Electron Hut: Kyle Bedell’s Blog

Way back in 2000, I bought my first handheld computer: a Palm IIIxe personal digital assistant with a 160×160 grayscale screen and 16MB of memory. It had fairly limited connectivity (this was before WiFi, Bluetooth, and cellular radios were ubiquitious in mobile devices); I remember purchasing a bluky 28.8kbps modem add-on for it so I could dial in to America Online and check my email if I was near a phone jack! Before long, Windows Mobile had emerged on the scene (although it was called “Pocket PC” back then) with its fancy devices. They had color screens, large (for the time) amounts of memory, and faster processors than their Palm bretheren, and it wasn’t long before I had switched.

As the years went by the standalone PDA faded from the public eye, replaced by the “smartphone” (the Handspring Treo was one of the first to become extremely popular). Palm as a company also slowly faded from the public eye, its devices hampered by an aging OS platform and dated hardware (they eventually switched to Windows Mobile).

Fast forward to CES 2009: Palm announces a new smartphone running its fabled “Palm OS 2,” now dubbed WebOS. Sporting a slick interface, brand new Texas Instruments processor architecture, and some very cool cloud-based syncing technologies, the buzz generated was (I would say) on par with that on Apple’s iPhone announcements. I was interested enough to switch to Sprint for the phone, and as of this morning I’m holding one in my hands! So far, it’s been nothing short of awesome.

First up, some pictures!

Hardware and Build Quality

The first thing out of my mouth when I opened the box up (nice Apple-esque packaging, Palm!) was “Wow, it’s so tiny!” Compared to my gargantuan HTC Kaiser, the Pre is slim and svelte. I seem to remember reading that a stone worn smooth by a river was the inspiration for the design; the actual handset isn’t too far off. It looks an awful lot like a pebble,  fits really well in your hand, and feels just right in the weight department. The build quality is excellent (for an all-plastic body), although you’ll likely find the iPhone (being made of metal and glass) a bit sturdier. As far as external controls go, on the left side you’ve got a volume rocker switch. On the front, a chrome center button and the keyboard (which I’ll get to in a moment). I only have a few complaints with the industrial design:

• The sliding mechanism that covers the keyboard is tough to open. Because I’m pushing the top of the unit up but grasping the edge in one hand, I’m fighting myself to work the slider.
• There’s an exposed bottom edge sharp enough to cut cheese (thanks Gizmodo). Depending on how you hold the Pre while you type, this may be a non-issue.
• Guys, could you have made it any more difficult to remove the MicroUSB cover on the right side of the phone?

“But what about the keyboard?” you ask? The Pre’s keyboard has the tiniest keys I have ever used on a smartphone (I’m told Centro and BlackBerry Curve users have similarly sized keys). I’m used to the much larger keys on handsets like the Sidekick and the BlackBerry Bold, so I wasn’t sure how much I was going to like typing on the Pre. I work a bit more slowly, but I’ve noticed I make fewer mistakes. The actual keys are hard, but they have some sort of gummy gel-like coat on top that helps your fingers “stick” to them. All in all, it’s not the best, but it’s workable.

The camera is a 3.2 megapixel, LED flash, no autofocus job. It takes okay photos, as you can see in this shot of a flower vase on our kitchen table:

Interface and UI

Clean and vibrant, the WebOS UI revolves around a concept Palm is calling “Cards.” WebOS supports actual, honest-to-goodness multitasking, so when ever you press the chrome button on the front, you get a screen that shows each running application in a small rectangle (a live preview, by the way). Flicking back and froth switches between cards, tapping one pulls it to the forefront (so you can work in it), and flicking one up and off the screen closes the application. It’s actually kind of fun to use. Palm needs to do some work in the memory management department though. I got a nasty error message when I had six apps open and tried to launch another.

The actual “interface” portion will be intimately familiar to anyone who has ever used an iPhone or a Palm OS device. You’ll feel right at home with fat, finger-friendly icons and a very iPhone-ish set of UI controls.

The other half of WebOS revolves around gestures. You might have noticed, but there are no “Back” buttons in WebOS applications; to go back a level in an application’s hierarchy, you drag your finger from right to left across a small black strip under the display. Similarly-themed gestures (that work a lot like the iPhone’s) are available for zooming (pinch) and scanning through items (quick flicks up, down, left, or right). Flicking from bottom to top pulls up the Launcher, which is used to open applications. A small qualm here: there’s a “quick launch” bar the opens up with the Card interface (the one you use to switch between apps), but it only holds 4 items. I wouldn’t mind a fifth!

As far as responsiveness goes, the Pre isn’t lightning fast, but it won’t have you tapping your foot waiting for applications to load. It does a good job of showing you little progress indicators when it’s busy trying to perform a task. Because the processor the Pre is using is brand-new, I’m going to predict that future software updates will speed things up a bit. In any case, transitions are smooth and there’s little lag to be felt.

Synergy, Contacts, and Mail

Synergy is Palm’s contact synchronization and linking technology. The basic gist is that you can pull in contacts from multiple sources (Gmail, Facebook, and Exchange right now), and the Pre will combine information from all of those sources in to one contact. For example, I have my Gmail and Facebook contacts synced to my Pre right now. It’s pulling all of the pictures and address data from Facebook, but the email addresses and telephone numbers from Gmail. Needless to say, it works extremely well (and has the added benefit of always keeping your contact information up to date)! My only complaint is that the process is all-inclusive; you can’t pick who gets synced over from a source you add. It brings over everyone. Yes, Facebook users, that means every person you’ve ever friended. GMail users, this includes everyone in your contact list, not just the “My Contacts” section. Do a little manual cleanup beforehand and you’ll thank yourself later.

What I like best about the Contacts application is its integration with the rest of the system. Tap someone’s address and see it mapped out on Google Maps. Tap a number, it dials. Tap an email address, it fires up the Mail application. It’s small touches like this that make the Pre a joy to use.

Messaging and Mail have some cool features; the Pre will aggregate conversations you’ve had with a particular person, pulling in SMS, email, MMS, chat, and phone calls in to a sort of “all in one” view. This makes it easy to view correspondence you’ve had with someone. Mail will set up separate folders for your Gmail labels (and supports both labeling and starring of messages). Other than that, it’s fairly basic.

Browsing and Other Preloaded Applications

The Pre’s browser is based on Webkit (just like Safari on the iPhone), and runs at a good clip. In my brief tests, it loaded pages a full 2-3 seconds faster over Wifi than my iPod touch. The browser supports the same zooming and panning features that the iPhone does, and the word on the street is that Flash support is coming as well. Besides the Browser and PIM apps, the Pre comes loaded with a bunch of other nifty applications:

• Photos (seemed to handle the standard gauntlet of PNG, JPG, GIF, and BMPs I threw at it)
• Music (which syncs with iTunes, anything that’s not DRMed at least)
• Videos (haven’t had a chance to check this out yet)
• A cool Memos application that automatically titles your notes for you
• Google Maps (a solid, speedy implementation that’s faster than the iPhone’s at rendering map tiles)
• A Calculator (morphs into Scientific version when viewed in landscape)
• Office 2007 and PDF viewing support
• Sprint Navigation (which I haven’t tried yet)

There’s an application store as well, but it’s pretty sparse at the moment. Of the available applications, Tweed (a Twitter client), Pandora (of internet radio fame), and Fandango (for movies) are the most solid of the bunch.

Touchstone Charger

While not a part of the standard Pre package, I thought it would be interesting to touch on their inductive charger, the Touchstone. A combination of a replacement back cover for the phone and something that vaguely resembles a hockey puck, the Touchstone allows you to charge the Pre wirelessly. A few magnets help properly align the phone on the puck, and there’s a mid-tack restickable adhesive on Touchstone’s bottom that allows you to position it virtually anywhere. The back of the Pre gets a bit warm charging this way, and the Touchstone charges the phone more slowly than a straight cable. However, it’s all worth it to not have to pry open the ridiculously-difficult-to-open MicroUSB port door on the side of the phone.

I really hope inductive charging takes off; being able to just toss your devices on a charging pad would be nothing short of incredible!

Conclusions
I’ll echo what some other reviewers have said: the Pre is a superb effort by Palm. Especially for a generation one product, I think this is one of the best smartphones I have ever used. Nothing has come close in terms of ease of use (the Cards metaphor works really well in this context), and the Synergy technology that aggregates your contact information (with some minor caveats) works really well. If you’re not too keen on joining Sprint, Verizon and AT&T should have the Pre sometime next year.

If anyone has questions, please leave them in the comments! I’ll put together a Q&A post!

I just sold off my Lenovo X61 Tablet, and I’m in the market for a new notebook for home and school. The problem is that I’m torn. My inner gamer, having used only portable computers with crummy integrated graphics, is clamoring for something that could handle TF2 on the go. On the other hand, this thing is going to be moving all over the place, so I’d prefer something that didn’t have a 17 inch screen and weighed as much as a small elephant. I have something hovering around a $2000 budget, so I’m fairly flexible in what I could go with.

That being said, I basically have three options that I’ve narrowed myself down to.

The lightest (and also the most expensive) would be a new Sony Vaio Z-Series. It’s powerful, portable, and has discrete graphics that don’t completely stink. Not so sure about the very MacBook-like keyboard, but the quality certainly seems to be there.

The middle-of-the-road model (and likely the most inexpensive) would be a Lenovo IdeaPad U330. It’s not a slim or light as the Sony, but the keyboard is the rock-solid ThinkPad one (I love ThinkPad keyboards) and it’s pretty powerful. The only issue (apparently) is that the “mirror-like” screen can cause headaches.

And finally, the heaviest option (at 7 pounds) is a Clevo M860tu (aka Sager NP8660). The bang for the buck ratio here is simply incredible (this thing is basically better than my desktop, crammed into a laptop shell). The quality appears to be top-notch as well. Again, the only issue at the end of the day is the weight (really heavy).

In a perfect world, LG would sell their P300 in the United States, but (despite what they’ve said), that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen anytime soon.

Thoughts?

I was looking for an alternative to Microsoft’s OneNote (basically a souped-up, ink-enabled journal application) because the OneNote Printer driver that allows me to import Office documents and PDFs into my notebooks keeps mysteriously vanishing. A complete reinstall of Office 2007 is the only thing that fixes the issue. So, in my search for another clipping/notetaking/journaling application, I discovered a gem: Evernote. With mobile, web, and desktop clients, Evernote is a lot like “OneNote Online.” You can add, modify, and retrieve your notes from just about any device with internet access and a screen, and Evernote will locally index all of your notes for faster searching. To make things even better, you can share your notebooks so that they’re publically viewable.

The software supports importing just about anything. Audio, video, pictures, ink, and written text are all supported, and the UI is pretty intuitive. The caveat is that “free” accounts have small monthly upload caps (50MB). For $5/month or $45/year, your upload cap gets bumped up to 500MB, you’ll have priority online indexing, and ads get removed from public notebooks. Time will tell if I’ll need to actually go for a pro account…

I’ve been a proponent of mobile devices and ultra-portable computers for a number of years now. I firmly believe that the future of our computing devices lies in handhelds and small form factor machines. Why? Because with the advances in fast, ubiquitous wireless data access, we no longer have to keep our data local to our machines. Thin client computing is making more and more sense nowadays as high-speed internet and massive hard drives continue to plummet in price. HP recently launched a service called Upline that provides unlimited data storage for $5/month for individual users. Four terabytes of photos? No problem! Just put them into the ‘cloud’ of internet storage for safekeeping.

Google and a few other companies have been touting their free online office applications. What you used to have to do on a locally installed office suite, you can now do online. Even multimedia applications are making the move. Adobe recently launched an online version of Photoshop called Express that has a comparable featureset. The benefits of offloading storage and processing power to the computing cloud are huge. For one, costs for client hardware decrease as you don’t need as much local storage or processing power to get your computing tasks done. Device subsequently need less battery power, so you can use smaller batteries and decrease the size of your hardware.

There are reasons why fully-featured portable devices like the iPhone are so successful; they combine excellent user interfaces with streamlined, responsive hardware. The web browsing experience on my iPod touch comes extremely close to matching that of my desktop computer. Even now, we’re seeing more and more devices that are cutting the traditional desktop PC out of the equation. You can buy books, newspapers, and magazines for the Amazon Kindle via the device’s CDMA wireless radio. It never needs to be plugged into a PC at all to function. By freeing itself from the tethers of a PC, the Kindle allows you to take it anywhere knowing that you can buy a book or download a sample reading no matter where you are.

There’s a bright future in the field of mobile devices!