It's not the most comprehensive survey, nor is there any official confirmation, but the crew at PreThinking has checked in with a number of new Pre owners and discovered that Palm's apparently building its webOS handset better lately -- and what's more, it's even made some minor improvements. The biggest change appears to be a fix for that nasty bug that caused the Pre to reset or turn off when the keyboard was closed -- that bit of grey foam pictured was added to the battery compartment to tighten up the battery connection. There's a also word that the screen cracking and
unintended rotation issues have been addressed, although time will tell on those, and the button color has changed from pearl to silver. As for improvements, well, there's a new battery model, and the Palm logo is now embossed on the carrying case. Yep, just little stuff, but it's good to see Palm addressing the build issues on the Pre, which are by far
the most common complaint about the device. Let us know if you've spotted anything else, would you?
posted August 12th 2009 6:23PM
A company that is improving hardware based on issues customers are having. I am shocked.
You joke about it but you'd be surprised how many companies don't do anything when all of their customers are complaining about defects.
I'm pretty sure that's what Steve Baldmer was saying.
haha, can you say: BlackBerry Storm. Epic FAIL
It shouldn't be a big surprise considering the high return rate for Palm. The real 64K question is how long Palm can live with their negative cash flow!
There was no high return rate.
+1, there is NO high return rate.
Got links? No? Then you are lying
Here it is..
http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2009/07/20/palm-report-sees-pre-defects-hitting-earnings/
You actually posted that link as proof?
Really?
From SJay's article:
"Dede cautions that “we have neither sufficient confidence nor statistical relevance to bend this data into an official report.'"
= their wild ass guess of the day.
Additionally, Dede's "analysis" was based on calling a dozen random Sprint stores to get some retail Sprint employee's opinions and "data" from a precentral poll. Her analysis has already been thrashed by a dozen other analyst firms.
You go ahead and sell off your shares at $12 so other, better informed investors can buy them.
@sweet greggo
Barron's is a well known financial news source and even though it says blog, it just seems to be an opinion piece with real company news.
From the linked article: "Dede bases his analysis on a survey of Pre buyers at an enthusiast Web site, www.precentral.com."
"It's not the most comprehensive survey, nor is there any official confirmation,"
Then why report it? Oh. That's right. This is Engadget. Fie on your journalism!
(grumblegrumblegrumble)
Engadget is the nytimes now?
lol
GREAT now ill pick up one up at&t and these dropped calls are killing me. i have to use my co workers sprint tour because my 3gs cant hold a call for 3 min.
ooo Damn.
What about the damn reception issues? Either the antenna or radio firmware suck (or both).
No reception issues here. My friend and roommate has a Blackberry Curve and our -dBm are EXACTLY the same 99% of the time. We have the same signal and, when we rarely drop calls, it's in the exact same places. It's a Qualcomm 3G chipset for God's sake.
You might live in an area with bad Sprint coverage? Maybe a faulty phone? I've been more than pleased by my reception.
In other news just in... a man has invented something called the "wheel".
I went to look at one the other day, and from the pictures it look like it was decently sized, and substantial but when I saw it in person it shattered my first impressions it was smaller in person , smaller than I'd like (i know, couldn't think of a better way to say that), when i picked up the demo unit it felt cheap and flimsy. But the OS seemed nice, didn't play with it long enough to find something to write home about.
Lol, I thought you were referring to the wheel at first.
god bless the comment system
Im going to get mine this Friday
Wish me luck
wait for the pre II
If everyone waited for the "pre II" there may never be a pre II
I have said that from day 1. When Pre v2 is released, it should be badass.
Well it looks like I own one of the newer versions. My case came with the embossed logo, my pearl is silver and I also have that foam piece near the battery.
mine's still holding up well
did they seriously just stick a piece of foam in there and consider the issue fixed
That's a standard thing in a battery compartment. Besides, it IS the fix for the issue?
I had to return my Pre because it kept resting when i closed the screen. new pre...SAME problem but a little bit less often.
How hard do you slam it closed?? Mine has never even reset once.
Heard the issue may have been the battery too... Did you get the new battery as well? Heard for a few that it resolved that issue completly.
That's an amazing build quality improvement - they added a TRACKBALL? They must have really reworked webOS and added a mouse cursor - 'cause mine's just a button to bring up the main card view screen. ;)
Trackball?
Obviously a bit of sarcasm - it's obvious that the article's author doesn't have a Pre and/or is not really familiar with it - none of the Pres have a trackball.
@iPoop
No, no it didn't
Oh I had forgotten about this device.
Ah, crap. Just 3 days after my 30 days are up. I've got the "oreo" effect and some heat distortion, can I still send it back(to Palm, not my Sprint store. They'll just give me another crappy one) and get a good, new one?
Even if you send it to Palm, they will only service your phone. They will not send you a new one unfortunately. You may as well get it serviced at Sprint, that way you won't go without your phone for 5-7 business days. My first Pre had the oreo effect and I struggled to have them replace it for a new one. Sprint said if that happens again it will be 120 bucks to service it. Now my second Pre has the oreo effect plus it turns off when i shut the keyboard half the time and the speaker volume is super low. I called both Sprint and Palm, neither will replace with a new Pre. So, my choice is limited, get it serviced at Sprint for 120 or send it to Palm for a week for free. Either way it's the same phone and servicing a swivel and shut off problems may only be a temporary fix. BOOOOOOOOO!!!
Thats not a fix. Thats more like a hack job for a major flaw. Palm might as well use duct tape, or stacked pieces of paper, or some styrofoam bits. What a completely unprofessional fix to a major issue. What do you expect from a company that hacks and leeches its way into iTunes simply because Palm is too lazy and cheap to build their own system to manage media.
A small piece of foam that isnt even visible when the battery is on is WAY more discrete than duct tape, lol.
And what do YOU suggest for a "fix"? Hmm? Probably to slap an Apple logo onto it? Make the battery non-removable?
Additionally, how can you criticize the foam strip if you dont even know if it improved the situation or not? Wait until you hear people saying "This piece of foam didn't work!!!" before you start bitching.
My point is valid. Heat can minimize the adhesion strength and could loosen this piece of a hack job from its position. It's a hack job, typical of Palm.
I am an Apple fanboy, and even I want to smack this tard
Oh yes... The Pre will get so hot (http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/06/are-iphones-burning-up-in-the-infernos-of-processor-overtaxation/) that it will cause that foam piece's adhesive to lose it's tack and will shift- because we all know that the foam piece is heavy enough to shift under that situation, right? Hell, spit would hold that in place no problem- and all those moving parts... Who knows? Maybe it could shift, or loosen this "piece of hack job" because of all those moving parts, right? Oh...
Jubei, stop trying to shit on everything when your beloved iPhone is experiencing far worse issues.
@Mr Clickerson, who used to be Zues God, but no more how sad. = FAIL!!!
My point is valid. Palm has been forced to fix a valid design failure. Rather than fix it properly, a fix has been publicly proven. A fix akin to using duct tape to hold up your GM built car from falling apart. Unlike unsubstantiated FUD, this Palm defect is valid, as well as the hack job implemented to supposedly fix the known issue.
No, they weren't forced to fix anything. This battery issue could have been easily fixed by the consumer. It's nothing at all like the exploding iPod/iPhone batteries or the iPhones getting hot and cracking the case/screen. It's a small "glitch" that is barely an issue at all.
My family owns many GM vehicles. My 1978 GMC K15, my brother's 2000 Pontiac Trans Am WS6, my dad's 1972 Buick Gran Sport, 1970 Buick Riviera, 1988 Corvette C4, 1994 Chevrolet Suburban, my mother's 2004 Chevrolet 2500 HD with the Duramax diesel, my uncle's 2005 GMC Denali XLT, and 1998 Corvette C5. Never had a single problem with any of those vehicles, aside from my truck simply because of the abuse I put it through, but even then, it's never required any major work to date (in the 6 years that I've owned it). How many GM vehicles have you owned or driven? I've driven all the ones I just listed off, and as I said before, not a single problem with any of them, and none of them are falling apart or have shown any signs of falling apart. Did you know that there are more American cars and trucks, GM in particular, to reach the 1,000,000 mile mark than any company from any other country? But that's another topic- one that you very foolishly brought up here and simply makes you look like a moron.
Care to destroy your credibility further? Well... That's a dumb question... You never had any to begin with.
@Mr Clickerson, who used to be Zues God, but no more how sad. = FAIL!!!
LOL... Gosh your buttons are so easy to push... haha... rather than debate properly its easy to manipulate you into going off on a tangent (GM). Ahaha...