Feature Articles

Operating on a Touch - The Touch OS Feature

By Seow Tein Hee & Sutlej Soin - 5 Apr 2009

Other Notable Mobile OS

In the Palm of Your Hands

Frankly speaking, the real granddaddy of the touch screen device isn't really borne from Microsoft. Lest one forgets, Palm is the origin of all that when it comes to Pocket Digital Assistants (PDA), or now commonly known and integrated within smartphones. When we thought Palm wouldn't be able to surprise us any further, we were dead wrong, as seen in 2009's Consumer Electronics Show. Introducing its new Web OS on the Palm Pre, the ailing company is pulling out all the stops to show the world that it's still very much in the game, and would like to give its rivals something to really be concerned about.

It's been a while since Palm managed to get the tech world all excited. Regardless of the economic slump, it's good to see that Palm is still on track with their Palm Pre device.

And in 2009, the Palm Pre's WebOS will be the OS that either makes, or breaks the PDA ancestor.

Palm has been working quietly on the webOS operating system since 2007, and we are happy to note that this slow-cooking process has produced an operating system with the goods to make its rivals shake in their pants. The key to webOS is the "cards" concept, in which open applications - up to 20 applications at the same time - are treated as "cards". Pressing the application button below the display, or making a gesture in the gesture area, gets you into "card view" where you can swipe to move through the "deck" of cards - your open applications. These are live previews and will update in real time (thanks to the powerful processor), based on whatever video is being played or whichever webpage is loaded.

The user interface is also touted to be the real iPhone killer, with its touch sensitive screen that lets you scroll through lists and flick through applications with a finger swipe. Typing on the on-screen keyboard also brings up an instant search function which pulls up apps, contacts, and even web queries. The best part? For each of your contacts, you get consolidated instant messages and status information from all the chat services that each contact uses, which is so much more convenient. The OS actually anticipates all possible options associated with a contact or function for example and presents them to you without needing to manually call them up. This is truly a "web" OS, one that actually does deep relationship mapping to bring out a truly smart operating system.

At this point of time, the webOS operating system is without a doubt what folks will be gunning for in their next smartphone for their pockets.

Harvesting the Ripe BlackBerry

Just like Palm is associated with PDAs, Research in Motion (RIM) is known for its foray into the business smartphone scene and push email. As the Canadian tech company made its mark on the world with its BlackBerry series, they've also realized that they would have to do much more beyond their specialty to keep themselves relevant and ahead of the competition. Like Nokia, the BlackBerry OS has traditionally been a non touch-screen based OS, until it made its all important announcement after the appearance of its popular BlackBerry Bold device: a brand new touch screen based BlackBerry OS 4.7, powering the new generation BlackBerry series, the BlackBerry Storm (model number 9530).

Moving out of their comfort zone, the new BlackBerry OS 4.7 and the BlackBerry Storm will challenge itself against the well-developed Windows Mobile and iPhone OS.

The new touch-enabled OS retains its emphasis on business-centric services. With existing support using its BlackBerry Enterprise Service for the corporate executive, it's evident that RIM is still holding on to their strongest point. However, with the evolution of both their device and the OS, we're seeing the BlackBerry OS 4.7 morphing into a platform that is also an enabler of multimedia and a web-centric services.

Will the BlackBerry OS 4.7, and the BlackBerry Storm, be the ones that open up more avenues for RIM to explore in the popular smartphone division? Our answer to that question might come earlier than you would think. So stay tuned to www.hardwarezone.com as we give you our full review of it.

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