Clipse

Imo I think the pre was rushed out the door, rightfully so they couldn't sit on this forever, and the fact that palm is actively engaged in updates and their customers, give the pre time and hopefully this crew of palm people will deliver

breakinghbts

I agree that it might've been a little rushed, but I love the phone, and 1 of my top 3 updates was included in 1.1. The auto rotate of the web browser when opening a new window. That was extremely annoying, and I no longer have that problem. So I for 1, am very happy with the updates thus far.

bluemoon219

Actually it depends on how you market it. There are times we keep things in a beta for testing and release in Alpha- so to me the beta is the testing prior to the version 1.0 and the beta is anything under 1.0.

Again- each company and testing effort is different- in my world- 'master' is the last step before production and 'beta' is a test environment.

darreno1

Great post! The Pre does everything out of the box I need it to do. It needs some polish but I can wait. For those who can't, there are other choices out there. If tons of App choices and 3d gaming was a high priority, I certainly would NOT have bought the Pre now and would have probably stuck with the Iphone. However for me those are not high priority. Also, the Pre does not have to be like Android or the Iphone. Those constantly complaining about functionality they missed from another device, you made the wrong choice imo. The good news is, the other devices are still there. There is still choice.

When I go out to purchase a smartphone, I purchase based on whether it meets by needs NOW, not what is promised down the line because I don't know how long that promise might take to happen. The tons of apps and all these missing features people are complaining about are not going to happen overnight. There is no one magical update that's going to 'fix' everything. If patience is something you have little of, then then your life is going to be miserable.

Right now the Homebrew community is doing a fantastic job which only helps those with little patience and make the phone even more dynamic. The apps are of good quality but it's like someone already mentioned, use at your own risk. This is the type of community that will help Palm in the long run.

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mrloserpunk

People said the same thing when the iphone SDK came out. You really think it cant have features added?
The lower Level API's cant be worked in?
You think that the capabilities of the Pre are written in stone that can't be changed?
You really don't understand this phone at all do you?

While I agree it would be awesome if it launched with ton's of stuff and 3d games and the ability to change everything under the sun, I also appreciate that palm got at least 1 more quarter to play the game. Why not wait till the dust settles on the palm pre before lamenting about how it sucks. They didnt hit a home run, but they did take it to extra innings.

Let see how it shapes up in 6 months. I'm okay with waiting...if your not, what phone has the SDK your looking for right now? Besides, it looks like some...not all...but some important people are thinking the PRE has so far been enough to keep Palm afloat...so while I agree its no home run, taking a stock from $1.??/share to $10+ share is considered a pretty good thing...now while its nowhere near where it was, what should Palm have worked on a new phone or a time machine?

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TreoRock

Are yo calling average Joe to our Palm Pre homebrew developers???? Dude, you are not only insulting Palm and the Palm Pre developers, but the whole Pre community... I can tell you most of us are really excited with our Palm Pre community, but you seem to be focusing only on the negative side of things.

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It all started way back in February 2000 with a Blue VDX.

hparsons

Wrong. EAS wasn't "broken". It worked exactly as designed, and exactly as they promised it would before it came out (see the brochure released by Sprint before the Pre was released). People complained that they wanted it to do more, so Palm added that functionality.

That is an update. Just because it didn't meet your expectations, doesn't mean it was broken.


What's this "we"??? You don't get to talk about what "I'm" waiting for. You don't get a persective for me. Unless you have a mouse in your pocket, or you're the chosen spokesperson for some group, it's "you", not "we".

So, how "ignorant" is it (masses or no), to keep a device you so obviously dislike??

hparsons

That's like asking if you've stopped beating your wife yet. There is no answer, because you're asking a question based on one person's view, rather than reality.

Talk to some of the programmers out there, instead of a self-deluded user.

hparsons

Not only that, it's a silly question. The mfg company lays the foundation, the developers make (or break) the device.

The Treo looked and acted very differently from the original Palm Pilot, and most of those changes came from third party developers, not from Palm originally.

mrloserpunk

Sidenote, my coworkers here @ ATT are constantly asking me whats new with my pre....gotta love the new feeling you get each time one of these awesome DEV's put something out...Hell I've never asked what new apps are out for the Iphone....Just a .02 cents

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NickDG

Alpha -> Beta -> Pilot -> Production

Alpha is very rough code, if not a practically a proof of concept. Nobody would EVER release Alpha code as a product.

I'm an IT Engineer so I deal with this crap on the daily basis.

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Palm Vx -> Treo 600 -> Treo 700p -> Centro -> Pre (Launch Phone 06/06/09)

joejoe1

Hey Guys, i understand the initial reason behind the OP's post as i too have wished more applications both native and 3rd party for my pre. I am glad people are on these boards talking about what the phone is missing because it gives me a sense of relief im not the only one feeling major must have apps are left out of the phone. However, what makes me happy with my purchase is not the apps; i have not homebrewed yet. The main reason i am happy with my pre just the way it is the feautures it does have. I still smile when i get gmail pushed, or am able to use universal search (albeit its limits). I think palm placed the must have features on the phone for launch in its limited timespan for launch and left the rest to update in the future. It's either launch with few apps or no launch at all. Yes its AMAZING what homberew has done but lets not judge the quality control that native apps must be tested with and compare that with homebrew apps. There are many of us who are happy with what we have and look forward to whats coming in the future.


Is it embarassing for palm? really are we going down that path? no its not embarassing, not yet at least. give palm some time to work it out.

K4p741nkrunch

I can honestly see why some people may be upset with the Pre. Mainly because this phone is not like any other phone out there, leaving them with a gap between expectation and delivery. Like all open source platforms, the true success comes with the community's pride in the product and desire for more, paired with the developers skill and passion. Thankfully we were graced with an SDK not nearly as closed up as some people claim.. and an agile team of benevolent developers willing to work together, design information repositories and uniform systems for applications and patches, and of course help the guy who doesn't know linux or homebrew root his Pre with a handhold installation. I think we have a great system going with this site, these forums, and our developers. I also think it's revolutionary for Palm to create a device with the ability to introduce users to Linux like it has, not to mention smoothing down a red carpet with which anyone who knows web design and has a will to learn can utilize to display their skills.

I am proud to own a Palm Pre, proud to be a member of the homebrew community, and exstatic to have such amazing developers.

Trekker

Ok...are you a programmer? What's your answer? Even if you aren't a programmer, do you have an alternate view?

awrnsmn

The Pre rocks!!! Let me make my phone the way I want it, not a cookie cutter of every other phone out there!! Palm left it in a perfect state-basic function with the ability to make it your own!! Palm rocks.

carlstone

Why is the Palm so slow, why do I have to "tap" multiple times to get the Palm to react, why doesn't the bluetooth work (all my other Palms work perfectly in the car) Why can't I tap the alphabet on the screen, the keyboard is not good. Too many questions and from Palm no answers.

Where are all the updates?

bclancy

First a little "defense" of the OP (even though I don't agree with his/her assertions):

* The OP's wants, in a way indicate "where Palm has to go". There is probably a much
* larger market segment that thinks like this user. In the future, Palm should probably be
* doing more market research and usability testing with representative users (but probably
* under NDA for competitive reasons).

I really think Palm hit a "sweet spot" with the Pre. The provided almost all of the functionality that I absolutely needed in such a device while getting the device out the door on Sprint early enough so they could get real user feedback before the holiday shopping season. I have to believe that Palm will soon issue an update with a second round of functionality that will help to sell product. These new features should include the sort of "integration" that I think the OP is hoping for, plus some checkbox items like video record and playback. I'm hoping for a much improved email client that does good email search and better email management. That's not a checkbox item because most users don't realize that they "want this" yet, but it's the sort of thing Palm can add and have users say "yeah, that's great - how did I live without it?" The "cards" multitasking metaphor is so simple that it almost looks embarrassing to Apple that they didn't think about it. I believe the real reason lies in the architecture of the underlying OS. Palm used the metaphor because their OS could support multitasking without bugs. While multitasking may not seem like a big thing, it's hard to hit the sweet spot on a new device where programs can still do useful things without doing so much that the system is constrained. Palm is limiting the API precisely for this reason: for a controlled roll out. I have to expect that the talent for providing "integrated products" is hard at work within Palm building exactly what's needed to "wow in" a whole new class of users. I'm bearish on Palm (but I don't own any stock). I'm believing they will come through with kick-azz update probably around the same time as they open up the app store. Here's hoping for a very merry Christmas!

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B. Clancy

bclancy

I guess you didn't have a Treo 700p then?

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B. Clancy

bclancy

Let me add that I expect Palm will be using a "deeper level" of a (currently) non-public API for this next level of functionality. Once they prove such an API (by using it themselves and gaining experience and understanding of how it affects the system as a whole), you can bet the farm that they'll open it up to some trusted development partners. They might even develop some sort of "resource manager" that would allow tweaking the device for different profiles. (EDIT: ie: gamer, mobile warrior - talker, texter, media user, blogger, cloud user, international user (ie: the cloud would cost an arm and a leg in Canada @ $2/Mb), and etc.)

While I know absolutely nothing about what Palm is actually doing, Palm is both talented enough and innovative enough to make this thing work better than anything else out there on the planet!

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B. Clancy

THAANSA3

Indeed. I expect that around the middle of next year when someone talks about Palm being an iPhone killer, or at least has surpassed iPhone in more ways than just multitasking, the statement will actually have a lot more merit than it does today. Palm, I truly believe, is on the right track with the Pre and WebOS.