Palm Pre now available
When the Pre, Palm’s make-or-break handset, was launched in the US in June, it was touted as an “iPhone killer”, the first mobile phone truly capable of taking on Apple’s flagship device. It has enjoyed critical acclaim and steady sales in the US, with around a million handsets sold, but it remains to be seen whether it can knock the iPhone off the top spot.
Palm has made much of the Pre’s music capabilities, but it finds itself locked in a cat-and-mouse game with Apple over iTunes support: Palm wants the Pre to be able to synchronise with a user’s iTunes library and import music directly from there; Apple appears less keen on this arrangement, and a recent iTunes software update disabled this function, only for Palm to reinstate it.
If the Pre’s glossy, curved design and slick interface feel familiar, it’s not surprising – Palm’s executive chairman, Jon Rubenstein, is a former Apple employee and was part of its hardware engineering and iPod division. So you have a familiar centre button on the device taking users back to the “home” screen, from which they can check their emails, make a call or surf the internet, and a “dock” at the bottom of the screen from which programs are launched.
Tapping on icons in the dock produces a rippling animation, to show that your touch command has been understood. There’s also an area on the screen’s surround, to the left of the “home” button, that allows you to skip back through menus just by running your finger from right to left.
The Pre’s major selling point – and the one that could tempt even the staunchest Apple fans away from their iPhones – is its operating system, webOS. The software, built entirely from scratch by Palm, is designed to make the most of cloud computing, by making it really easy to access content and contacts stored on other websites.
This technology, known as Palm Synergy, pulls contacts, calendar events, emails and photos, your personal and work email addresses, and instant-messaging accounts – in to a single “phone book”, through which you can get in touch with people. It means that you can keep a single “thread” of correspondence with contacts, even if some of that correspondence took place via email, text or instant messaging.
Web browsing is quick and intuitive, thanks to the Pre’s Wi-Fi and 3G support – enter a search, and the Pre will try to guess whether your question is best answered by searching the web.
This small circular pad allows you to charge the Pre without a plug, thanks to inductive technology. You’ll need to change the back cover of the Pre to a rubberised version in order for the wireless charging function to work: it uses inductive coils inside the Touchstone pad to generate a small, oscillating electromagnetic field that is transmitted through the backplate to charge the Pre.
The Apple iPhone still remains the best touch-screen smartphone on the market, but the Pre certainly gives it a run for its money.
