John Paczkowski

Recent Posts by John Paczkowski

Open webOS Won’t Support TouchPad, Pre3, Veer

When Hewlett-Packard finally releases Open webOS, the open-source version of the mobile operating system originally developed by Palm, it won’t support the devices on which its predecessor was designed to run.

The Open webOS project announced Tuesday evening that the fledgling OS won’t support any existing webOS hardware. “For open webOS we are aiming for support on future hardware platforms where SoC’s support Linux 3.3+ kernel and where open source replacements for proprietary components are integrated,” the Open webOS team said in a blog post. “Existing devices cannot be supported because of those many proprietary components, including graphics, networking and lack of drivers for a modern kernel.”

In other words, the TouchPad tablet and the Pre3 and Veer handsets that HP released prior to its abandonment of webOS have been relegated to a legacy, unsupported version of the operating system. That’s certain to be a vast disappointment to consumers still interested in the platform, particularly since HP obviously does have access to proprietary drivers for its current webOS devices, and presumably could make them work with the standard Linux kernel with some tweaking.

“We are not at all thrilled with this decision,” Derek Kessler, editor of webOS Nation, wrote in a post bemoaning HP’s move. “Yet again, HP’s made the decision to neglect a small but loyal customer base in favour of pursuing bigger dreams. … This pattern of dumping on those who have stuck with the platform isn’t the makings for continuing loyalty. People love webOS, but they can only put up with being slighted for so long.”

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December 30, 2013 at 6:49 am PT

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December 29, 2013 at 2:12 pm PT

BlackBerry Pulls Latest Twitter for BB10 Update

December 29, 2013 at 5:58 am PT

Apple CEO Tim Cook Made $4.25 Million This Year

December 28, 2013 at 12:05 pm PT

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There’s a lot of attention and PR around Marissa, but their product lineup just kind of blows.

— Om Malik on Bloomberg TV, talking about Yahoo, the September issue of Vogue Magazine, and our overdependence on Google