Palm Pre Coming Soon

Terry Olaes

Terry Olaes

I Used to be the [H] News Guy
Joined
Nov 27, 2006
Messages
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Want to know what all the fuss is about regarding the Palm Pre? Gizmodo’s got you covered by putting together an informative FAQ and guide to the most hyped phone since the iPhone. I’ve very interested in getting one, though being a Sprint-exclusive at launch dampers my enthusiasm a bit. Good thing my company offers a decent Sprint discount.

When and where can I buy it? June 6, and you can buy it at Sprint Stores, Best Buy or Radio Shack. Sprint Premier customers—if you don't know what that is, you're not one of 'em—will be able to hit up a special launch party in select cities on June 5.
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I am a sprint customer and was very interested.. but the lack of expandable storage and No visual voicemail has killed it for me.
 
I'm not too excited about the Pre to be honest. It looks flimsy, and I've never been a big fan of slider phones.

The Pro is win, though expensive still
 
I decided against the Pre. Went with a Samsung Omnia. Could not be happier.
 
I'm really not excited about this phone, honestly. The lack of expanandable cards is a dealbreaker for me. Sticking with my Q9c for now.
 
I also don't get the hype. Are that many people excited about it, or is it just false hype that the media has created?

I really don't see anything special about it. Other than a touchscreen, I'd still prefer my Blackberry Bold to this any day.
 
TechieSooner said:
I also don't get the hype. Are that many people excited about it, or is it just false hype that the media has created?

I really don't see anything special about it. Other than a touchscreen, I'd still prefer my Blackberry Bold to this any day.
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The real hype around here was that Palm had the guts to tell Apple to piss off when Apple asked smartphone manufacturers not to make multitouch screens. Google Android and HTC complied. Palm did not.
 
It's too expensive, and it doesn't offer anything new over the iPhone, it just imitates what has already been done.

I give it three months to fail and Palm bankruptcy.
 
seems like there is a lot of hatred for Palm. Even if Palm "imitated" the iphone.. is that a bad thing? If they offered the iphone on sprint I might try one out... but they don't. So that's a big fat negative for the iphone right there for me. (plus no qwerty or hard buttons is another deal breaker.) There are reasons people don't choose an iPhone as hard as that is to hear for some folks. :) I also don't see how it's expensive when I can pick it up at $199 w/out rebate. and why would a Palm bankruptcy be a good thing for anyone?
 
InorganicMatter said:
It's too expensive, and it doesn't offer anything new over the iPhone, it just imitates what has already been done.

I give it three months to fail and Palm bankruptcy.
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LOL, I don't see that happening. Palms are solid devices... My issues with them in the past have just been lack of any decent Exchange support, which this one has.
 
TechieSooner said:
LOL, I don't see that happening. Palms are solid devices... My issues with them in the past have just been lack of any decent Exchange support, which this one has.
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Palm has got the company bet on the Pre. If it fails, so do they. I'm not saying a Palm bankruptcy would be a good thing, but with their track record of really crappy products, let's just say they aren't deserving of a bailout. :p
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
Wow. Lot's of haters on here. I'm betting you all either have not seen the phone in action, or you are iphone users! :p
 
U guys need to spend some quality time with the videos a bit more if u don't get the hype. Cpu speed is what, 2x that of phone? Slide out qwerty so u don't lowe half the screen? Yeah, I'm interested.
 
It's not so much that we're haters, but Palm has been deserving customer rage.

They were extremely stubborn with their PalmOS in that they wanted to keep it on their phones, but they sucked complete ass at giving decent support or updates for it. Not to mention how horribly outdated it is.

Then they decide, oh hey let's switch to windowsmobile and (imo) hinder the os' capabilities. no exchange support. They acknowledged this, and tried to adress it by making the Palm Centro.... and adding PalmOS again.

The Palm Pro is a very well made phone though. Sturdy, slim, good keyboard, and just the right size for touch screen.

Then they throw that design spec out the window and come out with the Pre, which looks flimsy as hell with an annoying sliding part for the keyboard.

People like me who use the treo line use it for its sturdyness and functionality (after messing with the phone for long time to get it where you want it).
 
Tell ya what. After using my storm for a few months I have a new appreciation for well built hardware. In no way do I feel fearful about dropping this thing.

The pre on the other hand does look dainty. :-(
 
Jehuty said:
People like me who use the treo line use it for its sturdyness and functionality (after messing with the phone for long time to get it where you want it).
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If you want a phone for sturdyness and toughness, Blackberry is the only way to go.
Windows Mobile sucks (I hope version 7 lives up to expectations). Palm OS is just lacking (and buggy).

I've only had my Blackberry freeze up once. And that was when I was trying to play an avi file off the media card...
 
TechieSooner said:
If you want a phone for sturdyness and toughness, Blackberry is the only way to go.
Windows Mobile sucks (I hope version 7 lives up to expectations). Palm OS is just lacking (and buggy).
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I absolutely agree with you on that, except the lack of touch-screen and that DAMN little trackball drove me absolutely nuts. I hated it with a passion...

The Storm seems to change all that though. But I still prefer the Treo's keyboard
 
ReubenRosa said:
I am a sprint customer and was very interested.. but the lack of expandable storage and No visual voicemail has killed it for me.
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when i talked with sprint about removable storage on phones, they did extensive research on it, and very clearly they found out that most people never take their data cards out. and because they can save a lot of space by using a built-in chip, it does make sense to why they did it. i think you should get used to the idea that your phone has its memory and that's it. besides, who carries multiple cards on them anyway? i would lose those things by the day...

what kills this phone for me is the SERO program. if they dont allow old sero users to buy the phone, then im sticking with my treo800w until they kick me out.
 
I think most of the hype is garnered from the position they are in. This phone is the make or break product for them. Anything less than above-average success and Palm will go the route of Midway...
 
Jehuty said:
I absolutely agree with you on that, except the lack of touch-screen and that DAMN little trackball drove me absolutely nuts. I hated it with a passion...

The Storm seems to change all that though. But I still prefer the Treo's keyboard
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I was exactly like you, before I ever really tried Blackberry. I questioned the lack of touchscreen. I guess I'm like so many others in the recent report, that shows people will pay more and prefer a touchscreen device over a non-touchscreen counterpart, even if it has less features.

But to be honest, I haven't missed a touchscreen at all. When the interface is done well, there is no need for a touchscreen, as in the case of Blackberry.
Touchscreens also greatly reduce the charge capacity too... No matter what touchscreen device I've used, I could almost always (when using heavily) run the battery down before day-end. I've never had to run out of battery on my Blackberry yet. Most of the time it'll go for 3 days, however I do charge it each night.

Trackball takes some getting used to. There's nothing wrong with it, except the fact it gets nasty and discolors after you've been using it for many months.

spacetrader said:
what kills this phone for me is the SERO program. if they dont allow old sero users to buy the phone, then im sticking with my treo800w until they kick me out.
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SERO is too cheap for Sprint to support, that's why you're seeing that happen...
 
I don't really get the flame wars between the different cell phone camps. The mobile market is so huge, there's plenty of room for competition. Just like with Apple in the PC arena, even a few percentage points of the market is worth a pretty huge chunk of change.

Also, at what point do you draw the line at how many whiz-bang entertainment / multimedia features a phone really needs? At what point should you really just be using a netbook instead? Admittedly, I was a late adopter on cell phones in general, but I have to say that I really have yet to use one that didn't suck in far more ways than it excelled. If you want a device that's truly portable, then there are always going to be limitations on the kinds of activities that will make sense on that device. IMHO, the key is finding a specialized feature set that does everything it does *WELL* as opposed to doing a whole bunch of things really crappily. Not to say that mobile phones aren't getting better and better and don't often surprise me from time to time, but I still think it's a long ways off before anybody truly nails this "holy grail" of functionality.

And ironically, it seems that battery life and call quality, the two most important assets of a mobile phone, have not only NOT improved much in several years, but in many cases have actually gotten WORSE, largely because of the pressure on the engineers to stuff more "marketing checklist" features into every device, apparently at the expense of getting many of the fundamentals right in the first place.

Oh, and it sure would be nice if somebody would come along and do something about how damn expensive ALL the wireless plans are these days. I could buy a nice new laptop and hire a seeing-eye-dog to carry it around for me on his back for the average cost of keeping a smartphone up and running for the minimum 2 year contract.
 
timlara said:
Also, at what point do you draw the line at how many whiz-bang entertainment / multimedia features a phone really needs? At what point should you really just be using a netbook instead?
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Imagine this: You're carrying your phone in your pocket. Get to work, put it in a dock, and then it boots your computer for use with a full-size keyboard, screen, and mouse.
It's your computer, in your pocket. THAT would be freaking awesome. It's a vision I wish I would see come true some day.

timlara said:
And ironically, it seems that battery life and call quality, the two most important assets of a mobile phone, have not only NOT improved much in several years, but in many cases have actually gotten WORSE
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My Blackberry Bold actually is a HUGE step up in both quality and battery life compared to even the iPhone, or even Palm's Treo lineup.

I think the quality you're referring to is the overall shittiness of our wireless networks though, and that's an issue with ATT/Sprint/Verizon, not so much the cell phones themselves.

timlara said:
Oh, and it sure would be nice if somebody would come along and do something about how damn expensive ALL the wireless plans are these days. I could buy a nice new laptop and hire a seeing-eye-dog to carry it around for me on his back for the average cost of keeping a smartphone up and running for the minimum 2 year contract.
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I won't argue with that at all. They're pretty pricey.
The first step is obviously making SMS messages free though... They cost next to nothing for the carrier to transmit.

It's so bad, I was on the phone nit-picking some lines on the company plan, and a person had 100 text last month, billed usage. At $0.20 a text, it was $20.
They then say unlimited on that phone is $20/month, and I was like "Wow that's super deal, let's just put that on there."
After hanging up I think realized how brainwashed these freaking carriers have made us all. Even $5/month for texting is $5/month too much.
 
TechieSooner said:
Imagine this: You're carrying your phone in your pocket. Get to work, put it in a dock, and then it boots your computer for use with a full-size keyboard, screen, and mouse.
It's your computer, in your pocket. THAT would be freaking awesome. It's a vision I wish I would see come true some day.
Click to expand...

You're talking about a UMPC, something like the defunct OQO or Sony UX which are pocketable full featured computers.

Anyway, as far as the Pre, Sprints mandating that you have to use their new Everything plans, which sucks for me. Basically to get a Pre I would have to double my monthly bill. I already have unlimited data / texting / roaming, so I just can't justify the huge expense that the pre would have me incur.
 
I don't understand how anyone can be knocking on the build quality of the Pre... It hasn't even been released yet! So wait until you hold one in your hand before spewing out FUD. For the record, pretty much every "review" I've read has claimed the phone has great build quality and a very ergonomic feel to it. But again, we will see on June 6th.
 
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