On Mon, 8 Jun 2009, Chris Barber wrote:

> I've been dying to rant...
>
> I had an iPhone 3G until last Saturday when I bought a Pre and then 
> realized a piece of me died.  While the Pre is a great phone compared to 
> the Treo, it sucks compared to the iPhone.

It's great to get all these ideas about the phone.  Thanks!  Why did you 
want to dump the iPhone?  If I had been using an iPhone I don't think I 
would have switched to the Pre, especially not on Day 1.

More comments interspersed below...


> Things that suck
> - It is not easy to turn the phone on, unlock it, bring up the phone
> app, find a contact, and call them with one hand.

What part of that is hard?  If I hold it in my fingers and use my thumb on 
the screen, I think I'm doing those things quite well.  This is one place 
where a keypad on the screen would help.  I think they have only a 
hardware keypad, and if it isn't out, you have to scroll instead of typing 
letters.


> - The Pre will not allow you to connect to a IMAP server with a
> self-signed SSL cert which is a HUGE disappointment.
> - The flap to reveal the connector port for charging is difficult to
> open and I could honestly see the flap breaking off eventually.

Yes.  I should have mentioned that.  It is absurd.  I think it is a tactic 
to help them to sell the magnetic chargers (which do not come with a wire, 
and so I will return mine if they won't give me a free wire).  One tip -- 
pop out the keypad, it is way easier to reach the connector cover.  On the 
bright side, the cover stays very flush with the side of the phone which 
looks good and helps to keep it from popping open accidentally.


> - The connector looks like a micro USB port, but is some proprietary
> connector.

Exactly.  Definitely annoying.  it would have been sweet if they had used 
the ordinary mini-USB (I don't know what it's really called) that most 
cameras seem to be using these days.


> - Most of the time it feels like the touch screen is not accurate... it
> thinks my figure is like 5 pixels below where I clicked.

Oh -- maybe that is why I seem to have trouble sometimes clicking on 
links.  I'll be watching for that.  The old Palms used to have you click 
on certain positions for calibration.  Maybe they need to return to that.


> - The first day I had it, it would arbitrarily reboot.  That hasn't
> happened since I updated the phone.

That is very bad, but what does "updated the phone" mean?  Is there an 
update for the software already?  It's been out for two days.


> - A fully charged battery with WIFI and bluetooth on drained about 25%
> while I slept for 8 hours.

Yes, the battery doesn't hold up all that well, or the processor uses a 
lot of battery.  Either way, you have to charge it pretty often.  I leave 
plugged into the charger overnight.  You could also put it in "Airplane 
Mode" to save battery if you were traveling or soemthing (I assume that 
would work but I haven't tried it).


> - There is a bit of slowness with the UI, especially when launching apps.

I wasn't thinking of it that way, but it does take something like 3-4 
seconds to open the calendar, for example.  I guess that doesn't bother me 
because I haven't been using an iPhone.


> - The best way to sync contacts is with your Gmail contacts which I had
> to first get my contacts into Gmail (which took a long time).  You can't
> use iTunes to sync contacts.

This is an interesting issue.  I haven't studied it fully yet, but I think 
there is a lot of flexibility in this area which is nice, but it means 
more work getting to the bottom of how it works.  I think you can back 
everything up to your PC, or to Sprint's web, or you can back contacts and 
calendar to Google, and various combinations also seem to be possible. 
This definitely causes problems, but maybe it also creates opportunities 
to do cool things I couldn't do otherwise.


> - The phone looks like a symmetrical stone... in a dark office, I often
> somehow manage to pick up the phone upside down.

True.  One cool thing (or annoying thing, possibly) is that if you hold it 
upside down, it will show web pages upside down so that they are 
right-side up.


> - The web browser is clunkier than the iPhone's.
> - The max ringtone volume is still hard to hear when the phone is in
> your pocket.  Maybe I'm just getting old.

You are right.  David Pogue said the same thing.  I guess you can add 
ringtones and maybe those can be made louder.  Not sure.  Definitely 
another limitation.


> - No visual voicemail.  Calling up and hearing "1 new voicemail message"
> from some number that I haven't memorized is worthless.

I'm not sure I understand this.  This is a Sprint problem, no?  Do you 
mean that Sprint's voicemail won't tell you the name of the caller?


> - Makes a distorted noise when using my Jawbone bluetooth headset before
> and after calls.
> - It's probably a matter of time before the Pre doesn't work with
> iTunes.  Right now, it is detected as an iPod v1.0.

Maybe it will be a perpetual battle with Apple trying to detect the Pre 
and deny it access and the Pre trying to fake iTunes into thinking it is 
an iPod.  The Pre works with a certain version of iTunes but we don't know 
what will happen.  It doesn't happen to bother me because I don't use 
iTunes.


> - The address book lists all of the contacts and their phone numbers
> making the list very long and visually hard to find who I want to call.

Do you want only some of your contacts to appear?  I'm not clear on what 
the issue is here.  So far I haven't found a way to make a short 
speed-dial list.  Is that not doable?  If not, that is a major 
shortcoming.  If they think they can sell that to me, they are wrong.


> - You can't add/edit contacts while in the phone's address book.  You
> need to leave the phone app and go into the contacts app.

Weird.  I'm not understanding this aspect of their design.  If the phone 
list is different from the contacts list, how is the phone list generated 
and edited?  How do I control it?


> - Instead of a "settings" area, they have a separate app for configuring
> bluetooth, device info, wifi, sounds, wallpaper, security, etc.

Good point.


> - No SDK... yet.

I assume that is coming soon.  They want to have a lot of developers.


> Things that don't suck
> - Feels comfortable next to your ear.
> - Sprints plans are cheaper than AT&T's.
> - Sprint has better signal at my house in Shakopee.
> - The gestures are fun.
> - Best Palm phone so far.
> - In my opinion, best Sprint phone so far.
> - Feels smaller in my pocket compared to the iPhone.
> - The camera flash LED is nice.
> - When plugged in, it can show up as a external drive.
> - You can update the phone without a computer.
> - There is some new innovative UI, but most of it was copied from the iPhone.
> - When the SDK does come out, it will work on Linux!  And you don't have
> to code in Objective-C!
>
> I'm sure there's a list of other things that rock or suck with the Pre.

It would be interesting to hear more about ways that it compares with 
iPhone.  I've never owned an iPhone.  iPhone doesn't have a hardware 
keypad.  I don't mind that Pre copies iPhone UI!  ;-)


> Despite AT&T's network being crap in my area, I'm going to switch back 
> to AT&T and get a iPhone 3GS.  The 16GB model is the same price as the 
> Pre and has lots of nice features.  Only 6 months until AT&T adds a new 
> tower to my area that should make the signal better.
>
> Now the question is how do I return the Pre and switch back to AT&T 
> without losing my phone number?

Is that a problem?  I think you can return it within 30 days.  Can't you 
always keep your number when you change carriers?  Didn't you keep your 
number when you switched to Sprint from AT&T?


> P.S. Once I'm back on my iPhone, I'll be using Touch Term
> (http://www.freshapps.com/touch-term/) to SSH into my Linux boxes.

Nice.  We need something like that for Pre (preferrably free).

Thanks again for all of the comments about the Pre.  I'm sure this will 
help me a lot while I'm working on figuring out all of its intricacies.

Mike