This is sad to say, but I had pretty much forgotten about Palm until earlier this week when they announced the new Palm Pre 2 and version 2.0 of webOS. Ok, maybe I didn’t completely forget that Palm existed, but in my mind I had put them in the same category as Nokia – off my radar. I was a Palm fan from the very start. Even before there were such things as smartphones. I didn’t give up on them until some point in 2008 when I finally switched to the iPhone. Last year with much anticipation, I reviewed the original Palm Pre only to be a bit underwhelmed. I thought Palm was doomed, but then HP bought them earlier this year and now a few months later, we have an update to both the OS and hardware. Is there still hope for Palm?

HP webOS 2.0 looks pretty enough. It promises true multitasking instead of the ‘fake’ multitasking that iOS offers and also comes with Adobe’s Flash player (take that Apple!). It also offers a feature called Synergy which puts all of your contact info from Facebook, Yahoo, Google, Linkedin, etc, into one list. But the updates to the hardware don’t appear to be all that exciting. There’s an updated processor, a new glass display, higher resolution camera and a slimmer design. But it still looks just like the original Pre. In my opinion, that’s been Palm’s problem for years now. They tend to stick with a hardware design for a long time and only offer little tweaks.

The Palm Pre 2 will be available in France (why France?) starting tomorrow (10/22) and will come to Verizon “soon”. Since I’m now a Verizon customer, I know that I will definitely want to get my hands on one. What about you?

Filed in categories: News

Tagged: Palm, Palm OS related, Palm pre, Spotlight Gadgets, webOS

Will HP webOS 2.0 and the Palm Pre 2 Save Palm? originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 21, 2010 at 10:16 am.

In mid-June of 2009, Palm sent me a Pre, its first webOS-powered smartphone, to try out as a “Real Reviewer.”  That program, I was told, was launched to get the Palm Pre into the hands of a few people Palm could count on to use it daily for an extended period (about six months, to be specific) and talk about it in blogs, on social networking sites, mailing lists, and so forth.

Real Reviewers was meant to be different from the typical press loaner program, where phones get sent out to blogs & journalists, who spend maybe a week with them, and then send them back.  Those impressions, while helpful, might not be entirely complete; in contrast, spending months with a device can be much more revealing (for better or worse).

So, now, as my time with a loaner Pre comes to an end, here are my honest impressions of the device, Sprint’s service, and the overall user experience.

In the Beginning

When I was anticipating getting the Palm Pre, I was filled with equal parts geek giddiness and abject terror.  While the geek giddiness part is obvious to anyone reading this site, the reason for my abject terror was that the Palm Pre was about to end a 13-year, love-hate relationship I had had with Palm OS devices.  Virtually every part of my daily mobile existence revolved around my Palm OS phone.  While I’d had other types of PDAs and smartphones over the years, I never found them as compelling, so I stuck with Palm OS.

As the Pre runs Palm’s new webOS operating system, everything would have to change.  Yes, it had the Classic emulator, which could run some Palm OS apps with varying degrees of competence, but HotSync was broken, which meant much of what I relied on day-to-day would need to be revised.

And frankly, it should’ve been.  The “sync to my PC” model of transferring data is antiquated, unreliable, and somewhat antithetical to the whole concept of an always-connected smartphone.  So, I jumped into the Palm Pre experience with both feet.

I ran the included converter app, which I used to transfer my Treo’s calendar and contacts to Google’s equivalents, and my tasks and memos went into the Pre’s on-board versions of those apps.  The concept of syncing my PIM data to the cloud has always appealed to me, and this first step was entirely painless.

Synergy

With that done, I started to see the magic of Palm’s new webOS feature called Synergy, which basically acts like a huge data funnel, sucking your personal and social network calendar and contacts information into the Pre.  After giving it my Exchange, Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn (and Yahoo! was recently added) login info, it went out and synced all my contacts from all those sources into the Pre and, as if by magic, matched up duplicates to create combined entries.

For example, my wife’s Google Contacts entry, Facebook profile, and LinkedIn profile all contributed to her single entry in my Pre’s addressbook.  It recognized redundant info, such as where she entered the same address in two places, and presented me with just one address.

Calendars work similarly; events on any one of my private or social network calendars show up, color-coded, on my Pre’s calendar.  If someone makes a change to an event I’ve added to my calendar, my phone is updated automatically without me lifting a finger.

Synergy worked so well that I was simply stunned…it was the thing I showed off first to curious friends and coworkers, and it never failed to impress.  And it still does me to this day.  If webOS has a killer feature, Synergy is truly it.  And, frankly, the prospect of doing without it, should I ultimately decide to get a non-webOS phone after the Pre, is not one I relish.

The Learning Curve

I did have to make a few big mental shifts.  For example, with all these thousands of entries in my Pre’s addressbook, I had to stop using it like a Rolodex (looking people up alphabetically).

Let’s say I wanted to send someone a text message.  On a different device, I’d typically open up the messaging app, tap the To: field, scroll (or jump) to the person I wanted, and then tap their phone number.  On the Pre, it’s more straightforward:  I start typing the person’s name (fastest way is first letter of first name followed by 2-3 letters from the last name), and the Pre’s Universal Search function pulls up his contact info.  From that screen, I can tap the “SMS” button on the corresponding phone number, which launches a new text message.

In short, on communication tasks, I had to move from thinking about apps to thinking about people.  And honestly, that makes a fair bit of sense.

Another area in which I had to change how I interacted with the device involved multitasking.  Palm OS doesn’t multitask.  When you open up an app, the previous one closes automatically, preserving its state (most of the time).

When I got the Pre, I tended to use one app at a time, just like on my Treo.  However, over the following couple of months, I found myself in more and more situations where multitasking was incredibly handy.  One example involved streaming my kids’ favorite song into our car stereo (via Orb) while simultaneously tracking our route in Google Maps.

As I use the Pre more, I get more and more reliant on being able to have several apps running at once.  But the real benefit of webOS is how easy it is to switch apps.  Not only can you get a visual overview of all your apps with a single gesture, you get the equivalent of Windows’ Alt-Tab to rapidly cycle through what’s running.

Not All Wine and Roses

By this point, you may have started thinking this was an infomercial.  Let me put that fear to rest.  While I really do enjoy using the Pre, it is far from perfect.

My biggest complaints so far do not include that it only has ~550 apps in the Palm App Catalog (heck, it’s still in beta), but are (a) the overall sluggishness of the user interface and (b) Palm’s apparent lack of concern for operational efficiency in webOS (something Palm OS truly excelled at).

To be completely honest, there are times when I want to slam my Pre to the floor (I haven’t yet…I’m always cognizant it’s a loaner).  It takes 2-5 seconds for a calendar page to load (or do whatever it’s doing) before I can scroll up or down or switch to the next page.  If I want to go 5 days into the future, that’s an untenable proposition…it takes literally 5 times 2-5 seconds = 10 seconds minimum.  Similarly, rendering even a simple text email often takes an inexplicable 3-5 seconds.  One upside of this is that I use my Pre to handle email far less than I used my Treo.

Perhaps even more frustrating are the random lags.  I’ll tap an on-screen button and nothing happens.  So I’ll tap it again.  Nothing.  Then, just as I’m about to tap it a third (or 4th or 5th) time, the screen reacts and it’s obvious that both initial taps were acted upon.  AARGH!

Disclaimer:  I have installed many, many homebrew apps and community patches onto my Pre, so there’s a chance that one or more of those are creating some of this lagginess. More on homebrew below.

Regarding operational efficiency, Palm has clearly departed from the “Zen of Palm” philosophy, which drove the UI design of Palm OS from its inception.  webOS is anything but.

One example is webOS’ reliance upon the “Back” swipe gesture, which is basically a short, right-to-left swipe below the screen to take the app back one screen/command/menu level.  As much as I do this, I’d really much rather have a physical button, as it’s faster and less work for me.

A related issue is, because webOS is so very finger-friendly, all of its on-screen control elements are a lot bigger than the equivalents on a stylus-based UI.  This usually results in far fewer commands and functions being given full-time availability.  Also, the font and spacing between elements is often much bigger, leading to more white space and less content on the screen.

Compare the new webOS Tasks app (on the left) with the old Palm OS To-Do app (on the right); on the latter, see how much more direct access to changing stuff you have without diving into menus and hitting little (i) buttons first?  Every element on the Palm OS version is tappable, and the tap takes you directly to being able to interact with that specific field.  On the webOS version, tapping anywhere on the entry (except the checkbox) takes you to the details page, where you then have to tap again to change the field you’re interested in.  In my opinion, when you’re designing a mobile OS that people in a hurry are going to use, every tap matters, and I’d like to have to make as few of them as possible.

Finally — and this is probably just a personal preference — I like physical buttons.  Being able to launch an app with a dedicated hardware button is fast and efficient.  While Palm tried to get some of the same effects with the “wave” launcher, it’s just not the same.  I have to slide my finger up, make sure I’m on the right icon, and then wait for the app to load.  Sure, it’s only a second or two difference, but it feels like eternity compared to what I’m used to.

Physically, the Pre is really a feat of engineering. Squeezing all that functionality into so small and svelte a package is impressive.  Two minor complaints about the hardware, though.  One complaint is no flash expansion slot.  I got used to being able to take my card out and insert into whatever I needed at the moment.  Instead, the Pre can go into flash drive mode, which, when connected to a PC with a USB cable, is fully accessible via the file browser.  It’s not a bad compromise.  The other complaint is the USB cover…it’s just so flimsy and annoying that I’m constantly tempted to rip it off entirely.

Homebrew to the Rescue

Thankfully, Palm has been exceedingly open about webOS, which is fitting since it uses a lot of open source components.  Because of that openness, the webOS developer/hacker community has been very active.  As of my writing this article, there are several hundred homebrew (the term for unofficial webOS software) applications, patches (changes to the operating system), and themes, which change the look and feel of wallpapers, soft buttons, icons, etc.

All the homebrew apps are free, since there’s no way to enforce payment through the installation systems available today.  However, many are “donationware,” which suggests that, if you use the app regularly, you should make a small donation to the developer.  Relying on the honor system isn’t perfect, but, for many devs, it’s a good alternative to the hassle of a formal e-commerce solution.

Many of the patches are targeted at adding or changing features of the user interface.  For example, one patch increases the number of icons the user can see at any one time in the app launcher from 9 (3 rows x 3 columns) to 20 (4 rows x 5 columns), meaning less scrolling (yay!).  Another patch adds the date next to the time in the center top of the screen (see screen cap above for example).  These are little things that really do add up to a measurable improvement in overall usability.

Other aspects of homebrew have tackled more significant issues, such as Palm’s decision to greatly limit the memory available to install 3rd-party apps in, or enabling a virtual (on-screen) keyboard to complement the physical slider.

With the advent of Preware, users can access all of these homebrew offerings directly from the device; browsing and downloading over-the-air (OTA), and not having to go to a computer to install something, is really a phenomenal improvement over the traditional sync approach.

Touchstone

When the Pre was revealed at CES in January, 2009, one of the things that gave the blogosphere vapors was the wireless, inductive Touchstone charger Palm also showed off.  Curious about it, I bought one.  It has a couple of nifty features.  While the Pre’s charging, if a call comes in, picking the Pre off the Touchstone automatically answers the call.  Putting it back on the charger while the call’s in progress switches it to speakerphone mode.  Nifty.

However, I had to relegate my Touchstone to my office.  I had originally wanted to use it on my nightstand, but that proved unworkable.  While charging on the Touchstone, the Pre keeps its screen on and displays a clock.  However, the screen, even on the dimmest setting, was too bright and I found it harder to sleep.  It would be really nice if Palm could give users the option of turning the screen completely off while the phone’s on the Touchstone.

Sprint

A review of the Pre wouldn’t be complete without discussing the one carrier it’s currently tied to (although nearly everyone who isn’t a Sprint shareholder wants to see that exclusivity end very soon).  Sprint is a pretty good network for the Pre.  While coverage can be spotty in some places, Sprint’s 3G network is quite fast.  In fact, a multi-city comparison by Gizmodo just about a year ago showed Sprint topped all others in average download speed.  While 3G doesn’t compare well with Wi-Fi speeds, in good-coverage areas, I’ve found data speeds on the Pre to be good, if not great.  So, as long as you’re in an area with good coverage, the 3G data experience will be pretty excellent.

Looking into the Future

Overall, Palm has developed a really amazing operating system in webOS.  It seems to scale well to various screen sizes; it’s intuitive and easy to use; and it’s enjoyable to look at.  Is it perfect? No, but we’re just 6 months from the launch of the first webOS device, so the fact that it’s this stable with this much of a user/developer community already is encouraging, if not downright amazing.

Looking ahead, I think webOS will greatly benefit from some of the powerful, new mobile processors that are starting to come out (e.g., Qualcomm’s Snapdragon and the Cortex-A9).  But, given the Palm Pre runs its Cortex-A8 processor (which is no slouch by any means) at just 500MHz and doesn’t (currently) use any of that chip’s on-board graphics coprocessing, one can only believe there’s quite a bit more to extract from even today’s hardware than webOS has attempted so far.

Wrap-Up

When compared to the smartphone behemoths that represent the Pre’s competition (Apple, Microsoft, Google, RIM, and Nokia), it’s flat-out amazing that tiny little Palm can even compete, let alone produce a device and platform that is superlative in many ways.  And yet, despite a decade of predictions of Palm’s demise, they did just that.

In summary, there’s a whole lot to like in the Pre and webOS, as well as some detractions.

The Good

• Enjoyable OS with powerful multitasking capabilities
• Synergy, Synergy, Synergy!  (the killer feature, IMO)
• Rapidly growing application catalog
• Enthusiastic homebrew community
• Physical keyboard that slides away when not needed
• Frequent OTA updates from Palm, which seems committed to webOS
• It’s small and fits in a pocket exceedingly well

The Bad

• Hardware may not be entirely up to the challenge of running webOS smoothly
• Some apps and preferences need improvement in usability and/or responsiveness
• No flash memory expansion slot (I do miss that) and silly little USB cover
• Smallest app catalog of all the major platforms (so far)

I’m grateful that Palm has let me use the Pre for six months.  But, like Algernon, now that I’ve lived with webOS, I just can’t go back to my Palm OS Centro.  So, I have a choice to make in the very near future.  Do I renew my Sprint contract and get a Pre of my own, or do I explore another platform, like Android, which spans all the major carriers?  The glorious part about this dilemma is that it’s a dilemma at all…never before have we, consumers, had so many compelling options.

Decisions, decisions.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Palm, Palm OS related, Palm pre, webOS

Palm Pre: Six Months In originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 11, 2009 at 9:49 am.

Do you need a little help with your Palm Pre Smartphone? Palm Pre Made Simple by Gary Mazo might be just the thing for you. This 348 page paperback book has hidden secrets and useful tricks for Windows and Mac owning Palm Pre users. More details after the jump.

ORMOND BEACH, FLORIDA –Friday, October 30, 2009

Made Simple Learning co-authors are proud to announce the release of the printed (soft-cover) version of their newest book: Palm® Pre™ Made Simple.

This book joins more than 10 other best-selling Smartphone books in the “Made Simple” series.  Like all our books, it is written in plain English, loaded with comprehensive explanations, hidden secrets, and useful tips.  With almost 350 pages and more than 1,000 carefully annotated screen shots, this book is a “must-have” for any Palm® Pre™ user.

The Printed Book is available now at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1439255245?ie=UTF8&tag=madesimplear-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1439255245 for just $18.99.

The Electronic Book version is available now for $12.95 at http://www.madesimplelearning.com/bbms_palm_pre_webos_training.shtml

Martin Trautschold and co-author Gary Mazo, once again have collaborated to produce the “definitive” guide for the Palm® Pre™ which includes the latest Software Features and update process.

This guide book helps both Windows™ and Apple Mac™ users with all aspects of the Palm® Pre™.

Comprehensive: This book has over 1,000 screen shots that are carefully annotated to show the reader step-by-step instructions.  Everything is written in plain English and includes steps on how to do just about anything with the Palm® Pre™.

Learn about Palm’s Synergy™ syncing service

Save time by using tips and tricks such as Copy & Paste

Some of the highlights include:

• Manage your busy life with your New Palm Pre(tm).
• Merge all your contact information with Synergy(tm).
• Sync to and Wirelessly Update Contacts and Calendar to Google, facebook, LinkedIn.
• Multi-Task Effortlessly with Card View.
• Unleash the Media possibilities of your Pre with YouTube(tm), Pandora(r), and More.
• Save Time with Copy / Paste, Universal Search.
• Both Windows(tm) and Mac(tm) Support.
• Get the most from Music, Videos & Pictures.
• Sync Music Playlists and Videos using iTunes(r) and doubleTwist™.
• Email, Phone, Calendar and Browser Tips and Tricks.
• Create Ringtones & Wallpapers.
• Use Google Maps to Find Just About Anything!
• Learn how to Download Apps via Palm’s App Catalog and Learn about Homebrew Apps.
• Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Network Setup & Security.
• Learn about Homebrew Apps – Dieter Bohn, Editor-in-Chief, Smartphone Experts

About Made Simple Learning
We are a Smartphone Training Firm with a passion for making Smartphone learning that meets the needs of busy users.  We realize that most Smartphone owners are short on time, highly mobile and learn at their own pace.  This is why we created our training books to be easy to read in ‘short chunks’ and our video library to be short (3-5 minutes long), fully keyword searchable, and above all, engaging so our customers keep coming back for more.  Our Development Team has over 12,000 hours of experience working with Smartphones (BlackBerry, iPhone, Palm Pre and others).    Our clients range across industries and across the globe from Fortune 500 companies, Federal, State and Local Government organizations, Public and Private School Districts, Law Firms, Small and Large Non-Profits, and Small to Mid-Size Businesses of all types.

NOTE:  Made Simple Learning  is an independent source of training for the Apple(r) iPhone, Palm(r) Pre(tm), BlackBerry® Smartphones and is not affiliated with, nor endorsed by, Apple Computer, Research In Motion, Ltd. or Palm, Inc. who owns their respective brands, trademarks, and intellectual property.

Filed in categories: News

Tagged: Books, Palm OS related, Palm pre

Book – Palm Pre Made Simple originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 31, 2009 at 10:11 am.

If you’ve been looking for a mobile charger for the Palm Pre or iPhone 3G S, iGo has just announced that their popular multi-tip iGo Everywhere power adapters are now compatible with both of these newest smartphones. Full press release after the jump.

SCOTTSDALE, AZ–(Marketwire – July 9, 2009) – iGo multi-device chargers are now compatible with the hottest smartphones hitting the market — the iPhone 3G S and Palm Pre, helping gadget lovers pack light but still carry their newest electronic gadgets while traveling this summer.

iGo chargers make the perfect travel companion. These recently launched smartphones combined with an iGo universal charger and power tips — including iGo tip A133 for the iPhone 3G S and iGo tip A138 for the Palm Pre — give travelers the freedom to take one charger for all their devices.

“iGo universal chargers offer a solution to fit any gadget lover’s lifestyle as they buy the next hot tech items like the Palm Pre,” said Wally Thornton, vice president of product for iGo. “Since smartphones are built to serve multiple functions, battery life is a very real issue for these devices. As a result, gadget lovers must frequently charge their smartphone along with other devices they rely on while away from home. With our ability to charge 95% of all mobile devices while in the car, in the air, or at a hotel, travelers free up some space by packing one charger, instead of several bulky power sources.”

In addition to being compatible with the iPhone 3G S, Palm Pre and other hot electronic gadgets, iGo is set to launch its iGo Green™ Technology product line in stores and online later this year. Featuring the first green laptop charger, eight-outlet surge protector and wall outlet, iGo Green™ Technology products automatically use 85% less standby power than standard power products, saving both energy and money.

For more information about iGo Inc.’s (NASDAQ: IGOI) newest products, please visit www.iGo.com.

Filed in categories: Gear

Tagged: iPhone 3G S, Palm pre, Power

iGo chargers now Palm Pre and iPhone 3G S compatible originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 11, 2009 at 7:00 pm.

My time with the Palm Pre has come to an end. As each day has passed, I’ve grown more fond of this phone, but I still do not see myself switching carriers from AT&T to Sprint for it. It’s a nice first generation webOS device from Palm, but it’s not quite what I had dreamed it would be. With that said, let’s take a look at the following features:

• App Catalog
• PIM syncing
• Built-in video applications
• Classic emulator

Let’s go shopping!

Apple may not have been the first company to have an application store on a mobile device (Handango is another one that comes to mind), but they have paved the way with a very easy to use interface and an excellent software update process.

The App Catalog on the Palm Pre is another similarity that this phone has to the iPhone. After the app catalog is launched, you are presented with various ways to filter the list of applications. Featured, Popular, Most Recent, Entertainment, Utilities, etc are just some of the ways to display lists of apps for download.

Tapping an application icon brings you into the detail page for that app. Typically you can see screen shots, ratings, reviews, number of downloads and a button to download / install it. Currently the applications are all free to try and there aren’t any paid apps (that I’ve seen).

The selection of applications is very small right now. I’m not sure there are even a hundred apps yet. Even so, the quality of the applications that I’ve tried have been very nice – and again, very iPhone-ish in look and feel.

As an example, here are two of my faves…

The first one is a Pandora radio client. I’m a big fan of Slacker Radio, and this is similar in that you can create your own channels of music from your favorite artists.

It works great via WiFi, but so far I haven’t been able to get it to work at all through a Sprint data connection. Remember though, I don’t live in an area with 3G and my signal when I’m not roaming is lucky to be 3 bars.

Another really nice app is AccuWeather. It will use your current location to display the forecast and radar.

Nice huh?

I like the App Catalog quite a bit and look forward to seeing how the application evolve. I wonder if we will start seeing Palm commercials on TV saying “We have an app for that”.

Video on the Pre

So far I’ve not been too terribly impressed with the video capability of the Palm Pre. For one thing, you can’t record video with it yet and that’s a bummer considering that the camera pretty good. I guess that’s a feature for a future firmware release. But who wants to wait?

The stock video player was not able to play any of the videos that I tried including .AVI, .MOV, .MP4 and .WMvs.

The YouTube client works great though via WiFi.

But, through a non-3G connection, not so much. The video is very jerky and pixelated if you do not have a fast connection.

There’s a Sprint TV application that is supposed to provide access to movies, trailers, radio stations, etc. I was unable to get it to work through WiFi or a data connection.

I had no problems getting a list of content to view, but as soon as I would tap one to load and watch, an error box saying that I had a network problem would pop up. Boo…

The Palm Pre as a PDA

The Palm Pre is Palm’s first device that does not sync it’s PIM data to a desktop application. Syncing is now completely cloud based to Google, Facebook or Microsoft Exchange. Since I recently have moved all my contacts, calendar and email to Google, this has been perfect for me. I love that I no longer have to dork around with special third party syncing applications like MissingSync (sorry guys) for my Mac.

The Calendar application is pretty basic. There’s an agenda view.

Weekly view.

And monthly view.

Adding a new event / meeting is pretty simple as you can see. Not many bells and whistles here. It really needs some beefing up to be sure. But of course, that can be a feature for a future firmware update…

The two things missing for me are that you can’t set a reminder for longer than 1 day and that you can’t set the alarm sound or how many times it will alert you before it gives up.

The Contacts app isn’t a fave of mine either…

I don’t like it for the simple reason that it adds everyone that you’ve ever contacted (from gmail and Facebook) as a contact. So I have over 900 contacts in my list, when it should be less than 100. Grrrrrr…

Of course to find a contact you can easily filter the list of people by typing a name. But still…

The person view shows all their numbers, email addresses, etc.

You can choose which profile to use for each contact.

Here are the fields that you can use when setting up a new contact.

More fields…

I’d like the contacts app a lot better if groups would sync from gmail. Put that on the list of potential future features.

What’s in the mail?

For those of us that live and die by email, I was anxious to check out the included mail client.

If you have more than one email account, they will show up in the main display. I just use Gmail, so that is what we see here. Tapping the little arrow to the right will show all the folders.

Unread emails are shown in bold. Gmail emails from the same person are not grouped together like they are in your desktop browser. They show up in the list chronologically. To read, just tap one.

The two finger pinch and expand gestures work here. No screen rotation though…

Inline graphics and attachments work surprisingly well too.

And of course you can move emails to any folders / labels that you have created.

I wish that there was a mail search feature and a spell check.

Palm OS apps under webOS. Let’s get Classic.

If you’re a long time Palm OS user, you’ll probably come to the Pre with some favorite applications that you want to be able to run on your new device. Not to worry, there’s an app for that. Sorry, I couldn’t resist

But yes, there is an app for that and it’s called Classic from MotionApps. A 7 day free trial can be downloaded from the App Catalog. If you want to continue using it, it will cost you $29.99.

When you launch Classic, you’ll see a familiar friend popup on the display. The only thing missing is the Graffiti area.

If you are expecting to see your PIM data inside Classic, you’re going to be disappointed… But all is not lost as you can import it. That is, you can import the databases from an older device (not the data in the webOS PIMs). But you can’t really do much with the data because it isn’t going to be backed up.

There’s a touch navigation panel at the bottom of the Classic display that can be toggled to use the slide out keyboard for certain actions.

Installing applications is a simple matter of copying the .PRC files into a special folder on your Pre while it’s in USB mode. The next time you launch Classic they will be there.

The emulator will not allow access to external hardware devices through Bluetooth, serial or USB ports.

I tried a few applications and they loaded and launched fine. That said, they were not easy to actually use due to the fact that the Pre will not take stylus input and these apps have small buttons and fields that are just too hard to press accurately with the tip of your finger.

Some apps will work better than others like BlackJack Solitaire from Seahorse Software. I’m curious as to how many people will actually use Classic on a regular basis and which apps they will use with it.

When it’s all said and done…

My Palm Pre is going back to Sprint. Probably tomorrow. I like it, but I just don’t love it. I had high hopes for it that haven’t quite been met and the carrier coverage in my area doesn’t really make me want to switch away from AT&T right now. As far as the actual device is concerned, I guess I have my standards set too high. Like new gadgeteer contributor Bryan Sherman and I talked about the other day, I need to quit wishing for some new end all be all device to come on the market because it’s probably never going to happen and I’m likely never going to be satisfied.

What would make me satisfied with the Pre? A metal body, better slider mechanism, MicroSD card slot, better macro mode for pix, video recording capability, GSM version and physical buttons on the front that allow you to answer / end a call.

As it is, the Palm Pre has a very nice form factor. It’s pocket friendly with a nice display, slide out QWERTY keyboard and a decent camera. The webOS is a nice new platform that appears to be developer and hacker friendly. I think the Pre is a nice first generation device and I look forward to the release of other form factors and more features to the built in apps. I hope that the Pre helps Palm climb back up the ladder. Don’t give up Palm!

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Palm OS related, Palm pre, Sprint

A Week With The Palm Pre Smartphone – Day 6 & 7 originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 15, 2009 at 7:29 pm.

It’s a phone, it’s a music player, it’s a camera, it’s a Palm Pre. Is it good at any of those tasks? I have been trying these feature for the past couple of days and here are the results…

Before I get into anything else, I did want to mention that I haven’t experienced any more weird battery suckage issues like I did the other day. No major hardware issues lately either…

The Palm Pre as a… phone

Today let’s make some calls, receive some calls, play some music and take some pix with the built in 3 megapixel camera.

Initiating a phone call requires two steps at a minimum. If the Pre is already awake and in the card view, you can just press the Green call icon and then start tapping the number you want to dial. If you want to search by name, slide open the keyboard and a list of matching contacts will appear and filter as you type. You can also assign speed dial numbers to the numbers on the touch pad and hold them down to call.

If your phone is idle and a call is received, the display will look like the image above. I assumed by the image that I would be able to press the hardware button to answer the call. Ummmm…. nope. So ok, I thought then just tap the call button on the screen to answer the call. No again. You have to slide the call button up as you would do to unlock the phone. Argh… I hate this as it’s sometimes hard to do with one hand and your thumb. Especially while driving. Yeah, yeah, I still don’t use a Bluetooth headset all the time.

If the phone is awake, this is what you’ll see. A simple tap of the Green or Red buttons will answer or end a call.

If I had an image set for myself, it would show up, but otherwise, you see the little person shape. This is the during call display. You can switch to speaker phone, mute, go to the dial pad or add another person to the call for a conference. The Pre has a proximity sensor, so when you have the phone up to your face, the screen will turn off. Pull it away and it turns back on. Wonder where they got that idea? Hmmmm

If you miss a call and turn on your phone, you’ll see something like this. I thought the notification system was really nifty for about 1 day. Now I’m over it. It seems to get in my way more than help me.

Tap the missing call button to see more info and call the person back if you desire.

Small icons in the bottom right corner will also remind you of missing calls, voice mails and other notifications. BTW, I can’t get rid of the darned alarm icon no matter what I do. I had set a timer the other day to remind me when to take a lasagna out of the oven. Now it’s stuck there even though I’ve deleted the alarm. Grrrrrr…

There’s a standard call log screen that lists outgoing and missed calls.

Call quality with the Pre, even while roaming, seems to be much better than what I’m used to with my GSM phones on AT&T. My calls with the Pre have been significantly better sounding. That said, Sprint reception here isn’t very good. At my home, it’s roaming 100% of the time. At my work I’m not roaming, but I have had numerous times when I would call the Pre with my desk phone or AT&T phone and the calls would go to straight to voice mail even when the Pre shows 2 bars. I don’t know if this is a Sprint issue or a Pre issue.

Update: I figured out that this only happens when I’m doing data on the Pre. If I’m loading a webpage or doing something that is accessing data, incoming phone calls go straight to voice mail. I’m wondering if this is because I don’t have 3G here.

For any iPhone users out there thinking of jumping ship to get a Pre, you should know that the Pre doesn’t have visual voice mail. Not that the lack of that feature would be a deal breaker for me. But once you’ve used it, you realize just how handy it is.

So for phone calls, I’m not real impressed with the Pre. Although call quality is very good, I hate not being able to make or answer a call with a actual physical button. I guess I’m just too old school about some things

The Pre as a digital audio player

Loading and playing your favorite music on the Pre is easy.

Just plug the Pre into your computer with the USB cable. Then tap the USB Drive button and the Pre will mount like a flash drive. Drag and drop folders of your music onto the Pre. Unplug and then launch the Music player.

You can also use the Media Sync option, which will load iTunes on your computer and allow you to sync with that.

The music player is not unlike other media players. In other words, you’re not going to have any problems figuring out how to use it. You can view music by artist, albums, songs, genres or playlists. There’s also a link for the Amazon MP3 store in the player. More about Amazon in a bit…

If you have album art with your music, it shows up in the various lists.

The now playing screen can be seen in album art view…

Or song list view. That light blue progress bar to the left of the top song will fill in the whole row as the song plays.

Since the Palm Pre multitasks, you can play music while you surf or do other things. Nifty.

If you need a new song fix, you can go to the Amazon MP3 store and buy some with your Pre.

The interface for the store is easy to navigate.

It has a search feature – of course.

You can buy albums or songs, which will be charged to the credit card that you have on file with Amazon.com.

The Pre as a camera

I was anxious to try out the Pre’s built in 3 megapixel camera. I was encouraged by the fact that it has a built in LED flash.

When you launch the camera application, you’re put in viewfinder mode by default. My screenshot didn’t capture the live view finder, but you get the idea. The interface is very simplistic. There’s a green shutter button and the flash button that toggles between always on, never on and auto on. The other button launches the photo viewer.

Photos are separated into photo roles, all images, screen captures and wallpapers.

Images are shown in thumbnails that can be then shown full screen, zoomed, etc.

Here are some sample pix that you can check out. Click on them to see the full sized images.

The camera takes ok pictures indoors and outdoors, but you can forget macro shots. Darn. I always like a phone with a camera that can take good close up pix because I sometimes like to snap pictures of product labels, magazine ads, etc when I’m at a store.

The camera also doesn’t record video… boo. You can’t change the resolution (which is 1520 x 2032), zoom, etc. either.

I’ve had the Palm Pre for 5 days now and so far I have to tell you that not in love with it. I am still loving the size and the display, but the rest is just ok for me. I was hoping to be wowed the way I was when I first tried an iPhone. That’s the whole thing, so far the Pre is too much like an iPhone for me. Yeah, it has some features that the iPhone doesn’t have like a real keyboard and multi-tasking. But other than those two main features, I’m not yet thinking that I can’t live without this phone. Maybe I’ll change my mind before the week is over though. We’ll see…

I plan to cover quite a bit in my next post:

• Built-in video applications
• App Catalog
• Classic emulator
• PIM syncing

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Palm, Palm OS related, Palm pre

A Week With The Palm Pre Smartphone – Day 4 & 5 originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 11, 2009 at 9:38 pm.

My Palm Pre didn’t see a lot of action yesterday (Day 2). It was my last day of vacation and I spent a good portion of it outside. I did manage to become more comfortable with the user interface, check out the App Catalog and the do a little surfing with the web browser using WiFi. I had big plans for today (Day 3) to test the camera and call reception without roaming on Verizon towers. Unfortunately my plans fell apart… I had left the Pre on the touchstone charger all night and on my way out the door this morning, I slipped it into the included protective sleeve, put it in my gear bag and headed off to work. Like I had mentioned above, I was on vacation last week, so I was swamped at work with over 200 emails to wade through and a bunch of tickets to work on (I’m a support person at Cummins). I didn’t get a chance to even touch the Pre until my lunch hour. When I pulled it out of my bag it was noticeably warm and it would not turn on. Since it was fully charged before I left home, I didn’t think to take the USB cable with me. So I was unable to use the phone at all until I returned home.

I had to stare at this screen for at least 30 minutes before the Pre even powered on. Talk about frustrating… I’m not really sure what happened today. I know the following:

• I had installed the patch 1.0.2 Saturday
• I had roaming turned off Saturday night because I was worried that data roaming at home during the weekend might incur some surprise costs
• WiFi was on as that was how I was accessing the web, App Catalog, etc.
• I had installed a few different applications yesterday, but I’m pretty sure that none of them were running

I’m going to keep an eye on how the battery lasts tomorrow while I’m at work and I’m definitely bringing the USB cable along with me this time!

Touchstone

While we’re talking about the battery, let me show you the touchstone. It’s a $69.99 optional purchase.

It’s a magnetic charging dock and replacement back cover for the phone that allows you to charge your Pre wirelessly. Since I find the little USB port cover to be annoying, I like this option. That said, it is completely overpriced. $70 is insane considering that you have to use it with the AC adapter and Micro USB cable that came with Pre. For that price, they should have included another cable and adapter. Also, you can’t just connect it to your computer’s USB port instead of AC for charging. So, you’ll need two USB cables if you need to sync with your PC. One for the touchstone and one for your PC. Bah!

The design is simple enough though. It has a nicely weighted base. If you remove the sticker off the bottom, it has a sticky base that will give you the ability to stick it to your desk. There’s one connection point on the back for the USB cable.

When the Pre is idle and charging on the touchstone, it will display the time of day and will also show any notifications like text messages, emails, etc. It’s interesting that the phone doesn’t use this same ‘screensaver’ mode when charging via USB.

When I first tried to use the touchstone, it would not charge the Pre. I finally realized that it’s a bit picky with how you position it on the dock. I was sticking it up to high…

I’ve read that some people are saying that their Pre gets really warm when charging with the touchstone. I’ve not noticed that. It is warm to the touch, but not enough to be alarming.

I can’t report much more about battery life yet due to the problem earlier. More about that in another installment.

Palm webOS user interface

If you’ve used an iPhone, then the user interface on the Pre won’t require much of a learning curve on your part.

Here is what the ‘desktop’ looks like on the Pre. Palm calls this the Card View because each open application will be represented by a thumbnail version or ‘card’.

Here’s what the display looks like when you have several cards / applications running. You can tap a card to switch to that application, scroll through them with a flick of your finger from left to right, or flip your finger up to remove / quit an application.

The entire screen of the Pre is touch sensitive, but the part between the bottom of the display and the select button is a special gesture area that recognizes specific finger swipes. There are 3 main swipes to learn.

• A right to left swipe is like a back command. It goes back one screen or action in an application
• A quick swipe from the bottom to the top switches to card view. Pressing the select button in an application does the same thing
• A slow swipe and hold from bottom to top brings up the quick launch bar of applications

The default quick launch bar has the Phone app, Contacts, Email, Calendar and Launcher. You can customize the apps you want in the launch bar, I haven’t looked up how to do it yet though

Here’s the launcher. It gives you a list of your installed apps. Swiping horizontally will scroll through pages. Tap an app to launch it, or tap, hold and move to rearrange the icons.

Here’s a 2 minute video that I made to demonstrate some of the gestures. FYI the web browsing is done using WiFi via my T1 line.

Using the gestures takes a minute or two to learn and then it’s very natural and takes no thought. The touch screen is similar to the iPhone’s in that you have to use your bare finger and not a stylus. Gloved fingers won’t work either. That would be a problem for me in the winter since I always wear gloves.

Let’s go surfing now

Surfing with the Pre is on par with surfing on the iPhone except for one thing – screen size…

When you launch the browser, it will pull up thumbnail views of your bookmarks. You can either tap one of them to load  that site, or you can type a new URL.

What’s nice is that below the input field, are options to search for what you’re typing in google or Wikipedia.

This is what The Gadgeteer looks like in the Palm Pre browser. The 3.1 inch display is very nice, but it’s too small to read at the default font size for my eyes.

No worries though as the Pre has the same gestures that the iPhone has. Just double tap the text to zoom in or use the two finger spread / pinch gesture to zoom in and out.

You can also turn the Pre sideways to have it automatically rotate the display.

In addition to saving bookmarks, you can also save webpages to the app launcher list.

I noticed something odd on The Gadgeteer when I pulled up Andy’s review of the Tomy i-Sobot and clicked on one of the video links (.mov files). The first time I tried it, the screen auto rotated and the video actually began playing for a couple seconds before an error message popped up saying there was an error playing the file. Now whenever I try again, it just shows the error. Trying to play videos on CNN give the same error.

Other issues – No cut and paste in the browser, and you can’t search for text in the browser.

If you have specific questions about the browser, let me know.

Topics covered in the next installment will be:

• Making and receiving calls
• Camera
• Music and video apps

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Palm OS related, Palm pre

A Week With The Palm Pre Smartphone – Day 2 & 3 originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 8, 2009 at 10:36 pm.

There aren’t too many mornings that I wake up excited about a particular gadget. The last time I remember such a morning was June 29th, 2007. That was the day the first iPhone went on sale. My alarm was set early this morning so that I could get to my local Sprint store by 8am to buy a Palm Pre. Anticipation for a new gadget and anticipation to see something new and exciting from Palm, both made it worth the effort to wake up at 6:30am on a Saturday morning. I’ve been waiting to get my hands on this phone for months. My plan is to bring you along for the ride as I use it for a week. Let’s see if Palm has a winner with the Pre or if it’s too little too late for the once king of the PDA.

I should start out by telling you that I’ve been a diehard fan of Palm since their first PDA (the Palm Pilot 1000) back in 1996. For years, my love for the OS caused me to buy each new device as they were released. Then at some point, the OS became stale along with the hardware. The once leader of this genre of devices started to fall behind. Remember when Palm started putting Windows Mobile on their Treos? It was like stumbling into Superman’s Bizarro world. Although I never lost my love for the Palm platform, I did almost lose hope that they would never again be as successful as they once were. Then the Palm Pre was announced and the flame of hope flickered for me again.

Hardware Specifications

Operating System: Palm webOS v1.0.2
Processor: TI OMAP 3430, 600MHz CPU
Memory: 8GB flash storage built-in, 7.2GB available out of the box
Display: 3.1-inch touch screen with a 24-bit color 320×480 resolution HVGA display
Wireless: 3G EvDO rev A, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR with A2DP stereo Bluetooth support, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g with WPA, WPA2, WEP, 802.1X authentication
Digital Camera: 3 megapixel camera with LED flash and extended depth of field
Expansion Slot: none
Battery: Rechargeable lithium-ion
Size: 3.9 x 2.3 x 0.67 inches
Weight: 4.76 ounces

Package Contents

Palm Pre Smartphone
Slip case
USB Cable
USB AC Adapter
Earbuds
Getting Started Guides

This Day 1 post will mainly be my first impressions of the hardware. I won’t be able to report accurately on call quality, reception, etc until Monday as Sprint coverage here at my house is weak. Actually it doesn’t exist… I’m in the grey / roaming area. Another caveat of this review is the fact that we don’t even have EVDO for Sprint here yet. That said, let’s get started.

The Palm Pre is certainly much smaller than I had imagined. As you can see from the image above, it has a smaller footprint than the first gen iPhone and even the Palm Centro.

Here’s a stackup view of the Pre in between the iPhone and Centro.

In hand it feels pretty light, but solid. The smooth rounded edges make it comfortable to hold. Shaking it reveals no rattles and squeezing it didn’t crack anything

The size is very pocket friendly. The only thing I worry about is the durability of the front display. Since it’s not glass like the iPhone, I’ll probably want a screen protector to avoid scratches.

The Pre is made of Black plastic and is very shiny. You know what that means… fingerprints and smudges. Argh. The front has a pleasing minimalist design that I like. A flush display, earphone, microphone and center button are all you see.

Flip the phone over to see the rear side. The back cover that comes with the Pre is made of the same shiny Black plastic as the rest of the phone. In the image above, I have the back cover that came with the Touchstone charger installed. It has a soft matte finish instead of a shiny hard plastic finish. You can also see the built in speaker, camera lens and the LED flash above it.

A side view reveals the slightly curved bottom of the phone. The Left side has a one piece volume adjustment rocker switch.

The Right side has a covered micro USB connector.

The micro USB connector cover is tethered to the phone and swivels to allow you to connect the included cable for charging. It’s kind of a pain in the butt to unsnap the cover and move it out of the way when you want to charge the device. Covers like this one annoy me and I’d probably permanently remove it. Luckily there’s the Touchstone charging option. More about that later.

The top of the Pre has a standard 3.5mm stereo headphone jack (yay!), mute switch and the Power / wake up button. The mute switch has ridges across the top that make it easy to toggle on and off. The phone will vibrate to let you know that you’ve switched states. The power / wake button is on the corner of the phone and is slightly raised, making it easy to find with your finger.

The only thing on the bottom edge of the Pre is the back cover latch.

The face of the phone slides up to reveal a backlit QWERTY keyboard. If you turn the phone over when the keyboard is visible, you’ll notice a handy mirror. Great for self portraits or primping

Here is a side view with the keyboard exposed. The actual sliding mechanism is just so-so in my opinion. It’s not as effortless to operate as the dual slider on the Pantech Matrix Pro that I’ve been using lately. Sliding the top half of the phone up requires you to press up on the display with your thumb. Since the front is so slick, it’s sometimes hard to get enough friction to open it one handed. I have the same issue with closing it.

Another view…

The keys on the Pre are somewhere in between the Treo 680 and the Centro. The size of the keyboard is similar to the Treo and has a slight curve/smile layout. But the Treo has hard keys, and the Pre has soft plastic keys like the Centro.

The keys are quite flat, but the size and layout feels roomy enough for thumb typing.

I have noticed that the keys have a slightly squeaky, creaky, plastic sound when you press them.

I also wanted to mention that the round select button below the display is not a scroll ball like you find on Blackberry phones or the Android G1. Unfortunately it’s just a button.

Ok, those are my super fast first impressions of the new Palm Pre. Just enough info for you stick around for my next post. The next installment will cover:

• The user interface, touch screen, gestures, etc.
• Web browser
• Touchstone charger

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Palm OS related, Palm pre

A Week With The Palm Pre Smartphone – Day 1 originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 6, 2009 at 3:47 pm.

Sprint is giving 2 lucky winners a FREE Palm Pre with 1 year of Simply Everything service and a Palm Touchstone. This is your chance to talk, text, surf, email, map and plan in real time.  Enter to win and Sprint will notify you when this fully live phone hits the streets.

The sweepstakes is open now and ends at 11:59pm CDT on Monday, May 18, 2009.

Check out http://sweepstakes.sprint.com/palmpre for complete Official Rules, including entry instructions and prize details.

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Gear Diary, Palm pre, Sprint

Win a Palm Pre from Sprint originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 14, 2009 at 5:48 pm.

Palm’s press conference at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas just ended a few minutes ago. Since they originally announced this “New-ness” event, quite a few people have been speculating that their announcement would be underwhelming at best. We’ve been hearing that Palm has been down for the count for months now. As a long time Palm fan and user, I know I’ve grown bored with them over the past couple of years, but I continue to go back to the Treo or Centro time and time again. Their phones (Palm OS) feel like an old friend to me and I couldn’t help but keep my fingers crossed for the past few weeks while I waited like all of you to hear what they would be announcing. Well, I don’t know about all of you, but I’m really excited about the Palm pre (the name is completely lame though…). So long Palm OS and hello Palm webOS!

The phone looks great and I’m so happy that they included a slide out keyboard. Touch screens are great, but I likes me some keys. Here are some specs (scraped from other sites since Palm hasn’t updated their own site yet).

• New TI processor with laptop-like performance
• EVDO REV. A (Sprint)
• 3.1 inch 320×480 display
• WiFi
• Bluetooth 2.0+ (with A2DP profile)
• GPS
• 8GB integrated memory
• 3 megapixel camera with LED flash
• 3.5 mm headset jack
• Slide-out QWERTY keyboard in portrait mode
• Accelerometer, light, and proximity sensors
• Trackball ala Blackberry

There is no word on pricing yet, but it will be available sometime in the first half of this year (I hope sooner, better than later) and will sell first through Sprint. I was really hoping it would come as unlocked GSM or Verizon first. I would seriously consider jumping ship from AT&T to Verizon for this phone, just from what limited info  I’ve seen so far.

What do you guys think? Is there room for yet another mobile OS? Can Palm webOS compete with ‘old’ Palm OS, Windows Mobile, RIM, iPhone, Android and Symbian? Are you as excited about the Palm pre as I am?

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Gear Diary, Palm, Palm pre, Sprint

Palm pre – Is this Palm’s Rocky Balboa moment? originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 8, 2009 at 3:12 pm.