AP: Review: Dazzling Palm software beats the iPhone

[clevin]

Review: Dazzling Palm software beats the iPhone | Top AP Stories | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Move over, iPhone. You've had two years on top of the smart phone world. Now there's a touch-screen phone with better software: the Palm Pre.

So webOS makes the iPhone look clunky, which is stunning in itself. It also thoroughly shows up Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Mobile. That operating system has had multitasking for years, but few users have appreciated that. Rather, Windows Mobile has been blamed for making phones clumsy and slow. Now, webOS comes along and does multitasking right.

When I first got the Pre, I was dismayed by its battery life. I got less than 24 hours of light use out of it, and it would lose nearly a third of its charge if left inactive overnight. It turns out there's a bug that drains the battery if your Google instant-messaging account is connected to your AOL Instant Messenger account. Palm says it will fix that. When I logged Google out of AIM, I got much longer life.

I extended battery life even further by setting the Pre to receive my personal e-mail instantly rather than checking every 15 minutes. That's counterintuitive — usually getting the e-mail automatically "pushed" to a device consumes more power.

I ended up with nearly two days of battery life, which I think is acceptable for a hardworking smart phone. But it would be great if Palm made it easier to manage power consumption.

and

Lastly, Apple is expected to fire back by announcing an upgraded iPhone model, perhaps as soon as Monday. It won't be able to do everything the Pre can do, but it might have other novel features.

[gabbott]

Wow, that is a pretty glowing review. Interesting notes on the battery life, sounds like it might not be as bad as it is sounding from some reviews.

[playboy]

First the NY Times and now AP. Man, the reviews keep coming from legit sources and they're confirming what posters like D94 have already stated. Good job Palm.

[Beanis]

Yeah very interesting on battery life. As I suspected, very particular settings can have a drastic effect on battery life. It's just too bad there isn't some kind of app that tracks which settings are sucking battery.

[jewel]

After all those bashing in the last few days it's nice to hear some positive notes about the Pre.

[Parityone]

"...if your Google instant-messaging account is connected to your AOL Instant Messenger account."

What does that mean?

[poopsie]

Lastly, Apple is expected to fire back by announcing an upgraded iPhone model, perhaps as soon as Monday. It won't be able to do everything the Pre can do, but it might have other novel features.

Yeah, I am really on the fence on the iPhone or the Pre. That compass, boy, the Pre not having something like that could really be a deal breaker for me...

[EeZeEpEe]

Originally Posted by Parityone

"...if your Google instant-messaging account is connected to your AOL Instant Messenger account."

What does that mean?

I was confused by that too. I'm not sure if it's simply saying using Gtalk and AIM at the same time or something else.

[Kyusaku]

Yeah I'm a bit lost at what he's saying, but I'm gonna guess it's AIM that's sucking battery life. On my Treo 700wx, AIM clients seem to follow the same suit. I'm guessing this won't be fully solved until they integrate it with Mojo Messaging Service.

[hamkins]

Originally Posted by Beanis

Yeah very interesting on battery life. As I suspected, very particular settings can have a drastic effect on battery life. It's just too bad there isn't some kind of app that tracks which settings are sucking battery.

I'm sure there will be, if not by Palm, than by a third party. I can think of some things worth tracking: Bluetooth, Wifi, email check period/push, and screen dim/off idle setting. A simple app that allows you to set the idle times for these, all in one place, would be nice.

[jhoff80]

Originally Posted by EeZeEpEe

I was confused by that too. I'm not sure if it's simply saying using Gtalk and AIM at the same time or something else.

Ignoring the Pre entirely for a second, you can set Google Talk to also log into AIM. I think it's saying if you have that set up then there's issues.

[EeZeEpEe]

Originally Posted by jhoff80

Ignoring the Pre entirely for a second, you can set Google Talk to also log into AIM. I think it's saying if you have that set up then there's issues.

Oh are you talking about the settings for Google Talk when you're on a computer?

[jhoff80]

Originally Posted by EeZeEpEe

Oh are you talking about the settings for Google Talk when you're on a computer?

That's what I assumed it meant, yeah, but I could be wrong.