, la communauté l'a maintenu vivant en continuant à développer des applications, en créant des versions communautaires du système d'exploitation et en s'occupant de la préservation et de la restauration des applications et du matériel.
Quels sont les principaux éléments d'innovation de webOS qui sont toujours utilisés dans les smartphones d'aujourd'hui ?
-Les principaux éléments d'innovation de webOS qui sont encore utilisés comprennent la multi-tâche basée sur des cartes, le chargement sans fil magnétique aligné, la fonctionnalité Touch to Share, le mode d'exposition et le service de synchronisation Synergy.
Quel est le rôle de John Rubenstein dans l'histoire de webOS ?
-John Rubenstein a été un élément clé dans la création de webOS. Ayant été influent dans la création de l'iPod chez Apple, il a rejoint Palm pour travailler sur le nouveau système d'exploitation et est devenu PDG de Palm en 2009.
Pourquoi HP a-t-elle acheté Palm et webOS ?
-HP a acheté Palm et webOS pour utiliser le système d'exploitation sur l'ensemble de ses appareils, y compris les imprimantes et les téléviseurs intelligents, et pour créer un écosystème universel basé sur webOS.
Quels étaient les principaux problèmes rencontrés par le Touchpad, le produit phare de HP avec webOS ?
-Le Touchpad a rencontré des problèmes tels que la concurrence directe avec le iPad de Apple, un lancement précipité et des fonctionnalités manquantes, ce qui a conduit à une cession massive des stocks et à l'arrêt de la production après seulement 49 jours.
Quelle est la signification de la compatibilité de webOS avec les applications PWA (Progressive Web Apps) ?
-La compatibilité de webOS avec les PWA signifie que les applications développées pour webOS sont incroyablement portables et peuvent fonctionner sur de nombreuses plates-formes modernes, y compris Linux, Windows, macOS, Android et iOS, avec le même code source.
Comment la communauté webOS a-t-elle géré la perte de son forum et de son dépôt d'applications en 2022 ?
-La communauté a migré vers de nouvelles plateformes comme Discord et a créé un nouveau forum. Ils ont également continué à archiver et à restaurer les applications et les ressources, en utilisant des proxies SSL pour contourner les problèmes de sécurité TLS avec le web moderne.
Outlines
🌐 Présentation de la communauté WebOS
Le présentateur remercie l'auditoire et introduit le sujet de WebOS, un système d'exploitation mobile qui a été maintenu par une communauté de passionnés malgré son échec commercial. Il évoque l'ère précédant le duopole actuel des smartphones et souligne l'innovation et la créativité des formes et des idées de l'époque, où les téléphones étaient des produits pour les utilisateurs et non les données. Il se réfère à WebOS comme une expérience utilisateur exceptionnelle et commence à raconter l'histoire de Palm Inc., depuis sa fondation en 1992 jusqu'à son achat par 3Com et la création de Handspring, mettant en avant les tentatives de ces entreprises pour innover dans le domaine de la mobilité.
📱 L'évolution de Palm et les débuts de WebOS
Ce paragraphe décrit l'évolution de Palm Inc., qui après avoir été rachetée par 3Com, a donné naissance à Handspring. Palm est devenue indépendante à nouveau en 2000 et a lancé la révolution du smartphone avec le trio 180. En 2006, Palm a acquis les droits à leur système d'exploitation, mais a rencontré des difficultés financières. L'investissement de l'entreprise Elevation Partners et l'arrivée de John Rubenstein, influent dans la création de l'iPod, ont marqué le début de WebOS. Malgré les problèmes de qualité et les défis de lancement, Palm a continué à innover avec de nouveaux appareils et l'annonce de WebOS 2.2. HP a finalement racheté Palm en 2010 et a prévu d'utiliser WebOS sur tous ses appareils, mais a abandonné le projet en 2011 après un lancement insuccès du Touchpad.
🛠️ La préservation et l'innovation de WebOS par la communauté
Après l'abandon de WebOS par HP, la communauté a continué à le maintenir et à l'innovuer. En 2013, la communauté a lancé une mise à jour appelée Luna Community Edition, apportant de nouvelles fonctionnalités à WebOS. En 2014, la communauté a publié un nouveau WebOS basé sur les composants open source, nommé Luna Next (ou LuneOS), qui a permis à WebOS de rester pertinent avec des fonctionnalités modernes. Depuis, il y a eu de nombreuses mises à jour et des efforts de préservation, notamment l'archivage d'applications, la restauration du SDK et la création de nouvelles applications pour la plateforme.
🔧 Défi et solutions pour les appareils WebOS hérités
Ce paragraphe aborde les défis auxquels sont confrontés les appareils WebOS hérités, notamment la fin du support pour les anciennes versions de TLS et la nécessité d'HTTPS pour la navigation web moderne. La communauté a trouvé des solutions, comme l'utilisation de proxies SSL bump pour permettre aux anciens navigateurs de communiquer avec les sites web modernes. De plus, des efforts de préservation ont été réalisés pour maintenir l'accès aux services essentiels et pour permettre aux applications WebOS de continuer à fonctionner sur des plateformes modernes.
📱 Utilisation quotidienne et réparation des appareils WebOS
Le présentateur partage ses expériences avec les appareils WebOS, y compris la réparation de la Touchpad et la façon de l'amener à l'ère moderne avec des mises à jour et des solutions pour les problèmes de connectivité. Il discute également des communautés de soutien, comme Discord et d'autres forums, et encourage les propriétaires d'anciens appareils à les réutiliser pour des tâches quotidiennes, en dépit des limitations de la technologie actuelle.
🤖 Problèmes de compatibilité et solutions pour WebOS
Ce paragraphe se concentre sur les problèmes de compatibilité que rencontrent les appareils WebOS avec les technologies modernes, comme la nécessité d'une version plus récente de TLS pour la sécurité web. La communauté a développé des solutions, notamment des proxies SSL bump, pour contourner ces problèmes et permettre aux appareils WebOS de rester connectés à Internet. Le présentateur partage également des ressources pour aider les utilisateurs à mettre à jour et à utiliser leurs appareils WebOS, y compris des liens vers des guides et des outils de développement.
🏆 La communauté WebOS et ses projets actifs
Le présentateur met en évidence les efforts continus de la communauté WebOS pour maintenir la plateforme et pour en développer de nouvelles fonctionnalités. Il mentionne les projets actifs, tels que la mise à jour de la plateforme Luna, l'archivage et la restauration des applications, ainsi que la création de nouvelles applications. Il invite les participants à rejoindre les communautés en ligne pour échanger des idées et obtenir de l'aide pour leurs projets WebOS.
📚 Ressources et assistance pour les développeurs WebOS
Ce paragraphe présente les ressources disponibles pour les développeurs intéressés par WebOS, notamment le SDK restauré et l'accès à l'appareil virtuel pour tester les applications. Le présentateur encourage les développeurs à explorer et à contribuer à la plateforme, en soulignant la facilité d'apprentissage et la flexibilité de développement multiplateforme offerte par WebOS.
🔄 La renaissance de WebOS et son avenir
Le présentateur conclut en soulignant la renaissance de WebOS grâce aux efforts de la communauté, malgré l'abandon initial par HP. Il mentionne les projets actuels et les possibilités futures pour la plateforme, y compris la compatibilité avec les dispositifs modernes et la possibilité de développer des applications multiplateformes. Il invite les participants à explorer et à contribuer à la communauté WebOS.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡webOS
💡Palm Inc.
💡Zoomer
💡Handspring
💡Palm Pre
💡HP
💡Touchpad
💡Lunux
💡PWAs (Progressive Web Apps)
💡Communauté webOS
💡SSL bump proxy
Highlights
Introduction to the community keeping webOS alive and the speaker's journey with the platform.
Nostalgia for the era of creative phone designs and user-centric experiences before the current duopoly.
Historical overview of Palm Inc, from its founding in 1992 to the development of Palm OS.
The significance of the Palm Pilot and its impact on the mobile computing industry.
The evolution of Handspring and its innovative springboard interface for modular devices.
The merger of Palm and Handspring, and the rebranding as Palm Inc.
Influence of John Rubenstein, former Apple executive, on the development of webOS.
The launch of Palm Pre and its reception at CES 2009, leading to a surge in Palm's stock price.
HP's acquisition of Palm and the ambitious plan to use webOS as a universal platform.
The short-lived Touchpad tablet and its unfortunate comparison to the iPad 2.
The discontinuation of Touchpad and the infamous fire sale that followed.
HP's decision to open-source webOS and its subsequent purchase by LG for smart TV usage.
The enduring influence of webOS on modern smartphones, including card-based multitasking and wireless charging.
The community-driven preservation efforts and the development of new apps for webOS.
The versatility of webOS apps as progressive web apps, runnable on various platforms with minimal changes.
Challenges faced by legacy platforms, such as the transition to HTTPS-only web and outdated rendering engines.
The community's efforts to maintain and update webOS, including the development of LunOS.
The restoration of the original SDK and the archiving of the app catalog by community members.
The practical use of refurbished webOS devices as daily drivers and the community's support through Discord.
The potential for using webOS devices with a homemade 2G network as a workaround for the shutdown of 3G services.
Transcripts
[Music]
thank you very much and good morning and
thank you everyone for being here uh and
not being in line at the consignment
shop uh there's just me up here but um I
represent a community that's uh been
keeping web OS alive there's dozens of
us uh and uh I'm really excited to see
the engagement here and tell a bit about
the my uh Journey with webos um and kind
of what we've been doing with the
platform since it officially died um
I I I put this as the subtitle um one of
the delightful things that I I want to
talk about with webos and this whole era
of phones before the duopoly we have now
is that um it was it was creative there
were interesting form factors there were
interesting ideas being explored and uh
the phones were the product the user and
our data weren't the product back then
it was about creating great experiences
and and web OS was truly a great
experience but to tell the story of web
OS and um my involvement in web OS we
have to do a little bit of History um
who had a Palm Pilot raise your hand
yeah almost everyone in the room yeah I
had uh numerous and uh you were real
geek if you had a a cell phone on one
hip in your Palm Pilot on the other hip
and you could dual
wield um this is the same company uh
although it went through some iterations
um the original palm Inc was founded in
1992 and they didn't have their own
Hardware platform uh when they started
um they had some ideas and a vision but
they actually wrote software for a
device called the Zoomer um Zoomer was
uh marketed by Tandy but made by Casio
it was a flop um but this idea of mobile
Computing was very exciting uh in the 9s
and uh there were a variety of attempts
including Apple's
Newton um Palm was uh purchased by us
robotics in
1995 uh it was 1996 when they finally
released their own Hardware platform uh
the pilot 1000 and its Big Brother um
the pilot 5000 they were the same
physical size but the 5,000 had more
memory no backlit screen um but most of
what we know about uh the Palm OS kind
of first came to life there
um Palm was bought by 3om in
1997 and the original Founders weren't
happy with the direction that three col
was taking their baby uh so they split
off and created uh a new company called
handspring um that's the handspring down
there and what was interesting about
handspring is it had uh this springboard
interface where you could plug different
modules into it um so there was an MP3
player module a GPS module I actually
had an audible audiobook um module uh
that I ended up paying for way longer
than I thought I was going to um but the
most interesting one was this cell phone
module uh the cellular module you could
plug in and combined with an app on the
device could turn your dual wielding
device devices into a single device that
you could carry with you um I had a
friend who had one it was it was pretty
Cloe it sort of barely worked um but the
idea was there and
really sparked the imagination of the
industry um Palm itself became
independent again in uh the year
2000 um and they spun out a company
called Palm Source uh to license and
develop pal OS so handspring was a lie
of palm source and uh handspring kind of
took this phone idea and launched uh the
trio 180 um which was that final device
you see there which was sort of the
start of this uh smartphone Revolution
the companies merged again um palm and
handspring in 2003 as palm one
Inc um they didn't own their OS at that
point though um Palm one purchased the
Palm trademark from Palm source so they
could call themselves Palm again
rebranded as palm Inc um and a company
called access uh purchased Palm source
and owned the Osos
so they had a hardware platform they had
their kind of original Vision they had
this phone idea
um put to practice uh they didn't have
the OS um so they were experimenting in
a lot of different directions um this is
the the far left there my right is kind
of the final form factor of the trio um
but that's a version running um Windows
mobile um so that was the SE or 600
W um
the other side is the life Drive uh the
life Drive had a hard drive in it um and
so it was supposed to be more of a
multimedia device um so they were trying
lots of different things uh they did
finally in 2006 uh acquire a permanent
license free uh rights to the OS from
access um and they were financially in
trouble at this point uh it was it been
a rough decade uh for pal um so there
was a bit of a rescue effort by uh an
investment firm called elevation
Partners who bought uh 25% of the
company in
2007 uh also in 2007 Palm announced and
then fairly quickly cancelled um before
it shipped the
folio uh the folio was a linux-based
companion device you could tether it to
your palm phone it would give you a
bigger screen more features um you could
do more with it keep your phone in your
pocket even though this never really
shipped this was not their last
experiment with Linux in 2008 Palm
announced the pdas were dead um the
smartphones were the future uh there
wouldn't be two devices on your hip
anymore from now on it was just going to
be mobile and that they had a new mobile
OS
coming what was really interesting about
this era is as well as receiving that
25% kind of ownership investment
um from elevation Partners they got an
infusion of talent uh including a
gentleman named John Rubenstein who had
been influential in the creation of the
iPod at Apple uh Rubenstein started
fairly uh strategically poaching um from
Apple uh to work on this new OS that
they had announced in 2009 Rubenstein
became CEO and they announced uh web OS
and the Palm Prix at CEO yes uh so
that's him and that's the
pre uh at this point in 2009 Palm's
stock had fallen to $3 a share after the
announcement at CES which kind of
shocked the
world uh there stock skyrocketed to $18
a share so it really seemed like Palm
was uh was resurging unfortunately the
pre-launched is a Sprint exclusive um
the initial release had some quality
issues and it was a 1.0 OS um so
although it was incredibly interesting
it had some uh shortcomings uh that they
needed to fairly aggressively address uh
by 2010 shares were back down to
$4 between 2009 and 2010 Palm had
released or announced for release the
kind of next wave of Hardware the pixie
the pre plus the pixie Plus and the pre-
to um so Hardware was looking good
financially the company was in really
rough shape and was actively looking for
a new
Suitor by June of 2010 HP had acquired
pal for 1.2 billion and in early 2011 HP
announced uh that they were going to use
web OS everywhere they called it their
Universal platform they be uh they
announced that they would be using it in
all of their devices including printers
and smart TVs
uh their newly acquired uh phone
platform and future form
factors uh they also announced uh next
wave of Hardware uh the VR and the pre3
uh the V is a tiny device this is it
here yeah uh slide out keyboard just
like the pre um remarkably capable uh um
little smartphone um I used it as a
daily driver uh until about two years
ago when T-Mobile shut down the 3G
network and uh you can't do much with it
anymore um the pre2 got rebranded as an
HP device instead of a palm device and
they announced web OS 2.2 as a major uh
update to the platform that brought a
lot of missing
features in 2011 they announced web OS
uh running inside of Windows um and that
all of their computers that they shipped
uh would have Windows and would be
running web OS inside them and in 2011
they also released the touchpad uh this
is a
touchpad it was intended as a competitor
to the first gen iPad um and it actually
looks a fair bit like the first gen iPad
unfortunately Apple had earlier in the
year um launched iPad 2 which was a
significantly better device and the uh
touchpad couldn't really hold a candle
to
it it was an 8.9 inch device uh running
web OS uh version three like other web
OS devices the touchpad featured
wireless charging a Touch to Share
feature um and uh they announced a 4G
enabled version also in Prototype was
the Touchpad Go um a 7in little brother
to the touchpad uh the go uh was never
released um so all that we have is uh
pvt production verification test and
earlier uh prototypes um they're quite
rare considered very valuable by the
community um if you can find one they're
really cool devices um I have one but
you're not allowed to see
it on August 18th so 49 days after the
US launch of the touchpad uh they
discontinued it remaining stock yeah 49
days remaining stock was sold off in a
fire sale the initial price for the 16
gig model had been $4.99 the 30 gig
model was
$5.99 uh they sold them in this fire
sale for $99 or $149 for uh the bigger
model uh the 4G ones were never released
uh the only people that had them were um
uh HP employees uh I also have one of
those it also worked on AT&T up until
recently at these prices just under a
million touchpads were sold uh so the
touchpads themselves aren't terribly
rare um HP had brought in new leadership
after something of a scandal and uh the
new leadership undid all of the
announcements related to web OS and then
announced they were looking for a buyer
for what they called their personal
systems group in December 2011 HP
announced web OS was being open- sourced
uh the last version of webos version
3.05 was released in January of 2012 in
February of 2013 LG purchased web OS and
they still to this day use it in their
Smart
TVs so if you're keeping track in just
over two years web OS was launched had
three major uh waves of Hardware
releases three major updates to their
operating system and then
died but its influence is still felt um
so many Innovations from web OS are part
of the smartphones we use today uh card
based multitasking which you're familiar
with now was pioneered on web OS uh
magnetically aligned wireless charging
what Apple calls mag
safe this was the
Touchstone magnetically
aligned 2009 uh Touch to Share what
Apple now calls name drop um was
pioneered in web2 .2 uh exhibition mode
what Apple calls standby mode uh where
if your device is charging uh while the
screen's off it can show you content um
that was part of the platform right from
the beginning and then something that's
never been fully duplicated uh what web
OS called Synergy which was sync
services that was pervasive throughout
the platform the closest we have today
is files integration in
iOS um the biggest thing though for for
me as a former web developer is that web
OS pioneered what we now call pwas or
Progressive web apps so applications
developed for web OS are actually
remarkably portable this is because of
the architecture um the initial uh web
OS architecture was pure Linux at the
core it's a real Linux environment you
can drop to a terminal and run Linux
commands and then the UI layer uh was
pure web uh with a webkit rendering
engine
um things were kind of stitched together
uh with debus debus was wrapped um as a
service called the Luna service bus for
intera uh um and process Communication
in webos 1.0 background Services were
written in uh Java uh but they went Hard
To The Hoop with uh web development
starting in 2.0 and background Services
were written in node.js um so you
literally wrote the back and the front
end of your application in JavaScript
for web OS and the performance was
remarkable for its
time um they had two um of these
JavaScript Frameworks the original one
called Mojo uh was designed for phones
and was fairly deeply tied um to the
platform architecture uh the follow-up
one called Eno um is still usable today
uh was intended uh for crossplatform
support as kind of their push to support
other for factors and and
platforms um later in its life cycle so
not after the original SDK release but
about a year I think after um they
published the pdk which is the plug-in
development kit which made it easy to
Port um applications written in
C++ uh with like QT for Linux to the
platform uh and we still take advantage
of that
today web OS launched with an app
catalog uh it initially only had 18 apps
uh within 6 months it had grown to 30
apps and had a million uh downloads the
catalog included an emulator called
classic uh that could run pal OS apps so
if you had a Palm Pilot you could
actually run your palm apps on web OS
um the because of its kind of very open
underpinnings um the hacker and Homebrew
Community loved these devices and
initially uh Palm's lawyers did not love
the hacker Community um there was uh
some corporate soul searching about how
they should uh deal with this and they
decided uh eventually after a few months
of soul searching um to embrace the
community um so as well as the official
app catalog which sort of grew out of
this Homebrew effort there was a
Homebrew catalog of applications written
by hobbyist developers um hackers and uh
Linux Porters
by December 2011 when the app uh catalog
was sunset it had 10,2 apps in it um
many of the bigname vendors pulled their
apps when the uh shutdown was announced
HP actually kept the servers running
until March 15 uh
2015 but this was not the end of
webos because HP had open source most of
the platform the community remained
engaged
in 2013 uh the webos ports Community
released an update to the launcher
experience the launcher was called Luna
um so they published the Luna Community
Edition so Luna C or
lunacy uh that brought a number of kind
of missing features to the environment
including the famous Wave Launcher from
the uh uh original um mobile
OS uh but that was just the beginning in
2014 14 the community released uh what
they called the apagado release of lunos
lunos was a rewrite of webos using the
open- source bits a new version of QT
qt5 and webkit 2 uh which brought a more
modern stack to the platform since 2014
there have been 30 releases of lunos for
the platform the latest was this year um
they've rebased on LG's uh web OS uh web
OS open Source Edition um that LG
maintains uh and chromium as the uh web
rendering layer and a bunch of other
modern
Innovations um initially they targeted
the touchpad and um Google's Nexus 4 as
uh devices for the platform but that's
since been ported to a wide array of
devices uh including uh the pine Tab 2
um that I I run it on uh to develop at
home web OS apps written in the Eno
framework uh are still supported on Lun
lunos uh there's some additional changes
you need to make because the permissions
model is more mature than it was in web
OS uh but they still mostly just run
it's uh basically manifest declarations
that you have to add and Community
archival efforts have preserved
3,851 of the original 10,2 apps uh that
were available for the
platform most of the community communic
ation was through the web OS ports Wiki
and the web OS Nations Forum which date
back to the beginning of the
platform um but things had obviously
started to dim uh on this already long
dead
platform in uh
2018 I had been out of web development
for about five to eight years of my
professional career um I had been
involved in the launch of uh two other
mobile platforms I worked for Microsoft
when they launched uh Windows phone I
was a developer evangelist for Windows
Phone 7 uh and I worked for Amazon on
what they call fire OS uh which is uh
spin out from
Android um so I'd always been interested
in web OS I had a verer in like 2013 but
mostly just because I was fascinated by
the tiny phone I I hadn't tried to
develop for it um so I started tinkering
um with the devices to see if I could
learn to write code for them keep my
skills up um as a web developer um
questionable decision targeting a
10-year-old platform as a web developer
trying to keep your skills up but it it
was an interesting exercise um it was
interesting um not in the least because
since HP had shut down the servers for
documentation it was the community
efforts plus whatever you could find
find on archive.org uh which was a bit
of a scattered mess um it was kind of
all over the place uh and then in 2020
covid hit and like many of us uh I was
locked down and suddenly had a lot of
time on my hands uh so I started pulling
together these archives um scraping bits
from archive.org and trying to clean
them up and reassembled the original SDK
um most of it has now been restored and
I kind of published that for the
community to use um but also mostly for
myself to use so I could learn to write
apps um for this
platform so with the help of the
community um I also started revisiting
what was called the app Museum so this
was uh an app that they had created that
let you browse the metadata of the
original app catalog you could see what
the apps looked like and if you knew
where some secret FTP servers were uh
you could link the app Muse into those
FTP servers and sometimes find some of
the apps um like the SDK content the
apps were scattered across personal
archives archive.org
dropboxes uh Mega uploads lots of
different places so I wrote tools uh to
scrape all these content uh this content
compare it against um the catalog
metadata and create a repository of
existing apps that now have been
mirrored by the community in a couple
different places around the
world I put a web based front end on it
which is pretty crude uh and updated the
app Museum on device so that we could
browse the catalog on device um we have
about 3,800 apps um that are still
available a good chunk of them still
work um but lots didn't because the
backends were dependent on apis that I
had either been closed off um like
Facebook and Twitter and Reddit um or
the backends are gone because the
companies that made those apps don't
exist anymore so as well as building 20
new apps uh for the platform I built new
backend back backends for podcasting for
YouTube um for file sharing uh we still
have a Reddit client that works um
messaging uh for the community that's uh
connected to Discord uh and a bunch of
other um things that keep the devices uh
useful and interesting but uh the hits
don't stop coming for abandoned
platforms as I think everyone here knows
uh in 2022 with very little notice uh
the company that was hosting our forums
decided to shut them down uh including
the um app repository uh that it linked
to uh most of that content unfortunately
had been archived by archive.org we were
frantically submitting links um and a
good chunk of it uh was stored by the
community uh but it was still our it was
our main way uh to stay connected and it
disappeared almost
overnight um we've reassembled on on
Discord uh We've set up a new Forum um
so we pulled out of that one uh but the
next kind of big hit uh that a lot of
Legacy platforms deal with is sort of
the the forced move to an htps only web
um
web OS supported um htps and SSL but
it's an older version of TLS uh and most
websites don't offer it anymore so we've
came up with solutions for that you can
run an SSL bump proxy um either on
device if you have a newer device uh on
another device in your home like a
Raspberry Pi uh or actually run one in
the cloud uh for the community to use um
that lets us kind of negotiate a Connect
ction um with these websites the browser
rendering engine is uh now 13 years old
um so even if you can connect to the
site you can't always uh render what
it's trying to show you um because of
the Linux underpinnings the community
actually brought over a couple QT
browsers um that can run on the newer
devices like the touchpad uh that have a
more modern rendering engine and of
course RSS remain is a wonderful way to
get content that's usually fairly free
of ads and uh privacy issues and that
works fine on the
platform most of our preservation
efforts are uh Center centered around
web OS archive that's the site I run um
as well as uh the related services that
the um platform uses um they're hosted
by me but supported by the community
Through donations um as well as some of
the other services run are run by other
members of the community
the cool thing about the Legacy apps
that do work is they're arguably the
best versions of them uh so I'm wearing
an Angry Birds hat it says web OS on the
back the version of Angry Birds you can
get in the app store or Google Play now
is filled with ads and inapp purchases
the version that runs on webos is
wonderful it you can just play Angry
Birds uh I like playing Tiger Woods golf
on a plane you can't even get that
anymore uh there's these other golf
games that are all like pay to playay uh
Tiger Woods just works on touchpad and
it's it's a delightful experience so
there's definitely a a positive side um
to these preservation
efforts the other really cool thing
about this platform is that um Legacy
apps uh that have been repaired or new
apps written in Eno the JavaScript
framework for the platform can run
anywhere literally anywhere so this is
my uh to-do list app um that I wrote for
web OS and I keep my to-do list on here
I use web OS every day um but that might
be hard to see and not everybody has a
touchpad so here it is running on Linux
the exact same Code 100% unchanged it's
a progressive web app um I had to add
some metadata to the index to give it a
nice icon in Linux um but this app also
runs on Windows and Mac OS um you can
pin it uh on Android um to your launcher
and I run it on my
iPhone as a pwa on my phone if you wrap
it in Cordova uh and bundle it as an APK
you can distribute it as a an app on
Google Play and a couple of our apps um
are available that way as well here's
another one
um feed spider is the RSS reader uh I
use every day on device it runs great on
uh PC Mac um Android or iOS device 100%
the same code written for this
13-year-old platform works perfectly on
any modern platform today and having
been a uh Windows Phone evangelist and
working worked on other platforms that
was this dream of write once and run
anywhere that no one's ever been able to
execute on Palm got the closest um with
this platform and that makes it in my
book pretty
fascinating
um you can learn more about now I got to
get rid of my apps
web OS at our website webos archive uh
you can get access to the restored SDK
if you'd like to try your hand at making
apps I was going to show making an app
today but uh I don't think we have time
um it it's really easy to get started
with a few caveats um the SDK targeted
older platforms Windows 7 and Windows 10
uh and Ubuntu uh as well as Intel Mac um
so the community has got it working on
uh Apple silicon Max uh but it it you
you need some home brw stuff to get it
working uh it works on 64-bit Linux but
again you need to install some uh
dependencies it actually just works on
Windows 11 uh as long as you have Java
installed on the platform so if you
would like to try programming for it
it's really easy if you've never
programmed before it might be the
easiest way to learn to program for
literally any platform platform
um uh as well as the SDK you can get
access to the app catalog um so you can
see our 3800 uh archived apps uh a ple
if you have a web OS device somewhere
you may have apps on there that we don't
have um so dig in your drawers
um see if you have anything if you do
reach out to me uh we would love to
scrape the apps off of there got that
kind of down to a science um and add
them to the archive uh the communities
on Discord we have a a a channel on the
VCF East server so I'm there uh but we
also have a dedicated Discord um it's
linked to an app called Simple chat so
you can chat with people on a modern
computer or you can chat with people who
are on their web OS device
um fairly uh smoothly kind of moving
between the two I you can also check out
our apps on Google Play um all of the
pwas are in um the pwa store uh which is
an effort to make PW more accessible um
so you can find those on the website as
well uh and if you don't have a touchpad
and you would like to Tinker with one uh
I have a couple available uh in
Consignment um you could pick one up for
cheap or you could buy one off our our
website um I intended to leave time for
questions I left way more time than I
thought so please give me questions and
while you think of those I'll bring out
a couple other
devices this is the pixie plus uh the
pixie plus came with a removable back um
so you could get it in different colors
uh there are some very rare uh designs
out there kind of like the IMAX uh this
one had the keyboard on the
outside
um I put them in socks for
safekeeping this is a launch pre um and
you can see it's got a little uh ball
here um it didn't move it was intended
to make the gesture area more
discoverable um so you could swipe to
navigate and the ball would kind of
light up to show you what actions you
were taking um has the slide out
keyboard as well and then for size
comparison um that's the original pre
that's the original pre and this is the
ver and then the the Big Daddy of the
platform um that was released uh in some
markets um but it came right near the
end uh was the pre3
so this is the pre this is the
pre3 um the pre3 is highly desirable it
was also very functional up until about
uh two years ago in the US uh in Canada
it still works um in some places in
Europe you can still use a pre- you need
um an SSL bump proxy to do most web
things but you can actually sync your
email and your
calendars um you can surf the web um
select itively uh we never got um MMS
working in the US but you could text
with them um this is a a really nice
device I'll uh takes forever to boot but
I'll fire it up the the screen was
gorgeous on it um this was very much
targeting the iPhone and was a really
premium
device all right yeah questions hey um I
I just had a question earlier you showed
the handspring and a little slotted kind
of CDMA adapter I guess because it was
Sprint yeah um now in the Bay Area we
had something called omnis Sky which was
a sled that went onto the Palm 5 that
was packet radio 128 kilobits per second
that were mounted on light poles
throughout San Francisco Bay area and I
don't know if you and I still have that
little Omni Sky sled for the Palm five
uh little antenna that extracted yeah
I'd never seen that no I that's what I
was going to ask if you knew of any
other packet Radio Networks that were
set up for Palm specifically anywhere
else in the US like I said I've got the
hardware still at home for the Omni Sky
stuff I don't I'm not an expert in Palm
I was I a user but that sounds very much
like a Silicon Valley uh uh experiment
that's really cool itates little yeah
yeah Palm five was pretty early very
cool San Francisco not that I'm aware of
very
cool Ricochet cool
oh yeah
yeah so really slow okay so you're going
to dig up that hardware and that'll be a
talk next year um
funnily enough the Opera Mini browser um
which does remote rendering for the
content um for Palm OS um can still run
in classic and can actually
render some websites that the web OS
browser can't render largely because the
rendering is done somewhere else but it
still works it works
100% yep hey um kind of two parts um if
we have a touchpad that's Frozen in time
from fire sale y
um like would you leave that as a cur is
there anything to be saved by leaving it
on like the release or an early patch or
or would you recommend upgrading that
and then could you go over just a super
highfly or maybe show a web browser of
like where the the links are for the
beginnings of the instructions for how
to to to do that upgrade with
the yeah let me end the presentation
those are both good questions
um let me see if I can switch to
mirroring
mode mirror
okay okay so to the first question if
you have a touchpad that's frozen in
time um first of all it probably won't
turn on uh
the power management and the battery
combination in here is finicky at best
and they don't like um being
ignored uh it requires patience and you
have about an 80% chance of bringing it
back to life so this applies to when you
have in a drawer when you find at a
garage sale um if you plug it in uh if
you're lucky it comes with the OEM
charger if you plug it in um the there's
two lights in the home button that will
start alternating back and forth uh but
nothing else will happen and probably
won't for about 5 to seven
days the power management chip is trying
to trickle charge the battery and like
ease it back to life so just leave it um
check on it every day or so um the
batteries weren't great if it starts to
balloon um the first evidence of it will
be like a wet look on the screen that's
the battery pushing on the digitizer um
from beneath or the LCD below the
digitizer from beneath um stop it's dead
uh we can still save it if you're
willing to ship it to me um I have spare
batteries I can take it apart they don't
come apart easily um there's Clips all
around but then there's this kind of
rubber gasket that surround it the
gasket will be damaged by disassembly um
mine has been you probably can't see it
from there but if you look up close you
can see where the sper had to go
underneath and pry it out um you can
still buy New Old Stock batteries um and
you can save it um if you plug it in and
nothing happens still be patient give it
two to three days to see if the lights
start flashing if the lights start
flashing then start your five to S day
count okay um I buy them in Lots uh like
a lot of 50 of these things and if the
screen isn't destroyed and the battery
is not already a spicy pillow um I have
about an 80% success rate at saving them
um the first thing I do whether the
screen's cracked or not is I uh there if
you look on the app catalog we have a
Wanted list
in txt and uh CSV so these are apps that
are still missing um from uh the uh app
catalog so the first thing I do is
inventory the apps and see if there's
anything from the missing list uh that
we need if there is I scrape them off if
the hardware is in decent shape then I I
put them in Consignment or on Tindy um
restored with a fresh version of 305
developer unlocked activating can be a
bit of a pain in the butt cuz there's
activation servers but we have a
workaround for that um and with kind of
the bare necessities you need to get
online uh in
2024 uh if the screen is shattered and
the battery is a spicy pillow then we
throw it out um we responsibly recycle
them
um did that answer all the first part of
your
question oh no no no that was should I
should I keep it frozen in time so now
you have be scared so
ass assuming Tak a Macintosh and found
an exploded battery like I think
everybody here knows there are some
dangers to R retro Hardware the last
time I turned it on it did boot but I'm
I'm not sure how many years ago that was
a couple um well you said if you
refurbish one you put 305 yeah on there
yeah yeah so you don't put what was what
was that other thing
the the re the respin that came out
later uh lunos s yeah so really
interestingly especially if you have a
32 gig unit you can multi- boot these
things um so uh the touchpad runs um
Android as well as web OS as well as Lun
OS um so you can put a um a boot utility
on there called M Boot and you can
choose which OS you want to launch on a
16 gig you can get two os's on there but
there's not a ton of room to play on a
32 gig you can easily get all three os's
on there and you can play with them so
to answer your question there's there's
really no preservation value in earlier
versions of of 3.0 um they're
functionally identical um you'd be
really hard pressed to find the
differences there was a version
3.0.6 um that uh the white touch pads so
talking about rare Hardware there were
white 64 gig touch pads out there that
one I would leave alone um but if you
have a black 16 or 32 gig um touchpad so
did a million other people uh do
whatever you want with it have fun with
it um once you've scraped any apps off
of
it uh and then the second part of your
question okay so this is webos archive
um here's the main things people are
interested in so here's the SDK if you
want to develop here's the app catalog
if you want to find apps um the
revisionist History Section is where I
have either built a new app or
significantly changed a legacy app um
one of the most popular use cases for
touchpads is as a weather station so we
had a beautiful acue weather app um that
ran in exhibition mode so you could just
leave your uh touchpad on the Touchstone
and it would periodically update the
weather from acue weather um look it's
got an ad uh acuweather shut down that
endpoint about a year ago um so I uh
wrote a backend proxy to open Weather um
that reads the open Weather Json and
presents the Legacy acuweather XML to
the app so if you're running against my
proxy the app doesn't know the
difference it still thinks it's talking
to ACU weather if you want to run a
private proxy you just have to change a
host file on the device um or use a
different version of the app um so
that's the apps the app
catalog um thousands of apps
uh uh curator's Choice are some of my
favorites um help in documentation so if
you find a touchpad this is what you
need to get back online um this was
assembled from lots of different uh
forum and Wiki posts uh into um
sequential documentation so how to
activate your your device what what
you'll need on a computer if the device
is unactivated or freshly
restored how to get apps onto your
device
um like some of the same steps uh if you
didn't need to activate you'll need to
repeat those steps how to get online um
simple things like setting this date and
time uh refreshing the on device
certificates uh and then how to use an
SSL proxy uh to get around the modern
web um and a bunch of other cool things
you might want to check out so those are
kind of the top three um and then along
here uh here are some of our apps that
are available as pwas or the backend
Services uh Maps turns out to be the
hardest thing to do because most map
Services have gone away from tiles um to
vector graphics uh which we can't render
um so there is Bing unfortunately is the
kind of last place you can get map tiles
uh this is a Tracker app written by the
community um you can get it on Google
Play you can get it on device or you can
launch it as a web app so let's do that
right now
now so here's how you can find out about
all of the hardware it's just kind of
like the Mac Tracker app um there are
some really interesting unreleased
prototypes um there there's a gentleman
that um kind of started his career uh
writing for web OS uh and then launched
this little website called The Verge um
and he remains a fan and occasionally
produces some really cool content um
kind of scraped from uh employee secrets
that nobody knows so there there remains
fascinating stories about this
platform was that the second part of
your
question uh in here in our docs you'll
find a link to our Discord um the
community is very helpful uh Mr mobile
or Captain two phones recently made a
video for us and we helped him go from
uh device Frozen in time in a drawer to
online um making his video in less than
a week uh so if you want to try it
there's help out
there um as someone who has recently uh
been getting back into phones from when
they were fun uh um and someone who
enjoys keyboard phones I may have uh got
one of the clicks uh is there any way we
can use these phones like actually now
that Verizon AT&T and all of the US
carriers have shut down their 3G
networks is there any way to use them
daily anymore you you can use them
around the house um so I have uh a phone
next to my home theater that has
Checkmate my to-do list app it has my
calendar syncing it has my email um and
it has simple chat um so there's a
selection of things you can still do
with them um
I'm I'm also contemplating tinkering
with uh creating my own 2G network I
have also thought about doing the same
thing it seems like an expensive project
um that I'm not sure my wife would
approve of uh but I also have a a BMW
electric car that was cut off um because
it only had a 3G modem in it and I lost
my ability to like ask it how much
battery it has so I'm thinking it might
be worth it to try this uh create your
own network idea but I haven't gone that
down that I wonder how mad the FCC would
get with us if we did something it's
like well if it's not just low power
just like within 5 feet that's all we
need around my garage and home theater
yeah just like CDMA like for me but not
for thee I tried to make I tried to keep
the V going um like I was going to
Sunset the 3G network and then when it
shut down I was delighted that 2G is
still there um yeah and I could still
text with it but I live in a fairly
rural area and the 2G network was really
patchy and that was kind of that was the
end of daily use for me I've even found
some older 4G phones have stopped
working at this point like I I may have
acquired a BlackBerry Q10 and that
barely functions at this point and
barely functions that's good to know cuz
I was thinking of getting a Q10 don't
yeah I could at this point launch into a
rant about how they shut down the 3G
network but 5G is still crap um but I
won't do that because that's not what
I'm up here
for and we're at time so any other
questions before I get off the
stage let me grab another photo thank
you all for coming this is really fun
[Applause]
right thank you very much
John I
[Applause]
[Music]
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