My Palm Pre Experience, Part II

I started describing my thoughts on the Palm Pre smartphone a couple weeks ago (read part I here). Since then, I've had a few more impressions worth mentioning.

First, the hardware. After 5 weeks or so of daily use, the Pre is holding up really well. I don't notice any significant blemishes anywhere, even on the screen. While some users have reported various failures, including the impressively evocative "oreo-ing" of the unit (where the front half and the back half twist apart from one another), I've had nary a problem. Knock on wood.

Second, Palm is cranking on the OS updates. Since I got the Pre, they've pushed out 1.0.3, 1.0.4, and 1.1.0 firmwares. Unlike most phones, the Pre has this nifty ability to download and install its updates over-the-air. Clicking on the "Updates" app searches Palm's catalog for any new versions to the OS or to any apps I've downloaded via the App Catalog (a nice feature). When it's time for a new OS version, it gives you the option of downloading it slowly while the phone isn't actively being used or downloading it quickly right then. Of course, I opted for the latter. The 1.1.0 update was only 87 MB, which took just a few minutes. One reboot later (automatic) and I was up-and-running. And 1.1.0 mysteriously seemed to speed up just about everything.

Third, I've started toying with some homebrew apps. Sure, Palm has the webOS App Catalog, where all the officially approved apps will be available. But, just as with most mobile OSes, webOS has been hacked wide open, enough for enterprising coders to whip up handy ways to get apps onto the Pre without going through the App Catalog. The newest (and best, IMO) way is via FileCoaster. FileCoaster is the first on-Pre GUI app that permits direct installation of apps from the Internet. Just toss the URL of an app's IPK (webOS installer file) into FileCoaster and it takes care of the download, unpacking, installation, and clean-up. Immediately, the app is available in the launcher...no muss, no fuss. Granted, there's not a lot to get overly excited about yet on the homebrew front, but this is literally just a few weeks old. But, if the progress so far is any indicator, there will be a LOT available very shortly. My prediction is that there will be more than 1,000 apps available by year's end.

Fourth, here are a few of the cool things I've discovered on the Pre since my last write-up:

  • It's kinda fun buying music directly from Amazon's MP3 store on the Pre. I hate that I like it.

  • On a recent roadtrip, I was confident enough that the Sprint Navigation app on the Pre could do a great job in a pinch that I left our Garmin GPS at home.

  • The two Twitter clients out for webOS (Spaz and Tweed) are both excellent in different ways. The cool thing about the Pre is that, because I can multi-task easily, I can have both up at the same time to take advantage of their different strengths. Nifty!

  • I get Gmail messages on the Pre even before they show up in Gmail in my PC's browser.

  • I invested in a Touchstone charger. Yes, it's very cool. And yes, it's incredibly sticky. I can barely pull it off my nightstand, yet it leaves zero residual stickiness. Crazy. I just wish they were cheaper.

  • Orb, the free media streaming app, works great when streaming my music collection from my home media PC to the Pre. It does not, however, work with video, yet. Which is fine, really...all I really care about streaming is music. If Orb ever adds an H.264 stream option to its server app, or the Pre starts supporting 3GP video playback, I'll be golden.

Finally, there's the ultimate question: is the Palm Pre a viable replacement for my Palm OS smartphone? If I'm a good case study, the answer is yes. As a long-time Palm OS user, I relied on my Treo/Centro every day (sometimes several times an hour), so replacing it entirely was something I doubted the Pre could do. But, with a few legacy apps safely tucked away in Classic (the Palm OS emulator on the Pre), 100% of my needs are met. The best part of that is that I think we've only seen the beginning of what will be an amazing platform.

I do hope Verizon gets the Pre, or some webOS device, in early 2010. Not that I expect to jump ship from Sprint, but more carriers means more people able to enjoy these phones. I also hope that Palm can launch their rumored Pixie/Eos device, as I think I'd like that form-factor a bit more than the slider. It's not that I dislike the keyboard slider, but I'm so used to having the keyboard available at all times that I find not having it a bit offputting. But I'm sure I'm a little odd that way (among others).

So...any questions? What should I cover in the next update?