TealOS – How to Get a Pre on your Palm
While everyone is waiting and watching (and drooling) for the chance to get hold of a new Palm Pre, Tealpoint Software is staying old school. Sorta.
Palm users are familiar with great apps from Tealpoint: TealLock, TealScript, TealBackup, and others. A name Palm enthusiasts have come to know and trust, Teal is stepping out of the crowd to show that the old Palm os (Garnet) is not quite dead yet. For a limited time, you can purchase TealOS for $14.95 (expected to soon go to $19.95), and give your Palm Treo or Centro a facelift and feel closer to the new face of Palm and WebOS.
If you have watched any of the videos demo’ing the Pre, you’re familiar with what it looks like, and the basic operation. Either it didn’t take the developers at Tealpoint long to copy the look/feel, or they had some inside knowledge as to what to expect.
I have watched all the videos with great interest, and the look of these screens is unmistakably Pre. The feel is as close to Pre as you can get without a capacitive screen: you can still use your stylus or fingernail on the Centro. This is one of the nicest launchers to play on my Centro in a long time! But when all is said and done, it is still just a launcher running on Garnet, and that means there are some limitations despite the peppy appearance.
Full sized “cards” appear to show the “active” applications, and can be minimized by swiping downwards to rearrange. However, because this is Garnet, what you are seeing are not actually active apps, but really only the most recently run apps. Tapping a card will not necessarily return you to exactly where you were, and in many instances it actually restarts the app. Take for example, the phone app (shown minimized in the above left screenshot). I open the phone app and switch to the call log view. I then return home where I see the card showing the call log view…but when I tap the card again to return to it as an active app, it is back to the dial screen. Small matter when it looks so nice though, eh?
The main launch screen looks pretty much like the default Palm launcher, although it is transparent, and you can still see the cards and wallpaper behind it. You can swipe up and down to view all your apps, or side to side for different categories. What you can’t do is use the keypad to type the first letter of an app to jump to. That is somewhat disappointing, as it’s much faster doing it that way if you know the name of the app you’re looking for.
Teal definitely wants users to register this app. I have used/trialed/purchased hundreds of apps over the years, but this has the most annoying reminder screen ever. Every time you leave an app and tap the HOME button, the registration screen pops up. Every time. I really think they could have done it less frequently without losing out on any business!
There are plenty of options available in TealOS. It even supports the wiggly ribbon that can replace your hard keys inside any app. Of course, the ribbon can be changed to show any apps of your choice. It makes a great shortcut tool. Obviously the wallpaper can be customized, and you can use any standard .jpg.
I love the option of being able to exclude certain apps from wave/swipes. While this won’t be an issue on the Pre, it could be a problem if you are using TealScript on your Treo 700p!
TealOS definitely shares some of Palm’s “newness” with its old trusted devices. A much needed facelift, and a way to prepare for the Pre in your future. Get it today, I did!
Written by Alli Flowers - Email
February 22nd, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Tried it on my TX
Nice concept but too slow and unresponsive. Still, it was definetly fun taking the glance at the dynamics of Palm’s new UI
March 10th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Beta app of TealOS working fine so far on my Treo 700p.
Does Teal have a version for Windows based Palm phones as well?
March 10th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
As far as I know, Teal only does Palm os applications. Of course, this could very well change once the Pre (and WebOS) is released!