Usability

30 Days Came And Went

All good things have to come to an end, with that said I would like to throw out one final thanks to groups of people that have made this all possible. First Of all I would like to thank Palm, Sprint, And CNET for making all of this possible by working together to help promote this great phone and WEBOS as one. I would also like to thank everyone at SmartPhoneJunkie SPJ and PPCGeeks PPCGEEKS for bringing this opportunity to my attention as well as convincing me to try placing in my "application" for this contest. Without all of the above being a part of this I would not have been able to test this great device and blog about many of the useful features, how the device works, the size factor, etc. And finally thanks to the readers because without you none of this would have been thought of since the user themselves are the people that make a blog or webpage what it is and as a Co-Founder of a site i can't stress that enough. But without further ado here is my overall thoughts on the device. The form factor and overall look of the device is amazing for the most part. The solid gloss black color screams for the consumer to pick it up, the bright clear screen draws you in with the millions of colors, the slideout qwerty keyboard screams to be pressed, ans the great angled slide grabs the attention and keeps the eyes focused on it. In a design for a device you cant ask for more than that, but with the good comes the bad. When the device is slid open revealing the keyboard it exposes a semi-sharp cheese like slicer that overlaps the recessed keys so they don't make contact with the screen when closed. This to the frequent phone user is troublesome since the keyboard is a huge thing on a device and having an imperfection there can be the beginning of the end. The only other flaw with the general make-up of the device is the "Oreo Problem" that many users have faced. The oreo problem is where the phone can move quite a bit from side to side as if you were un-twisting an oreo. (you can check this out i the video below and sprint does replace these devices with new ones.)… Read more

Final Post: Looking Forward

In this final post, I would like to say a little about what I look forward to in my Pre experience and express my appreciation for this opportunity to share my experience and ideas about the Palm Pre.

What I Look Forward to Most

As I have said and implied in many of my posts, I love my Pre. I have had mostly positive (mostly very positive, actually,) experiences with the phone since I got it. It works with me seamlessly for the most part and has allowed me to stay in contact with the world in ways I either could not or could not enjoy with my Blackberry Pearl. I am thrilled to be a Pre user now, and I expect many positive future Pre experiences.

Like any good consumer of technology, however, I am always looking forward to the next fun technology-mediated experience. So, in that spirit, I would like to note a few, as yet un-had, experiences I am looking forward to with my Pre:

External Notification Light

The feature I think I would most like to experience on the Pre in future is being able to tell that I have a message without having to wake up the phone to check over and over again. Ideally, the home button might light differently for different kinds of notifications--for example, blue for voicemail, red for SMS, and green for email--but I would be thrilled if it lit up at all to indicate there was a notification I needed to review.

Visual Voicemail

I hope this is in the works 'cause this would be a great feature on the Pre--one I have have only heard about as a cell user and never experienced except for my limited experiments with Google Voice. The Pre is a phone that already excels at messaging and notifications in many ways, but without visual voicemail and (another missing feature I mention below), there are limits to how excellent the phone can be for messaging.

Forwarding SMS/MMS Messages

As it is, I do a lot of SMS and MMSing and I love doing both of these on my Pre, but I really look forward to being able to forward SMS/MMS messages.

Copying and Pasting More Easily

Yes, there is a way to copy/paste currently. But it doesn't work in all fields (received SMS's, for example) and it's kind of a pain to have to hold two keys down and drag. I don't do it very often because it's a bit too complicated, but I would do it a lot if it was made more easy. WebOS 1.1 has apparently got an easier method enabled in Memos--a way that involves some tapping for whole word and paragraph selection. This is the kind of thing that qualifies as "more easily" for me.

A LIFE ENDS AND NEW LIFE BEGINS

As the songs goes "IT'S SO HARD TO SAY GOOD BYE!" This is the finale of a beautiful experience. I've never won anything before and it was truly a great surprise to me when I won the Palm Pre as well as the opportunity to blog about it. I've never blogged before so this was a eye opening experience. I've been reading some of the other bloggers experiences with the Palm Pre and I must say I've learned a lot. I also learned a lot with my own experience on the Pre.

A … Read more

Preview Email Without Opening

When your on the go and you hit the tail end of a streetlight you don't have much time to check that email you just received. Well for the important emails this can be a hassle, not any longer. You can easily preview the beginning of the message without opening the email! This is great for me since in most emails I receive the important stuff is at the beginning of the message. To achieve this "gesture" go to one of your email accounts and than select a message, on that message position two fingers in the … Read more

Selling the Pre: Happy Pre Users Offer Ideas

As this test drive winds down, I find myself wanting to provide some closure to these posts. And how better to provide closure than to look forward?

So, in the spirit of moving forward with the Palm Pre, I have collected the following ideas based on happy Pre user experiences. Some of these are pretty great.

Maybe Sprint/Palm should have another contest for the best Pre marketing idea?

PreCentral member "Meriweather" describes one possible TV commercial:

Have a series of ads that play on the use of cards and multi-tasking--an arena where Palm has an advantage over the iPhone. For example, an ad with a street magician saying, "pick a card, any card" to a throng, and you pan in, and he flips through a series of apps on the Pre, showing calendar, Pandora, email, photos, TV, whatever you want to show off. People in the crowd are oohing and aahing, and shouting out, "we want pandora", "play a video" "check email", etc. Then the magician says, "no problem we can do all of them. All at the same time." The crowd cheers, except one guy with slumped shoulders, who slinks away.

"Ronlongo" describes his idea:

How about an ad where they show all of life's things going on all over the place (meetings, tasks lists, emails, etc.) like a jumbled chaos maybe as separate (but live) images moving around at random on the screen and the actor going crazy trying to manage and remember it all.

Then swap to another actor. Suddenly all the activities resolve into a deck of playing cards again with live pictures on them. For example, one depicting a meeting at work going on, another showing Little Pete's baseball game, etc. the actor shuffles through the cards with ease managing them with complete ease. The meeting card depicts the meeting come to an end and the actor discards the card.

Finally the actor pulls all the cards together into a stack. Touches the top of the stack (where the Pre's power button is) and the stack resolves into a Palm Pre.

Sprint's "Now Network" Site: Not Playing Now on Pre?

My post earlier today about the crazy Palm Pre lady commercial led me to read a bit more deeply about Sprint and Palm ads, and during this search, I decided to try to visit Sprint's Now Network "vanity" site (live since May, I think) on my Pre.

If you haven't yet seen the "Now" site, it's definitely worth a look and a listen. However, don't expect to experience it "live" on your Pre. The closest Pre users can come to viewing it on their phones is looking at this screen … Read more

Sounds and Ringtones

Here's one little area where I'm not so pleased with the Pre. I'm used to being able to set different rings for text messages, phone calls, and voice mails. While you can set individual ringers for your favorite contacts, the little bleep for texts, emails, and voice mails is the same.

I like to know when I've received a text. It's my main form of communication from my phone. I would rather not know when I've got a new email, and I'd like a different ring for my voice mail.

Please, Palm, make … Read more

Google Voice Homebrew Application Now Available!

It looks like I'm going to have to stop being so lazy and find access to Mac OS 10.5+ so that I can get filecoaster on my Pre so that I can install the latest and, perhaps, greatest homebrew app to date..

Yes, that's right: There is now a Google Voice homebrew app that looks too good to pass up.

If homebrew app installing is not so much your style, vote over at Google Voice for them to work on a native app for the Pre. For now, as Derek over at PreCentral explains:

Blackberry and Android … Read more

The Pre's Strength and Build - Part 2

In answer to a question on my previous post, yes, two of the Pre's falls resulted in scuffs on the corners. Guess that's what happens when a smooth, shiny object collides with concrete... Sigh.

In keeping with a review of the Pre's hardware durability, I wanted to touch on the little USB port cover. This baby fits in there tight, almost too tight. There are days when I'm not sure I'll get it open... Once it is pulled out I feel like it's going to stay on, unlike other phones I've had where … Read more

The Sprint Side of the Pre

Since I have been a Sprint user for coming up on a decade now, I took its service level for granted. I am going to attempt to rectify that now with some basic notes on how the service is with Sprint and the Pre.

While I cannot compare against personal experience (see above), I do have friends with a mix of cellular carriers and I can compare against them. In my area (Seattle), I have rarely noticed an instance where I got worse service than others around me and have noted several times to be getting any/better/more reception … Read more