CES 2011 is just a few weeks away, and we’re all assuming (and hoping) that Palm announces some awesome new devices to replace the aging hardware that’s out there right now. At this point, given the current marketshare numbers, what might be needed more than the new hardware is a new consumer mindset pertaining to Palm.

According to the latest numbers from Nielsen, Palm’s marketshare stands at a paltry 1.3% in the United States, and we’d reason that international marketshare is around that, if not lower in countries where Palm products are even available.

With Palm’s market penetration so low, the question weighing heavily on our minds right now is how do Palm and HP turn around their fortunes with webOS – especially if we need to wait some time for new hardware? The answer lies not with rebuilding marketshare. No, the answer is to reboot the public perception and start over. webOS is a fantastic operating system, but it was already fighting an uphill battle against iOS when it launched, and has since been eclipsed by Android and is facing competition for the bottom rung from, of all companies, Microsoft with their turn-the-smartphone-OS-on-its-ear Windows Phone 7.

In this mess of smartphone operating systems, how is Palm to differentiate itself and make the case for why Joe Consumer should buy a webOS phone over an iPhone or Droid? Reboot, reset, and start over. Palm needs to be aggressive with their advertising. It can’t be “We’re still here.” No, the message must be “We are here. This is why we’re awesome.”

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One of the top tier features for webOS 2.0 is Exhibition – a feature that allows your device to display the app of your choice when it’s set down on the Touchstone for charging. Unfortunately, it’s not ready yet (it’s coming in that OTA update), but we did just get a quick preview at the Palm Developer Day here in New York.

Basically when you set your Pre down on the Touchstone your Exhibition app Zooms in from the distance with a very cool animation. At that point it’s just running, displaying whatever information you’d like it to. Palm recommends you don’t clutter up your Exhibition mode with multiple screens from your app – keep it simple. Palm also recommends you use a snazzy horizontal scroll-in animation that’s almost Windows Phone-eque in how it handles moving text around the screen.

The basic interaction is that you have your app taking up the full screen, hiding the status bar. There is a semi-transparent black bar on the top that displays the time – you can tap or swipe down from the top of the device to switch between different Exhibition modes.  There is also another semi-transparent bar at the bottom for showing notifications. Finally, there will be an Exhibition Preferences App where you can choose your default Exhibition mode and also configure which other modes will be in your drop-down selection list when you’re in Exhibition.

Palm showed a simple clock, an Agenda view, and a photo slideshow. There was also the beginnings of a Facebook Exhibition mode, but it doesn’t look fully baked yet.

Speaking of not fully baked – Exhibition itself isn’t, this was just an early preview. The interface may change a bit before launch, so don’t go judging just yet. Now that we’ve laid down the caveats, head on after the break for the gallery of slides!

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Welcome to Round Table, which is in fact not a table at all. Round Table is a continuing series on PreCentral where we pose a question to the staff and they provide their thoughts and insights. The question could be something simple like “what’s your favorite use for the Pre’s mirror?” or something a bit more complicated, like “why are you sticking with webOS (or are you)?” Or maybe we’ll just end up discussing our sandwich workflow. Today, however, we’re diving into the latest version of webOS. While few have been able to handle webOS 2.0, the veritable cornucopia of videos, screenshots, and reviews have made it easy to draw some preliminary conclusions. After the break, see what the crew has to say about HP webOS 2.0.

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webOS is moving up to version 2.0 and bringing along with it a whole host of new features sure to please even the most jaded of webOS users. There’s the stuff that we’ve already covered: card-grouping Stacks, enhanced and more capable Just Type with search and Quick Actions, Exhibition Touchstone dock modes, and expandable Synergy plug-ins.

That’s a lot, but if you ask us, not quite worthy of bringing the big 2.0. Here’s what else Palm didn’t let slip until today:

webOS finally supports Adobe Flash Player 10.1 (beta), and it comes baked right into webOS 2.0. Flash support is limited to the browser, but by and large it’s a rich and fluid experience, and one that we’re glad we can stop wondering if we’ll ever get.

You can now tag contacts as a “favorite.” Doing so has two consequences. One: the contact will show up under the new Favorites view in the Phone app. Two: contacts tagged as such will appear at the top of searches in Contacts, Email, Messaging, and Phone.

As glimpsed in earlier leaks, webOS 2.0 comes along with Text Assist. The new app and service build upon and greatly expand the auto-correction capabilities of webOS, including general spell checking, dictionary customization, and the ability to set your own macros (custom text strings with a short typed trigger).

Skype Mobile is coming to webOS, so long as you’re on Verizon. This leverages that exclusive Verizon deal, so don’t count on seeing Skype calling on any other webOS devices any time soon.

The new Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite is included from the start, displacing DataViz’s abandoned Documents to Go package. But the only thing you’ll get by default in webOS 2.0 is the Quickoffice viewer, which lets you read Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. There’s no editing just yet (we suspect Quickoffice wants to charge for that, which is reasonable, albeit disappointing), but the included app does sync with online services like Google Docs and Dropbox.

The Facebook app is also getting a bump to 2.0, which brings along support for Facebook Chat in Messaging, through the magic of Synergy. The new Facebook app also leverages the other new webOS tools, like Stacks, Quick Actions, and Exhibition.

And that’s just the beginning – explore the world of webOS 2.0 updated features after the break.

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When webOS 2.0 comes around, Foursquare app developer Geoff Gauchet (a.k.a. Zhephree) is going to be ready with version 2.0 of his popular check-in app. As announced on his blog, Gauchet plans to hook into every webOS 2.0 feature announced thus far. You’ll be able to find places near you and submit shoutouts directly from Just Type, as well as unspecified interactions via the opened-up Synergy and new Exhibition mode.

Patching it up to work with webOS 2.0 isn’t the only thing Gauchet plans to do with Foursquare 2.0. In the cards is a massive rewrite of Foursquare’s core code, fully integrating many of the new features that have been implemented since the first release. This will serve to do a few things, most notably make it easier for future additions with less extraneous code lying around and make the app all-around faster than before. Less code means the phone needs to do less thinking. Foursquare for webOS will also be moving to an OAuth log-in scheme, just like Twitter and associated apps and services did earlier this year. Oh, and there’s the matter of switching to the not-yet-released-but-sure-to-pack-lots-of-newness API from the folks at Foursquare HQ. Even with all this, the developer is finding the time for a few new tools and features that will be sure to delight Foursquare users.

Source: Zhephree.com

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webOS 2.0 may not be out and ready to install on your Pre or Pixi, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get Exhibition running on your phone. As PreCentral forum member Honis pointed out in the comments of our Developers and 2.0 post, it’s possible to get something like Exhibition running on webOS 1.4.X. All it takes is some homebrew action, thanks to the full multitasking capabilities of webOS.

What makes the action happen is the homebrew app NoDoze. As the name might imply, NoDoze’s raison d’être is to keep your phone from dozing off as it’s apt to do when left alone. NoDoze quiet simply keeps the phone on so long as the app is running. As Honis points out, combined with apps like ClearCard with a clock or a streaming news webpage you can have pseudo-Exhibition running without having webOS 2.0.

Of course, leaving your phone completely on isn’t quite the same as Touchstone-triggered Exhibition, but we’ll take what we can get until webOS 2.0 finally hits our phones.

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Under strict instructions to relax before the new webOS 2.0 arrives.

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webOS 2.0 is due out later this year and Palm has dropped some serious details about what’s coming in the new OS to us. In addition to lots of goodness for developers in the form of new APIs and a SDK Beta download available today, we have the details on some user-facing features. Here’s the short version:

• Palm’s multitasking ‘card’ metaphor is getting a refresh with Stacks
• Universal Search is getting majorly beefed up with ‘Quick Actions,’ will be opened to developers, and rebranded as Just Type
• Apps can have custom Touchstone at-a-glance views with Exhibition
• Synergy is opening up to developers
• HTML5 and Javascript support is much improved
• Hybrid PDK/SDK apps will be fully supported

Palm’s announcements today are primarily directed toward developers, so much of what you’re going to see is about frameworks and not features – the killer user-facing features will come from webOS developers and (hopefully) from Palm themselves in future announcements. There’s still plenty to dig into with the above features, though, so join us after the break as we get a peek into what Palm has planned for webOS 2.0.

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As we saw hinted earlier this month, Palm is bringing a ‘dock mode’ of sorts with webOS 2.0, and it’s not a dock mode like you might expect. Exhibition is a Touchstone-triggered app extension that displays at-a-glance information of your choosing while your phone charges. It’s pretty straightforward: you set the phone on the Touchstone charger, and Exhibition view is launch and your at-a-glance info is displayed.

What makes Exhibition interesting is that developers can build their own modules, and bake them into their apps. A few off-the-top-of-our-heads example: Calendar could display the day’s appointments (agenda view!), your to-do list could be pulled from Tasks, your Facebook photos could be shown in a slideshow, Top Stocks could display the current state of the stock market, or you could have a simple analog clock. Like the other enhancements coming in webOS 2.0, the possibilities for Exhibition are wide open, and while Palm is creating a handful of Exhibition modules, they want to leave it open to developers to truly exploit its potential.

There’s one caveat to Exhibition, and it’s one that has us somewhat disappointed. As of right now, Exhibition only supports one block at a time. This, of course, opens the doors for developers to build the be-all end-all Exhibition app that combines as much information as possible into one at-a-glance Touchstone block. Our hope is that Palm figures out how to have multiple Exhibition modules displayed at a time, either by having smaller/multiple-sized blocks (ala Android widgets), via a gesture-based cards-like row of modules, or some other Palm-brewed magic. Speaking of brewing, we reckon it’ll only be a matter of time before the webOS homebrew community patches things up so that Exhibition can be displayed when charging via cable as well.

Even with that bit of disappointment, we’re still pretty stoked for Exhibition. It’s one thing to rejuice your phone inductively via a fancy pants charger, it’s another for that charger to change the way you use your phone.

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