Thankfully, that headline isn't actually the title of a book about Palm Pre; it's the titles of four books squished together.
Palm Pre: The Missing Manual, by USA TODAY's personal tech columnist Ed Baig, shows you how to do more with your Palm Pre -- everything from using Synergy to combine all your contacts, calendars and emails to amping up its media player capabilities.
Don't let the title fool you: Even braniacs might learn a thing or two from Engadget's Chris Ziegler in Palm Pre For Dummies. The book brings you 17 chapters of Palm Pre goodness on topics like managing apps or a deep dive on browsing the web.
Coming soon are two more titles available for pre-order:
- How to Do Everything Palm Pre, from longtime co-authors and self-proclaimed humorists Rick Broida and Dave Johnson. Their collective enthusiasm and experience bring a fresh take to Pre, its apps and accessories.
- My Palm Pre, in which gadget guru Joe Hutsko guides you one step at a time through everything you'll want to do with your Palm Pre.
Jon Zilber
Can I just say as someone who bought a Palm Pre (first new cell in 5 years BTW) shortly after it came out (and already had to have it replaced because they couldn't get the phone to come out of headset mode) I still love the phone and I'm glad I have it.
Now that I've qualified that, I want to say that the single biggest INSULT I had was that the only owners book you could get was a almost 400 page pdf document that printed 1/10th size pages - so printing it out was both difficult and very wasteful.
Well today this post shows that that Palm can in fact add insult to injury. Not only will they not provide you with a reasonable book on how to use you multi-hundred dollar investment, but now they want to give the book rights away to people so if you really do want the book, you can be good enough to buy it and let someone else get rich while Palm gets part of the profits.
As much as I like my Pre, I'm never buying one of their products again.
Posted by: Tom R | November 09, 2009 at 02:09 PM
I bet the French translations of these books come out here in France before the telephone itself does...
Posted by: CRG | November 10, 2009 at 04:45 AM
Tom R,
Pretty much NO hardware or software comes with printed manuals anymore. I can't recall the last time I paged through a book to learn about my phone/computer hardware/software. It's seriously been YEARS.
How much is the book? 20 bucks? Just grab it and enjoy.
Oh, and by the way--the "missing manual" series covers loads of products by lots of manufacturers. No one is "selling rights" to earn ca$h.
I don't work for or speak for Palm, but geez! Don't be so angry.
Posted by: Chris | November 10, 2009 at 08:48 AM
I'm excited to see these books but wouldn't it be soooo cool if Palm gave those of us who paid a few hundred bucks this past summer, and switched service providers to do so, an Amazon discount for one of these books? Just a little something. So we don't get discouraged. I'm not a gadget head so it's taking me a while to figure out what to buy and use.
Posted by: blaugra | November 23, 2009 at 11:25 AM
BATTERY LIFE - this is the worst phone battery life I have ever experienced - sold as a full function, good for business phone with such a short battery life - simply not acceptable
Posted by: jim dougan | December 03, 2009 at 02:49 PM
I have to agree with chris's comment. I spent a small fortune on my Pres this summer and still doing so. There is not enough that Palm or Sprint can do to make it easier and cheaper for their customers to use these phones to their full potential. I'm a wannabe gadget head but will settle for a well informed user. Seriously, I love my Pre, but I'd really love being a more proficient user.Focus on educating your customers and making the learning experience as easy as possible.You can only benefit from it.
Posted by: Doug | December 06, 2009 at 04:14 PM
My wife and I are test driving Palm Pre's and will probably go with them through SPRINT. Very impressive hardware and functionality. However, we have noticed that the device seems to get quite warm (presume that it is the battery) during continued use. Is that unusual or typical of the Palm Pre? Thanks,
Posted by: Foster Perry | December 07, 2009 at 01:00 PM
Please advertise the Palm Pre more on TV by actually showing the phone and how it works.
Posted by: Tanya H | January 01, 2010 at 09:11 PM
For some reason my phone quite ringing. The instruction manual says to toggle the on/off switch under the ring/sounds setting - only I don't have an on/off - mine doesn't look the manual. It says vibrate and it says ring/vibrate on the two settings, but you can't switch on/off. Any ideas?
Posted by: Patrice | January 06, 2010 at 08:37 AM
Patrice, the ringer on-off switch is actually a physical switch on the top of the Pre next to the power switch. The toggle really does work; I had to do it the first day I had my Pre and it worked wonders.
Posted by: Karen | January 31, 2010 at 12:40 PM
Why do I have to pay for a publication to figure out how to use my Pre. Guess I am old school, you buy something and it comes with instructions on how to use it!
The booklets that come with the phone tell you NOTHING. What a disappointmenT
Posted by: Thomas | August 18, 2010 at 08:26 PM