Goodbye, Palm.

[StevenColorado]

I've used Palms since 2002. My first Palm was an m130. I moved from there to a Tungsten E, a T2, and a T3. I finally got a Treo and loved the marriage of a Palm OS with a phone. I had a 655, then a 755p. A couple of weeks ago, I upgraded to a Palm Pre.

I hate it.

Sure, it's aesthetically pleasing, and the browser is a work of art. But...

I cannot have categories for my contacts like I did on the Palm OS machines. The keyboard is just small enough that I hit the wrong keys... and I don't have any way to backspace except using finger touch, and I have fat fingers. So I fumble a lot, frustrated.

The wonderful Search function that would search my contacts, my calendar, and anything else for a specific phrase is gone.

Just a nit, but the screen orientation changes on a whim and doesn't change back when I want. Annoying.

It's also developed a hardware glitch in that the on/off button does not work. So I have to wait for the phone to power down on its own. The screen is quite sensitive to touch and frequently dials people that I didn't want to dial. A friend's Pixi was also defective and would not charge. I guess Palm cut back their QC. Based on that, I don't want to trust their cloud backup, which essentially operates on faith.

Farewell, Palm. We did a lot of amazing things over the years. But it's clear that I'm not the one you're designed for now.

[r0k]

Apple is guilty of the same sort of smoke and mirrors. There is a feature in OS X called "Time Machine" that is similar to windows restore points except it also brings back all your data files. Time Machine works with a firewire or usb drive but if you want it to work over the network it only works with Time Capsule. Apple's combination router, network attached storage and print server. I had a first gen Time Capsule. Exactly 18 months after I bought it, the power supply died. Not the hard drive, the power supply. So my data was gone. It turns out it claimed all my daughter's data because she wiped her Mac Mini assuming everything was on the Time Capsule. Now she has nothing. Luckily, I had a usb and a firewire backup of my stuff so I didn't mind as much. So Palm isn't the only company going around saying they have "secure backup" when in fact it might not be. And we all remember the Tmo Sidekick backup loss fiasco. Whether you have a blackberry, iPhone, Droid or Pre, it's our duty to back up our stuff and we should not depend on some stupendous backup feature that might turn out to be one big lie.

Sorry to hear you don't like your Pre. Iphone 4 was announced yesterday. I might make the jump to At&t now that they offer a $15 a month plan. I can get by on a $15 a month 200 Mb plan and At&t will now work out to be cheaper for me than Verizon, which will get an iPhone in the year 2525.

I find a blackberry and an iPod Touch do quite well to replace my Palm things. Of course, the search thing is rather sorry on both but if I really wanted to I could jailbreak and get Styletap on my iPod Touch. For me to get an iPhone, I need to change the way I have my email set up because of limitations in the way iThings do email but I could finally stop carrying two devices. Apple things aren't perfect but an iThing might just be the best path forward for you. Have you thought about keeping the Pre to use the free wifi hotspot and adding a wifi enabled PDA such as an iPod Touch or even (if you can find one) a Palm TX? I have split my pda functions between the BB and the 'touch. The BB handles email, calendar and contacts. The 'touch handles apps. I have 4 pages of apps, down from 11. After I had a reset, I brought back only those apps I use almost every day.

There are naysayers that claim there are 224,000 fart apps and only 1,000 useful apps. No. It is the other way around. Really. You won't be able to replace the wonderful PDA experience that was once provided by PalmOS but you can get comfortably close on an iThing. Just don't trust any company to protect your data, not even Apple.

[tmedvick]

I've used Palms since 2002. My first Palm was an m130. I moved from there to a Tungsten E, a T2, and a T3. I finally got a Treo and loved the marriage of a Palm OS with a phone. I had a 655, then a 755p. A couple of weeks ago, I upgraded to a Palm Pre.

I hate it.

Sure, it's aesthetically pleasing, and the browser is a work of art. But...

I cannot have categories for my contacts like I did on the Palm OS machines. The keyboard is just small enough that I hit the wrong keys... and I don't have any way to backspace except using finger touch, and I have fat fingers. So I fumble a lot, frustrated.

The wonderful Search function that would search my contacts, my calendar, and anything else for a specific phrase is gone.

Just a nit, but the screen orientation changes on a whim and doesn't change back when I want. Annoying.

It's also developed a hardware glitch in that the on/off button does not work. So I have to wait for the phone to power down on its own. The screen is quite sensitive to touch and frequently dials people that I didn't want to dial. A friend's Pixi was also defective and would not charge. I guess Palm cut back their QC. Based on that, I don't want to trust their cloud backup, which essentially operates on faith.

Farewell, Palm. We did a lot of amazing things over the years. But it's clear that I'm not the one you're designed for now.

It sounds like you have a defective Pre, have you replaced it? Any company can and does have a bad device slip through, especially on the first run. I tend to think Palm has more trouble than others in this, but it is a first-run model. As for the touch sensitivity, welcome to capacitive touch, it takes some getting used to. My wife, son, and I all had similar issues at the start.

That being said, of course if the PIM apps don't meet your needs, there is no reason to keep the phone. I use my google contacts categories through a third-party app, but the PIM is not up to the standard of PalmOS. I'd go on, but I have posted about it way too many times.

[Varjak]

It sounds like the Pre issues extend far beyond the bad switch....

rok, I don't think you mentioned that (about Time Machine/Capsule) before. Are you sure about the network backup stuff? I've seen plenty of NAS's that promise (key word) full Time Machine support. I'm going to have to look into that. The Time Capsule is very nice; but as with most Apple products, wildly overpriced for what it delivers.

I'm not sure; but why would losing the power supply cause all the data to go? If it's 'recorded' on the hard drive, wouldn't installing a new power supply recover the data (minus the damage that might be caused by the head hitting the disk when the power went off). I remember in the (very) old days of the early Macs with HD's that there was a model that had bad power supplies. It was a known issue. I forget which model; but replacing the PS didn't cause loss of data.

Sorry to hear about your Palm. I too don't look forward to my Palm-less future (although I expect to keep my Palms going as long as possible, if just for backup). I still have my Vx running as a tertiary or quartenary backup. With what I've read, I still don't think there's anything out there for Android or iOS4 that can replace the functionality of my WordSmith or even the basic Palm OS PIM's.

[dvidearts]

Don't give up on the pre yet. It is a very powerful device. Great for games now with the 1.4.5 update. Took a look at Crusade Of Destiny for webos, it's the first ever full scale 3D RPG for palm.

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