+1.

I've dropped my Pre easily 10 times, and it's been essentially bulletproof.

However, the ease with which you can flow between tasks is probably the biggest draw. This afternoon I was downloading 4 podcasts, listening to music, writing an e-mail and getting txts from 2 people at the same time, with everything working smoothly. Switching between apps was a gesture away, the txts never interfered with my writing, the music was skip free, and I got unobtrusive dashboard notifications when each podcast was downloaded. And this is still Web OS 1.x. Given how refined the OS already is, I can't wait to see what the crew at Palm have up their sleeve next.

camera and photos apps are night-and-day faster loading. Hard to tell yet but it seems to be a bit better at handling multiple open cards, and it seems (maybe) a bit quicker loading apps in general.

android on a palm. Cats and dogs, living together. This way lies madness, gents.

By any stretch of the imagination, this is an incredible deal. WebOS to the masses!

No doubt they have an uphill battle, but I think if they continue doing what they're doing, they can continue to carve out a solid niche for themselves. There's a TON of android talk now because of the 'droid release.. but let's see what Palm's response is. I can't help but think there's too great of a braintrust over there to just slip quietly away. Granted, I'm a fan too..

But who doesn't root for the underdog?

interestingly, the browser in 1.3.1 appears to be displaying placemarkers for flash objects. Not flash yet, but a nice reminder that it's on the way.

I think there's a bit too much gloom and doom relating to the Palm posts lately. The Pre launch in the US was solid. not spectacular, but solid. The generation 1 Pre with WebOS 1.0 was quite polished, and they're putting energy into updating and optimizing the OS like I've never seen from Palm. Comparing generation 1 WebOS devices (Pre, Pixi) to generation 1 Android devices (G1, MyTouch, Eris) the WebOS devices are definitely more refined. The challenge is that generation 2 Android devices like the Droid are out now for everyone to see, so the naysayers come crawling out of the woodwork. Palm has support from Elevation Partners to go for quite a while as long as they keep doing what they're doing. Let's wait and see what the response from Palm is. Considering how great the Pre is as a first shot with WebOS, I'm excited to see what they can do now that they have a little momentum. (Here's hoping they have a response at CES this year...)

In other news: BIKINI JACKET?

dude, I've got a Pre. I followed the lead-up to the droid launch *wishing* Sprint had marketed the Pre this well.

(Maybe if they had a creepy girl come out of those stealth fighter droppings...)

Agreed. The elegance of WebOS, even in it's infancy is astounding. In no way can I knock the iPhone for what it does. it's a great device...

But I wonder if in some ways it's the ultimate execution of the rotary phone, with the Pre as the first touch-tone device on the block.

email search! The calendar is running faster, the browser has nicer transitions and automatically resizes for typing, improved copy/paste....great stuff. Well done, Palm.