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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Griswold - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
"Multitasking has been done by many smartphones before the Pre or iPhone, but no one has done it as smooth and as Apple-like as Palm."We're in the 3rd generation of iphones now and they still cant multitask. If palm does it perfectly, calling it "apple-like" is certainly inappropriate. Palms Pre is now the yardstick for multitasking on the mobile sector. Credit where credit is due, please.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
I meant it in a flattering way. That sort of praise is normally reserved for Apple; bestowing it upon Palm, not traditionally a recipient of such praise was intended to be an honor :-PTake care,
Anand
Johnmcl7 - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
"Shame on Nokia, Motorola and the established cell phone industry for failing to do what it took Palm two years to do."Ok, so this point is made followed by compliments for multitasking and the cloud syncing however Nokia have had a similar multitasking system implemented in S60 for years (hold the app button to get a list of all apps and change to them as you want). Background apps can have their own data connections without interfering with each other and if you do push them too far the phone will warn you it's running low on memory. I find it strange that the lack of multitasking which is really a requisite for a smartphone has been so overlooked with the Iphone. Nokia's Ovi product lets you sync your system remotely or you can hook your contacts directly into the likes of Facebook with the latest version of S60.
While Nokia lack the flash of other companies however Apple still cannot match the featureset of the S60 phones that were out before the Iphone 2G and I find their core features to be extremely strong particularly signal reception - the 5800 can hold onto a signal where no other phone can which makes it considerably more useful given it is a phone after all.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
While Nokia has done a great job adding features to its phones over the years, on the UI side the innovation just hasn't been there. Both Apple and Palm deliver far more usable, simple and smooth UIs on their smart phones than I've seen from anyone else.If your cellphone UI has never bothered you then Nokia more than delivers capable handsets, however I believe (and I feel that a significant portion of the high end smartphone market agrees) that it's only been since the iPhone that we've seen real attention paid towards improving UI and user experience on these phones. Palm does a wonderful job of carrying the torch for the next leg imho.
Take care,
Anand
Connoisseur - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
I totally agree. Everyone keeps harping on this article regarding the "features" and how they've been available for a long time in other phones. The feature-set aside, these phones just offer a level of smoothness and ease of use in the UI that 90% of the population is wowed about. Sure my old Treo offered a lot of functionality but it took an Apple to take the key components and make it such a pleasure to use.jmaine - Saturday, June 20, 2009 - link
Please define "genuine smartphone". Enlighten us to what the iPhone cannot do (and do well) that a Nokia smartphone would be a better choice for the masses? I switched to an iPhone after years of using Nokia, Motorola, Sony, Samsung and Blackberry phones. I even have a Treo 750 from work right now and I absolute hate it and all the former phones I've used and constantly switched between.TheProf, Connoisseur and Anand hit the nail on the head. It's the interface and usability, not the features that make a smart phone a commercial success. You can have a 12 megapixel phone with an OLED display, but with horrible software, support and application support. It will fail despite the strength of its hardware.
I've been reading a lot about the Palm Pre's problems since launch - overheating, poor battery life, and software crashes. Don't forget that a smart phone's function is to be a phone first, and everything else after. If you can't use its features without affecting it's essential functionality as a phone, it's a failure.
Johnmcl7 - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
I don't see the point in having a fancy UI if there's nothing underneath it, I expect a lot of functionality from a smartphone (otherwise I would use a normal phone) and Apple still seems to be far behind where Nokia were years before. If you want a fashion phone then yes, a fancy UI is definitely a desirable feature.Also, I still fail to see why you 'shame' Nokia then praise Palm for a system which Nokia have had for many years.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
I believe that the iPhone and Pre do offer much more than a fancy UI, I believe they offer a good balance of features and good interface. Not holding phone makers to a high standard when it comes to UI is how we ended up in this mess in the first place, I don't believe now is the time to go back to our old ways.I'm not shaming Nokia for its multitasking support, I'm shaming Nokia for not producing a comparable Pre-like or iPhone-like UI in the years since the original iPhone's release. In my mind it should have been Nokia and Motorola who built the first iPhone, they had the experience; for Apple to come in and build such a successful smartphone indicates that there's something wrong with the way the established makers approach phone designs.
Take care,
Anand
Johnmcl7 - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
That's because Nokia make genuine smartphones, not devices pretending to be smartphones just because they have a fancier interface - on the initial Iphone release it was missing features even standard phones had (such as proper bluetooth support). I honestly don't know how a phone as basic as the Iphone gets such a free ride on what is supposed to be a tech site - it's very slowly getting there but to me a device without multitasking cannot be considered a smartphone as that severely limits the device.Even on media features Nokia had Apple beaten hands down and still do in some areas, I'm waiting for the next release in the drip feed series of Iphones which will have a decent camera as at the moment they seem to be around three years behind on that front.
Overall I just much prefer Nokia's approach to a mobile phone - pack as many features into a phone to make it a powerful device rather than Apple's approach of putting at little as possible to force people to upgrade constantly. I guess I'll never understand how tech sites can get so wowed by an interface they can completely overlook the lack of any substance underneath it.
Samus - Saturday, June 20, 2009 - link
Yea... Nokia's smartphones are 'true' smartphones. Thats why Blackberry and Apple outsell Nokia smartphones like 50:1.Nokia makes sturdy dependable phones, but their IU has the elegence of a VW Golf dashboard. Boring. Boring. Boring.