HP has begun to roll out the long awaited webOS 2.1 update to unlocked versions of the Pre 2. The 32MB includes the Exhibition Mode first demonstrated during its keynote presentation last month, but a more complete changelog has yet to be posted. It is not clear what bug fixes or other issues webOS 2.1 resolves over webOS 2.0.
This follows the lack of responses from US carriers on the availability of webOS 2.1+ on the Pre/Pixi Plus, despite European carriers rolling out their own builds without issue.
Following HP aborting the release of webOS 2.0 for all first-gen devices, it released a webOS 2.1 update for the European version of the Palm Pre Plus. The company’s media relations department then blamed the lack of release on American Palm Pre Plus devices as being up to the request of carriers. Requests for comment from PhoneNews.com were not returned by either Sprint or Verizon, and both carriers are declining subsequent opportunities comment as well.
HP has also indicated that technically barriers prevent webOS 2.0+ from being released on the Palm Pixi and Pixi Plus (due to slow CPUs) and original Palm Pre on Sprint (due to limited RAM).
webOS 2.1 is the latest release of webOS globally, and brings the Pre 2 up to the latest version. As an oddity in release cycles, it is rare for the latest device (the Pre 2) to not be the first to receive such an update. The Pre 2 shipped with webOS 2.0.
I just installed 2.1 on my unlocked Pre2. New features I noticed right away:
– Voice dialing: it works quite well, even when I say a partial name (first or last name only) it gives me a list with the possible matches.
– Exhibition mode: I’ll be probably leave it in the calendar mode since I only doc it at night prior to going to bed.
– Faster browser: Pages seem to come up significantly more quickly than before. I really like it.
– The HP logo pulsating effect (when the phone is booting up) seems overly done . I know HP is not known for its sense of style, so please leave the styles, transitions and visual effects to the UI gurus at the Palm team. 🙂
– Apps appear to load faster but the initial transition from the app pulsating logo into the app’s initial card were sometimes without the usual transition, it just snapped into place the same unpolished way Android apps load.
Fernando
@fernando
Do you live in the us? If so do you use att with your unlocked pre2? Also what kind of download and upload speeds are you getting? I need a world phone and this looks like a good fit coming from android.
JJ,
I live in Los Angles and my unlocked Pre2 is with T-Mobile. Download/upload speeds are much lower than what I was used to get with my Pre- on Sprint. It doesn’t affect me very often since I’m almost always near a wifi hotspot, although as soon as the Pre3 becomes available I am moving to Verizon. The two GSM providers here in the U.S., AT&T and T-Mobile offer, in general, inferior data and voice quality (at least here in LA) compared to their CDMA counterparts Verizon and Sprint.
Fernando
tmobile’s 3g is very slow…
I live in N.CA.
FYI for those unaware, the Pre 2 will not run at 3G speeds on T-Mobile, you are only running GSM/EDGE on the Pre 2’s frequencies on T-Mobile.
You also aren’t getting 3G voice quality, either.