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Doesn't take long for this thread to grow like wild fire. Inlined...<br>
<br>
Mike Miller wrote:
<blockquote
id="mid_alpine_DEB_2_00_0906081643470_8553_taxa_psych_umn_edu"
cite="mid:alpine.DEB.2.00.0906081643470.8553@taxa.psych.umn.edu"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">On Mon, 8 Jun 2009, Chris Barber wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote id="StationeryCiteGenerated_1" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">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.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
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...
</pre>
</blockquote>
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.<br>
<blockquote
id="mid_alpine_DEB_2_00_0906081643470_8553_taxa_psych_umn_edu"
cite="mid:alpine.DEB.2.00.0906081643470.8553@taxa.psych.umn.edu"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">
</pre>
<blockquote id="StationeryCiteGenerated_2" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">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.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
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.
</pre>
</blockquote>
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.<br>
<blockquote
id="mid_alpine_DEB_2_00_0906081643470_8553_taxa_psych_umn_edu"
cite="mid:alpine.DEB.2.00.0906081643470.8553@taxa.psych.umn.edu"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">
</pre>
<blockquote id="StationeryCiteGenerated_3" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">- 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.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
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.
</pre>
</blockquote>
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.<br>
<blockquote
id="mid_alpine_DEB_2_00_0906081643470_8553_taxa_psych_umn_edu"
cite="mid:alpine.DEB.2.00.0906081643470.8553@taxa.psych.umn.edu"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">
</pre>
<blockquote id="StationeryCiteGenerated_4" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">- The connector looks like a micro USB port, but is some proprietary
connector.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
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.
</pre>
<blockquote id="StationeryCiteGenerated_5" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">- 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.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
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.
</pre>
<blockquote id="StationeryCiteGenerated_6" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">- The first day I had it, it would arbitrarily reboot. That hasn't
happened since I updated the phone.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
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.
</pre>
</blockquote>
Yup, there's already an update for the Pre. It's a pretty big download
as I recall, but the upgrade went smooth.<br>
<blockquote
id="mid_alpine_DEB_2_00_0906081643470_8553_taxa_psych_umn_edu"
cite="mid:alpine.DEB.2.00.0906081643470.8553@taxa.psych.umn.edu"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">
</pre>
<blockquote id="StationeryCiteGenerated_7" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">- A fully charged battery with WIFI and bluetooth on drained about 25%
while I slept for 8 hours.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
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).
</pre>
<blockquote id="StationeryCiteGenerated_8" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">- There is a bit of slowness with the UI, especially when launching apps.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
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.
</pre>
</blockquote>
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.<br>
<blockquote
id="mid_alpine_DEB_2_00_0906081643470_8553_taxa_psych_umn_edu"
cite="mid:alpine.DEB.2.00.0906081643470.8553@taxa.psych.umn.edu"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">
</pre>
<blockquote id="StationeryCiteGenerated_9" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">- 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.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
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.
</pre>
<blockquote id="StationeryCiteGenerated_10" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">- The phone looks like a symmetrical stone... in a dark office, I often
somehow manage to pick up the phone upside down.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
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.
</pre>
<blockquote id="StationeryCiteGenerated_11" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">- 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.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
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.
</pre>
<blockquote id="StationeryCiteGenerated_12" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">- No visual voicemail. Calling up and hearing "1 new voicemail message"
from some number that I haven't memorized is worthless.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
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?
</pre>
</blockquote>
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:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqnhm8yfTqM">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqnhm8yfTqM</a><br>
<blockquote
id="mid_alpine_DEB_2_00_0906081643470_8553_taxa_psych_umn_edu"
cite="mid:alpine.DEB.2.00.0906081643470.8553@taxa.psych.umn.edu"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">
</pre>
<blockquote id="StationeryCiteGenerated_13" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">- 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.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
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.
</pre>
<blockquote id="StationeryCiteGenerated_14" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">- 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.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
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.
</pre>
<blockquote id="StationeryCiteGenerated_15" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">- 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.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
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?
</pre>
</blockquote>
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.
<blockquote
id="mid_alpine_DEB_2_00_0906081643470_8553_taxa_psych_umn_edu"
cite="mid:alpine.DEB.2.00.0906081643470.8553@taxa.psych.umn.edu"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">
</pre>
<blockquote id="StationeryCiteGenerated_16" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">- Instead of a "settings" area, they have a separate app for configuring
bluetooth, device info, wifi, sounds, wallpaper, security, etc.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
Good point.
</pre>
<blockquote id="StationeryCiteGenerated_17" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">- No SDK... yet.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
I assume that is coming soon. They want to have a lot of developers.
</pre>
<blockquote id="StationeryCiteGenerated_18" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">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.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
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! ;-)
</pre>
<blockquote id="StationeryCiteGenerated_19" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">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?
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
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?
</pre>
</blockquote>
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.<br>
<blockquote
id="mid_alpine_DEB_2_00_0906081643470_8553_taxa_psych_umn_edu"
cite="mid:alpine.DEB.2.00.0906081643470.8553@taxa.psych.umn.edu"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">
</pre>
<blockquote id="StationeryCiteGenerated_20" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">P.S. Once I'm back on my iPhone, I'll be using Touch Term
(<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.freshapps.com/touch-term/">http://www.freshapps.com/touch-term/</a>) to SSH into my Linux boxes.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
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
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</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
-Chris<br>
<br>
<br>
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