Palm Pre Bugs Roundup + FIXES

It’s not uncommon for a newly released device show signs of bugs.  The Palm Pre is no exception.  Several bugs have recently  been discovered within 2 days of the Palm Pre launch.  We’ll keep a running updated list of bugs as they’re reported.

• Screen discoloration:  Some Palm Pre owners are reporting a discolored portion of their screen and possibly dead pixels. 
• Symbols problem:  This issue is affecting all Palm Pres.  You cannot insert symbols into a web-based form through the Palm Pre web browser.  Quite annoying for users who have symbols in a password they’re trying to enter online.
• Extremely slow photo album: When viewing photos, it takes forever to load a single picture.  Seems to be intermittent could be a potentially corrupt group of photos that needs to be deleted then re-added to the Pre.
• Restart/Shutdown Issues:  Some are reporting that the Pre shutdown while the keyboard is out. 

                    -FIX-

• CAUSE:  Battery doesn’t make full contact with battery contacts when keyboard slides out.
• WORKAROUND:  Place a piece of paper between the top portion of battery to sort of push the battery downwards forcing it to make keep touching the battery contacts (via PreCentral).  This should buy you some time until the Sprint has a better quantity of replacement Palm Pres.

For the other issues, don’t panic Pre lovers all of the aforementioned issues can be resolved with a software update (except for the screen discoloration issue which seems more like a hardware issue).  You can also rest assured that Palm isn’t going to ignore these issues and risk bad publicity so soon on their “iPhone-Killer”.

Are you experiencing any bugs not listed here?  Please submit your bug in the comments section and stay tuned as we’ll be updating this list regularly.

Palm Pre wireless charger, Touchstone. Not so wireless after all.

For the readers keeping abreast of the upcoming Palm Pre Smartphone to be released by Palm, you've probably heard of the Touchstone wireless charging device for the Palm Pre. At first I was pretty excited about it. I mean when you hear the word wireless, you assume that to mean no wires right?

Well apparently Palm doesn't see it the same way. First off the charger (which looks like a hockey puck) sits on your desk/table and requires the charger you would normally plug directly into your Palm Pre, to be plugged into the Touchstone charger. At that point you can just slap your phone on the Touchstone charger which will hold your phone in place using magnets. Oh, but not before you purchase the inductive back cover to replace your shiny black cover to allow for the inductive charging without scratching up your nice shiny back cover.

The idea is neat, I guess. I mean but how is this really any different from having a phone cradle? You know like the cordless phone cradle/dock/charging station? The only difference I see is magnets hold your phone to the actual base.

Also cordless phones tend to have the metal prongs on the base of the cradle and the phone. I still fail to see where all this “innovative”, “first wireless charger” stuff is coming from. Inductive charging is nothing new. It’s the same technology used to charge your electric toothbrush. The basic idea, is nothing new. So what’s all the hype about?

I will say that according to Palm the phone can be used while charging, and if the phone rings while on the base, it can answer in speakerphone mode automatically. And if you pick it up off the base while in speakerphone mode it will switch to handset mode. WOW! Now that’s innovation. Not!

So I told myself I would buy one when it came out. That’s when I was stupid enough to believe that this charger wouldn’t cost more than a typical charger. Boy was I wrong. They want $69.99 just so you can say “look what I can do, look what I can do”. There’s no real value other than the wow factor. It should also be noted that several sources across the web have stated inductive charging is 10-15% less efficient. Hey, but it still looks cool.

Why the Palm Pre may knock the iPhone off it's throne.

Unless you've been under a rock (or you're my wife). Then you know all about the upcoming Palm Pre smart phone poised to knock the iPhone off it's throne and revive one of the companies that put the smart in smart phone.



The iPhone is no doubt one of the best phones out. I recall early on I was totally against the iPhone and even told my friends not to buy it. I told them it was a bunch of hype and that Windows Mobile was where it's at! Boy was I wrong. One day I decided to go to the AT&T store and try one out. I was sold as soon as I launched Safari and got a real web experience complete with gestures to make browsing the web on a phone actually useful. We can thank Apple for finally bringing a real web experience to cell phone users and for getting everyone else to follow suit. I've had the original iPhone and now the 3G iPhone. We (my iPhone and I) have a love/hate relationship. I love many things, and hate others (i.e. no copy and paste, though it's finally a feature being added in the iPhone 3.0 update slated for June). Then I got tired of Apple and their dictatorship with the App store. Limiting what apps were available and what those apps are allowed to do.



I decided to switch back to Windows Mobile going for an HTC Touch HD. But you know what? I ended up going right back to the iPhone. Why? Well the experience on the iPhone is smooth, the Apps are useful and gorgeous, and Windows Mobile is outdated compared to the iPhone OS. Plain and simple. So why can't a single smart phone maker combine all the things we want into one phone, and one OS. To make a killer phone (something to compete with the iPhone) you need to talk to people, get a list of needs and wants and combine them into a nice package and call it the Palm Pre?



Maybe. The Palm Pre takes the best of Windows Mobile and the iPhone and puts them together in a nicely integrated and polished package. The Palm Pre has a touch screen and a QWERTY keyboard for those business users or chronic texters that must have a keyboard. It also has all the touch screen goodness of an iPhone, and like the iPhone has a capacitive touch screen instead of a resistive touch screen. That is what makes the iPhone touch screen so responsive and smooth. It has a slick WebOS interface. It multitasks (settle down kids), a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a replaceable battery. Hey Apple, why couldn't you make a 3.5mm headphone jack and replaceable battery? Oh yeah I forgot, you like to stick it to the consumer every chance you get.




Another feature that stands out (and is often talked about) are the unobtrusive notifications built into WebOS. Basically when you're working in/on something with the phone, any alert, call, email, or instant message will not interrupt you, but rather pop up in a small window beneath what you're working on . This keeps you focused on what you're doing instead of taking over the screen with a call or alert. Good job Palm. There's nothing more irritating than surfing the web on your phone and being kicked off the web because some jerk decided to call you on your cell phone. How dare they call you on a cell phone who does that?



From every video and news report I've seen, I'm impressed. I think this is the first real iPhone contender. I think many have tried to develop a phone that could really compete with the iPhone but failed. Some did miserably, and some did ok. But when you're running something like rusty, clunky, Windows Mobile behind the scenes, it really doesn't matter what interface you slap over top of it it's still just Windows Mobile...I'm talking to you HTC!



Windows Mobile is behind the curve and is losing ground daily. Android in my opinion has been a disappointment, I think the hardware isn't compelling enough. There's a lot to be worked out. Symbian? I don't review Symbian. Apple iPhone OS is the one to beat at this time and I think the Palm Pre might just do it. If they don't beat out Apple they'll surely give them a run for the money. Only time will tell. A key part of making the Palm Pre a success is the application development. Palm has released their Palm Pre SDK called Mojo. Let's see if developers take to the Pre like they did to the iPhone.

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Some Palm Pre highlights and specifications.

Operating system
Palm® webOS™

Network specs
3G EVDO Rev A

Display
3.1-inch touch screen
24-bit color
320x480 resolution
HVGA display

Keyboard
Physical QWERTY keyboard

Email
Microsoft Outlook® email with Microsoft® Direct Push Technology
POP3/IMAP (Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, etc)

Messaging
Integrated IM, SMS, and MMS

GPS
Built-in GPS

Digital camera
3 megapixel camera
LED flash
extended depth of field

Sensors
Ambient light
accelerometer
proximity

Media formats supported
Audio Formats: MP3, AAC, AAC+, AMR, QCELP, WAV

Video Formats: MPEG-4, H.263, H.264
Image Formats: GIF, Animated GIF, JPEG, PNG, BMP

Wireless connectivity
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g with WPA, WPA2, 801.1x authentication
Bluetooth® 2.1 + EDR with A2DP stereo Bluetooth support

Memory
8GB of user storage (~7.4GB user available)
USB mass storage support

Phone as laptop modem
Bluetooth tethering

Connector
MicroUSB connector with USB 2.0 Hi-Speed

Headphone jack
3.5mm stereo

Palm® Touchstone™charging dock
Compatible

Dimensions
Width: 59.5mm (2.3 inches)
Height: 100.5mm (3.9 inches)
Thickness: 16.95mm (0.67 inches)
Weight: 135 grams (4.76 ounces)