webOS

Former Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein calls sale to HP 'a waste'

Nearly three years after Palm sold itself to Hewlett-Packard, the mobile device maker's former chief executive expressed regret about the deal, calling it "a waste."

When asked if there was something he have done differently with the rollout of the WebOS mobile operating system, Jon Rubinstein told Fierce Wireless in a story published Tuesday that the HP acquisition spelled the end for Palm's mobile OS. And if he had known then what he knows now, Rubinstein said, it's very unlikely he would have agreed to the deal.

"Talk about a waste," said Rubinstein, … Read more

Countdown begins for Galaxy S4 reveal

Monday's CNET Update does it with stylus:

The mother of all mobile trade shows, Mobile World Congress, kicked off in Barcelona. Today's video roundup highlights the buzz over Samsung, WebOS and a new way to talk to your phone:

- Samsung will unveil the Galaxy S4 on March 14

- Visa's mobile payment program will be built into the Galaxy S4

- More on MasterCard's mobile payment plan, MasterPass

- First impressions of the Galaxy Note 8 tablet

- Samsung HomeSync to rival Apple TV

- WebOS lives in future LG smart TVs

- HP tries tablets again with the Slate 7 … Read more

LG at work on WebOS-based HDTV, report says

The the slow pendulum swing toward the smart TV is about to hit WebOS.

LG has teamed up with Gram, the organization established by HP to handle the WebOS project, to create a television that will be running on the open-source operating system, according to a new report from WebOS Nation. That blog reports that LG and Gram have been working closely for several months on the project.

The road to Gram has been a long and hard one for HP. In 2010, the company made the ill-advised decision to acquire Palm for $1.2 billion. After a few product … Read more

Open WebOS 1.0 arrives for those who dare to port

Call it the ghost of Palm past. Today the once-lauded WebOS, originally a smartphone operating system, lives on once again in the form of Open WebOS 1.0.

Issued by Hewlett-Packard (HP), the first open-source version of Open WebOS is now ready for developers and others in the open-source community to port Open WebOS to any number of devices.

In a demo video, HP Chief Architect Steve Winston shows how the operating system works on an HP desktop.

The full version of Open WebOS 1.0 follows a pair of beta releases made available earlier this year. While HP is … Read more

HP launches first version of Open WebOS in beta

Months after Hewlett-Packard originally announced the open-source version of WebOS, the beta version of the platform is on its way out the door.

Today's release includes two environments for developers. The first is the desktop build, which is said to provide "the ideal development environment" for designing the WebOS user experience with more features and integrating other open-source technologies on the Ubuntu desktop.

Some of those new features include support for core apps such as Calendar and Contacts as well as third-party Enyo apps.

The second is the OpenEmbedded build for porting WebOS to new devices. It'… Read more

HP spins off WebOS business, rebranding it as 'Gram'

Hewlett-Packard is rebranding its WebOS Global Business Unit as a new company called Gram, according to an internal company e-mail.

Penned by HP Senior VP Martin Risau, the August 11 memo obtained by CNET encourages employees to tell outsiders little about the company other than it is operating in stealth mode:

Thank you for all of your enthusiasm at yesterday's new brand announcement: GRAM. We hope you will fall in love with the brand just as lots of us have already. Please note that our Mission, Values, and Plan of Action are the same. We are continuing to march … Read more

How to reset the DNS cache in OS X

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical network that resolves text-based URLs such as "www.cnet.com" to the servers' IP addresses that your computer uses for communication. While loading a single Web page or other Web-based resource, your computer may contact numerous URLs to load different components (a Web page, images on it, an application hosted on it, scripts, etc.), so a robust DNS service is a vital part of having a smooth Internet connection.

Even though a fast DNS service will optimize a connection, redundant queries to it will take time to complete. Therefore, based … Read more

Optimize and address Flash performance in OS X

Adobe's Flash player provides access to a great deal of online content, including that from popular sites like YouTube; however, there may be times when visiting sites that use the plug-in results in choppy performance or an inability to connect to the media being presented, which may happen on all installed and updated Web browsers. If this happens on your system, you have several options to optimize the plug-in's performance and get the sites working again.

Update Flash First if you are having troubles with Flash, then be sure to fully update to the latest version. This will … Read more

HP-backed Enyo 2 app framework exits beta

Hewlett-Packard announced this week that Enyo 2, the second version of framework formerly used exclusively for building WebOS apps, has exited beta and is available for developer use.

While the first version of Enyo was focused on HP's failed TouchPad tablet, the new iteration can be used to build apps for iOS, Android, Safari, Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer.

"We see a web-centric future in which there aren't iOS apps, Android apps, Mac apps and Windows apps -- there are just apps: apps that let you access your content and get stuff done, wherever you happen to … Read more

HP's Enyo team 'clarifies' reports about Google move

HP's Enyo team says reports of its move to Google need clarification.

The Verge reported yesterday that Google would soon be assimilating the Hewlett-Packard team responsible for creating Enyo, the HTLM5-based application framework for WebOS that debuted on the failed TouchPad.

But a blog item posted on the Enyo Web site today says the majority of the team remains, that development of Enyo will continue, and that the Enyo team is expanding.

In an update to its report, and citing unnamed sources, The Verge had added that the person in charge of Enyo, Matt McNulty, was one of the … Read more