Telephony

I'm eligible to upgrade my cellphone from AT&T in March, and it couldn't come too soon. While my current HTC 8525 has many capabilities, the Windows Mobile platform's limitations have been presented to me over the past year and a half of use. The two biggest things is the slide-out keyboard and unprecise accuracy on the touchscreen without a stylus. The slide-out keyboard was a great idea in design -- it keeps the screen free of a virtual keyboard and can be hidden when not in use. The problem, however, is that the phone has to switch to landscape mode for keyboard use. This would be fine except it sometimes takes f-o-r-ever for the software the make the switch (and then also back). The second is the need for a stylus to navigate some areas of the phone as opposed to using my finger. It gets irritating because I don't want to bust out a stylus just to hit one thing, but often I'm unable to select the correct option I want on the first try without it. Windows Mobile was built for stylus use, so many options are too small to access easily otherwise.

Sister got a Blackberry a little while ago and liking what I saw with it I was planning on getting the new 8900 Curve when it came out. RiM keeps it simple with a nice tactile keyboard in the front, easy access to multiple inboxes, a trackball system for menus and selection, and GPS for navigation. Then this year's CES (Consumer Electronic's Show) came around, and Palm introduced their new cellphone: the Pre. While I thought I had swore off slide-out keyboards and touchscreens, the Pre has made me rethink this stance. The phone can be described as an iPhone on steroids, combining the flash of Apple's product with innovation drawing from Palm's past of making devices that serve people instead of making things more complicated. I don't think I can explain the coolness of this new phone in text, so I'd suggest that if you have about a half our to kill check out Palm's Pre introduction at CES. If not, I'll try and outline some of the features here:

• Multi-application UI: You don't have to close out what you're doing to go to something else. Writing an e-mail and need to check something online? You don't have to save a draft, launch the web browser, search the web, close the web browser, and then go back to your draft. The best comparison I can make is the ALT-TAB feature in Windows, where you can move between open windows -- with any tab (card) you have open still running in the background. 
  
• "Synergy" feature combining many aspects of the mobile/web experience. 
  
1. Your contacts who have accounts in GMail, Outlook, and Facebook will be combined into one contact (no duplicates) with all their information desplayed under one name (and their photo pulled from Facebook). And this is done automatically -- no input needed from you. 
   
2. You can switch from chatting to someone on Facebook to sending them text messages seamlessly if they go offline -- from the same message thread. Chatting is done by contacts, not by program. Your AIM buddies, GTalk, Facebook, and text messages are combined into one chat thread with that person.
   
3. All your e-mail inboxes can be combined into one: "All Inbox", and by the same token all your calendars (Outlook, Google, Facebook events) are synced onto one calender -- overlapping events are shown next to each other. No having to switch inboxes or programs to read or respond to your e-mail.
   
• Non-intrusive notifications. I don't know how your phones work, but when I get a text message a big message pops and up disrupts (and sometimes destroys what I'm doing). If I get a phone call while composing a text message, chances are the message will be lost. In the Pre notifications (like incoming messages or phone calls) are displayed on a bar at the bottom of the screen. You can continue to work ignoring the incoming data, or you can click down to respond to the message/call bringing up a new card with your compose text message card running in the background until you're ready to continue. No more needed to hit "Dismiss".
• WebOS development platform that makes it easy for devlopers to create applications. Only HTML, CSS, and Java knowledge is needed (unlike C++ for Apple applcations). 
• Hardware standards I'm looking (GPS, 3G, Wifi, Bluetooth) and industry firsts: USB mass storage (the phone will be seen as a USB drive on your computer, allowing easy file transfer), and wireless charging. The Pre will be the first consumer cell phone that will offer inductive power charging -- no need to hook any wires up to the phone. Granted, my toothbrush has been sporting this technology for years, but it's nice that it's made it's way to higher-tech electronics. 

As you may or may not be able to tell, I'm every excited about this cellphone. I haven't seen this much innovation (or felt so strongly about a product) since I saw the MacWorld keynote where the iPhone was introduced. I didn't end up getting an iPhone because of some limitations (no copy/paste functionality, no removable battery, and the need to install iTunes) but the Pre might very well be my next phone. There is one major downside though: the Pre will only be available on Sprint. I've been with AT&T (then Cingular) for many many years, and haven't had any problems with the service since then. AT&T subscribers are the only people who seem to get reception at my house. I've never thought about jumping ship to another carrier, but if anything's going to do it, it'll be this phone. And it actually turns out that Sprint's phone + data plans cost less than what I'm currently paying (even with the 15% service discount I'm getting), so at least financially it'll be a little better. Either way I have some time before the phone launches and my contract ends, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the Pre can really do.

More information can be found at Palm's Pre official website.