What's on your mind?

OK, we know that getting the 411 on when the Palm Pre will be available is on the top of lots of your minds. (And we'll have that news for you just as soon as we can.) Tweeter JonVictorino says he "dreamt last night of owning a Palm Pre. How nerdy is that?" Trust us, compared to some of our dreams (or were they nightmares?) lately, your nerd-quotient seems within socially acceptable levels. Other readers keep it a bit more real. David Strack left a note on the Palm blog stating, "If the Pre isn't announced tonight, I'm going to go out and buy 6 iPhones, just to spite you! Just kidding...but seriously." Theseus Augustus Fixer's comment on our Facebook page might put a little grin on your face, "Pre is aptly named -- everything is pre-Pre." (Cheeky!) :)

Another favorite topic, carrier options for Pre. Engadget reader Libb says, "Give Sprint a chance -- easily the best 3G network in the nation, and the cheapest data plans around..." (For the record, Palm loves all of our carriers.) Brandon Wells also adds his two cents on our Facebook discussion board called "Why Sprint?" While Brandon swears he is not a Sprint fan boy, his 10+ paragraph comment makes me wonder! (If you want to check it out, scroll down to 11:45 a.m. on March 29.) Here is a snippet from Brandon's ode to Sprint, "You can't talk about the CURRENT quality of a company as if you're their customer when you are not. You can speculate, and 'Jump on Board' the negative hype talk, but all you're really doing is gossiping! The largest problem Sprint is facing is 'Customer Perception.' There have been bumpy roads in the past, and some not so good decisions, but, we all make mistakes. If we were to be constantly judged by the things we did in the past, none of the improvements or lessons would matter. So before you talk about the OLD Sprint or experiences you've had 9 years ago, perhaps you should focus on what is happening now, and you may actually be able to see the improvement and make valid, educated opinions."

Following Palm's announcements on Wednesday, JayCanuck showed his love on the Palm blog, "Personally, (I) am completely floored by the PalmOS emulator announcement, as are many of my friends. There are so many old, out-of-development applications that I use on a daily basis that this emulator is perfect." Scotland echoed a similar sentiment, "The news about support for legacy PalmOS apps is very welcome to long-time faithful Palm users and developers. WebOS looks amazing, but, on day 1, webOS apps can't possibly fill all the niches filled by thousands of existing PalmOS apps."

Quick shout-out to Theseus Augustus Fixer, JonVictorino, David Strack, Libb, Brandon Wells, JayCanuck and Scotland. Thanks for reading, and as always, if you are thinking about it, we want to hear about it, so chime in on the conversation.

Zeenat S.
Edelman for Palm

Comments

[Dyno]

Will the Pre support visual voicemail? That's a great feature on the Instinct and Iphone, and it should be included with the Pre in my opinion.

[palmdoc]

An issue for some users would be whether or not a true Desktop sync solution will be available.
I posted a poll for medical users here:

http://palmdoc.net/?p=2300

[Libb]

Hey Palm, thanks for mentioning me! I guess I sound like a Sprint fanboy in that post, but I have been nothing but impressed with their network and service for years now - I had EVDO 8 months before my buddies who had Verizon finally got it, and I was paying less with my EVDO, all-you-can-eat data plan than they were paying for 1xRTT, limited data plans on Verizon.

My 755p has been an awesome device on the "Now Network" up until, well, now, but I'm ready to upgrade to the "Now Device". Can I have it now?

[Ecoteric]

@ Dyno

The Pre will have visual voicemail. As an Instinct user I have greatly enjoyed this functionality.

If you watch this short demo of the phone application, at 1m9s you will see the on-screen voicemail button on the left side below the dialpad, similar to the Instinct's phone app.

http://www.slashgear.tv/sprint-palm-pre-calling-features-demo-ctia09-277/

[Sam]

I agree with the comments about the need for a notification light. I think it's crazy that my Centro doesn't flash the led by default to tell me that I missed a call or that I have a voicemail. I had to install a crappy app to take care of this.

[blaine]

For people griping about Sprint exclusive launch:

1 - Sprint is not better, no worse than any other provider. Period. Its the GM/Ford, Apple/PC, McDonalds/Burger King argument. Each has it merits and at the end of the day its personal pref. True, I am a Sprint user and have been so for 8 years and living in 3 different states. If there truly was an issue I would have most likely switched by now.

2 - There is a reason why Palm and Sprint hooked up: Sprint doesnt nerf phones like VZW; ATT is neck deep with Apple, TMob 3G is rubbish. Also, Sprint is willing to dedicate a bunch of ad dollars to this ramp up and launch.

Oh yea, my full rebate was up in Feb and I am holding out for a Pre.

[one.m.davis]

As I live in Australia my first suggestion/hope is that you listen to (or better employ) the extremely wise "Andreas" who posted @ April 08, 2009 at 11:21 AM.

Release an UNLOCKED "3GSM" (UMTS) version closely (immediately) following the US relase. ;)

DON'T just release it in Europe

Other than that:
More internal memory AND an SD card slot

Replace the the main button with a 5-way D-pad like on the Treo. In some situations its faster and easier to use such button to navigate instead of gestures.

Thank Andreas
(and hopefully thank you palm...)

[Ronald Quint]

The Centro phones sure look good on Celebrity Apprentice, I wonder how much better the Pre would look? They definately need to be on next season.

[Anonymous]

@Ecoteric
I don't think Visual Voicemail has been confirmed by Palm yet. I am also hoping that it has it and the icon is promising, but it does not guarantee it.

Palm, any confirmations on this? Does the Pre have Visual Voicemail?

[coloneljames]

release the phone, please.

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

Hi guys -- visual voicemail is something we'll discuss when the Pre is available.

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

Ronald -- what shows would you like to see the Pre on?

[DaveInFL]

I'd really like to know just how good the Pre will be as a phone. In the past, the 800w, 700wx and 650p have not been great as phones and the sound quality has been lacking, and in some cases the clarity and loudness has been lacking. I really hope the Pre will have a good clear earpiece and mic. People know straight away when I am talking on my 800w as the quality is so bad. In addition, the loudspeaker on the 800w was bad too. Let's keep in mind here, first and foremost it's a phone.

All that said, the Pre looks like a real nice phone and I can't wait to see one in person.

[Ecoteric]

@ Alex H

Several Pre enthusiasts have noticed that the in the CTIA demos, a 'swipe up' from within an app. now takes you back to the 'card view' ( at CTIA video @ 17s: http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/9725/palm-pre-ctia-video-demos-part-2m-pre-ctia-video-demos-part-2 ), instead of as demostrated at CES ( prior to CTIA video @ 6m40s: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R33Lc8cOXRs ) where the 'swipe' up from within an app would take you straight to the launcher, then close the launcher, and then open it, and so on.

Why has it been changed?! I believe if you took a survey of potential Pre users, you would find that more than 90% would prefer the orginal 'swipe up' gesture function.

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

Esoteric -- I'll have more for you along the lines of "why did / didn't Palm do this" when the product is released to the public, which will be soon. I will say that an incredible amount of thought and preperation goes into every little feature and that Palm tests out specific features to see what you guys, our customers, prefer.

[JayCanuck]

@Alex H. at Edelman for Palm

Plz plz plz tell me there'll be some option to switch to the CES-style up-gesture.

Also, I'd LOVE to see the Pre on the Colbert Report, maybe an interview on Daily Show. Other than that, shows that seem to have the Pre-feel" to it that I could see it being used on would be: Bones, Supernatural, Smallville, Dollhouse, Fringe, CSI, Heroes, Tonight Show, maybe some Stargate appearance (I remember there was a lot of buzz with their repeated use of the Zodiac).

[Ecoteric]

@Alex H

PreCentral is on to this topic now!

http://www.precentral.net/did-palm-change-swipe-gesture-behavior-pre

I think you must alert Palm that people are displeased with the new demonstration of the 'swipe up' gesture!

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

JayCanuck -- we'll see at launch, my good man. And did you see this G4 piece that includes the Pre? Pretty cool.

http://g4tv.com/attackoftheshow/gadgetpr0n/66528/Chris-Hardwick-at-the-Cell-Phone-Convention.html

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

Esoteric -- saw that too. Palm is watching. Trust me.

[Bobby45]

As much as I really want to purchase the Pre, I will need some type of visual notification when I have a new message like my blackberry does.

[sonisoe]

1) most importantly is battery life given all this multi-apps running, and constant connection to the network 2) in all video clips i've seen, you have to "minimize" (central button) then swipe an app off the top of the screen to close it so it's a 2-step process, will there be a "close" virtual button in every app ? 3) since Pre has a good enough camera, how about auto focus ? 4) as mentioned above, since Pre has synergy, birthdays definitely need to be synced into Pre 5) landscape virtual keyboard for typing in a web-page, otherwise we'll have to rotate the phone portrait and pull up the keyboard, a bit cumbersome right ? 6) if we're going to have a video playback might as well video recording..... Pre is about simplicity, cool, productivity and so called "life-syncing" - Pre is a great phone already, with all these modifications thought of by us Palm fans, it will be one of the few best phones out there... hopefully next Palm will go into the full-fledged "multi-media" realm...

[Bahij]

I'm particularly interested with the Universal Search function. Would it be integrated with search-based application like a dictionary or Skyscape/medical application which definitely make searching amazingly easier. That would be very cool. Another thing is, is the search engines is customizable?

2ndly, would there be a release of higher capacity of storage or maybe a storage card slot for memory expansion? 8GB won't be enough for some heavy user.

3rdly, would there be a release of Palm Pre with the front camera for video calling? It would be a waste if it support a 3G function but no video calling.

[Ruth]

I'd LOVE to know if there are voice-dialing capabilities and a voice memo feature! ANYONE?

[sonisoe]

just wondering how does "synergy" work ? for example, if i am adding a friend to the contact list by keying his yahoo email in addition to his name of course, would synergy in the background/automatically connect to the web and search facebook, myspace, even yahoo to pull in his phone numbers or other info from these sites. dont have a facebook/my space or that kind of social networking, but i think you have to have an email to have a facebook, so the email can be the unique key to pull in info from facebook, myspace, etc.

[sonisoe]

how do you close an app in a single move on Pre? looks like you need to zoom-out and then swipe an app off the top of the screen.

also how do you type in a web-page when landscape, would Pre have a virtual keyboard albeit only at landscape for typing in a web page ?