I've had my Pre 3 for a few days and I thought I'd share a few thoughts, even though they may have been covered in this space before.
The reason I went to Pre 3 is that I can't type on my slab Android phone well. It is at least one error for every two words. Sometimes I'll press a letter and it will move the cursor back a space and then type the letter, which requires a few edits and really prevents me from considering typing anything considerable. I never had this problem on my launch day Pre. I couldn't find any keyboards with modern hardware available on an plan that was similar to my $25 Virgin Mobile 300 minutes, unlimited data plan.
The other reason is that webOS works the way I do with the multi-tasking. When I'm watching a football game on Sunday, I want to have a few apps all set up to switch between, quick and easy.
That said, the move to the Pre 3 has presented some problems. There are three big ones for me:
1. The size of the fonts. The hi-res screen seems to have resulted in very small font in the browser and I have trouble reading my favorite websites. For webOS, you want a usable web. It took me awhile to find any way of fixing it, but I used a few threads in the forums here to fix things. I ended up changing the first <a href="http://forums.webosnation.com/webos-development/200471-browser-conf-changing-font-size-other-browser-tweaks.html">two items in this thread</a> to 32.
It was difficult to change the setting as webOS puts a number of guides in place to stop you. Using Internalz Pro as a text editor (the default is to open in QuickOffice which doesn't work) is the answer. How do you do that? <a href="http://forums.webosnation.com/canuck-coding/256518-internalz-pro-v1-5-0-a-30.html#post3172144">This was very helpful</a>, especially the YouTube video, which was important for me, even a webOS veteran.
2. Navigation is terrible. If I paid around $100 a month for AT&T this wouldn't be a problem (you get an app), but I'm not going to go from $25 a month to $100 to use a keyboard and webOS. Since NDrive went away, the only solution seems to be Navit. While many say that it is good and I have yet to take it outside my house, I've found that its usability limits it from working for most people.
I tried to navigate to a nearby city and in typing it, 6 different cities with the same name came up. The screen just says Springfield, no state. You have to just guess one of them and then type in your street and hope it is there. If it isn't you may have the wrong state. If it is, you aren't out of the woods, because it could be an Elm St. or a Main St., where there are multiple ones in a city. The city that I was testing wasn't a "Springfield" where I expect there to be more than one, so the 6 is a surprise.
Finally, the street numbers shouldn't be considered accurate according to the FAQ. <a href="http://wiki.navit-project.org/index.php/OpenStreetMap#Search_is_totally_b0rkz0r3d.21_Or.2C_behaves_very_strangely_vs_other_navigation_softwa re.">More information on this is here</a>. This isn't a webOS problem, but a problem with the data that Navit uses, planet.bin. Nonetheless the problem bubbles up to the Navit level and the user experience.
I can't think of a way to pay for better navigation except to switch carriers to use their navigation app. This means that I'll probably have to buy a separate GPS system. On Android devices, this is solved by Google's own Navigation app that works independently of any carrier's navigation app. If webOS is ever going to compete on phones again, I think the navigation issue needs to be addressed.
3. Pre 3 can't be verified with Google Voice. I ported my main number to Google Voice and I have that forward calls my cell phone. However, Google Voice's verification procedure doesn't seem to work with the Pre 3. I type in the two digit code and I get the response of "I didn't catch that" three times before it gives up. I must have tried this 15 times now over a couple of days and it isn't working. While this isn't entirely a Pre 3 problem, it seems to work fairly well with my other phones, so I can't put the entire blame on Google either. I'm working with the Google Voice forums on this and I'm trying their suggested fixes after I post this.
Finally, I've got a question. What are you using to protect your phone? I didn't care that much about by Android phone as I can replace it for around $125 now. However, replacing a Pre 3 is more difficult and my Pre 3 took a beating over a couple of years. I've seen a case that looks good but it seems like you need to open a door to slide the phone (PDair HP Pre 3 Aluminum Case (Black)), which is going to be a pain when typing. It defeats the one-hand use that I am like so much about the Pre.
Originally Posted by bmacfarland
