[gregp]

Yesterday I was recording minutes of a meeting in my new $10 SmartOffice app on my Touchpad which I bought because QuickOffice has a habit of freezing when I try to save a document and I lose everything since the last save. I was using the BT keyboard and characters were taking half a second to appear. After the meeting I saved it back to Dropbox, a feature I only have for spending the $10 on SmartOffice because there's no native webOS Dropbox client. Later in the day I read probably the twelfth story in recent months about a significant personnel departure from the webOS team, this time the Enyo team defecting to Google. On the way home I launched FreeTether (a hotspot app I downloaded because the native one (incredibly) won't allow the TP to access the Pre 3's internet) so I could so some browsing on the TP on the road. I remembered to leave FreeTether running after I'd finished with it just in case I needed it again, because if I turn off the wifi connection the only way to get it back is to restart the phone. Then I downloaded an update for a virtual keyboard app I bought for the Pre 3 that still sounds a system alarm every time I launch it, just so I have the option of a virtual keyboard. A little while later my Pre 3 crashed and restarted for the zillionth time on the way home due to a modem baseband bug HP isn't interested in fixing despite having spent hours debugging it and providing info about it to HP.

It dawned on me at that point... why on earth am I bothering with webOS when no-one else, least of all the manufacturer, seems to care about it? Why should I be spending hours of my life debugging HP's OS for them? Why should I be paying a premium for apps in order to get a poor imitation of functionality other platforms have out of the box, and having to come up with or put up with clunky workarounds for undisputably core functionality?

I would hate to have to sell out my whole webOS ecosystem, currently consisting of:
* 2x Pre 3's
* 2x Veers and another three new in boxes
* 2x Touchpads with cases, one which I imported from the US 'cos no-one here carried them
* 2x genuine BT keyboards
* 2x Touchpad charging docks
* 3x touchstone docks for Pre / Veer

But I'm kinda getting fed up with waving a flag and championing a cause that no-one, least of all HP, really seems to care about. The situation is compounded by living in Australia, where we get small fragments of the few resources provided for webOS (if there's a promo code, a special offer, some cheap accessories, you name it... you can bet it won't be available for us). Maybe if webOS gets back on its feet I'll gladly come back; but I'm losing patience fast.

So I started taking a fresh look at webOS, what I really use and what I might miss. So here's my list of things I really like about webOS:

* Swipe functions: - a message comes in, swipe the notification away. Toss away cards. It's all really slick and feels such an organic and natural way of interacting with the device, no fumbling around with specific buttons to bring about a function e.g. close.
* Inductive charging - I love just dropping the phone or TP on the touchstone and letting it charge away
* Open OS - i.e. something I can get into a bit at command-line level or equivalent. I play with Linux a bit at work so it's nice to be able to run familiar commands. I liked being able to edit the registry on my Treo 750 too. Though I've only ever needed to do this on the Pre when I've been trying to fix system bugs...
* Portrait slider keyboard - that's actually the reason I came to webOS in the first place, not for the OS itself. But I've never used a virtual keyboard so maybe I'd get used to it.
* Ringer / mute switch - loved it on the Treo, was a deal-maker when I saw it retained on the Pre 3 / Veer.

I'm sure at least some of these features must have been picked up by the competition but I've never really used an iPhone or Android (or anything else) device to know what they have. I like to tinker with a device but I'm not a hacker / fiddler for the sake of it; it's really only to customise the phone to work how I want (I'm talking about 'luxuries' like being able to change your message notification tone, or NOT having the whole phone vibrate the bedside table to death when the alarm goes off).

So if I jumped ship and went to a dark side, what do you guys reckon would be the best fit for what I like? Cost isn't a big factor.

Man I hate having come to this point. Maybe I'll still stay. But I'm just so fed up I want to know my options.

Greg

[mattmayatt]

Native hotspot works fine with my touchpad and pre3.

[Daughain]

If you are going to 'jump ship', your best bet will be Android. Familiar kernel, and lots of options for customization. Though you might want to wait about 4 more months for the rest of the years flagship to ship.

-- Sent from my TouchPad using Communities

[kataran]

I ran into the what if thoughts myself but I have experience with droid and iphone

lots of my friends come to me with they own platform problems thinking I can fix it for them...

in reality mobile OSes are the win3.1 of today...none of them are perfect....all uses have there own horror stories....so I figure stay with what makes you happy 90% of the time.....my opinion

[MDsmartphone]

WebOS is great for all the reasons you mentioned. And faulty for the same reasons you mentioned..but if it isn't working for you as it stands now its time to move on...ESP if you depend on your devices for work. Believe me you will miss webOS and no matter how good other platforms are it just isn't the same. I like everyone else here hope that something good comes out of open WebOS...but we need to see some concrete stuff now.

[ToniCipriani]

If you have a black Veer I'm calling dibs...

[laingman]

Aren't you able to test phones and return them before the fifteen or thirty days as the case maybe?

Just try some other phones and make an informed decision for yourself, who cares what others like

[sledge007]

Not sure how it works in Australia, but in Canada once you break 30 minutes, in calls....it's yours. I wish we had 15 or 30 days to try out a phone, but that's the way it is here.

[Fisack23]

I don't want to jump ship - there are too many things about WebOS that I like.

However, there are things that I don't like -

- Why does it take so long to boot up? CM on my Touchpad is ready to go much sooner.
- Lags/delays between tapping and the program responding. Happening more and more on my Pre.
- Still no spell check on any word processing.
- Of course, lack of apps.
- Bar code reading that works.


I don't want to leave WebOS. If Pre3 was available on Sprint, it wouldn't be a problem. I'm REALLY hoping that this Phoenix thing can work out!

[RoverNole]

I don't want to jump ship - there are too many things about WebOS that I like.

However, there are things that I don't like -

- Why does it take so long to boot up? CM on my Touchpad is ready to go much sooner.
- Lags/delays between tapping and the program responding. Happening more and more on my Pre.
- Still no spell check on any word processing.
- Of course, lack of apps.
- Bar code reading that works.


I don't want to leave WebOS. If Pre3 was available on Sprint, it wouldn't be a problem. I'm REALLY hoping that this Phoenix thing can work out!

I was with Sprint for 12yrs, then the iphone came and everything went to heck. I then ventured into unchartered waters by getting a Pre 3 and going to straight-talk. I have NOT missed a beat and there is NO comparison of a Sprint Pre.

if you can get one, I encourage you to try it at $45 a month

[sancase]

I cant leave the cards style multitasking, tried other OSes and it feels like its taking a long time for me to swap between apps.

[theinnkeeper]

have you used the ipad? Swiping through apps on the iPad is much faster and smoother than what webos offers. On the touchpad you have to get the card in the background to get to the next app but the iPad you just swipe.

It is disappointing that WebOS had the swiping feature on the phone, but then did not using a multi finger swipe, like ipad has now, on the touchpad. I would also love if the touchpad had added split screen to have apps side by side, it should not have been that hard to implement.

Since breaking my last frankenpre2 i finally went and bout a nexus s.
There are things i miss, but its not as unintuitive as people make it seem.

One thing i hate is when the phone slows down because all apps are kept in memory till android decides to shut them down. Also the holding down home for recent apps, and no swipe to switch between active apps is a slight pain.
Also i miss the patching feature of WebOs without having to root and install whole ROMs

[lupos]

I was with Sprint for 12yrs, then the iphone came and everything went to heck. I then ventured into unchartered waters by getting a Pre 3 and going to straight-talk. I have NOT missed a beat and there is NO comparison of a Sprint Pre.

if you can get one, I encourage you to try it at $45 a month

Does straight talk with the pre3 get you 3g?

[Daughain]

@Terry201; I suggested Android to the OP because of his statement he likes to tinker. That's not really possible in iOS. Personally, I don't like either iOS or Android on a tablet.

-- Sent from my TouchPad using Communities

[laoh]

I stuck it out with 7 Pre-.
Just last week, I finally jumped ship to Android to Motorola Photon. It's a good phone. It's so much more snappy than Pre and apps galore. I'm learning to live with the kloogy multi-tasking. I installed Perfect Task Switcher to get me through. The performance boost is like night and day and I don't have the frustrations I would have waiting forever for a camera app to load or other apps that hang. A beautiful qHD screen which is a huge bump from the 480x320 screen. Also, my recent Pebble watch purchase was one more reason to switch.

Sorry, I stuck it out really long and I even have a Pre3 in the arsenal (not being used) but it was time. I will definitely look to come back once Open webOS gets going full steam (hopeful).

[gregp]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I got my Pre 2 from smoothmobiles.com in AU who let you return the phone in seven days if you don't like it so long as it's 'as new', which I ended up doing in that case. Maybe I'll have a play with a few in stores and see if anything grabs me. I realise there won't be something perfect and if it turns out webOS is the best solution for me I'll be more than happy to stay. I guess with all the webOS devices in the house, even if I move on the kids will probably get the touchpads so I'll still be able to get a webOS fix from time to time! Plus my six year old daughter is begging me for one of the three white Veers I still have new in their boxes. Sorry ToniCipriani, I do have two black Veers but both have been used and one now has a cracked screen.

I guess HP must be prepared to lose customers short-term and hope we'll come back when it's stable. Fair bet.

[laingman]

on the ipad do you know what you are swiping to or trial and error? By the way four, even two finger swiping doesn't feel right to me

[laingman]

Let me say something. When I'm actually doing something as opposed to playing around, there is nothing that does it for me like webos and I am talking not even my laptop sometimes. I mean cards is one thing but when you have the ability to stack them up to do some email and the links from that email and cross referencing not even my pc handles that as smooth as my little pre2.

This morning I found myself texting back and forth with three people and had a stack with each conversation in a different card and it was beautiful.

As for switching and swiping with four fingers, sometimes the card view is faster because one can see what it is that one wants to go to.

Like I use advanced gestures on my phone but I dont always know where things are. For example I am on a phone call and have to reference something else to input some numbers, with webos I just stack that with the phone app so when i swipe I know where i am going. webos got me covered

[laingman]

I bought Splashtop and never used it, felt like a dog pawing on the screen and that's only two fingers. To each his own I quess

[Daughain]

Ya, used to do it. Still remain unimpressed. Just because you can install some apps or graphics, doesn't make the os something you can customize as you need. Of course, maybe someone did reverse engineer iOS and offer a way to change the sourcecode, but I don't see it.

-- Sent from my TouchPad using Communities