Now that the Palm Pre has been released we will begin to see articles such as this one making comparisons of the features.  It will probably take six months or so before we see if the public has gotten sufficiently enthused to make the "Pre" a major player in the market.  A lot will depend on how Palm responds to the chalenges of it’s user base, and how they package the future releases to other vendors when the "6 month Sprint exclusive" runs out.  Personally I am interested in seeing how 3rd party developers will integrate older applications into the new "Web OS".

Palm Pre Takes On Iphone

Many of the newer phones have been declared the ‘iPhone Killer,’ but most of them simply don’t deliver. In the end, it seems like the iPhone is still a big deal, but is it really the king of all smart phones? Some of the newer devices are certainly giving it a run for its money and one of those is the Palm Pre. While it hasn’t been released yet, we do have a good amount of information regarding the Pre. Based on this, we’ve done a point by point breakdown of the two devices to help you decide which is right for you.

1: Multitasking. Everyone multitasks these days, and if your smartphone can’t keep up with you, it’s just not going to be that helpful. Well, the iPhone actually has some major issues with running more than one application at a time. In fact, multitasking on the iPhone really isn’t possible. With the Palm Pre, however, you can run multiple programs at once with no problem. Point for the Pre.

2: The Touchscreen. All new smartphones seem to have a touchscreen, but few support multitouch. This means you can use two fingers to register input on two different parts of the screen. Both the iPhone and the Pre support multitouch, with the Pre being the first phone other than the iPhone to do so. This area looks to be a tie.

3: The Keyboard. People still like physical keyboards, and the Palm has a full QWERTY keyboard. The iPhone, of course, features an on-screen virtual keyboard, and while that’s really cool, it’s not what a lot of people want. Point for the Pre here, although this could change depending on what a users preference.

4: Design. You can’t help but notice the iPhone’s very slick design. It’s incredibly sleek, and while the Pre looks better than previous Palms, it still looks a bit dated with the way the keyboard slides out. The advantage in design probably goes to the iPhone.

5: The Internet. One of the main reasons of buying a smartphone is for the online functions, and the Pre really shines here. It will automatically pull in your contacts from a variety of sources, including IMs, Gmail, and even Facebook! It kicks out duplicates, too, which is great. On top of that, the Pre’s web browser claims to be four times faster than Safari. What more do you want? Winner: the Pre.

6: New Apps. Palm has traditionally been, well, traditional when it comes to apps, and some have noted they seem to be behind both Apple and Windows. However, Palm is working to correct that, although they haven’t released that much information. The iPhone already has an established market of available apps, so the Pre will have to play catch up.

7: Battery Life. Hate charging your phone every day? Battery life is a major concern, especially if you’re going to be out of the office most of the day. The iPhone doesn’t have a removable battery, so there’s no way to carry a spare and swap them out. The Pre’s battery can be popped right out and replaced, so there’s no question about who wins here.

8: The Camera. If you want to snap some pics with your phone, you’re going to want the Pre. It features a 3 megapixel camera, while the iPhone only has a 2 megapixel one. The Pre also features an LED flash, which the iPhone does not. Once again, the Pre picks up the win.

When it’s all said and done, the Pre comes out slightly ahead. It really comes down to what you need. The iPhone has a line of established applications and has new ones being developed. They’ve also got the cooler looking phone, and if you like the touchscreen, the iPhone is for you. However, if you like the traditional physical keyboard, want a better camera, and need to multitask, the Pre is your phone. Is it an iPhone killer? Probably not, but it does trump Apple’s device in several ways.

By: Michael Ferrerya

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Michael is a writer for Everything Pre, where he reports on the latest Palm Pre news and also is in charge of writing reviews on Pre accessories and Palm Pre cases. In his spare time, you’ll find him chatting in various Palm Pre forums.

Palm Garnet v 5.4.9 apps on Palm Web OS - Treo Forum - Treonauts

Will applications from my Treo 680 running on the Palm 5.4.9 OS work on Palm Web OS? 

Palm Pre hitting UK, Ireland, Germany & Spain by Christmas - SlashGear

Palm Pre, the first phone based on the new Palm webOS(TM) mobile platform, brings your information from the many places it resides – on your phone, at work or on the web. 

Palm Pre, webOS Hands-On Review: Promising Software, Disappointing …

Palm’s first webOS device, the Pre, certainly marks a step in the right direction for the struggling handset maker:

Apps key to Pre success, says Palm | IT PRO

Palm Pre. Palm is confident that the ease of writing apps for its Web OS powered phone will give the Palm Pre an edge when it finally comes to the UK market 

Technorati Tags: Iphone, palm pre, Palm Pre OS

The wait continues, but I feel better now as the first half of the year is indeed running out.  Today I picked up this snippet from the ongoing conversations over at Facebook.  It seems that legacy applications will be supported in the palm pre.  This is good news for those of us who have been Palm followers from the “Pilot” days through its many iterations.  With the legacy applications covered some of our favorites will now be saved, whether or not stylus functionality is retained is still a question in my mind but I am sure that it probably will be.   We are all going to be learning new motions with our thumbs when we finally get our hands on the actual phone.

I also like the fact that it will contain many new features such as social connectivity and email functionality with built in gmail and other apps that are a pain in the ???? to configure in mobile 6. The scalable view of websites will be a great boon over my current MotoQ which renders so little of the page as to make web browsing essentially useless.  The always connected aspect is a nice feature as well, imagine as they have explained the search function will automatically go onto the web to answer your question if it does not find it in storage.  Of course the built in GPS with mapping will eliminate the need for a separate GPS device or an added charge for the service with your current phone.  The big question also un-answered is of course the release of an unlocked version for the millions of palm aficionados who are not in the sprint network.  The Facebook questions from the outside of the US clients, also anticipating a gsm version…when,when,when?

Palm is being very tight lipped about the actual release date.  I am guessing that the now 8 exec’s who have come on to answer questions in the Facebook forum have been threatened with a public skinning if they reveal the actual date.  I am however encouraged by the fact that the Pre is back on the front page of their website in leiu of the Treo.

Post #29

Christopher Hayashida (Los Angeles, CA) wroteon April 3, 2009 at 9:42pm

Trying to stay on topic:

Honestly, you guys have done a great job betting on what Palm users were looking for. I think all of the gripes I have about other smartphones (no real keyboard, bad web browser, no 3G, no 3.5 mm headphone jack) have all been answered by your device. There were even some of the nice-to-haves: free development kit, and Gmail and Facebook integration.

You are building the phone I want. Just make sure you get it out fast enough so that you’re not beaten to market by someone else.

Post #30

Stephanie Rancourt-Richardson wroteon April 3, 2009 at 9:51pm

Seeing a lot of you ask for some love to old Palm fans – and thank you Palm fans for sticking around all this time! We love having such a loyal following and we are excited to get your reactions to the Pre.

Keep in mind that the same core principals were used to create this phone as were used to create the phones and PDAs you guys fell in love with. That main concept being that we put YOU - the user - first. User experience and ease of use are paramount in pretty much everything we do. So sure, for those of you who have been using PalmOS for many years, the Pre and Palm webOS will be something new. BUT, it will be as easy, if not easier to get going on than your first Palm was. Trust me, I’m a creature of habit when it comes to technology, and being lucky enough to demo and test a Pre, I can honestly say that the learning curve was quick and painless, and now I often catch myself looking for the activity cards on my older devices.

Also, we recently (just a few days ago!) announced that our partners Motion Apps will be creating an emulator called Classic that allows you to run your legacy PalmOS applications on your Pre. So for those of you who have gotten very attached so some of those older apps, you can use the emulator to keep using them on your new Pre. That will help ease you through the transition!

Reply to StephanieReport

Technorati Tags: Palm Legacy Applications, palm pre, Palm Pre Web OS

When Apple introduced their Iphone last year I am sure they thought they had quelled all potential competition.  The success of the Palm Pre at the CES this year must have put them on their heels.   Is the Pre an Iphone killer, only time will tell.  Palm must not only overcome their own track record of being slow on the uptake but also respond to the requests of their new clientele.  

I have been following the conversations going on over at facebook and palm representatives Matt Crowley and Adam Kaufman are getting quite a work over.  If the company responds to their market the Pre may become wildly successful, if they ignore them Palm may continue down the path they were on.

What we know so far is that the Pre will only have 8 gigs of built in memory and no ability to add an sd card in the initial model.  In response to queries the company has said that more memory is not necessary because the unit is always connected and can be backed up from it’s connection.  Well maybe, but what about power users or picture fanatics who want to carry several gigs of media about? There have also been horror stories about crashes and data loss with no ability to back up without an SD type of backup.  

On the bright side the folks at PalmPreCentral pointed me in the direction of the "Pre Dev Camp" to be held one week after the release of the Pre..

"preDevCamp is an upcoming not-for-profit gathering to develop applications for Palm Pre using both the Mojo SDK and traditional web standards. The event is currently being planned in over 60 cities around the world."  You can find out more here.  Basically several software developers will meet in several cities around the globe and make plans to develop third party add-on software for the new Pre "Web OS".

The Pre with its ability to be always connected, sync with several sources simultaneously, hold several applications open at the same time, just a finger or thumb motion away is a clear challenge to the Iphone. Once again time will tell.

The Stunning Features of iPhone

Tired of the bottlenecks of your existing cell phones? Want a revolutionary replacement to your everyday cell phone application? Read this article.

iPhone is the latest technology revolution introduced by Apple, a name that has already redefined portable digital music players and offered its consumers the musical privilege of a lifetime.

Essentially, iPhone is a stunning combination cell phone, iPod and handheld-internet computer. Although it is a prospective threat to the existing cell phone manufacturers, it is still in the process being introduced to the niche cell phone markets throughout the world.

Why iPhone?

Many would wonder why there is a market for iPhones when the exciting cell phones offer and meet almost every kind of application the consumers could look for. Actually, the advantages of using an iPhone are quite a few. To begin with, it can be used exclusively as a cell phone, or an iPod, or even a mini-internet computer. Offering seamless performance, it mocks at the drawbacks of the existing cell phones.

Virtual Keypad:

Using the various features and applications of the traditional cell phones, which require the users to punch a bunch of tiny buttons and navigate through the menus and features, to be able to use specific applications such as music, text message, web browsing, photos, videos and so forth. iPhone supercedes this particular disadvantage by replacing hardware with software application.

For instance, it will serve you with a virtual keypad on the screen when you need to dial a number. Similarly, when you require other buttons to use specific applications, the screen will show you the buttons accordingly. Moreover, interestingly, when you want to watch a video, the buttons on your iPhone screen will automatically disappear. It is flexible and user-friendly.

One-touch Magic:

The stunning technology of the new iPhone surprise its users delightfully. While the traditional cell phones demand you to navigate painstakingly from one feature to another or punch the buttons on their keypad, the iPhone will require you to simply touch the screen for using a particular application. For instance, you receive an incoming call from a person while you are already on another call- with the traditional cell phones, you have to punch a specific button to put the existing caller on hold to take the second call.

Under the given circumstance, the iPhone users can simply touch an apple icon flashed on the device screen from the second call in order to replace the second caller with the first one. Moreover, you can also touch on the merged calls option flashed instantly on your iPhone screen if you want to have three-way conference call.

Sensible Voicemail Option:

Most of the traditional cell phones users would have to grope through their voicemail by ear in order to listen to a particular voicemail recorded in their cell phones. The iPhone has blended technology with sensibility to offer an easier option to listen to your voicemails. It shows you all your voicemails visually onscreen, labeled by the callers. All you have to do is touch one of the names you want to hear from.

Tireless Text Messaging:

The traditional cell phones require you to ramble through the jumble of message box to choose your option. Again, you will have to painstakingly punch the button four times to type a particular digit on your screen while you write a number on you message. The easy-to-use iPhone does away with this disadvantage by offering you a virtual keyboard to type on, making text messaging smooth, seamless and fun.

Web Browser:

The users of iPhone can experience a difference while browse through the Internet on their devices as this new-age gadget offers a modified version of Safari to display actual webpages you could see on you computer, and not the crunched-down versions of the web that your traditional cell phone would serve you.

These are some of the exciting reasons why you would want replace your existing cell phones with the new iPhone developed on the cutting-edge technology to offer you brand-new feel while you are using it.

xxx

Palm Pre’s Power

Following a keynote address an…  

Technorati Tags: cell phones comparison, newest cell phones, palm pre cell phone, pre cell phone

The Palm Pre is the newest cell phone and latest inovation of the technology giant Palm Corporation.  As consumers we have been exposed to their great products for years.  Myself included many users cut their teeth on the original palm pilot back in the middle 90’s when the notion of a pocket sized calendar/ address book first hit the market.  As years went on the corporation has indeed kept up with the times.  I am reminded of the story of the largest sliderule company back in the 1970’s that went out of business after 60 years because they thought they were in the sliderule business instead of the calculator business.  Palm developed the pilot to replace pen and paper.  Now 15 years later they have developed the Pre to address the needs of our current very busy society.  As we become more and more electronically connected with work, social connections and family our schedules, calenders and needs have become more disjointed.  The Pre offers a way to put these back together by pulling information from multiple sources to render your daily schedule or address sources.  The first release due out by june at the latest will address many of our modern lifestyle needs. 

Leading The Innovation Of Cell Phone Technology

Do you ever ask yourself, what happened before we had cell phones? Then you think back and remember how it all started. First we had the beepers where we had to pull over and call our friends from a pay phone. Then the first cell phones were created. I remember in the 90’s I had to carry around a big fake Louis Vuitton purse so I could fit the phone inside. It was a huge phone with a long black antenna that didn’t fold in. Now we have cell phones that keep getting smaller and smaller and smarter and smarter. Our cell phones are so smart we don’t even need keypads anymore. We now have smart phones with a touch pad and touch screen panel technology that allows us to access the internet, map out directions, take photos and video, listen to music, watch movies and even update our social media websites. Its technology at its fines and here are two mobile phones that are leading the innovation of cell phone technology.

The iPhone
Apple announced the iPhone in January 2007. This phone is a multi-media smart phone with a multi touch screen panel. The cell phone is one of the first to implement a virtual keypad on a touch panel screen instead of a physical keypad. It was also one of the first phones to offer visual voicemail along and iTunes capabilities. When caller ID came out I bet 90% of people started screening their phone calls. Now with visual voicemail you can screen the messages you want to listen to and even listen to them in the order you want. With iTunes capabilities your phone is also a mini iPod that you can plug into your car or strap to your arm for a run. It’s completely flexible. The only thing Apple missed on the launch of the iPhone was GPS capability. But, not for long in July 2008 Apple introduced the new 3G iPhone. The 3G iPhone was faster, smaller, cheaper and had GPS capabilities. Both phones synch easily to your computer for software updates that keep making the phone better and better. The iPhone paved the way for advanced cell phone technology.

5800 Xpress Music
Nokia is getting ready to unveil the 5800 Xpress Music mobile phone by year’s end. The new device was designed to give Apple’s iPhone some competition. Along with the iPhone the 5800 will have touch screen panel technology and music capabilities. Per an article from PC World the similarities between the two phones stop there. The Nokia’s touch screen virtual keypad will also work with the touch of a fingernail or stylus unlike the iPhone which uses the touch of your finger pad. The new Nokia went after a more user-friendly software approach as well. Some of the features include a contact bar with photos of friends that you most frequently contact that you can send text messages from. And, going one step further than the iPhone, you can also add feeds to your phone that will alert you when friends update their social networking websites. The new Nokia also supports flash software another element the iPhone does not have. Other cool features include video capture, handwriting recognition and louder surround sound speakers. And the best part about the phone is the cost. The new Nokia will cost half the price of the competitive touch screen phones in the market.

We’ve come a long way from beepers and large cell phones. With the advance in technology we can purchase not only a cell phone but a smart cell phone that doubles as your PDA and iPod and it’s small enough to fit in your pocket.

By: Lori S.M. Hollenback

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

About the author: Lori S.M. Hollenback is a freelance writer for Innuity. For more information about touch pad technology or touch screen panel, visit CIRQUE

Technorati Tags: cool cell phones, newest cell phones, palm pre cell phone