General

Sounds and Ringtones

One disappointment for me with my Pre is the lack of customization in ringtones. I doubt that I'm the only person who's boundaries between work and personal life have become increasingly blurred... especially when it comes to communication.

The Sounds and Ringtones options allows you to select a ringtone, set it's volume, whether it vibrates when it rings and whether you want it to make a noise with system sounds.

The 'ringer' is fairly standard in terms of functionality. You can select one of a few predefined ringers, or add your own ringer. You can also set … Read more

Traveling with the Pre: Good Phone, Weak Support

About my experiences traveling to Canada with the Palm Pre.

Because it is summer and I work on an academic calendar, I have been traveling a good bit for fun since I got the Pre. In the short time since I purchased my first Pre, I have been to Toronto, Canada; Washington, DC; and Bethany Beach, Delaware. The trips to DC and DE have so far been uneventful phone-wise. I may have more to report in a few days.

The trip to Canada, however, was a bit more complicated.

Traveling to Canada

I got my first Pre three days before … Read more

Touchstone Charger, Does It Really Work?

The Touchstone charger is great in theory and a nice little take a look at what my Pre can do Iphone type of moment hahaha. but the question is does it actually work effectively? Thanks to my buddy at Best Buy for getting me the Touchstone charger so I could do a review for you all. I got as much light in the room as possible so sorry about the darker image on the video but you can still make it out without strain. Through some testing it was clear as day to see that the Touchstone charger took about 45 minutes longer to charge than straight usb. This is a bummer since you don't want to be waiting forever to charge your device. The reason that I will still be using is because it's wireless, great for having on my beds headboard, and makes turning off alarms easier in the morning. (not sure if the alarm thing is good though) Below is a video of it in action with some of the features explained a little more To make it quick for those that don't have access to videos here's a quick sum-up of the video review. There are two different kits for the Touchstone, you have the basic one which includes the docking station and the battery cover for the device. Than there is a 89.99 version that also includes new outlet plug and usb cord. The docking station has a very interesting feeling grip on the bottom, through some research I found out that they designed it after the gecko's paw so it could be placed anywhere without fear of falling. The reason for the battery cover involves a little science, the science of magnets. The new battery cover has a matte black finish with a rubbery, grippy feel, on the inside of the battery cover you will find four circles which are actually magnets. These magnets are attracted to the one in the docking station holding the phone in place. The whole wireless feature is a plus, but if plugging in the usb doesn't bother you I personally would stay with that route since the touchstone charger does seem to charge the battery at a slower rate.… Read more

Burn, Baby, Burn! GPS Inferno

I've used the Sprint Navigation feature 3 times now. I've never had a GPS device before. The first time was from San Francisco to Menlo Park. It went smoothly; I missed my last turn and the GPS recalculated quickly, and it handled navigation in the business park's small parking lot. The second time was for a trip from San Francisco to South San Francisco to the FedEx distribution center. This was a shorter trip and the parking lot was much bigger than on the first trip, but it got me there in one piece. … Read more

Charging and USB

The charger and USB cable of the Pre are pretty well designed, and make charging and connecting to your Pre pretty easy and pleasant.

The charger is essentially a USB cable that plugs into a neat Palm base, so you can use the cable either for plugging into your computer or into the charger. The one end is standard USB for plugging into the charger or computer, and the end that plugs into the computer is a micro-usb I believe. The same connector that is on newer blackberry's (I haven't tried interchanging the power cables, I'm sufficiently … Read more

What I Like Most and My Wishlist for New Features

As promised, today's post will cover what I like most about the Palm Pre and features I wish the phone had that it currently doesn't (a.k.a. what I dislike).

What I Like Most

My favorite feature of the Palm Pre is multitasking. The card format for multiple applications is very user-friendly. Navigating between multiple cards is simple and intuitive: swipe up to go to card view, tap the background while in card view to minimize the cards and see more on the screen at once, swipe left to scroll among open apps, and tap the card … Read more

Keyboard Shortcuts Galore!

Keyboard shortcuts make a huge difference in time it takes you to navigate the internet and other files on your computer. So why not have them on a Palm Pre? Thanks to milominderbinde from www.precetral.net who made possible. He has compiled a huge list of the many shortcuts and special features that the Pre does have to offer. I have reviewed and went through the vast majority of these and have found them to all work thus far. To me these aren't just occasional use items but more than less everyday helpers that save lots of time when navigating your device. New Highlights: * Now with over 225 Tips, Tricks, and Hidden Features in six pages * How to send a text to multiple recipients * Missing Basic Features * Protecting your Pre * How to see what software releases you have, memory available, real signal strength in dbm, etc. * How to cut out a section of an mp3 to make the perfect ringtone. There are literally hundreds of threads on the PreCentral Forums with tips and tricks to help you get the most from your Palm Pre. But how do you sort through it all? Bookmark this thread in your Pre for a constantly updated listing. Download the PDF file below for graphics, links and diagrams on your PC. Some Highlights from the attached Palm Pre Tips and Trick PDF Version 1.0: * 101 Tips & Tricks are summarized in this first draft. * The Tips & Tricks are sorted into categories so that they are easier to find. * Many are from the 344-page user guide that is not included with the Pre. * Graphics are included to show which buttons to use. * The Palm diagrams are included to show where everything is.… Read more

The Calendar

I like the calendar that comes with the Pre. For a few days I was a little irritated that only the time was shown on the home screen (unless the screen was locked, then you saw both the date and the time), but then I realized that the calendar icon in the quick launch bar contains the day. (Insert Homer Simpson "DOH!" here.) … Read more

"Synergy" - Using Email, Calendar and Contacts

I've been mostly pleased with my access to my work and personal email accounts. After setting up my email (my previous blog - LINKTEXTHERE), I was able to dive right into my email. Both my Gmail and Exchange mail started coming right in. From the email interface, it presents each of your email accounts (I have only 2 here). From each email account, you can select 'Favorite' mail folders which will have shortcuts at the top of the screen (I'm just using my inbox's). Additionally, you can click(touch) the arrow next to each account and you'll be presented all of the folders available within that account. It took no additional work on my end, it was able to easily pull in all of my folders from each account. Fully utilizing the Pre's "Synergy", you can have an 'all email' view, displaying email from each account in one view. I've chosen not to see this as I prefer to keep my email seperate.

The email client also renders HTML email very well to my surprise. I've seen a number of phones claiming to be able to view HTML email, especially for Exchange 2007, but I haven't actually been able to view html email in exchange yet. I began to assume my work blocked that ability for some reason. However, full HTML versions of email come through clearly and immediately, and look great, as you can see in the graphics above. Additionally, you can zoom in and out as needed with the "pinching" gestures on the screen. Additionally, replying and forwarding email appears to work flawlessly (yes, this has been an issue on other phones), and includes the original HTML message.

The only complaint that I have about the email is that from the main email screen, where you can scroll through and choose emails to open. Unfortunately, this is really the only thing you can do in this screen. I haven't found an intuitive way to search or sort my email, so if I want to find something specific, I have to scroll and scroll and scroll to try to catch what I'm looking for. I would also love to see a feature where I can 'press and hold' an item (equivalent to right-clicking) to bring up the option to do something with the highlighted message like delete, mark as unread, or something of the sort. Right now, you can only do this by opening the message.

… Read more