There are three operating systems on computers that deserve any recognition. Microsoft’s Windows is the most popular by far. Microsoft focuses solely on software and lets other manufacturers worry about the hardware. Apple’s Mac OSX is a proprietary operating system installed exclusively on their hardware. Linux is a free alternative that can be installed on any machine.

It seems inevitable that the same thing will happen with cellular devices. Microsoft’s Windows Mobile is bought by companies who manufacture the hardware for the phones. Apple’s iPhone OS is exclusively used on their iPhone and iPod touches. Google’s Android is the free, open source alternative for cell phone manufacturers, much like Linux is on computers.

Worldwide Smartphone OS Marketshare as of Q2 2009

What about all the other cell phone operating systems? Most cell phones have custom OS’s. This is a waste of time for all of the companies. They should be focused on the hardware and the software companies should focus on the software. This has worked out well in the PC world. The exception of course is Apple, since they are extremely good at doing both.

Blackberry, Palm’s webOS, and Symbian are a few of the many other popular operating systems. I feel that the only way cell phones will reach their full potential is if most cell phones are compatible with each other. This means they need the same OS. Windows had many, many programs that can be installed because it is a common medium. Cell phones have at least six operating systems for developers to develop on.

Truly it does not matter which operating systems actually come out the victor. The important thing is that two or three will consolidate power and provide a default medium for applications to be developed on.

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First off let me say this, I have always been a major fan of webOS. The GUI is absolutely gorgeous, and the way it handles multitasking is lightyears ahead of the rest of the market. The Pixi comes preloaded with the latest build of webOS and with it comes Yahoo integration.

I had to go to a Sprint retail store since Palm is unreliable with their review units. We received an email shortly after the release of the Palm Pre from Palm’s marketing department letting us know that they would be sending us a unit to review ASAP, but to this date we have still not received it.

The Pixi is extremely tiny. As you can see in the picture, my hand dwarfs the entirety of the device. While having a small device might seem convenient and appealing at first, you should know that the keyboard is way too cramped and the screen is hardly manageable with its 2.63-inch multitouch screen with 18-bit color, 320×400 screen resolution Sub-HVGA display.

While it lacks WiFi, Sprint’s network is very capable of handling most of your data needs. The web browser on the device is in my opinion second only to the one found on the iPhone. Like the Pre, it also features over-the-air backup, restore, remote erase, and software updates.

Applications are all the rage these days. The App Catalog found on the Pre and Pixi is still quite undeveloped when compared to other devices. With that in mind, their new Ares SDK has just left private beta testing and now is in public beta. Hopefully this will breath some life into the App Catalog and catch it up to par.

All in all the device really is not that bad. My only faults with it are its small screen and cramped keyboard. I am extremely bias though because I am used to the iPhone with a bigger screen and have never really liked keyboards. I would recommend this to a first time smart phone user or somebody who is in love with webOS’s brilliant GUI and maybe just does not want a slider phone (Palm Pre).

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Palm is rolling out their latest update to their webOS operating system. The interesting update here is that it fixes it so the Palm Pre can once again sync with iTunes. Does this mean there will be an endless battle where both parties will continue to update blocking and syncing? Maybe. Stay tuned. Continue reading if you want to know what else you get.

Version information

• Version: webOS 1.1.0
• Release date: 23 July 2009
• Configuration: Sprint 1.7

New applications

NFL Mobile Live from Sprint

• Watch or listen to live NFL games right on your phone.

Feature changes to existing applications

Calendar

• For Calendar accounts you create on your phone, the default reminder intervals are 15 minutes for timed events and one day for all-day events. A few notes:
  • This change applies only if software version 1.1 was on your phone when you bought it, or if you did a partial or full erase on your phone and signed in to your Palm profile again after updating to version 1.1. If you simply update your phone to software version 1.1, the default reminder intervals in Calendar do not change.
  • This change applies only to Calendar events you create on your phone, not to events that are synchronized to your phone from an online account.

Camera

• The Photos application opens more quickly when launched from the camera.

Clock

• Enhanced support for time zones in Clock.
• When you set an alarm in Clock, an alarm icon appears in the notification area at the bottom of the screen. Tap the icon to display alarm details. Alarm details include the following:
  • If the alarm is set for the current day, the alarm time appears.
  • If the alarm is set for tomorrow, the alarm time and “Tomorrow” appear.
  • If the alarm is set for any day other than today or tomorrow, the day of the alarm appears.

Contacts

• Friends added and deleted in Facebook on the web are now correctly added and deleted in the Facebook account in Contacts on the phone.
• As soon as you create or makes changes to a Google contact on the phone, the phone begins a sync to reflect those changes in Google on the web.

Email

• When you set up an Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) email account, you can enter the mail server name as an IP address.
• Support for self-signed certificates with multiple common names has been added.
• When you reply to an email in HTML format using an EAS account, the formatting of the sender’s original message is now retained in the reply.
• Palm’s EAS implementation now supports several Exchange ActiveSync Policies, including the following:
  • PIN/Password Required. IT administrators can ensure a password is assigned to the phone. Administrators can also specify the minimum length of the password.
  • Inactivity timeout. IT administrators can ensure that an inactive phone goes into a locked state after a certain time period. You cannot set a higher timeout interval for your phone, but you can set a shorter interval.
  • Remote Wipe. IT Administrators can remotely erase all data on a phone from their Exchange console. IT administrators can also have the device wipe itself if an incorrect password is entered more than a specified number of times.

Messaging

• You can enter emoticons in new text, multimedia, and instant messages. Emoticons also display in incoming messages.
• If you set the phone to use a 24-hour time format, the message times shown in a conversation appear in 24-hour time.
• If you go into an IM account’s preferences, all the options are available even if you are signed in to the account. You can tap Remove Account to delete the account, enter a new password to update the password, or tap Sign In to sign in with your updated password. Previously, you needed to sign out of the account before you could use these preferences.
• When you delete an IM account, a message now appears asking you to confirm that you want to delete the account.

Phone

• When multiple missed call notifications are displayed on the dashboard, the time of the most recent missed call is shown.
• When you slide the ringer switch off, a bell icon with a slash is displayed. Previously, the icon was a speaker with a slash.
• In Phone Preferences, the Show Contact Matches preference is now turned on by default. When typing on the keyboard in the phone app, the phone automatically displays both the numbers being entered and any contact matches for the characters entered.

System

• Improved functionality of person reminders. A person reminder is a notification that you create in a contact entry. The notification appears when you have a call or exchange an email, text, multimedia, or IM message with a contact.
• Resolves an issue preventing media sync from working with latest version of iTunes (8.2.1).
• When you enter a search term in Card view or the Launcher to perform a universal search, if you select the Wikipedia web search option, results are shown in the Wikipedia Mobile site instead of the Desktop site.

Web

• You can now use symbols from the symbols table (Sym + key) when you enter text into a web page dialog box.
• If you have a page open at a certain zoom level, leave the page, and use the onscreen Back button or the back gesture to return to the page, the zoom level is restored right away.
• A new gesture is now available that works the same as the onscreen Forward button. To move forward through open web pages, make a short swipe left to right in the gesture area.
• When using the Wikipedia drop-down search feature in the address bar, results are shown in the Wikipedia Mobile site instead of the Desktop site.
• When you tap a link, the link appears highlighted to indicate it has been activated, even if it takes a moment for the linked page to open.

YouTube

• After you enter search text, you can tap the Search icon to perform a search. You still have the option of pressing Enter to perform the search.

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Sprint is definitely taking a shot at Apple and AT&T. Basically they are suggesting that you get much much more for a lot less. $1200 dollars less to be exact.

The ad is targeted at 1st gen iPhone users whose contracts are expiring and are looking to either renew or switch. It really is a tempting offer getting unlimited everything for only $99 a month. Also you get Sprint TV which you don’t get with an iPhone.

On top of all of this the Palm Pre is debatable superior to the iPhone 3G S (or any of the previous models) because it actually lets you multitask.

Truly it all depends where your priorities are. If you want a fun Apple device and have the money you might want to go the iPhone/AT&T route. If you want a powerful multitasking phone and want to save lots of money then the Pre is for you.

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You have a slight update for your new Palm device. Read on to see what all you get.

Version information

• Version: 1.0.3
• Release date: 19 June 2009
• Configuration: Sprint 1.5

New applications

No new applications in update 1.0.3

Feature changes to existing applications

Calendar

• Events created in your Google calendar—either in Calendar on your phone or in Google online—that contain a symbol or accented character in the event name can now synchronize. Previously, including a symbol or accented character in an event name prevented the event from synchronizing.
• Changes made to Google events on the phone now sync with Google online within a few minutes.
• The sync interval for Google events has been decreased from every few hours to every 15 minutes.

Clock

• If you create a weekday alarm on a weekend, the alarm sounds only on weekdays. Previously the alarm would sound on the weekend also.

Contacts

• Changes made to Google contacts on the phone now sync with Google online within a few minutes.
• The sync interval for Google contacts has been decreased from every few hours to every 15 minutes.

Email

• Power performance in areas where wireless coverage is sporadic or unavailable has been enhanced.
• Non-SSL Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) mail servers are now supported.

Other

• Miscellaneous updates for Email, Phone, and other applications.

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The latest estimates say that 50,000 Palm Pres were sold during its opening weekend. Palm is playing this off as a success since most locations sold out. This is not hard to achieve considering some locations had as little as four units each. Compare this to the Apple iPhone 1st generation. It sold 146,000 units on its opening weekend at the unsubsidized price of $499 and $599. The iPhone 3G sold over a million during its first weekend. These numbers do not please Palm’s investors many investors and Palm has seen a 10% stock drop.

One investor seems to think the Pre is doing quite well. Roger McNamee invested $400 million into the Palm Pre and tells Fox it was a dream come true in an interview. He continues to say they never wanted to take down Apple because that is an unrealistic thing to do, but merely take some of the market share that wasn’t already taken by either Blackberry or Apple.

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