Man, we can't get enough Peter Skillman -- check out this 25-minute Pre hands-on demo Palm's VP of design did at CES. Sure, there's some overlap with what we saw
Matias Duarte demo during the announcement and the
shorter Skillman video we saw yesterday, but there's also some stuff that slipped under the radar -- like the
Touchstone's "gecko feet" in action at 1:48, a kinda-sorta unboxing at 2:29, an impressive email / IM / SMS multitasking demo at 12:10, and a peek at the video player at 20:09. Skillman also confirms that the Pre will do MMS, but video recording capability and Touchstone pricing remain a mystery. There are also some friendly iPhone and BlackBerry comparisons -- amusingly, he asks for a phone from the audience so he can show off the comparatively higher quality of the Pre's screen and gets a little flustered when handed the super-high-density BlackBerry Bold. Whoops! Overall, though, it's interesting to see Petey Skillz basically just
use the Pre for so long -- he throws quite a bit at it, and it never seems to hiccup or slow down, which is definitely encouraging. Video after the break.
posted January 30th 2009 11:32AM
This thing had better come with a polishing cloth.
If this Pre fails, Palm will be in CH 7. So it better come with this, that and the other.
Well the iPhone included it in the package so Palm will as well, they seem to be copying every little detail.
Here are just a few things they lifted from the iPhone
Home button
momentum while scrolling and elasticity when you hit the end
pinch and zoom
packaging with the product reveal when you first open the lid
Its kinda disappointing that they copied so much from other phones, would rather see new (better) ways of doing things.
Oh and im not convinced about the whole cloud sync idea, seems like it;s just an excuse for not having a proper PC/Mac client. email and contacts are fine but how do you manage music, movies, apps, podcast etc without software like iTunes.
@Andrew,
Copying things like multitasking, MMS, cut and paste, global search?
Momentum while scrolling was not an Apple innovation, the old Picsel Viewer app for Palm had it a few years back (and maybe others had before then, I don't know.)
Not sure about the elasticity thing.
he said they copied the HOME button
LMAO.
This gal?....rich!
@Andrew,
For the love of Dog, please stop. I've been accused in the past of being an Apple fan, and I guess I am to some extent, but I'm also a fan of Linux, and Microsoft (when they get it right). But blind fanboyism reflects poorly on people like myself who appreciate Apple, but realize it isn't perfect.
the iPhone is awesome in it's simplicity, but it isn't perfect. I have the original one, I really like it, and I really like Apple stuff, but I have some frustrations as well.
iPhone:
No MMS. Personaly I could care less, but MMS is just software. I have no idea why they don't support it.
No Copy/Paste. Please Apple, this can't really be that hard, can it?
No Mailing of multiple photos or attachments. I need this.
No disk usage. Again, this cant be that hard, can it? My iPod classic does it...
No multitasking. If Apple gets push notification working then I think that would be better, but I want to run an IM app in the background and get a popup if someone IMs me.
Now, even with all these issues, the iPhone is still my favorite device, for numerous reasons, but perfect it is not. And as far as copying goes, a good number of those gestures are in use by other companies as well as Apple, and frankly just seem obvious, and the home button. Really? that's a pretty bad example of copying.
Most of the issues I have with the Mac don't affect me personally, but I do get frustrated as an Apple shareholder with some of their decisions.
On the MacBook Pros, the machines should support at least 8GB, and since they are market as pro machines, they should have the best 8-bit panels in the business. There is no excuse for using 6-bit panels on a "pro" machine. Personally I prefer a glossy display, but apparently there are a lot that don't. Apple seems to be moving in the right direction with the matte option on the 17", but they need to offer this on the 15 as well.
Anyway, I guess my point is, a lot of us really like Apple stuff, but we are not blind fanboys like this guy.
@Andrew,
Did you notice how much Apple copied for iPhone from other phones starting with the screen, keyboard (on the screen), e-mail etc. So what's your point?
Well, IBM must have copied apple with the home key on the model M.
Maybe it need a polishing cloth , most of today's touch phones need such a thing. Beside that, I am thrilled from the overall preview of this phone ! It is a master piece , a state of the art in the field of mobile phones both on the hardware and software design. For a moment it appeared an iphone in the video and it seemed soooo ugly! Palm did an exceptional job! Even without multi touch capability i would buy it without second thought.
In regards to being able to make changes to gmail, etc in real-time without having to sync back later,.....I hope this doesn't mean the Pre is going to need a constant internet connection to take advantage of the features.
The phone looks great, but hopefully there is no expensive obligatory data plan attached.
@ Andrew,
"packaging with the product reveal when you first open the lid"
Are you kidding me dude? Almost every phone, PDA, laptop, or electronic device for that matter does this...
@Shugg
If you advertise the fuck out of something, people will buy it. I have seen SO MANY iPhone ads. More than the Instinct, Storm, G1, and LG Dare combined. That goes for anything.
Just when the heck is Apple gonna put these copy artists out of business? They must be waiting for the day the Pre goes on sale. Ripped-off intellectual property is a no-no. Does Palm even have more than one Pre built?
I hope the court sentences Ed Colligan to kiss Steve Jobs skinny butt.
@ Craig J
A lot of your complaints have already been addressed with apps on the iPhone.
File sharing with the iPhone IS possible and very easy. Use the AirShare app - lets you transfer files to your iPhone over WiFi from any computer. It's very slick.
If you want multiple photos in an email use the 'Multi-Photo email' app
You can jail break an iPhone fairly easily and instal a MMS app and a Copy and Paste app. There's a video recorder app and a NES emulator app for the iPhone as well. Native copy and paste is coming.
Just wait I am sure the Pre will have a whole laundry list of limitations when it's finally released.
Few Pre shortcomings we know of so far
- No video output to external display (I hook my iPhone up to a projector to run through powerpoint slides)
- No games
- Accelerometers?
- Weak developer tools
- Crippled Apps
- No audio/video podcast sync support
- No easy way of managing movies, music, pictures
- Plastic screen
- It's not really multi-tasking until you can have two activities on the screen at once. its more like fast app switching.
- UI is a freakin nightmare are you kidding me
I still stand by my original comment that Palm is ripping off the iPhone (as well as Android and BlackBerry), the similarities are obvious and its not new enough or different enough to warrant the hype.
Its nothing new, Palm ripped off their original PDA ideas back in the 90s from the Apple Newton, they then had to BUY the Treo from Handspring Inc to get into cellphones. Now they are ripping off ideas from across the industry to come out with this dog turd.
We know the iPhone is awesome, Android has a strong OS and developer community and BlackBerry has a strong network. The Pre really has nothing going for it, it's all flash and no substance.
Apple should be shacking in their boots.
i'd think that apple's rich enough to be shacking somewhere more fancy than their boots.
am i the only one who wants a palm with the treo form factor?
Maybe Apple will add IM to the iPhone now.
I don't think there is enough room in apple's boots to build a shack.
@wildman: LOL!
There were way too many opportunities to take both phones and run.
I want one but having just switched to AT&T, it looks like I won't be getting one anytime soon. :(
Having been a Sprint customer for 12 years I am excited to see this coming to CDMA.
how many times does he say "uhm."?
0.5 times per second？
Obama says "um" alot too but nobody seems to complain about that.
you must live in a cave or something then^
Try again, ballsack.
Yes, wife, I can just buy a separate back for the Touchstone, but wouldn't it be more fun to have a Pre in each pocket?
Wow. That's a lot of Vampire Weekend.
Of course they are, why do you think they're doing all that patent threatening?
As a long time loyal Sprint subscriber I'm so very much looking forward to this thing getting here already. Good to see my patience has been rewarded.
You say its "responsive" I say you're on crack. Clearly took at least a full second for notes to come up and close to FOUR seconds for the music app to come up.
This is -not- acceptable nor fast, and if this happens in their final unit, it will keep me from buying one.
Have you tried the iPhone? 13-15 seconds to load SMS, 10 seconds to load contacts, 10 seconds to load the settings..see a pattern? It's f*ing slow!!
it's faster then my IPhone.
mattv, you're just outright lying. Even before they sped up the opening times of those functions with a version update (what, almost a year ago?), wait times were NEVER that bad. Not even close.
I think your impatience clock runs a little fast.
/whips out iPhone/SMS
/4 seconds
Pfft.
I like the Pre. I've always loved Palm. I hope their advancements in UI that they've made for the smartphone community survives the scorching maelstrom of Apple's IP suit. Maybe if they bury the specs in the corp campus backyard?
My iPhone 3G takes a more than a few seconds for apps to open too. I wouldn't really say it's faster or slower than this demo.
It's snappier than my iPhone. Even with those occasional stutters.
Matt, if you're going to astroturf, try to make it *somewhat* believable. 13-15 seconds to load SMS on the iPhone, eh? Only in Steve Ballmer's sweaty dreams. Amazingly, mine takes under 3 seconds to load SMS.
You obviously have no clue about the iPhone and have not really used one. Either that or you don't know how long a second really is...
@chris2
Actually I took out a stop watch to see if it was just me being impatient. After multiple reloads of the firmware, restoring, etc, its ass slow. But way to assume there.
@quix
By 'obviously have not clue about the iPhone' you mean I've owned one since it came out and am responsible for iPhone/Mobile support at my company, right?
What is it with people with assumptions today?
I have exactly 73 SMS conversations going on in my iPhone 3G SMS app. Running the latest 2.2.1 update, 5.8GB filled with photos, videos and music, 46 apps in total, 6 e-mail accounts (2 personal + 4 work).
And my SMS application loads in 2.9 seconds.
SMS on my iPhone launches in under 3 seconds, and Safari launches in under 2.
Matt, I think you probably have a bad phone.
Interesting, Matt posts information about the iPhone the fallacy of which is obvious to anyone who actually *owns* an iPhone, and he gets Highly Ranked. Engadget commenters so love their Apple haterade, hmm?
"What is it with people with assumptions today?"
Not an assumption, a conclusion based on evidence you provided.
I agree with CraigJ, if you *really* own/use an iPhone as you claim to, it's clearly defective (or you've hosed the software somehow). My load times are a fraction of what you claim (about 2 seconds for SMS, about 3 seconds for Contacts, about 2 seconds for Settings). And mine is a launch-day 1st gen model. Perhaps *you* shouldn't be the one providing iPhone support for your company. Just sayin'.
Misrepresent Different.
@Quix: you're right. However the problem is that the fallacy is on both ends of the spectrum.
@A:Yes, it takes a few seconds to load some applications on the Pre, just like it takes a few on some iPhone applications. That is not what responsiveness is about. It's perfectly okay that program takes a moment to load all its data, specially when dealing with large data blocks (like a big library of MP3s). What makes a system responsive is how long does it take to respond to user input.
When people say the Pre looks responsive, they mean that even after opening a dozen applications simultaneously (what Apple says they don't allow because it would make the iPhone no longer as responsive), it still responds instantly to user commands. The entire interface still scrolls smoothly, all commands show some signal of being accepted the same instant, it just works like it should.
How long does it take to process that information and finally displaying the result is an entire different matter.
Man this phone looks INSANE. This is the first time I'm stoked about a phone since the PPC-6700. If this had a landscape keyboard it'd be a goddamn grand slam.
I'm with you -- I was a Sprint PPC-6700 early-adopter, because my old little Nokia had just died a horrible staircase death, and if I was paying to replace it anyway I wanted a true web capable phone and plan, NOT a "mobile web" (or Verizon-approved sites only) plan. The 6700 was the only real option at the time. My only regret is the clunky WinMo OS, especially mobile IE. Even though it crashes on just receiving calls sometimes, I've still been holding out for something worth a $200-$300 jump over what I have now. I think the Palm Pre and Rhodium/HD-Pro/Android are neck and neck right now, depending on relative price, plans, and release times. If HTC doesn't come out with something at least as good as the Touch Diamond Pro with Android, and I can say never again to WinMo, the Pre may end up being the only choice. AT&T is a non-option for me, Apple/monopoly fanbois.
Am I the only one who thinks the keypad is ugly?