Palm: Pre, webOS & app discussion

[editor]

Why do companies skimp on these things? It can't cost that much extra to put a bigger one in. My E61 has a 1500mAh battery, delivers the best battery life from a phone I've had and its a good few years old now.

That's partly because it's only got a relatively small 320 x 240 pixels screen. My old Treo 650 had an *awesome* battery life thanks to its monster 2400mAh battery.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Ace. Does it stick out the back the phone or does it just fit like a standard battery. How much did it cost if you don't mind me asking?

 

[editor]

Ace. Does it stick out the back the phone or does it just fit like a standard battery. How much did it cost if you don't mind me asking?

The Treo 650 battery? That's the same size as the regular battery, just as the 1350mAh Centro battery is the same size too.

 

[editor]

Check out the long hair from Elevation Partners talking about why they invested a vast wedge of cash into Palm:
http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/7181/tech-ticker-interview-with-elevations-roger-mcnamee/

The guy carries about 8 phones with him!

 

[johnnymarrsbars]

i'd trade in my iPhone for that in a second. looks absolutely awesome. i was fearing the worst for palm but that looks beautiful!

 

[editor]

i'd trade in my iPhone for that in a second. looks absolutely awesome. i was fearing the worst for palm but that looks beautiful!

That bloke in the interview specifically mentions the rubbish battery life of rivals, so presumably the Pre can deliver in this department.

http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/7181/tech-ticker-interview-with-elevations-roger-mcnamee/

 

[editor]

There's a good run down of the Pre's features here:
http://blog.treonauts.com/2009/01/palm-pre-smartphone.html

Boy do I want this thing!

The overlaid calendar feature (where you can choose to overlay work/personal/shared calendars etc) is exactly what I want.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

There's a good run down of the Pre's features here:
http://blog.treonauts.com/2009/01/palm-pre-smartphone.html

Boy do I want this thing!




The overlaid calendar feature (where you can choose to overlay work/personal/shared calendars etc) is exactly what I want.

Me too!

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

The overlaid calendar feature (where you can choose to overlay work/personal/shared calendars etc) is exactly what I want.

You can already do that with the calendar on the G1

 

[Kid_Eternity]

You can already do that with the calendar on the G1

Does that mean you have to sync various calendars with Gcal though? Where as this will just pull the ones your already using together...

 

[Piers Gibbon]

ok..here's an interesting insight into my fickle gadgetlove

because I now know/expect that I'll be getting the new Palm Pre in a year or so (rather than bailing out towards iPhone etc) I now love my Palm Centro a bit more than I did when I had given up on Palm

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Does that mean you have to sync various calendars with Gcal though? Where as this will just pull the ones your already using together...

Dunno, I only use Gcal

 

[editor]

You can already do that with the calendar on the G1

Not quite. The Palm can combine calendars from multiple sources. You're stuck with Google only.

The webOS address book displays all the information available for each person from multiple different sources. A single person's entry could have, for instance, phone numbers from an Exchange Server, a street address from Google, and a picture from Facebook. All of this would be displayed to the user together, without regard to where it came from.


The calendar works the same way. The webOS can pull calendar information from a variety of sources and display it all together, with entries color-coded by their source (as shown here). If all this data at once is overwhelming, the user can choose to display or hide the entries from individual sources. When there's a event happening from a calendar source that's currently being hidden, its time slot is, though empty, a slightly different shade, so the user knows there's something happening then.

If someone has an Exchange email account and a Gmail account, the webOS can display messages from both on a single list.

Naturally, replies go back through the appropriate account, and the accounts can be displayed separately if the user prefers, but the concept is to simply the situation by letting the smartphone deal with where messages are coming from, and let the user just read their email.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Ah right. Quite impressive, although it's way more functionality than I personally need. Quite handy for business users I'd imagine...

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Ah right. Quite impressive, although it's way more functionality than I personally need. Quite handy for business users I'd imagine...

It's perfect for me, I have three calendars (work, personal and a charity I'm a trustee for) juggling them all is easier with this set up.

 

[editor]

Very interesting....

After describing Palm's "synergy" method of combining contacts and calendars from multiple locations (including LinkedIn, also a new feature we hadn't heard about before), McNamee gets into describing the new stuff:

But better than that, it does stuff for you. So when you wake up in the morning, it has taken your calendar -- if you ask it to -- and downloaded the maps for you whole day, it's downloaded the wikipedias for the people you're going to visit and the companies you're going to see... Why is it on PCs you have to go and do all that?

And when you're late -- get this -- when you're late it -- remember, this things has GPS, it has a clock, and it has your calendar. So it not only knows where you are, it knows where you're supposed to be and when; and so when it realizes you're going to be late, it says "Hey, not only are you going to be late, but I can take care of it for you. I'll send an email to your assistant or to the people in the meeting, which would you prefer? And oh, by the way, here's the map." This is the beginning of a new wave.
​

Sounds pretty good to us. Actually, what has us most excited is that if this sort of functionality is in there and Palm didn't even bother telling us about it during their CES2009 presentation, what other goodies are in store for webOS?


http://www.precentral.net/new-features-pre-oops-im-late-and-automatic-calendar-context

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Whoa. That teeters between utterly cool and a little scary (Matrix/Hal 9000!)!! Glad about the LinkedIn integration, means another one of my accounts contacts will be accessible...

 

[paolo]

Unless I'm getting confused, I think Apple patented all that - pretty much exactly as described. Gonna be fun!

(I loathe software patents btw, just before anyone thinks I'm cheering on the legal wrangles).

 

[editor]

Unless I'm getting confused, I think Apple patented all that - pretty much exactly as described. Gonna be fun!

If they patented it, why haven't they implemented it?

Not entirely sure how you could patent such a thing, mind. Still, Apple helped themselves to Palm's threaded SMS and ringer on/off switch (and probably more besides), so maybe patents aren't quite as useful as a competition killer when it comes to mobiles?

 

[Kid_Eternity]

If they patented it, why haven't they implemented it?

To stop anyone else using it?

 

[editor]

To stop anyone else using it?

Well that is one possibility, but it would be rather strange to supposedly own a fantastic piece of market-leading software and then not get around to actually implementing it.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Well that is one possibility, but it would be rather strange to supposedly own a fantastic piece of market-leading software and then not get around to actually implementing it.

Corporations do it all the time. Especially in things like the drug trade, local and better remedies are regular bought off or patented then the companies release a more expensive version at their leisure.

Tech companies might want to get something right or roll it out in a particular time frame (Apple would be a good candidate for this I reckon, they can do all kinds of things with the iPod touch/iPhone but hold back so they can drip feed the market)...

Anyway, partly speculation but that's one view on why they might patent then file it away...

 

[editor]

Tech companies might want to get something right or roll it out in a particular time frame (Apple would be a good candidate for this I reckon, they can do all kinds of things with the iPod touch/iPhone but hold back so they can drip feed the market)...

I'm not sure there's much space for 'drip-feeding' potentially competition-crushing features in the fast moving mobile market.

That's why Apple released the iPhone missing basic consumer features like video, MMS and cut and paste, it's why the Blackberry Storm feels unfinished and it's why and most people agree that the G1 phone was rushed out too.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

I'm not sure there's much space for 'drip-feeding' potentially competition-crushing features in the fast moving mobile market.

That's why Apple released the iPhone missing basic consumer features like video, MMS and cut and paste, it's why the Blackberry Storm feels unfinished and it's why and most people agree that the G1 phone was rushed out too.

There is when your the dominate player but yeah I agree it is still a risky thing to do.

 

[Crispy]

Happens all the time. There are some companies that manufacture absolutely nothing and exist only by suing other companies for patent infringement. The whole patent system is abused by all players

 

[editor]

Happens all the time. There are some companies that manufacture absolutely nothing and exist only by suing other companies for patent infringement. The whole patent system is abused by all players

I've no doubt it does, but I'm still not convinced that's what's happening in this particular instance. Still, I guess we'll find out in time if seriously Apple's over-worked legal department starts up once again.

 

[editor]

Excellent!

CompanionLink Software has announced plans to release desktop synchronization software for devices running the new webOS, including the upcoming Palm Pre.
This application will be able to sync contacts, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, calendar events, tasks, notes, and alarms and reminders between a webOS-based smartphone and the Palm Desktop, Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, ACT! by Sage, and GoldMine.


http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=14810

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Nice one!

 

[paolo]

I've no doubt it does, but I'm still not convinced that's what's happening in this particular instance.

It's something I'm certainly curious about. WebOS has at least one ex-Apple senior tech leading it. Was this stuff an Apple (staffer) idea, and they only attempted to lock it down when they discovered it was going to appear in webOS, even though they might not have decided if/when to actually develop it?

 

[editor]

Has anyone actually produced details of this patent Apple are supposed to own on this technology because no one's mentioned it anywhere else as far as I know.