Archive for January, 2010
New year, new technology
Well, not strictly new technology for the new year since I actually got the latest toy back in November.
It’s a Palm Pre to replace my venerable Palm Centro which finally succumbed to one too many attempts to fix the keyboard problems I was having with it (took ages to break it properly 😉 )
The Pre is a bit of revelation for someone like me who usually travels with at least one laptop so I can check e-mail and write on the move. As a challenge, I took just the Pre and a notepad on a trip to London a couple of weeks ago. Apart from the battery taking a hammering and dropping rapidly on the train due to low signal strength and too much checking of e-mail and web while listening to Led Zeppelin (yes, iPhone fans – the Pre MULTI-tasks, it really can do several things at once) – it performed pretty much flawlessly. GPS worked well and Google Maps allowed me to find BCS HQ in London without any problems – no wrong turns, no drama. E-mail worked well on GPRS, 3G and in-train WiFi. Phone calls were made by clicking on numbers found on web pages and in e-mails.
This is the device I’ve been waiting for. Finally, smart-phones make proper sense to me. Now, if only they could sort out the battery life issue it would become a device for road-warriors. As it is, for someone like me who tend to stay behind a desk it works well as a portable cloud access device. The Touchstone inductive charger means I can just drop the Pre onto it’s little stand whenever I don’t need it in my pocket and it’s always ready to go. I’ve even found myself using it to stream radio (Motel California on Accuradio mostly) and play video (The Italian Job) in preference to using one of the big boxes that live under the desk.
Roll on WebOS 1.4 which is supposed to improve battery life, enable the GPU for 3D gaming and faster screen access and bring Flash to the mobile world at last.
Now, if I could just control it from my car stereo the way we can with Shirley’s iPod nano…
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Forensically sound(ing off) 