First an overview. The Pre uses a “card” for each actively running program. You can switch between cards at any time by hitting the center button.  When you’re looking at the screen, the programs all look like cards, so it’s not that much of a stretch to call them that.  The point of these is to easily switch between programs without needing to close any.

Hit the jump for a few thoughts on specific features and for more of my literary witticism.

Keyboard

They changed the layout of the keyboard from the Treo/Centro, and in my opinion it’s an improvement. The comma and period are now primary buttons, and there’s a [Sym] key that brings up a list of commonly used symbols so you don’t have put in a symbol that you think looks like the one you want and then hit the [alt] key to see if you won the prize. If you’ve used a treo/centro then you know what I mean.  I’ve seen a few people complain about the size of the keys, but I’ve gotten used to the Centro ones and are no longer an issue. The thing I don’t like about the keyboard though is its thinness. The part that you hold is fairly thin and makes it tough to grip the phone properly, especially in one-handed operation.

5-Way Button/Gestures

Psyche! They killed the 5-way button and they killed it good.  That little button opened up a myriad of directions you could move something, be it the screen or a text cursor.  And by myriad I mean 4.  So of course the Pre improved on this by adding something way cooler, right? Yep, they added a single button to the screen. That doesn’t select things. Wow was that anticlimactic. Well, they’ve brought back the gesture pad from the old Palm V days, if that makes you feel any better. Probably the most useful part of that is the “back” gesture, which takes you back a screen, pretty self-explanatory. The “flick” gesture, in which you push cards off the screen is actually pretty neat, makes me feel like I’m in The Minority Report, but with less creepy kids chained up.It allows you to quickly push cards up and off the screen, effectively closing the program.

I have a theory that that “center” button that doesn’t really do anything except bring up all your cards was originally intended to be like the Blackberry Curve’s roller ball, but Palm ran out of either time or money. Look for them to do something cool with it in the future. That’s a threat, by the way, Palm.

Oh, say you wanted to move your cursor in a text field but didn’t want to erase everything you’ve typed since the spot you needed to edit?  They have a solution for that! Hold down the alt(orange) key and slide your finger on the screen in the direction you want to move it. It now takes 2 hand (or 1 incredibly skilled one) to move the freakin’ cursor. Needless to say, the Konami Code just got a lot more hard. Just the way I like it.

UPDATE: Apparently if you type in [upupdowndownleftrightleftrightbastart] in the launcher it brings up developer mode where you can connect a computer running the Palm SDK and get access to the phone. Huh. Guess I’m psychic after all.

Synergy

The Synergy system of the Pre synchronizes all of your contacts (and calendars) into one place, whether they be from Facebook, Google, Outlook, or your phone. This can be a blessing or a curse, depending on how close you are to your Facebook friends. If you’ve clicked [accept] to every invitation from slobbering teenagers who think the hot girl in the profile picture is you and not your fiancee (and your name happens to be Dana), you’re probably not going to like Synergy much. See, there’s currently no way to select which contacts you import into your phone, they’re all there. For me this was fine since I had to recreate my Facebook profile after college so all those people who you had classes with but don’t talk to anymore don’t really apply.

One of the cooler things I’ve found with Synergy is the ability to have a conversation with a person via SMS, AIM, GoogleTalk, whatever, and it recognizes that person as the same and records it all as one conversation so you don’t have to hunt between AIM convos and text messages for the address of the party that you weren’t really invited to but are going anyway. That’ll show them!

Battery

So far the battery life has been a bit dismal, but that is likely due to the fact that I’ve stayed signed into AIM, received emails as soon as they came in, watched a few YouTube videos, and had an hour-long conversation, most of it using a bluetooth headset. Oh, I also took a few pictures of my cat. He didn’t like them though so I had to delete them.  However, I fully charged it before I left work, and 5 hours later, the battery is at 11%. I’m hoping that after a few battery cycles I’ll get a bit more life, but if not, I’ll just have to either have a charger at home and one at work or else cut down on the amount of things running at any one time.

More to come later.

I currently have the T-Mobile Wing, and while it’s a decent phone, it’s left me wanting more. I need/want a phone that reacts faster. I love the real keyboard that’s pretty amazing, I like the fairly large screen, but there are many things I wish it did….better.

Here’s my current plan:

- 1500 anytime minutes
- unlimited n/w
- unlimited internet
- unlimited MMS/SMS

Last month I used:
- 1136 minutes used ( 127 off peak and 377 weekend ) 1554 total minutes just talking with Brooke.
- 197 Text messages received
- 156 Text messages sent

Apparently I am a fucking chatty Cathy on my cell phone, I had no idea I talked with Brooke that much.

Plans

This is where SOME of the concern is about what I’ll be paying per month, but none of them will DRASTICALLY change what I am currently shelling out to TMobile ($100/month ) for unlimited texting and internet w/1500 anytime minutes. So, this is more of a perk if I can save some cash or get more bang for my buck.

TMobile

Tmobile has a $49.99/month unlimited calling plan which I quality for, and could pick up the Android at the same time. I’d need to add texting and internet which would keep my bill at about $100 / month which is exactly what I pay now. I’m not necessarily looking to SAVE money, but I’m looking to add utility while not spending MORE money.

ATT

AT&T for the iPhone offers the following plans ( all have unlimited web/email & mobile to mobile )
- $70 – 450 anytime/5000 Nights & Weekends
- $90 – 900 anytime/ unlimited Nights & Weekends
-$110 – 1350 anytime/ unlimited Nights & Weekends
- $130 – unlimited minutes

( rates taken from: http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/specials/en/iReady_checklist.pdf )

None of these plans offer texting, and for unlimited texting I’d have to add an additional $20. There is rumor of some cheaper iPhone packages coming from AT&T, but that’s still a rumor.  I could drop to $90 + tax, probably taking me close to or exactly to what I pay now.

Sprint

Sprint has the following offer:

- $99.99 – unlimited data/text/and calling

Phones

There has been a flood of information with the Palm Pre being released this Saturday, June 6th.  There have been real handsets in possession of reviewers for a little less than a week now too.

Andriod

The TMobile G1 has been out a while and really banged on.  It’s a solid phone, but isn’t revolutionary by any means. The UI won’t wow anyone, the features don’t make any of the other smart phones sweat.  So, what’s so great about it?  2 words.  Open Source.  A platform with the kind of software support that Google can muster will eventually bring a lot to the table.  What are the downfalls of the current OS?  It’s not so much downfalls as in features it just doesn’t quite implement fully. Google set up the platform and is letting developers fill the gaps.  Well, if the userbase isn’t large enough, developers won’t flock to it like they did the iPhone.  It comes down to market share, and even app developers want to know they have an audience to develop for.

Once the Andriod phones start hitting other carriers, I’m sure we’ll see more apps and more people picking up the handset, for now I’ll leave it at the relatively small market share TMobile carries compared to the likes of Verizon and AT&T. ( Verizon has 86.6 million U.S. subscribers^, AT&T has 78.2 million subscribers, and T-Mobile has 32.8 million subscribers ).

iPhone

The iPhone firmware 3.0 ( and possibly new hardware ) will be available sometime this summer (I’m thining June/July to combat the Pre hype ). This is supposed to add much better support for Apples version of multi-tasking with the iPhone, copy & paste ( about time ), sending photos & sounds in MMS ( 3G phone only ), and texting/email in landscape layout ( also about time ).

Pre

Announced to be releasing on June 6th, many BestBuy stores are getting demo units in the coming days.  There’s one in Woodland Hills, CA that will have a demo unit, so I’ll try to have to check in there this weekend and see how I like the feel of it in my hand.  Some users have said it feels very “plastic”, and while the screen is crisp and clear, it feels like it’s not very “solid”.  The QWERTY keyboard got some bad comments in the lack of space between the top row of keys and the bottom of the slideup screen, posing problems hitting the correct keys at times.  I know a number of phones have a very similar slidup screen to expose a keyboard, I’m not sure if it’s just a comparison with what a user is used to, if they have really fat fingers, or if it is a legitimate problem.  A user at precentral.net got a Pre a little early and has been leaving impressions there and answering questions.  Not sure if his is retail release or not though, if not this could be why some things aren’t working as documented.

PreCentral.net also has one of the most indepth ( if slightly biased ) towards the Pre.  Give it a read and watch the videos.  Apparently the gestures are not too intuitive ( not saying that any other device has that done pat either though ), and there is slowdowns and crashes.  Well, it’s software, that’s to be expected, especially with a first generation product.  There will be issues, and they will be addressed, but we don’t really know how long that is all going to take.  It may be until the phone hits multiple carriers ( rumored to be around the start of 2010 ) before we see v2 of WebOS.

Olivia Munn wasn’t overly fond of the Pre with comments she left on twitter: Read them here and here.

Battery life:

I’ve read reviews that run the gamut here, everything from my iPhone sucks and dies in 3 hours to my G1 sucks and dies in 3 hours to my G1 was amazing, it lasted ALL night and made me breakfast in the morning <3. It takes a little while of sorting through the fanboy noise to really find some consistent information.

All 3 phones are rated right around ~5hrs of talk time:

- G1 specs

- iPhone Specs

- Pre Specs ( this is unofficial, but the best I could find ).  Here are official specs: Palm Pre

I’ve found a copy of the Palm Pre user guide(http://www.scribd.com/doc/15851822/SG-Pre-UserGuide) and it seems all the phones recommend the same thing for extending the battery life, turn off features, turn down the brightness and use it less.

With the exception of the turn down the brightness suggestion, the rest of the options kind of suck. You are buying a phone because of all the options it provides, not to have to turn them off to make the phone acceptable. One thing that Pre and G1 have over the iPhone in this respect is the replaceable battery. Replacing the battery on an iPhone voids the warranty and is akin to a small surgery. Doing so with the Pre and G1 is like changing batteries in 99% of all cellphones: slide off the back, pop out the battery, put the new one in and replace the back plate. Why Apple went the way of the iPod and gave it a non-replaceable battery is beyond me. No, people don’t like having to carry around a spare, but they do like having options.

The G1 has a few 3rd party battery that is rated at 2400 mAh, which lasts approximately 3 – 4 days of moderate use on 1 full charge. Down side of this is that it nearly doubles the thickness of the phone, requires a new backplate ( supplied ) and costs around $60.

The iPhone also has battery extender options:

http://www.phonesuit.com/products/MiLi_Power_Pack-14-10.html

http://fastmac.com/iv.php

http://www.mophie.com/collections/batteries

Personally, I think the iPhone 3rd party solutions are slicker and prettier than the G1 solution is ( Pre will probably fall into the same category ). In the end it looks like this is a push. All of them have “longer batteries” if at a $50-$100 cost, and will all give you that additional benefit. The G1 gets a lot thicker, the iPhone gets a lot heavier. Deal breakers for any of them? No.

Apps:

Right now the iPhone has the nod on this one. Why? Simple. It’s the numbers. Even if there are several thousand fart apps in the iPhone app store, there are an incredible number of apps that end up solving problems for people. My co-worker was able to download an ssh client to remote into a server, restart some services and get things back up and running. While I’m sure both the Pre and G1 will have expansive application bases at some point, they just aren’t to the same level as the iPhone at this point in time.

External Storage:

- Plain and simple the iPhone and Pre lack here. The Pre is stuck at 8GB of storage ( about 7.4GB useable ) and the iPhone ranges between 8GB and 16GB depending on how much cash you shell out.

What’s right for me:

In the end what it all comes down to is to the carrier and then the phone.  T-Mobile has been solid for me, but with my spending more time in the Thousand Oaks area and unable to receive MMS while at work ( my phone lights up that I have a message but the content doesn’t download until I leave the office that evening ), T-Mobile just hasn’t grown like I need them to.  In fact, I think their coverage has actually degraded over the last few years when they decoupled the roaming onto many AT&T towers ( locally ).

My younger brother has Sprint and has been with them quite a while.  His coverage at home is sometimes spotty, but at work he has no problems with email, web, text or calling ( we do work in different areas ).

My younger sister ( who does not live with me ) has AT&T, and whenever we’ve hung out she’s had coverage when I’ve played with her iPhone ( usually more “bars” than me, not that “bars” is an accurate measurement though ).

Right now I hate to say it, but the devil ( Apple & AT&T ) are swaying me their way.

At this point I’m considering the $70 package with $20 for the text messaging. All my mobile to mobile will be used with Brooke and if I get close to going over with general minutes I’ll just push up to the $90 package and be home free. I’ll likely also add the Mili battery pack to add a few additional days of usage time, especially for those long hungover weekends when I’m not near the office or a charger.

The Pre looks very promising, but after checking out sprint coverage in my areas of usual travel, Sprint just doesn’t have the body of coverage that AT&T and T-mobile do, and even TMo lacks compared to AT&T out here. Around the turn of 2010 several other carriers ( may ) get the Palm Pre and at that time I can reconsider my phone options if I so desire.