New "Meet Pre" video demonstrates new functionality, incredible calming effect
By Paul Miller 
posted Feb 15th 2009 10:09AM
posted Feb 15th 2009 10:09AM
posted Feb 15th 2009 10:09AM
Number of applications downloaded from the iPhone App Store
After hitting a historic 1 billion downloads, Apple says the store cleared another half a billion apps in the following three months.
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How about that DRAG of the appointment, how cool is THAT, huh? cant wait...
you should mention that in the article too btw.
I'm not sure if I like that. What if you're trying to drag the page down to see later appointments and you grasp onto something and drag it down inadvertently? But yeah, I'm sure that's an option somewhere. Palm has always actually been pretty good about usability options.
Actually, looking at it again, it seems like you have to hold your finger on it for awhile before you can drag it. That works for me.
I just love sleekness of this UI. Only thing I need with this phone is for Skyfire to make their browser accessible, give me a 3G GSM version, and put it on AT&T by July (upgrade), and I will be a happy man...but my dreams can only go so far =(
You do realize that this has a Webkit based browser that will at the very least equal the iPhone's, right? Why would you want Skyfire?
Skyfire supports server side delivery of multimedia content, which is actually one of the reasons Safari on the iPhone blows- no Flash or any other embedded content support.
Opera and other mobile browers (like the new IE actually) are starting to roll out flash support, but its still on the limited side.
Skyfire will stream any content (flash, quicktime, WMV, etc) and render complicated pages in seconds due to the server-side compression.
Well someone answered it for me.
Case and point...Safari browser is really applauded for its EASE of use, not its abilities. Safari is crap compared to the likes of Opera and especially Skyfire. Skyfire is literally like taking your computer web browser and putting it onto your phone. I can go to YouTube (not the bull seperate App that is on the iPhone and others) and watch the embedded video...can go to Yahoo Music and watch streaming video...Hulu...ESPN...hell, if I wanted, could go to BigBoobies.com, pay for a subscription, and watch my porn live and streaming! It does what no other browser can do. And with the new 0.9 update, its even more user friendly, text is more viewable no matter which zoom level, and you're able to download streaming video onto your phone (if I read it correctly).
So to answer your question in laymans term, I want Skyfire because every other mobile browser blows compared to this. And what makes it even better...this is still just a BETA version. I can just imagine what the final product will be capable of!
I guess that makes sense. I use Skyfire on my current q9c only because Pocket IE sucks so much, and I'm not actually a big fan of Skyfire either, though it is better than any alternatives for WM Standard. It takes about 40 seconds to actually load the application, and I really don't have much use for embedded media. That being said, I know the content is limited, but I prefer a separate application for Youtube, etc, simply because its faster that way, and also more easily browsed.
Though it is rumored that the Pre will have Flash support before release or shortly after, we'll see on that one.
Though I'm not sure I agree that Skyfire is "taking your PC's browser and putting it on a mobile phone". Personally, I'd rather have text actually be text rather than just pictures sent to the phone by a server. I'd gladly take the copy and paste of text on a webpage that the Pre will have, for example. Besides that, I'm not a fan of having an extra server between the website I'm accessing and my phone. I'd much rather have it as directly as possible, both for privacy reasons, and because I'm on unlimited EVDO, getting over 500kbps 90% of the time, other than for the media content you've already mentioned, why would I want whatever page I'm viewing to be compressed by the server if the processor is fast enough to actually render the page itself (admittedly, my current phone doesn't have a processor fast enough from that, but the Pre's Cortex A8 CPU will).
Yeah, I understand you. Different likes for different people. I just like being able to whip out my phone and show off a video. For instance, at work I always showed them a new Presidential skit from SNL. Jus nice to have that ability. And I have the MotoQ Global on AT&T...it is fast enough to process a page actually quicker than my roommates iPhone 3G. But i dont know.
But as said, I fully understand your point of view. For you a simpler browser fits, you have no need for the Skyfire. (But also, just to see...have you upgraded to the current 0.90 build?)
Yeah, I'm on the newest build. The newer ones start up faster and the text is more readable, but its still not nearly fast enough. And hopefully the rumors of Flash on the Pre are true, then you'd be able to watch most videos on there with no trouble, because I really doubt Skyfire will be on the Pre any time soon, since they're only on WM and Symbian right now, not even Android support, and also because of the slightly limited initial SDK of the Pre which will be coded in Javascript/CSS/HTML5. I actually don't think the SDK will be limiting in most cases, but it seems alternate browsers wouldn't be possible through it.
I'd make a guess though that the Pre will eventually have a deeper SDK after release like the iPhone did (though the Pre's apps will be more functional than the iPhone's web apps due to APIs to access the hardware of the device specifically), and even if not officially by Palm, there's word from a Chinese forum that someone has the Pre and was able to get root access in Linux, so it seems to me that 'jailbreaking' it to run Linux apps shouldn't be too difficult.
Well is seems like you wont need skyfire because the Pre is going to support the full version of Flash 10. I am also in the same boat as you man, my contract runs out this summer but I will be willing to wait a bit to see if it comes out on AT&T but if it takes too long I might have to suck it up and import an unlocked GSM version from Europe and deal with using edge and wifi and no 3G =/.
I have to say it looks nice, but what is it about not showing more than one or two days at the time, makes planing almost impossible. Looks like you need a WinMo with higher resolution to get that on a phone.
If you look at the three buttons at the bottom of the screen in calendar view, it's safe to assume (since they use prettier versions of the original Palm OS's buttons there) that the one that is on the left that is selected is daily view, the middle one is weekly view, and the far right one is monthly view.
And off topic but I wanted to point out that I love how Engadget Mobile doesn't get the same amount of ridiculous comments as the main page's. There's fewer, but less flaming and less fanboyism, which is great.
Engadget Mobile fanboi!!!
there's a day view, wk view, and month view.
2 years wireless contract is too long, so many good phone to choose from. I wish some how they change back to 1 year. G2, Pre, and iPhone 3g v.3
Impressive!!
However it seems like this phone is strictly targeted to business people and not to the average consumers.
I disagree myself. This video definitely does focus on the business features, but for many there's no separation between business and personal lives, and the "dinner with sister" part of the video shows a good example of that.
I think if they put another video out focusing on the Synergy features for contacts and IM, then that one will be more of a 'personal life' use as well.
I know he's a huge investor in Palm, so he's sort of biased, but I agree quite a bit with Roger McNamee, when he says that the iPhone is a good phone for media and consumer uses like that, and the Blackberry is a good work device for email, but what they're trying to do with the Pre is be one phone for everything.
Alright, so this will be the most functional phone ever, I believe that. But July is simply too late. And the moment a universal search, synergey apps make it to Android/WM, I'll stop waiting.
This will seriously put PALM and Sprint back on the map. Nothing since the iPhone dropping on ATT has created so much buzz. Coming from the iPhone and becoming increasingly bored/frusterated with its mediocrity, this will be a WELCOMED improvement.