Apps

It's Official: I'm Sticking with the Pre

Why I am keeping the Pre as my primary phone.

Today I decided to keep the Pre as my primary phone--beyond the term of this test drive. I sold my Blackberry Pearl (no tears shed there) and installed an Invisible Shield to protect the Pre I purchased 30 days ago today. This means that I am locked in to a 2 year contract for this Pre (unless, of course, I want to pay the buy-out).

Why I chose to stick with the Pre I purchased and not the "free" demo Pre I was given for this test drive … Read more

GPS on the Pre

There are 2 GPS applications on the Pre, the standard Google Maps application and a "Sprint Navigation" application. It appears that the Google Maps application is a generic application (available on most phones I believe) which can pinpoint your location, provide directions from that location, and display a variety of maps and detail. Sprint Navigation, on the other hand, while the maps may have less detail (like satellite view), is supposed to operate like a stand alone GPS system, providing turn by turn directions from your location. Unfortunately, the phone needs a good GPS signal to accomplish this, and it doesn't appear to be up to the task.… Read more

Home run derby game for iPhone goes on sale

I usually write about iPhone apps at the end of the week, but today (and only today) there is a sale on a game that is too good to pass up. In celebration of the MLB home-run derby and all-star game this week, developer's Com2uS have decided to have a 1-day sale on their extremely popular game Baseball Slugger 3D (usually $2.99). You can get the game today for only 99 cents and, after having played the game, I can tell you it is definitely more than worth the money.

I had initially passed over this title because … Read more

Text Messaging Interface-Off

Text messaging is becoming more and more common in today's world, even with the older generations. Texting is a convenient, quick, and reliable way of getting in contact with them. The Palm Pre did seem to take the colors and tried to mimmic the Iphone's but, less screen space gives you less to work with. The big question is since you have used both what do you prefer? "To start my review is going to be on the interface alone and not the way it is typed in since there are pros and cons for typing on … Read more

Google Voice coming to Android, BlackBerry

Google is ready to bring Google Voice to a place where it really makes the most sense: the smartphone.

Android and BlackBerry owners who are also Google Voice users will be able to use the service directly on their handsets starting Wednesday, said Vincent Paquet, senior product manager for Google Voice and a co-founder of GrandCentral, the product currently known as Google Voice. Google Voice, which is expected to be available at some point Wednesday, lets users assign a single number to ring their home, work, and cell phones, and also get voice mail messages as text transcriptions.

With the … Read more

A Carded Web

smIt is not uncommon for me to attempt to follow a sporting event while away from a radio, TV or home computer source. Up until now, I have relied on my phone, the Palm Centro, to keep me informed and for the most part it did a serviceable job. There were two main issues though, both of which I am extremely pleased to find out the Pre has solved.

First, whenever because the Centro's web browser would not auto-refresh, following sports required me to constantly refresh the page manually. In the Centro, using Opera Mini, I would have to … Read more

Developer: Apple blocking push on unlocked iPhones

Czech developer PoweryBase is claiming that Apple is intentionally blocking push notifications to users of unlocked iPhones.

PoweryBase, makers of several applications that use Apple's push notification service, said 80 percent of its customer support complaints are coming from a very small minority of its customers. All of these customers are using unlocked iPhones.

The developer explains that when a push application requests an ID from the Apple server, the iPhone receives a unique token. Once the token is received, push notifications proceed as you would expect. The process only takes a few seconds to complete.

However, PoweryBase says … Read more

iTunes not cutting it for podcasts? Try Mediafly for iPhone (it's free)

Ever since the mobile version of iTunes allowed podcast downloads, there's been reason to rejoice - on-the-fly podcast accessibility is better than ever, but it's still not great for managing subscriptions. For a limited time, Mediafly will be free for download for the iPhone and iPod Touch through the Apple App Store. Mediafly gives users access to video and audio podcasts across the internet. It also allows for downloads for offline listening on subways, a plus for big-city living. And it also accesses Digital City, so what's not to like?

Users can seamlessly create content channels via … Read more

App Store: 1.5 billion downloads in 1 year

While Apple still has a ways to go to be the dominant cell phone provider in the world, CEO Steve Jobs is comfortable with his lead in selling mobile applications.

Apple announced Tuesday that after a year in existence, its App Store has counted 1.5 billion downloaded applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch. In a press release, Jobs said, "The App Store is like nothing the industry has ever seen before in both scale and quality. With 1.5 billion apps downloaded, it is going to be very hard for others to catch up."

Indeed, the … Read more

Syncing the Pre with a Macbook Pro

About my experiences using a few of the most common syncing/file transfer options on the Pre.

I understand that the Palm profiles we create when we set up the Pre backs up certain device info; however, I have read at PreCentral that not everything is backed up. Since I am planning to return one of the two Pres I currently have in the next couple days, I was concerned about losing photos (primarily) that I had taken with my first Pre. This issue and my general curiosity prompted me to play with back-up and syncing options. Here's an article about this subject for further reading.

Syncing with iTunes

This process works pretty seamlessly. Aside from the fact that protected media (TV, video, games, and some music) won't sync, the Pre syncs with other content as an ipod would. That's been pretty well documented.

Using Pre as a USB Drive

This option, offered when you plug the Pre into your computer, is pretty nice for manually adding files to the Pre. I wanted to pick and choose certain pics from different files on my Macbook Pro, for example, and with my Pre connected as a USB drive, I could basically go through files and images and drag and drop the ones I wanted onto the Pre icon that appears on your desktop when you choose this option.

Syncing with "Missing Sync"

Prior to trying a corded sync last night, I had only attempted the automatic "proximity sync" with "Missing Sync" (Beta for Pre) and not had any luck--seems my Pre and Mac just wouldn't play together wirelessly. Last night, when I connected my Pre to my Macbook Pro, "Missing Sync" automatically launched and did its thing. I played with the settings and took a few screen captures so you could see how it works.