Reaction to Palm Pre announcement
Almost a year and a half has gone by since my first and only posting about My Dream Phone and I’m happy to say that we’re finally getting somewhere! Yes, new ideas and technologies have come out, a new Iphone has been released, Palm Pro came out (only for GSM), and Android is showing at least a little promise in the OS world, but not hardware. Until now though, I’m sorry to say I have been unimpressed overall. Ok, I may have jumped aboard the iphone train if it came to sprint, but I still wouldn’t have been thrilled to not have a keyboard and have to wait for third party apps to be approved by apple, but it’s admittedly pretty slick.
So what now? Looks like the Palm Pre has A LOT of potential. There are still many unanswered questions (which I’ll get to below), but many of the things I’ve been hoping for since my first post are now being promised. For now, I’ll step through my dream phone list and check off what at least seems to be fulfilled:
- GSM + CDMA in one phone (why not? I’d like to stay with sprint, but use my phone overseas)
—this of course hasn’t happened, but at least the Palm Pre is coming to Sprint! - EVDO high speed internet access
—check at least for sprint customers in coverage areas - changeable Sim card (for international travel)
—it’s not a GSM phone at least initially, so no luck there
- large high resolution multi-touch screen (similar to iphone but better resolution)
—Mostly check! Ok, the screen is not as big as the iphone, but the phone is smaller, and similar resolution - qwerty keyboard with easy to press buttons (identical to treo)
—check! - Stylus (for apps that require precise pointing like VNC)
—no, but hopefully we don’t need it with multitouch zooming. Hope VNC will be good anyways - removable battery (with over 10 hours of talk time)
—removable battery yes! 10 hours of talk time? Who knows… - 16+ GB of internal flash memory
—8GB is a good start, but it would be really nice to have 16+ - 6MP+ camera with zoom, flash, manual settings and video capability
—i know this was wishful thinking, but at least they put in flash, and a 3MP camera. decent enough for now - Thin! (super thin like the iphone)
—from what I can tell, it’s pretty sleak for a phone with all these features and a keyboard! - Durable (scratch resistent and sturdy)
—who knows - Style (classy but stylish like the iphone)
—i really dig the look of the phone so far. - Wi-fi (at least 802.11g)
—check! - Three way on/off/vibrate switch (similar to the switch at the top of the 755, but with three options rather than 2)
—unfortunately looks like its still 2 way, but at least they left that feature - SD expansion card slot (if there isn’t enough room then make it High Capacity Micro SD)
—many people are concerned that Palm hasn’t announced this yet, but I hope they have enough sense to include a microSD slot. It’s cheap, and there’s no reason not to. - iphone software interface (multitouch photo manipulation and list scroll)
—check! looks awesome so far! - open development architecture (ie: J2ME), allows third party utility installation (ie: VNC)
—webOS seems pretty good so far! easy to develop for, but the question remains whether the SDK can access OS features. - Multitasking OS
—check!!!! FINALLY! - Fully functional browser
—looks good so far! unfortunately still not sure about flash support
- GPS (great interface for it and make it work with googlemaps) + directions that avoid traffic
—it has GPS, but people are concerned about the statement that it requires evdo coverage area - Great multimedia apps (better than ipod functionality with good artist/title search for mp3s)
—looks promising so far! Don’t know about the music search function
- Can play streaming media off the net
—probably will depend on 3rd party apps, but who knows - quality full duplex speaker phone
—no idea yet - voice dialing/voice typing/voice recognition
—no idea, we hope so! - Bluetooth 2.0+
—check! - Easy sync with windows, mac, and linux
—with all this talk about the cloud, who knows. I hope that at least I can sync with outlook easily
Assuming most of the features that we KNOW the phone has are as good if not better than the earlier Treos, then there are some features that have not been announced or specifics which I’m concerned about (listed in no particular order):
- microSD?
- price?
- release date?
- 3rd party apps? developing? access low level system functions? VNC/Logmein? Flash support?
- Free tethering?
- Standalone GPS: GPS needs coverage area? does it have a directional compass?
- Desktop sync? Outlook sync? Local sync? backup/restore on the go?
- Battery life?
- More accessories in the works? how would a car dock work (slider)? alarm clock docking stations? cases? screen protectors?
- visual voicemail?
- data + call at the same time?
- video recording?
- voice recognition (voice to text or voice to dial?)
- sound quality/speakerphone (full duplex?)
- how does lock/unlocking the phone work (without sliding out keyboard)?
I hope Palm will answer these questions soon! People are really excited about the Pre and we hope that it will be more successful than the iphone!
= ?