The reviews are in -- and just beginning

When the reviews for Palm’s new Pre phone started coming out, the reactions from folks here ranged from -- we’ll admit it -- just a little pride (“a smart, sophisticated product” – Walt Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal) to aw-shucks embarrassment (“a spectacular achievement…zero to 60 in one version” – David Pogue, The New York Times) to….well, frankly a few reviews left us pleasantly puzzled (“The Pre is the opposite of the mullet: Party in the front and business in the rear. We’ll make time for both.” -- Maxim).

And like the kudos we received when we unveiled Pre at CES in January, we appreciate the kind words (along with the constructive feedback). We also wanted to help make sure that you’d be hearing feedback from people who were learning how Pre fits into their lives after using it for a while. We asked for volunteers to become “Real Reviewers” – we provide the phone and the service, you provide your opinions. We heard from enough of you to populate a decent-sized city, and ultimately selected a cross-section of ten Real Reviewers who’ll be sharing their experiences on their favorite blogs and social networks.

You can meet the Real Reviewers on a discussion board on Palm’s Facebook page, where we’ll post links to keep you up to date on what they’re saying about the Pre, webOS, apps, accessories – and how it all fits into their lifestyles. For starters, here’s a review of the MotionApps “Classic” emulator that lets you run PalmOS apps on your Pre.

Thanks to all who applied for the Real Reviewers program! On the application questionnaire, we asked how you would describe yourself in a single word. Here’s a wordcloud summarizing the results -- you are truly a curious, busy, eclectic and awesome bunch of folks!

Jon Zilber

Comments

[hertzi]

Yes, great work, but don't sit back now.
The three most important steps now:

1. SDK
2. SDK
3. SDK

And please listen to the community, react fast.

thanks until now for this wonderful product

[Jesus Quesada]

Need bluetooth support for transferring photos. Also texting should allowed to be forwarded to multiple contacts. Also, phone should recognize a phone number written as a text and offer the option to make a phone call.

[Rick]

The "business in the rear" comment is appropriate, since the phone was released incompletely for business users. I was told that complete Exchange security features would be available within 60 days of launch. Can someone please verify this, and let those of us that are unable to purchase the phone because of its security limitations know whether or not it is worth waiting for this phone to be upgraded to something it should have been released with?

[Esteban from socialnerdia.com]

I'm one of the few Palm Real Reviewers. Thanks Palm! I will be posting my thoughts as they come via Twitter and starting next week on www.socialnerdia.com

[Mr O]

I want a GSM WebOS Palm!! For a Pre I'd take a golf glub, axe, or any other implement of destruction to my 16GB iPhone. For an EOS or other phone I'd just buy it as long as it was GSM and WebOS. I'm really sick and tired of Apple and don't want Windows in my pocket but need some sort of PDA functionality. And it'd be nice if it supported OBEX which the above comment concerns me.

[Bud Stein]

My Palm Pre will not play WMA files. Is that normal, or must I download something to make it play thes files?
Bud

[Marcos]

I would like to see adobe flash content on this phone. There is a lot of pros to having a phone that can open full html sites, but if you can't view video content on any of them that has adobe flash that is a big con. I think I'll stick to the iphone for now because of this small but major issue.

[Joseph P Teply]

Will this product ever make it to Verizon?? I have owned 3 other palm treo's and now nothing. The centro is way 2 small for me to use. I would like to see more apps, more memory, an SD card slot and better security.

Thanks,

JTep

[Peter Stenström]

Communication,
Why is it not possible to contact Palm via mail?
When can I obtain a Palm Pre for use in Sweden?

[Carl]

PALM SUCKS....its giggles and wiggles and not very sturdy..im returning it tomorrow.