Google Maps
Android based phones still get the sweetest implementation of Google Maps, but the Pre gets one that’s at least on par with what’s in the iPhone OS. There are some minor UI differences but fundamentally it works the same.
Google Maps does take much longer to load on the Pre than on the iPhone, but once in the app you can interact with it much faster.
Address Book
Thanks to Synergy, the Pre’s Address Book is pretty awesome. I get pictures for all of my contacts that I didn’t have to assign myself (as long as they have a picture associated with them from somewhere, either my address book, my Gmail, or Facebook), I get their AIM/GTalk status indicated by a dot to the left of their name and I can scroll through the list very quickly. The scrolling here is quick and smooth, unlike in the Email app; I don’t get why.
Music and Movies
The Pre, as you’ve undoubtedly heard, unofficially supports syncing over iTunes. It reports itself as an iPod allowing iTunes to sync with it as if it were an iPod. Apple could easily prevent this from happening, and Palm could attempt to circumvent Apple’s prevention and this whole thing could turn into a war of sorts but for now if you plug in your Pre you can sync your music just fine.
Works like a charm, or an iPod, for now.
The music player is very simple and has built in searching capabilities. You can browse your music according to artist, album, song title, genre or individual playlists. There’s of course support for randomized play (sigh, or Shuffle I guess). You can even buy tracks from Amazon’s DRM-free MP3 store; clicking the link in the Music app just opens a separate card for the Amazon Music store.
The Pre can also function as a movie player. It’s capabilities are similar to the iPhone here as well. There is no way to purchase/rent movies from the phone unfortunately; we’re not quite there yet.
The App Store
The Palm store pretty much sucks right now. There are hardly any official applications and honestly there’s more interesting content being produced by the homebrew community than anything officially embraced by Palm today. That could change in the future, but if you need an app that’s in Apple’s app store already, there’s no reason to even consider Palm.
Three games in the entire App Catalog.
Case in point? I just threw up a few Sonos ZonePlayers around my house. Sonos has a free iPhone app to control them all. It’s pretty sweet. There is no equivalent on the Pre. Giving up my iPhone would mean giving up the convenience of controlling my music, all over my house, from my phone. Apple did a very wise thing by dropping the 3G’s price to $99; it’s going to be very difficult for Palm or any other manufacturer to compete with the developer base of the iPhone. Apple with an installed base advantage? What sort of bizarro world are we living in?
The Pre just launched this month, and there isn’t a hardware-level SDK available so it’s no surprise that the Pre’s app store is very barren. I do expect that to obviously change over time.
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TheProf - Saturday, June 20, 2009 - link
That's because to most non-PhoneGeeks, a good interface to a feature is more important than the feature itself. Usability trumps power in most if not all cases.If a feature is too hard to find or too hard to use, it might as well not exist, for whatever values of 'too hard to find' or 'too hard to use' apply. "pack[ing] as many features into a phone to make it a powerful device" may appeal to tech geeks, but it doesn't fly with the broader computing audience, let alone the general public.
That's the true overriding 'feature' of the iPhone and the Pre; they take features that existed in previous phones, but were so complicated that hardly anyone used them, and made them things that a much broader audience actually *enjoy* using.
cplusplus - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
Now I'm not actually expecting a G2 review at any point, but Android is only brought up twice in this whole review? The G1 has been out for 8 months and already pulls from the cloud (Google natively, and I believe it can pull from Facebook) and has multi-tasking. Two of the things you say you really like about the Pre. The G1 isn't as good as the iPhone (for the most part), and I know that, but the G2 is supposed to be much better, and I would like to see how Android stacks up against webOS, at the very least.Anand Lal Shimpi - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
I played with the G1 while writing this review, while I think the OS has some definite promise - the current hardware is just disappointing. Multitasking has been around long before any of these phones, yet it was the Pre's interface and relative quickness that made it a very desktop-like experience. The next-generation of Android based phones will hopefully deliver a full set of gestures and better performance; I think that would be the appropriate time to look at a comparison.To my knowledge, Android doesn't natively handle Facebook integration and has no mechanism for removing dupes between Gmail/Facebook contacts on the fly. Google (Android) is closer than anyone else (other than Palm) right now though.
Take care,
Anand
mrhumble1 - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
This is kinda disappointing, Anand.You are saying the G1 doesn't cut it simply because of Facebook integration??
Newsflash... plenty of people (and phone geeks) don't care one bit about Facebook. That's a terrible reason to knock the G1.
As for hardware, the G1 shouldn't be judged only for its hardware. The G1 is all about Android.
The G1 has PLENTY of functionality that most review sites completely ignore. Does the iPhone (or Pre) have widgets? Do either of these phones have skins/themes/ or home screen replacements that include custom icons/backgrounds? These features greatly enhance the customization/usability options of the phone yet nobody seems to care.
I use apps every day on my G1 that Apple would never allow on the iPhone. The Pre may have great synching capabilities, but it has a similar notification bar like the G1 yet nobody gives the G1 credit.
You say the Pre gives a better "desktop experience" but the G1 is EXACTLY like using a laptop. I have the icons where I want them, I use the app tray like the Start button (XP), I have shortcuts to every function I could want, and separate home-screens for each category of app (Home, Settings, Games, Contacts, Multimedia, etc.), I have widgets set up on the various screens that provide me with information and functionality (from weather to wireless settings)... the list goes on. I haven't even mentioned the browsers which are excellent.
I often jog with my G1. Here's what it does for me:
-I open one app that plays streaming internet radio (over stereo bluetooth)
-I turn on the GPS and use another app to track my workout. The app reads back my elapsed time and distance aloud so I don't have to interrupt my music or look at the phone to check my stats. Then, when my run is done, it uploads the info and emails me a summary of my workout which includes a map and detailed stats regarding time and distance.
Can the iPhone/Pre do that? The iPhone can't even run 2 apps at once!
Android is not a small player in this game. Let's give it a little more credit, ok?
J
Anand Lal Shimpi - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
I think this is the key point we differ on:"As for hardware, the G1 shouldn't be judged only for its hardware. The G1 is all about Android. "
I agree that the G1 is nothing without Android.
I agree that Android is extremely important.
But where we disagree is the value of the hardware. In my eyes, the G1's hardware keeps it out of the running for the top places. It lacks all of the major gestures that the iPhone and Pre support and the UI/device is much, much slower.
Many PCs can run an impressive set of applications, but what we're looking for is the right combination of features and performance - the latter just isn't delivered by the G1. I do fully expect future versions to fix that however, I just don't believe the time is now. And I believe most of the reviews of the G1 echo my sentiments; the hardware doesn't do the software justice.
Take care,
Anand
cplusplus - Sunday, June 21, 2009 - link
Just as a quick reply, the only reason Android doesn't have multi-touch is because they were afraid they would get sued by Apple for having it. Everyone was. It's not big news/problem because since Palm has been in the PDA game much longer than Apple, they have patents that Apple are probably infringing, too. There are cooked roms out there that show that the G1's screen is fully capable of multi-touch. Now that Palm has shown that it can be implemented without being sued, I fully expect it to show up in the 2.0 version of Android.http://gizmodo.com/5150354/apple-stopped-multitouc...">http://gizmodo.com/5150354/apple-stoppe...-on-andr...
http://i.gizmodo.com/5146797/how-to-hack-android-f...">http://i.gizmodo.com/5146797/how-to-hac...itouch-w...
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/28/apple-vs-palm-t...">http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/28/apple-vs-palm-t...
Griswold - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
"Even the individual buttons on the Pre don’t feel as good as those on the iPhone. The ringer and sleep switches both feel cheap."But 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.
joos2000 - Sunday, June 21, 2009 - link
[quote] Pinch two fingers to zoom in, move them apart to zoom out.[/quote]Certainly it is the other way around?
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Hrel - Tuesday, June 23, 2009 - link
no, why would it be??? That would make no sense at all.>>> <<< to zoom in. <<< >>> to zoom out. How does that NOT make sense?