CES 2009: Palm's new Web OS in detail

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Previously known as “Nova”, Palm has just rechristened and launched its new OS “Web OS”. It’s an amazingly dreary name for a concept that could reshape how we use our mobile mobiles. The bottom line is that Palm is bending head-over-heels to make their platform easy for developers – so easy that they reckon anyone who knows HTML, CSS and XML will be able to write an app.

The UI is very iPhone-like. You flick the display to scroll around, and there’s various gestures that you can use, too. Everything’s managed with a ‘cards’ metaphor, where you see a deck that can be rotated with a finger and shuffled. The biggest feature, though, is something called “Synergy”.

Twitter gets a redesign

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I don’t think there’s anything else in my life that I have such a love/hate relationship with as Twitter. The addictive microblogging service is down several days each month, annoying for my Facebook friends (because I update 10 times a day) and annoying for those around me. I’ve never gone this far though.