[AZ8]

Hey everyone. Newbie here, and wanted to get your opinion. Im up for an upgrade and about to delve into my first smartphone. After tons of research I really like the Palm Pre Plus.

My question is: For someone that has NEVER owned a smartphone, does this phone have a decent learning curve? Im not a big techy guy, so I guess what Im asking....is this an easy phone to learn before I really appreciate what it can do? Couple days? Month?

If this is the phone, then I'll be a regular here asking TONS of questions with the title...."HELP" LOL

Thanks a bunch!

[glenada]

I would explore the phone on my own and if necessary look at the user guide to set up some advanced functions such as e-mail, etc. Then explore and search the forums of precentral for Preware and WebOS Quick Install to really pimp your Pre+.

[zmann]

I watched all the videos on sprint.com before my phone arrived. New how to completly use it before it arrived.

[ProParkour]

It is my first smartphone so I'd have to say it is very easy to learn how to use. With this forum, the help videos provided on the phone and all the support you can get learning about the phone will be easy. To inform you now, the battery life will suck for a while when you get it because of how much digging around on the phone you will be doing.

[verwon]

I think the Pre Plus would be good for a newbie to the smartphone arena, because you can pretty much leave it wherever you want. You can learn a lot and customize greatly, such as using some of the stuff glenada mentioned, or you can take it further, learn a lot and really go crazy with it. Perfect learning tool!

[JED-WEB-OS]

Welcome to the community!

WebOS is probably the most intuitive operating system available for smartphones and I think you will discover a very short learning curve. If you have a friend with a Pre or Pre Plus ask if you can play with their phone for a few minutes. If they are willing to let you hold their baby you can get a good idea on how it handles.

Good luck and best wishes – we will be looking for your posts!

[ryleyinstl]

Check this out: http://forums.precentral.net/palm-pr...ps-tricks.html

Your problem isn't going to be learning webOS. Your problem is going to be unlearning webOS. The gesture area will ruin all other mobile devices for you :-)

<<Thread Renamed>>

[pre-fan]

In my opinion, you will find that the webOS interface is very intuitive. It would definitely be very easy to learn everything you need to know in just a couple of days. Further, when you first setup your Pre, it walks you through swiping and gestures so you can get up and running immediately. I think you're making a great choice by considering a Palm phone with webOS. Have you tried one at the store yet?

[mpfef]

All smartphones have some kind of learning curve. I would say that the iPhone is probably the easiest to just pick up and use, mainly due to its modal interface. webOS is a close second, and both are MILES ahead of Android.

Once you get the hang of the gestures, you can really fly around in webOS, much easier than any other mobile OS, IMO. Especially once you enable 'Advanced Gestures'

--Matt

[derango]

I agree with the folks who said that WebOS is the most intuitive smartphone OS.

I picked up the basics within 5-10 minutes of turning it on. There's only a few little things that I've had to look up.

Chiefly, how to move the cursor in text fields (with your cursor in a text field, hold down the grey/orange button (depending on if you have a Plus or a standard Pre) and drag anywhere on the touch screen), how to select text (with cursor in a text field, hold down the shift key and drag anywhere on the touch screen).

Also the copy and paste shortcuts were a little strange. Press and hold anywhere in the gesture area and then press X (for cut), C (for copy) or V (for paste)

But for basic navigation and usage, everything worked exactly how I expected it to work.

[zeushunt]

Zimple as hell... A little Logic.. u shud be set.

[jjeffcoat]

From what I've seen of iOS and Android, webOs seems far more intuitive.

Jim

[sipple31]

All phones have a learning curve of sorts. I set my parents up with the phone... and they became quite fluent with a 10 minute tutorial from me. They are not good with computers even. I think it's one of the easiest operating systems to master besides the Blackberry. Certainly stay away from Android... I would consider it a "tweakers" OS.

[jbg7474]

Like many have said, it's very simple to learn the few things you need to be able to do great things, but there is enough depth to provide you a new hobby if you want.

[oobernuber]

It seems that when people are playing around with my phone, the only things that trip them up, at first, is the gesture area and really getting full use out of cardview.

Copy-paste (with text selection) is a little weird as well, but I think part of that is I don't use it very often and I have to re-remember which buttons to push. I also thought the tap-and-hold on the gesture area in order to cut/copy/paste was a little weird (as mentioned above).

The thing that I can say is that WebOS is easy to pick up and get going right away, but there's also depth to it, so you can learn and tweak your phone for just about as long as you like. The fantastic homebrew community is also to thank for that.

[toasterthegamer]

I let my mom use my phone and everything was easy for her except for the touchscreen. she would press it and it just wouldn't do what she wanted, and in my opinion thats like the only thing that is probably hard for a new smartphone user.

-Toaster

[pastorich1]

Also the copy and paste shortcuts were a little strange. Press and hold anywhere in the gesture area and then press X (for cut), C (for copy) or V (for paste).

I find this an odd statement since they are the same shortcuts (if you think of the guesture area as a "ctrl" key) as windows and many popular word processing apps have had forever.

I found them to be very easy and intuitive to use. The cool thing is that I have been using the phone with no problem for over a year now, but continue to learn new ways to do things more efficiently from others on this forum.

So, I concur... very intuitive to use.

[derango]

I find this an odd statement since they are the same shortcuts (if you think of the guesture area as a "ctrl" key) as windows and many popular word processing apps have had forever.

It was a little weird for me because I didn't get the "press and hold in the gesture area" part. On windows you're holding a key down. Here it's not totally obvious that the little circle icon in the menu for copy and paste means: "press and hold on the gesture area". I figured it was the same key combinations.

It's not tricky, it's just something I had to look up before I knew what it was rather than just knowing.

[pastorich1]

It was a little weird for me because I didn't get the "press and hold in the gesture area" part. On windows you're holding a key down. Here it's not totally obvious that the little circle icon in the menu for copy and paste means: "press and hold on the gesture area". I figured it was the same key combinations.

It's not tricky, it's just something I had to look up before I knew what it was rather than just knowing.

I agree that the guesture area itself is not intuitive. I used the menu and edit commands for a long time before I realized the guesture shortcuts worked. But when I realized that Guesture + X, C, and V worked my first thought was how I should have realized it from the beginning. It seemed obvious then. Especially since I had tried all kinds of key combinations with X, C, and V already to make it work.

But once a user understands the guesture area... everything gets sooo much easier with WebOS.

[eps1lon3]

There is a small tutorial when you start using your phone that teaches you all of the basics to using the phone within 2-3 minutes. After that you can basically do anything.