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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OCedHrt - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
My HTC has predictive text input (based on key locality) in case of a miss so I don't think Apple has a patent on it.macs - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
Speaking of fast web browsing.... i use opera mini on my google Ion phone (android). It delivers full browsing experience and it's blazing fast. Opera mini loads anandtech.com over my 3g network in just 9 seconds. You should try!imaheadcase - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
Thats how apple stays in business right there, everyone thinks throwing money at overpriced products IT will get better eventually.. ZING!I don't know why this review is comparing it to a Iphone, Iphone is outclassed by other smartphones as it is, why not compare it to a real phone like a HTC touch or the like? You know, a phone that is popular with regular people and not hollywood hipsters only..
Downvote if you want, but the FACT of the matter is, the Iphone is a niche market, look at the top phones sold by At&T, the basic flip phone is still the best selling phone in the world, the HTC touch even outsells the iphone 10-1. Like I mentioned before, I know one person who has a iphone and he only got it because parents got it to him as a going away to collage gift.
jmaine - Saturday, June 20, 2009 - link
Where are you coming up with these stats from? Please show me one reliable source that says the HTC Touch outsells the iPhone 10-1. Please leave the bs in your dreams.ltcommanderdata - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
One thing I find funny about arguments that the iPhone lacks basic features found in other phones is that despite this Apple has still sold 21 million iPhones as of March 2009, which is quite a success for a company that wasn't in the cell phone business 2 years ago. The question other phone manufacturers should be thinking about is what happens when the iPhone incorporates many of these lacking hard features in addition to the fluffy pizzaz it already has? How much additional demand will there be for a full featured iPhone?Anand Lal Shimpi - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
The reviews agree, the HTC Touch isn't in the same class of smartphone as the iPhone. Most phones will outsell things like the iPhone; lower prices and lower monthly fees will determine quantities, but the space the iPhone competes in is the high end smartphone market where the stakes/players are a bit different.Take care,
Anand
rudy - Monday, June 22, 2009 - link
I cant find any provider which sells an HTC touch cheaper then an iPhone.Stas - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
Same. I know 2 ppl that had iPhones. 1 was my techy friend, who took it to the shooting range and unloaded his rifle at it after 5 months of use. The other is my wife's friend who only knows how to call and text on it (not sure WHY she got it... oh, yeah, it's COOL).But I can think of at least 8 ppl that have a Blackberry... :)
anandtech02148 - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
Nokia N97, europe's answer to all american hyped up marketing trash. N97 unlocked, using Fring to escape that other american trash, US cellphone pre-nups.Voip, sip account, sweetness. symbian s60 5th is a bit shaky, but then again there isn't a perfect Os for new cellphone model that comes out every 3months, thanks to Taiwan,Korea and China new handset are out every 24hrs. the only win for Apple here is a lot of laid off engineers creating adobe flash games for the iphone, how else would you get 50,000 apps. my hope is Nokia's answer apple in the next 6month with dual cores Arm.
snarfbot - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
im glad you're happy with your 700 US dollar phone.dumb americans are happy to get a free phone and use the same carrier for a couple of years, probably because almost every network is essentially the same in terms of features/cost.
on a side note, something needs to be done about the word american.
america is a big continent, people commonly refer to those living in the USA as "americans".
it would be more fitting if we were dubbed usa'ians our something so our neighbors dont get insulted by accident.
which brings me to my last point, in response to the actual article!
it is odd indeed how the messaging protocol varies regionally, i think the major reason most people in the US use AIM, is because we were all introduced to the splendor of the internet by aol in the 90's, then when broadband became available people switched over and kept their AIM screen names. Those that used a different isp just used AIM because everyone else was on aol, etc.
Peoples elsewhere probably used icq, until msn/yahoo came along and freed them from oppression.