Conversation Relocated (Was: Post Removed)
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Shebanator
Thoughts on Dynamic Languages, Web Apps, and more
Shebanator 
:O
This is one of your differentiators over Apple. They’re cooking up something great now, and I’m anxiously awaiting it – but I’ve NO IDEA what it might be. And won’t, until the last possible moment when Apple is ready to say “here it is, hope you like it this way”.
Now with the Pre, you’re doing things different. More open. That gets attention. Don’t run from it, embrace it! The post might have been slightly troublesome or concerning to your bosses in some ways – fine! Strike out some of the sentences, revise it (in a transparent manner if you need to) but don’t pull it when it was just getting Palm accolades by doing things in a more open way!
Anyway, that’s my opinion. You guys know what’s actually cooking behind the scenes, so maybe you need to CYA in some manner. Hope that the Pre really is as good as all the hype though, and proves a worthy smartphone competitor. Still love my old Palms and Handsprings, and were it not for iPhone I would have stayed solidly in Palm’s corner. Now I’ve run on for more than long enough. Interested to see what happens next.
[…] A popular and influential Mac Blogger, John Gruber of Daring Fireball, linked to this post and caused the usual huge influx of traffic. Unfortunately this was apparently more than Andrew and his bosses had bargained for. As of now the post has been removed. […]
A Random Pattern » Pulled post on the Palm Pre? said this on 14Jan09 at 13:47
That’s really unfortunate. That post really impressed me, but its removal more than makes up for that the other way.
Sorry to hear that. Just to be clear, my boss asked me really nicely and I agreed. No one has had a single harsh word with me. I still hope to be able to restore the post once a decision gets made.
Andrew – nothing unreasonable about that at all. And I feel a bit bad for both you and your boss. It’s one of those “whoops, the horse is out of the barn” things.
That sounds like a good solution for Palm – if more work for you!
Looking forward to your post. Nice way to leverage this into attention there. 🙂 I’m now subscribed.
Andrew, I have no problem with what you did. I’d have done the exact same thing!
I was a Palm OS developer for years, and it was only the mess of PalmSource/PalmOne (Palm/ACCESS, for anyone who doesn’t know) drove me away. I realized early that PalmOne could survive, but PalmSource was already irrelevant. If Palm’s serious about getting third parties back developing for the platform, they have some credibility to rebuild.
The outcome is good, so it’s obvious smarter heads prevailed. But that moment of panic when they realized attention was on them caused a reflex reaction, and that reflex reaction is not a sign of healthy reflexes, that’s all. It’s that reflex that they need to work on.
There’s a lot of hurt and ill will out there.
[…] Shebanow has posted another note saying that the discussion about how the app store should work will be allowed to continue, but at […]
Palm request for app store advice opens floodgate | CHARGED's Digital Lifestyle at Work or Play said this on 16Jan09 at 02:32
[…] darn right it can be and the story out of Palm today is proof. Palm employee Andrew Shabanow posted a question on his personal blog asking developers what they’d like to see in WebOS. After a remarkable response, Palm took the […]
WebOS Blog Post Sparks Controversy « Palm WebOS said this on 16Jan09 at 13:30
[…] Update: Shebanow has yanked the original post: […]
ThisGlobe.com Blogs » Palm WebOS and Third Party Applications said this on 18Jan09 at 07:29