Doesn't take long for this thread to grow like wild fire. Inlined... Mike Miller wrote: > On Mon, 8 Jun 2009, Chris Barber wrote: > > >> I've been dying to rant... >> >> I had an iPhone 3G until last Saturday when I bought a Pre and then >> realized a piece of me died. While the Pre is a great phone compared to >> the Treo, it sucks compared to the iPhone. >> > > It's great to get all these ideas about the phone. Thanks! Why did you > want to dump the iPhone? If I had been using an iPhone I don't think I > would have switched to the Pre, especially not on Day 1. > > More comments interspersed below... > > I liked my iPhone. I left because AT&T's network is horrible. The coverage at my home is bad and I'm right off HWY 169 in Shakopee. I get dropped calls constantly and it didn't matter if I was inside or outside. My favorite is it wouldn't tell me I had voicemails until the next time I made a phone call. I figured that the Pre on Sprint couldn't be worse than anything on AT&T. I just miss the iPhone and how it's interaction made a lot of sense... partly since I've become used to it. > >> Things that suck >> - It is not easy to turn the phone on, unlock it, bring up the phone >> app, find a contact, and call them with one hand. >> > > What part of that is hard? If I hold it in my fingers and use my thumb on > the screen, I think I'm doing those things quite well. This is one place > where a keypad on the screen would help. I think they have only a > hardware keypad, and if it isn't out, you have to scroll instead of typing > letters. > > I am unable to easily slide open the phone, navigate to the phone app, find a contact, and call them using one hand while driving. The iPhone allows you to define "favorites" and then it's a simple click and it's dialing. I search the Pre for a way to bind a contact to a number, but couldn't find a way and besides that solution sucks since I need to memorize who "1" is linked to. The main contact list on the iPhone is also nice since it lists just names, no numbers, you click a name, then pick which number you want (i.e. work, mobile, home, etc). The iPhones contact list also has a quick scroll area on the right side that is basically a vertical bar of each letter in the alphabet and you can scroll with it to get all the way down to the bottom real quickly. > >> - The Pre will not allow you to connect to a IMAP server with a >> self-signed SSL cert which is a HUGE disappointment. >> - The flap to reveal the connector port for charging is difficult to >> open and I could honestly see the flap breaking off eventually. >> > > Yes. I should have mentioned that. It is absurd. I think it is a tactic > to help them to sell the magnetic chargers (which do not come with a wire, > and so I will return mine if they won't give me a free wire). One tip -- > pop out the keypad, it is way easier to reach the connector cover. On the > bright side, the cover stays very flush with the side of the phone which > looks good and helps to keep it from popping open accidentally. > > Yup, I figured that one out, but still annoying. Design-wise, putting a connector on the bottom would be challenging, but they could have engineered a better connector cover. > >> - The connector looks like a micro USB port, but is some proprietary >> connector. >> > > Exactly. Definitely annoying. it would have been sweet if they had used > the ordinary mini-USB (I don't know what it's really called) that most > cameras seem to be using these days. > > > >> - Most of the time it feels like the touch screen is not accurate... it >> thinks my figure is like 5 pixels below where I clicked. >> > > Oh -- maybe that is why I seem to have trouble sometimes clicking on > links. I'll be watching for that. The old Palms used to have you click > on certain positions for calibration. Maybe they need to return to that. > > > >> - The first day I had it, it would arbitrarily reboot. That hasn't >> happened since I updated the phone. >> > > That is very bad, but what does "updated the phone" mean? Is there an > update for the software already? It's been out for two days. > > Yup, there's already an update for the Pre. It's a pretty big download as I recall, but the upgrade went smooth. > >> - A fully charged battery with WIFI and bluetooth on drained about 25% >> while I slept for 8 hours. >> > > Yes, the battery doesn't hold up all that well, or the processor uses a > lot of battery. Either way, you have to charge it pretty often. I leave > plugged into the charger overnight. You could also put it in "Airplane > Mode" to save battery if you were traveling or soemthing (I assume that > would work but I haven't tried it). > > > >> - There is a bit of slowness with the UI, especially when launching apps. >> > > I wasn't thinking of it that way, but it does take something like 3-4 > seconds to open the calendar, for example. I guess that doesn't bother me > because I haven't been using an iPhone. > > iPhone can be slow at times too. It's just a pet peeve. I want all computing devices to compute faster than I think so that I have more time to do stupid things like Twitter. > >> - The best way to sync contacts is with your Gmail contacts which I had >> to first get my contacts into Gmail (which took a long time). You can't >> use iTunes to sync contacts. >> > > This is an interesting issue. I haven't studied it fully yet, but I think > there is a lot of flexibility in this area which is nice, but it means > more work getting to the bottom of how it works. I think you can back > everything up to your PC, or to Sprint's web, or you can back contacts and > calendar to Google, and various combinations also seem to be possible. > This definitely causes problems, but maybe it also creates opportunities > to do cool things I couldn't do otherwise. > > > >> - The phone looks like a symmetrical stone... in a dark office, I often >> somehow manage to pick up the phone upside down. >> > > True. One cool thing (or annoying thing, possibly) is that if you hold it > upside down, it will show web pages upside down so that they are > right-side up. > > > >> - The web browser is clunkier than the iPhone's. >> - The max ringtone volume is still hard to hear when the phone is in >> your pocket. Maybe I'm just getting old. >> > > You are right. David Pogue said the same thing. I guess you can add > ringtones and maybe those can be made louder. Not sure. Definitely > another limitation. > > > >> - No visual voicemail. Calling up and hearing "1 new voicemail message" >> from some number that I haven't memorized is worthless. >> > > I'm not sure I understand this. This is a Sprint problem, no? Do you > mean that Sprint's voicemail won't tell you the name of the caller? > > If you've never used an iPhone or never heard of Visual Voicemail, it's totally awesome. It downloads and lists all voicemails and who the call is from. Check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqnhm8yfTqM > >> - Makes a distorted noise when using my Jawbone bluetooth headset before >> and after calls. >> - It's probably a matter of time before the Pre doesn't work with >> iTunes. Right now, it is detected as an iPod v1.0. >> > > Maybe it will be a perpetual battle with Apple trying to detect the Pre > and deny it access and the Pre trying to fake iTunes into thinking it is > an iPod. The Pre works with a certain version of iTunes but we don't know > what will happen. It doesn't happen to bother me because I don't use > iTunes. > > > >> - The address book lists all of the contacts and their phone numbers >> making the list very long and visually hard to find who I want to call. >> > > Do you want only some of your contacts to appear? I'm not clear on what > the issue is here. So far I haven't found a way to make a short > speed-dial list. Is that not doable? If not, that is a major > shortcoming. If they think they can sell that to me, they are wrong. > > > >> - You can't add/edit contacts while in the phone's address book. You >> need to leave the phone app and go into the contacts app. >> > > Weird. I'm not understanding this aspect of their design. If the phone > list is different from the contacts list, how is the phone list generated > and edited? How do I control it? > > I just found out that if you're in the phone app, dial the number, you can add a contact based on the number. The iPhone's contact list is accessibly only through the phone app. The Pre's phone app only lists contacts, there's a separate contacts app for managing them. Basically this is a training issue. > >> - Instead of a "settings" area, they have a separate app for configuring >> bluetooth, device info, wifi, sounds, wallpaper, security, etc. >> > > Good point. > > > >> - No SDK... yet. >> > > I assume that is coming soon. They want to have a lot of developers. > > > >> Things that don't suck >> - Feels comfortable next to your ear. >> - Sprints plans are cheaper than AT&T's. >> - Sprint has better signal at my house in Shakopee. >> - The gestures are fun. >> - Best Palm phone so far. >> - In my opinion, best Sprint phone so far. >> - Feels smaller in my pocket compared to the iPhone. >> - The camera flash LED is nice. >> - When plugged in, it can show up as a external drive. >> - You can update the phone without a computer. >> - There is some new innovative UI, but most of it was copied from the iPhone. >> - When the SDK does come out, it will work on Linux! And you don't have >> to code in Objective-C! >> >> I'm sure there's a list of other things that rock or suck with the Pre. >> > > It would be interesting to hear more about ways that it compares with > iPhone. I've never owned an iPhone. iPhone doesn't have a hardware > keypad. I don't mind that Pre copies iPhone UI! ;-) > > > >> Despite AT&T's network being crap in my area, I'm going to switch back >> to AT&T and get a iPhone 3GS. The 16GB model is the same price as the >> Pre and has lots of nice features. Only 6 months until AT&T adds a new >> tower to my area that should make the signal better. >> >> Now the question is how do I return the Pre and switch back to AT&T >> without losing my phone number? >> > > Is that a problem? I think you can return it within 30 days. Can't you > always keep your number when you change carriers? Didn't you keep your > number when you switched to Sprint from AT&T? > > I don't know if it will be a problem... I don't know if I talk to AT&T first, then Sprint, or vice versa. Yes, there's a 30 day return policy. Probably a restocking fee too. I did port my number, I just don't want lose it when I port it back. I'm sure it's not an issue, but I'll have to sort it out with them first. > >> P.S. Once I'm back on my iPhone, I'll be using Touch Term >> (http://www.freshapps.com/touch-term/) to SSH into my Linux boxes. >> > > Nice. We need something like that for Pre (preferrably free). > > Thanks again for all of the comments about the Pre. I'm sure this will > help me a lot while I'm working on figuring out all of its intricacies. > > Mike > > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list > -Chris -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mailman.mn-linux.org/pipermail/tclug-list/attachments/20090608/28d8298f/attachment-0001.htm