Palm’s Back: I want a Pre.
Wow, I’m such a hypocrite =[. I just wrote a blog post about wanting less glossy tech around, and now I say I want one of the glossiest pieces of technology ever. Oh well, this is an exception!
For those of you not familiar with the Pre (pronounced “pree”), it’s a new phone from Palm that just launched on Sprint last weekend. Retailing at $199 after a rebate(mail-in rebate at the Sprint Store, instant rebate at Best Buy and Radioshack), its pretty much the most perfectest consumer phone I can think of.
This phone will make or break Palm, which had been in dire economic conditions and is only now beginning to recuperate. The maker of those old Palm Pilots and chubby Treo phones, Palm found itself in an increasingly dangerous situation with the advent of more modern devices like the iPhone and the increasing popularity of Blackberrys. Palm hardware had been running on its decade old PalmOS, and its age was truly starting to show.
Then, when everyone thought Palm was as good as dead, they drop a huge bombshell during the Consumer Electronics Show in January. Here they are with new, innovative hardware including a multi-touch high resolution screen, a dedicated touch “gesture” area below the screen, a full qwerty keyboard, a 3 megapixel camera with flash (which takes great pictures btw), and a small feels-great-in hand form factor.
More important than the hardware though, was the new webOS software. It’s essentially an operating system that runs on a linux core, but is primarily built upon using the same technology and language that is used to create web pages (see it? webOS, web pages? gaahahaha). Furthermore, the operating system has one thing no one else can claim: true multi-tasking. Using its “Activity Card” system, the Pre lets you have several programs open at once, allowing you to look up information on a webpage, write it down in a memo, and then copy that information over to a friend in a text message, all in a seamless process. It also is able to maintain communication with a contact via a variety of different sources: if you are talking with someone on AIM and they sign off, it will automatically send you next message to their celphone or email. Furthermore, it can sync your contacts and calendars from a variety of sources including Facebook and Gmail, and is full with tons of other goodies. One I like in particular is the ability to place a reminder for a contact, so that whenever you are next communicating with that person, a note will pop up reminding you of whatever it is you wanted to tell that contact.
Below I’ve embedded David Pogue’s 3 minute review of the Pre. What’s great about this phone is that all of the negatives he’s mentioned have already been fixed or are in the process of fixing. Video recording has pretty much been assured by Palm to be coming, the App store is going to be humongous in a few months time (and remember, the iPhone didn’t even have an app store for a longgg time), the battery life problems have pretty much already been remedied, and the ringer volume(which isn’t really that low) is a simple fix. That, and its already been hacked for custom apps and features. It’s basically the iPhone, but better.
Finally, Palm has one more ace up its sleeve: WebOS isn’t going to be stuck on one model like it is with the iPhone. There have already been 2 other leaked phone models with different features, prices, and looks.
P.S. Palm, I just wrote a glowing review of your phone without even owning one, having only tried one out in a store. I am a poor college kid. I can has cheezburger free Pre? =P
