Unofficial patch lets you hang up Palm Pre calls by closing the slider
By Donald Melanson 
posted Oct 19th 2009 5:46PM
posted Oct 19th 2009 5:46PM
You know how easy and natural it is to hang up a call on a cellphone by sliding it closed or flipping it shut? It's a small satisfaction that's been lost on touchscreen-only phones, but it would seem to still make sense on something like, say, the Palm Pre -- just not to Palm, it seems. Well, it looks like unofficial patch maker KeyToss has now finally stepped in and done what Palm hasn't, and produced a patch that does nothing more than let you end a call by closing the slider on your Pre. Who knows? You might even start hanging up on people just for the fun of it. Hit up the link below for all the necessary details on installing the patch.
You have to have the keyboard open to talk?
negative.....it can be opened or closed and during a convo.
but I actually kinda like it that way
No, you can answer the phone without opening the keyboard.
So why would someone leave the keyboard open? Makes no sense.
Being able to quickly slide it opened and closed is really nice.
(Preware is awesome)
No, you don't need to open it, but it can be more comfortable for a lot of people, myself included. When it's open, it's about the same size and shape as older flip phones, and the bottom edge is near your mouth, so it feels more natural than just holding a block next to your head like the closed Pre. iPohne, Blackberry, etc. Not to mention that using a physical movement to answer calls (sliding the phone) can be more intuitive and faster than hitting a touchscreen button.
Finally!!
I had this like.... 3 years on my Samsung slider phone, am surprised because Palm didn't think of it at all.
Must be thinking about PDA part more than about phone part...
I find it very useful - no need to look for a button, its much easier to close the slider.
Oh, wait, Pre doesn't have "end call" button... how do you end a call on Pre without looking on screen? Throw it against a wall?
Suddenly I'm no longer sad that I haven't owned a Pre all these months. That kind of oversight would have annoyed the hell out of me.
It is silly, but it would have bugged me too -- I had no idea it didn't support this out of the box. Sometimes little niggling issues are more annoying than major ones. On the topic of sliders, I really loved my Samsung D500. The slider is the best cellphone design IMO, no need for a hokey 2nd screen like on a clamshell. Too bad the D500 thing didn't ship with an actual RINGER, just fruity musical ringtones. Had to grab a russian ringtone editor and modify a nokia ringer to have vibrate just to use the thing like a proper cell phone. Haha.
Still waiting for an official or unofficial patch that makes it not suck.
Why do you hate the Pre so?
@hammerhead guy
because its awkward and stupid, get the iphone, or Android dont settle for the pre it sucks
Hehehe, I actually don't hate the Pré (aside from the lame keyboard), in fact it would be my third choice if the HTC Hero and iPhone didn't exist. It's the interwebs, don't take everything so seriously =D
dude what are you talking about it already came out.....its called WebOS
Will This Work On My iPhone? can I get an app for this?
no, there is not an app for that.
... yet.
no, you just wait for AT&T to drop your call
You're asking if there's a way to slide your iPhone closed?
What are you, an idiot or something?
Wait, you know what? Yeah, I know a way to do that, you throw it on the ground really hard. That should end your call.
Pretty sure it was a joke.... -_-
@peter
LOLS. ROLFCOPTER. I'm laughing so hard right now. You're hilarious.
:|
Can I nominate ahzdeen for comment of the year?
THE POOWAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
These att bashing comments are hilarious.
Cool now the 1 engadget reader not apply this to their phone. Dont get me wrong i really like the pre but its on sprint.
and? oh wait do you prefer drop calls and terrible slow 3G with AT&T?
AT&T has 3G!? When are they gonna start rolling it out?
these att bashing comments are hilarious
oh and the engadget comment system blows.
Living in the UK and only just finding out about Sprint's lack of simultaneous Data/Voice, i find it very ironic how they have the multitasking phone
Jamma, that's just one of the benefits of being locked into one carrier, you just didn't notice it yet.
It's a limit of CDMA...the upside is, even with 0 bars, you can still make a perfectly clear call on a CDMA network. Not so much on a GSM network.
Not having the ability to surf and talk at the same time has been a problem approximately 0 times so far in having a CDMA smartphone.
Blax, it would be a problem for me. It's not uncommon for me to switch to speaker phone to give someone movie times or directions via Google maps. Hell, I've even started reading Engadget while on a predictable call.
OK, I will be honest here. It usually doesn't bother me, I haven't ran into a situation that I need am on a call and need to use data the same time (and I don't wifi near by). However, I did have calls going straight to my voicemail because I was using the GPS app before. (it's terribly useless, can we have TomTom or Garmin on the Pre please)
i tried talking on my Pre with it opened and it was weird so I would not use this patch
To the Pre users. Whats that little bird on his sms symbol?
it's one of the Twitter clients i believe.
"Tweed" and it's really nice (has everything I need).
That's the thing. As long as someone hangs up the call will close.
If I don't have the slider open, then what? Sorta of sounds nice to have this app, but then again, the slider is a bit counter-intuitive if the slider is closed already, which is the more typical scenario.
Then you press the off button as per usual? This isn't preventing you from using the Pre the way you normally do, just adding the ability to hang up by sliding it closed...
Damn, I shudder at the innovation. And Palm didn't get this idea by themselves? Pathetic.
So let's recapitulate:
iPhone - locked into one carrier, still somewhat dumbed down when compared to real phones
Pre - locked into one carrier, shoddy hardware, and obviously stupid omissions
Pixi - likely just like Pre, maybe better hardware
Any Android device - no proper Mac sync
Yes. Wait, I see... the future... I see me spending money... on... a Nokia!
It's not always a matter of getting an idea, but rather a matter of making the time to implement said idea. And you grossly oversimplified the state of smartphones, the Pre and Pixi in particular. The Pixi is kind of the "lite" version of the Pre (slightly smaller screen, no wifi, etc). Additionally, the Pre is confirmed to be coming to Verizon sometime next year most likely, and you completely ignore what's pointed out, albeit subtly, in the story: The fact that Palm is letting homebrewers patch the Pre almost any way they see fit. Palm has a tool online for free that can reflash a Pre, making it virtually unbrickable, and once Preware is installed on a Pre, you can download free homebrew apps, themes, and patches like the one above anywhere over the air quickly and easily. The Pre's essentially an open Linux platform smartphone, and has a free devkit available for all platforms.
Being able to patch yourself into oblivion is not the point. The point is that they had all the time in the world to cook up their phone and yet they failed on such simple standard functionality (like Apple did at first and still does in some regards). They also cooked up half-assed hardware with everybody looking forward to the budget Pixi hoping the keyboard won't be as bad.
Oh, and please, Verizon? Try and grasp that you're on the internet, not everybody is necessarily located in the US of A. Palm exported their mindnumbing, anti-consumer model to Europe, just as Apple did. For that, both of them deserve to be ignored. I don't care about "open self-patchable systems" if I cannot simply buy the product.
I don't even understand why this is being talked about. There are so many better and more useful patches for the Pre than this one. The real story is the fact that Palm is perfectly ok with letting its users patch their phone like this.
Hey, can you direct me to some of those sites where I can find patches? I recently got a Palm Pre. Thanks! :D
It all happens at precentral.net. You need to go in the forums and get "QuickInstall" then use QuickInstall on your PC to put PreWare on your phone. Once you have PreWare running on your phone, installing patches and homebrew apps is a all wrapped up in a nice "App Store" like interface. With descriptions and screenshots of almost everything.
What this story is trying to convey is that fact that Palm Pre users have the ability to patch and alter code within their phone without having Palm trying to block and discourage it.
Sure... Palm should have had this amended to the phone from the beginning, but no phone is perfect. The collection of patches and tweaks that are currently available for the Pre are surprising and well presented and is still prospering and growing.
I assume you're contrasting it with the state of affairs on the iPhone, since that's the most noticeably strict competitor.
But I'm compelled to point out that we really don't know whether Apple would permit an app that hangs up when you close the keyboard, because Apple has not seen fit to release a phone with a keyboard...
(And yes, that's meant facetiously; obviously it's technically impossible to implement without multi-tasking, and thus forever banned from the app store.)
Slow new day huh Engadget?
Just like your comment, when people don't like what they read, they think it's a "slow news day". Can people come up with new material? That line can be thrown into the bag with other stupid comments like "Why would i upgrade from XP to a Vista Service Pack" or "(Product Name) sucks" and when people use that particular line, they don't give a valid reason with why it sucks or take a bad guess at why it sucks when they are quickly debunked.
For Christ Sake!
Lets see a whole post about a patch that lets you end a call by sliding down the screen on a Palm Pre.
I'm sorry but I fail to see how this is exactly news worthy. Mind you I am a Palm pre user myself and while this is cool I can't see how this can be "news"
Ya, but there's been many other blogs that are even more meaningless and it would still be a good news blog day. So therefore I fail to see why people will comment their opinions that it's soo slow in Engadget that they are going to post a minuscule article, when even PreCentral.net posted it because it's actually a nice feature to have. However Engadget is damned if they do and damned if they don't.
Awesome to get some love from Engadget!
Much credit goes to the developers at WebOS-Internals, who are pushing the open source thing for the Pre, and to the PreCentral community. There are plenty of other great patches and apps coming out of there.
Agreed! I enjoy the phone as is, but that community is just hacking away, making the phone better and better. I'm patiently waiting to see what they are doing with the Video Recorder. I doubt it will be long until someone figures out a GUI and easy slip method to get it done.
Curious you picked up this story, of all the Pre patches/homebrew apps that show up daily and are arguably more useful. Like a blinking LED for SMS/e-mail/etc. notifications.
totally agree, not to mention, no shudder click, 4 by 4 icons, call logs, message logs, customize notifications, dial pad vibrations, text forwarding, hiding icons, disabling call alerts during calls, etc
i too am kinda surprised this gets a column.
Not very practical. It's awkward to close the Pre without putting a finger on the touchscreen so everytime you hang up on someone you're going to button mash them a nice chorus of dial tones before the phone closes.
If you're holding it like a phone, you put your index finger above the top of the phone and push the front section closed. It's not hard. The only time you need to touch the screen is to open it.
Plus I have no problems flipping up the phone while on call. I believe the phone does recognize that there is screen contact and that the slider is also being pressed, thus ignoring the screen contact all together and no buttons were pushed.
It's a fact that the phone does count how many times you've opened and closed the slider. Anyways point being, and speaking from experience, there's no issues opening and close the phone while doing anything that would result in a unwanted key press on the touch screen.
Love all the patch's!
Go away, China!
yeah ... so suprised that the sliding-bottom-end-call feature isnt native to the device.. .then again .. I remember my silly BB Storm muting my calls cuz of my ear, or smiling cheeks .. lol
like the Pre ... hope they continue to make it better and better.
For Pre owners:
Has the phone froze up on u? I might buy this since I'm on Sprint, just wanna know
For gods sake, you guys don't even get any calls or have any phonecontacts to call, so why the whole blaaa...
wont work on EU Pre cuz you need WebOS 1.2.1 :-\
NEED ... ... UP...DATE.
what about 1.3?