Comments on: First impressions: Palm Pre
Palm made quite a splash at CES 2009 with the unveiling of its new Palm Web OS and Palm Pre smartphone. We give you our first impressions of the device and how it will impact Palm and Sprint.
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TOP PRODUCTS FROM TOP BRANDS
Yes we can!
The Pre is the first phone to make the iPhone look old and seem outdated!
http://www.macnn.com/blogs/2007/10/18/apple-files-for-iphone-design-trademark-protection.html
MAJOR Issues
1: Input: Slider keyboard slides the wrong way for landscape use; size appears too small for fast+easy finger/thumb use; both limit it?s usefulness to portrait slow texting; no stylus included- OS can?t support onscreen drawing as no demo (BIG backward step)-(U)!
2: Display: A new 3.1 inch 480x320 screen (old palm resolution down sized from their 3.9 inch screen). Still Required: a bright sunlight readable 800x480 screen for internet and document use outdoors (try DynaVue)! Such, at a 4.3-4.8 inch size, would have been ?IT?. Every cell phone I?ve tried, had a screen that COULD NOT be read outdoors in bright sunlight-therefore I have to go for least cost/min services. The rule is: don?t spend the bucks if it won?t work there. 3: GPS: Only aGPS-(U)! This is a poor technology that the cellular companies push for city use only (it doesn?t use GPS; not usable everywhere). Add true GPS (a brand name, multi frequency GPS+XM/Galileo/SBAS receiver, uses all maps, and usable all places).
4: Camera: Not hot pluggable-(U)! Many companies ban camera phones from being carried by personnel at work, but when not at work, people want the camera with the phone.
5: Slots: No card slots--(U)! Need 2 full size SD slots! SDHC is here and SDXC is just around the corner! Do not use losable µ-SD (too small)! Express cards-here also!
6: Storage: Has 8 GB, but more memory is not an option in a 32GB iP? era-(U)!
7: Recording: A weak recording package (no voice recorder (VR), unknown video and just a 3mp primary camera included). Front+primary lens are de rigueur. 8mp-autofocus-antishake-3X primary units are out soon. VR?s were unique and very useful on past Palms! Why no video specs?
8: Rates: Pre is designed to be constantly accessing Sprint/other networks (roaming) and could incur very high user costs. Rate for unlimited cable use is $36/3-PC vs $100/Pre plus roaming. Hope this can be reduced by a combination of options which have not been demonstrated.
9: Management: Full/large scale doc management w/Universal Search-no full demo-(U)!
10: Operation w/Past Palm Programs: No demo-WHAT HAPPENED? (U)!
11: Mobile Connectivity: Wireless only? No hosting or USB OTG-(U)!
http://www.kanbal.com/index.php?/Electronics/palm-pre-the-iphone-rival.html
Having been a loyal user of many Palm devices from the first PDA though my current Treo, I am completely disappointed that the Pre has no support for my existing Palm apps. Also one carrier. Sprint. Give me a break.
Remind me why exactly I should stay loyal to Palm? If I wanted something that doesn't run my Palm apps and doesn?t work in the USA and Europe - I have a huge choice. I'd have moved to a modern phone ages ago. But I waited patiently, I had faith Palm would be back with a perfect Palm OS smartphone and wouldn't let me down. I feel like an idiot now.
When it can run my existing apps and there is a GSM version, maybe I'll look at it.
How many more years do I have to wait for that Palm people?
Oh and it's shiny. So it shows every smudge and fingerprint and will be slippery. The slide out keyboard is nice, but how do you skin the Pre?
I was beyond excited about Pre, but having found out what it?s missing, I?m looking at alternatives. Thank goodness for StyleTap. Maybe if you work with them, Palm, so they can support your apps for you, and you might lose fewer customers.
Let's discuss whether the Palm Pre is going to be the next big thing further at a Pre Forum:
I've stumbled upon "PreferPre" - http://www.preferpre.com
See you there!
PalmPreFan
Here is my take on sprint:
I would agree that for a customer who does not need all the bells and whistles of the Simply Everything plan, paying $99/month for a single line is too much. A plan with unlimited anytime minutes or a set number of anytime minutes like 800, 1000, 1500, basic internet access, and texting is most likely what most smartphones users would need. I would greatly support new plan choices such as these for less than $99/month for one line. I do not care about the extras that sprint offers like Sprint TV and their GPS service and I am unsure about what percentage of smartphone users actually use these sprint proprietary services, I suspect NOT a very high percentage. The other kicker for Simply Everything is that it is simply too expensive for families with only a tiny $5 discount per additional line. Sprint really needs to rethink their pricing strategy in this area. I also do not really care much for their current shared plans, I get the impression that they are really pushing people to pay for extra services like data and texting since they are offering only one shared talk only plan. They used to have more options for talk only plans and you could add whatever services you wanted to to each line but not so much the case anymore. I know that the other carriers charge more money for less services, so sprint is really in no position right now to do any really good plan revisions, thus making them the best bang for your buck type of carrier for now.
I would agree that their phone lineup has almost always been behind the times. This Palm Pre phone looks really cool. Its going to have some amazing functionality and features that is going to entice several people to move over to sprint or stay with sprint. I was really hoping that it would be the first phone to fully support flash with its new webOS but I have seen unofficial news that it will not support flash. The other negative is the storage capacity with only 4GB and no memory card expansion slot. The current higher end iphone has 16GB and there is speculation and other rumors on the internet about a 32GB iphone model coming out sometime this year. 4GB really seems way behind the times with already having a 16GB iphone and maybe a 32GB iphone released in the future.
That phone had people lining up around the block for its release, people who had never used an iPhone, had no concept of its limitations, couldn't possibly know whether or not it could even receive a decent phone signal, but were prepared to camp out for days to lock themselves into a ridiculously long, restrictive, expensive contract with a carrier they didn't want to be with, all because they wanted the bragging rights to an 'Apple iPhone'. And history has proven two things.
First that the iPhone was a roaring success. And secondly, that it was flawed in so many ways that if it had any other logo on it other than that Apple one, the 'faithfull' wouldn't have touched it with a 10 ft barge pole. But they shut off their cognitive reasoning and the rest is history.
So, it's safe to say, when a product's time is right, then it will be a success, regardless of its faults. I expect the same thing to happen with the Pre. But at least the Pre should have a much less flawed launch than that piece of rubbish that was the original iPhone.
And may Palm and the Pre prosper. By the looks of what I've seen so far, they truly deserve it.
Hear that Apple? They deserve it.
share your opinions at http://www.PalmPreForum.org
Even if Palm offered the phone for $250 - $299, with a 2-year contract, they will still make a good profit within a year and put Apple (IPhone) on notice. I hope they learned from the mistake Sony made with the PS3's initial cost of $700-$800, which backfired in their face and caused more people to purchase a lower priced XBOX360 instead.
P.S. - I can not mention the rep's name. I think the release date is a secret, and I don't want them to get fired. There's enough of that going on already.
Anonymous tipster,
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by Blake1530a
March 29, 2009 8:49 AM PDT
- Bonnie: will the pre work with a Mac OZ, iTunes download and will you be able to download
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Showing 3 of 4 pages (110 Comments)word and excel as I can now on my palm.