Google gadgets raid Sprint’s Palm Pre

By Jordan Crook

June 8, 2009

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Google is expanding its mobile market as the Palm Pre that launched this weekend comes preloaded with Google Search, Google Maps and YouTube.

The phone's operating system, webOS, can sync with users' Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Contacts, fully employing Google features to optimize Palm Pre's universal search feature.

"The implementation of Google Maps on Palm Pre is actually very different from how we built Maps on platforms like Android or BlackBerry," said Stefan Haustein and Mat Balez of Google on their blog post.

"Palm is calling its operating system webOS for good reason -- all applications running on webOS leverage a WebKit-based rendering engine for content, which made it easy to port Google Maps to the platform," they said.

For the search feature, when users type a query from the home screen, the webOS takes consumers directly to all query matches. If no matches are found, the phone sends a prompt to either search the Web with Google, local places on Google Maps, articles from Wikipedia or Twitter.

A Google Maps icon can be found with the phone's other built-in applications. The Google Maps application is being launched in a way that will use location to conduct searches for nearby businesses and points of interest, if the user allows Location Services.

Because of the WebKit-based render engine on WebOS, users have access to familiar Google Maps features such as My Location, local search, driving directions and traffic.

The Palm Pre also features a YouTube application built by Palm that uses its native application, MoJo SDK, which has HTML, CSS and JavaScript just like a Web application. The YouTube application offers auto-rotation to orient the landscape of the screen at whatever angle the user chooses.

The Palm Pre also comes fully equipped with productivity functions such as Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Contacts that are completely compatible with the device.

By entering the account name and password, Palm Pre automatically syncs the users email, calendar events and contacts to the mobile device. Since Palm Pre supports the IMAP idle protocol, users are offered the push option to get their Gmail at anytime.

According to Google, the fun has only begun between the Palm Pre and Google applications.

"The good news is that since our applications are built using Web standards along with Palm's MoJo SDK, we can iterate quickly and provide new functionality, often without requiring you to install anything new," Mr. Haustein and Mr. Balez said.

"We look forward to rolling out new features for our mobile applications at a rapid clip," they said.