The Palm Pre will hit the stores on Saturday, June 6, and it has a very important task to fulfil. Contrary to what the sensationlist media want you to believe, that task is not to dethrone the iPhone, but to save a flailing company. Palm requires for its very survival that the Pre and its brand-new operating system webOS is a success. CNet has taken the Palm Pre through its paces, and despite some flaws, they were quite pleased, especially on the software front. Update: Another review, from Engadget: “To put it simply, the Pre is a great phone, and we don’t feel any hesitation saying that.”
The difference between “dethroning the iPhone” and “saving Palm” is huge. The Pre doesn’t have to outsell the iPhone in order to save Palm, and this is something many people seem to forget. The iPhone is already two years old, the operating system has been tweaked for a while now, and more input has been taken into consideration for the whole product. The Pre is completely new both hardware-wise and software-wise, and a such, is bound to fall on its bum a few times.
Overall, CNet was quite satisfied with the Pre, but they do note a few key shortcomings. They found the keyboard a bit too cramped, and the lack of video recording and voice dialling was an issue too (although Palm has said these might come in the form of an over-the-air update). Battery life is about the same as the iPhone, but bear in mind that the Pre has a removable battery (thus, upgradable to newer and better), and does multitasking which according to Apple the iPhone is unable to do due to battery life issues.
The software is where the Pre really shines, according to CNet. The multitasking feature, which is managed by the “deck of cards” paradigm, is a joy to use, as is the subtle, unobtrusive notification system. In these two areas, the Pre beats every other smartphone currently on the market, CNet says. “The much-talked-about Deck of Card feature works well, allowing you to keep multiple applications open and running in the background while working in another. […] The notifications bar also seamlessly alerts you to incoming/missed calls, new messages, appointments, and so forth. The notifications are unobtrusive.”
The CNet review also notes that performance didn’t degrade when running multiple applications at the same time; there was a “slight delay” when launching applications, but overall the Pre surprised CNet. About performance as a whole, they wrote:
Armed with a dual-band MSM6801a processor and a TI OMAP 3430 processor, the Pre’s general performance was a bit of a mixed bag. Navigating through the menus and deck of cards was always swift, but at times, there would be a brief lag when launching applications. We wouldn’t say it’s any worse than a Windows Mobile smartphone, but it’s something you will notice. That said, the WebOS was stable throughout our testing period. We didn’t experience any crashes or freezes, and again, we can’t say enough about the multitasking and notifications system.
Applications are of course also a very important factor, especially after the success of Apple’s App Store. Palm does have a app catalogue ready in beta, but there are currently only 12 applications in there (they are good ones, according to CNet, though), and since the SDK isn’t yet publicly available, it isn’t likely a whole lot more will be added between now and Saturday. Definitely something for Palm to worry about.
The review goes into great detail about the device, so be sure to give it a read if you’re interested in the Pre. I can’t wait until I can get my hands on one here in boring old Europe.
Everybody knows that that is just a lie only Apple fanboys believe.
Not to multitask was a design decision.
Multitasking does use more battery life. It’s not a “lie”. The more the processor is in a non idle state, the more battery power it uses. Most mobile processors (such as the ARM class processor in the iPhone) will go in to a low power idle state when not being used.. this runs just the bare essential processes to keep the OS running. If your processor can’t sleep, it will draw power constantly. This will use up your charge more quickly, hence worse battery life.
Running in the background != multitasking
In theory tasks that run in the background can effect battery life. Practice has shown many times it doesn’t effect battery life significantly.
And btw: I recently got my old MDA Compact (HTC Magician) back. It runs WinMo 2003. The UI is crap but I is able to multitask just fine. And battery life isn’t effected by how many apps you run. They all just sleep when you don’t use the phone.
Edit: Much better review:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/03/palm-pre-review/
Edited 2009-06-04 14:07 UTC
Only one task can be the foreground application in every major OS with a GUI. Anything not running in the foreground (with focus) is running as concurrently as a background process would. There’s little difference, other than the fact that most background processes are not displaying their UI.
But you’re right, multitasking is not the same as running processes in the background (or indeed concurrently.) A process can be made up of one or more threads. Processes, by definition, will use at least one thread, but potentially more that that. There is nothing within the iPhone SDK that prevents multithreading, nothing at all. But multithreading is not the same as running multiple processes; I believe this is where your argument is a little confused?
from the summary :
As strange as you might think of my opinion, I actually *really* appreciate the fact that iPhone OS is *not* multitasking. I used WinMo for years until I changed for an iPhone last year. The one thing I hated the most with WinMo was precisely the fact that it would multitask by default, keeping apps running even when I quit them or switch to an other app, slowing the whole machine down, increasing instabilities, etc.
I love the fact that when I want to run an app on my iPhone, it has all the resources possible offered by the hardware, and I cross my fingers that Apple will NOT fall for the pressure to make iPhone OS a multitask one.
So, so bad… C’mon Palm, what about Europe?
GSM version out In September for Verizon.
Should be in the UK for Christmas… Question is, what price? How?
Live and tell…
Verizon is still a CDMA provider and the Sprint exclusive runs through the end of 2009. I’ve yet to see any mention that Palm has a GSM version close to ready, though they would be fools not to do it.
I wonder why Palm can’t design a decent keyboard. The keyboard on the Centro is also far too cramped to be used easily by most adults.
The iPhone can do multitasking: Safari, Mail, SMS and other Apple applications do run in background.
It is indeed possible to allow multi-tasking without draining the battery too quickly… provided that all developers implement it carefully.
And this is the problem Apple is facing as well as other devices which allow third party applications: it is impossible to ensure that all applications will behave correctly. Apple just does not want to take that risk.
Let’s see what happens with the Pre as soon as many thrid party applications are available. Currently only a few applications are available and Palm has for sure ensured that all of them behave well.
How would you know that?
http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/review-palm-pre-has-revo…
http://www.tightwind.net/2009/06/palm-pre-reviews/
David Pogue likes it:
Walt Mossberg likes it, too, except for the App Catalog:
Jason Chen loves the OS, but hates the hardware:
Video :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRnlzbuLRwM
http://www.youtube.com/user/PreCommunity
Palm Pre Full Video Tours :
http://gizmodo.com/5126752/
Funny, because Walt Mossberg stated in his review how long (up to 8-9 seconds) some apps take to open when there’s already running apps!!!
App Store apps that can erase your contacts/emails?!
From the user experience, how is running multiple apps and then receiving an “out of memory” error = good usability?
I think a lot of these reviews fluff it a bit.
BEOS aficionado may recall that Palm owns the source code to BEOS. Although it may be a stretch to think that BEOS became WebOS, it’s much more likely that BEOS is the internal Godfather to WebOS…
Nope, Palm no longer owns any BeOS intellectual property, that has all been transferred to ACCESS.
Who is Access?
Google. You already should’ve
I was going to be funny by posting a lmgtfy link but couldn’t find an obvious one on the page without lots of sifting…
so here is the direct link FYI
http://www.begroovy.com/wordpress/?p=573
I lately lost all my contacts from my first smart-phone, the Nokia 7710 which was a joy to use, and I swear I will never purchase a smart-phone again if I can’t connect it to my *nix desktop.
Never again.
So if this Palm thing will synchronize smoothly with my *nix desktop, I might give it a chance. If not, pass on.
That is one of the reasons why I now live in XP.
There is no OS specific software required for Palm Pre. Pre acts as a USB drive when connected to a computer. So, it will definitely work with any *nix system.
(I know you can sync with iTunes. But I am pretty sure in Linux, Amarok and other media players sync music to any USB storage device.)
This is my favorite feature of Palm Pre.
-Vijay
Whilst it’s a good thing that it presents as a (I presume mass-storage) USB device, that alone does not ensure it can *sync* with *nix desktop – particularly with regards contacts as the GP mentioned.
Unless the contacts and other DBs on the Pre are in a format that can be accessed and synch’ed with then being able to connect to the device will be a little pointless in that case.
I hope we’ll see the Palm Pre appear in New Zealand on Telecom’s new XT Network (WCDMA). Its painful to see vendors who have this US Centric way of doing things – as though the US are the only viable market to be involved with.