talkingdigital.org

The title of this review is a little misleading. While I am celebrating my second full day of Pre ownership, I have not used the Pre exclusively for those two days. I am using both my Centro and the Pre. I am in the process of selling my business and the buyer is going to continue using the Centro and Agendus setup that I have been using for the past eight years until he gets a grasp of how the business runs, at which point he will likely change phones and scheduling systems.

So, I  am using the Centro for business but the Pre for personal, church and other professional projects I continue to work on.

While I haven’t used the Pre exclusively, I have had a lot of time to play with it and try to understand how to use it as a tool which is what I bought it for.

I believe that I made it clear all along that I did not expect the Pre to be an iPhone, nor did I want it to be an iPhone. I wanted a smartphone that had a practical edge and a slick interface. I have played with the Storm, the Instinct and the HTC Touch models and they all are very good at trying to look like iPhones in the marketing but failing miserably in reality. I would almost consider them bait and switch phones.

The Pre had attracted me from the beginning because it pays homage to the iPhone. But it also pays homage to the Blackberry and Palm.

Today I noticed the Pres imperfections but I also realized what may be its greatest strength.

Let’s discuss the Cons first…

CONS:

Web browsing is a little quirky -Pages do load fast and render very nicely. However, I do miss the iPhone’s ability to automatically zoom in on a given portion of a website. You do a lot of multi-touch pinching and sliding to get navigate through the page. It seems that you either zoom in or out too far. I think this is partly due to the smaller screen size.

The rendering of iGoogle and talkingDigital is pretty much horrible. The page is rendered into tall, thin columns. They can be read, but the pages are not pretty at all.

Copy and Paste exists on the Pre, but it needs a lot of fine tuning. It does not work at all in web browsing and holding the shift key while dragging feels odd. Remember the first time you tried to drag your mouse across text to select it and it seemed like you just couldn’t get it right? Remember that frustration? I feel that way when I try to copy and paste on the Pre.

That said, there is a lot to be said about having a tactile keyboard. Copy and pasting long URLs is one thing, but the main reason people needed copy and paste on the iPhone was because typing even a short sentence on the horid onscreen keyboard is a five minute task. With the Pre, retyping a few words is no big deal. I can type entire sentences without looking at the keyboard.

I miss the D-Pad – The touchscreen is great but how much harder would it have been to add a small trackball or D-pad to move the cursor around? Correcting typing mistakes is a little annoying when you can’t move the cursor back one character at a time. Even if it could be done using gestures, it would be better than trying to drag your finger to the exact spot. Typically, I drag the cursor within a couple spaces of where I make the mistake, then backspace a few characters and retype.

I would also like an undo option in the edit system. I don’t remember the exact reasons, but I have run into two situations where a CTRL+Z would be helpful.

The Pre powers off after the allotted amount of time to save power. The only way to wake it up is to tap the power button in the upper right corner, or tap the space bar on the keyboard. It would be nice if tapping twice on the “center button” would wake the device.

Now for my biggest gripe – the app catalog. Actually, the catalog itself is very nice. It shows a lot of promise as it is arranged nicely and every app offers the ability to try before you buy. Installing the apps also happens seamlessly and quickly. I think that the app catalog is a easy to use as the iTunes app store. BUT!!!! There are no prices listed anywhere. You have no idea whether an app is free or $1000. Currently the app catalog is in beta, but the lack of prices makes me extremely nervous to tap the download button.

The first thing you do when you setup the Pre is create a Palm account. Does this account tie you to a place where any apps will be billed to your Sprint account? There isn’t anywhere on the Palm or Sprint website or on the Pre itself to log into your Palm account to see what the Palm account settings are all about. It is very mysterious.

It may seem like I have nothing but gripes, but remember, that was the CONS.

Now for the pros…

PROS:

Background processes are beautiful – Go ahead, play halfway through a game, log into the forums on a website, create half a memo, Google how to spell something before you send it in a text message. You can keep as many apps open and running as you want. Today, I was monitoring Twitter via an app called Spaz, looking for answers on the absence of prices on the app catalog in the forums at Precentral.net and watching my Facebook. I think at one point, I noticed that I had five apps open and I was using them in the exact manner that I use the taskbar in Windows.

At this point I sent out a mini review on twitter, “The Pre’s ability to run background processes makes the iPhone feel like a palm.”

I had to laugh when I watched the video on Apple’s website about the new iPhone 3Gs. After just a day of enjoying the background apps, the iPhone video actually looked clunky as the demonstration showed that you had to hit the home key (button) in between each step. Background processing itself really is the Pre’s killer app.

My daughter beth with her new baby cousin - taken with Palm Pre and flash. Click on the image for full resolution shot.

The camera is also better than average – There are a lot of complaints about the quality of the camera. True, the camera is not that great, however the flash makes all the difference. Some people pick on it, but anyone who is expecting Speedlite performance from an LED flash will always be disappointed. I feel that, when compared to the iPhone 3Gs, I would rather have a flash than auto focus.

Over the next few days, I hope to learn a few more tips and tricks. I have read the manuals and watched the training videos on the features. So far, it is such a simple device to use, it appears that there isn’t much more to learn.

I will try to add some media files. We did watch some YouTube yesterday and that worked as well as it does on the iPhone.

I did have a problem reading a PDF attachment someone sent me, so I will try a few more similar tasks to see what the Pre’s current limits are, but overall it is better than I expected for a first generation phone.

When compared to the iPhone 1.o or the G1, the Pre shows that Palm has learned from their competitors’ mistakes. The Pre generally feels like a 1.7 device. It has its limitations, but every major problem I have (such as navigation,  the app catalog prices and selecting text) can easily be addressed with future software and firmware updates.

I expect big things from the Pre. Not just because I want Palm to succeed, but because the Pre is proving itself to be serious smartphone sweetness right out of the gate. I consider it equally as revolutionary to the future of smartphones as the Treo 600 was at its launch.

I just got a call from the Sprint store. They are going to do them first come, first serve and there will be no waiting list. Please read my other posts to get a grasp of the entire Sprint Pre release fiasco. I am very upset about this and hope that others spread this story around a little.

It has now been 24 hours since I became 12th in line for a Palm Pre at the local Sprint store. Here’s what I know…

The Sprint store will likely have at least 12 phones in stock. By now, everyone at the Sprint store agrees that I am on the waiting list.

I was told by the unofficial store spokesperson that the employees themselves were not allowed to put anyone on the list unless the customer came into the store in person. Putting someone on the list by proxy could be grounds for dismissal.

In other words, I don’t blame the employees for keeping company policy.

I have gained a small army of bloggers, tweeps, and podcasters who are trying to help. At this point I have a note for those trying to help…

Please be careful. I am not out to attack Sprint or their employees. If you will notice, I have not called Sprint names, threatened to leave their service or encouraged a boycott. I just wanted the place in line that I thought I had reserved.

I don’t want anyone making a bigger deal out of this than it is. I want my Palm Pre. I have promised several blogs, podcasts and news sites a thorough review on release day. I am upset that I may have to break those promises – I guess I can imagine how the Sprint employees feel at having to break their promises… If they even realized before today that I interpreted their promise to put me on the waiting list as a promise.

My first smart phone

Adam Cochran here – I am anxiously waiting for the release and availability of the Palm Pre. I see those as two separate events. I hope too get one on release day, but who knows how the Sprint store in Grand Junction, CO will handle the distributing on release day.

I have been in the store three times in the past three weeks and each time I have been given a different story on how they would be distributed. First come – first serve, invites only, special Friday night event…

I am hoping for the first come – first serve scenario. I plan on being in line early Saturday morning. 

Gadgets are wonderful, but unlike the crew at CNET, I don’t have the opportunity to buy each new gadget that comes out. I must carefully wait until just the right gadget comes along. That is not to say that I am a stranger to gadgets, I read all the tech news, listen to the podcasts and encourage my friends to buy the gadgets I am unsure about so that I can gadget by proxy.

Smartphones have always been a favorite gadget of mine. My first smartphone was one of the first smartphones – the Kyocera QCP-6035. It was awesome! I kept it around and replaced it a couple times but didn’t replace it until the Palm Treo 600.

I debated switching to a Windows Mobile device but hated the Windows look and feel. I didn’t want to go through all the menu systems to get everywhere. I debated going with Blackberry, but it felt clunky. So, I stayed with my Palm devices. I loved them for their simplicity and their agility.

When the iPhone came out, I bought an iPod touch. I compared plans, data, text and decided that I had to stick with Sprint for my budget’s sake. Sprint is about 25 percent less than AT&T for my uses. I am also very happy with the Sprint data network in my area.

It is important to clarify that no carrier is superior in all areas of the country, but Sprint has always preformed well for me in every area I have lived or vacationed. With prepaid plans so easily accessible now, if I did vacation somewhere that Sprint’s coverage was shoddy, I could always just buy a temporary phone and number.

I have used my iPod Touch for surfing the web, listening to music, watching movies, and running a variety of apps and games. I love the iPod Touch and I can see the beauty of an iPhone. However, the iPhone has four major hangups that prevent me from even considering it…

1. No tactile keyboard – I can touch type with my Centro. I don’t care if the keyboard is cramped and difficult to use on the Pre – at least it has a keyboard. You can’t tell me that the iPhone keyboard is less annoying than the Pre keyboard. I have written rather lengthy emails on my iPod Touch. I make a mistake about every three words on average. I can type three or four sentences on my Centro keyboard without making an error.

2. Background processing – I want to be able to keep an IM program running while I check my email. I want to be able to look up a contact, then map it, then go back to the contact and make a call without having to go to home screens or restart apps in between. 

3. It’s on Sprint – I don’t get any deals from Sprint. I buy the plans at regular rates and with standard contracts. I pay $200 for 4 phones with unlimited data, text, picture mail, protection plans, and 1500 minutes shared between phones. Go ahead and compare – the next cheapest plan will likely be $30/month more. I have considered leaving Sprint at least three times until I did the math.

4. It’s not an iPhone – Last year we must have seen at least half a dozen “iPhone killers.” They all failed. Whether it was the Blackberry Storm, the HTC Touch Pro or the Samsung Instinct, they all failed. You can’t take on the iPhone by simply resembling the appearance of an iPhone. The Pre is not trying to be an iPhone, it is something much different. Anyone expecting the Pre to be an iPhone killer should write their negative reviews now.

The iPhone’s strengths are the apps (developer base), the sexiness, and the fact that it is made by Apple. Pre touches on these things, but it also is presented as an entirely different phone. I don’t want a Palm Pre because I want it  to be an iPhone or because I expect it to be better than an iPhone. I am buying the Pre because I expect it to be different than the iPhone.

I don’t need a device that will download 200 different tip calculators or run countless apps. I want a device that is small, versatile and capable of combining all of my means of communication. I communicate on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, email, and a variety of Google services. The concept of the Pre fits my needs more than the iPhone. I plan on buying the Palm Pre because I want my money to go to the guys willing to take on Apple by creating a device that targets the weaknesses of the iPhone directly.

I don’t expect it to work perfectly at launch and the Pre 2.0 will certainly be a better device, but you have to admire Palm for making so many gutsy moves with the Pre launch. In many ways, the Pre is similar to OS X. Palm has reached a point where their product, both hardware and software, has become stale. They had two options, they could try to fancy up the existing product (the Microsoft approach) or they could reinvent themselves as Apple did with OS X.

Reinventing your image is always much more risky, but the payoff is much higher if successful. Palm has tossed backwards compatibility aside and told all old developers (whatever developers there are left) that their existing skills would no longer be useful. In what appears to be a dangerous move on the surface, is seens as a very necessary move to users, geeks and analysts who follow the smartphone market.

Palm as a company may be a punchline, but their devices are a force to be reckoned with.

By next Saturday it will be written that the cell phone/smartphone industry hasn’t seen release buzz like this since the iPhone. Before the iPhone it was the Treo. The Blackberry was great, but never caused any significant buzz over any particular model. Android caused a buzz until people saw it in the G1.

The Palm Pre release is significant. Of course there will be shortages. There will be problems with Gen 1 models. There may be patches or even a recall as there often is with devices manufactured quickly and rushed to market to meet demand.

Before the Pre is even released, it is already an historic device. Palm has a legacy of changing the handheld market. Whether it was with the original PalmPilot or the spin-off Handspring, or the Treo or the Centro, Palm knows how to make a reliable product that does everything it is supposed to – but little more.

There have been a few lemons along them way, but with each model, they have addressed the complaints and shortcomings of the last. The original Treo 300 did not offer expansion, the Treo 600 did but did not offer a user replaceable battery, the Treo 650 did. With each new model only a few things continued to remain unaddressed, WiFi, GPS, and background processes – at least in the Palm OS versions. To bring these features to the device, Palm had to allow Windows Mobile on the device.

Palm has dropped the ball so many times the company has become an industry joke – yet they remain. While the company has become a laughing stock to the business world for its horrible decisions to split, merge, sell, buy back and change its name a few times, the Palm products have remained serious competitors.

If Palm has done anything along the way it’s been to introduce new concepts, products and platforms that give everyone else and idea on how to take those ideas and improve upon them.

Take a look at your iPhone home screen – can you see anything but an original Palm home screen? The iPhone’s ability to add applications galore… yep, Palm started that too. How about the concept of a converged device? You will have to look to someone different for that… Handspring’s VisorPhone. Of course the Handspring Visor ran on the Palm OS and was developed by the Palm inventor.

There are two ways to approach a converged device. You can fill it full of features and impress everyone at the Swiss Army Knife qualities. Or you can look at what people need a converged device to do and create a device that meets those needs.

The iPhone is the Swiss Army Knife of converged devices. It does so many wonderful things – but it does them in such limited ways. Email is great, but what if you want to email a URL? It only took Apple 2 years to introduce copy and paste into the iPhone – Apple invented copy and paste. Apple provided GPS as long as you don’t want a GPS that shows you turn-by-turn directions.

Apple provided the ability for developers to build any application they saw need and market for, as long as that application didn’t play SouthPark cartoons, run background processes, add copy and paste functions and didn’t contain any references to Kama Sutra.

Palm took a little different approach with the Pre. In the end, the Pre will not be remembered for everything it did, but for the way it went about doing what it did.

To realize the advantages of the Pre over Blackberry, iPhone, G1 and others, you have to look past the phone and analyze how such a device could be helpful.

How many email addresses do you have? How many social networks are you a part of? Do you ever want to check your messages, friend’s status, tweets, etc. from your phone? You can with many converged devices. If you want to check Facebook, you either go to m.facebook.com or you use a Facebook application. If you want to use twitter, you do something similar.

Sites like Friendfeed are finding ways to merge all of the ways we communicate into one area. However, these sites only address the desktop method of communications. Cell phones, IM, tweets, voice mail, text messaging, SMS, email, etc. This concept is where the success of the Pre begins.

Just as the Treo converged communication gadgets, the Pre aims to converge communication platforms. Rather than jump from one app to another or one site to another to communicate over various platforms, the Pre aims to bring all contacts together.

Currently there is some debate as to whether it is a good idea to merge your email, Twitter and Facebook contacts into one area – but why not? The people who conceive a massive number of contacts as overwheming and bulky are probably iPhone users. Palm OS users haven’t ever looked up a contact by scrolling through a list.

The Pre’s secret weapon is its universal search abilities made possible by two things that the iPhone does not have – background processes and a tactile keyboard.

Navigating the Pre is simple, there are few menus to scroll through. In the home screen, start typing what you are looking for. That’s it. It can be a name, an application, and appointment, an IM handle…

All you need to know is what you are looking for.

A nice platform, background processes, user replaceable battery, tactile keyboard and universal search aren’t enough to break the market barriers – that takes the one thing that only Android offers – an open platform.

While it is proprietary and the core will be locked down, the Pre will be no iPhone when it comes to the OS. WebOS has been described by Palm as an open platform developed on Linux. This means that the true threat to the Pre will not be the iPhone – it will more likely be Android.

Already the responces from Palm’s competitors have been along the lines of, “Our devices will be able to do that stuff soon too.” No one is debating the concept of the Palm Pre, the current naysayers are addressing issues like the cramped keyboard or the feminine design.

Whether the Pre itself is a wild success bringing Palm back from the brink of extinction, or whether it is Palm’s final breath before dying – the Pre will set new trends in how smartphones are used marking the next step in the converged device evolution.

Just as the Treo converged devices, the Pre will likely show the world how much demand there is for converging all forms of modern communication.