The folks at PalmInfoCenter.com have done some more sleuthing around the recently leaked Palm webOS 1.2 update for the Palm Pre.
PalmInfoCenter.com is reporting the discovery of two new features: blinking notifications and remote application removal.
“Good news first: LED notifications are on the way! The much-requested feature has been discovered within the “securityconfig-scene.html” file, which contains the following info-text: The gesture area blinks when new notifications arrive.”
“And now the other, not-so-good thing: apparently webOS 1.2 will give Palm the ability to remotely remove apps from your device, and you won’t have much of a say in the matter. In the file “usr\lib\luna\system\luna-systemui\app\controllers\apprevokedalert_scene.html”, we can see this info-text: ‘Palm had to delete this application from the App Catalog and your device. If you paid for this app, your money will be refunded.'”
I’m not so sure that the app removal function is completely a bad thing. Apple has implemented it. Palm appears to be ready to implement it. I’m sure Microsoft, Google, and Research In Motion have the feature in their phones as well. And with the recent George Orwell 1984 Amazon Kindle disaster, people are more than little bit sensitive over the issue. It is kind of ironic that Amazon deleted the digital version of 1984 from people’s Kindles.
There are some benefits to having the app removal feature on the Pre. Consider what would happen if a really poorly functioning application gets into the App Catalog and starts causing Pre’s to crash to the point of not being able to be used. It would be kind of hard to use the Pre as a “business tool” if the phone can’t connect to a corporate Microsoft Exchange server. What happens if a virus or other web-bases malware gets injected into webOS. Not good.
If the app removal feature is used for the greater good, not to the benefit of Palm or one of their carrier partners, it can be a good thing. The same is true for Apple and Amazon.