Taco John
06-14-2009, 02:17 AM
A month ago, I took my trusty Palm Treo on a backpacking trip with me, like I've done a dozen times before. As I was pumping water out of the river and jamming to Eminem's new album, I suddenly lost my grip on my pump and in a desperate attempt to recapture it, I lost track of my phone and dropped it in the drink. After a quick fish out, I shook it out and removed the battery. Miraculously, after a day of cell phone traction under my desk lamp, I put the battery in the unit and it sprang back to life. Everything worked on the phone - except for the actual phone part. The thing would no longer pick up a signal with any reliability. Now it sits on my desk - a relic in a museum.
So I called Sprint and found out that I had an upgrade credit. One thing led to another, and I'm walking away from a Sprint store with the Palm Pre. I've had it not quite a week now, and I have to say that this thing is truly an impressive feat of engineering.
I'm going to go ahead and call it without bothering to even so much as use an iPod. The gesture bar is the knockout punch. WebOS is the absolute bomb. I never want to live without a gesture pad again. Everything else seems like an Etch-a-Sketch to me now. I am ascending into mobile nirvana. The iPod is cool, no doubt. I saw it last night, and was impressed. But the thing was looks like a lunk to pack around in comparison. This thing is a true palm, and it's OS is absolutely changing the game. This thing is revolutionizing mobile computers in a similar way that the Wii revolutionized gaming. And that's what this thing feels like: a mobile computer. This thing is not just a phone - it's an information center.
This phone actually makes you feel powerful when you use it.
That's not to say the phone is perfect. Far from it. I hate the music player, but am confident that someone will develop a good one for it (there's certainly an open market there). But this thing is an empowerment vehicle. The more I use this phone, the more I think that we're going to start hearing the words "mobile economy" with increased frequency.
If you like to watch movies on your phone, this probably isn't the phone for you. It doesn't do that well. It does it, but that's not even close to where it excels. The OS is where the Pre excels. You've never had information at your fingertips like this before. Just the act of closing a program feels powerful on the Pre, as you flick your finger... "Eh... don't want it anymore." A useless email you've just consumed *flick* "Get out of my face." Switching to a new application *flick* *flick* *flick* Remember the empowered feeling of tabbed browsing? The empowerment factor here feels similar.
I can't wait to see what people do with this platform. But that's where I come to the downside - this thing is an absolute infant. There are things that they got wrong in the software that they're still working on. For my part, I've experienced some annoyance with how some of the apps that come with the phone operate. I mentioned the music player earlier. I think it's juevenile. The phone itself is a masterpiece in function and form in harmony. The music player has decided to emphasize form over the function. It looks pretty, but it's not anywhere as powerful as Pocket Tunes. You can't just close the app and resume where you left off - you have to start at the beginning of the pick list. If you search by genre, you get the entire list by genre, rather than given a list of artists within that genre to select from. Skipping around in the middle of tracks doesn't even seem like an option. I'm hoping someone (Pocket Tunes) takes advantage of this currently wide open market. I'm taking the next train off of this app.
Battery life is a concern, but this problem doesn't come without a revolutionary solution. I haven't gotten it yet, but I believe owning the touchstone will solve much of the battery life issue. Being able to recharge my phone just by sitting it on the desk - that's going to be cool. And if I can get one for the car too, the battery life concern virtually evaporates. I'll eventually grab a spare for that rare instance when I might need it.
Bottom line: This thing is the real deal, but it doesn't come without its caveats. The apps aren't here yet, but the platform most definitely is. I'm sold on the platform. Long live WebOS!
So I called Sprint and found out that I had an upgrade credit. One thing led to another, and I'm walking away from a Sprint store with the Palm Pre. I've had it not quite a week now, and I have to say that this thing is truly an impressive feat of engineering.
I'm going to go ahead and call it without bothering to even so much as use an iPod. The gesture bar is the knockout punch. WebOS is the absolute bomb. I never want to live without a gesture pad again. Everything else seems like an Etch-a-Sketch to me now. I am ascending into mobile nirvana. The iPod is cool, no doubt. I saw it last night, and was impressed. But the thing was looks like a lunk to pack around in comparison. This thing is a true palm, and it's OS is absolutely changing the game. This thing is revolutionizing mobile computers in a similar way that the Wii revolutionized gaming. And that's what this thing feels like: a mobile computer. This thing is not just a phone - it's an information center.
This phone actually makes you feel powerful when you use it.
That's not to say the phone is perfect. Far from it. I hate the music player, but am confident that someone will develop a good one for it (there's certainly an open market there). But this thing is an empowerment vehicle. The more I use this phone, the more I think that we're going to start hearing the words "mobile economy" with increased frequency.
If you like to watch movies on your phone, this probably isn't the phone for you. It doesn't do that well. It does it, but that's not even close to where it excels. The OS is where the Pre excels. You've never had information at your fingertips like this before. Just the act of closing a program feels powerful on the Pre, as you flick your finger... "Eh... don't want it anymore." A useless email you've just consumed *flick* "Get out of my face." Switching to a new application *flick* *flick* *flick* Remember the empowered feeling of tabbed browsing? The empowerment factor here feels similar.
I can't wait to see what people do with this platform. But that's where I come to the downside - this thing is an absolute infant. There are things that they got wrong in the software that they're still working on. For my part, I've experienced some annoyance with how some of the apps that come with the phone operate. I mentioned the music player earlier. I think it's juevenile. The phone itself is a masterpiece in function and form in harmony. The music player has decided to emphasize form over the function. It looks pretty, but it's not anywhere as powerful as Pocket Tunes. You can't just close the app and resume where you left off - you have to start at the beginning of the pick list. If you search by genre, you get the entire list by genre, rather than given a list of artists within that genre to select from. Skipping around in the middle of tracks doesn't even seem like an option. I'm hoping someone (Pocket Tunes) takes advantage of this currently wide open market. I'm taking the next train off of this app.
Battery life is a concern, but this problem doesn't come without a revolutionary solution. I haven't gotten it yet, but I believe owning the touchstone will solve much of the battery life issue. Being able to recharge my phone just by sitting it on the desk - that's going to be cool. And if I can get one for the car too, the battery life concern virtually evaporates. I'll eventually grab a spare for that rare instance when I might need it.
Bottom line: This thing is the real deal, but it doesn't come without its caveats. The apps aren't here yet, but the platform most definitely is. I'm sold on the platform. Long live WebOS!