What is missing from this first release???

edster9 · 06/08/2009, 03:00 PM

The purpose of this thread is to talk about the missing features from the Palm Pre.

First of all don't get me wrong I love this new Web OS and I think it has great potential... Multitasking is great and the UI is dazzling and new... But if I was the head of product development at Palm, I would not sign off on this the release until the following is fixed...

Here is a list of features that could have very easily been part of this release but for some reason they are not in the first version, and I hope its simply because Palm was in a hurry to release this phone and not because they think this is what a end user will need and what we have been given is enough.

I really hope someone from Palm will read this and respond to me. I am very curious to hear comments from everyone on this.

I might just have to return this and go to an Android phone while they work on the next generation of this phone...
My overall opinion of this phone is that palm has a great new OS but they are not done yet... They have put together this thing in hurry just so they can release it to market... I hope they complete the software very soon...

My Blackberry storm has very good configuration options but horrible UI... Its the reverse with the Pre... Very good UI but no configuration options what so ever...

OK NOW WHAT IS MISSING....

***** LACK OF SOFTWARE *****
a) No SDK yet... how the hell!!! How are we suppose to make apps for this thing. ( I know its coming but I want it NOW )

b) Very few apps in the App Catelog

c) Every app that exists is lacking features and configuration

***** OUT OF THE BOX *****
a) No manual??? All we get a small how to get started that is useless...

b) No software??? Nothing that will help you organize your music or files and provides any kind of file syncroniztion or organization. You can use iTunes (yikes) or copy it all to the phone manually. But nothing that will guide you to what directory is what on the phone. You just have to know I guess.

***** HARDWARE ******
a) Keyboard could be a little better but at least there is a keyboard. I guess they had to make the phone as small as possible and a bigger keyboard is not possible... (not that big of a deal)

b) No trackball??? It would have been nice but not all that necessary.

c) Battery life if horrible... It did not last a full day for me with the Wi-Fi on and playing music... have to see what a normal day without the Wi-Fi will be like... but it doesn't look very good... I left my house at 9am with a full charge... at 12pm I am down to 75%... I hope a better battery comes out soon.

***** CONFIGURATION *****
THIS IS THE SUBJECT I REALLY WANNA TALK ABOUT

a) Organize your program icons. There is no easy way to organize my program icons... In the old Palms, you can group them very nicely but I don't see any option for it... Apps just go where ever they want on your screens and to move them around is a big pain. This is a big missing feature. I want to orginize my programs into folders and cycle though them. Or provide a better way to move them around from one screen to the next.

b) NO VIDEO RECORDING!!! (thats all I am going to say about that)

c) System Font Size setting. Why can't I change the system font size? Some people have good eyes, some need glasses... I have 20/20 vision and I can read my mail with a font that is twice as small so I can see more on the page...

d) In fact no kind of preferences for overall color and themes of how things will look...

e) Can not choose a different sound for system notifications... I want to hear a different sound when I get a text message vs. an email.

f) Can not turn of notification per application level. I don't want notification when I listen to music. This should be a per application setting.

g) Synergy is great but I don't want to anything deleted from my actual mailbox when I delete something from my phone. There has to be a setting that decides which mailbox will win when you synchronize... This is a very standard feature on my blackberry...

h) Can't choose which profile picture I want to be the default when I my contacts have multiple profiles... If I have a friend who has facebook and exchange... I want the exchange photo to be the default. I think it just chooses which ever profile is first in the list... (a little annoying)

i) Can't organize photos into folders... If I take a lot of pictures... it gets unmanageable...

j) No program launch HOT KEYS... I want to slide the keyboard out and hold down 'M' and just right to my maps... (Sounds reasonable)

k) No HOT KEYS for contacts either. ( I don't see one, do you? )

This is just my overall impression of the phone over the 2 days I have owned it... These are all very simple and common sense options that should exist and I can't believe that they don't...

Am I the only one that thinks this way???

scuba_steve · 06/08/2009, 03:16 PM

No...I have similar gripes...especially with regards to things that have been on the Palm OS for years, but aren't in the WebOS. I didn't expect the WebOS to be perfect, but there are just so many things that were in the old PalmOS that were so useful and that are now missing.

Frankly, I am also not sure how third-parties are going to add these missing features with an SDK that is based on HTML5 & JS...and sandboxed data. I am particularly interested in answers to these two questions:

- How do you hook into the gesture area lights to provide a notification capability from HTML5/JS? I seriously wonder if that is even possible. This is an issue for many areas that would require your app to hook in at a rather low level to fix a missing feature.

- How do your provide an app that compliments an existing PIM app when sandbox rules prevent you from seeing that data? For example, I understand that if someone chooses to build a datebook app with an integrated Today screen, they can't access the required PIM calendar data. I hope that report is not true, but I could see why Palm would want to Sandbox data. Of course, perhaps they shouldn't...because they can't seem to reliably show calendar events on their own calendar...so perhaps they should let someone else give it a shot.

mikah912 · 06/08/2009, 03:17 PM

Don't we already have at least three threads on this subject already?

06/08/2009, 03:00 PM	#1 (permalink)
edster9 Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 30 Thanks: 1 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	What is missing from this first release??? The purpose of this thread is to talk about the missing features from the Palm Pre. First of all don't get me wrong I love this new Web OS and I think it has great potential... Multitasking is great and the UI is dazzling and new... But if I was the head of product development at Palm, I would not sign off on this the release until the following is fixed... Here is a list of features that could have very easily been part of this release but for some reason they are not in the first version, and I hope its simply because Palm was in a hurry to release this phone and not because they think this is what a end user will need and what we have been given is enough. I really hope someone from Palm will read this and respond to me. I am very curious to hear comments from everyone on this. I might just have to return this and go to an Android phone while they work on the next generation of this phone... My overall opinion of this phone is that palm has a great new OS but they are not done yet... They have put together this thing in hurry just so they can release it to market... I hope they complete the software very soon... My Blackberry storm has very good configuration options but horrible UI... Its the reverse with the Pre... Very good UI but no configuration options what so ever... OK NOW WHAT IS MISSING.... *** LACK OF SOFTWARE * a) No SDK yet... how the hell!!! How are we suppose to make apps for this thing. ( I know its coming but I want it NOW ) b) Very few apps in the App Catelog c) Every app that exists is lacking features and configuration * OUT OF THE BOX * a) No manual??? All we get a small how to get started that is useless... b) No software??? Nothing that will help you organize your music or files and provides any kind of file syncroniztion or organization. You can use iTunes (yikes) or copy it all to the phone manually. But nothing that will guide you to what directory is what on the phone. You just have to know I guess. * HARDWARE ** a) Keyboard could be a little better but at least there is a keyboard. I guess they had to make the phone as small as possible and a bigger keyboard is not possible... (not that big of a deal) b) No trackball??? It would have been nice but not all that necessary. c) Battery life if horrible... It did not last a full day for me with the Wi-Fi on and playing music... have to see what a normal day without the Wi-Fi will be like... but it doesn't look very good... I left my house at 9am with a full charge... at 12pm I am down to 75%... I hope a better battery comes out soon. * CONFIGURATION *** THIS IS THE SUBJECT I REALLY WANNA TALK ABOUT a) Organize your program icons. There is no easy way to organize my program icons... In the old Palms, you can group them very nicely but I don't see any option for it... Apps just go where ever they want on your screens and to move them around is a big pain. This is a big missing feature. I want to orginize my programs into folders and cycle though them. Or provide a better way to move them around from one screen to the next. b) NO VIDEO RECORDING!!! (thats all I am going to say about that) c) System Font Size setting. Why can't I change the system font size? Some people have good eyes, some need glasses... I have 20/20 vision and I can read my mail with a font that is twice as small so I can see more on the page... d) In fact no kind of preferences for overall color and themes of how things will look... e) Can not choose a different sound for system notifications... I want to hear a different sound when I get a text message vs. an email. f) Can not turn of notification per application level. I don't want notification when I listen to music. This should be a per application setting. g) Synergy is great but I don't want to anything deleted from my actual mailbox when I delete something from my phone. There has to be a setting that decides which mailbox will win when you synchronize... This is a very standard feature on my blackberry... h) Can't choose which profile picture I want to be the default when I my contacts have multiple profiles... If I have a friend who has facebook and exchange... I want the exchange photo to be the default. I think it just chooses which ever profile is first in the list... (a little annoying) i) Can't organize photos into folders... If I take a lot of pictures... it gets unmanageable... j) No program launch HOT KEYS... I want to slide the keyboard out and hold down 'M' and just right to my maps... (Sounds reasonable) k) No HOT KEYS for contacts either. ( I don't see one, do you? ) This is just my overall impression of the phone over the 2 days I have owned it... These are all very simple and common sense options that should exist and I can't believe that they don't... Am I the only one that thinks this way???

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06/08/2009, 03:16 PM	#2 (permalink)
scuba_steve Member Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 416 Thanks: 57 Thanked 127 Times in 64 Posts	No...I have similar gripes...especially with regards to things that have been on the Palm OS for years, but aren't in the WebOS. I didn't expect the WebOS to be perfect, but there are just so many things that were in the old PalmOS that were so useful and that are now missing. Frankly, I am also not sure how third-parties are going to add these missing features with an SDK that is based on HTML5 & JS...and sandboxed data. I am particularly interested in answers to these two questions: - How do you hook into the gesture area lights to provide a notification capability from HTML5/JS? I seriously wonder if that is even possible. This is an issue for many areas that would require your app to hook in at a rather low level to fix a missing feature. - How do your provide an app that compliments an existing PIM app when sandbox rules prevent you from seeing that data? For example, I understand that if someone chooses to build a datebook app with an integrated Today screen, they can't access the required PIM calendar data. I hope that report is not true, but I could see why Palm would want to Sandbox data. Of course, perhaps they shouldn't...because they can't seem to reliably show calendar events on their own calendar...so perhaps they should let someone else give it a shot.

06/08/2009, 03:17 PM	#3 (permalink)
mikah912 Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 1,722 Thanks: 81 Thanked 293 Times in 168 Posts	Don't we already have at least three threads on this subject already?