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Dr. Horrible, your Pre is ready!

Ptrope

Ptrope

Agitator
Admiral
Just saw this on Precentral.net, regarding the launch of the Palm Pre (June 6!); apparently, someone there is a Dr. Horrible fan:

It's a Brand New Day!

The Pre has the technology to be an iPhone killer, but being tied to Sprint will probably hold it back a lot, as well as the overwhelming advantage of the iPhone store. Still, as soon as an unlocked GSM version becomes available, I'm sure a lot of people will be switching; my trusty Treo's days are numbered! :)
 
Does the Pre have a compatibility mode to run the 10+ years worth of PalmOS programs? Because if it does, that's a selling point right there. I love my Palm Centro and the myriad programs I have on it. :)
 
It's cheaper, can multitask, and is suitable both for business and casual users. At least, that's what the target is--doing away with the notion that you have to have an iPhone and a Blackberry, as some people apparently do. The Pre intends to do it all.
 
The Pre is a compelling device but surely not enough to make me to switch to Sprint.
 
Yeah, pretty much all Sprint has going for it is the fastest 3G network available in the US.

I use them but I've found their customer service to be incredibly incompetent, so once I get my phone and plan how I like it I try not to mess with it, for fear of their customer service morons screwing it up somehow.
 
Robert Maxwell said:
Does the Pre have a compatibility mode to run the 10+ years worth of PalmOS programs? Because if it does, that's a selling point right there. I love my Palm Centro and the myriad programs I have on it. :)
Click to expand...
Yes, there is a compatibility app that allows you to run classic PalmOS apps on the Pre: Classic.

I definitely want a Pre, but I don't want to switch back to Sprint, so I'm going to have to wait until their exclusive license expires and a U.S. GSM version is available. Beyond that, I'm hoping some developer will fill the gaping - and glaring - hole that is the inability to sync with the desktop. This is one of the most frequent requests I've seen for the Pre, and one they have offered no response to; Palm is pushing "Synergy," the Pre's ability to sync with most of your data in the 'cloud,' saying that desktops are no longer the 'authoritative' source of our information, but for me and thousands like me, it is; I use my Treo as a mobile copy of my desktop data, and sync the two based on that purpose. I also create notes and tasks on my Treo that I only want copied on my desktop, not into the 'cloud' - I'm not convinced of the 'cloud's' security and don't want my docs ending up in someone else's hands.
 
Isn't the whole idea of the "cloud" precisely that your data is always in someone else's hands? I mean, most people don't have their own servers to put all their data on, and keep it securely locked away. The only reason we have the "cloud" in the first place is because so many people don't want to learn how to put their own data online in a secure way, and don't want to shell out the money it would take in order to do it themselves.

But me, I'm a freak. I keep my stuff on my own server. :)
 
:cardie:
Robert Maxwell said:
Does the Pre have a compatibility mode to run the 10+ years worth of PalmOS programs? Because if it does, that's a selling point right there. I love my Palm Centro and the myriad programs I have on it. :)
Click to expand...

I don't believe it does. Some people may be working on an app for it but I don't believe it does natively.

Robert Maxwell said:
It's cheaper, can multitask, and is suitable both for business and casual users. At least, that's what the target is--doing away with the notion that you have to have an iPhone and a Blackberry, as some people apparently do. The Pre intends to do it all.
Click to expand...

It isn't cheaper. It's $299, down to $199 with a mail-in (who does that anymore?) rebate.
 
Robert Maxwell said:
Isn't the whole idea of the "cloud" precisely that your data is always in someone else's hands?
Click to expand...
It may not be the 'idea' of the cloud, but it's certainly the reality of it. I don't consider myself a Luddite of any sort, but I just don't see the benefit of having my data always available if it's under someone else's control - for that matter, I think we've gone overboard, as a culture, in creating this perception that we need to be constantly in contact with our data (rather than each other, in many cases). The ease with which we can now be constantly "on call" is not, IMHO, a good idea - I work, I live, and I want those two to be kept separate; I told my company I would not use a laptop for exactly that reason, because I was not going to be 'at work' 24-7 (unless they wanted to pay me that equivalent, of course ;)).

Having access to my contacts from the cloud? Great! It'll be nice to have my G-mail and all my other contacts, incl. Facebook, MySpace and every other, immediately available. But my writing, which I do on my Treo when I'm away from my desktop, I want to keep separated from the cloud, and still synchronized so I always have the latest version, without any concern that it has been hacked, copied or lost by someone else's intervention, and that sort of security strikes me as an unusual issue for Palm to so lightly dismiss. It's one thing to offer flexibility and 'synergy,' another entirely to tell your users that they will have to do things your way or no way. If they can't offer a USB-connected Palm Desktop or equivalent, the very least we need to see is an app that allows a VPN connection to our desktop PC.
 
Ptrope said:
Robert Maxwell said:
Isn't the whole idea of the "cloud" precisely that your data is always in someone else's hands?
Click to expand...
It may not be the 'idea' of the cloud, but it's certainly the reality of it. I don't consider myself a Luddite of any sort, but I just don't see the benefit of having my data always available if it's under someone else's control - for that matter, I think we've gone overboard, as a culture, in creating this perception that we need to be constantly in contact with our data (rather than each other, in many cases). The ease with which we can now be constantly "on call" is not, IMHO, a good idea - I work, I live, and I want those two to be kept separate; I told my company I would not use a laptop for exactly that reason, because I was not going to be 'at work' 24-7 (unless they wanted to pay me that equivalent, of course ;)).

Having access to my contacts from the cloud? Great! It'll be nice to have my G-mail and all my other contacts, incl. Facebook, MySpace and every other, immediately available. But my writing, which I do on my Treo when I'm away from my desktop, I want to keep separated from the cloud, and still synchronized so I always have the latest version, without any concern that it has been hacked, copied or lost by someone else's intervention, and that sort of security strikes me as an unusual issue for Palm to so lightly dismiss. It's one thing to offer flexibility and 'synergy,' another entirely to tell your users that they will have to do things your way or no way. If they can't offer a USB-connected Palm Desktop or equivalent, the very least we need to see is an app that allows a VPN connection to our desktop PC.
Click to expand...

Very good points. This is why my participation in the "cloud" is pretty minimal. Other than Gmail, I'm not sure I keep much of my data in anyone else's hands as a reliable way of getting to it.

And my job is the kind where you are expected to be on the clock, 24/7. But they are also a bit old-fashioned about it. They will call you into the office rather than have you telecommute, so it has to be a huge emergency before they go that far.

At my last job, though, I'd get called at all hours of the night depending on what the problem was, and I'd have to work on it from home unless I really wanted to drive into the office. Either way, I was at their beck and call 24 hours a day. Ah, the life of a salary worker.
 
Good news! Now that the Pre is 'in the wild,' a couple of apps have been announced as due shortly, that will allow one to sync the Pre directly with either Outlook or the Palm Desktop.

I figured this would happen - it's just a shame that they weren't announced and ready the day the Pre went on sale. Not that it probably affected sales - they were undersupplied generally, and it appears that pretty much every Pre available for sale this weekend was sold.

Now all we need is an unlocked GSM model - my sole bar to entry is Sprint. :bolian:
 
Supposedly after 6 months they will be releasing on other carriers.

I'm going to fiddle around with it some later today but it def. looks good so far.
 
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