she holds you captivated in her palm
For my birthday, I gifted myself with a Palm Pre.
After anticipating it eagerly for months, I very nearly didn't get it, as I was unprepared for when the sales rep informed me that my old plan wasn't compatible with the Pre, and that I would have to upgrade. And because my old plan was of the minimalist variety, with a 'promotional discount' thrown in to get the data, doing such a switch would be about doubling my monthy cell bill, which was not calculated in my financial planning for this.
After doing some quiet internal sniffling at not getting my free pony, as well as some re-calculations, I decided that the phone plus a year's worth of the difference in contract cost, while not what I expected to spend, still fell within my range of 'acceptable money to spend on toys' for this year. So, I can live with this being my only big splurge for the year. And maybe by next year, I will be able to talk them down to giving me a better deal.
However, I wasn't going to give in without being really serious about it. So I played with the store model, getting to know it, asking questions, and getting showed around. I stumped them a few times ("Huh, I don't know. Nobody's ever asked us THAT before."), got demonstrations and personal opinions from one of the employees with his personal phone, and tried to get to know it reasonably well before saying yes.
Two and a half hours later, I signed my name and walked out with my new squee, er, Pre.
I've been playing with the Pre for a couple days now. I have never owned a smartphone or anything similar, before, so I have absolutely no opinion (or care) about how it compares to the iPhone. My old phone was a basic clamshell Sanyo MM-7500, that I'd had for 3.5 years, so that's the only thing I have to compare the Pre to. So here's a basic list of the things which have stood out to me, in your general plus/minus formats:
Things the Pre does better than the 7500:
+++ Palm profile
When you first turn the Pre on, you create a 'Palm Profile,' which is personalized to the user, handles phone updates and regular backups. So I lose my phone? Get a new pre, sign in, and poof, all my settings and contacts are there. And the old one can be remotely wiped, so that nobody else has my info. This may be a little on the 'All your data are belong to us' side of the wall for some people, but I'm not one of them.
+++ multitasking
This is the thing that the Pre is known for, and for a good reason. It handles opening up multiple apps just fine, and switches between them easily. I can browse Google maps while I'm sending a text message with a single swipe. It's reasonably fast, and is just fun to operate.
+++ universal search
This is already one of my most used features. Pick up phone, open keyboard, start typing. If my string matches the first part of any of a contact's name, it brings up those options, and also brings up the options to search Google, Google Maps, Wikipedia, and twitter.
+++/- contacts import
The contacts lists will sync with Google, Facebook, AIM, and Exchange. Once you login to them, it automatically adds everybody from your friends or contact list to your address book, and, if the full name matches on two different contacts, it automatically links them into the single record. My phone was populated with several hundred entries within minutes. For Google and AIM, it looks at the 'full name' and 'alias' first, then email address and username second. After I realized this, I spent some time yesterday cleaning up my address books, aliasing everybody I cared about to full names, and deleting everybody I didn't (this also meant that, with only a few exceptions, if I didn't know someone's last name, I dropped them from my contact list). And thanks to the Palm profile, I will never worry about losing any of it.
The minus for this is because once you sync with AIM and Facebook and import in those contacts, you can't delete them without removing the entire list. So those old high school friends on FB I added on a whim who I might contact once every 5 years? They're in my address book now, too. Those AIM buddies I added years ago and haven't logged on since? They're there, too (unless I deleted them before syncing). Fortunately, I have plenty of memory, and handy search capabilities, so a big contact list doesn't seem like a problem.
+++ USB battery charging
Finally! And it comes with a little converter to plug the usb cable into the wall, so I have both. I went ahead and got the Touchstone, which is a cute little non-plug magnetic charging block, which is also very cool, except that the Touchstone only works when plugged into the wall. Not that the pictoral instructions SAY so. Phooey. I can already see myself really needing a spare data cable.
++/- media sync
I can finally download and upload media between my phone and laptop, without any additional charges from Sprint. So creating my own ringtones and background images for free, and getting pics from the reasonably nice (3 mp) camera should be easy. It even syncs with iTunes, although that was a little clunky, and is clearly a questionable hack. It is supposed to be able to connect as a USB drive, but on the one attempt I've tried so far, it froze my explorer. No idea if that was a phone issue or a laptop one.
++/- keyboard
Yeah, the keyboard is nice. I was pretty darn good with the keypad and predictive text, but now that I don't have to stick to dictionary words and can use two thumbs, txts fly by a lot faster. Good thing they're unlimited. They keys are small, but they are comfortable for me. My only complaint is that the 'enter' key is in a little too convenient of a spot, and I frequently send half-finished messages. I am also looking forward to using it for taking notes or making tasks.
++/- email / messaging
I have Email, SMS, AIM, and Google Talk all at my fingertips. Considering those are 4 of the top 5 ways I generally communicate with people, I think I've got things pretty well covered. However, logging into Google things was incredibly irritating. A search for help told me I needed to turn off captcha, which seemed to fix everything, but then today, I randomly got a 'wrong password' error again. Additionally, once you log in, there is no opportunity to log out without completely removing that account (and all its accounts/info). Even a bad connection will automatically log you back in after a period. Thus, I am perpetually logged into AIM and thus get the 'you are logged in twice' msg when I log in on my laptop. I suspect this will be improved on in the future.
++/--- calendar
Having a useful calendar in my pocket that syncs with my online calendars would be so awesome and the idea was one of the things that swayed me. IF ONLY IT WORKED. Grrr. I can add my google accounts, but none of my events actually show up on the Pre. This is apparently a known bug that many people are complaining about in various forms. I eagerly await their fix. HEAR THAT, GOOGLE/PALM? [ETA: an upgrade later and my calendar is back and DTRTing. Still have password issues.]
+/- copy/paste
Yeah, it has it. But only in limited applications, and the keypresses to use it are entirely non-intuitive. I've only used it once, in testing. Fortunately, with enough demand, and being an application issue, I'm sure it will improve.
+ regular earphone jack
There's really not a whole lot of difference between having a 2.5mm earphone jack and a 3.5mm one, except that with one, I can grab any set of earphones I have lying around at the time, and with the other, I have to remember specifically where my phone earbuds are. Nice to be normal again.
o phone
What, I'm supposed to talk on this thing, too? Oh, yeah, I guess I made a couple calls. Sounds fine. It has bluetooth, which the 7500 didn't have, so I don't have anything hands-free for it yet. Anybody have a spare BT headset you want to loan me so I can figure out what I like?
Things the 7500 did better than the Pre
-- outside LCD
I really liked having my phone as a clock in my pocket, where the only thing necessary for me to see the time was to look at it. Now, I have to open the keyboard or press the power button in order to see the time. Additionally, the outside LCD let me take a picture with my old phone while facing the lens, and be able to see a mini version of what was being captured, instead of blindly guessing. And because I no longer have a flip, I think I totally lose forever on these features.
-- rugged case
I used a leather case for the 7500 for about 1 week before ditching it, because it just wasn't necessary. It had a partially 'rugged' design, which means it had a rubberized casing that was protective against dirt, shock, and scratches, so when it took a spill from 5ft up onto concrete (which it did, multiple times), it came away just fine. So fine, in fact, that when I handed it to the Sprint rep to sync my phone numbers to the new phone, he commented that it was in very good condition. Now, I am fairly nice to my phones, but still, 3.5 years of dropping it should, in theory, leave SOME marks.
The Pre, so far, only comes with pouch-style cases, which are fine for protecting it while it's not being used, but don't do diddly once it's in hand. I suspect the slide keyboard is going to make protective skins a lot harder to come by. I went ahead and grabbed the insurance for now.
- ringer/vibrate options
While I don't care much about ringtone selection, the 7500 did at least have a vibrate selection, AND it let me choose ring and vibrate as an sound level option. The Pre's only has one vibrate type, and it is shorter and more subtle than I expect. I missed every single call/message I got in the first 6 hours of owning it.
- stopwatch / timer
Admittedly, I didn't use these often, but the Pre doesn't have them. But I expect them to be available in an app any moment now.
Overall, I'm really kind of enjoying this 'internet in my pocket' thing. Sure, I can get by without it, but it's just really nice to have it. Yesterday when I driving and made a wrong turn, I pulled out my Google maps (with GPS tracking), found where I was, and the quickest way back where I was going. I can listen to Pandora while out for a walk. We pulled up a very weird movie clip as it was referenced last night at dinner. In some ways (although not all), it obviates my need to carry a laptop around all the time. When it gets irc and ssh applications? I'll be set.
The battery life seems ok, although not grand. I initially thought mine was draining abnormally quickly, but I'm thinking it was more because I was doing very heavy processing and usage for long periods of time at first. Today, after I stopped trying to sync it with the world, it seems to have calmed down. The navigation looks pretty neat, although I haven't used it yet. I'm hoping really hard that this means a geocaching app won't be too far behind.
There is no 'manual' like I'm used to with other electronics. Instead, each application has its own help menu option. On one hand, it's interesting that you can search for the specific thing you need while you're in the area. On the other hand, if you have no idea what application you need to start for an option, it's a lot harder to learn how to do some things.
So, yeah. In summary, I'm pretty happy to have it, and I'm looking forward to some quiet evenings where I can snuggle up with my Pre and we can get to know each other better.
After anticipating it eagerly for months, I very nearly didn't get it, as I was unprepared for when the sales rep informed me that my old plan wasn't compatible with the Pre, and that I would have to upgrade. And because my old plan was of the minimalist variety, with a 'promotional discount' thrown in to get the data, doing such a switch would be about doubling my monthy cell bill, which was not calculated in my financial planning for this.
After doing some quiet internal sniffling at not getting my free pony, as well as some re-calculations, I decided that the phone plus a year's worth of the difference in contract cost, while not what I expected to spend, still fell within my range of 'acceptable money to spend on toys' for this year. So, I can live with this being my only big splurge for the year. And maybe by next year, I will be able to talk them down to giving me a better deal.
However, I wasn't going to give in without being really serious about it. So I played with the store model, getting to know it, asking questions, and getting showed around. I stumped them a few times ("Huh, I don't know. Nobody's ever asked us THAT before."), got demonstrations and personal opinions from one of the employees with his personal phone, and tried to get to know it reasonably well before saying yes.
Two and a half hours later, I signed my name and walked out with my new squee, er, Pre.
I've been playing with the Pre for a couple days now. I have never owned a smartphone or anything similar, before, so I have absolutely no opinion (or care) about how it compares to the iPhone. My old phone was a basic clamshell Sanyo MM-7500, that I'd had for 3.5 years, so that's the only thing I have to compare the Pre to. So here's a basic list of the things which have stood out to me, in your general plus/minus formats:
Things the Pre does better than the 7500:
+++ Palm profile
When you first turn the Pre on, you create a 'Palm Profile,' which is personalized to the user, handles phone updates and regular backups. So I lose my phone? Get a new pre, sign in, and poof, all my settings and contacts are there. And the old one can be remotely wiped, so that nobody else has my info. This may be a little on the 'All your data are belong to us' side of the wall for some people, but I'm not one of them.
+++ multitasking
This is the thing that the Pre is known for, and for a good reason. It handles opening up multiple apps just fine, and switches between them easily. I can browse Google maps while I'm sending a text message with a single swipe. It's reasonably fast, and is just fun to operate.
+++ universal search
This is already one of my most used features. Pick up phone, open keyboard, start typing. If my string matches the first part of any of a contact's name, it brings up those options, and also brings up the options to search Google, Google Maps, Wikipedia, and twitter.
+++/- contacts import
The contacts lists will sync with Google, Facebook, AIM, and Exchange. Once you login to them, it automatically adds everybody from your friends or contact list to your address book, and, if the full name matches on two different contacts, it automatically links them into the single record. My phone was populated with several hundred entries within minutes. For Google and AIM, it looks at the 'full name' and 'alias' first, then email address and username second. After I realized this, I spent some time yesterday cleaning up my address books, aliasing everybody I cared about to full names, and deleting everybody I didn't (this also meant that, with only a few exceptions, if I didn't know someone's last name, I dropped them from my contact list). And thanks to the Palm profile, I will never worry about losing any of it.
The minus for this is because once you sync with AIM and Facebook and import in those contacts, you can't delete them without removing the entire list. So those old high school friends on FB I added on a whim who I might contact once every 5 years? They're in my address book now, too. Those AIM buddies I added years ago and haven't logged on since? They're there, too (unless I deleted them before syncing). Fortunately, I have plenty of memory, and handy search capabilities, so a big contact list doesn't seem like a problem.
+++ USB battery charging
Finally! And it comes with a little converter to plug the usb cable into the wall, so I have both. I went ahead and got the Touchstone, which is a cute little non-plug magnetic charging block, which is also very cool, except that the Touchstone only works when plugged into the wall. Not that the pictoral instructions SAY so. Phooey. I can already see myself really needing a spare data cable.
++/- media sync
I can finally download and upload media between my phone and laptop, without any additional charges from Sprint. So creating my own ringtones and background images for free, and getting pics from the reasonably nice (3 mp) camera should be easy. It even syncs with iTunes, although that was a little clunky, and is clearly a questionable hack. It is supposed to be able to connect as a USB drive, but on the one attempt I've tried so far, it froze my explorer. No idea if that was a phone issue or a laptop one.
++/- keyboard
Yeah, the keyboard is nice. I was pretty darn good with the keypad and predictive text, but now that I don't have to stick to dictionary words and can use two thumbs, txts fly by a lot faster. Good thing they're unlimited. They keys are small, but they are comfortable for me. My only complaint is that the 'enter' key is in a little too convenient of a spot, and I frequently send half-finished messages. I am also looking forward to using it for taking notes or making tasks.
++/- email / messaging
I have Email, SMS, AIM, and Google Talk all at my fingertips. Considering those are 4 of the top 5 ways I generally communicate with people, I think I've got things pretty well covered. However, logging into Google things was incredibly irritating. A search for help told me I needed to turn off captcha, which seemed to fix everything, but then today, I randomly got a 'wrong password' error again. Additionally, once you log in, there is no opportunity to log out without completely removing that account (and all its accounts/info). Even a bad connection will automatically log you back in after a period. Thus, I am perpetually logged into AIM and thus get the 'you are logged in twice' msg when I log in on my laptop. I suspect this will be improved on in the future.
++/--- calendar
Having a useful calendar in my pocket that syncs with my online calendars would be so awesome and the idea was one of the things that swayed me. IF ONLY IT WORKED. Grrr. I can add my google accounts, but none of my events actually show up on the Pre. This is apparently a known bug that many people are complaining about in various forms. I eagerly await their fix. HEAR THAT, GOOGLE/PALM? [ETA: an upgrade later and my calendar is back and DTRTing. Still have password issues.]
+/- copy/paste
Yeah, it has it. But only in limited applications, and the keypresses to use it are entirely non-intuitive. I've only used it once, in testing. Fortunately, with enough demand, and being an application issue, I'm sure it will improve.
+ regular earphone jack
There's really not a whole lot of difference between having a 2.5mm earphone jack and a 3.5mm one, except that with one, I can grab any set of earphones I have lying around at the time, and with the other, I have to remember specifically where my phone earbuds are. Nice to be normal again.
o phone
What, I'm supposed to talk on this thing, too? Oh, yeah, I guess I made a couple calls. Sounds fine. It has bluetooth, which the 7500 didn't have, so I don't have anything hands-free for it yet. Anybody have a spare BT headset you want to loan me so I can figure out what I like?
Things the 7500 did better than the Pre
-- outside LCD
I really liked having my phone as a clock in my pocket, where the only thing necessary for me to see the time was to look at it. Now, I have to open the keyboard or press the power button in order to see the time. Additionally, the outside LCD let me take a picture with my old phone while facing the lens, and be able to see a mini version of what was being captured, instead of blindly guessing. And because I no longer have a flip, I think I totally lose forever on these features.
-- rugged case
I used a leather case for the 7500 for about 1 week before ditching it, because it just wasn't necessary. It had a partially 'rugged' design, which means it had a rubberized casing that was protective against dirt, shock, and scratches, so when it took a spill from 5ft up onto concrete (which it did, multiple times), it came away just fine. So fine, in fact, that when I handed it to the Sprint rep to sync my phone numbers to the new phone, he commented that it was in very good condition. Now, I am fairly nice to my phones, but still, 3.5 years of dropping it should, in theory, leave SOME marks.
The Pre, so far, only comes with pouch-style cases, which are fine for protecting it while it's not being used, but don't do diddly once it's in hand. I suspect the slide keyboard is going to make protective skins a lot harder to come by. I went ahead and grabbed the insurance for now.
- ringer/vibrate options
While I don't care much about ringtone selection, the 7500 did at least have a vibrate selection, AND it let me choose ring and vibrate as an sound level option. The Pre's only has one vibrate type, and it is shorter and more subtle than I expect. I missed every single call/message I got in the first 6 hours of owning it.
- stopwatch / timer
Admittedly, I didn't use these often, but the Pre doesn't have them. But I expect them to be available in an app any moment now.
Overall, I'm really kind of enjoying this 'internet in my pocket' thing. Sure, I can get by without it, but it's just really nice to have it. Yesterday when I driving and made a wrong turn, I pulled out my Google maps (with GPS tracking), found where I was, and the quickest way back where I was going. I can listen to Pandora while out for a walk. We pulled up a very weird movie clip as it was referenced last night at dinner. In some ways (although not all), it obviates my need to carry a laptop around all the time. When it gets irc and ssh applications? I'll be set.
The battery life seems ok, although not grand. I initially thought mine was draining abnormally quickly, but I'm thinking it was more because I was doing very heavy processing and usage for long periods of time at first. Today, after I stopped trying to sync it with the world, it seems to have calmed down. The navigation looks pretty neat, although I haven't used it yet. I'm hoping really hard that this means a geocaching app won't be too far behind.
There is no 'manual' like I'm used to with other electronics. Instead, each application has its own help menu option. On one hand, it's interesting that you can search for the specific thing you need while you're in the area. On the other hand, if you have no idea what application you need to start for an option, it's a lot harder to learn how to do some things.
So, yeah. In summary, I'm pretty happy to have it, and I'm looking forward to some quiet evenings where I can snuggle up with my Pre and we can get to know each other better.