My first goal of the day was to make my way to Keller Williams over at the Ranch. You can check out that review right here, and even listen to an audio clip from the show.

We got to the stage early enough to catch the very end of Toubab Krewe. Sadly, it’s hard to tell you much about their style - the only song we caught was a full band drum and percussion jam. Don’t get me wrong, it was awesome, and the crowd was very much into it, dancing frenetically to the pulsing, tribl beats that were being laid down - I just have no idea if that is reminiscent of their “normal” sound, or if it was just a cool way to cap off their set.

Keller followed Toubab at the Ranch. His set was great, but hopefully you’ve already clicked that link above and know that. We headed back to the media tent, dealt with some frustrations there, and tried to relax a bit before heading out to the Disco Biscuits.

Now, I will make my confession right here - I have never been into the Disco Biscuits. I have sampled their studio records, made the attempt to really listen, and have been mostly unimpressed. Thursday night (Friday morning, really) my mind was changed. These guys are first and foremost a live band. I’m sure any fan of tDB could have told me that, but I was never interested in listening. Sorry about that.

They started with solid rock. Electric guitars blazing, drums hitting hard - the crowd was into it. But I learned that the more the tempo picks up and the more the songs turn from rock into dance into electronic, the more glowing objects get thrown into the air. The more glowing things in the air, the more the crowd goes nuts. The more the crowd goes nuts, the more the band gets into it, and pushes themselves to play harder. Its keeps going on like this until the set ends or the crowd passes out.

About 45 minutes into the Disco Biscuits set, I noticed a message from the Rothbury Twitter account - there would be a secret show at the Speak EZ stage in the middle of the Sherwood Forest. We arrived around 1:30, as a Burlesque show was wrapping up on the stage - not my cup of tea, but to each their own. People filtered in slowly, in groups of 3 or 4, as word spread that something was going down in the Forest. About 2am, Dominic Lalli from Big Gigantic came to the stage for a DJ set - he mixed his own beats, and once he got a good groove going, he played sax over the tune.

To think that this would end up being a “light” day as far as things to do and see (music didn’t start until 6:00pm) was an overwhelming thought. Sleeping in my car never felt so good.

Using a series of delay effects and other looping technology, Williams is able to record a section of his jam and let it repeat as long as he needs. He may start with a drum machine, laying down his rhythm, then head over to the bass, and finally, solo over himself on guitar.

Thursday night, Keller Williams entertained a crowd that filled the field of the Ranch Arena at Rothbury. It started simply, just Keller and his acoustic guitar - his instrument of choice, and one that allows him to show off his skill. Keller started the song off on the side of the stage, tempting the crowd, who headed into full-on dance mode as the songwriter finally made his way onto the stage. He may use lots of technology to enhance his music, but in the end, it’s just that - enhancement.

His set spanned his career, with many songs getting Rothbury-themed lyric changes. A smooth segue from “Apparition” > “Doobie In My Pocket” came early in the show, with the latter’s lyrical content receiving a warm welcome from the crowd. Keller also wowed the crowd with a quick Phish cover - applause erupted as the audience realized that the hip-hop beat that had been laid down would turn into “Birds of a Feather” from the recently reunited Jam Band Icons. About two-thirds of the way in, String Cheese Incident bassist, and WMD’S member (one of Keller’s numerous side projects, who also played at Rothbury last year), joined in on bass. The two went with a little bluegrass for their duo, and the crowd roared with approval. The guests continued to arrive, with Jeff Hand joining on drums, and Kyle Hollingsworth on keys - both String Cheese Incident members). The quartet headed into older tunes “Kidney In a Cooler”, “Breathe” and “Fuel For the Road” to close the show.

I could easily say this was my highlight of the festival… but at the time, it was the only set of music I had seen. So, not really a lie, but not entirely accurate, either.

Hope you enjoy this little clip from “Birds of a Feather” - my full recording of the show will be linked here eventually, so keep checking back:
keller-williams-birds-of-a-feather

On July 4, 1969, severe thunderstorms formed in the evening and dropped several tornadoes across Lower Michigan. More than 60 people are injured, most of them from a tornado that hit Flat Rock in southern Wayne County. This tornado destroyed a tile factory, carrying sheet metal over a mile away. Another tornado injured eleven people about four miles east of Jackson as it damaged a dozen mobile homes.

On July 4, 2003 seven people drowned in rip currents near St. Joseph, MI after straight-line winds from a thunderstorm piled water along the coast, resulting in a seiche with rip currents that carried swimmers away from shore. The July 4-5, 1980 derecho hit the southern part of Lower Michigan.  It was one of several monster-sized derechos to hit Michigan that summer.  That storm started in western Iowa and went all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.  Four of the six fatalities were from boats overturning in the fierce wind and waves.

The July 4, 1969 derecho could be called the “I’m glad I wasn’t riding the cable cars at Cedar Point that day” derecho!  That storm produced +100 mph winds from Toledo to Cleveland. Finally, the absolutely incredible Boundary Waters derecho of 1999 (10 years ago today) changed the landscape forever in NE Minnesota.  The storms formed in North Dakota and went over 1300 miles in 22 hours all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.   At Fargo, ND, the wind exceeded 58 mph for 39 minutes, reaching a peak gust of 91 mph at 7:42 AM!  Damage was over 100 million dollars!

Making noise…

Launching the music player.

You can see a tracklist.

But there's no Cover Flow here.

The Palm Pre isn’t an iPod, but it is a pretty capable media player for both audio and video.

As an MP3 player, the Pre delivers. It’s kept the music flowing without interruption and there’s no technical limitations to speak of. In fact, it has quite an impressive technical addition to most MP3 players by way of Stereo Bluetooth support. The Pre will kick out the beats (or other smooth sounds) to my in-car stereo through Bluetooth, and I’m pretty sure it would work flawlessly with any A2Dp headphones.

The A2DP feature is actually most impressive when watching a movie in the car (while not driving, or from the passenger seat). I fired up Serenity on the Pre and started listening through the car stereo. I was astounded. The audio was crisp and clear (even on the compressed video file I had encoded to test things out. Granted I did use a nice codec). It’s a fantastic setup.

That takes me to the video aspect, which was also superb. You can zoom in or watch the full aspect ratio of the file. The player is easy to use. You can play and pause, and drag the timeline to fast forward or reverse.

There’s the TV, There’s the Radio…

There's TV on your phone.

Complete w/ full BSG episodes.

Or listen to Pandora Radio.

Sprint TV is also included with most plans (though not some premium and live channels). It’s a pretty impressive offering, complete with full episodes from some of the best shows on television (like Battlestar Galactica! Even though, it’s not “on” television anymore). You can check out ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC Mobile. There’s SciFi, Speed, Bravo and other channels. I’ve entertained my young daughter with cartoons from the Disney channel (complete episodes of Phineas and Ferb, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny). There’s just a lot to be had.

If you’re looking for the NFL Network, look no further than the Palm Pre, bring a good connection with you though, or you’re in for some pixelation.

If you’re more in the mood for music and nothing on your Pre will do, you can turn to Pandora. Pandora is a very popular Internet radio application. For those who haven’t heard of it, here’s how it works. Listeners give Pandora an artist or a song. In return, Pandora starts playing a stream of music that ’sounds like’ that artist or song. So if you’re wanting to hear music that sounds like Dave Matthews Band, you punch that in and it delivers. A lot of fans of the service say it’s a great way to discover new bands in a legal way.

When you’ve found that band or song you can go shopping right from the Pre.

Go shopping…

Amazon's MP3 Store

Download Top Albums...

or pick from Top Songs.

The Amazon MP3 store is pretty much what the name implies. For those among you who would like to legally download your music in a DRM free fashion, often times Amazon provides a way. The Amazon MP3 storefront on the Pre is similar to what you’d find online. You can check out new releases, the top 100 Albums, Artists and Songs. It’s pretty straightforward if you’ve ever used iTunes. As you can see in the screenshots Michael Jackson is dominating the charts.

YouTube, Nascar and Fandango…

Watch YouTube videos while bored.

Get the latest updates from the track.

Check out a movie trailer at Fandango.

Or be boring and read stuff from work.

There’s plenty more to be had on the Pre. YouTube sends along an application for your amusement.

Meanwhile, NASCAR fans (which I am not) can check out the latest updates from the track. Sprint is pretty proud of this feature. I didn’t play around with the app too much, but there’s plenty there. Press conferences, race recaps/results and points standings. I was forced to pick a favorite driver, so I picked Jimmie Johnson, he won last year right?

Aaron Lafferty, would love the Fandango application on the Pre. Similar to what’s found in many variations on the iPhone, Fandango lets you check out movie trailers, showtimes and theaters around you using the GPS. Quality is pretty decent and sometimes more than one trailer is offered depending on the movie.

If you’re in the mood for reading documents, (and really who’s not?) Doc View opens up almost anything you’d need to read. PDFs, DOCs, Spreadsheets are no match for it. I’ve used this, as the screenshot indicates, to checkout the log from work for what’s happening at the station.

Generally, if it’s on the Pre, it’s a pretty good thing.

The AppStore It’s Not….

That's right, total apps = 30.

It's either Connect 4 or Sudoku.

But there's a little surprise...

There’s a gap between the Pre and iPhone in apps. The gap isn’t measure in the tens, hundreds or thousands, but in the tens of thousands. The Pre’s AppCatalog has a paltry 30 apps in it as of this writing. That’s about the same number it was launched with. Compare that to the more than 50,000 apps in Apple’s AppStore and it’s not even an argument.

Palm needs to get things going on that front. There’s word that the official SDK will be coming out soon (it’s already been leaked). There’s also some word out there about homebrewing on the Pre. With the homebrew would come the kind of applications not welcome on a legitimate storefront.

I just need something, anything to fill my Pre with. I’ve got about 1GB sitting, waiting for apps to be installed on, but that wait continues. As for filling the Pre, that gets a little easier with some creative software writing done for it.

My Palm Pre convinced iTunes it's an old iPod.

I didn’t buy an iPod…

When I plug the Pre into the computer, it comes with a little bit of a surprise. It offers three options (shown in the screenshot above), Media Sync, USB Drive or Just Charge. If you select the Media Sync option, the Pre tricks iTunes into thinking it’s an iPod. This is wonderful. I love iTunes. Millions of other people are just like me. Managing my music and videos is easier done in iTunes than any other application. Transferring videos and music to the Pre is made amazingly easy, because of the syncing feature it offers.

My hope is that Apple would open up the architecture to make any phone capable of doing this, but according to a recent release, they’re not to keen on it. Wired.com quotes an Apple release, “Apple is aware that some third-parties claim that their digial media players are able to sync with Apple software. However, Apple does not provide support for, or test for compatibility with, non-Apple digital media players and, because software changes over time, newer versions of Apple’s iTunes software may no longer provide syncing functionality with non-Apple digital media players.”

Essentially, it sounds like Apple’s playing hardball, but the syncing still works as of now and I probably won’t update iTunes when new versions come out until I know that it doesn’t break my Pre. I’m not too worried that I’ll be losing the feature.

For Better and Worse…

There are aspects where I think the Pre is truly better than the iPhone, but at the same time it’s trailing mightily as well. I know that apps will be coming down the line, so that assuages some of my fears. I also would have loved to have had an option for more memory on the Pre because I would have bought a 16GB or 32GB version in a heartbeat.

After nearly a month of owning the Pre, I have no plans of taking it back. It’s the best phone on Sprint and it will eventually be available on Verizon (according to rumors). If the Pre’s on more networks, that means it will get into more hands, and that means only good things for Pre users. WebOS is one of the best experiences I’ve had on a mobile device.

Did I miss anything? Is there anything you’d like to know, just leave me a note in the comments or send me a tweet.

If you missed part one, you can find it here.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention. Every Pre comes with a mirror. Super Exciting.

There's a mirror. For real. almost actual size.

What really sets the Pre apart isn’t the construction of the phone, the QWERTY keyboard, the Touchstone or anything like that. It’s WebOS. A marvel of an operating system that allows for multitasking and provides the most computer-like experience I’ve ever seen on a phone.

It’s in the cards…

The Palm Pre's card system...

slide to the one you want...

or just throw them away.

Navigating through WebOS is done through cards. Apps are all launched into cards. When you launch the email app, it launches into a card. It’s the same thing with any other App, from the calendar, to messaging, Internet, contacts and more.

With the cards, Palm allows true multitasking that just isn’t found on the iPhone (or any other phone for that matter). You can have plenty of cards open at the same time, and system performance is still crisp. The multitasking is accomplished by either swiping up to zoom out from the currently selected card, or by hitting the home button. From there, you slide back and forth to the application you want. This even works while you’re talking on the phone, so if you need to check the weather, reference an email, shoot someone an text message or IM, or do any other thing on the phone you can. Most often, I find myself on the web when I get a text message or an email. On my old phone, that would have been disastrous. I’d have to quit the app, go check to see if it’s important and then come back. Now, I don’t have to worry about that because the Pre is limited to doing one thing at a time.

I can’t say enough about the card system, it’s fantastic.

Here are your menus…

The menu's familiar...

to former Apple users.

Find stuff fast...

Lost? Ask for help.

You’ve got to launch some apps, if you’re planning on using the cards. The menu system on the Pre will be familiar to anyone who’s ever seen an iPod Touch or iPhone menu. You’ve got your programs with big icon, tap to launch. It’s pretty simple.

One nice thing about the Pre’s menu is that it’s scrollable. I could have five rows on one page (perhaps more, I haven’t tried to push it) and that’s not including the home launch bar. For me, this just allows more cramming of my favorite apps onto one page.

To get from page to page, all you need to do is swipe. If you look at the screenshots, the | right above the bottom set of icons lets you know how many pages there are. If I have 3 pages of apps and I’m on the middle page, there will be one | on each side, as shown. There will be two ||’s on a side if I’m on the furthest page over.

You can move the icons around on the phone by holding on to it and then sliding it to where you want. This even applies to the dock icons, which I have replaced with my four most used. I chose email because it’s a must for me; contacts because I found it preferable to look at contacts than the phone that was there; internet because it’s my most launched app on the phone and messaging because I if I have a QWERTY keyboard, I’m going to want to use it.

When you hit the menu button, it only shows you the quick launch bar, which you can then punch the full menu, or just launch one of those.

The fastest way to actually launch an app that’s not on your main page is to actually to use the keyboard. WebOS is actually pretty impressive in that respect. If I hit “C” it will bring up every application that has a C in it’s name, but it also recognizes that “C” is also 8 on the dialer. Global search is a huge feature for the Pre, with it you can find almost anything that’s on your phone. Global Search also brings up an option for Google, Google Maps, Wikipedia and Twitter if there’s nothing on your phone that fits the search parameter. You can also just punch in a URL from the Global Search and it will launch the browser and go to it. It’s a fantastic feature for the phone.

If you run into problems, or are wondering about how to do something there’s a help menu. It actually comes with videos that give you the step by step process of how to do something on the phone.

Feel free to browse…

The browser's launch screen...

WebOS renders the "real" 'net.

The normal browser options.

Move over Mobile Safari. I have a new favorite web browser. The WebOS browser is amazing. Just like Mobile Safari, it delivers the real internet, not some mobile version that’s watered down and crappy. It also does so with some impressive rendering speed. It’s a multitouch interface just like on the iPhone. Pinch to zoom in, spread your fingers to zoom out. Double tap on a column of text and that column will fill the width of the screen. Want a wider view? Just rotate your phone, the switch is a snap, in fact I’d say it’s actually more snappy than the Mobile Safari browser I’ve used on my iPod Touch (I can’t say whether it’s faster than the iPhone 3GS, as I haven’t tested one).

The bookmark menu...

is easily movable.

And you can edit them!

The bookmarking system is pretty nice on the Pre too. Every bookmark has a title, URL and picture associated with it. This picture is actually a snapshot of the webpage that you can change yourself. So if you don’t like what you’re seeing as the preview, just change it. You can rearrange the bookmarks with simple dragging and dropping.

The order of bookmarks on the list is also the order they’ll appear in for the splash start page when you launch the browser. You can’t actually drag and drop from that original splash screen, so you’ll have to do it from the bookmark list to rearrange them.

The browser rotates with the accelerometer

in the card system.

The WebOS browser actually rotates while you’re in card mode if you rotate the phone, the accelerometer kicks in and rotates the browser.

WebOS lacks one key feature in the world of browsers (Mobile Safari lacks it as well), there’s no Flash support right now. This means, even though you’re browsing “the real Internet” some websites just won’t work or features will be disabled. It’s a work in progress, but it’s not out yet which is a bummer. Still, the browser is fantastic and I get way more use out of it than I ever thought I’d use on my cell phone.

You’ve got mail…

Setup multiple accounts and manage favorites

You can see sender, subject and a preview.

Email on the Pre is fantastic. It’s safe to say the WebOS email and browser are easily two of the greatest aspects of the phone. I’ve added both my personal Gmail account and the Microsoft Exchange Server work account that I have without a hitch. There’s actually push Gmail on the Pre, which means the second I get an email on the server, I will have it on my phone as well.

Setup was a breeze. I thought I was going to have some trouble trying to set up the security settings for the work email, but the process was really painless. Seeing as I have push email enabled, I’ve actually started setting up rules and filters for my Gmail account so that every message I get doesn’t sound the alarm on my phone. This used to be a problem on my old phone because I couldn’t see my labels but on the Pre, they’re all there. In fact, I can actually assign specific labels as favorites, which give them primary real estate in the favorites tab. You can setup favorites for each account you have connected. Each Inbox defaults to a favorite, but you can remove that and only assign the ones you one.

Attachments also show up in the emails, and thanks to the Document and PDF viewers, most everything is readable. I’ve opened Word documents, Excel Spreadsheets and PDFs all without a problem.

There are memos and there are tasks…

There are notes...

I should check those off.

There are more options.

The Palm Pre has a nice Task and Memo system as well. Memos are pretty straight forward. You tap to start a new one, and then you can just start typing. There are four different note colors, and they look like sticky notes when they’re sitting on the menu. It’s a nice little feature that I’ve actually used quite a bit to log my workout and eating regimens. Using the notes a lot also helped speed up my typing skills on the Pre.

The Task app is also pretty nice. It syncs with Exchange (for those that are interested). You can list off things to do, and when you’re done just check them off. Tasks can be grouped into categories (for instance, the screenshot above is for “Write Pre Review.” Each task can be expanded upon by changing its priority, assigning a due date and giving it some notes.

These are the people in your neighborhood…

Here's your list

Edit contacts

Plenty of information.

Select a picture.

The contact list is made to be easy for finding things in massive amounts of data. This would be particularly useful if you wanted to import all of your Facebook friends (which I didn’t) and Google contacts on top of your normal contacts. Palm calls it “Synergy.” I call it daring. If you’re importing the hundreds of contacts from your Facebook account, you’re going to need the features of the Palm Pre’s contact system.

Just like Global Search, all you have to do is start typing, and it narrows the search for your contact. Now before I pruned my Google contacts (which hadn’t been touched since I opened my Gmail back in 2005) it imported literally hundreds of contacts from every email I had ever sent. Now, that wasn’t going to be how I operated, thankfully you can just delete the account attached and try again. I pruned my contact list, updated info with phone numbers and email accounts and re-imported. When the Pre imports contacts, it actually merges the multiple lists you have in your phone into one account. It will recognize that Gene Schuler in my phone is the same Gene Schuler in my contact list, and make them one. For the people that have a picture in the Google contacts, it even imports that.

It’s a pretty sweet feature. Now, I didn’t want to prune my Facebook friends, so I didn’t import the list. There’s room for improvement there. I should be able to import a specific group from Facebook (now that Facebook has made grouping much easier), but there isn’t for now. It’s not terribly disappointing though, because if there’s a contact I wanted from Facebook, it’s probably already in my phone.

Get in touch with someone…

The dialer is normal

Calling my voicemail

Messaging is fantastic.

Notification needs help.

Once you import contacts, communication on the Pre is fantastic. The Pre combines instant messages, SMS and MMS messages into one dialog. This makes it fantastic for the Pre user, because I can send a message in GoogleTalk or AIM, then shoot over a text message and all of it ends up in the same spot.

The phone is pretty standard fare. (Do you find it as funny as I do that the “phone” part of the cell phone review is THIS FAR IN?) You will not find visual voicemail on the Pre, but it’s an omission that doesn’t really affect me all that much. I generally answer my phone, and thus there’s no real voicemail glut I have to worry about. While it’s a great feature when you have it, as I did on the Instinct, the fact that it’s missing hasn’t bothered me all that much.

The iPhone may have been a “revolutionary” Internet communications device when Steve Jobs originally announced it, but Palm has shown just how much ground can be made up in a short amount of time. With the hardware keyboard, the fluid messaging system and even the Twitter aspects I’ll get to in a moment, the Pre is a step above.

Make an appointment… then check the weather…

I have some openings.

Pick your calendar.

It was hot, now it's not

Pick your location.

I’ve never been good with remembering things. Really. I was told as a child that I would forget my head if it wasn’t attached to my body, and as an adult, I’m pretty sure I agree with the statement. The Pre’s calendar kind of helps me with that. In the same way that the contact list can take in information from many different sources, the calendar does the same thing. Right now, I have 4 different calendar’s synced with the Pre (My Google calendar, the Google calendar with shared events for the family, my WoodTV exchange calendar and the Palm Profile Calendar). Each has a different color on the Pre. In the screen shots, you can see the differentiation and how it shows up on the weekly view. You can set a start time and end time for your day (it defaults to 9-5).

Because the Pre syncs with Google, you can get reminders on your phone, or reminders sent to you via email (which in turn would alert you on your phone. Is the Pre’s calendar going to change the world? Probably not, but it certainly helps make my days a bit more organized. I don’t have a screen shot of this, but it actually scrunches your day view if you have an open time period between events. This is done so that you can see everything and then in between events it says how much time you have free.

There are several ways to get there…

A fantastic Navigator

I blocked the street locations.

Plenty to do along your route.

Because the Pre is required to come on a variation of a nice data plan for Sprint, that also means it comes with the fantastic Sprint Navigation. I loved it on the Samsung Instinct, and it’s much improved on the Pre. It actually pops up a psuedo 3-d map when you’re traveling to your destination.

I must admit though, at first I couldn’t figure out how to find the Trip & Traffic Summary. After having found it, by merely tapping the screen, I now feel like an idiot. I was trying to hit the menu button and all sorts of other things, but a simple tap brings up the options. Trip & Traffic Summary is there, as well as the search along route function which is especially useful for finding restaurants, hotels, (redacted), and other things. The GPS gets you to where you need to go. In my testing so far, the GPS ha’s only lost my signal once but was re-acquired almost instantly.

If your partial to Google Maps… well, there’s an app for that on the Pre too.

There's also Google Maps

Complete with Satellite view.

And plenty of options!

The Pre’s version of Google Maps comes with everything you’d expect. A GPS dot signals your location. You can get directions, check satellite view, show traffic and the other usual things associated with Google Maps. In that regard it’s just another great option, though my use of it is rare because I prefer the Sprint Navigation app.

Take a picture while you’re there.

The Pre's 3.2MP camera in sun. (click to enlarge)

The Pre's 3.2MP camera in shade.(click to enlarge)

On the Pre, your pictures are seperated into categories.

From there, you can assign it to contacts, or set a wallpaper.

When you buy a digital camera at a store, I’ll throw down a guarantee that it has a flash. So why do so many cell phones today not have flashes for their cameras? My old Instinct lacked a flash. Even though new iPhone 3GS lacks a flash. Why? Is it so hard, costly or big to include a tiny LED to light up my world? A flash should be standard. Luckily, the Pre’s camera has a flash. It also has a 3.2MP sensor which is pretty fantastic to look at.

Above, there are a pair of pictures of the flowers outside my townhouse. Both are taken on the Pre, one in direct sunlight, the other in the shade. As a beginner photographer at best, the Pre takes fine pictures to me. Of the pictures I’ve seen linked on Twitter, users seem to be pretty happy with the quality they’re getting out of their cell phone. I know the pictures I’ve taken have been good enough. The Pre is not going to replace my Canon camera, but it’s certainly good enough to snap a picture and send it back for woodtv.com.

Managing your photos is quite easy on the Pre too. It breaks up the pictures into a couple of different sections automatically. All images, Photo roll (pictures you’ve taken), Messaging (pictures received in MMS or email), screencaptures (screenshots I’ve taken while using the phone), and Wallpapers are the default options. Each is simply a directory on the phone when you plug it into a PC. It makes for easy management of the content on the phone.

As for browsing pictures, it’s pretty quick to pop up a list of thumbnails. You select one and it displays full screen, rotate the phone and it rotates with you. The multitouch works here too, allowing you to zoom in or out and switch between pictures with a flick of the finger.

Let the world know what you are doing…

Tweed is one of the two available Twitter apps.

It's pretty functional, with many options.

Twitter is all the rage these days. It’s become essential for the newsroom and I’ve found it’s actually a pretty easy way to pickup on news. I’ve found following my favorite websites and writers is actually easier than going to the actual site. Because I’m so fond of Twitter, I’ve got to have an app on my phone. Enter Tweed and Spaz. (I’ll get to the lack of applications a bit later). Tweed has a higher rating and more downloads, so I tried it out first and wasn’t disappointed. It gives me everything I want. Twitter is searchable. I can sort by Trending Topics, Favorite, Direct Messages, Mentions, my Tweets and bookmarks. Sending out a tweet is easy and I can even let it access my GPS and attach a location in a TinyURL for my coords on Google Maps. I haven’t used many mobile Twitter applications, but I find Tweed does everything I want it to do. It may not be TweetDeck (my new favorite desktop app that just spawned an iPhone app) but it’s definitely reliable for the Pre.

Also, because I don’t have to shut it down (but even when I do) it notifies me when I have new direct messages, mentions or tweets. Tweed is another fantastic way that the Pre connects me with the rest of the Web.

Entertain Me…

The Palm Pre has a lot more to share… and so do I, read on in part 3.  Or you can go back, to part 1.

The Palm Pre, yes it can get smudge-tastic. (click to enlarge)

“This is a day I’ve been looking forward to for two and a half years,” said Steve Jobs back in 2007 when the original iPhone. “Today we’re introducing three revolutionary products… a widescreen iPod with touch controls… a revolutionary mobile phone… and a breakthrough internet communications device… and we’re calling it the iPhone.”

Ever since, the rest of the mobile phone industry has been playing catchup.

The Palm Pre is not the iPhone. It’s not the iPhone 3G. It’s not the iPhone 3GS. The Palm Pre wasn’t made in Cupertino. It doesn’t shoot magical fairy dust that heals the sick.

I’m glad we got that out of the way, because while the Pre may not do any of those things, it’s still the best phone I’ve ever reviewed. (Note: I have never been given an opportunity to review any iPhone model).

For Better and worse, the Pre does a lot of things fantasically, but there is some improvement to be had. Sprint and Palm are married to the Pre’s success. Both have a lot riding on the Pre’s success. I would say that things look a bit more rosy for Palm, because WebOS (a Palm property) has tremendous potential, while the exclusivity window for Sprint and the Pre is closing (it’s rumored to only last until January).

The Pre is not without its flaws and but it excels in almost every aspect and where its faults are glaring there is hope on the horizon. This review is coming from me as actual consumer. I’ve owned the Pre since launch day, more than three weeks now. I wasn’t given any special access or service. I’ve experienced exactly what you would if you were to go pick one up right now. I think after reading this review, you might be more inclined to do just that.

To get some of the basics out of the way, the Palm Pre is a slider phone with a touchscreen. Its screen measures 3.1″ (smaller than the iPhones 3.5″) but sports the identical pixel count of 320×480 (which means it has a greater pixel density). Some people have attributed that density to a sharper image, which is fine because the screen looks great but I’d rather have the extra real estate (okay, yes, I just asked for an extra 0.4″ of screen size and I’m good with that). Where the iPhone’s home button would sit, there’s a nub on the Pre which accomplishes a similar function with some added features that I’ll get to in a moment. The only thing on the left hand side of the phone are volume buttoms. On top, there’s a 3.5mm headphone jack (woo!) and ringer switch (which I guess is standard on Palm phones) and a hold/power button on the top-right corner. On the right side is the cover for the micro USB cable.

It's thick, but not too thick. The Instinct is on the bottom, a Blackberry Curve 8900 in the middle and the Pre on the top, it likes to be on top. (click to enlarge)

The Pre has what no current iPhone on the market has. Slide the screen up and you’ll find a hardware QWERTY keyboard, with dedicated @ and . buttons. Now, some people have lamented the omission of double-space entering a period (on most other smartphones if you tap the spacebar twice it automatically inserts your period for you). But after getting used to the period being there, it didn’t bother me all that much. The @ key is a Twitter-lover’s Godsend. Even in normal email situations, the @ key is pretty great.

I wasn’t a fan of the touchscreen keyboard on my Sprint Instinct after a while. At first, it was okay, but I soon began to dread it. I’m fairly proficient however with the iPod Touch’s keyboard, but still was looking forward to seeing how much I’d like the setup on the Pre. The buttons are rubbery, not the hard-plastic found on Blackberry devices. The keyboard is not quite as wide as the Blackberry keyboards.

That being said, I’ve taken a liking to the keyboard. After three weeks, I’m quite proficient using it and am able to tap out messages with blazing speed. It’s not the best QWERTY keyboard I’ve ever used, I still like the Blackberry Bold keyboard a lot, but I’m not going to send it back by any means. It’s better than my old Instinct by a mile, and I prefer it to the virtual keyboard offering from Apple.

As for the construction of the unit, I have a couple of reservations with the Pre in my possession. As other reviewers have noted, the slider gear feels a bit loose. I’m not scared that the Pre is going to break (even if it did, I have insurance), but there is a bit of give to the system. This may have been an isolated problem though, as I read in the Ars Technica review that of the three Pre’s he’s gotten his hands on, only one was loose. Which led John Stokes to say “Clearly, Palm had some quality control issues with the first batch of phones, but I hope that these are behind them now.” As do I.

A side view (click to enlarge)

Then there’s the matter of the Palm Pre cutting cheese. No, not like that. I mean ACTUALLY cutting cheese. When I first got the Pre, I was a bit taken back by the edge on the bottom of the phone when the slider was open. Did I cut myself? No. Do I think I could have cut myself if I tried? Doubtful. Maybe I got a dull unit comparatively.

When the Pre is closed, it’s a smooth phone. The original design goal from Palm was to make it like a pebble you’d skip on a lake. In general, it’s a nice size, fitting nicely in my pocket without a case. I actually don’t know how you’d put a hard case on it with the slider mechanism, but I’m sure there are solutions out there. I don’t plan on using one myself though. The Palm Pre’s outer casing is a smooth black plastic and is smudgetastic. It picks up my fingerprints with frequency, but I’m kind of used to it because it was a similar situation with the iPod Touch.

Battery life on the Pre has been about what I’d expect out of the device. I’d love to have a larger battery than the 1150 mAh that ships with it. But, it’s replaceable, which means I can carry another battery around with me for when I know that I’m going to be using my phone a lot. I wish Palm would have included a backup battery and charger (which was one of my favorite parts about the Instinct), but alas these thing get cut when trying to chop the price down. Most days, the battery life gets me through everything I want to do, browsing, email, music and video included. I haven’t had a day where I’ve been mad with the Pre’s battery life, but I have run out of charge on a couple of occassions where I had12+ hour days. This was only with heavy use though, and since I’ve gotten all of the settings plugged in for Wi-Fi where I travel, the battery drain is lower. If Palm offers a higher capacity battery though, I’ll probably investigate to see if it’s for me.

Speaking of batteries, there’s a pretty cool charging solution for the Pre, called the Touchstone. The marvel of innovation (in the cellphone world) is actually pretty similar to how I’ve been charging my toothbrush for years. I love the Touchstone. One of my least favorite parts of a cellphone was having to take off the nub covering the charger. Now, I don’t have to do that anymore. I just throw my phone on the charger, literally. The Touchstone requires a different back for your Pre that has a soft finish, instead of the smooth plastic back and magnets inside so that it attaches in the right spot. The convenience of charging the Pre on the Touchstone comes with a fairly exorbitant pricetag though. For the kit with the dock and back cover, you’ll have to shell out $70 (purchased seperately, they’re the same price). I actually managed to find a deal on the dock though and picked it up for $30 last week at Amazon.com. (Currently, it’s $37.99 instead of the normal $50.)

A couple other things before we jump into the plethora of screenshots of the the wonderful WebOS. The Pre’s Bluetooth is pretty phenomenal. When playing a movie (Serenity, for the enquiring mind), it sounds fantastic coming through the 8 speakers on my Milan. I can also use the USB cable to charge the phone and output over the Bluetooth, so I don’t have to worry about killing the battery. I have run into a couple of connection problems though. The Pre says its connected to my SYNC, but the SYNC isn’t reciprocating. A quick disable/re-enable of the Bluetooth solves the issue, and it’s only sporadic, so it’s not infuriating. I would like to see a fix though, and they’ve already released a couple of fixes, so I’m sure there will be refining.

For what really makes the Pre standout check out part two.  This is a three-part review though, so if you’ve already read parts one and two, you can skip to part three which is more about making noise.

But I’ve never been here. And I’ve never seen this.

There is so much happening, all at once, in a dozen different places. I came in here wanting to be your eyes and ears - to show you and tell you about all of it. I even recruited a bunch of people to help. But I had no idea.

Everything glows. Everything is alive. I was sitting in the media tent last night and realized that there were no natural, white lights - only yellow and red. Now, I know this sounds like the  rant of some drugged out guy, enthralled by the beauty of all the “pretty lights”, but I can assure this is not the case. Although, I think I’ve met those people. They are happy to do their own thing, and I love watching them enjoy the music.

As I continue to wake up after the first of what I imagine to be many late nights (we caught Dominic from Big Gigantic doing a surprise DJ set in the middle of the forest at 1:30am), I’m going to head across the festival grounds, ride a bike that powers a blender, and earn myself a free smoothie. Because that’s just what you do here.