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HP webOS interface kudos


UPDATED 06/07/2013 Pandora no-longer makes the webOS version of its player available.


While quite obviously a piece rooted in opinion, a subtle nod is offered to Palm for the excellent interface work it did with webOS.  Since it’s initial release with Sprint in June 2009, Palm quickly slipped into relative oblivion.  With the recent purchase of the company by HP coupled with new product releases set for the summer, webOS may become relevant once again.  If so, then perhaps a whole new lot of users will come to appreciate the consideration that was taken with the webOS user interface (UI).

An example is the popular webOS application for the even more popular Pandora Internet radio service.  And as it turns out, the company has a collection of screen captures for the various mobile platforms that have native applications for the service.  This happens to double as a quick way to compare the interface elements of other platforms by using the same application as a benchmark.

You can find it here:  http://www.pandora.com/on-the-go/

A couple of things to note about the webOS version are that the album cover screen doubles as a way to track back through your played tracks.  This, in itself is not unique, as at least the iOS version allows this as well.  However, it does include the ability to rate those tracks as well.  And unlike several of the other platform versions, the webOS version makes use of eye-pleasing gradients and color for a refined fit-and-finish.  Compare this to relatively drab screen captures for the Android, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile versions.

Admittedly, drawing attention to features of an application like scrolling over past tracks is more of an application review type point.  It still showcases the suite of tools available to developers.  Take this as a tip of the hat to the ones responsible for the effort put forth with this UI.  Especially, when considering that for the most part webOS users are still on version 1.x and are already enjoying a level of refinement that paces that of much older competitors.

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