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Archive: January 8, 2009
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Looks like I have to get a new phone! The Palm Pre:
An iPhone with a real keyboard. Thank you thank you thank you.
And it will be on Sprint first. Thank you again.
Not only do I not get AT&T reception at my house, I like Sprint, and I don't like AT&T.
Many analysts said Palm had to hit a home run. Looks like they did. From Ryan Block: "Wow. Well, that was kind of amazing, and I don’t say that very often. Yes, we are lacking a LOT of really important details, but there’s little doubt that Palm is back in a big way, and that this OS and device has the potential to make up for all their missteps over the last five years. Can’t wait." Me either. Yay!
[ Update: I'm reading the details; wild stuff like the 3.1" multitouch screen, the wireless charger, the rollerball, EVDO, WiFi, GPS, bluetooth, 3Mp camera (w LED flash), all in a little handheld device, and I'm thinking, "I can actually have one of these". It might be $500, but it won't be $5M. This isn't just science fiction, this is a consumer product. What a great time to be alive! ]
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Pre-blogging:
  Engadget's live feed of the Palm presentation, now an archive. They do this best. And here's their summary + specs, and a large photo gallery. I was struck by the pic at far right, showing that the Pre is smaller than you'd think; smaller than the Centro I'm holding in my hand, right now. The other picture I like is the keyboard. From the descriptions, the keys have the Centro rubberiness and clickiness (which is a good thing). May I be the first to call this a Preboard?
- ArsTechnica has good info on the webOS. "As nice as the Pre's hardware is, Palm's webOS is where the real action is. As a dedicated iPhone user, I experienced something very strange and quite unexpected while watching Palm demo the new OS: my iPhone suddenly felt old and played out. It's like Palm started with the iPhone, copied all the best ideas, and then made the whole package better." The underlying OS is Linux, and the entire UI is Webkit-based. Most applications are written in JavaScript, with CSS skins.
 All Things Digital: Pre historic. They note that investors like the company as much as reviewers like the phone; see the stock price graph at right.- Dave Winer: Palm Pre a possibility? "This morning I couldn't imagine why anyone would even go to a Palm press conference, and now I'm on the edge of wanting one of these to try. I'm ready to get off my iPhone, I'm sick of the locked up mentality."
- Robert Scoble: Palm did what Nokia, RIM, and Microsoft couldn’t: build a better experience than Apple. "When I sat down at the beginning of the Palm Pre announcement press conference I was expecting to watch the death of a company. Palm? Give me a break. It would NEVER do anything interesting and Nokia, Microsoft, RIM, and especially Apple were about to kick it into the deathbin of history. I was wrong. WAY WAY WAY wrong."
- Cult of Mac: Palm Pre Gives Hope That iPhone Will Face Real Competition. "I am excited that the Pre is good enough to actually make Apple work hard, particularly on the software front. The Palm Web OS has a clear point of view, an attractive look, and some genuinely innovative features, such as the gesture bar and the very cool “wave” application launcher shown above."
 Gizmodo: Palm Pre Preview: Simply Amazing. Nice overview with technical details and many pictures.-
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"The Palm Pre is a lot smaller than I initially thought it would be.
- "The Pre's Web OS UI and UX really looks great.
- "The Card system is really a great way to keep your information in front of you and know what you're working on.
- "The input technology that doesn't involve the screen is also top notch.
- "The screen is beautiful, and it really shows when looking at photos, which are so bright and colorful, I'd almost say it looks sharper than any other phone.
I can't wait to get in my Pre-order :)
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So how was your day? In addition to the Pre historic news, it was sunny and quiet here... was able to get some heads down work done. And got in a nice ride, in anticipation of eating while footballing, and then ate a lot while watching the game.
I didn't really enjoy the BCS Championship game, did you? Maybe it was because I was rooting for Oklahoma, but maybe it was because neither team played very well, and it just wasn't a compelling game. I think either USC or Texas could beat either of these teams, and Utah might too. (Maybe - gasp! - it's time to look at a playoff system?) The whole "Tim Tebow as superman" thing turns me off, too. It's just football. At this point all I can say is Go Chargers! 
 Saturn's Titan: A Giant Organics Factory. "Saturn's orange moon Titan has hundreds of times more liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth, according to new data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. The hydrocarbons rain from the sky, collecting in vast deposits that form lakes and dunes."
 The approach to San Francisco Bay. The blue areas are shoals - good for fishing and surfing (!), bad for boats and especially ships.
Global Cooling: Minnesota sled race canceled because of too much snow. "The Third Crossing Sled Dog Rendezvous, slated for Jan. 23-24, would have been the ninth annual running of the sprint races, which twice were canceled for lack of snow. This winter, as anyone with a driveway knows, has been a season of prodigious snows." I am not making this up.
 Announcing Microsoft Tags. A sort of geometric barcode using color. (Comparison to QR and Datamatrics barcodes at left.) I am struck once again that Microsoft always seems to ignore what others have done and reinvent the wheel. 2D barcodes have been around for a long time, do we really need a new format, whatever its virtues?
 From Chris Anderson, a wonderful tongue-in-cheek graph (shown at right) comparing credibility vs time for The Long Tail, The Black Swan, and The Tipping Point. I love it. This could be a graph of The Law of Significance in action :)
Ottmar Liebert: The Long Tail is a Myth. Quotes the Guardian: "Maybe the reason why the internet hasn’t brought about a long-tail era for music is simpler than all the above. The internet gives the customer an infinite choice of tracks, but perhaps the pool of genuine talent is as limited as it’s always been." Yep.
 ZooBorn of the day: Wobbegong shark pups. Makes you want to pet them, doesn't it?
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