[kwarner]

Just upgraded my Moto X4 phone to the latest Android Pie OS. Started to play with the new UI features and was shocked to see what looked like a WebOS interface.

Android Pie has moved away from the vertically stacked cards and now has separate cards for each running app. And they scroll horizontally, just like WebOS. To close a card, you just toss the card up and away, just like WebOS. To shrink a running app to see the cards, a quick tap of the square button at the bottom is all that is needed. Gosh, this seemed so familiar and comfortable. Didn't realize how much I missed the smoothness of WebOS. There are supposedly even more gestures in Android Pie and I'll be learning them soon to see how much more Pie has ripped off WebOS.

Up till now, a Windows Phone has been my daily driver because its interface was the closest to WebOS. But it didn't have the same feel. Closing apps by sliding a card down just seemed odd. And to reduce an app to card view involved pressing and holding the back icon. That really ruined the "rhythm" of the interface. The quick back swipe of WebOS was perfect. But the quick tap for Pie is almost as good.

It's taken over 7 years but Android is finally catching up to WebOS.

[mazzinia]

And this makes you think how would we be now, if WebOS would still be alive

[Nguyen1]

Doesn’t the Google own the old Palm patents now? That might explain the timing of Pie.

[Preemptive]

Google 'owns' original webOS designer, Matías Duarte. LG bought the code & development team (2014?), HP open-sourced the non-proprietary parts of webOS in 2012 & as far as I'm aware, Qualcomm bought the Palm patents. No idea how that all works out!

[TJs11thPre]

My suspicion was based on it being 10 years since the original release. Didn't cards originally come out in 2009? It's 2019 now? Just thinking they waited an interval long enough that no one would remember to make the comparison we are making right now. Who else knows but us these days?

If i could get Pie on my BB Priv, I'd really have something that feels similar, but ISN'T. The lack of control and lack of privacy, from Android being a Google product, is the worst part of today's default UX. I despise Android and Google more than ever. I maintain the daydream that webOS would never have sold us out in similarity. But who knows.

Hey, Merry Christmas anyone still here.

[Preemptive]

Hey, Merry Christmas anyone still here.

Merry Christmas TJ, to you and your eleventh Pre (if it's still going!)

[mazzinia]

Merry Christmas

[gazaud]

Thanks TJs11thPre, Merry Christmas to you and to all members.

[kwarner]

Qualcomm bought the Palm patents. No idea how that all works out!

Have you been watching the news? Qualcomm is currently locked in a patent fight with Apple. I tried looking to see if the patents that Apple was being sued over came from Palm but the articles I saw were light on the details.

[MudShark22]

Here you go -
https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/30/qu...m-pre-patents/


Sent from my OPO awaiting LuneOS

[Preemptive]

Here you go -
https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/30/qu...m-pre-patents/

Ooh! It will be interesting to see how that plays out!

[MudShark22]

Really it's additive to the overall case, and obviously not part of the original dispute.

That said, the article is a year old already and we've seen additional Apple iterations of possible infringement.



Sent from my OPO awaiting LuneOS

[kwarner]

Here you go -
https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/30/qu...m-pre-patents/

Ah. Just what I was looking for. And check out the linked article noted the similarities. The ripoff is worse that I thought. I haven't seen an iPhoneX to know. I am forced to use an iPhone6 for work and even with the latest update, it is still klunky compared to a WebOS phone.

I love how both articles quoted Tim Cook's blustery “We don’t mind competition, but if others rip off our intellectual property, we will go after them”. He was so full of s**t. We all knew that if he came after Palm, Palm would blow him out of the water with all the stuff Apple copied from Palm. There were a couple of articles on the web comparing the patents of Palm and Apple after that. Interesting reading. But Palm used its patents for defensive purposes. Qualcomm has a different attitude.

[Nguyen1]

So, Pie rips off webos as well but Qualcomm doesn’t sue Google? Hmm....

[jonwise80]

Looks like Android might be copying another webOS feature -- the back gesture:

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/0...n-to-a-gesture

[Preemptive]

I predict the first of iOS & Android to go 'full webOS' will find it's share price tanking, leaving HP to pick up the pieces, double down and finally deliver a clumsy death blow.

[kwarner]

Looks like Android might be copying another webOS feature -- the back gesture:

Wow. They are going all in on copying WebOS. I wouldn't mind that at all.

Interesting reading the thread. There are a few posters who saw the similarity and missed WebOS too. But there were quite a few gesture haters too.

[TJs11thPre]

i wish someone would make a version of Pi for this BlackBerry PRIV I'm using. The keyboard isn't as good as a webOS device but it's better than any glass keyboard

[GoJoe2]

Digging the thread out of its grave.

As mentioned in some other thread, I use a PRIV as a daily driver, too (after my Passport got killed in a snowy mountain climb a year ago). I kind of used the PRIV the way it shipped but wanted to give it a try, to make it feel more like webOS.
I managed to get Navigation Gesture app from XDA to work, so gestures are pretty close to webOS now. Only think missing is the horiontal card based app switching introduced in Android Pie. Would anyone have an idea how to get that onto a Android 6.0?

Thanks very much

[Grabber5.0]

No idea on the gesture app switching. I just wish I remembered it more, and that it was as reliable/consistent as it was on webOS.