14 DAY TRIAL // Two more features of the upcoming webOS, the software platform of the Palm Pre mobile phone, have slipped during an interview with a member of Elevation Partners, the financial life support system of Palm. Roger McNamee from Elevation seems to like the Pre a lot, and he talked about two nice features of the operating system the company did not unveil when showcasing the device.
Here is the description McNamee gave regarding those features, which are supposedly called “Oops I'm late” and “Automatic Calendar Context”: “But better than that, it does stuff for you. So when you wake up in the morning, it has taken your calendar (if you ask it to) and downloaded the maps for your whole day, it’s downloaded the Wikipedias for the people you’re going to visit and the companies you’re going to see… Why is it on PCs you have to go and do all that?”
“And when you’re late – get this – when you’re late it — remember, this thing has GPS, it has a clock, and it has your calendar. So it not only knows where you are, it knows where you’re supposed to be and when, and so when it realizes you’re going to be late, it says “Hey, not only are you going to be late, but I can take care of it for you. I’ll send an email to your assistant or to the people in the meeting, which would you prefer? And oh, by the way, here’s the map.” To us, this is the beginning of a new wave.” he continued.
These features seem exciting enough and it is rather interesting that Palm did not talk about them at its CES presentation of the device. For what it’s worth, the webOS might come to us with some more interesting functionalities that we haven't been told about.
Here is the video in which Roger McNamee talks with Sarah Lacy about Palm Pre and describes the aforementioned features: