Tag Archives | Palm Pre

AT&T: Palm's Pre Stinks Because…

PreCentral has what appears to be an internal AT&T document designed to prep staffers on how to compare the iPhone 3G with Palm’s upcoming Pre. It’s not completely stunning that it tends to accentuate the negative when it comes to the Pre, and the positive when it comes to the iPhone:

Pre vs. iPhone

As unfair comparisons go, this one isn’t a complete outrage: The Pre’s lack of international capability and a robust, well-developed platform for distributing applications and content are significant limitations. But in case you didn’t know, an AT&T salesperson will never be the most reliable source of advice on how an AT&T phone compares to one which, like the Pre, will be sold only through Sprint.

Meanwhile, I’m sure that Sprint is prepping its own Pre/iPhone 3G head-to-head that point out a bunch of things about the Pre which AT&T forgot to mention: Its more compact size, its ability to multitask applications, integration with Facebook and other social networks, a better camera, and the Sprint network’s reputation for reliability. (Of course, by summertime it’s possible–likely?–that the Pre will be competing against a new iPhone with a better camera and a form factor that’s at least slightly different.)

When the Pre and the new iPhone arrive, I’m thoroughly looking forward to the battle between them. And I’m guessing that the real bottom line may be one that neither AT&T nr Sprint will admit: That they’re both going to be terrific phones that differ enough in key ways that neither is the clear winner for everybody. I can’t wait to judge ’em for myself…

2 comments

Palm Pre, Meet Palm OS

Palm ClassicI’m in Las Vegas at the CTIA Wireless show, but one of the day’s more intriguing tidbits of phone-related news was announced back in San Francisco at Web 2.0 Expo: Palm will be working with MotionApps, a third-party developer, to make Classic, a Palm OS emulator available for its upcoming Palm Pre phone. The move makes sense given that Palm surely wants to devote all its mental bandwidth to its new webOS, but there are surely a fair number of long-time Palm users out there for whom the idea of running existing apps on the Pre is an appealing security blanket. (The whole scenario is roughly similar to what Apple did with the early versions of OS X, which had the capability to run old Mac OS apps in emulation mode.)

I confess to a basic innate skepticism when it comes to emulators in general: None of them run everything perfectly, and most of the power of the Pre, like that of the iPhone, will come from its integration of new hardware, software, and services. And many of my favorite old Palm apps don’t even run that well (or at all) on modern Treos–they were too tied to the guts of earlier versions of the Palm OS. But MobileApps says it’ll publish a list of compatible Palm OS apps, and I’ll be on the lookout to see how comprehensive it is.

Palm’s news today also involved details relating to the rollout of Mojo, the webOS SDK, to developers. Ultimately, getting that right will be ten thousand times more important to the Pre’s fate than a Palm OS emulator could ever be.

3 comments

5Words for March 18th, 2009

5wordsHere’s what I’m reading this morning:

Google Chrome: In beta! Again!

Big Blue to buy Sun?

Palm Pre vs. iPhone.

Jailbreakers dive into iPhone 3.0.

Fujitsu sells a color e-reader.

More hot water for Kindle.

Watch your mouth on Twitter.

Privacy group wants Google investigated.

McCain Twitter interview: kinda lame.

A $132 PC, sort of.

Psystar introduces another Mac clone.

Early TV digital transition list.

One comment

iPhone vs. Palm Pre: It's Still War!

Hulk HoganGoing into this morning’s Apple iPhone 3.0 unveiling, one of the biggest questions of the year in the world of tech was how Palm’s upcoming Pre phone would stack up against the iPhone. The Pre looks like it’ll be the most interesting and imaginative new smartphone to date that isn’t an iPhone, and the only one with a software platform that has a shot at out-innovating Apple. (I have high hopes for Google’s Android over the long haul, but if that OS changes everything, it’ll have to do it on a handset that’s more groundbreaking than T-Mobile’s G1.)

Now that we have a better sense of the iPhone software that the Pre will compete with when it shows up–I’m guessing that the Pre’s planned launch time frame of the first half of the year and iPhone 3.0’s summer release will result in both showing up around the same time–it still looks like the competition between the two phones will be fierce and fun.

Continue Reading →

23 comments

5Words for March 10th, 2009

5wordsToday’s headlines incline dancing news!

Even more Apple netbook rumors.

iPhone developers can’t renew contracts.

Woz can’t dance, still lovable.

Will these ten newspapers die?

Cydia’s unauthorized iPhone app store.

Craigslist: “erotic services” ads dwindling.

YouTube kills British music videos.

Palin hacker’s in bigger trouble.

Jimmy Fallon! Palm Pre! Together!

Broadbrand growth is on decline.

Eminem producers: no iTunes goldmine.

OLED: victim of crummy economy?

No comments

5Words for February 19th, 2009

5words

Wanna hear this morning’s news?

The Pre will have games.

Dell attacks Psion’s “Netbook” trademark.

iPhone turn-by-turn GPS.

Yelp accused: Suppressing negative reviews?

Dismantling 17-inch MacBook Pro.

$50 for unlimited phone calls.

Google demos iPhone offline Gmail.

Dell debuts Mini 10 Netbook.

Google Street View case dismissed.

Lenovo making jumbo-sized netbooks?

Sprint loses a million customers.

No comments