Comments on: GearDiary reviews the Palm Pre

By: Mark Chinsky

Mark Chinsky — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 03:41:15 +0000

Not sure why people are complaining about Exchange support. It’s pretty much perfect, and unlike the iPhone it allows you to select key folders to appear at the top of the list. If you have a ton of exchange folders, like me, the iphone list of folders is clumsy.

The only thing neither it or the iphone does, is push email in any folder other than the inbox. I believe this is a limitation in Microsoft’s Active Sync.

Obviously, after the review was written, the SDK is out and there are now hundreds of apps available. Still tiny compared to the iphone though.

Like wayne, my biggest complaint is the design of the email app and general sluggishness of it.

I will say, that historically Palm had the best mobile calendar app, and now has one of the worst.

By: Wayne Schulz

Wayne Schulz — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:17:06 +0000

In order for me to use the Pre as my main device (I current use the BlackBerry Bold for email and iPhone for everything else) I would need:

1. Easier / faster management of email. As I showed in the video it drove me crazy trying to individually manage messages. Some of this probably was user error — which leads me to a sub-point of the OS being somewhat confusing to use.

2. Better integration – when they announced Palm Pre I thought for sure it would have a lot better “one inbox” features. What I really would like is to see all my text messages and Facebook messages land into the main inbox – much like BlackBerry has done.

3. Must better battery life. I’m ok with the battery needing a re-charge by 4pm (this happens now on both my iPhone and BlackBerry) — but I need it to reliably make it to 4pm. In my testing I was always looking for a charger by early afternoon (around noon). All smart phones seem to have their battery challenges — the Palm Pre just has more.

4. More memory – 8GB seems like a tiny amount now that the iPhone has hit 32GB . In the next version Palm should push at least 32 GB.

5. Video camera – now that I’ve tried the iPhone 3GS video camera there’s no way I would buy another phone that didn’t have both video and embedded YouTube upload capabilities.

By: Thomas R. Hall

Thomas R. Hall — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 02:18:03 +0000

GearDiary reviews the Palm Pre http://ff.im/-4Sex6 (via @mas90guru)

By: reidme

reidme — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:30:27 +0000

Nice review Wayne and very thorough! You do a good job of explaining the context and reasoning of your opinions.

I can answer your question about “whether the App store will automatically notify you when an application needs upgrading.” It is not automatic, but if you tap on the “Update” icon in the launcher it not only looks for OS updates but updates for all installed apps too. Also, when you are browsing the app catalog the icon for the app will indicate if it is an update from the version you have currently installed.

By: John Taylor

John Taylor — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:43:09 +0000

@mikecane How about that love for the Now Network! Thanks for bringing that to my attn, Mike. http://tinyurl.com/lme82r

By: pradley

pradley — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:53:17 +0000

I don’t like slide-out keyboards and I have been reading complaints about this one already, that it is, as you point out, hard to pull out and that it wobbles pretty quickly. What I find most surprising, however, is that the pim functions are pretty primitive, and this is an area where it would have been quite easy to outdo the iphone – whose calendar is not only amateurish but also fails to integrate with the contacts. If you use Google Calendar et. al., this is a fine device but it is worse than the iphone when it comes to MSExchange/Outlook which I use. I don’t understand at whom this phone is aimed, since it satisfies neither the music/photo loving consumer nor the business user. Can Palm/Sprint survive such an effort?

By: Joel McLaughlin

Joel McLaughlin — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:48:54 +0000

From everything I have seen and heard, while Palm did an ok job, Android phones are better IF you want a open source like phone. The main thing holding them back is the SDK. If they EVER release it, it won’t belong for it to have the kind of app support the iPhone, Android and Blackberry enjoy.

By: Dan Cohen

Dan Cohen — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:43:33 +0000

Great, thorough and informative review Wayne! Thanks.

Are there specific changes that could be made to tempt you to move toward the next generation of the device?

So what phone are you using as your main device ????

By: Wayne Schulz

Wayne Schulz — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:52:30 +0000

GearDiary reviews the Palm Pre http://ff.im/-4Sex6

By: Christopher Gavula

Christopher Gavula — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:36:25 +0000

One area I think also needs work is Outlook/Exchange integration. I’ve been reading a lot about the Pre’s limitations in this area – not as severe as the iPhone’s limitations, but still significant.