The Palm Pre—you may have heard of it—comes out on Saturday, but all sorts of media “outlets” have already published their reviews; I don’t know when our review will go up. And since it’s my feeling that most of you already assume the phone is “good,” I’ve gone ahead and collected a few excerpts of the more critical points. You know, the part of the review that goes something like, “Now, the Palm Pre isn’t perfect; we found a few problems with it. And they are…” That part. So let’s get on with it.
From the Wall Street Journal :
The Pre’s biggest disadvantage is its app store, the App Catalog. At launch, it has only about a dozen apps, compared with over 40,000 for the iPhone, and thousands each for the G1 and the modern BlackBerry models. Even worse, the Pre App Catalog isn’t finished. It’s immature, it’s labeled a beta, and Palm has yet to release the tools for making Pre apps available to more than a small group of developers.
In fact, during my testing, one of my downloads from the App Catalog caused my Pre to crash disastrously — all my email, contacts and other data were wiped out, and the phone was unable to connect to the Sprint network or Wi-Fi. Palm conceded the catastrophe was due to problems it still has getting the App Catalog to work with the phone’s internal memory, and explained that this is one reason it hasn’t widely distributed the developer tools.
…
There are only a handful of buttons, and my only real criticism of the industrial design is that these were rubbery and protruded too little from the body, making them hard to press unseen. The power button is clumsy to use when the keyboard is open.
…
But the Pre has a few other important downsides. Battery life between charges is relatively weak. While it’s in line with competitors with a claimed five hours of talk time, and matches the iPhone’s claimed five hours of Web surfing time, it offers only half the iPhone’s 24 hours of continuous music playback and claims just five hours of video playback, versus seven for the iPhone.
…
Another downside: the Pre’s autocorrect system, for instantly fixing mistyped words, is puny. Even with a physical keyboard, people make typos, and Palm only fixes about 2,500 common words, like “the.” By contrast, both the BlackBerry and iPhone have tens of thousands of autocorrections built in, including fixes for long, complex words.
From USA Today :
Still, I encountered occasional sluggishness and bugs. At one point, the clock was out of whack. At another, I had to shut down the Pre because the onscreen icons kept dancing around. I also longed for the visual voice mail feature of the iPhone — Pre’s unobtrusive “notifications” dashboard flagging incoming messages, system alerts and such is no substitute. And I wish Pre had more third-party applications at launch.
…
Too bad, as with the iPhone, there’s no video camera.
Pre poses no immediate challenge to the iPhone when it comes to robust apps. Only a dozen or so are available at launch, including Pandora Internet radio, Citysearch, The New York Times and Classic, an emulator that lets you run old Palm (Treo) programs.
From Gizmodo, which must have just finished playing Max Payne:
But the hardware? Cheap. Flimsy. Dangerous even.
…
The first thing you’ll notice as you slide open the Pre is the absurdly sharp ridge digging against your palm. Nowhere—not on the iPhone, the G1, the G2 or any of HTC’s other smartphones—has a phone been so threatening to the integrity of my skin. If you’re pushing up screen from the bottom of the phone, as you’d instinctively want to do, prepare to get sliced. It’s just that irresponsibly sharp… Maybe I’m being a perfectionist here, but this is the one biggest flaw in the hardware; one that’s not a dealbreaker, but really detracts from the overall experience.
…
[The keyboard] is not good enough for a smartphone. Each of my thumbs take up the width of four keys, ensuring that only a fingernail approach would get me anywhere near accurate typing.
…
Dialing is somewhere where Palm’s reliance on Universal Search becomes an over reliance on Universal Search. To dial a contact, you either have to pull up the contacts app and manually scroll down to the person you want (there’s no alphabet shortcut) or start typing. So, when you have hundreds of contacts, your only reasonable choice is to use the search.
…
Opening multiple apps at once really does slow down the phone enough to be noticeable. In fact, if you’re doing something particularly intensive, you’ll actually notice your music stutter, which we’ve never experienced once on the iPhone. Ever. [Me: Remember, kids: one-word sentences look “more important” than multi-word sentences.]
…
Also, the actual act of launching the app is a little frustrating: When you tap an icon, the launcher disappears and all you see is the home screen, as if you did something wrong. You don’t know whether or not your app has opened successfully until it has.
…
The hardware, on the other hand, is a liability. If Palm can get someone else to design and build their hardware—someone who has hands and can feel what a phone is like when physically used, that phone might just be one of the best phones on the market. [Me: Note that that's the complete opposite of what USA Today said (“I can't think of a more comfortable cellphone in my hand.”), which is partially why I think reviews, across the board, are dumb. It's so subjective it's a waste of everyone's time.]
From Engadget:
Besides the standard issues we had with the construction of the phone, we did spot another peculiar problem we hope is just a one-in-a-million fluke with the test device we were given: it physically broke… There is a small flap that covers the MicroUSB port, and while attempting to get the thing open, a thin piece of plastic which runs along the bottom of the casing just snapped. Now, we’re not saying this is a widespread problem—in fact, reps at Palm claimed this was the first time they’d seen it happen—but it was a little disconcerting.
…
Touch sensitivity was more than acceptable, though we do take issue with tracking and accuracy in some instances, particularly when you’re close to the edges — taps sometimes go unregistered and your aim can feel off.
…
Our biggest gripe is actually with the software, which omits some no-brainers like double-tap spacebar for periods (though in the phone’s defense, it does have a dedicated period key). Auto-correction is in effect here, fixing your lowercase i’s, un-apostrophe’d contractions, and the occasional misspelling, but it pales in comparison to the iPhone’s intelligent input recognition.
…
Mostly, these gestures are intuitive and helpful, but we do question a few decisions Palm made here. For instance, when you want to bring up the launcher and you’re in an app, you have to swipe up to zoom out to the card view, and then swipe up again to get the launcher up. Why the extra step? We have no idea.
From Phonescoop:
The seams aren’t as tight as they could be, and the phone does have a somewhat “plasticky” feel to it.
…
Because the Pre is covered in shiny black plastic, it’s an absolute magnet for fingerprints. Not just on the screen, mind you, but all over the entire phone, including the back. I can’t think of a phone in recent memory that collected more finger oils and grime. It’s easy to clean off by rubbing it on your jeans, but still, wow does it get dirty fast.
…
OK, the keyboard. First, there is a very sharp edge outlining the bottom of the phone, and it also surrounds the keyboard when the Pre is open. I found this edge very annoying and distracting. Granted, you’re not touching it all that often, but when you do, you sure will know it.
…
On more than one occasion while testing, the “EV” symbol that sits next to the signal strength indicator changed to “R”. The user manual tells me this means the Pre was roaming. In all the years I’ve tested Sprint phones, I have never seen one roam before. The Pre couldn’t perform ANY network-dependent activities when the “R” symbol was present. This is goofy behavior that could be attributed to my review unit in particular and it is likely something that could be fixed with a firmware update.
…
The ringers were not loud enough to suit my tastes. Set all the way up, it would be quite easy to miss phone calls in loud or noisy environments.
…
Palm’s webOS is an absolutely battery hog. Because it is constantly pinging the network for information and data (aka, email, etc.) the battery often drains in less than two days. This was consistent across the whole time we spent with the device. Heavy use drains the battery even faster. I was easily able to kill the battery in one day with heavy web use, camera use, MMS use and some phone calls. Keep in mind, this is with no Bluetooth and no Wi-Fi active.
…
In terms of general usability, webOS ranks below iPhone OS, is about on-par with Android, and rests above S60, WinMo and BlackBerry OS.
…
There’s one major kicker. When the Pre is attached to a PC to sync media, it cannot make or receive calls or text messages!!! What the what?!? Palm doesn’t provide an explanation, but that’s just ridiculous.
…
The hardware comes off as feeling a little bit on the cheap side. That’s unfortunate. Some will find the QWERTY keyboard difficult to use, though I thought it was okay. The lack of expandable memory means it is limited to the 8GB of on-board storage.
Phew! I sure am beat, and I now know more than I ever wanted to know about the Palm Pre’s shortcomings.
I hope this has been educational at best, and time-saving at least.
I think I might save my money for a PMP. I want to see what Apple’s next version of the iPod Touch is. Maybe the Zune HD or possibly a PSP Go.
good idea. the pre is “pre”tty unimpressive. in fact, its almost as bad is its “flow” commercial.
the pre is to the iphone as the zune was to the ipod, or rather, as failure is to success.
Why dont they give their OS to other manufacturers like moto? So there will be more app developers.
Not on my internet are you going to get away with that horrible attempt at a play on words. Get that douche bag shit out of here!
“Pre”tty good, huh?
Nice wrap up. I’ve always wondered why people are so high on this phone…I don’t see the advantages.
Well, you’re not seeing any advantages because this is a round up of the shortcomings in all of the major reviews.
Try reading the reviews, Jeff!
Because it is a *very* impressive phone. But most are still going to prefer the iPhone.
What CG’s issue with the Pre? All you do is quote the cons section of all the reviews. Do you have stock in Apple or something?
I was wondering the same thing myself. I think it’s very irresponsible, and a hit-piece like this give them impression that the Pre isn’t that great.
However, if you read any of the reviews in total, what you find is that the Pre actually IS great. Sure, it’s a touch behind the iPhone in build quality and 3rd party apps, but it’s the OS is as good or better than anything else on the market (and will become even better after a few bug fixes).
So, it ranks right up there as one of the top 3 smartphones in existence, and it will cost you several hundred dollars less than the competition over its lifetime (since Sprint is cheaper than AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mo).
The news on the Pre is overwhelmingly good, even in light of the pretty high expectations. I really don’t understand why CrunchGear is so eager to cut it down.
Pre is an iPhone Like device and will always have the Comparison…yeah it may be a Great Device…But it’s not Better than the iPhone…That’s the Number 1 Problem…Build something That will Differentiate your Product Line besides “copying” (and to some degree improving) the Ideas of the Original Genius behind the True Device. iPod –> Zune, OS X –> Win 7, Google –> Bing you know how the Story Goes…But Hell the Movie Industry does the Same Thing so what am I talking about…
It’s fine to compare the Pre to the iPhone, as long as you’re doing it honestly. Many of the reviews noted that the browser and the OS in general (multitasking, cut-and-paste, notifications, etc) are actually better than the iPhone. Also, native contact syncing with Gmail is better that what you get with an iPhone.
There are many areas where the Pre surpasses everything on the market, including the iPhone. Of course, the hardware is not quite as solid, and the iPhone has a much better ecosystem for third-party apps.
It’s simply not true to say that the Pre is not as good as the iPhone. It really depends on what features actually matter to you.
Regardless, the complaint I was making is that CrunchGear is doing everyone a huge disservice by compiling a laundry list of the Pre’s short-comings, simply because they’re too lazy to do a proper review themselves. They’re only focusing on the negative aspects of what really is a good phone, and a great operating-system.
I swear the fanboys writters around the crunch network is pathetic. I mean when the Iphone came out when did you have excerpt about the bad part of the iPhone. Give me a break you bunch of fanboys… geez when are we going to get a freaking balance blog around? this sucks with all these dumb founded fanboys. IF you love, love tech all over not one peace and praise all of them on their own merits. I am getting a pre this Saturday. . Fuck you fanboys!
@ Mike and Others
I don’t entirely care, since Palm has seen fit to launch a product that runs on CDMA2000 and therefore won’t work in most of the world; I am unlikely to see one in the next year; nix the grey market too, people had V1 iPhone’s over here in days, I doubt there will be one rouge Pre, cause it won’t actually do anything.
Regardless, I wish it well. But…
If its all about balance, and the Pre should be treated the same as the iPhone was, then…
What a POS! My 6 year old Nokia could make video calls and send video MMS. Look at the keyboard, where the hell is T9 (every knows it!) what are these fools playing at cramming a QWERTY in the same space as a numeric keypad, do they think 5 year olds will be using it, i’m a grown man damn it! As for having no memory card slot, are these people living in the 90’s I DON’T NEED PALM telling me how much music I can carry! 8 Gig Is an outrage my Busted ass Motorola can take 8 Gig SD cards I carry at last 4 of them at once! What a worthless camera, you can pick up $50 phones out of the bin with 5MPix, Sony Erricson have 8Pix, Palm should have just left the camera out at 3.2MPix cause it just shows how pathetic it is against all the other phones on the market, If I wanted to carry two devices I would, that’s the thing about Camera Phones today, they replace DSLR’s in most cases, just woeful and out dated and cheap and plastic and primitive. Palm should stick to their knitting and make 1990’s PDA’s. As for applications, its never going to take off with web applications, without an SDK the whole thing is just a waste of time, every Nokia out there can run full Java apps, not these piddling little web page applets, its a real let down to developers that Palm hasn’t invited them, they are going to get ignored.
And to finish off.
I am launching a class action suit against Palm, 3 class actions actually.
1) For the pathetic battery life, cause my 10 year old CDMA black and white piece of crud I use down ma’ farm lasts a whole week and this is marketed as better, so that’s false marketing, right there, uncle Jo said so. How could they make a phone that doesn’t even last a whole day
2) For slow downloads, I went to a webpage and it took longer to load than the broadband at home, this is meant to be wireless broadband and a friend had an iPhone and it was quicker too. Palm have lied saying it was faster and better (based on EVDO 2Mbit peak)
3) For the “intentional” stock shortages. Shouldn’t advertise something you can’t supply
That should do it, make the treatment fair and equal. I expect within the next week that the whole blogosphere will light up screaming about battery life and the other issues. I expect every where I turn to find a torrent of abuse, most of it clearly demonstrating how stupid the writers are.
–
LOL, yeah that’s fair. It was fair for the iPhone and since the Pre is being pitched by it’s makers as the genuine iPhone killer, then its fair for the Pre.
–
Personally, yah! Another great advancement, now we have 2 generals and the clone army of Androids about to roll out in the next few months to smash down the totally blah offerings forced on us by the lazy kings of mobile phones for so long.
If the Pre is so good then why wont it do what most all other phones will do. Here is my list so far.
Pre wont do : voice recording, camra settings, video taking, adobe flash player, wmv-3g2 watchin and other video formats, power point reader, tex forwarding, voice dialing, can’t change sounds for texes,emails.ect. , can’t save email attachments mp3 . No zoom on camra, can’t add individual songs to the now playing.
It’s been quite obvious to me since the Pre rumors started, that TechCrunch/Crunchgear editors (maybe not all, but most) are biased when it comes to the Pre and blindly in love with the iPhone.
(see here: http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/06/03/palm-pre-promises-to-explode-into-a-supernova-of-suck/, here: http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/06/02/ummm%E2%80%A6-about-that-palm-preitunes-syncing/, and here: http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/05/28/palm-pre-an-also-ran/).
It’s interesting that they haven’t done their ‘review’ of the device nor do they know when it’ll be out (perhaps after the iPhone launches?). I’m no fanboy of anything. However, as thebonafortuna says “He’s a blogger, not a journalist”; and just like we shouldn’t really expect impartial blogging (because even journalists are biased), it’d be stupid to just rely on their Pre posts to make your decision of whether or not buying it, specially if all of them are bashing it. That’s what the real reviews are out there for.
Don’t take me wrong, I love TechCrunch/Crunchgear but I do know when to trust their opinion and when not to. smartphones and pro-twitter (still not convinced) posts aren’t for me. The rest I do love!
I think these guys are on the Apple payroll. Ive personally spent time now on both Iphone and Pre and there is absolutely no doubt that the PRE IS FAR SUPERIOR!
People are complaining about the app store not having much? It just launched today!
Give them a shot side-by-side.
Pre is better in very way
How many apps can you run at a time on your Iphone? 1?
I agree with Greg. You must be getting money from Apple.
I don’t get it.. have you done a list of cons for the iPhone too? Because that would be a lot longer! Taking just excerpts from the negative parts in the reviews is pointless, unless you are “slightly” biased!
GODDAMNIT JOHN BIGGS YOU DID IT AGA-
Oh. It’s Nicholas. That’s…odd.
…It just looks like excerpts from reviews talking about the shortcomings of the Pre. Which is exactly what he said it was going to be. If you want to take issue, take issue with the individual reviews themselves; all he really did was compile them. There’s no real harm here.
Also, I want to use the Pre to slice my cheese for my sub sandwiches.
Ya nick your pretty terrible at this whole writing thing.
Says the guy who can’t spell “you’re”.
Zing!
As much as I want a data plan, I will not be getting one until the prices come down. I pay enough for all my other utilities and mortgage. I can not justify paying an extra 30/mo just for internet and a few apps on my phone. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to have one of these phones; but the data plans make them very unappealing.
yes, exactly! The data prices are absurd all over. I’d love one of these phones, too, but 30 extra per phone per month over my wife’s and my shared cell phone plan amounts to 720 extra dollars a year. Screw that.
I’ve read all of those reviews, and there are tons of very positive remarks in those reviews as well. In fact…read the wrap up for most of those reviews and they say that it is a great phone and a great contender. At least engadget gave me the pros AND the cons. WTF is up with crunchgear. I want to hear the whole story not fanboi bias.
Yes!!! This Nicholas Deleon es un Pendejo!!!
CG doesn’t agree with my opinions. They’re getting money from Apple. They stroke themselves while watching pictures of Steve Jobs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmvkRoEowc
@Dan Yeah that’s exactly what I mean! I’ve read them too, all of them, and the wrap-ups are extremely positive. This article is just ridiculous, at least that is obvious.
I agree with Senore, Jack and Greg, why don’t you do a list of the Good stuff, or do a list of the bad things with the iPhone, and Then compare both phones.
You Idiot!!!
Because this is the internet, where normal people become bitter, and assholes become, well, they stay stinky assholes. In all seriousness, it is too bad there was a blog post highlighting only the negatives rather than showing the positives. It just goes to show the nature of these blog sites.
I don’t agree. Usually, the negatives in a review are a lot more telling than the positives.
As far as I’m concerned, Nicholas has done us all a favor. He cut out the crap, and delivered the, non-sugar coated, goods.
@Nate: Agreed.
Its nice if your phone can do this or that or is this or that, but it really comes down to the negatives.
I don’t know why everyone is getting all pissy. Its not like he’s being directly anti-pre, he just summed up all the negatives, which believe it or not some people are actually interested in. But in any case, the negatives weren’t all that bad really.
In the case of comparing everything to the iPhone, this product is too little too late imho. I think that it will still sell fairly well, at least certainly better than other “killer” attempts, such as the Storm or G1. But this is certainly by no stretch of the imagination a dethroning device, which is unfortunate, because I like raking in the benefits of serious competition.
This is the most biased review I have ever read. I have read all of these reviews your are quoting from and the experts are taken completely out of context.
Just to point out one particularly flagrant example… You quote “Uncle Walt” as saying that the phone crashed and destroyed all his contacts and data when downloading from the app catalog. While that was an accurate quote from his review the next line of the article says this:
“The good news is that the Pre’s impressive backup system allowed me to quickly and easily get back almost all my data and to restore the phone’s connectivity.”
Does leaving something like that out sound like fair biased reporting?? I would hope your readership would expect better.
This is the sloppy journalism I’ve come to expect from crunch gear and tech crunch and its the reason I rarely visit this blog and only after I’ve stopped at engadget, gizmodo and boygenius.
Did you not read what he was writing? It is a compiled list of all the negatives from reviews. Engadget has done articles in this very style in the past without being called biased. It is nothing more then a collection of the device’s faults so he wasn’t going to mention how good the backup system is.
THIS WAS NOT A REVIEW!!!!
I think this is a good and needed dose of reality vs hype.
The comments above don’t deny any of the Pre’s problems yet attack the author, when those people should be attacking Palm’s engineers.
What is with the very low capacity battery for example? I have a Treo Pro with a 40% bigger battery (1500 ma vs 1150 ma) in the same size.
another terrible post………….
I’m starting to see a trend at CG/TC
Just when I think CG and TC can’t get any worse, you guys continually prove me wrong every day. No worries, I still follow the sites though, not for the great news and reviews, but just to see how ridiculous the articles are.
The worst thing is this is why they are able to continue writing this drivel, because your eyeballs bring in advertising revenue
Guilty as charged.
Palm fanbois, go back and read the first paragraph. He’s just having fun with you. You sound just like Apple fanbois when someone dares criticize the Mac or iPhone.
I love it when they paste review snippets together and the compiler gets blamed.
WHEE!
It’s not the snippets that are the issue, it’s the incredibly biased selection of snippets.
Imagine the bias if a “trusted” gadget site only reported the positive features and completely ignored all of the negatives. Nobody would have a problem calling out their shoddy standards then. Why should this be different?
The article is called, “here is what’s wrong with the pre” and it is a collection of reputable blog sites who put fair reviews together.
I am not sure where the bias even comes from here. Would you have really expected positive in context issues in an article of this nature?
Sorry Nicholas apparently everyone is an idiot.
I’m willing to bet the Pre copies and pastes. Why is Apple waiting until it’s third iteration to implement a feature present on every other smartphone on the planet?
The best thing about the iPhone is the stunning user interface. The worst thing about the iPhone is the people who use it.
On the one hand I am appalled at what a blatant attack piece this is. On the other hand I am almost impressed with how directly you say that you aren’t going to even bother reporting anything positive about the phone.
As pathetic an excuse for journalism as this article, and increasingly this site, might be, it is kind of hard to get angry at you when you say up front that you are so blindingly biased that you only think the negative matters. I suppose if I am going to be mad at anyone, it should be myself for reading this worthless crap.
Agreed! I get the same feeling.
Ahh … I am so angry at myself why I care to read this piece of crap. Don’t screw this author or this site or Apple or Palm. Screw myself.
FYI, this is how you do a decent review roundup:
http://gizmodo.com/5279169/palm-pre-review-matrix-what-everybodys-saying
I still think the palm pre is a good first generation phone, with room for improvement like every new phone. It improves on some of the things that iphone hasn’t implemented yet, it’s still working on it’s own unique pre-brand of short comings.
except that their first generation phone came out SEVEN+ years ago
I think he meant first generation phone running their new operating system.
When are you going to do the same for the CrunchPad? I mean everyone thinks its “great”, so lets see an article of negatives. Only fair, right?
go ahead.
So, whats it like being “burned at the stake” by a bunch of internet nerds and fanboys for almost no real reason?
I mean, lets be honest here, pro’s are nice and all, but its the con’s that people are/should be concerned with. And here all you did was sum them all up in one article and people go nuts. Hell, the cons listed really aren’t even very big cons either! I guess I just don’t see what everyone is getting pissy about. As fa as I’m concerned, all you did was prove that the only real negatives to the Pre are pretty minor ones indeed.
I’d hate to be their lover. Bitches are insatiable.
I’m confused. Why would any company list their OWN shortcomings on their web property? No one does that.
A blog is ment to be subjective, not necessarily fair. This blog’s moto isn’t “fair and balanced”.
Would you really expect Crunchgear to break down and cry if someone said something bad about the Crunchpad?
Seriously this article was put together well, provides a clear input from several reputable sources of what they didn’t like about the pre. The article doesn’t pretend that the Pre is a complete piece of shit it just highlights its faults.
The execs at Palm are all ex-Apple, so this is a way Apple is punishing them – by having CG write bad reviews of their product.
That way, all the staff at CG get access to a free app for their iPhone….
I’ll recomend the wiggly-boobs one….yeah!
( . ) ( . )
) (
( . )
What a lame post. It’s like all the Apple fanboys in the last few weeks have suddenly been super hard on this phone because they’re scared of the first real competition. Yeah it has problems. So does the fucking iPhone. Get over yourself. I think this phone looks great and all the negativity suddenly leading up to release doesn’t help it out. Stop being a fucking fanboy.
I’ve read all the good reviews, and it was nice to see the reasons I might want to think twice without having to scour the internet.
He gave notice up-front, this was a compilation of flaws and negativity – which is exactly what I needed to see.
When did coming on TC or CG to badmouth TC or CG become such a popular hobby? No one is forcing you to read the stuff. Good journalism has an opinion. If you want unbiased (i.e. boring) reporting, open the newspaper.
“If you want unbiased reporting, open the newspaper.”
What newspaper have you been reading?
We got better flaming and garbage on newspaper sites. Bunch of puppies need ear scratching here maybe.
Hey, we don’t like your “making sense” types around here! We’re all a bunch of angry fanboy’s. We don’t want no facts, we just want to hear how much of an iphone killer the pre is! Screw the negatives, since when do those matter? Its all about the positives!
/s
Seriously though, in any case, these negatives really aren’t all that bad. What’s everyone getting upset for? Whats the first thing you look into when buying a new product? Sure sure, its nice that it can do this or that, but what are the things that are bad about the product? Products can boast all they want, but its all about how well they deliver, and you find out the truth in the negatives, not the positives.
Just out of curiosity, where’s the CG article with only the positive reviews? No, there’s nothing wrong with compiling the negatives in a single place, but unless you’ve done the same for the benefits (which the Pre certainly has), then it’s shoddy reporting.
When are Abraham and Moses going to comment and was the letter J the only one that came to mind when my generation thought of Bible names?
Confirming my suspicion most here are under 25.
I got started at 13 but our wild blonde was Debbie Harry. She AND Grace Slick are probably the coolest seniors ever. Okay, I forgot Joni Mitchell and Emmylou Harris, so sue me, I’m old.
I am sick of the complaints about a lack of apps. For the love of pete, when iPhone launched, they had the same number.
But you know what, they have an EMULATOR. That means that ALL* previous apps will work. They instantly have more apps than iPhone ever will. They also had an “app store” well before iPhone, but everyone forgets this too.
Nice review, is good to see something that try to point the down sides of this new phone, or any new phone.
Honestly, the iPhone doesn’t really have anywhere close to as many CONS to warrant an article like this. No “cut and paste” is not a con. I haven’t felt a need for it and I assure you it will be a seldom used feature when the upgrade the iPhone OS.
I hope you’re joking.
Seriously — iPhone has just as many cons as other phones.
I can think of 3 right away:
Battery life
AT&T
Can’t multitask
See! And when you compile multiple reviews into one post, it makes it look larger than what’s really there. Read every link — they all essentially say “when it comes down to it, it’s a good phone.”
I don’t understand the whole “fan boy” thing. If you like your phone, great! But no reason to run around and say ‘OH MAN, NOTHING LIKE IPHONE, OHHHHHHHH *SPLOOGE*’
Waste … of … time …
In addition to this, the iPhone does not have a removable battery. And for me “cut and paste” is a con.
I’m sure if the iPhone had the ability to multitask, it would have some sluggish performance.
@ Michael
I agree, I reckon it would be sluggish too, like the Pre reviews suggest it is when multitasking.
I want to know something. Cause a lot of people mention the sealed battery as a fail.
Do you really carry around multiple batteries for your phone? How many, 2, 3, 4? Does your phone come with an external multiple battery charger or do you set your alarm in the night to swap them over? What do you do with your phone that you drain the batteries so fast? And where are you that there is no power source (including the car) available to charge your phone? Oh, and where do you stash the extra batteries, in your bag, pocket, where?
No one bothers to explain why they need these alleged multiple batteries or how they manage the multiple batteries. They could short out against each other or other metal objects.
A still or video camera, that makes sense. You can go through those batteries in an hour if you are constantly shooting.
A phone though….
Oh Johnny what a lame cry.
No multitasking, I’m sure your sobbing into your little baby fists.
The iPhone does multitask, almost all the time. iPod runs in the background. Calls run in the background. Plenty multitasking.
So one suspects you are talking about 3rd party apps. Outside a couple of exceptions such as an internet radio app what is the point of running more than one app at a time (which in this example would be very useful, agreed).
Can you type in two windows at once? Most iPhone apps have current state saving so you can return to the exact point where you were. Even the Palm Pre which does have multitasking for 3rd party apps (all 12 of them LOL) shows you apps using a card system, with only one card to the front. So you can’t really read or scroll more than one card at a time, since only one is active.
Its a tick box feature. Yes, I agree there is examples where it is useful. Radio or GPS Path makers are two examples. But we’re not talking web, social, banking, news, games, im, productivity or anything else really are we.
From the positive reviews I have read on the Pre the multitasking just slows the phone down anyway.
Why you gotta be such a hater?
haterade is bad for your health
Beats felonies or something.
The poster certainly knows that negative blog posts garner more hits… well done. But I am sort of shocked someone would write a post saying, “I don’t have any experience with this, but I will post negative reviews filtering out all the enthusiastic or supportive comments. Odd way to look impartial and build your brand.
Brand? What the ™ are you saying?
I am not clear as to why there is so much bad mouthing of TC and CG. I mean it is stated that this is a collection of the bad things about the Pre and their review is forthcoming.
At any rate the Pre seems like an ok phone and the WebOS seems like a good alternative to the iPhone. But without an real app store and what it sounds good hardware I don’t think this thing will have legs. I would expect that this is getting released too soon and that rev 2 will be much better.
I would expect that rev 2 will be cut and paste, too.
Don’t expect anything from any of the bloggers here to say anything positive unless the product begins with i. Meaning specifically – there will be no “What’s right with the palm pre” post. I think they lose their jobs for that :)
I’m glad i read most of these reviews before I read your summary. Only one dumb SoB would make a post with only the negatives. I expect a sister post to this, to include all of the positives from those cited articles. If not, your readers should assume that you have some sort of bias on this subject.
sometimes chops need bustin’
Phones as well.
And only a dumb SoB wouldn’t know that a blog is subjective, and not ment to be fair unless it claims to be.
hint hint
There are both positive and negative statements in all of the reviews (and I have read all of them). What people (bloggers in particular) need to focus on is that for the Palm Pre there are far more positive statements in those reviews than any of the latest smartphones have been able to deliver – iPhone 1.0 being the cream of the crop with regard to bugs. Android’s first release has tons of issues, Blackberry hasn’t released a hit out of the gate in a long time – its the nature of the business. What’s fortunate for all of us is that the Pre opens a whole new world of innovation both for Palm and other smartphone manufacturers, and what Palm has done for the industry and we gadget freaks is significant.
Of course there will be sites like Techcrunch – always Apple fans – who will focus on the negative, and it is their right to do so. Blogs like this will neither deter those who will buy a Pre, nor persuade those who have no intention to rush to a Sprint store.
The Palm Pre is what it is – take it or leave it. I’m a taker on this one.
I’m actually into cars and old stereos. Search is for finding parts and documents and it’s semi miserable for THAT.
Has been since just after 9/11 but that was because Google bolluxed their search at that time to make finding closed eBay items and porn easier to find. There isn’t any good porn on the web, mostly old ugly inflated chicks pretending to be in high school and they got samples so why pay?
Nicholas Deleon: For the sake of morality and fairness, I am waiting for an article titled “Here’s what’s right with the Palm Pre”
It is only fair, right and proper. Except you were paid to do this, then it will be understandable
OOTN my friend, tongue in cheek because it’s not as good as Gene Simmons’…
What do ANY of the readers here call JOURNALISM to compare this multipartite site to?
I’m sensing they got duped by palm about something with the pre review (since they still haven’t released a review yet) and he is subliminally leting palm have it!
YOU GO BOY, don’t let the man keep you down!
Who is this MAN, the head of the mental health clinic?
Wow, my comment wasn’t even critical of Techcrunch or Apple, and yet it was removed. Interesting.
Aaaand its back! Weird.
Fascinating. My tricorder did not register it.
so there’s barely any apps and they can wipe out all your data. Isn’t that really a minor complaint
with so much data retyping to do, aren’t u glad its got a keyboard?
you got a month to fix these problems before whats left of the good will is gone. will trade my 700p for a g2, as of now.
and yeah, there is syncing, but will this work for everything I put in since I last synced? or do they finally sync ur data over the network for you?
If you bothered to read the reviews, you would know the answer. :)
The TechCrunch code of ethics says if it ain’t Twitter, iPhone, or Google it fucking sucks!!
Bunch of fan boys.
They have no ethics. They let anybody post.
It’s fanbOI. Please give the ghey h8r chic crowd their demented props and then slam them. I think they like that or something.
Then again I am old.
If your stuck with Sprint( no att in our area) and your tired of your treo 755 crashing constantly the Pre is looking really good. I will have mine up an running Saturday afternoon!!!!
Good! Then you can hijack this jack and review it.
Maybe the faux imitation angry rancor will be loudly soothed.
Then again, I’m old.
Here’s my problem with this round-up. It begins with: “since it’s my feeling that most of you already assume the phone is “good,” I’ve gone ahead and collected a few excerpts of the more critical points.”
At least offer even a *brief* summary of what we allegedly “assume” is good about it. (FYI, I, for one, did not assume the phone was good)
And though I agree that negative aspects of a review are often far more illuminating that the praise, it’s all about context. Knowing where the bad fits within the full picture. Reading this alone and I’d think this phone is shite. But perhaps not so in the context of some of it strengths.
Not accusing you of being a ‘fan boy’ – an accusation used far too often (and IMHO misguidedly) on TC/CG, and candidly, this phone may indeed turn out to be shite, but I do expect a higher standard of reportage.
Like I said elsewhere, CNET will be so all over it the box will have their logo.
That’s a totally fair point. I second the “didn’t assume it was good” notion.
How many apps were people expecting Palm to launch with in their app store? 1000+? I don’t think any platform in history launched with that many apps. How many did Apple have in their app store at launch? I’m sure the app library will grow, and probably relatively fast since the languages it uses are pretty common and easy to code.
Interesting question
I had a read around and haven’t found an exact answer. But…
1) Android store opened with 62 apps
2) Steve Jobs was quoted as saying there would be over 100 apps at launch
3) By November (4 months) Apple had over 10,000 apps available.
Mind you, do we need 50 flashlights
Hmm….
Anything good about this phone? Seems like all the trashing is biased… But I will wait until the lines go down before I get it. Also considering the Pro.
Palm Downsides: Thanks. I will still by one since the unlimited talk, data, and text plan is $50 less per month (or $600/year less than the Palm Pre at Sprint) and the Palm Pre is a GREAT option when compared against the iPhone. I do expect problems with the Palm Pre because it’s a computer, so what – but remember it is cutting edge and an incredibly well engineered product.
iPhone Downsides: Do an article like this for the iPhone. I have an iPhone and it has many problems to, after all it’s a computer just like the Pre. My iPhone has to be rebooted about 5-10 times per week because the OS freezes up. I use my iPhone alot, when I answer about 10-15 calls per week the caller can’t hear me and I can’t hear them with a full AT&T signal, iPhone apps crash all the time everyday and crash the OS too, and the OS is super sluggish just browsing email or switching pages in the web browser, Exchange active sync has a multitude of problems syncing on the iTunes. iTunes, oh well it won’t sync my video even though I use the exact format requiered in the help files and I have to delete all the photos on my device once every 2 months since iTunes shows a photo error. I know iPhone lovers want to believe they can bake cakes with their iPhones and solve world hunger, but they need to wake up to reality. Guess what, the iPhone has lots of problems too, shhh don’t tell anybody.
**I am waiting for your article highlighing the Downsides of the iPhone** — FYI: Don’t forget who had to 1 up the Apple Newton and much of the inspiration behind the iPhone (cough: Jeff & Donna, US Robotics, Palm). You know what I am talking about ;)
You are suffering a bad one, sound like to me.
A friend has a problem with their iPhone, it swaps in and out of silent constantly, so it buzzes sometimes every minute!
I like your comment, because its true. The iPhone is a computer, so it’s going to be tedious sometimes. Sometimes more than you’d like.
What I do like is the service. For a $35AU fee they will send out a replacement iPhone then you can send back your trashed one. I’ve been pretty lucky with mine, but the ring switcher broke off, so I’m getting a replacement.
There are some downsides to the phone–for sure. Like not having a magnetometer on it–which eliminates some of the very cool augmented reality apps out there. To be fair, the current iPhone does not have one either, but the new one this summer will. We compared the the G1, iPhone 3.0 (+new hardware) and the Pre here: http://tinyurl.com/phonewars — Let us know what you think!
I’m glad I just burped. Helped to digest this.
Isolating a phone and highlighting its weak points means nothing, unless you’re doing it in an arena where you’re also highlighting the weak points of its competitors. This article is worthless, as it gives no perspective.
Write your own blog then. You want FAIRNESS, buy the FCC and bring back that DOCTRINE thing.
Nobody is legally obligated to hold anybody’s hand here. Neither are JOURNALISTS and you need to stop insisting everything has sides or it’s not justified.
The topic at the top of the window says, “Here’s what’s wrong with the Palm Pre” and it stays ON TOPIC. In addition, it presents a roundup of comments from a WIDE RANGE OF SOURCES. LITTLE of it is original reporting by the author.
I want to thank all of you for straying off topic as far as you possibly could manage to. You were brilliant in you disregard for the actual article’s context and excitingly thrilling in the amount of ignorance displayed!
KUDOS! and SALUT!
This ‘article’ merely extracts negative viewpoints from other articles written on other websites, and brings them together. I’m not sure what purpose it serves.
Your response to my comment is an interesting one. I picture a room of people, and a man (Pre) is standing on the stage. A nominated speaker (author) reads out the list of all this person’s weak points. Then, from the back of the room a person (me) calls out, “Hey! What about his guy’s positive points, or at least who are we comparing his weak points to?”. Another person (you) at the front of the room stands up and says, “Shut up! We’re here to listen to other people’s negative comments about this guy, not to hear justified slanderings and fair comparisons….if that’s what you want, go next door to TechRepublic”.
I’d be willing to bet you are right. I don’t own a cellphone and if I do ever get one it won’t be one of these contraptions.
Would you like a review or the Stromberg Carlson ‘500′ style rotary desk phone I have in use?
Line volume -1
Bell loudness -1
Calling out when the cordless batteries have died or the power is down PRICELESS
This is a BLOG, not a newspaper discussion and you usurped the name of a guy on Nightly Business Report.
Touche.
Look, this is a blog, IT IS SUBJECTIVE, and the writers do not claim to be objective.
blogging is not the same thing as journalism, a blog is ment to be subjective, journalism is ment to be objective.
I don’t see why people are so aggressive with the writers, well then again i doubt you would ever say what you say here to their faces, thank god your hiding behind your screen, no consequences, or none you see.
look at this: “Only one dumb SoB would make a post with only the negatives. I expect a sister post to this, to include all of the positives from those cited articles. If not, your readers should assume that you have some sort of bias on this subject.”
Wow, and as a reader of a BLOG you should know its SUBJECTIVE.
And making a post with only negatives is always interesting to read, it can show what one could expect to be below average with the phone.
You just don’t get it… of course blogs are subjective. If would have been fine he he wrote an article like “here’s what I don’t like about the Pre”. BUT (!!!): all he does is to mix the cons of the reviews together! First of all, you cannot even call that an article. But more important, he gives a completely false impressions, because he rips other people’s work totally out of the context! You just cannot do that, not even in a biased blog, it is wrong in all respects!
As I previously stated, read CNET as it’s not something I would buy anyhow, from any maker.
Cellphones are for taking pics of hotties to lie to your friend that you did them and also to put everyone on voicemail.
In my middle aged world going to the bathroom hourly means at least half of that works but I will settle for a dog at this point.
I don’t care about the ephemera. I build computers from leftovers and you kids whine about expensive wonder boxes when you can’t even fix your fucking computers.
You’ve thrown the nipple rings out with the punk rockers. Go back and learn some basics. I can’t be the only retard that started in the late 70s?
How are you Apple stocks going? Worried or what?
Seeing how Apple fanboys are biased against the Pre is the proof of how good it must be.
WebOs is a winner and this is not going to go away!
CG you are just a joke, forget about your ridiculous site!
Will cut my time weeding through ill-conceived emo crap posts considerably.
Thank you. Who will volunteer next?
PS URANADDICT2ULBBACK
Jeez people, calm down. He’s a blogger, not a journalist. There is a distinction.
If you want to read a story written by a journalist, go read the articles from which Nicholas pulled his quotes. Those are stories, written by journalists. Right now, you’re reading a comment on a blog, written by a blogger. There is nothing wrong with that, but if you’re expecting bloggers to be held to any standard other than their own, and of course the almighty advertising dollar, you need to wake up.
As for the general state of this site, I still see plenty of great posts here on a daily basis – and that includes those made by Nicholas Deleon. I certainly don’t always agree with him, but that’s what this board is for – jump in and argue – like you are. But argue the points, don’t attack the guy throwing up his hard work for everyone to read. Debate on the merits. And if you generally don’t like the work enough that you can’t form a rational argue to debate what he’s saying, and instead resort to insults, I suggest you stop reading his posts. Life’s too short to get in a hissy fit over posts made by a blogger in college you’ll probably never meet. Move on with your lives.
I’m not attacking the writer.. but I have to quote myself:
“of course blogs are subjective. If would have been fine he he wrote an article like “here’s what I don’t like about the Pre”. BUT (!!!): all he does is to mix the cons of the reviews together! First of all, you cannot even call that an article. But more important, he gives a completely false impressions, because he rips other people’s work totally out of the context! You just cannot do that, not even in a biased blog, it is wrong in all respects!”
Why NOT? If it’s a biased blog?
Our generation made you kids, now go see the Wizard for some thinking skills. We don’t have to do all your crap for you.
WOW! Had this little exchange happened at a “kegger” in real life the end result may have been a brawl, black eyes, a few broken noses and at end of day no real resolution; kind of like our 5000 years of recorded history, we as a species are a contentious lot, some are just more driven to dig our heels in for the tiniest of infractions.
Barely Legal’s point is well made, N.D. said up front that his was NOT going to be a review but, “since most of you already assume the phone is “good,” I’ve gone ahead and collected a few excerpts of the more critical points”, not once did he use the word negative.
I think it very even handed of N.D. to have put all of that together in one spot, and shame on the few very narrow minded and thug oriented of those who accuse him or any one else of taking bribes from Apple. As if Apple would be party to or even needed that kind of “help”. Grow a brain, then go soak it!
Critical thinking isn’t something that is taught, or if it is it isn’t learned very effectively, sad but true; BTW let’s not forget the “Wizard” was a charlatan, hiding behind a curtain and keeping people fooled.
Who to listen to? To believe the bitching and moaning people who don’t bother to spellcheck, don’t seemingly know the distinction between “your” and “you’re”, don’t get their facts straight; or the guy who states simply what he is going to do, does it and cites his sources. DUH!
Here’s final thought for you Barely, perhaps they deserve the Palm Phone, if it makes them happy and quiet far away from here, hey , I’ll acquiesce!
Uncle!
Over 1 billion mobile phones were purchased last year, but only 10 percent of them were smart-phones. Analysts say that will grow to 60 percent in the next three years.
Plenty of room for Palm to join and become one of the Big4 in the smartphone space.
Analysts can be a pain in the butt too.