[King Mob]

[whoDean]

There were eleven customers huddled under umbrellas in a steady rain when the doors to the Sprint’s (S) flagship store in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village opened at 6 p.m. ET Friday night – the worldwide retail debut of this week’s hottest smartphone.

[King Mob]

Got a Pre yesterday, it's pretty sick.

[The Guy]

I was really looking forward to an alternative to both Blackberry and the iPhone but the challenge with Sprint's service and coverage is legendary. I want the Palm Pre, but not that bad.

I called Sprint's toll free number to see if perhaps there were some improvements since the last time we did business with them two months ago. Someone in the Philippines answered and it sounded as if he was in a football stadium. He couldn't really hear me nor I him. He had never seen the Pre so unfortunately, I knew more than he did. Though he was very polite he couldn't answer even the most basic questions.

Talked to another associate, she said that people write bad things about Sprint because they more likely to write bad than good. I don't know how that response was supposed to quell our concerns over issues of frequent billing errors, rude agents, outrageous hold times and dropped calls but - okayyy? Hopefully like Blackberry and the Razr, some version of the Palm Pre will be available on a better network soon.

[Medz]

Sprint has definitely improved, and they have the fastest 3G to date, but if you hate their service, the Pre should be on the other networks starting in January.

[King Mob]

I don't know about the Pre, Hesse came out and said their exclusivity on the Pre runs longer than 6 months. The Eos should be out by then though, and maybe some new webOS device.

Sprint needs to do some major image rehabbing, it seems. I thought the Pre would be a major opportunity for them to right the ship, with a phone that rivals the iPhone and with the best deals in wireless (at least as far as their individual plans go) I'm guessing they just didn't have the funds to get enough Pre stock and go on an advertsing blitz.

Can't wait to hear confirmed details on the new iphone and see how, if at all, Sprint responds. I'm rooting for the little guy.

[whoDean]

Say goodnight Pre, new iPhone with double the memory for $99.

[Medz]

Originally Posted by whoDean

What happened to all the cool new iPhone features? OLED? Maybe next year?

[Medz]

Originally Posted by whoDean

Say goodnight Pre, new iPhone with double the memory for $99.

You mean old iPhone for $99.

[whoDean]

I know you don't really care Medz but the new features are:

Cut copy and paste
Landscape
MMS (later this summer on AT&T)
Spotlight search
Shake-to-undo
iTunes video rental and purchase on 3G
Support for iTunes U
Parental content restrictions
Tethering via usb or bluetooth with no additional software (not on AT&T)
Javascript 3x faster on safari
HTTP streaming video and audio
Autofill
HTML 5 support
Support for over 30 languages
Find my iPhone (only for MobileMe users)
1000 new APIs in the SDK
In-app purchasing
Peer to peer support
Support for 3rd party hardware accessories via bluetooth or dock connector
Google maps in any application
Push notification
33% more battery life
Processor at twice the speed
higher resolution camera
Video camera

On and On.

[Medz]

Cut copy and paste - welcome to 1997!
Landscape
MMS (later this summer on AT&T) doesn't everyone use email?
Spotlight search
Shake-to-undo shaking your phone is a feature?
iTunes video rental and purchase on 3G
Support for iTunes U
Parental content restrictions because kids can't figure out how to get porn
Tethering via usb or bluetooth with no additional software (not on AT&T) exactly
Javascript 3x faster on safari still no flash
HTTP streaming video and audio
Autofill
HTML 5 support
Support for over 30 languages
Find my iPhone (only for MobileMe users) $100 a year so you don't lose a $200 piece of hardware
1000 new APIs in the SDK
In-app purchasing
Peer to peer support
Support for 3rd party hardware accessories via bluetooth or dock connector
Google maps in any application
Push notification which just means still no multitasking
33% more battery life not for 3G phone use
Processor at twice the speed of the old slow processor
higher resolution camera no flash
Video camera

I'm just wondering what happened to all those amazing "rumored" features. No OLED, no front-facing camera, no video out, no wireless N. It's basically the same phone as the 3G, only a little bit faster. There's no way you weren't disappointed - everyone else was.

[whoDean]

People are disappointed because expectations are always pie in the sky for Apple intros, I'll buy one of the new 32GB models and there will be many millions of folks with me.

Don't be a hater, short stack, the Pre had a good 2 day run.

[Medz]

I'll buy one of the new 32GB models and there will be many millions of folks with me.

[Medz]

I'm curious whoDean, are you out of contract and eligible for an upgrade, or are you going to pay the full $500 price?

[whoDean]

I think ATT is going to do upgrade eligibility after 1yr of iphone contract but if not yeah, I'll pay full price.

[Medz]

You'd pay $500 for a slightly faster phone that can record video? Most of the other features will be enabled with the OS upgrade. I guess that's how Apple makes the big bucks.

[whoDean]

Selling 40 million of them is how Apple makes the big bucks.

[ThaMaestro]

I'm pretty upset. I bought two Iphone 3G 8 GB at $199 phones last month and just a month later I could of had a better phone for with the same storage for half the price. Just days past my 30 day trial period.

Ahhh well I still dig the IPhone a lot. It's great, would be better with video, but I'll just wait a couple years and upgrade when they come out with a new version.

[Hobbs]

Buying tech sucks ass. There's always a huge price break right around the corner. The problem is, of course, that there's always something newer and better (and expensive) right around the corner too.

[Money23]

Originally Posted by Medz

I'm curious whoDean, are you out of contract and eligible for an upgrade, or are you going to pay the full $500 price?

And also, how much of a discount do you get for your constant product promotion?

[whoDean]

My evangelism is gratis

[King Mob]

Looks like the Pre is going to Verizon in January. Great news for the Pre. Wonder if and how Verizon will cripple it though.

[JMab]

Originally Posted by whoDean

My evangelism is gratis

The only cost is to your soul

[Charlie]

If you pay any more then 50 dollars for a phone you're a fool who definitly doesn't know what it is like to be poor or have their priorities right.

[King Mob]

Says the guy who has a 360 and a PS3?

[JMab]

Not to mention the money spent on the boob job...

[Medz]

How much did you spend on cheesecake?

[Money23]

LOL, you guys are ruthless.

[Medz]

Just to get the iPhone-Palm Pre bickering out of the other thread...

Nothing Unusual in Palm Pre Return Rates, Say Analysts | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

[Medz]

A couple people mentioned they were interested in the Pre, so here are the pros/cons based on my own usage for the last 3 weeks. I'll start with the cons, but with the caveat that this is only as things stand right now. A lot of these cons are things Palm is expected to fix with software updates in the next few months, so most can be chalked up to the fact that it's still in the very early stages of a long platform lifecycle. I placed an X next to the problems that can't be fixed via update. With that said...

x Keys on the keyboard are a bit small. Over time I'm getting used to typing on it better, but it's still not as comfortable as some of the other phone keyboards like my old Touch Pro. It's still better than iPhone's virtual keyboard, but not perfect.

- Lack of virtual keyboard. It's not a problem when the phone is vertical, but it prohibits you from typing in landscape mode. Some people who were digging through the phone found a virtual keyboard in Dev mode so they did code that into the software, it's just not unlocked yet. This will probably be unlocked within the next few updates (there have already been 3 or 4 updates in the first month)

- Battery life wasn't great when I first got the phone, but it has improved over time. Turning off the GPS improved battery life quite a bit, so now I just toggle that on when I need it. I usually go without charging the phone for 16-18 hours, and I'm usually between 10-20% battery life at the end of the day, and that's with heavy usage.

x Build quality isn't great. The first batch of phones were poor, and while mine is solid, there is just a tiny amount of move on the screen. Not really noticeable, and this won't be a complaint if it doesn't get worse over the lifetime of the phone.

- Built in music software isn't great. The sound quality is amazing, but right now there is no slider - only fast forward, rewind, skip, pause, and play. For short mp3's its not a big deal, but it becomes a problem when you want to listen to a long podcast and it doesn't remember where you stopped. This is something that is definitely on their list of problems to fix via software update, but it's kind of annoying at the moment.

x Lack of expandable memory. I don't fill 8GB, but it would be nice to be able to carry around a couple MicroSD's worth of data.

x The USB connector is hidden under a rubber cover that you have to pull off. It's kind of annoying to remove, and feels like it could snap off over time.

- Lack of video recording, but this will be added soon.

- No native Flash support, but Adobe is working on this. When it's released, this will be a huge plus.

- Not very many apps. There have been about 30 apps since the beginning that haven't been expanded, but the SDK was just released so that should be resolved very soon. There is a pretty robust homebrew scene now, but I'm talking about the official Palm app store.

- Lack of MSN. That's my main chat software. It will be added later, but for now there's only Gchat and AIM.

Now for the Pro's:

+ WebOS "Synergy." This is the best feature of the phone. You never have to physically connect your phone to sync any data, unless you want to add music/videos. If you add your Facebook account, it will pull all your contacts and add them to the phone. Same with Gmail. If someone changes their info on Facebook, it automatically updates. For example - I was sitting on my PC and got an email about a Condo Association meeting (bleh). Gmail asked if I wanted to add this event to my Google calendar, which I did. 2 minutes later, I checked my phone's calendar and it was updated with that appointment set and blocked out. Absolutely seamless. All contacts are organized under one "card." So if I have one entry for Diddy from Facebook, one from Gmail, one from Microsoft Exchange, and one from Palm, they are all combined under one entry. Another example is chat/SMS integration. If we are chatting via GChat and then we continue the conversation over SMS, it all looks like one single conversation on the Pre.

+ Multitasking via the "card" system. For example, I can open Pandora and stream music. I press the center button and the Pandora window shrinks to allow me to open or switch to another app. This is the biggest feature the Pre has over the iPhone, IMO. I took a couple screen shots to show what it looks like.

.............

+ Web browsing is the best on any mobile phone. It's like a faster, more responsive version of the iPhone browser.

+ Notifications are handled brilliantly. Instead of a big obtrusive message you get a little popup bar at the bottom of the screen with the notification (email, sms, appointment, etc). You can click on it to check the message, or swipe it away to ignore. Very user friendly and sleek.

+ Excellent camera for a mobile phone, and the flash is great for low-light situations. I'm still amazed the iPhone didn't add one on the 3GS.

+ The phone feels great. It's small, light, sits well in the hand, and the curve when the keyboard is open gives you a more sure grip.

+ The "homepage" interface is clean and uncluttered. Your main programs and notifications sit at the bottom, but the rest is taken up by the wallpaper until you pull up your apps. Here's mine, taken via the screenshot function:



+ Universal search is excellent. Just start typing, and it'll bring up all the results. It will look for a match under contacts, applications, and Google/Wikipedia. You click whichever one you're trying to find. Very useful function.

+ Like any Palm phone, there are a set of touch-based gestures that have specific functionality. Swipe a card up to close the program. Swipe a notification to the right to ignore. Do a quick swipe up from the dedicated gesture area at the bottom of the phone to bring up the apps list.

+ Physical switch to toggle between sound on and vibrate. This is great for someone like me who is always paranoid that he forgot to silence the phone in quiet areas.

+ Touchstone charger. It's an extra $50-$70, but you can charge the phone by just resting it on the magnetic touchstone. It really makes the device feel completely 'wireless' and it's great to show off.

+ After years of being horrible, Sprint's service is now top notch. Their 3G speeds are fast, their coverage is solid, and their prices are the lowest of any carrier. You can get the Everything plans for anywhere from $75-$99 a month that includes unlimited texts, data, and GPS service. I couldn't be happier with the service, and it saves quite a bit of money over the life of the contract in comparison with AT&T. I even tether my phone to my laptop to get wireless service in non-Wifi areas, and it's surprisingly speedy.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. If I can remember anything else, I'll make sure to post it here. Overall, I think it's the best smartphone on the market - for my uses, at least. Just about every tech reviewer has it ranked on par with the iPhone 3GS, which is amazing since the Pre is a first-generation phone in its first month of release. It's not flawless, but for someone like myself with light business usage, heavy web/entertainment usage, and a mild case of ADD, it's the best option on the market today.

[Lou Stefanic]

Anyone with any experience as to transferring phone numbers from one provider to another?

I've been using Verizon for years, but entirely because my work was paying the bill directly. Now, they've opened us up and I'm getting reimbursed for whatever provider I choose, so I'm thinking of transferring. It'd be annoying if I had to get a new number, but I'm not finding much definitive info on the subject.

[ThaMaestro]

Yeah, they can do that at the cell phone pl;ace for you. They cancel your old plan and start you new plan with a new number. At least they were able to switch my wife's from a nextel to AT&T with no problem.

[Medz]

Looks like whoDean is getting a new phone:

Apple Claims New iPhone Only Visible To Most Loyal Of Customers

SAN FRANCISCO—In a move expected to revolutionize the mobile device industry, Apple launched its fastest and most powerful iPhone to date Tuesday, an innovative new model that can only be seen by the company's hippest and most dedicated customers.

"I am proud today to introduce to those who really, truly deserve it, our most incredible iPhone yet," announced Apple CEO Steve Jobs, extending his seemingly empty left palm toward the eagerly awaiting crowd. "Not only is this our lightest and slimmest model ever, but as any truly savvy Apple customer can clearly see, it's also the most handsome product we've ever designed."

The packed auditorium, which had been listening to Jobs in hushed reverence for several minutes, then erupted into applause, with hundreds of men and women suddenly jumping to their feet and shouting, "I can see it!" "Look, there it is!" and "God, it's so beautiful!"

Steve Jobs unveils the updated iPhone exclusively to those who really, really want to see it.

Screams of "Of course, yes, I too can see the phone," were also heard at this time.

According to Apple, the new iPhone 3GI boasts significant hardware and software upgrades, superior processing speeds, and a multi-touch interface that provides those who are "cool enough" with a rich user experience. The wide-screen display reportedly also features the most brilliant colors and finest resolution ever imagined.

"The new 3GI is as light as air," said Apple senior vice president Philip Schiller, reaching inside an empty display case, apparently to remove the mobile device. "See how thin that is? It's like it's not even there."

"Those who really understand what we do here at Apple are going to love this new product," Schiller continued. "Unless, you know, they happen to be totally lame."

Retailing for $599, the iPhone 3GI offers only the most special Apple consumers—the ones who believe in the company more than anything else in the world, and who would never, ever dream of questioning it—the ability to open dozens of powerful applications at once. In addition, the new multimedia device will provide true Apple fans with a high-definition video camera, one-tap editing with Final Cut Pro, and cut and paste.

Like thousands of others, New York resident Kelly Delaney called in sick to work so that she could join the line outside the Apple Store's trendy SoHo location days before the 3GI went on sale.

"Oh my God, I can't believe how much faster you can get online with this," said Delaney, who exited the store holding a cupped hand up to her ear and yelling into her wrist about how wonderful the new phone was. "The reception is so clear, and you can pretty much get a signal no matter where you go."

"Hold on a sec," continued Delaney, suddenly shaking her hand up and down. "I think my battery is dying."

According to Apple, the new iPhone launched in 22 countries and sold a record-breaking 8 million units on its first day.

"The selection of colors is amazing," said Paul Conrad, a Fairfield, VA native who purchased phones in black, white, and silver. "Not only does it look awesome, but it can do pretty much anything you want as long as you believe in it."

"The AppleCare Plan doesn't cover dropping your phone, though, so I'd recommend buying one of these designer protective cases," Conrad added.

While the new iPhone has been greatly admired and widely touted for its impressive voice and data communication capabilities, some Americans remain skeptical.

"Daddy isn't talking into anything at all," said 4-year-old Ella Conrad, pointing at her father, Paul, who has been obsessively staring at, playing with, and customizing the invisible phone since purchasing it Monday. "Daddy's pretending to be on hold with an operator."

Apple Claims New iPhone Only Visible To Most Loyal Of Customers | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

[whoDean]

You seem to be more preoccupied with your Pre than anything else happening here Medz, anyway, its too bad the Pre QC complaints aren't a joke (hundreds of posts)

Palm Pre Overheating and Battery Dies in 3 hours stand by

Palm Pre Overheating and Battery Dies in 3 hours stand by - webOS Hardware - Palm Support Community

[RugbyPike#11]

Taking in my Palm Centro for repair today. The scroll button stopped working which makes it nearly impossible to operate efficiently. If they can't fix it, this will be my third phone in about 18 months. I hope the Pre hardware is more durable.I miss my old Samsung. I accidentally ran that bad boy through the washing machine and it turned back on after I dried it out and recharged the battery. Now there was a phone sonny.

[Stefan S]

So, I just got a new toy:

15 inch Macbook Pro, 2.4 GH, Hard Drive capacity 180 GB, 2GB of RAM

I bought her used on E-bay for about 60% of what Iwould have spent at the Best Buy (she comes with an Apple Care till 3/2011, yey). However, she has only 2GM of RAM. I'll use her mostly for wordprocessing and photoshop (and, I'm pretty sure not for games or some other heavily graphic-laden applications, unless I fall in love with her more than I already love my dogs). So, do I need more RAM? How much more? (I can afford it and I like when computers work fast, I just need to know how much I need.)

[whoDean]

I have a similar MacBook Pro with 4GB and it works well, but if you get heavily into Photoshop you might want to max it to 8gb.

[Stefan S]

Originally Posted by whoDean

I have a similar MacBook Pro with 4GB and it works well, but if you get heavily into Photoshop you might want to max it to 8gb.

Thanks WhoD!

Where's the best place to buy extra RAM? Is it hard/expensive to install it?

[whoDean]

What is the model number of your MacBook?

[Medz]

2GB of RAM should be fine for surfing, word processing, and light photoshop. None of those are memory intensive applications, like gaming or video editing. You would probably see a very very small speed jump if you upgraded to 4GB, but hardly noticeable.

That said, if you do decide that you want to increase your RAM, it's very easy to install. There is a slot at the bottom of the laptop that you open up and all you have to do is pop in the chip and you're done. It's not too expensive these days, either. If you go to Crucial.com and click on "scan my system" it will tell exactly what type of RAM your Mac takes and how much it costs.

[Medz]

I Quit The iPhone

I Quit The iPhone

by Michael Arrington on July 31, 2009

I have loved the iPhone, but now I am quitting the iPhone.

This is not an easy decision.

I was there in January 2007 when it was announced and I bought the first iPhone as soon as it was available. I happily bought the iPhone 3G a year later. I’ve proudly yelled “I Am A Member Of The Cult Of iPhone.” I’ve been an unabashed cheerleader for the device to all who’ll listen. And I’ve scoffed at developers who said they’d abandon the platform.

But I’m not going to upgrade to the iPhone 3GS. Instead, I’m abandoning the iPhone and AT&T. I will grudgingly pay the $175 AT&T termination fee and then I will move on to another device.

What finally put me over the edge? It wasn’t the routinely dropped calls, something you can only truly understand once you have owned an iPhone (and which drove my friend Om Malik to bail). I’ve lived with that for two years. It’s not the lack of AT&T coverage at home. I’ve lived with that for two years, too. It certainly isn’t the lack of a physical keyboard, that has never bothered me. No, what finally put me over the edge is the Google Voice debacle.

Most of you won’t know what I’m talking about, so I’ll explain.

Google Voice is a call management service that lets you determine what calls get through to you based on who’s calling and what time of day it is, among other factors. It has amazing features, like automatically transcribing all your voicemails. And you can forward calls to any other phone easily and automatically. Here’s an overview of the service if you aren’t familiar with it.

I’ve always wanted to use Google Voice but there’s a big switching cost - changing your phone number. Too many people have that phone number and use it to call in great stories. There’s no way I’m giving that up. And there’s another problem with Google Voice. When you make outbound calls from a phone, it (obviously) doesn’t use your Google Voice phone number, so recipients don’t know it’s you calling. Those were two hurdles I wasn’t willing to jump over.

But now Google is planning on rolling out number portability, so I can move my mobile phone number to Google. None of my friends, family or contacts have to store a new number.

That still leaves the problem of outbound calls, though. I can move my mobile number to Google and then get a new iPhone account, but outbound calls won’t be identified because they are on the new number. Google has a solution for that too, though. They are releasing apps for a variety of handsets that effectively take over the native dialer, address book and call log. Problem solved. I can use any phone I like, or a bunch of phones, and just choose the one that makes sense at any time. I never have to be tied to a carrier and their restrictive contracts again.

Or so I thought. Apple and AT&T are now blocking the iPhone version of the Google Voice app. Why? Because they absolutely don’t want people doing exactly what I’m doing - moving their phone number to Google and using the carrier as a dumb pipe.

So I have to choose between the iPhone and Google Voice. It’s not an easy decision. Except, it sort of is. Google isn’t forcing the decision on me, Apple and AT&T are. So I choose to work with the company that isn’t forcing me to do things their way. And in this case, that’s Google.

So what phone will I use next? Well, that decision is easy, too. I’d move to the Palm Pre because I believe it is the best phone out there other than the iPhone 3GS. But Google hasn’t created an app for the Palm Pre yet, just Android and Blackberry phones. So for now I’m going to use the new Android myTouch 3G along with the Google Voice App. As soon as something better comes out, or Google makes an app for the Pre, I’ll switch. And keep the same phone number. No long term contracts for me.

And Apple, if you ever decide to put the hammer down on AT&T and do the right thing for your loyal users, I’ll consider switching back. In the meantime, I’ll just use one of many iPod Touches laying around our office to test out new apps.

Just to note - I currently do have Google Voice on my Pre (via homebrew apps) and they are developing an official app for the Pre. It really is a great service.

[whoDean]

Word is Apple is working on a competitor to GVoice.

[streetball]

Originally Posted by whoDean

Word is Apple is working on a competitor to GVoice.

Totally makes sense since they dropped the application from the app store. I'm sure they are frantically trying to find an apple branded substitute.

[ThaMaestro]

GoogleVoice is creating a website that acts just like the app and will even put a shortcut on the Iphone.

[whoDean]

AJAX app.

[Medz]

Google Voice is great, Apple couldn't come close to emulating that service. Plus, AT&T would flip out - which is exactly why they removed the Google Voice apps in the first place. They don't want you using your data connection instead of your minutes.

[Medz]

This is a cool new feature:

Yahoo! Inc. - Yahoo!'s 2009 Fantasy Football Season Kicks Off With Mayors From 11 Major U.S. Cities Competing on Its Gridiron

This year, Yahoo! fantasy football enthusiasts will be able to track their favorite team's success right in the palm of their hands. On September 8th, Yahoo! Fantasy Football goes mobile, launching three different ways to stay on top of their game. Included in the Yahoo! Mobile offering will be an iPhone app, a BlackBerry app, and a version for the mobile web. With mobile fantasy football you can get real-time scores and player stats, the ability to bench and start different players, and even the ability to trade with others in your league - all through your mobile device.

[Lou Stefanic]

I'm assuming they'll be launching a similar app for Y! fantasy basketball? That's sweet.

[whoDean]

That is sweet, they had an iPhone formatted web app last year but it clearly was a work in progress.

[hack]

Best travel speakers I've ever heard. Can hook up multiple ones, and they're cheap.

Review: X-Mini 2 Capsule Speaker – Dee Kay Dot As Gee