Jash’s Blog

Palm’s webOS was getting some attention after iOS and Android, and then HP bought Palm. There was a lot of talk about what HP was upto. Was webOS a threat to them, or did they want to use it in their products and develop it further? Well, after a delayed launch today, 2 days after its original November 12th launch date, HP just released the Palm Pre 2 with their revised version of webOS. The Palm Pre 2 is on sale in the United Kingdom for £399.00 (SIM free and Unlocked), through the HP Palm UK website. Apparently major carriers in the UK do not want to sell the Pre 2 as they are more inclined towards the iPhone and Android devices, not to mention the recent Windows Phone 7s.

So, is this a dead-end for Palm, or will things turn around for them? We’ll see as time progresses. As of now, Pre 2 is on sale in the UK without a carrier. If you are in the UK and want to get yourself a Palm Pre 2, then head to the product webpage at Palm UK.

So Apple had a “Back to the Mac” event with several announcements like a new MacBook Air with Instant On and flash storage, an update to its iLife suite, FaceTime for Macs, an AppStore for Macs and the successor of SnowLeopard. Apple has sold millions of iOS devices (iPhones, iPod touches and iPads) and due to exceptional sales, iOS has been actively under development. Each new version of iOS has impressive features, some better than the others. Apple claims that they have learnt a lot with iOS and wants to implement some of the features into Mac OS X. In a nutshell, AppStore is the sole reason behind sales of iOS devices and they want to make the Mac more like one of those devices with simplistic interface and an AppStore to get applications instantly in order to boost sales.

So how exactly is Lion more like iOS? Apple has integrated the home screen with Mac OS and named it Launchpad. The Launchpad will have all apps in it. And of course, folders just as on iOS devices by dragging icons on top of each other to put them in a folder. Besides the home screen and AppStore, they are also focusing on full-screen applications and iPhoto 11 uses an iPad app-like interface with full screen and Tab bar at the bottom. This was unveiled at the event, more features will be seen as the OS will be developed further.

Mac OS X 10.7 will debut in Summer 2011.

Screenshots after the break.

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While netbook was the ultimate gadget, a lot of Cloud based OSes were being developed and I had done a review of JoliCloud OS here. The OS has moved quiet ahead since the review and has now hit version 1.0. This version is stable, has build-in touch screen support and a whole new interface which is much more intuitive along with better performance and wider device support.

Some of the other features include use of HTML 5 for application launchers and a greater range of pre-installed applications with include Gmail and Skype. The App Directory is also expanded to over 700 applications.

When is it available? Right now! Just head to jolicloud.com and get the free OS!

Hulu has finally announced its Plus subscription. News about Hulu Plus was out back in April and the service was anticipated to be announced in May. We did not hear anything about it in May but Hulu has now unveiled its Plus subscription service.

So what does Hulu Plus get you?

You can browse through the archive of all TV show episodes and watch any of them. Free users have restriction on the archive. With Hulu Plus, you can also stream video to your mobile device (by mobile device, I mean Apple device - iPhone, iPod touch or iPad) and to your TV. And of course, Hulu Plus users get the shows in HD.

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While everyone is fancying the iPad, other manufacturers are also coming up with tablets that are similar to the iPad. The Eee Pad is one promising tablet that was announced at the ASUS Press Conference. The Eee Pad is a tablet that would run on Intel Cure 2 Duo CULV processors with Windows Embedded Compact 7 Operating System and a battery lift of up to 10 hours. It would be released in 10 inch and 12 inch versions. ASUS would also roll out a dock for the Eee Pads which would allow mounting of the tablet on the keyboard, giving a notebook experience.

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It was the third Google I/O and there were many exciting announcements. From the new 2.2 Android firmware to Chrome’s AppStore with rich web apps. But the one announcement that caught everyones attention was Google TV.

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Hulu has been there for quite a while with lots of TV shows from various networks and now even some Movies. The way hulu ran was through Ad revenue from commercials. However, news has spread that hulu is now “expanding” their business by starting their much anticipated Paid subscription service. This is going to be called Hulu Plus, according to the LA times.

Hulu will continue to allow free access for the 5 most recent TV show episodes and will charge $9.95/month for access to older episodes. More details to roll out soon. Subscriptions starting late May.

Google was very innovative when they launched Google Gears. It allowed users to access all their data offline. Right from Gmail to Google Reader to Google Docs. Even third parties like Remember The Milk started implementing Gears to provide offline data access to users.

However, Google has announced that they are pulling out Gears support from Google Docs and would be implementing new ways to achieve offline data access, not surprisingly HTML5. They might soon remove Gears support for other products as well and use HTML5 to achieve the offline functionality.

So long Gears….

Apple just pushed the iTunes 9.1 update that adds iPad and iBooks support as iPad shipping starts this Saturday, which is just a couple of days away. It is going to be interesting to see iBooks sales as Amazon Kindle is currently the leader in eBooks with the massive Kindle Store.

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So there has been news about a Google Web Drive or GDrive that will provide online storage to users. There were numerous posts on this topic on various blogs, one of them was by me over here. After all this time, Google has decided to allow users to upload all file types to Google Docs. So you can upload, store and share any type of file you want with Google Docs. There is a detailed post by Google over here.

There is also a brief storage limit section that tells you that you get 1 GB space and cannot upload a file larger than 150 MB. More storage can be purchased at 25 cents per Gig.

I think this is a great step for Chrome OS…