Second "Meet Pre" video retains calming effects, shows off third party apps
By Ross Miller 
posted April 2nd 2009 1:17AM
posted April 2nd 2009 1:17AM
posted April 2nd 2009 1:17AM
HP Pre 3
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
@Me4u2: please, don't troll so much. It's ok to like something over the other, but there's no need to start blindly stating lies.
* Video playback is possible and was already shown on a many videos.
* The screen has exact the same resolution as the iPhone's.
* It plays many different media file types (more than the iPhone, BTW), so yeah it is a multimedia phone.
* The physical keyboard doesn't get in the way of your content, so it actually improves your browsing experience (but that is a personal preference, so I don't claim it, and neither should you, as an advantage or problem with either devices).
* It really cannot record video as of this moment, but neither can the iPhone.
* The 8Gb it offers is the same most people get for the iPhone, which is also not upgradable.
* And finally, it brings plenty new to the table, such as true multi-tasking for all apps with a clean and easy interface metaphor, Synergy, and one of the most beautiful and easy-to-use interfaces out there (which is probably the favorite killer-app claim for iPhone fanboys, so why it's not valid for the competition?)
Exactly Satnev. i'm sure we will see skype on 3G just like the nokia phones. these are the features we need on a phone, running online apps in the background. Not like a apple filter slow mobile me cloud server type or thing who sent me notifications.
If this thing gets Skype support that works on 3G, with the ability to run in the background, there really is no need for a beefed up voice plan and has the potential to save you a bundle of money, especially up here in Canada (if we ever get skype in) where I'm paying roughly $100 a month for my cell phone package...
Sorry but that would never happen. Companies need to stay in business, and no carrier is going to allow Palm to cannibalize their voice plans.
The pre is all hype like the iphone, tell me why a phone like the pre can't incoporate video recording or why there isn't any option for extra memory, don't even get started on multitasking, Nokia has had this for years and sprint has just killed the pre even more. I left sprint last year because i was fed up with their service and i don't think i'll be going back because of a device that isn't even capable of doing some basic dumb phone task. I've decided no more iphone for me not even iphone 3.0, Nokia N97 here i come, its the best device for me and i can't get over the awesome slide out keyboard.
What dumb phone tasks are you referring to? What can the N97 do that the Pre can't? Nokia gives you a great camera but what else ...?
You have no idea if it is all hype, untill it comes out!
in comparison to the iphone, the pre is the first of many webOS phones palm will be bringing out. With apple you get one phone, with a minor update or two each year. Palm will bring out phones for every part of the market. The hype here is about webos.
@Jonyah,
I think you are completely wrong here. By the time the Pre comes out, the next line-up of iPhone hardware will be out. In all likeliness, there will be price points from $100 - $400 for the new iPhone models. The Pre will have one model, priced $250-400, and will take quite a while to get to the same pricing flexibility as the iPhone should reach by this summer.
3rd party apps running in the background is a bad idea. Push notifications can continue to evolve (allowing call notification for VOIP apps) and Apple can allow a single music daemon, and then the iPhone will have the best of both worlds. Allowing background processes free reign has disadvantages that can not be fixed, only minimized with bigger batteries and beefier hardware. Apple's decision is very forward thinking.
@ashan
who are you trying to kid? Background apps are a bad idea? So why does apple allow for their apps to run in the background and not any other apps?
How does winmo and symbian handle backgrounding and battery life. i dont hear their users crying for longer battery life because they have been allowed to run apps in the background.
Push notification is a very poor alternative and its obvious you can't see that.
Push mail has always been a battery killer - how is push notification much different if I have 5 or 6 apps trying to push me moticfications?
I like the phone and her voice.
The place me and my wife have been buying all our unlocked phones from( we get new phones every year or so then sell them to friend and family in the Philippines) for the last few years say that they will have the GSM unlocked Pre soon and price listed. I haven't talked to the yet but I don't see how since no one seems to know when the UK version will come out. I assume that is the phone they will be selling. I,m going to Chicago this week end and plan on stooping by there to see the unlocked HTC touch HD that they have. I had my mind all made up that it would be my next phone but now I'm leaning toward the Pre but it depends on the availability of a GSM version ( will not ever go back to Sprint Been there dun that) peep the link.
http://www.popularelect.com/product_info.php?cPath=21_51&products_id=1305&osCsid=e1cb2691f6b1f9a4efce30edf7015077
The pre cant record videos, most dumb phones do that seamlessly.
As for the Nokia N97, its does everything well,
Its got flash, so watching youtube in the browser is a breeze,
Its got handwriting recognition,
Voice regcognition/voice commands,
Full web service integration via widgets,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h67Mr-kY-0I
Skype fully integrated (not apps),
Nokia Maps 2d/3d view with turn by turn navigation plus voice directions,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrJ45g1xbPY
Awesome 5megapixel cam with Auto-focus, geotagging and many more,
Nokia messaging with all major email clients and lots more just a click away,
The Ovi store with location targeted service,
Nokia Ngage crosses the line b/w gaming handhelds and mobile phones.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWpUhKDXd5Y
Those are just a few. Am an apple fanboy but this phone has got alot of juice that will quench my thirst for years. Iphone 3.0 wont change anything, still same lack of features. The Pre is just another iphone except the fact that it won't do half as well as the iphone. Then the Nokia n97 is the beast. Apple goodbye, Nokia here i come.
The N97 is pretty freaking sweet, but it will be pricey. I think it has the best chances against Apple for my next phone purchase. All of this is speculation right now, as none of this stuff is released.
I dunno, I watched those videos you linked and they were pretty weak... The maps is so jerky and not being able to pinch zoom just kills it for me. 3d is okay but not as good as the Google Earth app, available free on the iPhone for a while now.
nGage is getting a run for its money with the CURRENT iPhone hardware, and all bets are on Apple releasing new hardware with much better 3D capabilities. iPhone will be the mobile gaming king without a doubt.
As i see it, the only thing Nokia has right now on the iPhone is the camera/video and flash in browser. I bet the next iPhone will address this to a certain extent (I think they'll include better sensor and video eventually but never flash- they're pushing h.264 video and most Youtube content is now available in h.264 due to this).
N97 has video and gaming on the Pre. I doubt those features are compelling to potential Pre buyers.
Why does she say, "oh good, she's online" - but the phone sends an SMS? I thought she was on IM?
Thats why Synergy might be better in theory than in practice. It brings these services so close, you'll be sending messages without even considering if/how people have received them. Again, we'll have to wait and see.
Maybe they'll get sued, just like Apple, because their videos show UI and network responsiveness that the devices clearly do not match (according to the live demos seen so far)
Nice video though.
Exactly. The demos I've seen of the Pre, shows severe sluggishness from time to time. In this video it works perfectly. Suppose will have to wait and see when it's eventually released whether there'll be a smooth transition between apps.
From the Palm video site:
"Actual sequences shortened and video capture speed adjusted for demonstration purposes. Actual performance may vary. "
That disclaimer is something Apple didn't do. Perhaps Palm learned for Apple's oversight.
Ah, I love my iPhone, but god it's good to have some market diversity.
Well if i thought Sprint would finally stop adding bogus charges to my monthly bill i would go back to them.....oh and what ever planet their customer service comes from, can we please switch to another one?
@ Ashan
Clicking reply doesn't seem to work for me... :(
Google maps is also available for the N97, but it aint got half as much features like Nokia maps, the video you saw was Nokia maps 3.0 which is still in beta, version 2.0 works just fine. Plus it uses both network and local map files whereby you download the map file for the US or any part of the world with the Nokia Map Loader software available for mac and pcs then load it to your phone and thats it, you've got a full navigation system similar to Tomtom, it uses the onboard Gps for navigation. Whereas Google maps uses only 3g or wifi. As for pinch and zoom, you simply glide up on the zoom slider to zoom and glide down to unzoom.
As for gaming Ngage is at the top of its game with more than a million subscribers and more than enough exclusive psp like titles.
I suggest you do more research on Nokia and the n97 and i bet you wouldn't have any cause to get a Pre or an iphone. Cheerz
Why is it I openly weep everytime I watch a Pre video?
My gen 1 iPhone just doesn't seem as god like anymore.
how did she enter text without the keyboard out?
It knows what you're going to type before you type it. That's where they got the name, PRE-cognition.
This is what I think will Happen.
Palm will release the Pre the month before the iPhone to try and draw attention away from iPhone. Doing this will draw a lot of people to switch before the next iPhone release and cause some of the iPhone hype to die off.
What I would like to see is that they release the Pre the day of the next Apple event when Apple will release the new iPhone. This would draw a lot of people away from the iPhone hype and event.
I do not own a iPhone, but I am very excited to see what Apple have up their sleeve for the next iPhone as well. I would bet money that there will be a more to the new iPhone then just the 3.0.
Apple will now have to compete with the Pre. My 2 cents is that with the Pre and iPhone competing against each other we the consumers are going to see new levels of phone technology over and over in the coming future. This will be good for us in the long haul.
I love my iPhone more when I watched this. This is definitely a vaporware like the Foleo.
RIP palm.
I am still dubious about webOS and this cloud computing stuff.
Need to wait and see but anything that can steal some iPhone thunder and push the rest of the industry is definitely a good thing even if the hype is more than the reality.
Sweet
The best things i like about the pre that the iphone doesn't have are clearly shown here:
1) TRUE multi-tasking
2) "Soft" Notifications - I just love them man! I'd still be able to do whatever the hell I'm doing on my phone and still see any notifications at the bottom.
3) Synergy - right now i have a complicated system of converging my facebook events, outlook, and personal ical email using mobile me, ical, google calendar and busy sync. With the pre, it's just simple.
I hope that Apple at least addresses #2 soon after iphone 3.0
I love the Pre and I'm an iPhone 3G user! But as much as I love Palm's device, I can't help but feel that they've made some very big mistakes in the way they have chosen to market and unveil this fantastic phone.
1. They played their hand way too early! Pre-maturely ejaculated if you will. (sorry that was bad) anyway, as I was saying... Had they chosen to unveil the Pre at this event/point it would have made a far bigger impression on consumers as well as the competition, and would have given Apple far less time to play catch up. Without the kick up the back side that Palm provided, I'm convinced that Apple would have rested on their laurels, and would have never released iPhone OS 3.0 with it's current feature set.
2. Because of reason 1. Palm is under a lot of pressure to reveal price and release date details, this could in turn force Palm to rush the phone to market before it's time. (just take a look at the Blackberry Storm mess).
3. And the biggest problem for Palm Pre is it's inspiration Apple's iPhone. iPhone OS 3.0 has allowed Apple to close the gap on Web OS. And if the rumors of a new 2009 iPhone are in fact true, then the Pre could be in big trouble! Apple, through out its recent history has been very good at beating the competition. You can expect them to add all the features of the Pre and more. If the Palm Pre is not released before the launch of the new iPhone, then things will start to look less and less optimistic for its future.
4. As good the Pre is, its still has some weaknesses that Apple can exploit with the new iPhone. *At this point there's no video recording on the Pre, *There's no front facing camera for video calling or chat, *8Gb of storage is just not enough now a days, the new iPhone could go as high as 32Gb?! *Apple could easily add multitasking with new hardware. For the sake of Palm I hope my predictions are wrong.
Their stock was depending on them releasing something at CES.
In fact, I would say they wouldnt exist had they not shown it there, nor would they have gotten the money necessary to mass produce these devices had they not shown it off. Their stock skyrocketed.
And, by getting the attention they got at CES (the clear winners), they wouldnt have gotten the popularity and the contracts they got from carriers due to the massive hype generated at it.
They did everything right with the release of this. Remember, this isnt the Xperia. It is actually coming out within 6 months of its first mention.
I bet this fucker is expensive as hell. And worth every penny.