Palm Pre Evangelist

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Gmail and Facebook Users: Time to Resign Yourself to Extra Contacts

We know the Palm Pre and webOS will pull contacts from three sources at launch: Google, Facebook, and Exchange. Actually, it should handle multiple Google and Exchange accounts -- hooray! All while automatically merging dupicate contacts into a single card and keeping your sync sources "siloed" so they don't infest each other with their data. Truly, Synergy is a wonderful system. Except for one little thing...

As a long-time Google Contacts user, I have a piece of news that's difficult to impart: get ready for your contacts list to get unnecessarily big. I've been using Google EAS mobile sync for multiple devices now and I can tell you: Google is aggressive at adding contact emails to you list. Even if you cull it regularly, it becomes messy.

It gets a bit more complicated with the Pre, as we're discovering in our forums. Turns out that the webOS syncs All Contacts instead of "My Contacts," meaning all those extra "suggested contacts" are included in your sync. Sure, you can delete them, but it's still messy.

Add in the fact that you can't delete Facebook contacts or choose which ones you want to sync to the Pre and you're looking at a pretty messy contacts list. Sure - you'll have few to no duplicates and that helps, but you're also going to have your great aunt Suzie who just joined Facebook last week and let's be honest: you'll never call her.

Of course, if you're just an Exchange user you likely won't run into these sorts of hassles, congratulations.

For the rest of you Google and Facebook users, however, I have a small piece of advice: Use Universal Search to find contacts and don't let the ballooning size of your Contact's list get to you. I've basically given up on having a contacts list of only the people I think I want in there. After years of therapy, I've come to accept that there are dozens (approaching hundreds) of people in my contacts that I'll never call, email, or IM.

All of which is why type-to-find/Universal Search is an essential feature for smartphones. Use Universal Search instead of scrolling through your contacts. Use Universal Search and just let those extras sit in there, they're not huritng you, are they? Use Universal Search and it'll be ok, I promise.

[Originally posted at precentral.net]

Examining Universal Search, finding companies and Twitter

So, Mr. InvisibleMan over at PalmPreForums.org is have way to much fun with his illegitimately-obtained Palm Pre emulator. And we’re fine with that, because as long as he’s having fun with it, we’re learning more about the Pre without actually having any to, you know, use. And the videos just keep coming. This time he’s hit up the much-touted Universal Search feature of webOS and discovered a few interesting things.

Twitter has been added to Universal Search, or at least that’s what the big Twitter button in the Universal Search window is telling me. Also, while we know that you can start off searching for an application or contact and can move on to a web search. But when you have an application or contact that matches what you’re searching for (say, I have President Obama’s contact info in my phone and want to see his Wikipedia page), all I have to do is hit the “Find…” bar and it will forcibly give me the web search options (Google, Google Maps, Wikipedia, and now Twitter).

Since it appears that the contacts application does not have the ability to categorize your contacts, we’re going to be in need of a way to narrow things down. If you have company information added into your contacts (President, United States of America for my Obama contact) you can search for that company and get all contacts that match that company. Carrying over from the old Palm OS Contacts application is the ability to search by initials - first name followed by last name (typing “boba” will bring up Barack Obama and Barry Obando).

Lastly, we get a look at how search works in other applications. In Memos searching will dig through the content of your notes, and in Messaging it will search by contact name. Unfortunately, these search capabilities are not integrated into the from-the-launcher Universal Search, but chances are if you’re doing a search, you will at least know in which application you intend to look.

See rest of InvisibleMan's Videos here

[Originally posted at precentral.net]

Monday, May 25, 2009

Leaked Palm Pre Gesture Guide lets you get some finger-flicking practice in early

Warm up that last aftermarket inkjet cartridge you've been milking for the past two years: we've got a leaked copy of the Palm Pre Gesture Guide, a handy little brochure that's sure to make you a professional app-switcher in minutes. Not many surprises, but it's a nice little refresher to run through while you wait for your sleeping bag to get back from the cleaners.

Please find the Gallery here

[Originally posted at gsmarena.com]

Sunday, May 24, 2009

O2 follows iPhone success with deal for next must-have gadget

Britain's largest mobile phone operator sees off Vodafone and Orange in fight to stock Palm Pre

O2 is set to follow up its success with the iPhone in the UK by grabbing an exclusive deal to stock the device that gadget fans reckon is the closest thing to a real competitor to the Apple device, the Palm Pre.

The UK's largest mobile phone operator, with more than 20 million customers, is understood to have seen off fierce competition for the new handset from Vodafone and Orange, and it will be available in the UK in time for the crucial Christmas period.

Palm, which popularised handheld computers called personal digital assistants (PDAs) such as the Palm Pilot in the 1990s, is hoping that the Pre will get it back into the lucrative market for smartphones, having lost out to rivals including Nokia and RIM, maker of the BlackBerry. Though the recession has brought overall growth in mobile phone sales to a spluttering halt, demand for high-end devices that can access the internet, send emails and play music, as well as allow calling and texting, has proved more resilient.

Last week, Palm announced that the Pre will be available in the US from next month under an exclusive deal with mobile network Sprint, for $199.99 (£129) on a two-year contract. Stocks of the device are limited, however, which is why gadget fans outside the US will have to wait several months before it becomes available.

As well as a touchscreen that reviewers have compared favourably with that found on the iPhone, the Pre has a slide-out full qwerty keyboard, making emails easier to type than on the Apple device. It also has an eye-catching way of recharging: rather than being plugged in, it has to be placed on what Palm calls its Touchstone and charges through magnetic induction.

For O2, who refused to comment, getting the Palm Pre will add another must-have gadget at a time when Apple is expected to open up the iPhone to other operators in the original four markets – the US, UK, France and Germany – where it initially opted for exclusive deals.

Expanding the number of operators able to stock the iPhone comes as a new model is unleashed on the market. Apple is also expected to unveil a new version of the handset within the next few months, possibly as early as early June, at its worldwide developers conference in San Francisco next month. That event is also expected to provide the first sight of Apple's latest device, a tablet computer that would bridge the gap between the iPhone and iPod Touch and its laptops.

The iPhone has already sparked a host of copycat touchscreen devices – from the Nokia 5800 and X-Series Walkman to the HTC Magic and G1, both of which run Google's new Android operating system – and more are expected as the year progresses. RIM is understood to have developed a new version of its BlackBerry Storm touchscreen device that its US partner Verizon Wireless, part-owned by Vodafone, is expected to launch next month. Though the original Storm, which Vodafone and Verizon had under an exclusive deal, has sold well, it received a poor critical reception.

The new version does away with one of the original device's most annoying features – SurePress, which required the user to press down the screen in order to type or select icons – and opts instead for a traditional touchscreen feel.

Thanks Richard Wray.

[Originally posted at guardian.co.uk]

Palm Pre Pre-Orders to Corporate Customers?

An anonymous tipster has let us know that he's received an offer to pre-order the Palm Pre under a one of a few programs Sprint has set up for large, Fortune-100-type corportations. These programs are often run by intermediary companies, so it's still unclear whether they'll get guaranteed stock and whether they're offering actual pre-orders or the more standard sign-up-to-be-notified type offers.

The order page for IBM doesn't indicate that it's a true, you're gonna get one, kind of Pre-order, but when you get an email that states "We are currently taking Pre Orders for the Palm Pre," it seems promising. We've also heard from an anonymous AIG employee that the custom purchasing site for them also features the Pre quite prominently in a sort of pre-order context, bu again it's still not entirely clear it's an actual pre-order.

On the consumer front, we've received more than a handful of reports from people who say their local Sprint store managers have taken their names for a waiting list. Sprint's official line is that it'll be a strictly first-come-first-served affair, however, so getting a guaranteed Pre on launch day could be pretty difficult. It seems clear that there will be lots of different policies store-by-store as different managers try to deal with the massive interest in the Pre. At least some of our Palm Pre Forum Members have head claims that they'll be able to pre-order the Pre.

If inventory levels are going to be as thin as the current rumors indicate, we expect that folks will take any angle they can get to grab one. What's your launch day plan?

[Originally posted at precentral.net]

Palm Pre Emulator Up on Video

The InvisibleMan of PalmPreForum.org has posted up a series of videos of the Palm Pre Emulator. Almost all the videos are here ,It is going to work exactly as it will on the Pre, ex. the emulator doesn't support multitouch while the Pre itself does. Still and all, if you're looking to get your weekend Palm Pre video fix on, this is a good place to start.

See more videos inside

Palm Pre: Browser