webOS has grown quite a bit since its launch last summer. The Pre debuted on Sprint to much anticipation and shortly after, the younger brother (sister?), Pixi was born. Then Palm sought out new carriers in Verizon and more recently AT&T with enhanced versions of their existing phones. This is great for Palm overall and great for new potential webOS customers, but when you stop to think about it, the original Sprint Pre and Pixi owners actually might have the short end of the stick here. Read on to hear my thoughts on the subject.
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“Life Moves Fast” is what Palm claims in their new advertisement that hit the internet today. The ad was well received by many webOS enthusiasts. However, in the opinion of this humble author, there is something that moves even faster that Palm seems to not have taken into account; the very commercial itself that they’ve created to demonstrate their product.
First, I will state that I disagree with many twitterers and blog commenters out there (including some from this site) saying this is Palm’s best commercial yet and the one we’ve all been waiting for. I will admit that the ad does have a nice feel to it. There’s cool, hip music (even if not something I’d ever personally listen to) and a sassy, confident looking young lady walking down the street who looks like she might be making the most of whatever it is she’s actually using. But therein lies the problem: What the heck is she using?
Not only does the commercial refuse to give a good look at any actual device whatsoever, something that can be argued is a “safe move” for also being able to promote yet to be released devices, but it also shows you the simulated screen images so quickly that you don’t ever really get a good look at those either. These are two rather large problems. The consumer doesn’t know what the phone looks like, nor did they really get a good look at what it could even do. This leaves too much responsibility on the would-be consumer to find more information by themselves. Either they go to Palm’s website, which would be a step in the right direction, but still maybe not enough; or they do nothing at all because they don’t really even know what they were just exposed to.
Big problem.
I happen to believe that those among us who are already Palm enthusiasts consider this commercial the second coming only because it gives that userbase something to look at that they are already familiar with: notifications and multiple apps. People with webOS phones recognize what’s going on in the ad because they already know about it. Show this same ad to someone who doesn’t know anything about webOS and ask them if they have a single clue as to what is going on and I bet they’d have a hard time figuring it out.
iPhone and Droid commercials may lack overall excitement, but what they do have is a very clearly executed way to show you what their product actually looks like, both in terms of hardware and software. While I don’t think Palm needs to play copycat with their commercials, they do need to take a hint from the competition.
The new Palm ad is, in one aspect, fun and new feeling, which is an improvement over previous ads. On the other, more important side of the coin, it still is lacking what was always lacking from webOS advertisements: a straightforward and simple way of showing the average consumer how this platform stacks up against the competition. Show people flipping between apps in a way that makes them understand what’s actually happening on the screen and then you’ll have your first truly successful webOS advertisement. Until then, hey, at least this commercial has a normal looking person in it, right?
TangramPuzzle Lite by LS Software is a webOS take on the traditional puzzle game of Tangram. For those not familiar with Tangram, here’s Wikipedia’s description:
“The tangram is a dissection puzzle consisting of seven flat shapes, called tans, which are put together to form shapes. The objective of the puzzle is to form a specific shape (given only in outline or silhouette) using all seven pieces, which may not overlap.”
This Lite version offers 20 puzzles which may seem a little too generous for a free app that wants you to spend money on a full version, but once you get the hang of arranging the pieces and solving the puzzles, I think you’ll be enticed to fork over the dough for additional content.
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AirTraffic Lite (Free on the App Catalog) is a simple arcade game reminiscent of the widely popular Flight Control game on a competing mobile platform. The game screen is a top-down view of an airport landing strip area while airplanes of varying sizes as well as helicopters fly into view from off-screen and you assume the role of an Air Traffic Control agent. You have to drag your finger from these airborne vehicles to their designated landing strips, creating a path for them to land safely. Each type of aircraft is assigned to a specific strip. Seems simple enough. However, you have to make sure not to let a mid-air collision occur or else it’s game over. This can be quite the challenging task when the game picks up pace and you have planes and helicopters all over the screen.
The game sports relatively nice 2D graphics and smooth animation. Since it’s free, you have a little admob banner at the bottom of the screen but it doesn’t get in the way of gameplay all too much. This game is great for a short play while commuting or waiting in line somewhere. It doesn’t involve too much effort on the part of the player and offers a lot of replay value by asking you to beat your own recorded high score, although there isn’t a global leaderboard which would be nice. Perhaps in a paid version whenever it becomes available.
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Wobble Words, by Gobico Games ($2.99) is a fast word search game. Find as may high scoring words as you can before the timer runs out. So says the official “About” screen in the app. If I could give you my own explanation, it is a hybrid cross between Boggle and Scrabble. You get a 4×4 letter game screen where you drag your finger from letter to letter to form words from three to six characters in length. The goal of all game types is to get the highest score possible while racing the clock.
You have 3 minutes to find, make, and score for as many words as you can. Each letter has a point value and you can toggle between displaying these points on each letter or hiding them. Once a letter is used they will disappear and new letters along with the rest of the letters will drop down, similar to Bejewled. You can also toggle this setting, making it so all the letters will stay and you have to make due with the letters your dealt throughout the entire span of the game. You can also use the accelerometer to change the orientation of the board in case you need a new perspective.
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