Palm goes Pre/webOS

Well as I'm sure many have heard... Palm has finally released its latest OS and device, the Pre. The new OS is named 'webOS', I guess they didn't like the name Nova? Anyways.... well as I'm sure you can expect... the blogosphere is all at flutter about the Pre...

Since I won't posting the specs, here are some useful links:
http://www.palm.com/us/products/phones/pre/
http://now.sprint.com/pre/?id9=vanity:palmpre
http://palmaddict.typepad.com/palmaddicts/2009/01/palm-unveils-al.html
http://mytreo.net/treo-and-palm-news/palm-pre-and-webos-announced/

So my take... looks nice, only problems... I don't think I want it. I'm hoping for Palm's sake that it is all that is cracked up to be. While I'll always be a Palm fan.... but after the endless (well I guess it has almost ended) wait for this new device and OS.... Anyways during the wait, the iPhone was released and I got an Android HTC G1.

To quickly rant my anti-iPhone stance... no the iPhone did not create the smartphone industry, it just stirred the pot very nicely, the industry was started mostly by Palm, RIM, and Symbian with help from MS, and both Palm and MS have always had a touchscreen (and a physical keyboard), the only thing the iPhone brought to the market was hype, and a pretty good platform that made others think. On the platform topic, Palm has supposedly been working on this new platform since well before the iPhone rumors started. As for RIM, Symbian, and MS... well Lauren has a Pearl and likes it, everyone I know with Symbian smartphones like them... and everybody with MS smartphones... well they tend to be mixed... my take on WinMo is that it is Windows (I like Office, not windows). And as I said, I got tired of waiting for Palm to release its new OS and when I heard that T-Mobile would be getting the G1 (the world's first Android phone) I knew which direction I was heading, and I'm very happy with my G1 (especially now that I regained root access to my phone).

And back to the Pre, yes the Pre looks really nice. The OS looks nice and clean, par with Palm's existence. The device is also clean looking and when you slide the keyboard out (yes if you haven't read the specs, it has a sliding keyboard) you get the nice surprise that it is a portrait keyboard (screen stays portrait unlike most HTC WinMo devices and the Android G1 which orients the phone landscape). I'm not sure which layout I like better.... I really like my G1, but I miss the keyboard sometimes of my old Treo 650, its probably because I was a lot faster typing on the Treo. Other specs I like, the camera has a Flash!, but that is not really that import to me... I don't take many pictures with my camera in the dark anyways.. and if I do, I'm usually taking pictures of lights so I wouldn't want a flash then either, but I can definitely see times I wish I did have a flash. Other specs I like the standard 3.5mm headphone jack and the microUSB connector (no more proprietary connectors). Only con with the specs... the phone seems a bit big.. the G1 is bigger than an iPhone, and about part with many of the newer sliding keyboard HTC WinMo devices, but the Pre, based on the specs seems bigger, and I'm assuming that is not with the keyboard extended... that could be a big downfall in these days with the sleekness of the iPhone, we'll see what people think when it hits the market.

So competing phones for each carrier... AT&T=iPhone, T-Mobile=Android G1, Verizon=Blackberry Storm, and now Sprint=Palm Pre.... so which one will 'win' well since they are all on different carriers... how can they loose? We'll have to see the results in Europe (yes Engadget has confirmed that the Pre will be released in other regions as a GSM phone).

So again, do I want the new Pre from Palm....no (well yes). Why not... primarily since I already have a G1, and secondly since the US release will be on Sprint. And while it has been confirmed that the Pre will be released in other non-Sprint regions as a GSM phone, I'm cheap and I like my US phone discounts. So for now here is to waiting for the device to arrive in the hand of people.. and for now, I'll keep enjoying my G1.