New "Meet Pre" video demonstrates new functionality, incredible calming effect
By Paul Miller 
posted February 15th 2009 10:09AM
posted February 15th 2009 10:09AM
posted February 15th 2009 10:09AM
HP Pre 3
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Boy these smartphones are smarter than most users. Good luck with that Pre.
The timing for this demo is obviously not accidental. They hope to counter whatever is coming from MWC to steal the Pre's thunder.
I expect them to do something similar when the new iphone is announced.
pretty cool i guess, but i'll stick with my jailbroken iphone.
Good one, sanriver - way to reinforce just how broken and useless the comment-rating is on this site. Why don't Engadget ban you, because you have admitted to misusing the ratings, and not even reading a comment before rating it?
Automatically rating comments based on author, is most definitely troll activity.
Because of you and all the other Apple-hating trolls on this site, who do the same as you to try and falsely present other people's arguments as being invalid, the low- and hi-ranks do not in any way reflect the factuality or usefulness of the content of the comment.
They just reflect how the Apple-hating trolls cannot abide any discussion of Apple products, and how they want to make any and all criticism of their favourite device fade away into faint-text-land.
This was a bit of a boring video. I mean heck, I'm just as exited about the Pre as the next guy but the video was kinda bland. Having said that, I think it probably speaks to the BB crowd - highlighting something that probably makes it superior to blackberry devices in terms of managing appointments and such.
I'm really exited about the pre - I think it's really close to my idea of a perfect smartphone, not quite there mind you, but close. I've never had a smartphone (and last PDA I owned was Sony's Clie, which I dumped several years ago). I literally got ipod touch 2 days ago. Very good device, but definitely lacking in all the ways I've read about. Having said that, all the ways in which it does work are much more impressive in person - the whole greater than the sum of its parts as it were. Oh and the fact the google just launched sync support for it is just awesome.
Anyway, reason I never got a smartphone is 'cause whichever one I looked at seemed to be lacking in one way or another. Blackberries seemed great for productivity but lacking in the fun department. Palms, to be honest, stopped being exciting years ago. Then I remember when I first saw the iPhone, at first it was exiting but then it was made clear that it's gonna be a locked down platform, with very limited customization options, and I just wasn't gonna spend tons of money on something that I couldn't adapt to my needs. Then when the app store came it actually got even worse because while you could develop for it you were bound by NDA and couldn't share your knowledge with others - the absolutely monumental stupidity of that policy completely boggled my mind, and finally solidified my opinion that Apple has taken Microsoft's crown as the biggest douche bag on the block.
And now I'm looking at the Pre and I see that real thought and effort (and even love) went into this device. Palm didn't just pretty up its OS (like HTC Touch Diamond, or Blackberry Storm) to be flashier and kinda like iphone's. No, they actually went back to the drawing board and looked at what's on the market, what's working and what's not, and how can things be improved. I'm sure it won't get everything perfect right off the bat, but I can already see that some of its features will give the industry a much needed push, as I personally feel that, at least in the Mobile OS space, there is some stagnation going on (I mean think about it, when was the last time a smartphone did something really new with the OS?).
I'm not crazy about Pre's hardware design - it looks a bit chubby and old school to me. I prefer tighter curves.
I also think it's a shame that they decided to dump microSD slot, although that's mostly because I feel that the extra options it presents are worth the extra 1 or 2mm it would've added to Pre's thickness. Personally though, I don't feel a big need for it. I'm not gonna be putting any movies on it anyway, and will probably have only a handful of albums (I do most of my listening in the car anyway) on it. So 8GB is more than enough for me. And I'm sure there will be versions with larger capacities down the road, for those that need them.
(I have to say though that they're argument that Pre doesn't need SD because "the internet is the SD card" is bullshit. All that stuff that is stored in "the cloud" - contacts, emails, notes, calendars, etc., is nothing. It's measured in megabytes - half a gig will last a lifetime for most people for stuff like that. It's the music, and the photos, and the shows and movies that take up space. Okay, so you might have your photos on Picasa or Flickr, but the rest of it, it's something you wanna be carrying with you, so that argument just doesn't work.)
Those are though my only gripes with the device so far, and they're really not major points at all. On the other hand, there are plenty of stuff I'm liking about it.
The extra touch space under the screen is a great idea, in fact, it's a stroke of genius. It combines the utility of having more than just one button on the chin with the convenience and flexibility of gestures. This is definitely a feature I want other companies to copy.
Multitasking, well it's obvious why that's awesome, and it's also obvious that iphone is seriously lacking in that department. I've been using ipod touch for two days and I'm already getting frustrated with having to close an app every time I wanna do something in a different app.
Storing all the info in the cloud, and more importantly, making it a seamless part of the experience is great, though I'm still hesitant of keeping all that stuff on the net. Personally, I'll always have a desktop copy of at least all of my important contacts.
My favorite part of Pre is WebOS. As a web developer I can't wait to start working with it and developing apps for it. I don't miss "rich 3d games" at all because quite frankly I never understood the appeal of playing such games on handheld devices - what's the point of making something great looking in awesome 3d if you're gonna be looking it at it on a tiny screen? And as far as 2d games I'm not anticipating any problems in that department.
Darn, The Simpsons is on, I'm outta here!
I'll buy it and load android on it. >_>
Dualboot!
This awesome, but... has anyone seen it's PHONE function? Looks like a great PDA so far...
I don't think Paul is 100% wrong, just let him speak his mind. In due time, If the Pre is a better phone than Apple's, we will know. I'm pretty sure all these comments help both Palm and Apple more than Engadget readers, so there's no need to belittle each other here. Be objective. What does the Pre have that the iPhone does not? A physical keyboard. I don't think the Pre's gonna handle music and video better than the iPhone, though. I go to work everyday with both an iPhone and a Nokia e71 in my pocket and, both sync to my Apple computers very easily.
If you'd like a tool for managing your time and projects, you can use this application inspired by David Allen's GTD:
http://www.Gtdagenda.com
You can use it to manage and prioritize your goals, projects and tasks, set next actions and contexts, use checklists, schedules and a calendar.
A mobile version is available too.
@Paul Apel
Why dont you get a Touch Pro 2 and shut up!