TealOS brings Pre experience pre-Pre

When we saw those bizarre images of a Centro seemingly running webOS a few days ago, we declared that it could've been someone "hard at work on a webOS skin for Palm OS." Turns out that's exactly what was going on -- and after watching a video of just how thorough the makeover is, we're pretty blown away. Anyone either in love with the hardware of their Palm OS 5-based device or made physically ill by the thought of switching to Sprint to get the Pre might want to seriously consider TealOS' $14.95 asking price, because it'll get you quite a bit of the visual dazzle webOS promises -- cards (which don't appear to be live, but show you where you left off when you minimized), the wave launcher, translucent app menu, and more. Follow the break for the video of TealOS doing its thing.

[Via PreThinking, thanks Philip]

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 21st 2009 5:01PM]

noy bad at all

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 21st 2009 8:33PM]

FRIGGIN AMAZING! Successfully breathing life into an old OS!!!! where was this when i had my Treo 680.... I was a crazy Palm Fanboy until the iPhone and i will still love palm but the OS was severely dated... This is truly AMAZING... Teal has done what Palm could have done 5 years ago and could have gained more marketshare before it was too late.

[Federaly Posted Feb 21st 2009 9:25PM]

That was Friggen amazing! I'm so tempted now just to go and buy a Centro for $99 and install.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 21st 2009 9:55PM]

Yeah, but... you cant fix a bunch of the short comings of the current Palm OS on current hardware..

The applications dont run in the background
The hardware is slow
The network access is marginal & slow
Form factor is outdated

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 21st 2009 10:05PM]

can we please get these guys developing skins for android immediately!!

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 22nd 2009 7:53AM]

This is really super-cool in one way ... it gives you a little glimpse of how WebOS would function in hand. Other than that it's really just a launcher environment on top of Palm's pitiful current hardware.

Cards are just screenshots of the app and return to previous point (or not) as all POS apps. The hardware is outmatched when switching / closing apps. The trial version hammers you with nags. The wave works great! Flipping thru cards / scrolling via gesturing is decent, but overwhelms the hardware and is not really smooth enough. Palm hard keys and select-app-by-first-letter is still more productive, even if boring. Everything ran a bit better when I wound my Treo 680 up to 455mhz. Oh, and that archaic 2pixel white border on all Palm's except Centros almost ruins the beauty of the launcher. That thing is hideous.

There is nothing to see here as far as productivity is concerned. There is a lot to see here as far as coolness and WebOS preview is concerned. It's really fun to try out.

[SoCoolCurt Posted Feb 22nd 2009 3:32AM]

that is an amazing accomplishment they have there. it seems to function very well and makes me wonder what took Palm so long now lol. almost wish i had a PalmOS Treo now instead of this WinMo one cause that would certainly tide me over until i got my Pre.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 1st 2009 12:41PM]

I wish someone would port Android to the older Palm phones. The gui upgrade is nice but the real issue is the lack of support for the Palm OS by developers...you're stuck with craptastic browsers, or a barely-running Opera Mini that'll crash because the only java sdk available is both ancient and discontinued (meaning users have to pirate it if they want to run Opera Mini).
Actually, if someone would port a decent browser to Palm OS it would be enough, but there's no reason for anybody to do it.