Messaging Done Right
The iPhone perfected text messaging, but as I wrote in my 3G review - the AIM app just plain sucked. It did bring AIM to the iPhone, for free, which was nice but the app proved to me that although the iPhone needed the app store, it also needed Apple to develop apps for it.
Palm wins again with its messaging app. The app is aptly called Messaging and it handles much more than just SMS:
The Messaging app is used for text messages (SMS), AIM and GTalk chats. Of course you can also use ICQ over AIM so we can count that as a fourth option. The real shiny part of the Pre’s Messaging is its ability to switch between all of these mediums in a single window.
Here’s where Synergy is very cool. The Pre knows that Michael Andrawes has a mobile phone that I can text, but it also knows that he has a GTalk account and an AIM account.
When I’m talking to Mike I can start texting him, then if I see him online I can switch to AIM or GTalk. My chat history is saved even as I migrate between services; to me, it just looks like I’m talking to Mike; the Pre (and I) don’t really care via what medium the communication happens, I just care about when it happened.
Now Mike has an iPhone 3G, so he doesn’t really see the awesomeness of what’s going on while I’m talking to him. As long as I’m not inconsiderate with my messaging, I should always catch Mike where he expects to talk to me.
Just like Synergy, there are some issues with the Messaging application.
For starters, there’s no way to set a default way of communicating with a person. If Mike hates using AIM but loves GTalk, there’s no way for me to prioritize the latter. Secondly, the system isn’t smart enough to default to AIM/GTalk if Mike is on one of those services and default to SMS if he’s not.
If I’m having a conversation with Mike and he has to head out, I’d like the Messaging app to recognize that he has logged off and switch the chat mode to SMS if I need to reach Mike while he’s gone.
There’s also currently no support for things like MSN or Yahoo Messenger, but between AIM, SMS and GTalk I’m able to talk to a good number of my contacts (as a sidenote, isn’t it strange how very regionalized the various IM protocols are?).
There’s no excuse for Apple not having offered iChat on the iPhone by now. If you do a lot of IMing from your phone, you’ll love the Pre.
While you can’t multitask within the Messaging app (e.g. I can’t have two cards each with a different IM conversation open at once, although you can have multiple conversations open at once), you can at least multitask in other areas while you’re using the app. For example, I can be browsing the web while I’m talking to someone over AIM without logging out. It seems simple, but it can’t be done on the iPhone today (iPhone OS 3.0 fixes this, somewhat, by allowing background notifications).
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mesiah - Saturday, June 20, 2009 - link
Thank you Anand for your very in depth review. There were a couple things that came to mind while reading this review as well as the comments after.First, I really think the industry needs a new term for the iphones and the pres out there. IMO you have phones, their primary objective is making and recieving calls and text messages with some very light media duties. Then you have smartphones (pocket pc, blackberry, palm os) that are geared towards a balance of voice communication and business software with some light web browsing and media use. I think there should also be a 3rd category, call it superphone if you want. A superphone will make calls, but it browses the web, acts as a audio/video player, handheld game, remote control, and any number of other things just as well. In fact, our superphones have advanced to the point where most reviews don't even mention call quality at all.
Second, for the first few years of the iphone there were two groups. Group 1 who loves their iphone for its simplicity and ability to run all their fun apps. And group 2, the hardcore and business oriented smartphone users who hated the iphone because it lacked so many things their blackberry/treo etc already had years ago (including apps which weren't allowed on the original iphone release.) I will admit that I am a member of the second group. I had friends that ran out to buy an iphone and I just couldn't understand why anyone would want a device that was so limited that you couldn't even install 3rd party software on it. Eventually the app store was released but by then it was too late for some of us. We had already grown to despise the iphone. The iphone faithful on the other hand fell in love with their new phones and quickly forgot about the things it didn't poses. Now that those features are being added, the fact that alot of iphone fanatics act like they are getting great features never before seen in the mobile world only serves to miff those of us from group two a little more. That being said, I hate reading reviews for pre and iphone because both the review and the comments are so heavily biased one way or the other that its of no benefit, it just turns into a big p!ssing match. One group ignores the polish of the iphone and its extensive apps, the other just wants to point a finger at the pres smaller screen, minimal 3rd party software, and reports of screen issues. Although, let me remind you that you are purchasing a totally new product with the pre. There are going to be some defects and you will no doubt hear about them as people are eager to jump on the net and let everyone know about their new product. No manufacturer can guarantee a 100% defect free manufacturing process, especially in the infancy of a product. Its not going to have 40,000 apps at launch and you shouldn't expect it to. Look at it like a video game system, when ps3 (or any other system) launched there were numerous overheating issues and it had a small library of titles. It takes a while for the programmers to get stuff out there. Noone says "I'm not buying a ps3 because there are WAY more games out for nes." and sony realized their overheating issues and corrected them quickly, fast enough that alot of people probably don't even know they existed. Except for those early adopters out there and people that saw all of the pictures online of store demo units freezing up.
Either way, for the most part I don't think any review on the internet is going to change 99% of peoples minds. Iphone lovers will continue to buy iphones, ignore its drawbacks, and hate any product that attempts to build on their success. And iphone haters are going to buy anything out there that does all of those things that they need or want it to do, yet secretly wish they could have that cool app their friend does. But this is the first review / comparison I have read that was mostly unbiased and didn't have a full fledged iphone/pre war in the comments section.
Thank you anandtech, you once again deliver a fair review followed by civilized debate.
wifiwolf - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
"And I swear if Apple uses this as an attempt to push MobileMe..."
I think you're going to get sued by Apple for stealing their idea.
sprockkets - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
My friends G1 still can't receive files via BT, though I heard they were supposed to have added it by now.Apple just did.
What about the Pre? I hope it has some BT functionality beyond simple headsets.
snookie - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
"Curious by Griswold, 13 hours agoBut does the ringer switch fall off as easily as the one on my iphone? Personally, I dont care if some parts feel or look cheap, as long as they arent cheap - like the ringer switch on the iphone."
If there was an issue with iPhone ringer switches it would be well known. There isn't one.
The Pre would have been of interest a year or two ago but I think right now its too little too late. It is cheaply made and there are many reports of issues because of poor quality and users having to exchange for new ones. Personally I find the keyboard unusable as do many others. 8GB of ram is also a showstopper for me. I really have no interest in Sprint since they are even worse than AT&T. Palm as a company is in serious financial difficulty and the Pre is not going to change that given initial sales. The best they can hope for is a buyer who can provide the backing they need. The Pre also really needs to get on Verizon and some better 2nd gen hardware out. I had my iPhone 3GS delivered today and it walks all over the Pre. As much as I like the iPhone and Apple products in general I really would prefer the Pre was a stronger competitor. AT&T sure as hell needs the competition.
Conficio - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
Thanks Anand for you excellent, detailed, while personal review.I have had an Apple Newton, a Palm IIIe and have a Treo 600. I love the Pre from what I have seen. I hate any exclusive carrier and any sort of locked phone.
When Palm sells these things unlocked with quadband GSM I'm in. I would even buy a model that does not have a phone but WiFi only, if it comes with an application that calls the number in my address book and makes a connection to one of my three phone numbers (home, work, cell dependent on what Wifi network I'm connected to [home, work, other]). That would be a killer app and increase Palms economies of scale to drive the price down or the profit margin up. Palm I'm looking at you!
canontk - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
"You do have the plug the Touchstone into a power outlet (or your computer) and you still need to plug the USB cable into the Pre to sync music/photos/movies"The Touchstone will only work plugged into the wall, you might want to correct that.
I generally like your reviews but this one was mostly how the Pre isn't an iphone. Review the phone for what it is then compare later.
szaijan - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
"...In fact, the biggest limit to how fast you can type is the fact that the Pre has no intelligent predictive text engine. It will capitalize new words for you and insert apostrophes when appropriate, but if you misspell a word it won’t correct it on the fly. Coming from the iPhone, this is a huge omission (Apple probably holds the patent on awesome predictive text input, Palm would probably have to clean Jobs‘ toilets weekly to get access to that one)."Actually, the BB Pearl, which I owned before my iPhone, had a far superior predictive text engine. I find the iPhone frequently making undesired "corrections", while I could actually type on my Pearl without looking at the keyboard or making any in situ corrections and the predictive engine got the words right almost all the time. I believe that engine probably predates the iPhone's, so I doubt Apple has a defensible patent on the technique.
AgeOfPanic - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
I only see Gmail and Facebook mentioned. I don't really use either. What other options are there for synching? Why not Hotmail, is this a Palm choice or a limitation by Microsoft? I guess Itunes might work for managing your contacts, but who knows for how long.ViRGE - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
While Anand was gushing over it, am I the only person that doesn't want their information syncing over the ambiguous cloud? I'd much rather have it on my home computer, where I'm not subject to the whims of the service provider's uptime, where a mere hacker can't break in and steal any information, where the service provider can't turn around and data mine it or sell it, etc.When my iPhone syncs to Outlook, I know the information is immediately updated on both ends. I know no one else had access to it, and I know that I can easily take it and manipulate it in the future since absolutely everything works with Outlook or a CSV export from Outlook.
The Cloud strikes me as handing over globs of important data to someone else, and praying that they don't find a way to screw up managing it.
The only thing being done right here is that Palm isn't charging for this service like Apple is for MobileMe. Some features (primarily phone location and remote wiping) do need a service provider, and for just those services MobileMe is entirely a rip-off.
strikeback03 - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
I created a new e-mail address just for Facebook, and that is the only contact info I have listed there. I don't think many of my friends have their info out there for all to see either.