Even though the official launch date for Palm’s Pre smart phone, There is plenty of buzz in the blogging world about a mid-May premier of the product. If that is the release date, it may already be too late for the competitors of Palm to come up with something to fight back with and to tempt current and possible customers that they should greet the Pre with a yawn.

If the competition is going to grab the spotlight, it better be fast. The Pre is going to hit the market with a flurry of free press that will make it seem like Palm has created the killer of the iPhone. That is exactly what many pundits of the industry expect from the Pre.

AT&T who dominates this market with their iPhone product are none too pleased about the idea of an iPhone killer. They are gearing up for the fight. They are preparing their spokespeople to be able to answer questions and represent the iPhone as the dominant product despite the Pre. Some of the areas the iPhone shines that will be talking points when the Pre hits the market are…

• The iPhone has a durable design of metal and glass compared to the plastic casing of the Pre.
• The iPhone has a larger screen than the Pre but not much at 3.5 inches compared to the 3.1 inch Pre screen size.
• The iPhone has a huge array of Apps available. The Pre will have trouble competing with AT&T’s 25,000 iPhone apps.
• The iPhone has an intuitive Multi-Touch screen that is patented. The Pre has touch screen controls but they are not nearly as intuitive.
• The iPhone is GSM compatible, which makes capable of working overseas. The Pre is not GSM compatible.

IT is too soon to tell if these alleged advantages will make a difference to customers. The screen size issue is pretty minute. How intuitive the touch screen functions are is something that must be experienced to validate. And the Pre can counter with some advantage of its own including a keyboard that slides up, a size that is smaller and a battery that can be removed.

The outcome is this will be a battle. The Pre won’t kill off the iPhone out of the box. And the next generation of the iPhone is right around the corner which could take the market right back for AT&T. Whatever happens, it will be an interesting competition between two outstanding products.

When you get a chance to play with the Palm Pre for the first time, your initial reaction may be that it is significantly smaller than you expected. It compares in size to the iPod classic edition when combined with a large hard drive. It is not quite as thin as the iPhone and not as striking looking either. But considering that it is a slider, the size is comfortable for daily use.

The Pre has a terrific web user interface. Only on rare occasions does it look choppy or unresponsive. Obviously, Palm put some effort and design so that the Pre will work well when operated with fingers as opposed to a d-pad or stylus.

The Pre’s Card system is an outstanding method for organizing data so you stay on track with your current work. All you have to do is start an App and then drag it to the desktop of your phone, which creates a new card. You can work on it as long as you need to and then flick the card upwards to close it.

Palm has done a lot to create a top quality input technology. They created the gesture bar just under the screen, which addresses the problem of the difficulty controlling with one hand a touchscreen phone and searching the part of the screen at the top. The gesture bar makes use of the phone on the go much more streamlined.

Another popular feature that works with the web browser and the photo viewer is the accelerometer. This is a fancy word for the technology that moves the screen with the orientation of the owner. This is often shown off on commercials and it is a new function that lots of phones offer. The Pre version works perfectly.

All you have to do while working in an App is to drag from the gesture bar to the screen with your finger. Then you just hold there for a second and a wave dock will show up which simplifies the process of launching a new App. If the user prefers to use a trackball such as is used with the Blackberry and the G1, that option is also provided so there is a quick path to move around the Palm OS interface to the web.

The keyboard that comes with the Pre is adequate and pretty much the same as other Palm products. It is interesting that Palm went with a keyboard that is slanted vertically. But from Palm’s perspective, the difference between it and a horizontal slider is slight and the way people use the palm while holding it vertically justifies the design. The vertical orientation also makes the phone distinct in the marketplace so it stands out from its competition.

The quality of the hardware of the pre is superior whereas the design is disappointing. It is a good looking device but the design seems a little childish as though it was emulating a large rock or stone. If Palm had gone with a little larger screen, that would have improved the unit as would the elimination of the black space on the sides of the screen.

The design of the Pre that puts the internet at the heart of the OS is a big appeal of the unit. The intuitive way the OS takes data from the web and integrates into the framework of the unit is a superior breakthrough. It is a popular feature with users to be able to text and chat using multiple IM clients all in the same window so they can keep all of their communications in front of them without switching windows constantly. While most people will talk to one individual using one text or chat feature, its helpful to be able to manage off of your communications from one panel.

The browser technology is superior to the Treo Garnet OS’s Blazer. The Pre’s browser utilizes the Webkit methodology similar to how both the iPhone and the Android work. The result is web pages resolve in under 10 seconds. There is nothing clumsy about drag or pan on the browser and the unit is highly responsive which makes using the Pre easy and fun.

The Pre also makes doing queries seamless because you can do a search on your phone and then take the query right to Wikipedia or Google without re-entering your search terms. In this way, the interent is crafted into the infrastructure of the phone and not tied to any browser or App.

It is easy to see influences in design from the iPhone in the way the Web OS works. The design that puts the App dock at the bottom of the display, which reminds you of the iPhone look and feel. But it is a very workable design so why not use it? The method of showing you only as much of your contact list that can be seen on one screen is also a style that the iPhone pioneered.

The Pre screen is artistic and easy on the eye and that is a plus when you are enjoying online pictures. It is not a stretch to say that the Pre has the sharpest images in the industry.

It makes sense then that the in-phone camera delivers beautiful images. Photos taken with the Pre that you would think might turn out badly because of poor lighting or other factors often come out looking great. The camera software does some processing of the image after it is taken and that often results in a superior image that you see.

It is a disappointment that the Pre does not offer video recording in this release. Palm is researching adding this function in an upgrade but the absence of the ability to capture video puts the Pre behind many phones that are inferior in other ways. Most modern users want to be able to capture videos to upload to their Facebook pages or to YouTube. This is a minimum requirement, not an extravagant option so Palm should move quickly to fix this deficiency in the Pre.

The SDK and Apps to support the Web OS look good. Palm is making the SDK open for anyone to tap into which will expand the App Store significantly. Palm has no interest in micromanaging the App developers for the Pre user community. As long as the Apps are secure and stable and are not deeply offensive, they can become part of the App Store. For developers who show worthiness, Palm will be developing premier developer relationships, which will open up parts of the OS that are closed to open development to that elite group.

Similar to what Android has, The Amazon music store App for the Pre is a twin to what is available on the G1. You can preview songs on the App and then download them without changing screens.

Flash on the Pre is not a feature that Palm is touting. Nonetheless, some users claim that they have been able to run Flash on the Pre. So that is worth looking into. But the Pre does have some features to tout that the iPhone has yet to offer. For example, the user can use copy and paste as well as MMS messaging on the Pre, which are features iPhone users have been vocal about wanting for quite some time.

At the present time the Pre and the platform it supports for Web access is tied to Sprint. Palm does have plans to open the system to other network carriers but that seems to be in the distinct future at this time.

]]> http://www.iphones.com/blog/2009/05/06/the-phenomenal-palm-pre-preview/feed/ http://www.iphones.com/blog/2009/05/06/just-in-time-for-iphone-30-bluetooth-introduces-the-30-standard/ http://www.iphones.com/blog/2009/05/06/just-in-time-for-iphone-30-bluetooth-introduces-the-30-standard/#comments Wed, 06 May 2009 19:16:54 +0000 JerryM http://www.iphones.com/blog/?p=36 The Bluetooth 3.0 technology has been reviewed and discussed often. But it looks like the 3.0 spec is beginning to evolve into something much more sophisticated. The design has incorporated the 802.11 WiFi standard, which was very much needed. And in many other ways, it has become faster, stronger and more durable.

There is serious question as to whether Apple is going to be able to get an upgradeable version of the new 3.0 specification of the Bluetooth on the market before a new iPhone hardware becomes generally available later this year. There has not been enough information made available about whether the Bluetooth 3.0 will have a lot of technical abilities such as the ability to sync very large media files in a wireless setting.

Is certain that the new API that allows more accessory access to the OP, there will be some pretty exciting new Apps enter the market when the iPhone 3.0 is available. It is just a matter of being patient to see what they have to offer.

If this prediction has any validity, then where the iPhone that Apple produces will fit into that internet landscape is worth considering. Right now about one out of every seven people have disconnected from their landlines and only use cell phones for their communication needs. When you focus just on the younger generations, that percentage goes way up. It won’t be long before a house with phones on the wall will be the stuff of ancient history. And when it comes to eliminating wired interent, the precedent of dropping land-lined phones will pave the way for sending wired interent into the history books too. The iPhone just moves that process along more quickly than before.

“Internet nomads” is a new phrase for those who already are completely mobile in their access to cyberspace. For that group, there may come a time when even the iPhone will seem like ancient technology to them that will sit in museums next to the early versions of Windows and the first Intel chips. It could be that Apple’s closed development policy may be what pushes the iPhone into the history books.

There are three big advantages that make it possible for the iPhone to dominate the market. The low $200 price to get that first iPhone combined with a very easy to use interface for customers and a huge App store all work together to make the iPhone an attractive product. The help of Microsoft to integrate the PARC mouse based interface for users with no royalty helps too. The result is the user interface for the iPhone will continue that momentum of innovation in a nonproprietary setting.

It is a question whether the impressive iPhone App Store will become something that sustains the iPhone in the market or whether it too will pass into history to be studied by future business and computer arts school students. What makes the iPhone applications brilliant is that current mobile broadband services offer inconsistent throughput. What makes the iPhone App Store brilliant is that it offers applications for download that are safe from spyware of viruses.

There are a huge array of communications alternatives with the iPhone, which includes UMTS/HSDP, GSM/EDGE, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. With that much communications strength, the concept of the Internet nomad should be a reality. But at this time, the infrastructure for data communications is way behind voice communications. This where iPhone covers the slack by removing many of the inconsistencies in data service. As such, the apps are a real value to AT&T and its customers and those apps are one way that so many mobile users justify paying for an iPhone and budgeting the monthly costs of service.

The relationship of AT&T to Apple as their exclusive cell phone network provider has all the makings of the basis for a strong and diverse community of developers for mobile data applications, which in turn would create a big customer base for the Apple App Store. However, despite the impressive strength and support abilities of AT&T, even they cannot man enough customer service desks with trained reps to support the many problems customers have with downloading and installing this huge library of independently developed apps. Thankfully, the App Store has high standards for their independent developers, which keeps AT&T’s staff of customer service reps from being even more overwhelmed.

Now, if we look down the road a bit to a time when the data networks for mobile devices catches up and to at time when designers of mobile devices begin to utilize more sophisticated electronics, better batteries and faster processors and that presents a much different picture. In a setting where App Store offerings run on a secure browser, they would perform much better. When the time comes that browser technology uses better personal privacy standards, that will go a long way toward resolving the issues with personal privacy for those using the iPhone.

A time is coming very soon when over the majority of App Store applications will become obsolete because already 80% of Java, Flash and XML programs run on mobile devices without too much trouble. The only thing needed for mobile device applications to explode with the same richness and diverse of the wired interent, is the development of a standard software developers kit which will facilitate the control of the hardware of mobile devices.

At this time, it is not clear what the legacy of the iPhone will be when the mobile Internet begins to take over. It could be the App Store will continue to be popular because it does offer a great business model for advertisers as well as developers. But it is just as likely that the increased competition combined with better bandwidth for mobile devices and new generations of mobile communications will cause the App Store to become a dinosaur in the market.

The one thing we can count on is the future where Internet nomads rule cyberspace is coming. It is only a question about how much of the technology that these nomads use will be branded and open source technology. Time will tell.