Miscellaneous musings
I had an amazing New Years visiting Seattle and my new friend Susan was the best tour guide! This post is a little slow but better late than never. Here are a few choice pics from our whirlwind tour of the greater Seattle area. Thanks Susan! I hope someday I can repay your kindness and generosity.
You can view the rest of the pictures and order prints here.
Well I have had the Palm Pre for one week and have been able to put it through it's paces. My preliminary report is I really like this phone.
For the past couple of years I have been a loyal Blackberry user. I was a reluctant to make the jump away from the BB but after hearing so many positive reviews about this phone add this to the fact that my BB was starting to fail from excessive use, I decided to take the plunge. It also didn't hurt that I was currently with Sprint and the cost of a contract with AT&T if I switched to the Iphone was considerably more expensive.
Where to begin, there are so many cool features. First I guess is the ease migration. It didn't hurt that I am already a Gmail user. After adding my Gmail account to the account preferences it automatically imported all of my contacts into the phone. It did the same with all of my Facebook contacts. It will continue to automatically sync these accounts as I manage them on line. Palm also backs up the data on the phone daily. So if the phone is damaged or loss I can easily switch to a new phone without missing a step. In the event that the phone is stolen I can even log in and delete the personal information from account. GTalk and AIM integration along with MMS is also very slick.
The form factor and GUI are also very cool. The Pre is smaller than the Blackberry and the IPhone, it fits nicely into the pocket. The Pre interface is the takes advantage of features from the Blackberry and the IPhone. It has a touch screen and a slide out keyboard. The touch screen uses the same technology as the IPhone and much of the web surfing, application and phone interface is done through the screen. The keyboard is full qwerty. It is small but is pretty easy to get used to.
The camera on the phone is 3.2mp. This is better than my Blackberry and I am pretty impressed with the quality.
See picture on right (note not full size). The built in GPS can be automatically configured to Geo tag pictures. The GPS also integrates with Google location services allowing for real time search using Google maps. Sprint Navigation also is included with additional navigational services. One downside right now is there is no ability to record video. Although I understand that ma come with future updates to the operating system. I hope so as I really liked that feature on the Blackberry even if the quality was low. With the IPhone now having video I don't expect it to be long before Palm catches up.
One area that the Palm has a lot of catching up to do is in applications. Keep in mind that the Pre runs on a brand new Web OS so application developers have a lot of work to do to catch up to IPhone and Blackberry. However the SDK was just released last week by Palm and they will be accepting submissions to the "App Catalog" early this fall as I understand it. Currently there are about 30 applications in the store. However if you are into hacking your Pre there are around 40 to 50 unofficial apps that can be installed at the time of this post.
One of the coolest feature about the Pre is it's ability to run multiple applications at the same time. When you switch from app to app the remaining apps continue to update in the background uninterrupted.
The Palm Pre even has some pretty cool accessories. 
The Palm Pre Touchstone is an innovative charger that adds value to the phone. It an induction charger and Phone stand. Charging the phone while holding it for easy access and use. It's not often that a phone charger is a selling point but this one is. I am considering picking up a second one (at $70) to keep on my desk at work.
Anyway I am by no means a professional reviewer. But after spending a week with the Pre I have to say I really like it. I thought I would miss my Blackberry but I honestly don't. I'm looking forward to the development of the App store and I hope the ability to add video happens soon. Overall on a scale of 1 to 10 I have to give the Pre a 9.
Useful Plam Pre links:
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