Palm Pre Touchstone to be an entire product line, not just a charging dock
By Nilay Patel 
posted Apr 12th 2009 5:11PM
posted Apr 12th 2009 5:11PM
[Via PreThinking]
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omg cant wait
This is currently done with Data and electric network switches that plug into the wall where you don't have wireless internet or no Cat 6 plug. So the essence of Palm doing "Inductive" data transferring is not at all far fetched being wireless and this is already being done wired.
I look forward to the release.
I love the Pre and i think it's a really good alternative to the iPhone, but i also don't think this Touchstone charging dock is not something thats Jaw dropping.
If it's not Jaw Dropping it's certainly Jaw Agape-ing.
Yes, other wireless charging products exist, but not directly from the phone manufacturer and not specifically made to work with any one device (except, perhaps, the iPhone) ... and, as of yet, not without some kind of kludge-y attatchment that get's the thing to work (iPhone included).
so...while it's charging texting and calling are going to be irritatingly difficult; at least that's what i gather.
hmm. =//
@kamakaze: Uh, no. First, you could just pick it up, as you would every single other device out there charging in its cradle. Or, if you need to be handling it while it's charging you can still plug it in with the included USB cable.
@kamakaze: I have a Nokia N95 8GB, and you can't last more than one day with just one battery charge on it. Maybe 1 and a half days. Every night, I just put charge it while I sleep. Perfect in the morning. I don't understand why people don't do that as it's so simple, and works best to get the most out of a day from your phone.
*eagerly awaits "what do you want on your touchstone?" advertising*
What do I want to do on my touch stone? Huhuhuh... you don't wanna know dude, belive me.
It'll happen. Sprint, at the very least.
"Touchstone - all your base are belong to us" --Sorry, had to go there...
wonder what other things they could be bring to the touchstone line besides wireless charging? but am very eager to see what they came up with.
Wireless Car Charger, I'd bet. With something extra to compensate for the bumpiness like a holster or something.
sync and charge would be nice
Er...whither bluetooth?
There is a NEED for "inductive" data transfer?
Bluetooth would be too slow for sync if the Pre is going to have music and video. Wi-fi would be most fitting instead.
Wireless USB, perhaps...
It would be cool if Palm includes some kind of desktop software for syncing media... Contacts are all in the cloud, but media take long to transfer and automatic syncing is easy.
Since they are somewhat following Apple in their marketing, they should follow the iTunes + iPhone model maybe..
I'm thinking it would be pretty cool if it did video out.
What should it sync? I thought it basically stored everything in your different "cloud" accounts?
Someone's job is on thin ice.
What other functionalities could they add to the Touchstone? Speakers? Speakerphone? Upon contact? Different shapes and sizes? Perhaps an area of a desk made up of the same tech?
This is interesting to say the least...
if you answer a call while it's on the dock or put it on in a call, it's speakerphone. you take it off, it answers the call. Pick it off during a call, it automatically goes to non-speakerphone :P
@Phoenix: Thats exactly what I had in mind...
What he's saying is that functionality already exists.
@Ellianth: Oh... I was wondering why he just restated what I said. Haha. Thanks for that.
It was talked about in either one of the many videos, I think...
At least it won't have a fruit on it. :P
That is until someone puts batteries in an orange or a banana.
I long for the day that you can put a banana on a Touchstone and expect a result.
i think he meant "apple"
And what if he _didn't_ mean apple? The three of us will be over here enjoying our fully charged tropical fruits. You may join us when you're ready to embrace the future.
Sure, I think apples would just fine!
"would *WORK* just fine"
Grammar... Bleh.
I'll be honest, Bill; I think an apple would roll right off of a Touchstone.
Could we bioengineer more fruit with magnets in the base to increase compatability?
Sure, you guys can sit back and enjoy your fruity smoothie or 'colata whichever is your preference... as long as that Touchstone doesn't have a fruit on it, i'm a happy man.
However, when that thing starts to show any signs of fruit, then we have a problem.
this is like first cool thing that is not made by apple. lets hope they don't copy it.
What does 'after the break' mean??
It means that to view the rest you have to click through to this direct page from the Engadget.com cover page. There's usually an ad or something at "the break" between the different sections.
I've never seen any advert in between. I always thought they were taking the piss out of tv programmes.
On occasion, it takes a minute for the extra content on this page to be added and uploaded. That time is referred to as "the break".
It means you can go to the toilet and come back and continue.
The RSS feed shows only the part up to "after the break."
The RSS feed only shows the heading...
it already goes to speaker phone if your in a call and you put it on the touchstone. Also, if it rings while on the touchstone and you take it off it automatically answers the call.
It's probably the brand name of all their high-end accessories for future palm products.
They probably want it to be the ipod dock connector of palm devices.
I'm eager to see reaction of high price tag.
I'm eager to see if touchstone days are numbered.
I'm eager to see if people will buy this $180 over a $10 wire.
i'm eager for you to shut up and stop doubting
The Touchstone will easily be $30 and could be $45. If it's any higher than that I'll probably never get one. I think I've read that the compatible back with the magnets is a separate purchase. Dunno how much that'll cost. We'll see.
I'm gonna guess the Touchstone will go for $29. The magnetic back cover will come with the Touchstone...that's been confirmed.
I've heard $99
I just watched the 45 minute extended version the above clip is ripped from and, yeah, very good to hear that the back is included.
As far as cost goes, my $30 guess is probably too hopefull. I don't consider $100 impossible, but anything above even $60 and I won't even consider it. Again, $45, I think is best, especially as it is not the least bit essential. It is simply an extremely cool and convienient way to do what can already be done with the included USB power cord.
I can't find anything available on the net to compare the price to. That Powermat thingy isn't out yet
Wow some geniune 100% innovation, about time !
It's wireless charging... it's been done before, but has just never been commercially successful.
*won't be commercially successful- I wouldn't pay anything extra for it, and i'd still prefer a wire, as we have too many wireless frequencies rocking out in our households anyways... and more importantly to me, I like to use my device while it's charging- and I'll be damned if i'm gonna stand over my phone sitting on a little box, and not hold it in my hand to use it while it's plugged in.
Its conductive charging not wireless signals.
Do you think Palm invented conductive charging?
That is a big fat lie!
@gouken85: Nobody said they invented it. It does however seem like they may popularize it and make it mainstream - that's innovation, design innovation to be exact. Ford didn't invent the car but he mass produced it and made it popular - are you gonna tell me that's not innovation??
Besides, Palm wouldn't be the first company to take an existing concept that somehow has yet to make it big and make it popular. I'll give you a hint, the name of the company I'm talking about rhymes with crapple.
@wrabbit:
Major4Play claims this is Palm's 100% innovation. That's what gouken85 is talking about. So we can all agree that inductive charging is nothing new. I also agree that Apple is indeed a great innovator, utilizing under-appreciated technologies into new ways of using them and creating their own when none yet exist.
Palm certainly seems to be working hard at creating great products of their own and I like that. I hope their dark and shameful days of using WinMo in their devices is over. More power to Web OS I say.
Pretty sure I have been using one of these with my Sonicare since like 1998.
"Do you think Palm invented conductive charging?
That is a big fat lie!"
Ahhhhh Yessss.... The Backlash begins..............
May 17th is rumoured release date of the pre according to an employee for sprint and the touchstone devices and according to the guy I was talking to there is no new information on the European launch date only the guys at sprint will be training whichever company gets it in the UK. This guy was a guy who worked for sprint and was at one of the major mobile events. For some reason he wouldn't tell me which one.. Got no idea why.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/engadgetcomment/
fix the comment system.
Probably referring to similar products for in your car, stuff like that.
i think they will do what ipods did with the docks, like speakers, and all that sutff, but this will be wireless.
Touchstone car adapter - charge + music/GPS?
Now this is what I am looking for!
If only I hope they will make a nice dash mountable touchstone for using it as a GPS/Charger(maybe even an FM emitter built in for people who don't have sweet cars with bluetooth).
It would be sweet to hop in the car and set the phone on my dash having the preference to have the GPS app load as soon as it recognizes the auto-touchstone. I'd buy one in a second.
that would be amazing!!
My toothbrush has inductive charging. Again, nothing new. It is nice because you don't have to plug it in, unplug it and wear out pins/ports. However, if there is no computer connection or the like while it's charging, what's the use? You still have to plug it in.
You can sync wirelessly, ie, over EVDO or Wifi.
Not to mention that it syncs with the "cloud" primarily. Desktop syncing (via a third-party developer in fairly short order) will be wireless or via the included, standard USB cable.
Why are people so hung up on yelling "Conductive charging isn't new!" or "Palm didn't invent this!" or some other crap like that?? Nobody's claiming otherwise. However, new or not, conductive charging has yet to make it big and in terms of implementation.The touchstone charger, is a new and innovative approach, one that may "bring" conductive charging to the masses. You should be applauding Palm for this, because if it does become popular then we can look forward to more devices taking advantage of this - this would be similar to what iphone did for touch screens (admittedly not as big).
Why is the video titled, "Palm hints at the new Touchstone product line?" with a question mark? I think it's made pretty clear that there is definitely going to be a new Touchstone product line when the guy says, "Touchstone is the name of an entire line of products."
It looks like you have to hold the base in order to pick up the unit. Not liking that.
The bottom of the Touchstone somehow works like a suction cup so you won't have to.
Does that mean everyone needs glass topped desks?
I'm sure it will work with more than glass surfaces. It's technology based on Gecko feet and they don't need glass surfaces!
How about a touchstone toilet paper sensor? I hate it when I'm wiping and the paper just rips - yucky. It would be cool if the device in my pocket would sense that the mass of paper I'm holding is too thin and warn me that my fingers are about to be covered in brown stuff. That would be awesome.
WTF are you using man.
are you using a single square of TP at a time? :O :O
I think he wins the most unrelated comment in Engadget history. Not to mention disturbing.
WTF FTW
Isn't that the same kind of technology that rechargeable toothbrushes have used for years? If I'm not mistaken it takes MUCH longer to charge it this way than if you plugged it in. My toothbrush takes about 10 hours to fully charge from a dead state and it's a brand new Oral-B triumph, using their most advanced technology (though it uses Ni-MH batteries I'm pretty sure and obviously the capacity is different than your average smartphone, but still it must take longer). So, hopefully they will improve on the charging time...
I just don't understand what really is the point of the Touchstone, the only advantage is that you won't have to physically grab the cable and plug it in, but on the other hand, with the cable you have greater mobility, you can pick it up and still use it while it's plugged in, whereas this way you have to leave it on the touchstone. This, combined with the fact that it'll take longer to charge just makes it a little pointless in my opinion...
yea, my headphones have wireless charging to, nothing new, but nice none the less.
In one of the videos it was stated that charging by cable or Touchstone didn't change charge times.
I think that the keyword in that video clip is (charging) "dock". It is a cute item and will no doubt be overpriced, thanks to the cool factor, but I am much more interested in something actually useful such as a DOCKing station that would offer access to say, a full-size keyboard, USB drives and video out.
The Redfly Mobile Companion is offering this on Windows Mobile (the aborted --thanks to Engadget-- Palm Folio did the same) and while not very successful because much more useful cheap netbooks offer pretty much the same thing, Redfly is now offering a software solution currently in its beta stage for WM but soon available on other platforms. I am hoping that Palm will do the same.
Cool, I'd like a TouchStone shower radio.
@Ellianth: Oh... I was wondering why he just restated what I said. Haha. Thanks for that.
I think Apple should just copy this. Just blatantly copy it, violate all kinds of IP laws, etc. just to piss Palm off...
Who can see the Touchstone brand abused and overused similar to that of EEE PC...