Palm Pre: takeaways from Premier night
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Jun 5th 2009 9:30PM
posted Jun 5th 2009 9:30PM
- Tethering is not supported and Sprint has no plans to offer a tethering add-on. The company says it just isn't a very good user experience and would prefer folks added on a data card line instead.
- About 1,000 invitations were sent out to randomly-selected Premier customers for this evening's events at ten locations across the country. We've heard intermittent reports of folks getting in with no invite, but the Chicago store was staying firm.
- We were told that no store selling Pres this evening would be out of stock for tomorrow, but all bets are off once the floodgates open on Saturday. Company-owned stores got the lion's share of stock while Best Buys and Radio Shacks were held to lower levels, so your best bet over the weekend is likely a Sprint store.
- We played with our keyboard and then a Sprint employee's immediately after that had been in use for two weeks; the keys had lost some of their "stickiness," which we take as a good sign. Fresh Pres have a slightly odd feel across the key surfaces.
Pres -> President
:D When I first read that sentence, I thought the same thing!
Not GSM? No good
What is so great on GSM again?
it works all over the world. and you can change your phone or your network (if your phone is unlocked, obvs) but just changing a SIM card.
here in Brazil, Vivo (the nation's largest carrier) was losing many customers because even though they have the best service and coverage, they didn't have GSM service. after they went GSM/UMTS/HSDPA, Vivo stopped losing that much customers, and still have their CDMA network (even though they no longer sell CDMA devices)
Um... GSM works outside the US.
A lot of folks travel internationally. CDMA just does not cut it. Sorry.
Exactly. GSM gives you more freedom also. You're not forced to choose the phones only your operator sells. For example, so far, North American operators have not announced plans to carry the N97 (although I suspect AT&T will pick it up, I doubt Rogers in Canada will be quick to jump on it), and if I want to buy an N97, I can just buy an unlocked one (even though it's expensive). Basically, GSM=Freedom from the carriers. Not to mention there's ways to unlock locked phones ;)
To go a bit deeper about the whole freedom is that with GSM phones you have the ability to swap between phones simply by swapping in and out the sim card to different phones. With Verizon and Sprint, you have to call them every time to change phones.
thats all you can pull? no quality of the calls, no quality of the coverage based on frequencies, no data speed difference, no battery life?
I am on GSM ATT, but ... most GSM phones are locked (you can crack it but still ...), there are CDMA phones with support of GMS calling outside US (how many of you travel outside US/Mexico?)
my point was that generic comment "Not GSM? No good" makes not much sense
ACTUALLY, most GSM phones ARE NOT locked. It is just mostly the US GSM carriers that lock their phones. However, unlocking the phone is a cinch. Googling around and you will easily find ways to unlock your phone.
Maybe to you my comment makes no sense because you dont travel a lot out of the US. To those who do, it makes a lot more sense. Sure there is the Blackberry World Phone for Sprint and Verizon, but you again are limited in what you can have as your phone then, and in this cant, it still wouldnt even be a Palm Pre.
So the question I really ask you is, why would you buy a phone that can only work in one place when you buy a phone that can work almost the whole world? A phone that doesnt work after all is no good.
Hrm - when was the last time i was travelling 'all over the world'?
oh yeah - never.....
Face it - this argument is for less than 5% of the intended audience, and it's so f$%'in expensive to roam with ATT abroad that you'd just buy a local prepaid phone anyhow. It's a non-argument imo.
I've never understood the argument about international roaming either.
1. It is very rare. Sure people travel but most US folks stay in the US.
2. The cost is outrageous.
3. The 3G bands don't line up - you might get voice but you get nothing with data
The whole GSM vs CDMA is so overblown for a vast majority of US consumers.
But is tethering still supported in webOS, as if someone can hack it to allow tethering?
well, it depends on the network. here in Brazil, Claro (the nation's #2 network, owned by Carlos Slím – and my carrier) doesn't allow thethering on their data plans for phones (you need a data card/modem), but Vivo (#1, owned by Telefónica and Portugal Telecom) does allow it, at no additional cost.
Ostensibly the solution is to make the client the phone and use a NAT created by it.
Just like WMWifirouter. Invisible to the provider inherently.
Ok, first person to figure out how to enable tethering gets a cookie!
I block cookies
I only block certain cookies, this one is OK.
weed?
does best buy open early tomorrow for this?
I was told no, but you have to get in line at 8:30 to get a "ticket" to be able to buy one - kinda like when the Wii first came out.
Nope, mine isn't either, I'm getting there at 8am.
I would remove FU but I do agree, I'm getting sick of US cell providers and how creepy rules they create.
No tethering?
I'm not surprised by this as sprint would just end up charging you extra money for legit tethering anyway. Hopefully someone will come up with a webOS version of WMwifiRouter (the only reason i'm not buying a pre tomorrow) and palm won't squash it (unlikely). I'm pretty sure 1) someone will develop the software and 2) sprint will make palm kill it dead. Jailbroken Pre anyone?
At the end of the day palm will do fine because the Pre will gain momentum and sell well on other networks, however Sprint's still going to be in trouble as it thinks it can treat it's customer's like verizon (crippled phones anyone?) while not having the same raw numbers customer base.
Isn't what's NOT happening tonight fairly strong evidence about the "flood" that the open floodgates won't be releasing?
11 people at the Manhattan flagship store?
That''s not even a pail of p...ah, nevermind...
"About 1,000 invitations were sent out to randomly-selected Premier customers for this evening's events at ten locations across the country"
is that a good reason for that?
Not when assuming an even distribution amongst stores is 100 invitations.
someone will come up with tethering just like they did for the palm os phones years ago....just give it a freaking minute people
no best buys aren't opening up early but i know some radio shacks are (if you put your name on a reserve list some are opening an hour early for those people only)
i was going to go with best buy but they haven't been helpful when ive called or gone to the stores to ask about the Pre so they sure as hell aren't getting my business.
Radio Shack stores in Suffolk County, Long Island, NY apparently do not have working store demo's, something about delayed activations. Don't hope for a hands on demo if you go there.
hope for the Pre's sake, it's the keys that are sticky and not the floodgates
No tethering, no video, no Flash, bad battery life because of multi-tasking, all the reasons why people trashed the iPhone. I guess it's not as easy as everyone thought.
No tethering? Lame excuses?
Sorry, that's typical carrier FUD. I tether all the time on my Touch Pro, and the experience is definitely NOT a poor one. I'll tell you (you being Sprint) what a bad experience is; paying twice for the same thing. I have internet on my smartphone, why do I need to pay extra to get it on my laptop? Why? Lame. Lame.
I'm hoping the app store comes out with a simple tethering app, just like WMWifirouter.
The choice is particularly difficult to swallow, no matter how good the Pre is for two reasons.
1. This will double my monthly bill, from the F&F 500 for $30/mo to $60 for an Everything Data 450
2. No longer able to tether, which is immensely useful, practical, and handy
IMHO I think this was bad planning for Palm. This phone has to be the savior. It has to make up for all the bad choices they've made for years now. I would have waited until apple announces their plans and released the pre in the other half of the year, cause if apple and att say on monday "guess what iphone is only $99 and now we have better battery, mms, video, better camera, and faster network.... oh and tethering? yeah sure no problem, here yuh go and its only 10 bucks more a month" palm and sprint are gonna look pretty stupid. But what do I know I'm just a customer..... well... not a sprint customer, but you know what I mean.
MEH, I think the phone looks pretty good but honestly I am going to go at about the time they open my Best Buy.
I am currently with ATT with iPhone so its already a weird decision for me right now considering I can just wait for Monday to see what Apple is coming out with and I am sure at some point I could get a PRE after that if I am not happy with the new iPhone.
I am mostly doing this because I am apparently bored and have extra money...but its a contract...MEH
You guys are so silly.The average consumer has no idea what tethering is.
Only people who spend their Friday nights reading tech blogs (Instead of trying to get laid) care about this kind of stuff.
yep because trying to go out and find a girl easy enough to bang you is so much more cooler
man geeks suck ;)
Those same people who spend their Friday nights reading tech blogs are also the only ones who have even heard of or care about the Pre, so what's your point? No average "Joe Schmoe" I've mentioned the Pre to in the past few months has ever even heard of it.
You know it down right SHOCKS me that sprint is so stupid to kill tethering. They are circling the drain, running out of cash, and here they have a premier launch that (lets face it) realistically targeting tech folks as the early adopters. They should be throwing the fucking kitchen sink into the box (rather then trying to charge you extra for chargers), and sprint should be pulling out all the service stops to try and win converts to stop their dramatic hemorrhaging... but what they do. Nothing, and drop features that where know to work? WTF, I guess they deserve to fail. Palm will limp on as sprint dies (maybe get bought by somebody) and the pre or at least web os will linger the slow death of not most loved on ATT and we think we can charge whatever we want Verizon. Just sad, short sighted, greedy, lazy... but mostly sad.
Why is "no tethering" a story to you guys? This isn't a surprise. Sprint made no secret about it not being able to tether.
There may be a hack later, but no way was it going to work out of the box.
Probably because at one time Sprint had it on their website as a feature. It was removed awhile back, but at one point that sounded like one of the big selling features to many of us.
Probably because at one time Sprint had it on their website as a feature. It was removed awhile back, but at one point that sounded like one of the big selling features to many of us.
(oops, replied on the wrong post...the first time)
"Tethering is not supported and Sprint has no plans to offer a tethering add-on. The company says it just isn't a very good user experience and would prefer folks added on a data card line instead."
Translation: We can get more out of the suckers by making them have a whole separate data plan. But we're calling it "user experience" just for giggles...
GSM may be worldly - but data is not - just being able to make a HIGH priced call on your cell in Europe - to which very few Americans need to do on a REGULAR basis - and CDMA EVDO RevA is kicking as - for NOW.
WiMAX and LTE may change all that - but we're talking 2012 before it even gets rolled out beyond a handful of MSAs.
As for the battery - AT LEAST YOU CAN BUY A BACKUP!
proofread
Pardon my ignorance but what is tethering? And can one send pics and video with the Pre?
tethering means when you connect the phone to something either by cable or wirelessly (bluetooth). People usually tether phones to a computer so that they can use the internet from the phone.
You don't travel much for business, do you? I gather from your incessant need to capitalize important words in your comment that you don't.
No tethering? That just killed me buying a PRE. How lame is a phone that can't tether? My Treo 800w already tethers using crappy Windows Mobilr 6.1. Deal killer for me.
The Pre supports tethering but Sprint doesnt allow it.