General

Camera Ready

About the quality of pics taken with my Pre.

In an earlier post, I discussed my experience of the camera on the Pre and included a few pics (two of which I also include in this post). This post, however, focuses not on my user experience of the camera but my impression of the pictures taken with my Pre. The images I include in this post are made large to expose as much as possible about the quality of the images.

Let me start by saying that I am not a professional photographer and so my opinions about the quality of the photos taken with my Palm Pre definitely fall in the "amateur impressions" category. Caveat out of the way, my opinion of the quality of pics taken with my Palm Pre is very positive: The Pre takes a great daytime and a very good night time photo.

On my travels in the last month, I have taken quite a few pics and have been impressed with most. Here are a few taken outside under decent conditions.

Photo #1: Outdoor Pic under Bright But Cloudy Skies

This shows a photo taken in the early afternoon under bright but hazy/partly cloudy skies. Under decent picture-taking conditions, what impresses me about this photo (other than the obvious stunning good looks of my puppy, Ruby) is the way the Pre responds to the challenges imposed by the subjects of this particular photo: the incredible detail and color variation captured both near (Ruby) and far (the National Cathedral in Washington, DC).

… Read more

Palm Pre vs. Samsung Instinct

I think it's about time I write my comparison post. I've had the Pre a while now and I've officially said goodbye to the Instinct. I could call it a bunch of bad names now and not have to worry about it throwing a fit and refusing to work...

Not that it ever needed any encouragement.

The past year of my life has been filled with ups and downs in our relationship. For the first month or two I loved the Instinct. Coming from a flip-phone that had very basic capabilities, I felt empowered with the Instinct. … Read more

Using the Pre with an Ipod Speaker

About my experience listening to music from the Pre through my portable Logitech iPod speaker.

As this test drive blogging winds down, I realize there are a number of highlights about my experience I probably won't have the time to cover. One of those I do want to share, however, relates to my love of Pandora and my enthusiasm for easy, inexpensive adjustments that allow me to adapt new tech purchases to things I already own.

Enter: the 3.5mm Stereo Plug/Plug M/M Cable (Cost: 80 cents).

This inexpensive little cable is the key to all sorts … Read more

Installing Homebrew Apps Without Rooting Device (Firmware 1.04)

Thanks again to Sir Mycroft over at PalmCentral for the great tutorial on how to do this. I was skeptical since I have rooted devices in the past on whether this would fully work. I decided to help a buddy out and try this on his device and surprisingly it works without any troubles. I found that this tutorial is mainly for XP users but does include a workaround for the vista users as well as fellow X64 bit users. I have found this to be the easiest and quickest way to get those neat homebrew apps and games onto your device quickly and stress free. I would recommend this to any of the users that don't feel comfortable rooting their device to get homebrew apps on their devices. Sir Mycorft has put the following how-to guide together to let anyone who wishes to enjoy some of the fine homebrewed applications that are being produced by the members at Precentral. This guide should not be viewed as a way of derailing the efforts of other members to develop a packaged means of delivering applications to stock Pres. I certainly wish to encourage that development. This guide is instead meant to act as stop-gap measure for those who want the great apps being produced, but do not have the desire to root their Pres, and no longer have the option of exploiting the e-mail hole after the 1.0.4 WebOS update. The how-to guide is in plain English, and is extremely simple. You need not be a techie or hacker to get homebrewed applications onto your Pre. If you are able to download a program from the internet and drag and drop a file, you have what it takes to get these great programs up and running on your Pre. If you had the wherewithal to find this thread in Precentral and currently possess a desire to get the applications in the homebrew section, you can do this. You have my word on it.… Read more

WebOS 1.1 Emerges!

A quick post to comment on my early impression of WebOS 1.1.

First of all, thanks to Palm for updating WebOS so often and so quickly. The rate and pace instills a great deal of user confidence in the future of the Pre and in your dedication to making it a phone users stay excited about. Thanks!

What's New?

The Palm official list can be found here. The compiled list of the "tons of undocumented features" can be found over at my home away from home, Pre Central.

From the looks of it, there are lots … Read more

Gettin' In The Groove

After three weeks of living with two phones, I've finally gotten the Pre on my own Sprint account. No more Samsung Instinct. No more charging two, carrying two, and texting from two phones.

With my life all bundled up in one smartphone I'm finally gettin' in the groove. I love the Palm Pre more every day!

Favorite features to date:

Flick Right to Delete; whether notifications, individual emails, texts/IM's, or photos the user can flick the item off the screen, to the right, and the item is deleted.

Tweed; With all the functionality of my favorite … Read more

Looks Like No Homebrews for this Homegrrrl

Why it looks like I won't be getting any homebrew apps for now.

Well, I uninstalled everything and followed the full instructions for installing the Mojo SDK on my Macbook Pro with OX 10.4, and it appears as though I am SOL for now.

Unless I was drunk when I first went through this process a couple days ago and have completely forgotten what I saw on the various download pages, the information about what OSX will install the Mac OSX Version of the SDK has changed (see screen shot below).

There is (now, at least) a qualification … Read more

And some "extras"

I've, unfortunately, been out of commission lately and very lax in getting any updates in. I'm finally walking back among the living and enjoying the Palm Pre the more that I use it.

I had planned out an entire entry to write this morning and I'll put that on the back burner for later today - my experience on the train coming into the city still has me chuckling.

I zone out on my commute into work. Throw the earphones on, shut my eyes and listen to music all the way in. So as I stepped into the train today my Pre was already in my hand (closed, thankfully) when someone deciding at the last minute to run off the train blew by me, knocking the phone right out of my hand. I heard it smash to the floor and was convinced I was doomed. But, as I've noted before, when it's closed the Pre is one tough egg. It bounced once and stayed put, waiting for me to pick it up. There aren't even any scratches on it from the fall.… Read more

Homebrew Apps Anyone?

About my experience trying to get some homebrew apps.

As my fellow test-drive bloggers have noted, the "official" apps for the Pre are still a bit limited. I do love Pandora--that has distracted me for a good while--but let's face it: It's time for more and it's getting harder to wait. I knew this would be the case for a while, and I have been waiting--patiently. Until yesterday.

Yesterday, I came across a homebrew app that made me attempt the process of using Virtual Box and installing the SDK: the active homescreen. It looks oh, … Read more