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Palm asks TealOS to cut it out, stop copying me
I find it a little funny that TealPoint, makers of some truly awesome software for Palm's now-decrepit Operating Systems of days gone by, whipped out a launcher called TealOS that pretty much apes the WebOS that will supposedly "save" the bacon of the beleaguered handheld company. You know, Palm, the people who, after Apple dropped the ball, ran the PDA into the end zone back in the 90's?
See, if you out-innovate a company like Palm, you're going to get smacked with a cute "stop it" from someone's legal department. In this case, TealPoint has been told in no uncertain terms to stop distributing copies of TealOS (you can see it in action in the video above -- until Palm lawyers tell YouTube to pull it). Lucky for you lovers of fine software, you can get this rare vintage until Monday, March 30, 2009. My condolences to the families of the engineers who are going to burn some midnight oil "to try to get as many bug fixes and requested improvements in as we can" before Monday.
According to Engadget, a Palm rep had TealOS on a Pre at one point and seemed pretty stoked about it. Chalk that up to ignorant bliss, I suppose, as someone at Palm wasn't quite cool enough to grok how awesome this tool is -- especially if you are NOT rocking a Pre. Yeah, the Pre, the phone we don't know exactly when it will appear or what it will cost (but we do know it'll be a Sprint-tastic exclusive). Maybe this isn't funny. Maybe it is sad that Palm feels so threatened by such a tool (which only mimics the app launching portions of WebOS and doesn't provide a framework for creating applications) that they have to crush it. It's sadder still, as TealPoint's outgoing message on their tealtalk forum says "the program's success came at a badly needed time." Sound like the crashing economy and plummeting Palm marketshare has been unkind to them. Good thing they've got a friend like Palm in their corner, right? Yeah.
Comments
7
Subscribe to commentspsycrosMar 27th 2009 9:58PM
I can't really blame Palm for their reaction. Their backs are up against a wall, and here's a company openly stealing their design and trying to profit from it. If a significant number of people hold off on getting a Pre because they can get the Pre look n' feel on their existing phone cheap, it could stop Palm's potential comeback in its tracks. Of course, hooking your wagon to a dog like Sprint is pretty stupid to begin with. I'm still hoping Palm will do the smart thing and get the Pre on every carrier as quickly as possible. Otherwise nothing can save them and it won't matter how many people steal their ideas.
Victor Agreda JrMar 27th 2009 10:12PM
Right, and I get that legally they are supposed to be pretty aggressive about these things. My beef is that this is NOT WebOS. It's just a launcher that happens to look like the way you switch apps in WebOS. Palm is crushing this because they desperately need people to upgrade to a Pre and it has to look bad that these guys copied their interaction method and ported it to older hardware.
In the end it shows how desperate and foolish Palm has become. I wish Palm well, but I think they took more than just intellectual capital from Apple -- they took the bad attitude as well.
hazardMar 28th 2009 5:19AM
Wow that stinks. Kudos to TealPoint for creating such cool software. Fuckings to Palm for such schizophrenic behaviour.
AndyFMar 28th 2009 8:40AM
Dear Palm,
I was a LifeDrive user. You know, the device you unceremoniously dumped from from your product line after years of not bothering to innovate your OS. I was a fan. A defender of your products. But you never did care that much about us, did you. Too busy with your low end smartphones to bother with the interests of the PDA fans that secured your early success. Now you just blatantly rip off Apple and make one last Hail Mary. Well, good luck with that. I switched to the iPod Touch last year. I've made my choice. Funny thing is, if you had just kept supporting products like the LifeDrive, I would probably be impatiently waiting to upgrade to your new device, but instead I'm writing this post on my iPod, wondering why you're still around.
Going after the TealOS guys, who are just making your old devices relevant is such a dick move. I might have gotten my LifeDrive out of the box it now lives just to give it a try. It might have got me feeling a little nostalgic, a little more generous towards your company. But why would you want that? You got a new touch-enabled device with a keyboard! All the cool kids are going to want it.
Whoops. Too late. All the cool kids have iPhones.
- an ex-Palm user
JustenMar 28th 2009 2:01PM
re: Profiting from it? I imagine the profits Teal may have been generating, in the grand scheme of things, is quite insignificant. For those who still are using Palm OS devices, TealOS might have helped move a few more Centros between now and Pre time, and so I think this is both silly and shortsighted. Once again, Palm has found a way to shoot itself in the foot and publicly make a fool out of itself in one fell swoop.
StephaniesHusbandMar 30th 2009 1:35PM
I tried it out and it looks awesome. I even went and bought it before time ran out today. It satisfies my finger flipping desire for an iPhone on my good ole Tungsten T3.
RichApr 2nd 2009 8:48AM
You can still download TealOS from Palm Software Store. A Registration Key is provided immediately after order is complete. Cost is $19.95. Key will work on later versions of TealOS as well.
http://software.palm.com/us/html/display_category.jsp?categoryId=cat110048