Palm Pre: more of everything you ever wanted to know

It's been a tense bunch of months between the Palm Pre's January unveiling and the almost palpable launch next month, with fears of delays and a fairly tight-lipped Palm keeping us on the edge of our seats. But with the launch finally just two weeks away, we thought we'd revisit our "everything you ever wanted to know" feature on the device and work in everything we've learned since.

Read - Palm Pre: everything you ever wanted to know
Read - Everything else at our giant Palm Pre hub

[CJisohsocool Posted May 25th 2009 8:29PM]

Not to sound like an apple fanboy, but how is this so much better than the iPhone? Especially when the 3.0 update comes out to fill in all those features left out, (ex. copy n paste, MMS, email/text msg's in landscape)... I mean the iPhone's web experience must be better since it has a 3.5" screen instead of a 3.1" one.

[Jacob1 Posted May 25th 2009 8:51PM]

and yet you do sound like an Apple fanboy. By your logic, the Toshiba TG01 with its 4 inch screen will have a much better web browsing experience than the iPhone. Plus the multitasking on the Pre is reason enough to get it over the iPhone.

[(Unverified) Posted May 25th 2009 8:58PM]

I can't wait to start downloading the 40,000 or so apps from Palm's App Catalog store. Wait a minute. Maybe I'm confused with another app store. Does Palm actually have any apps I can download to my Palm Pre or is just hype created by Ed Colligan and desperate Palm fanboys? Maybe I should just wait until WWDC and see what the competition has to offer. There was some mention about some new iPhone or something. I probably should just wait.

[monkey with glasses Posted May 25th 2009 9:33PM]

@iphonerulez

I don't think you can count up to 40,000? And name me 20,000 worthwhile apps on the iphone since you have nothin to do.

[Jacob1 Posted May 25th 2009 10:24PM]

Hey iphonerulez, I didn't know you could fit 40,000 apps on your iPhone lol. Even more amazing is that you totally need every single one of them and use every one of them on a daily basis.

By that same logic, Windows is far superior to Macintosh because it has much more software. Sorry guys it doesn't work that way. Multitasking on the Pre is 100% win for me.

[(Unverified) Posted May 26th 2009 1:35AM]

@iphonerulez

Actually since there will be support for the older palm apps, so palm does hit the ground with a ton of apps, even though not all of them will be found in a centralized "store". Many of these apps are specifically geared towards professionals (ex: the wealth of healthcare related apps for doctors, pharmacists, nurses, etc...). You're probably unaware of this because this is only important for people who do productive work with their phones rather than dicking around.

[(Unverified) Posted May 27th 2009 6:12AM]

@Jacob

To be honest, there are good reasons why the Pre looks good compared to the iPhone but multitasking isn't one of them simply because it isn't really necessary. Why, precisely, do you need multitasking on a device that is only capable of showing a single application at a time? The Pre incorporates a very nice notifications system that should not need applications running in the background and only a small number of applications actually benefit from running in the background (audio and VoIP applications spring to mind but not much else). Allowing the likes of a word processing application to run in the background is just pointless. If applications can retain state when they are closed down and restart pretty much instantly then the difference between that and "real" multitasking is negligible.

[lennie22 Posted May 25th 2009 8:45PM]

@CJ: well, if your car has bluetooth you can send your songs via bluetooth through your car's stereo speakers with the pre, I'm not sure if this can be done with iphone since it doesn't have a2dp support. with the iphone you cannot open a word document from the email with the reader. with the iphone I don't know of a user being able to open an .mp3 from the email, or even download an mp3 from a website and listen to it from their phone without need of a computer....

[CJisohsocool Posted May 25th 2009 8:51PM]

3.0 OS is getting A2DP support, The rest isn't really important (to me at least),
The only good thing to me that the Pre does have that the iPhone doesn't is the 3.2mp camera with flash and video recording =\

[lennie22 Posted May 25th 2009 8:49PM]

I'm a windows mobile power user: some people buy cars because of how it looks, while others buy cars based on how it drives; and this is the difference between you and I.

[SomePerson Posted May 25th 2009 10:00PM]

I wonder how many people will line up for the Pre.

[(Unverified) Posted May 26th 2009 12:43AM]

SHIT when is this going to be released for the rest of the world?? apple made the rest wait 6 months up to a year. is palm going to do the same???

[(Unverified) Posted May 26th 2009 7:16AM]

What I am really peeved about is that Sprint won't give you (the paying customer) the freedom to use this phone with your existing plan! So because I don't want to be 'strong armed' into one of the 'Everything' plans, I am unable to purchase/use the Palm Pre. So basically I have the plan (that is RIGHT for me) until my phone dies, and at point, Sprint will force me to "switch" plans if I want/need a newer model phone.

THIS IS THE SECOND TIME THEY HAVE DONE THIS TO ME.

I have been with Sprint for over 15 years. I originally had the grandfathered $50/month 1000 min. plan with unlimited data. Perfect plan for my needs. My phone died and when I wanted to upgrade, they said my "unlimited data" plan that was free/included with my old phone WOULD NO LONGER WORK ON NEWER MODEL PHONES.

Why?

Because Sprint increased their internet speeds and changed the name of their "unlimited data" plan. Instead of being customer focused and converting me to the (slightly better) data plan, they forced me to change to a plan that costs me $30 more per month!

Now, once again, they changed the name of the "unlimited data" plan to the "everything" plan and instead of paying $30 more each month (from what I was originally paying), I would now be paying $50 more each month due to their shameless & unethical business practices.

I am riding out the remainder of my contract, then good-bye to Sprint and their Bullsh1t data plans. And seriously, do any of us really use the data plans on our mobile phones as much as we use internet service at our homes? Sprint wants to charge us nearly as much (or more) for having mobile access on our devices. But they sure love charging $20.00 a month just to have the privilege of checking email or reading an occasional news article! And if you don't agree to this exorbitent monthly "add-on" - no new phones for you!

[krische Posted May 26th 2009 9:54AM]

Cry me a river. Are you another SERO user bitching?

[(Unverified) Posted May 26th 2009 1:35PM]

You signed a contract with Sprint for a certain number of years. There's no reason they should have to continue whatever plan you happen to have once your 2-year contract is over. Furthermore, you're not going to find a cheaper plan than Sprint's in the states. If you ask me, you should be thankful that Sprint let SERO users ride out the plans for so long. It was unusually low in price when it started and still is.

[(Unverified) Posted May 28th 2009 4:20PM]

Immature little boys can't handle that there are other technologies outside the Apple world. Palm has been way ahead of Apple for years with smartphones that play music, browse the web, synch with Outlook at the office, GPS, so-on, so-on. Deal with it.

[(Unverified) Posted May 27th 2009 12:50AM]

Will it blend?

[DCSouthwick Posted May 27th 2009 12:48AM]

Will it blend?

[(Unverified) Posted May 27th 2009 6:21AM]

I have 3 questions that don't yet seem to be answered in the FAQ:

1. When will it be available worldwide (in my case, Belgium)?

2. Will it sync with a Mac with proper software (Palm Desktop for Windows is currently at version 6.2 while the Mac version is back at 4.2.1)?

3. Does it offer media management tools for the playback of media files (i.e. does it compete with the iPod features of the iPhone or is this basically a business tool?) so that I can leave my iPod at home?

[SonorityGenius Posted May 27th 2009 8:14AM]

Oooo Ahhh A dv5z... solve the world economic crisis by giving me ONE! :)

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 11th 2009 10:15PM]

Well I know one thing for sure. The Iphone is very limited even when jail broken, where as the pre gives you freedom.The only reason the iphone has success is because of the development of apps by third parties, the same apps will be developed if market share can be gained.

PROS
The pre is linux based so the sky is the limit, itunes syncable, free modem/tether use ( and you save almost 1300.00 annually on sprints all data plan vs at&t) it will be able to be used with Verizon in the future, it doesnt need to be jail broken because no one put it behind bars, awesome charger the stone truly rules.

ALL FREE STREAMABLE MUSIC, THAT CAN PLAY IN THE BACKGROUND, THE ULTIMATE MULTI TASKER wich beats the iphone in every single aspect. As for sprints lousy network I have never had an issue with it, its dismal performance is mostly hyped if you look at coverage statistics, the several times I have been out of my service area my sprint phone operates on other companies towers Verizon and US Cellular.

Cons
Its new there are problems and bugs like with anything new, hopefully it will be in high enough demand to give palm an incentive to truly progress.And of course the pre cant compete with the iphone, it has years on it, market share and a cult following. If the pre can survive the first year or two, giving it a chance to develop it will without a doubt go head to head with the iphone.
Removing the micro sd card from the original design was a shot in the foot, expandability would be leaps and bounds above the iphone, maybe in the next version....
Futhermore we all know the general population are morons, there's a reason most people have iphones...........