Will these webOS features ever get into BB 10 OS?

I bought "hook, line and sinker" into BB 10 OS two years ago. I dumped my Pre2 for a 9930 (always wanted to experience the BB legend) and a Playbook with the promise of a webOS-like UI on a serious OS kernel and rock solid hardware. I was a hard core webOS bigot and I just loved the way the Playbook worked. I even thought that RIM made improvements in some areas. Some specific example are the down gesture for preferences -- and the overall preferences model.

Two years later, I am eligible for an upgrade to my 9930 and the Q10 is the obvious choice. I go into the Verizon store and discover that much of the stuff that attracted me to BB is now gone. I know that BB was rushed to get BB 10 OS to market, but would like to know if some of these features are likely to get into BB 10 OS update.

Regression from Playbook:

- cards (active panes are very, very different)
- app switch gesture -- swipe left/right to switch apps
- app quit gesture -- swipe up to quit app
- app launcher -- double swipe up
- app quick launch bar - swipe up to see your 5 most frequent apps anytime and customizable
- notifications in top bar

It would also be great if these other features from webOS get into BB 10 OS:

- card stacks
- ability to rearrange cards
- multiple window browsing (for forums, etc.)

- multiple windows for composing email
- ability to search contacts by first letter in first and last name (ex. jd => John Doe)

Additions:
- left gestures to return
- left/right gestures to browse back/forward

Which of these do you think will get into BB 10 OS? If you are a former webOS and think that the "new way" is better I would also like to understand that as well.

For the record I know I don't have any choice now , and BB 10 OS seem like the only way to go now a days if you want a physical keyboard. The real question is when do I switch? I even purchased a Pre3 to hold me over for a while.

Originally Posted by miata

I bought "hook, line and sinker" into BB 10 OS two years ago. I dumped my Pre2 for a 9930 (always wanted to experience the BB legend) and a Playbook with the promise of a webOS-like UI on a serious OS kernel and rock solid hardware. I was a hard core webOS bigot and I just loved the way the Playbook worked. I even thought that RIM made improvements in some areas. Some specific example are the down gesture for preferences -- and the overall preferences model.

Two years later, I am eligible for an upgrade to my 9930 and the Q10 is the obvious choice. I go into the Verizon store and discover that much of the stuff that attracted me to BB is now gone. I know that BB was rushed to get BB 10 OS to market, but would like to know if some of these features are likely to get into BB 10 OS update.

Regression from Playbook:

- cards (active panes are very, very different)
- app switch gesture -- swipe left/right to switch apps
- app quit gesture -- swipe up to quit app
- app launcher -- double swipe up
- app quick launch bar - swipe up to see your 5 most frequent apps anytime and customizable
- notifications in top bar

It would also be great if these other features from webOS get into BB 10 OS:

- card stacks
- ability to rearrange cards
- multiple window browsing (for forums, etc.)
- multiple windows for composing email
- ability to search contacts by first letter in first and last name (ex. jd => John Doe)

Which of these do you think will get into BB 10 OS? If you are a former webOS and think that the "new way" is better I would also like to understand that as well.

For the record I know I don't have any choice now , and BB 10 OS seem like the only way to go now a days if you want a physical keyboard. The real question is when do I switch? I even purchased a Pre3 to hold me over for a while.

1) Cards and active panes are different, but neither is better

2) App switch gesture would never work with this screen size. Apps get minimized enough by accident with the one gesture.

3) The app quit gesture also wouldn't work because of the fact that there are two Active Frames pages. To get to the second page, you have to swipe up which would cause problems if swiping up closed apps as well.

4) The quick launch is there for phone, camera and search, but it would be nice if it was customizable.

5) Notifications in the top bar would be redundant with the peek gesture on the left side.

Posted via CB10

I am also a WebOS refugee and while I miss the interface, BB seemed to wholesale use Jolla design style. As for any of the potential features.
- Stacks wouldn't work. Defeats the purpose of the Active Frame idea. Also there is a hard limit of 8 frames open at a time.
- Would be nice but with the limit of 8 frames open at a time it doesn't seem necessary.
- With AF limit(8), with new processes for each browser window you would run out of frames and the older ones will close
- Same as above
- Nice feature to have.
As for switching, if you have a hard on for a physical keyboard and don't care about screen size then a Q10 wouldn't be a bad choice, but if you just 'like' to have a physical keyboard I would just sit on the Pre3 for the time being and see the drama with BB plays out. Plus with the holidays coming up soon you will find better deals on phones(Note 3).

Originally Posted by gregorylkelly

1) Cards and active panes are different, but neither is better

I've only played with active panes in the store, but have a few concerns with limited use:
- with cards you quickly focus on the miniaturized screen shot of the app you want to switch to -- the active panes are black boxes with small text (I think that BB tried to overload these for application switching and widgets -- and neither works well)
- you are limited to 8 -- and the oldest gets rolled off!
- you cannot rearrange the panes

BTW, what do you see as the advantages of active panes?

Originally Posted by gregorylkelly

2) App switch gesture would never work with this screen size. Apps get minimized enough by accident with the one gesture.

Worked great on the itsy bitsy Palm Pixi. Heck even iPhone added this with iOS 6 advanced gestures. This is just basic with multi-tasking.

Originally Posted by gregorylkelly

3) The app quit gesture also wouldn't work because of the fact that there are two Active Frames pages. To get to the second page, you have to swipe up which would cause problems if swiping up closed apps as well.

I don't understand. You just need to swipe the app window to the top. You don't need to touch the active panes. If you are talking about killing active panes I still don't understand why that would be an issue. Less important though -- since you already have the x to kill active panes.

Originally Posted by gregorylkelly

4) The quick launch is there for phone, camera and search, but it would be nice if it was customizable.

This one bothers me a lot. I had an iPad and started using the launch bar to switch apps -- simple swipe up and click on email, calendar, browser or whether which are the things I switch the most. So, in this respect iOS is faster than BB OS for the most common apps.

Originally Posted by gregorylkelly

5) Notifications in the top bar would be redundant with the peek gesture on the left side.

Posted via CB10

Except Playbook notifications are active (no need to "peek) and you can click on the notification to get directly to email for example. I think that most would admit that not getting instant notifications is as about anti-Blackberry as you can get.

Originally Posted by Packolypse

I am also a WebOS refugee and while I miss the interface, BB seemed to wholesale use Jolla design style. As for any of the potential features.
- Stacks wouldn't work. Defeats the purpose of the Active Frame idea. Also there is a hard limit of 8 frames open at a time.
- Would be nice but with the limit of 8 frames open at a time it doesn't seem necessary.
- With AF limit(8), with new processes for each browser window you would run out of frames and the older ones will close
- Same as above
- Nice feature to have.
As for switching, if you have a hard on for a physical keyboard and don't care about screen size then a Q10 wouldn't be a bad choice, but if you just 'like' to have a physical keyboard I would just sit on the Pre3 for the time being and see the drama with BB plays out. Plus with the holidays coming up soon you will find better deals on phones(Note 3).

I'm not a big fan of the active panes in BB 10 OS, just like I don't like the "active icons" in iOS, but with iOS I can easy switch between active apps with the left/right swipe gesture or if you have a bunch of active apps just click on the quick launch bar icon to go directly to your most common apps -- a good 80/20 design. I'm just surprised that BB decided not to support either of these models when both were supported by the Playbook. My guess is that they planned on supporting the left/right swipe gesture for app switching, but thought if would be confusing since the left right model is not consistent with the active panes which are on a 2x8 matrix.

Originally Posted by gregorylkelly

1) Cards and active panes are different, but neither is better

Thanks. Now I finally understand what you meant.

I made another visit to the Verizon store today to play with the BB 10 OS phones some more. I was comparing active panes to webOS active apps, but you are right. They are very different. I didn't notice the pattern until today. It finally hit me that active panes are really modeled after the Android recent apps list with a FIFO queue, closing windows always go the upper left active pane. And of course, you cannot move things around in the recent apps list. However, just like Andriod you can remove apps from the recent apps list. This also explains why you cannot do a single gesture to close an app in BB 10 OS. It would not show up in the recent apps list and the user would likely be confused.

This is making more sense to me now and feeling like BB 10 OS is going to require about a 1-2 week adjustment curve, but will eventually be something I can feel comfortable with. That makes me feel much better. I just got a Pre3 to use for work and it is unsupported by carriers or HP. I am using at my own risk. Now I have a contingency plan in something like the Q10.