This is my life. Sometimes shown through the eye of my camera phone, and sometimes not. I'll talk running, gadgets, music, and whatever else I stumble on to
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Project 365/051: Palm Pre Powerhouse
The Border's WiFi was being a little b*tch tonight, so I have my Palm Pre serving as a speedy wireless hotspot for my laptop and iTouch while reading an eBook via the Kindle app, and streaming some Slacker Radio.
If I hadn't had such a bad experience with AT&T as the IT guy that's responsible for making iPhone's work with our corporate email system, things would be different. It really sucks too, because as a lifelong Sprint subscriber, I would drop them for AT&T and the iPhone in a split second. This, my friends, is not meant to be. Sprint has been good to me, no complaints here.
Our Help Desk is usually busy with calls from our extensive mobile work force, using AT&T iPhones and 3G laptop cards, complaining about lack of service, poor coverage and dropped VPN connections while traveling. My two week stint with a test iPhone was a pleasant experience, but I would rate its coverage below my Sprint enabled Palm Centro, hands down.
That being said, I do question Palm's decision to release the Palm Pre just two days before the start of Apple's World Wide Developer's Conference and risk silencing the Palm Pre's thunder if a new iPhone is unveiled. As a long time Palm devotee, I truly want the company to succeed. If the Palm Pre is their ticket to once again becoming the giant of the mobile world as they once were, I want to be along for the ride, no matter what the end.
So, come Saturday morning, I hope to have my hands on this revolutionary new smartphone. It's fresh, it's new, and it's Palm. I've grown bored and tired with Palm's Garnet OS, and am ready for something new. It will be fun to see how it all unfolds.
I'm pretty sure I'll be posting my first impressions of the Pre once it's in my hands. Coming soon.
Update: Engadget finally has an extensive review of the Pre up. Read it here.
This is Palm's answer to their old and frail Palm OS and line of Palm-based smart phones that have been overshadowed by the mighty iPhone. So far, at least according to all of the recent chatter, this new handset is poised to become the iPhone killer. We'll see.
I want one. Now.
Before it was even announced, I was making plans to get an iPhone once my contract was up with Sprint this May. Currently, I'm a happy owner of a Palm Centro, but I'm kinda bored with it and want something new as a true gadget geek does on occasion.
I'd consider myself a fairly heavy mobile user as the Centro has become a useful tool for my day to day adventures. Having a high speed data connection available in your hands wherever you go has gotten me out of trouble, and well, into trouble too :)
I knew Palm was planning something big, I mean, they seriously have to hit a home run here if they're going to survive in an iPhone world. So far, and with everything I've seen about this new phone, they've got a hit on their hands.
There isn't much I can say about the phone that hasn't been said already. Here are a few expectations with my current Palm Centro in mind:
- Laptop tethering: The convenience of plugging my Centro via a USB cable into my laptop for instant data access anywhere is critical.
- GPS: I currently use a 3rd party GPS app on my Centro. To have this built in would be a plus.
- Google Maps with My Location: My most used app on the Centro.
- Document viewing/editing: Not super important but needed for email attachments.
- Hardware keyboard: The Pre already has this. I simply cannot get used to the on-screen keyboard of the iPhone/iTouch.
- One handed navigation: I have to keep at least one hand on the steering wheel while using the phone :)
- "Cloud" based or wireless synchronization: USB sync is sooo yesterday.
- Messaging and chat across all platforms (TXT, Facebook, Google chat, AOL, etc.): I hardly ever talk on the phone nowadays.
- Decent camera: Good for those spontaneous photos. The Centro is good at this.
- Support for Palm-base applications: A big question mark on the Pre.
- Streaming Media support: Knowing that Pandora is developing an app for the Pre makes me feel all mushy inside.
- Pleasant web browsing experience: The iPhone is great at this. The Centro and it's clunky Blazer browser? Not so much.
I've been a Palm user for many, many years going all the way back to the original Palm Pilot. I wasn't quite ready to give up on Palm, but the temptation to break my contract during the initial release of the beautiful iPhone was excruciating to say the least. I'm glad I held back, because the Pre looks to be everything I've been looking for in a mobile device and more.
"If the miles behind me could be put into words before you... you would feel my efforts, my struggles, my desires, most of all you would see my joy... Watch me from afar run the trails and hills and miles upon miles and you will see..."
- a runner
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