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Palm Pre Reviewed
mlingojones writes "The Palm Pre doesn't come out until June 6th, but the Boy Genius Report not only got their hands on one but also posted a review of it. They liked webOS, but not the hardware (especially the keyboard). Overall, they feel that 'once people are able to play a real unit themselves, there will be more than a lot of happy Palm Pre customers.'" On the downside, this review says the keyboard is lousy.
After reading the review and watching this video I'm disliking my iPhone even more. Mulitasking alone sets it above the iPhone; it's very frustrating having to close and reopen applications anytime you want to do something, however I frequently have iPhone apps crash due to memory shortage so I have to wonder how stable it is with multiple apps open. The keyboard does look like a deal breaker though, granted the iPhone's keyboard isn't perfect and even less so when the iPhone assumes you're a moron that can't type and "corrects" what you meant to type with a completely different word (if I wanted the word it suggested I should have to press what comes up to select it, not the other way round). I doubt it will be an "iPhone killer" though, not because it's an inferior product but because the iPhone already has a hugely established userbase.
The hardware is bad. The keyboard doubly so.
Palm Pre on Sprint
It's just... it's unspeakably horrific.
Yup. I got that from the first time they mentioned it in the summary. But anyway. So I clicked on the link actually. And the review isn't really worth anything since they couldn't actually use the phone as, well, a phone. Looking at the picture of the keyboard, I have to agree that it would probably suck to use. And in my opinion that's a deal breaker. the buttons are really close together, but that's expected for such a narrow a phone. It probably should have had the keyboard come out to the side and use the phone in a landscape position. It's also quite apparent this guy is biased towards the Blackberry.
That which does not kill me only postpones the inevitable.
So this is a Pre-Palm Pre review.
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
the iphone doesn't win on features
It wins on features hands down - the features people actually use.
Just the other day I was asking to see someone's Storm, and asked where the browser was- they didn't even know! And after using it for a few minutes I could see why, there was hardly any point.
The iPhone makes things usable that a lot of people would otherwise never use - and the same goes for apps, I think Apple probably has surpassed the old Palm V installed and use app count at this point.
You can decry the iPhone as a creature of marketing all you like, but you're only deluding yourself and will never understand the real reason why anything succeeds or fails.
That said the Pre looks like an excellent phone and I think will do very well. This is because they understand the iPhone is about building a great phone and not about marketing, and the Pre looks to go into the same space with a different take on it that I think can carry a large bit of the market.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
First, why no phone test. Did they not have a SIM card?
They may have but the phone is not a GSM phone. You cannot use a SIM with it.
Second, the snipe a Palm at the end was not professional. Palm has produced serious hardware, the Palm V for instance. But to produce serious hardware someone needs to pay serious prices. One issue is that Palm is not longer a leader in innovation, and no longer goes after the market that will pay those prices. So, it is now down to commodity hardware, a tought fight to win.
I loved my Palm hardware of the past. But, I don't think going after the commodity market has to mean stuff that does have good ergonomics, just look at the Palm V... I guess keyboards are more complex to get right for cheap though. I reserve judgement until I do it myself.
I think they've done a lot of things right though and they may even surpass Android use, though that will be tough with a lot on Android phones on the way.
Third, who knows what the application store is going to do. Android already has many Apps. iPhone has many apps. Pre will have many apps. The problem is we know have three different platforms, so we in a compatibility hell hole where manufacturers are tying us into platforms.
I don't mind this though because the platforms are actually pretty different. The Pre will have mostly web apps with extensions - that is to say, be heavily based around web technologies but make some use of the pre specific API's.
Android will have a lot of apps that are tailored to a wide range of devices, and probably take good advantage of the freedom the platform offers.
iPhone apps will leverage heavily the libraries to deliver a more touch oriented experience.
I think there's room in the world for more than one platform, and I don't think it's all that bad you may have to write an app three different ways. I value taking full advantage of the device at hand over portability of a small application.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
My understanding is that the applications (initially anyway) are all CSS, HTML, and Javascript.
Most of them, but not all.
Several developers have had special VIP access to build native applications.
That includes Classic a compatibility layer to run old PalmOS 5 applications on Palm Pre.
What isn't know if only a select few developers will be authorised to produce native apps, or if opensource developers will get to write native applications when needed (this will be interesting for a couple of resource intensive applications such as media players and emulators).
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
> A 6-month exclusivity on Sprint means many people won't purchase one right away.
> why limit it to a single CDMA carrier?
Um... think about what you just said for a few minutes. The iPhone is *STILL* exclusive to AT&T. Didn't seem to kill the iPhone. The G1/Android is effectively exclusive to T-Mobile. There are lots of phones that are introduced to a single carrier for a while after launch. I am not saying I like this behavior- I think phones should be completely decoupled from carriers, completely (and without subsidies and contracts). But this is certainly nothing new or unusual. Sprint has always been Palm's greatest champion, so it is only logical they would work out a deal for exclusivity for a while (most people think it will be less than a year).
Sprint needs Palm just as much as Palm needs Sprint- they are both "gambling" on each other. Hopefully they will both do well for taking the chance.