Palm's WebOS - the mobile platform that almost was – Jon Wise

Summary

Ce 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

00:00

🌐 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.

05:01

📱 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.

10:02

🛠️ 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.

15:02

🔧 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.

20:03

📱 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.

25:07

🤖 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.

30:10

🏆 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.

35:12

📚 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.

40:14

🔄 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.

Keywords

💡webOS

webOS est un système d'exploitation mobile basé sur Web qui a été introduit par Palm Inc. dans les années 2000. Dans le script, il est mentionné comme étant un système d'exploitation innovant qui a influencé les smartphones modernes, notamment par la mise en place de la multitâche basée sur des cartes et de la charge sans fil magnétique. L'un des aspects clés de webOS était son architecture basée sur Linux avec une interface utilisateur Web, permettant aux développeurs de créer des applications Web progressives qui fonctionnent sur de nombreuses plateformes.

💡Palm Inc.

Palm Inc. était une entreprise qui a joué un rôle central dans le développement des ordinateurs personnels portables et des systèmes d'exploitation mobiles. Le script mentionne l'histoire de Palm Inc., de son lancement de l'Pilot 1000 à son acquisition par 3Com, et son rôle dans la création de webOS. Palm Inc. a été un pionnier dans le domaine des technologies mobiles, avec des produits tels que le Palm Pilot qui ont influencé les générations futures de dispositifs mobiles.

💡Zoomer

Le Zoomer était un appareil échoué commercialisé par Tandy et fabriqué par Casio, mentionné dans le script comme l'un des premiers essais de Palm Inc. dans le domaine de l'informatique mobile. Bien que le Zoomer n'ait pas réussi sur le marché, il a représenté une étape importante dans l'évolution de la vision de Palm Inc. pour les appareils mobiles.

💡Handspring

Handspring était une entreprise créée par des fondateurs de Palm Inc. qui n'étaient pas satisfaits de la direction prise par l'entreprise après son acquisition par 3Com. Dans le script, Handspring est décrite comme ayant développé l'interface Springboard et le module cellulaire pour les appareils Palm, qui ont été des précurseurs des smartphones modernes. Cette entreprise a joué un rôle significatif dans l'histoire de la convergence des appareils mobiles et des téléphones.

💡Palm Pre

Le Palm Pre était un smartphone qui a été annoncé par Palm en 2009 et qui a utilisé le système d'exploitation webOS. Comme mentionné dans le script, le Palm Pre a été un point de départ important pour la révolution des smartphones et a introduit de nouvelles fonctionnalités innovantes, mais a également rencontré des problèmes de qualité lors de son lancement.

💡HP

Hewlett-Packard (HP) a acquis Palm Inc. en 2010 pour 1,2 milliard de dollars, comme indiqué dans le script. HP a déclaré son intention d'utiliser webOS sur l'ensemble de ses appareils, y compris les imprimantes et les téléviseurs intelligents, avant de finalement mettre fin au projet et d'ouvrir le système d'exploitation webOS source. HP a également lancé le TouchPad, un appareil qui visait à concurrencer le premier iPad de Apple.

💡Touchpad

Le Touchpad était un tablette informatique développée par HP et basée sur le système d'exploitation webOS. Le script mentionne le Touchpad comme un appareil destiné à concurrencer le iPad de première génération d'Apple, mais qui a échoué en raison de la concurrence et des problèmes de compatibilité avec les sites Web modernes. Le Touchpad est devenu un symbole de l'éphéméralité des technologies et des tentatives de rupture sur le marché des appareils mobiles.

💡Lunux

Lunux est une version modifiée de webOS développée par la communauté des utilisateurs après que HP ait ouvert le code source de webOS. Comme expliqué dans le script, Lunux a permis de donner une nouvelle vie à la plateforme en utilisant des technologies plus récentes telles que QT5 et Webkit 2, et en apportant des améliorations et des fonctionnalités manquantes à la plateforme originale.

💡PWAs (Progressive Web Apps)

Les Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) sont des applications Web progressives qui offrent une expérience utilisateur semblable à celle des applications natives. Dans le script, il est mentionné que webOS a été un pionnier dans le développement de PWAs, permettant aux applications de fonctionner sur de nombreuses plateformes avec le même code, ce qui illustre l'idée de la réutilisabilité du code et de la portabilité des applications.

💡Communauté webOS

La communauté webOS est un groupe d'utilisateurs et de développeurs passionnés qui ont continué à soutenir et à développer la plateforme malgré son échec commercial. Le script décrit les efforts de la communauté pour archiver et restaurer les applications, le SDK et d'autres ressources, ainsi que pour créer de nouvelles applications et maintenir la plateforme à jour avec des versions comme Lunux.

💡SSL bump proxy

Un SSL bump proxy est un outil utilisé pour contourner les limitations de sécurité TLS des anciens navigateurs webOS, permettant aux appareils plus anciens de communiquer avec les sites Web modernes. Le script mentionne l'utilisation de cet outil comme une solution pour permettre aux appareils webOS d'accéder aux sites Web qui n'offrent plus le protocole TLS de leur époque.

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]

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