The written musings of a long-time Apple //e and Macintosh tech nerd. Opinions are my own.
Fellow Foleo Fanatic and Palm Pre affectionado, Ben Combee has started a new Twitter feed called “palmpretips“.
palmpretips has some cool tips that I didn’t know about. For example, did you know that:
“At the end of a long page in browser and want to go to a new URL? Just hit center and start typing, using universal search as your URL bar.”?
I didn’t either. This twitter feed is going to super handy for Pre users and will be one you will want to subscribe to!
As the launch weekend for Palm’s Pre smartphone comes to a close, I wanted to share some additional information about what is the coolest accessory for the Pre, the Touchstone charger.
The Sprint store I was at on Saturday morning didn’t get a shipment of Touchstone chargers. Neither did the Best Buy I went to this afternoon. So I started looking at Palm’s website thinking I might place an order directly with them.
The funny thing is, Palm is selling not one; not two; but three Touchstone bundles, which I think, is a little miss leading if you are not paying attention to what your getting, what you want to purchase, and what you need to pay to get it.
The $70 Touchstone kit that we’ve heard about as we went into the weekend is the entry level kit. It comes with the dock and the new back plate for the Pre. There is no power adapter or extra cable in that kit. The $80 kit only comes with the dock, power adapter and cable. The last, and most expensive kit at $140 includes the new Pre back plate, the power adapter, the USB/charge cable, and two docks. Seems to me, it would be great for power users (no pun intended) if Palm had a kit that include the back plate, the dock, and the power adapter and sold if for $90-100. It seems to me that they are really trying to stear you to the $140 kit which really has the parts that I want; but it’s just at the wrong price. I can appreciate the fact that Palm is cash strapped, so are we all, but really? An extra $140 for a docking solution? Yes, it is very cool, no doubt. I guess we can justify the purchase of the $140 kit if we use the $100 rebate check we get from Sprint for the Palm Touchstone Dual Location Charging Kit. At least that way, we can say the kit was $40. To be fair, the $70 kit will be fully functional if you use the power adapter and cable that was bundled in with the Pre. The downside is that you will need to pull the USB cable off the Touchstone when you want to sync the Pre to iTunes or side load other media or documents on the Pre when it is in “drive mode.” You can also purchase the various parts separately if you wish.
Another option to get the functionality that you want without breaking the bank it to purchase the base Touchstone bundle, for $70.00, and then purchasing a Palm Travel microUSB cable, which only costs $15.00. That might out for me.
The good news is that Palm is providing free standard ground shipping on all order that are over $49.00. If you are thinking about buying Touchstone, that shouldn’t be hard to do.
You can check out all the Palm Pre accessories at the online Palm Store.
If you where lucky enough to get your hands on the Palm Pre yesterday, you will know that there is no printed User Guide in the box.
To get you started, Palm includes a getting started guide in English and Spanish, and there is the Help application on the Pre itself. But if you really want to learn about your Pre, like I do, then you will want to download the Pre User Guide from the Palm Pre Support website.
There is a lot of good information in there. For example, you can charge your Pre by connecting the microUSB cable to the wall charger (fastest way to charge your Pre) or you can connect the microUSB cable to your computer (much slower than the wall charger option). There is also a specific note in the guide about connecting the Touchstone charger via cable to your computer.
“You can also charge your phone battery by connecting your phone to your computer using the USB cable. Charging this way takes much longer than using the AC charger. Do not, however, connect the Palm Touchstone charging dock (sold separately) to your computer.”
Still scratching your head trying to figure out just how exactly you are going to get your personal information out of Palm Desktop, iCal and Address Book, or Microsoft Outlook running on your home PC? Palm’s got ya covered!
Palm webOS together with Synergy is nothing like Palm OS and Palm Desktop.
Check out the Palm support site for details on how to move your personal data into the Palm Pre smartphone.
Update: I have changed out the link to the Palm support site with a much shorter and manageable link:
The new Palm Pre wasn’t the only thing in short supply during yesterday’s launch event. The Sprint store I was at only had vehicle and home chargers for Palm’s latest mobile wonder. So what are all these new Pre owners suppose to do without cases?
Surely, you can use the cloth slip case that Palm includes in the box with the Pre, however, personally, I like a little bit more protection than that.
You can order Palm’s leather side case for the Pre from their website. It is currently selling for $39.99. I think I’m going to see if I can wait for a good accessories bundle from Palm, Sprint, Amazon, or Best Buy.
Until then, I discovered that my BlackBerry Curve 8330 belt holster case is a good fit for the Palm Pre. Sarah, a very nice lady that I met while waiting in line at the Sprint store, also discovered that the BodyGlove side loading leather case was also a good match for the Palm Pre. If you can stomach the idea of toting your new Palm Pre around in an “unofficial” case, you should try the BlackBerry or BodyGlove cases. The good news is that your local retail outlet should have these cases in stock!
You can check out all of Palm’s Pre accessories at the online Palm Store.
What a day June 6, 2009 has been! Today is the day that the totally new Palm Pre smartphone began shipping. The Pre is truly an amazing phone and it’s heart and soul is Palm webOS.
The Good
I’m not the first to say it and I won’t be the last. Throw everything you know about Palm the company, Palm OS, and the the old non-Windows Mobile Treo smartphones out the window. This is not your father’s Palm, Inc. There is an entirely new management team at Palm and it comes shining through with the Pre and Palm webOS.
The Pre is smaller than the Treo 750/755p, though the most recent Windows Mobile phone from Palm, the Treo Pro, is thinner and taller. The Pre feels great in your hand. I found it much easier to hold than my Apple iPod touch. When compared with my recently deactivated BlackBerry Curve 8330, the Pre is almost the same size when the keyboard is closed. (When the Pre keyboard is open, the Pre is about an inch to an inch and half taller than the Curve 8330.)
I was completely and totally blown away by the phenomenal screen on the Pre. When I picked up the demo unit this morning at the Sprint store I thought that it was one of those plastic display shells…until the Quick Launch bar moved! Even now, some 12 hours later, I’m still amazed by how bright and vivid the screen is! My Saturdays are often filled with lots of family activities and today I found myself outside for most of the afternoon. Direct sun light shouldn’t be a problem for most people. During a t-ball game, I was able to work with my recently imported Google contacts, read email, and review some Word document attachments. All in all, the screen is just fantastic and is every bit as good as the screen found on the iPhone and iPod touch.
The Pre, like some of it’s distant cousins the Tungsten T, T2, and T3, has a slider that reveals a full, hardware, Qwerty keyboard. The keys are very similar to those used on the Treo Pro and Centro smartphones. I found the keys on the Pre to be about equal size across the BlackBerry Curve 8330, Treo 750/755p, and the Treo Pro. I like the Pre’s keyboard because the keys are big enough for me to type on and they jelly-like keys keep your fingers or nails from sliding off the key caps. Some of the early reviews warned of a problem pressing the keys on the outside of the keyboard because of the ridge around the keyboard. I can see why some people have written that about the Pre. After typing out text messages, emails, and updating my address book, I can say that I’m not going to have a big problem with it. Results will vary, obviously. As for the sliders itself, I’m OK with it for now. The jury is going to be out on the slider easily for 6-12 months. The slider is firm and snaps open and closed. But the thirty or so times I opened and closed the slider is no indication on how it will work over the long haul of daily usage. For now, I’m satisfied with the slider and this is coming from someone who is not a fan of sliders.
The 3.0MP camera and speaker phone work well, however, I only played with them for a few minutes. Since I find myself spending at least a quarter of my work week in meetings, I’m glad to see that Palm has kept the ringer switch that has been so popular on the Treo and Centro on the Pre. Folks who like to use their phones as media players should also be happy to learn that the Pre uses a standard 3.5mm headphone jack which is located at the top of the device.
Palm webOS looks great! The graphical elements embody the user interface that Palm OS fans have been demanding for years. The fonts used in Palm webOS are stunning! The fonts are as crisp as you would expect on the printed page. Palm’s web browser is just as good as Safari on the iPhone/iPod touch.
People who have used the iPhone and iPod touch will be able to use the gestures built into Palm webOS with a minimal learning curve. The gestures that you are familiar with in Safari for the most part work the same way in webOS. Transitions from portrait to landscape mode is fluid and responds well.
Palm has paid tribute to Palm OS in webOS. One such way is the inclusion of the Quick Launch bar that I mentioned briefly already. People familiar with Palm’s older Palm OS handhelds and Treo smartphones will quickly realize that the the Quick Launch bar is the digital version of the old hardware keys. Since the Pre only has the center button on the face of the device, Palm felt it was important to customers to have a speedy way to access their most used applications. Like the old hardware buttons, the digital buttons are also customizable by dragging icons out of and into the Quick Launch bar. You are limited to four buttons; the fifth button, the Launcher button, can not be changed out.
There are lots of other cool features in webOS that I haven’t yet really played with including the Backup application, Bluetooth devices, Media Sync with iTunes support, and Palm Desktop data migration. (There is a one-time, one-way migration option for Palm Desktop and Outlook users to push data into their Pre phones. Stay tuned for more on that later on.)
The Not So Good
The Pre is Palm’s most eagerly awaited smartphone. But it is not without things that I find really annoying. First up is the case itself. This is probably the worst Palm phone of all time (at least of all the Palm devices that I’ve owned or used; and that is over 30) for collecting finger prints and other smudges. You will want to find a nice soft cloth to keep at home or in your office so you can clean down the phone’s display area. I’m going to seriously consider getting a screen protector for the Pre when they become available from third-party accessory makers.
The door on the microUSB port used to charge and connect the Pre to your computer as a USB mass storage device is really hard to get open the first few times. Once you do get it open, you will have a hard time getting the door to lay perfectly flush with the right edge of the phone. Pre comes with 8GB of on-board memory, After loading some data and a few apps from Palm’s App Catalog, I have 7.2GB of usable storage space left. There are no memory expansion slots on the Pre. I would have liked to seen the Pre ship either with more built-in memory, say 16GB, or have a microSDHC card slot. Now that we know that Pre will sync with iTunes in a similar manner as the iPhone or iPod, 8GB seems a bit cramped. I can easily fill up my iPod touch’s 16GB of storage space when I’m traveling for work with music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, and applications. I think that for the demanding Palm user, 8GB of non-expandable memory is going to be a problem. To get around this, Pre owners should consider streaming their music or videos if possible. (This is an area of the Pre that I haven’t really delved into yet; syncing with iTunes and streaming media to the Pre.)
In Conclusion
To sum up the Pre, I think many Palm fans are going to be happy with it. Yes, Palm webOS is completely different from Palm OS 5 and the Palm Desktop and HotSync Manager software no longer work. I think that once you migrate your data to the Pre, those applications won’t be missed except to the die hard Palm Desktop users.
The Pre’s hardware is organic and modern. It looks and feels great in your hand. Personally, I would have liked it if Palm continued to use the soft touch paint that was used on the Treo 750/755p and the “enhanced” Sprint Centros. I liked the “gripability” of the soft touch paint and it would have helped cut down on the collection of fingerprints and smudges along the side and back of the device.
All-in-all, I think you will be happy with the Pre. If you have never used a smartphone before, you will definitely want to take advantage of Sprint’s in-store training on the device. Seriously, new Palm customers should take the 15 minute class. It is free and well worth your time if you want to get the most out of your new phone.
The Pre is available now from Sprint retail locations and select authorized resellers, including Best Buy. With a new or extended 2-year service agreement with Sprint, the new Palm Pre sells for $299 with a $100 mail-in rebate.
For more information, visit the Palm website.
I just checked the weather (on my iPod touch) to make sure that all the rain that was falling all day and night yesterday has moved out of the area. It has, and that is great news because I was not looking forward to being cold and wet this morning. It’s 57-degrees under partly cloudy skies, but I can see some nice blue streaks in the sky as dawn is breaking in Connecticut.
MSMBC.com is running a store about a customer turning a Sprint store front into a drive through.
“An elderly woman apparently couldn’t wait to get her Palm Pre from a Calumet Park cell phone store. She only suffered a few scratches, but the store didn’t fare so well.”
The short article does not say if the woman intended to drive into the store front or not. My guess is not, but hey, with all the love Nintendo is giving elderly folks with the Wii gaming system, you never know.
Check out the MSNBC.com story for the full article and video.
It’s just after 4am here on the East Coast and I’m up getting ready to get my Palm Pre. Things on my checklist include:
I can’t believe that I’m up this early on a Saturday morning for a phone! This is nuts! I guess that’s why I’m a Smartphone Fanatic!
With the Pre going live in just over 24-hours, have you PREpared your plan to get your new Palm smartphone? I spoke with Jimmie over at GadgetsOnTheGo and he’s got his plan mapped out. I’ve already picked out a spot on the sidewalk at my local Sprint/Nextel retail location. I’ll be camping out at 6am to make sure I’m first in line to score one of the short supply Pre phones.
What are your Pre plans for tomorrow? Drop us a line in the comments section below.