Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

analogue SPRINKLES · Jan 8, 2009, 09:56 PM

I despise palm but I hate to say the new Palm Pre might save their ass.

Like other companies are doing 90% of it is an iPhone copy but it does actually have some cool features. Better messaging. Central search. App Switcher. Agenda screen. Better notifications and switching between apps. Wireless charger!!! Parts of the interface are nicer than the iPhone. Easy to write apps for. Gestures area is cool

I consider the slider keyboard a huge negative though.

http://www.palm.com/us/

kmkkid · Jan 8, 2009, 10:17 PM

I must say, it looks gorgeous.

Maflynn · Jan 8, 2009, 10:28 PM

yeah I think palm hit it out of park design-wise leaves something to be desired

The proof will be in the pudding. Talk is cheap, pricing ann actual usage will dictate whether if it's successful. Going on the sprint network isn't going to help them either

slugslugslug · Jan 8, 2009, 10:39 PM

It seems like they could have made the form factor a little more compact (looks unnecessarily rounded).

But there seems to be lots of good about it. Engadget and Gizmodo both think the UI is snappy and easy to use. And even more exciting: Multi-tasking! Copy/paste!

There was a while there when I totally thought my first smartphone was going to be a Palm, back when the iPhone was still a very iffy rumor. They sure dragged their ass on the new OS.

I wonder how long PalmOS 5.2 (Cobalt) is going to stick around.

analogue SPRINKLES · Jan 8, 2009, 10:46 PM

The Only two things I don't like about the iPhone hardware is that it has no flash and I wish the front would be dark and not that ugly off green in the screen area when it is off.

turtle777 · Jan 8, 2009, 11:45 PM

If they can really pull it off, good for them.

-t

Visnaut · Jan 8, 2009, 11:58 PM

Palm has done a lot of things right with the Pre. Interface-wise, it's the first viable iPhone competitor. Even though a lot of the concepts are directly lifted from the iPhone OS (yes, even the "cards" concept), they've re-jigged them in a pretty clever, usable way.

It's not as strong of a platform as the iPhone and iPod touch, but the ease of development for the Pre will be a big plus. Media handling, however, doesn't even approach what even the first-gen iPhone is capable of. But I'm glad the competition is turning up the heat. We as users will only benefit in the long run.

I hope Apple doesn't rest on its laurels, and adds better multi-tasking and off-screen gesture capabilities to the next-gen iPhone/iPod touch.

waxcrash · Jan 9, 2009, 12:23 AM

I'm quite surprised to see Palm come out with this phone. After the disaster with the Foleo, I seriously thought they were done and facing a slow death. It looks like they took the time and did their homework, and their stock price reflects it today with the huge jump.

Before the iPod or iPhone, I liked Palm products. I had a Treo 600 right before Palm bought Handspring. But as other companies were innovating, Palm let their hardware/software stagnate. As better phones from competitors were released, lots of people like myself jumped ship. Sadly, I think it's a little too late for Palm to be able to jump back in and win their old customers back or pick up new ones.

- - e r i k - - · Jan 9, 2009, 02:24 AM

Lots of nice little UI touches that Apple could nick back. But what's with the rounded screen corners? Check out the Web Page screenshot.

funkboy · Jan 9, 2009, 03:45 AM

Impressive indeed.
And the website had a reference to a Michael Bluth, which made me smile.

Any news on how to develop for it?

Maflynn · Jan 9, 2009, 09:01 AM

Overall I am impressed as I stated in my prior post but palm has shot themselves in the foot before, especially promising features at the OS level and never delivering. I was a long time palm user so I hope they pull it off, but going with sprint is imo a step in the wrong direction to getting this to the mass market.

From what I've been reading, sprint has been bleeding customers incredibly fast and is in danger of not being relevant in the cell phone market.

ctt1wbw · Jan 9, 2009, 09:22 AM

Sprint sucks. I told them, literally, to shove my account up their ass, right in the store. I bought a new phone to replace the older one I had. I needed the number transferred to the new phone, so the guy behind the counter took off the battery of the old phone to scan the ESN number. He then, presumably, hit the delete key on the computer and then scanned the new ESN number on the new phone, and then hit, presumably, the return key, to complete the transaction.

So what, about 10 calories of expended energy over 20 seconds worth of labor? He had the balls to try to charge me $50 for that. I told him he was smoking crack and needed to remove that charge. He said he couldn't and I told him in order to keep over a grand worth of income to Sprint over a year, he better. He refused, and I promplty told him to close my account and shove it up his ass. This was 6 or so years ago and I haven't been with Sprint since.

Chongo · Jan 9, 2009, 11:47 AM

is it a Sprint exclusive phone?

ctt1wbw · Jan 9, 2009, 11:50 AM

From what I gather it is. But I also hear a 3G GSM version is in the works...

Maflynn · Jan 9, 2009, 12:30 PM

Originally Posted by Chongo

is it a Sprint exclusive phone?

Yes

Jawbone54 · Jan 9, 2009, 01:15 PM

Saw this on Digg earlier in the morning than I should have...

It looks like a beautiful phone with a beautiful interface. I'm really impressed with it. I've used my friend's Palm Centro a few times, and the OS looked like it was pulled right out of the late 90s. Not only that, but the keyboard was incredibly cramped. They say the Pre's keyboard has larger buttons and are spaced out a bit more, which would be a relief.

I love competition. This is great for the industry.

maxintosh · Jan 9, 2009, 03:05 PM

Welcome back, Palm. The world has been telling Palm for years and years they need to develop a new OS or suffer a slow and painful death, and they did. And it looks very powerful and elegant.

Now... let's hope they release it on time.

ctt1wbw · Jan 9, 2009, 03:15 PM

They could have named it better. Something catchy, like the Print. Hey, I gotta Palm Print here!!! Or the Hairy. Man, look at that Hairy Palm!!!

ctt1wbw · Jan 9, 2009, 03:20 PM

As high as $399??? Ouch!

Gizmodo report

jokell82 · Jan 9, 2009, 03:57 PM

Originally Posted by ctt1wbw

As high as $399??? Ouch!

Gizmodo report

Yeah I was intrigued at first. But Sprint exclusive and $399 means I buy the next iPhone instead...

Maflynn · Jan 9, 2009, 03:59 PM

if that report is accurate then Palm is certainly shooting themselves in the foot. I have to believe that's the non-discounted/non-contract price. If Palm has any hopes of being successful with this phone it has to be priced at the same level as the iPhone or less. While it does have some great features, people are not going to pay that much for it, when you can get an iPhone for less.

jokell82 · Jan 9, 2009, 04:06 PM

Originally Posted by Maflynn

if that report is accurate then Palm is certainly shooting themselves in the foot. I have to believe that's the non-discounted/non-contract price. If Palm has any hopes of being successful with this phone it has to be priced at the same level as the iPhone or less. While it does have some great features, people are not going to pay that much for it, when you can get an iPhone for less.

I highly doubt that is the non-contract price. $399 is the non-contract price for standard phones, not smart phones. A non-contract price for something like the Pre is minimum $599, and possibly even higher.

ctt1wbw · Jan 9, 2009, 04:07 PM

I paid 299 for my 16gig iPhone. Almost 400 for half that?

lyanma · Jan 9, 2009, 04:35 PM

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES

I consider the slider keyboard a huge negative though.

http://www.palm.com/us/

I consider it a huge negative too. When I saw the video they have on their webpage I was like, oh so beautiful, but then it was suddenly slidding up, and that totally changed everything....

ctt1wbw · Jan 9, 2009, 04:40 PM

I've noticed the partisan hatred of physical keyboards versus those who hate the iPhone centric keyboard. It's similar to those who hate glossy and love matte, and vice versa.

shifuimam · Jan 9, 2009, 04:45 PM

The Sprint-only part is a bad move, IMO.

If they want to go CDMA first, great, but why Sprint? They're possibly the least popular carrier anymore, except maybe T-Mobile. They should have gone with Verizon.

lyanma · Jan 9, 2009, 04:55 PM

Originally Posted by shifuimam

The Sprint-only part is a bad move, IMO.

If they want to go CDMA first, great, but why Sprint? They're possibly the least popular carrier anymore, except maybe T-Mobile. They should have gone with Verizon.

Palm Pre Won't Be A Sprint Exclusive For Long

Mac User #001 · Jan 10, 2009, 02:57 AM

Originally Posted by ctt1wbw

As high as $399??? Ouch!

Gizmodo report

Wasn't the iPhone $599 at first? People still bought it.

Honestly I really like it. I love the iPhone, but I could see the Palm Pre being a pretty strong competitor. It certainly looks the part.

analogue SPRINKLES · Jan 10, 2009, 03:00 AM

Originally Posted by Mac User #001

Wasn't the iPhone $599 at first? People still bought it.

Honestly I really like it. I love the iPhone, but I could see the Palm Pre being a pretty strong competitor. It certainly looks the part.

Ya but the iPhone was a mind blowing new idea with nothing like it on the market and was coming off the popularity of the iPod.

The Pre is mostly just iPhone catchup and 2 years late to the market.

Mac User #001 · Jan 10, 2009, 03:12 AM

Gotcha.

Hawkeye_a · 02:09 PM

I thought Palm was going bust, but this phone really looks great and will probably save them. I really think this is the first real competitor to the iPhone i will actually consider. I'd go far as to say that between Macworld and CES, this would probably be my favorite announcement.

I'm impressed with the webos (

) and kinda shocked they could pull something like this off. As far as UI and features it look like iPhoneOS+.

The size of the phone is more agreeable than the iPhone imo.

The only drawback is the lack of an App Store(to the best of my knowledge). but yea, i will be considering this phone when the new iPhone is announced in June-July.

On a side note... i had no idea Rubenstein had left Apple for Palm. Also, the palm website is quite beautiful.

Cheers

ctt1wbw · Jan 10, 2009, 05:38 AM

The lack of an app store.... might be a deal breaker in the long run. It'll be interesting to see.

slugslugslug · Jan 10, 2009, 11:42 AM

I thought they told Engadget or Gizmodo or someone that an app store of some kind was on the way. I'm curious as to what their developer community will look like. On the one hand, folks who invested a lot into developing for the old crusty Palm OS might be feeling pretty burned. On the other hand, apps for the new OS are apparently done using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Meaning there are tons of folks out there who could get up and running on this thing pretty quickly and could repurpose their code for other things if the pre doesn't work out.

I wonder how much performance overhead there is, though, in HTML/CSS/JavaScript interpreters. Or if there's actually a way to compile that stuff for their platform...

Maflynn · Jan 10, 2009, 01:52 PM

Palm has an app store in the works, and from what I've read, palm is taking the largest percentage of sales compared to other app stores. 50% compared against apples 30%

Hawkeye_a · Jan 10, 2009, 02:11 PM

I would like to see what the development tools and App store policies for the Pre are going to be, cause right now, i have a lot more experience in Cocoa, and vastly prefer it to javascript+HTML+CSS.

analogue SPRINKLES · Jan 10, 2009, 03:06 PM

I really like that wireless charger also. I hope apple does the same thing but also builds in wireless USB so you can sync without the 30 pin connector and charge at the same time.

imitchellg5 · Jan 10, 2009, 06:16 PM

I think it looks horrible and also has a stupid name.

Wiskedjak · Jan 10, 2009, 07:09 PM

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES

Like other companies are doing 90% of it is an iPhone copy ...

Which 90% of it is an iPhone copy? It doesn't look *anything* like an iPhone to me. Except maybe that's it's black and phone/pda shaped.

NobleMatt · Jan 10, 2009, 07:09 PM

i read on a blog "amazing new palm phone" and youtubed a video of some guy using one thinking this could be really good, got it look horrible, i'd rate both the OS's on the iPhone and G1 (android) to be miles better from the demo i saw, just didnt feel efficient and it looks crap too

jokell82 · Jan 10, 2009, 07:16 PM

I just watched the Palm keynote from CES where they introduced it. It really is a very nice phone they have. The "synergy" (what a horrible buzzword to use) looks like it will work very well. If AT&T gets one I may actually consider it when I go to replace my first gen iPhone (depending on price, of course).

ctt1wbw · Jan 11, 2009, 06:52 AM

Here's a report about the Pam Pre App Store:

Palm Pre

Wiskedjak · Jan 11, 2009, 11:30 AM

3rd party apps are what made the original Palm Pilots so successful. I doubt Palm will forget that; if there's anything Palm is good at, it's sticking to what made them successful (usually at the expense of moving forward).

slugslugslug · Jan 11, 2009, 03:37 PM

It's funny to me how they went with the single button on the face, just like every touchscreen phone since the iPhone came out. I may be in the minority here, but I always kind of wish my iPhone had a few more buttons. My old Sony Ericsson featurephones obviously had a lot of shortcomings relative to the iPhone, but there was so much I could do with muscle memory.

I think it would have been cool if the iPhone had a row of 3 or 4 buttons at the bottom, most of which could have user-assignable shortcuts, just like my Palm PDAs from back in the day. I'd think maybe Palm realized that was one valuable thing about their old UI, but maybe that's just me.

analogue SPRINKLES · Jan 11, 2009, 07:13 PM

Originally Posted by Wiskedjak

Which 90% of it is an iPhone copy? It doesn't look *anything* like an iPhone to me. Except maybe that's it's black and phone/pda shaped.

Dude that's pretty hurtin' if you don't see the very close similarities in hardware, software and UI as the iPhone. Look at their previous product and this post iPhone one.

Wiskedjak · Jan 11, 2009, 11:37 PM

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES

Dude that's pretty hurtin' if you don't see the very close similarities in hardware, software and UI as the iPhone. Look at their previous product and this post iPhone one.

Well, I agree that they're both black, rectangular, have a large touch-screen, a speaker where the user's ear would be and a mic where the user's mouth would be. Honestly, beyond the similarities with all other cellphones and PDA's, the only similarity I can see between the Pre and the iPhone is the horizontal speaker and the single button bottom-centre.

In fact, I'd say that the iPhone's Dock row was clearly stolen from the Palm Pilot's physical app-launcher buttons.

- - e r i k - - · Jan 11, 2009, 11:55 PM

WTF?

analogue SPRINKLES · Jan 12, 2009, 01:49 AM

Originally Posted by Wiskedjak

In fact, I'd say that the iPhone's Dock row was clearly stolen from the Palm Pilot's physical app-launcher buttons.[/img]

Um ya not the Newton from 1993. Or perhaps from NeXT OS from 1987 which steve also made.

ctt1wbw · Jan 12, 2009, 07:58 AM

199 bucks for the Pre

Just another rumor, but sounding better now.

ctt1wbw · Jan 12, 2009, 08:02 AM

Originally Posted by - - e r i k - -

WTF?

I am surely positive that the Newton was out before the Palm, Pre Palm, if you will.

- - e r i k - - · Jan 12, 2009, 08:09 AM

Originally Posted by ctt1wbw

I am surely positive that the Newton was out before the Palm, Pre Palm, if you will.

That would be why I posted it as a response to Wiskedjak's crack-induced statement.