[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Pre Hunt: In Search of the Elusive New Palm Device here

[Mannyman]

San Diego County Best Buys do not carry Sprint phones. Sprint Store in Escondido had 18 people in line at 7:45 am. Drove 35 miles to Best Buy in Murrieta in Riverside County. #8 in line. They got their 10 Pre boxes around 12:30 PM due to shipping goof up. No Touchstones, used instant rebate funds to order 1 from local Sprint store.
Happy Camper.

[birkland]

In Cary NC there were 22 people in line when the sprint store opened at 8 am, 1 hour earlier than usual. When I was there at about 11:15 this morning there were three or four people ahead of me in line, and I waited about 30 minutes to get with a very good sales rep who get me all set up, transferred contacts from my old treo (unnecessary, since they're all in Google anyway), etc. It took about 35 minutes or so to complete the transaction, because Sprint's computer network was dog slow today, probably because of the pre sales. It wasn't a stand all day in line event like for the iPhone, but it wasn't mindless fanboy day at Sprint, which is good. I like the phone so far, and Sprint's network is so much better than AT&T's with the iPhone. So far, so good.

p.s. Forgot to mention: at about noon today they had 11 phones left. They had one touchstone (the point of which escapes me--what's wrong with a cord?) They had plenty of car chargers (crucial) and case (not so crucial). They expected to completely sell out of their phones by about 3:00 today. I don't know that they did, but I imagine that they have very few, if any, left--there were several people behind me in line.

[sfoalex]

I'd be interested in hearing more from those that bought one. Especially if you have previously owned an iPhone or Blackberry.
Alex

[philipcadena]

Well I've owned an touch since they came out and most the people i know own an iphone and there all big texters and hate it. Well i waited at my radio shack bc i knew they had two i got there at about 8 they opened at 9 and i was first one there and two other people showed up so one guy i saw got turned away. Well ive put my ipod touch for sell and i love the pre its awesome the finger gestures work awesome i love how it feels and looks yeah fingerprints but u slide in case it came with and cleans it right up. I just cant wait till more apps and just discovering new things out by playing with it. only drawback is batt life but with all it does i just bought a car charger. so i think im more excited then my first cell phone i got in 02 when i was 17 which was the motorola V60 which back then was like the best phone out at the time. lol well im going to go play and learn more and have fun with ur new pre everyone i know i will

[ahumanbean]

I got the last Palm Pre available at my local Sprint store. It was about 12:30 when I walked in. I was told they had basically sold out all over town, but this particular store is not very well know. Don't know if this was true, but do know I did actually get the last one because they were turning people away -- at least four -- while I was still there.
So far, I love the phone. Synergy was working great. Brought all of my contact together. Had to drop the Facebook portion because I did not want all those contact to be brought in. Took a bit to get used to the gestures, but not too long.
I have been a Blackberry addict for years and still love my Curve. I am very glad I made the switch. The ability to multi-task is amazing and nobody has it except the Pre. I would never have left Blackberry for an iPhone. The iPhone simply does not have the things I need as a power business user. The Pre does. I can't say if I will be a forever Palm fan at this point. Blackberry could win me back with a Sprint based successor to the Storm, but I do know that as of today, I have the most advanced Smart Phone on the market -- hands down. the iPhone and Storm can't touch the Pre.

[luanmikevu]

I met the sales rep last week, to let them know I was going to buy five (5) Palm Pre phones. This morning, got a call to show up at 7:30am. got there at 8:00am when store opened, was 19th in line and received 'allocation' tickets.
Bought all 5, since it was the max limit allowed. BTW, I kept all five (5) of my old cell phones accounts w/ existing family plan, and they allowed second 'plan', so I created that for the new Palm Pre phones I was buying (now I own a total of 10 sprint phones, active accounts)
My little brother played with his all day today, and he was a very happy camper. I had to keep telling him to stop playing with it to keep his eyes on the road (he was driving).
We tested out its Bluetooth w/ the $10 adapter for his iPod docking station in the car. Wow, the music quality was awesome! We were streaming YouTube vid's (Lady Gagga), and the audio was going into the car stereo via iPod docking station (with Bluetooth receiver/adapter -- yep, the $10 thing at Sprint store).
After lunch, we went back into the Sprint store to hit the 'trained expert' there on how to best use the Palm Pre with Google 'location' feature in Google maps. He showed us how to use its built-in GPS/Cell-tower/WiFi triangulation feature. Nice!
I've been with Sprint for 8 years now, and I was wondering how fast its data network really was. My Treo755p was able to stream YouTube videos for a long time now, and I use the SprintTV and other internet radio features. They were decent on the Treo755p.
But, (having been told 4G is already in place), I wanted to see how the Palm Pre would be able to use that network layer (only capable device would hit the 4G network, supposedly my Treo755p was able to.) Surprise, Surprise, Surprise; the YouTube videos were so smooth and the audio was so nice, I realized that the only limitation was really the processing speed of the cell-phone/pda device!
Aka, 4G ! wow -- I am keeping my Treo755p with me for the next few days because I'm hunting for a new job (still employed, but seeking better one) so recruiters can get a hold of me. But, I will be trying out the other features of the Palm Pre phone while at work.( i got new numbers on the Pre, that's why).
Instant messaging has a cool adaptive feature; it homes in on which ever sms/instant-messaging network the person you are texting with and tracks the conversation TOGETHER as if it were all one texting session, even if the other person was switching between cell-phone/GoogleTalk/AIM/etc...(sounds like mini version of Google Wave that is under development/testing right now)
A security feature was found on accident. You can wipe your phone simply by logging into your account online and enter your profile security code. BAMM!, your lost phone is wiped.
I look back at my Treo755p with pride, knowing it was a blast to have. But, I had to admit that it was a pain to wait for it to switch applications (and lose session info sometimes). And, seeing the multi-tasking speed of the Pre and its 'cards' interface, I really got annoyed once I used by Palm Treo755p the rest of the day, having gotten used to the Pre's speed/multi-tasking abilities.

[sfoalex]

Great review!

So far they are all positive. How is the keyboard for you?

Alex

[philipcadena]

The key board is small but the way the buttone teture is it helps guide u to the button u really want i like how it feels and love that unlike other phone with slide out keyboards there is no lag when u flip out and it feels great in my hand when texting so i have no complaints about keyboard.

[philipcadena]

P.S. i've let some my friends with iphones play with my pre and they now all hate me bc they think the pre surpasses iphone in so many ways.

[sfoalex]

Thanks for the posts. Yeah I hope to see some movement. I bought Palm's stock back at $7.4 a share. Sold it at $12.96. Trying to get a sense of the investment opportunity going forward. There are so many iPhone fanboys that it makes it difficult to truly know what the customer thinks about the Pre. Too many trolls will just inject their worthless opinions anywhere they can. I really want to hear from those who bought it. Good or bad. Sounds to me like you're happy with it. You've already showed it off to friends. Any of those iPhone users liking it enough to switch?

Alex

[philipcadena]

Most my iphone friends said there waiting to c what apple comes out with monday and also waiting to c if any real bugs come in future but if nothin but more 3.0 bs and not a new iphone with some really awesome feature changes they will prob switch to the pre they said.

[ahumanbean]

The keyboard takes a bit of getting used to, but it is rather good. I thought back to when I got my Blackberry Curve. It took me two days to get used to the keyboard and then there was no looking back. The Pre seems to be about the same. I am on day two today, so I guess we will see.

I am looking forward to there being an app to add a vitrual keyboard to the Pre. I never wanted (and still don't) a phone with no keyboard. Virtual keyboards are less responsive, harder to use and limit screen space. However, there are times when it would be nice for quick responses to txts etc. What I love about the Pre is you could have both.

[sfoalex]

I currently use a Blackberry 8310 on AT&T. Love my blackberry, but want to switch off AT&T to sprint for the everything plan. But I am waiting for Sprint to get the Curve 8900 first so I can upgrade to that while I switch. Sprint will have a new customer for both the everything plan for my cell phone and a separate data plan as soon as they get that wifi / cell box that Verizon has.

Alex

[sfoalex]

I'm frankly bored to tears with Apple. I don't see the fascination with them at all. Which is why I have to ask others how they feel. My own opinion differs way too far from the general public. I watch an Apple ad, and I just cannot believe American's are so shall we say -- susceptible to the childish commercials. You see so such a large herd of sheep moving in one direction and you start to think you're missing something. So I bought an iPhone not once, but twice. Both are sold. Then I bought an iPod Touch, which is pretty much ready to go into a drawer or get sold off. The only good thing I can say about it is that it looks good. Anything else I say will spark argument. For me, I am in bizarro world. That anyone likes the iPhone in my mind is like saying 2 + 2 = 5. I just can't wrap my head around it. I could a few months ago. But I can't now. and it gets harder and harder to buy into it. But Apple's stock is rising. And that presents a very real opportunity, bizzarro or not.

Alex

[philipcadena]

I remeber when everyone use to talk about how evil PC's were and apple was all about there consumers and the actual product but truth be told apple is now the new microsoft. Apple is so full of they just spend so much money on ads now i love how there is an apple in every movie. the reason why they products are way over price is bc they have to make up for all that money they waste on there stupid commercials and advertisement. I have more probs with my mac then i ever did my Sony Viao. I use to like mac now they are worthless crap. cheaply made like my laptops case just keeps deteriating. and the computer freezes and locks up way more then my Viao. So unless they change back to where it was about the product not the cash. I wont by another apple product again.

[sfoalex]

philipcadena said:

I remeber when everyone use to talk about how evil PC's were and apple was all about there consumers and the actual product but truth be told apple is now the new microsoft. Apple is so full of they just spend so much money on ads now i love how there is an apple in every movie. the reason why they products are way over price is bc they have to make up for all that money they waste on there stupid commercials and advertisement. I have more probs with my mac then i ever did my Sony Viao. I use to like mac now they are worthless crap. cheaply made like my laptops case just keeps deteriating. and the computer freezes and locks up way more then my Viao. So unless they change back to where it was about the product not the cash. I wont by another apple product again.

Apple has always over priced their products. And they will continue to do so because Apple's customers are willing to pay too much. It's not evil. They are publicly traded company that enjoys a customer base that enjoys their product. If Acer and Toshiba could get away with 33% margins, they'd be doing it too. Apple doing this is not surprising at all.

I just don't think their products merit such prices or attention.

Alex

[luanmikevu]

I'll let my brother's word (from a noob point of view) explain,
" it's got kind of a short steep learning curve, but once you get use to it, it's great!"

BTW, he said that after having it for about an hour, texting with his girl-friend the whole time.


Honestly, I've been using all the Treo's: Treo600, Treo755p that had buttons thumbpads.
So, if I were to give you my point of view, it would be kind of off-based. I find that Treo's thumbpads
allows me to text quite fast. But, since I'm a touch typist who types about 80 words a minute on a laptop,
I end up buying a folding keyboard for all my Treo phones ( including ones that didn't have a thumbpad ).

Using Document in Palm-OS from DataViz, I use my PalmOS cellphones as word-processing tools
when I'm sitting in the bleachers at my son's indoor soccer practice.

Most of the sales people were not used to thumbpads on the treo, so they kept typing with their 'thumb' while
holding the phone in one hand.

For me, the best way (without getting carpal tunnel syndrome) is to hold the Pre in both hands and do the 'texting/typing'
with BOTH thumbs.

I also type international characters quite a lot, and on my Treo755p cell phone, I use the ALT button to get at them.
However, the letters variations are limited. For example, I can't type Russian or full Vietnamese on it. Nor Chinese characters.

But on the Pre, if you hit 'sym' button once, you get extra characters. AND, if you hit it twice, a screen keyboard shows up
with fully internationalized characters list. So, I guess the Pre will be handy for me to study Russian, since my work place
are mostly expatriate Russian IT developers. Yes, it's kind of like out-sourcing, but all Russian folks instead of folks from India.

Oh, I learned something about Bluetooth devices. If you don't fully charge them and the phone prior to doing the synch, they will down-grade to the lowest quality of the synch (e.g. linking the first time you integrate blue-tooth device into the list of "new devices".) Then, from that moment on, even if fully charged, they will still use that lowest quality setting [ think of it as using 10 kbit for MP3 instead of 300 kbit for encoding your music ]

So, if you're going to get the best sound experience from Bluetooth devices [ or highest down load speed when using your Palm Pre as a internet modem for your laptop via Bluetooth linking ] make sure you fully charge the bluetooth device and your Palm Pre before you start linking them. Also, make sure they are right next to each other while trying to link the devices. There's a way to get my HP laptop to use bluetooth connection to an internet modem [ Cell phone with data plan ], but I will have to down load a third party utility similar to what I had to use for my Treo600. The phones are capable already. It's the laptop that has to install the software from Sprint/Verizon/T-Mobil specific for Windows operating system. But, it turns out that for $50 or $70, you can buy third party software driver that works much better than ones provided by the cell phone companies. Why? They bought all their software for Internet Connection from that third party vendor!

Last time on vacation October 2008, we were cruising down I-75 to Florida from Indiana, and my son was able to cruise the internet most of the way while we were driving along the highway. Once we were up in the mountains crossing from Huntsville, Alabama to Orlando, ( no longer on main highway but on state/county roads ) we didn't have a cell tower in sight for three hours, so no data signal there. But, Sprint is pretty good along major US high-ways for data connections. From experience, that's from Indiana to Florida along I-75, and from Indiana to St. Louis, Missouri along I-70. If you travel, I get solid signals on a Cruise ship from Miami for most of the way, since they follow the shoreline anyway (even if you can't see it from the boat). Then, once out in the ocean, I was piggy-back on the Ships own cell signal (beaming from sattelite) for free because I have the Sprint America Plan (back then, that's what it was called) that provided me with free roaming anywhere in USA or Canada (or on Cruise ships hahahaha).

[luanmikevu]

if it's jealousy, then lets say it:

" in terms of features,
the Palm Pre
is iPhone fanboy's new love,
let me count the ways....hahahahahahaha"

[luanmikevu]

Unless iPhone 3.0 comes with full truly 'web service' focus, it's going to miss out when Google Wave is released.
The Palm Pre (ok, I'll start calling it as Sprint Palm Pre), is totally focussed on being a WEB OS, not an appstore device.

To integrate Google Wave, all Palm has to do is integrate Google Apps into the Web OS and be HTML 5 compliant.
I noticed that a mini version of 'wave features' were already integrated into Palm Pre's texting. It did it so well that I didn't notice at first, until my brother thought he was having a problem with GoogleTalk. He wasn't able to pull the thread of the conversation up on the screen, and he only saw the AIM texting thread. It turns out that his girl-friend was texting from GoogleTalk at first, then she got home an used another laptop that had AIM for instant messaging. The Palm Pre invisibly merged the two threaded conversation of GoogleTalk and AIM sms into a single thread. WOW ! he didn't even had to switch apps -- btw, everything is multi-tasked, so you don't really "switch apps" anymore like Treo755p ---- task are always ACTIVE.

Seeing how well Google maps worked on the Palm Pre, I think that it's already Google Wave ready.
Message was edited by: luanmikevu