The Palm Pre

     I, like many others, were very disappointed with the recent MacWorld and instead found solice with the recent Palm keynote, where they unveiled the Palm Pre. I, like many others, were blown away by this device and its completely new OS. In this article I will give a general overview of the devices hardware and software.

     The phone looks amazing and is generally the same size as the iPhone. It has a glossy display and a 3.1-inch touch screen said to be as good or even better then the iPhone’s. It contains a bit of a curve that ergonomically fits to your face and hand. In addition, there is a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The device also contains a black gesture area, a small button in the center similar to the iPhones home button. This button is used to control the “cards” of the device, which I will get into later. To charge the device there is a MicroUSB port however it has the capability to wirelessly charge through the use of inductive charging. Also, as with most phones these days, it has a 3-megapixel camera.

     The software of the Pre contains so many features that I would highly recommend you to view the keynote, however, I will explain the most significant ones. The UI uses pinch in/out zooms, and is said to be, overall, very smooth. To use the interface you utilize the black gesture area, right under the actual touch screen, and button mentioned earlier. A distinguishing factor of the phone is how it never leaves the application that you’re currently using when you need to go to another one. For example, you’re typing an email and forgot a quote instead of quitting the email or saving it as a draft you can open a new card, copy the quote (yes it has copy/paste) go back to the email card and paste it in. To navigate through cards you use swipe gestures in the gesture area. Also bringing your thumb up from the gesture area will bring up a “wave” of quick select applications.

     The Palm Pre “knows what your thinking before you do.” This means that if, for example, you’re having a conversation with a friend, Julie, on the Palm’s IM client and Julie has just signed off, instead of switching to SMS you can continue to type your message and the Pre will route it to the person’s cell phone number. It also contains a feature similar to Leopards spotlight. If you begin typing lets say “Jack Johnson,” it will bring up a list of items that the Pre thinks your talking about, so it could bring up a contact named John, and if it your phone yields no results it gives you the option to search the web.

     The Pre will be released on the Sprint network at around 399 dollars, however there is too much speculation on the price of the contract to give you guys a definite amount.

     Palm has made great advances in both their hardware and software with the Pre. Many people speculate that this is the “true” iPhone killer. While I think that the iPhone is immortal I believe that those who have been thinking of switching from Sprint to AT&T for the iPhone will reconsider and buy the Pre.

-Iglio

Palm Pre Keynote

Funny Story of the Day...Click Here

Palm Pre image courtesy of slashphone.com

Funny Story of the Day courtesy of upi.com