Some Palm Pre Questions

Despite the fact that all of us that know the actual release date of the device are bound by a NDA and our job titles, we all know that it’s going to be soon… so I figured it might be nice to answer a few FAQ before it arrives. Here’s some questions and facts and how-to’s that might answer some of the questions or curiosity about the Palm Pre!

On the Palm Touchstone charging dock

What is it? It’s a new type of charger that does not require that the Pre be plugged in, or attached to any wires, it simply rests on the touchstone charger. The charger itself is, of course, required to be plugged into an outlet.

What happens if you receive a call while the phone is charging on the Touchstone?

• You can pick up the Pre and it will automatically answer!
• You can leave it on the Touchstone and it will automatically answer in speakerphone mode if you choose.

IMPORTANT: The Touchstone charger is purchased separately, it DOES NOT come in the box with the device. Touchstone is the name of the line of products, not a name solely for the charging device. All Touchstone products will have the branding of ‘Touchstone (product)’.

Why is it called webOS?

OS stands for operating system. So, the reason this is called webOS is that the operating system is completely connected to the Web. Some of the older operating systems required a connection to the computer. In order to provide a great mobile experience, as well as perform the functions of the phone, Palm had to create a new operating system from scratch.

What are some of the customer benefits to this?

• No need to have a cord available.
• No need to have a computer available.
• Can update data almost anytime and anywhere.

During initial setup, the webOS platform creates a Palm profile. This profile gives customers access to critical Palm services to:

• Update device software.
• Download new applications from the App Catalog.
• Restore calendar and contacts data and applications downloaded from the App Catalog.
• Erase calendars, contacts, and other data through a remote wipe.

Will webOS work if it is not connected?

Contacts is an example of an application that can use data from the Internet and from internal storage. In this example, Contacts can get data from a Facebook account. It retrieves this data through its Internet connection. Now, what happens if there is no data connection? Let’s say the customer is on an airplane and has all the radios turned off. Contacts will simply pull the data from on-phone storage so that you can still see your contacts.

Do I have to get a new plan?

There are three categories of service plans for this phone—individual, shared, and pooled plans. Some of these plans are existing and some of them are new. In short, the device will require either a Simply Everything/Everything Data Plan or a Business Essentials Data Plan. (UPDATED THE VERBIAGE, AS I HAD THE WORD ‘SIMPLY’ BEORE ‘EVERYTHING DATA PLAN’, SORRY BOUT THAT-SEE NEXT POST ABOUT PLAN OPTIONS IN DETAIL) Even if you are an existing customer, you must switch to one of the approved plans. Remember that the Pre phone requires a data plan to activate the phone, and this is a system function that is unable to be bypassed.

REMEMBER: The Pre phone will not have a Phone as Modem plan option.

Unboxing and First Use:

First Use configures the phone for use, and walks you(the new owner!) through creating a Palm Profile, and introduces some basic gestures. Remember, the account must be active and the phone must be provisioned before the phone will begin the First Use experience. The customer must complete First Use and agree to the Palm Terms and Conditions. If the customer does not complete these steps, the phone will not work. If the customer does not want to complete the step0.0.0s, he/she can return it to the place of purchase.

Gestures

• The back gesture is a light, quick flick from right to left in the area below the screen.
• The delete gesture is a light, quick flick from the left to the right or from the right to the left over a message or notification.

Using ‘Cards’:

Cards are an easy system for managing applications. Each application is a card. As you open more applications, more cards will open. Think of it this way. It’s a window or screen in an application that minimizes to appear as a card when the user presses the center button. You can have several applications open and running all at the same time and flip between them. Imagine them to be like you’re holding playing cards in your hand, where you can fan them out and scan between them. This is the concept of the card view.

When you launch an application, it will launch in full view. Say you’re in one application, and need to check another. For example you’re checking your e-mail, and need to check something in your calendar, this is where card view comes in handy. You can click on the center button to take your current application to card view. From there, you can launch the launcher view, or click on one of the applications in the Quick Launch bar.

To close a card, simply throw it up towards to the top of the screen. The card will float away and close. Don’t worry about saving anything before you throw it away; webOS saves for you. As you use the Pre phone, you’ll notice there is no save button. It automatically does that for you. For example, an email that you’re drafting will automatically be saved into the Drafts folder of that e-mail box.

Synergy

The Palm Synergy feature is a key feature of the webOS platform that brings your information from all the places it resides into one logical view.

With the Synergy feature, when there are matches of contacts, it automatically connects the information in a linked view. Once again, this link only exists on your Pre phone, using the Synergy feature. If you go to Facebook or your Exchange ActiveSync contacts separately on your computer, you will not see this linked reference.

Synergy & Email

The Email application on Pre is very robust. It supports the EAS (Exchange ActiveSync), POP3 (Post Office Protocol), and IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) protocols for sending and receiving e-mail. The webOS platform can have up to eight e-mail accounts, either EAS, POP3, or IMAP, running at the same time.

How to make Sent Items to show up in Favorites?

• A yellow star next to the field of choice means that the field will be viewed in the Favorites view. So, for the sent items on their Gmail account, you would open the drop-down menu for the Gmail account, find the Sent folder and click on the star to change it to yellow. Now check your Favorites folder. You’ll see that it’s there now.

How to add an email account:

• From the main Email account screen, click on the e-mail menu in the top-left corner. Click on Preferences & Accounts, and click Add an Account.

Where would go to adjust settings on your e-mail accounts?

• From the same location in Preferences & Accounts, click on your Gmail account under the Accounts section. From here, you can change the account name, the type of notifications you’d like to receive, or not, and add a signature. Once you’re done, use the back gesture to return to the previous screen. Remember, there is no save button, but once you enter information and move on, it’s automatically saved.

Synergy & Contacts

The Contacts application allows you to manage contacts from different sources. You can sync your contacts from Exchange ActiveSync, Google, and Facebook. You can also store contacts on the phone only. You’ll notice that the application doesn’t distinguish between accounts. Thanks to the Synergy feature, all your contacts are displayed in a single list.

How did you know where to find out whether Google is one of your contact accounts?

• While in the Contacts home page, click on the Contacts menu in the upper-left corner and choose Preferences & Accounts. From here, you’ll see all accounts that are associated with this contact card.

How do you determine that a contact is linked through the Synergy feature?

• To the right of the contact is a picture. Layered pictures indicate a linked contact. If a contact is linked, that means that the webOS platform found two or more pieces of information that were the same in a contact from two or more accounts.

How do you change the order contacts are displayed in?

• From the same view in Preferences & Accounts, you can choose to change the sort order.

Synergy & Calendar

The Calendar application allows you to manage appointments on your Pre phone. Calendar can sync with Exchange ActiveSync, Google Calendar, and Facebook. You can also store Calendar appointments on the phone only.

The default view will show all appointments from all accounts. Each account gets assigned its own color when it’s added. Each appointment will match the color of the account it came from. Benefits include:

• Appointments from different calendars all show in one place.
• Free time is condensed but can be expanded to add a new appointment.
• Customers can be more productive with all of the calendar information on one view.
• Avoid double-booking.

How do you know if time is available when in a filtered view?

• Time occupied by appointments in other calendars is a striped grey. Plain grey timeslots are available.

How do you change the color of the account?

• You can change the assigned color by going to Menu > Preferences & Accounts > Account Name.

How do you stop synchronizing a calendar with an online account?

• You can stop synchronizing a calendar with an online account by going to Menu > Preferences & Accounts > select an account from those listed > Remove Account.

Messaging

Messaging is truly unique on the webOS platform. The Messaging application provides a single interface to manage instant messages and SMS/MMS messages.

Synergy enhances the messaging experience by displaying all messages together in chronological order. This lets you switch back and forth between IM and SMS/MMS without losing the context of the coversation. In the buddy view, you see a list of all your contacts that have an IM account and their status. In the conversation view, you see all the messages you’ve sent and received from a specific contact with a label indicating whether that message was sent via IM or SMS/MMS.

• Can continue an IM chat on the phone through SMS.
• Don’t have to search in different places for information from a chat or IM.

Universal Search

Universal Search finds applications and contacts. Information is filtered as you type more letters. The first letter entered brings up phone applications. The second letter will layer in local contacts on the phone (and files if you have any). If any applications also have the second letter they will remain in the search options. Once you go past anything contained on the phone, the Pre phone abandons the local search and gives you the Web options.

How can you use Universal Search to save time?

• Search for contacts rather than scrolling through a contact list.
• Search for applications or Web sites.
• Search for possible answers on one of three Web sites if not found on the phone.

What about the data on my old Palm?

webOS is designed to not be connected to a computer for data synchronization – the Synergy feature takes care of that. However, the first time customers use the Pre phone, they may have data on their computer that they would like to import. That’s where the Data Transfer Assistant comes in. Let’s learn more about how customers migrate data to the Pre phone as they get set up using the phone.

It is important not to think of the DTA as synchronization software. It only moves data onto the phone. It does not move data from the phone to the computer.

On the phone, customers have the choice of integrating their data with an account using the Synergy feature, such as Gmail or Facebook, or leaving it on the phone for backup using the Backup service.

Backup Options

The Backup service automatically backs up preferences and account settings. It does not back up individual files or items. For example, if you have 15 e-mails in your inbox, the e-mails are not backed up.

Backup does back up the account information used to access that inbox. It also backs up any preferences you store inside the application. For example, if you change the alert settings for a Calendar account, those settings will be backed up.

Third-party applications added to the phone are backed up. These items are backed up automatically each day. Customers can also initiate a manual backup.

When is a backup restored?

• Automatically restores data after an Erase or Device Exchange by signing in to the Palm profile.

How do customers delete their backup?

• If auto-backup is disabled, the current backup is immediately deleted from service.

What information is stored in a backup?

• Contacts stored directly on the phone (not those synchronized through the Synergy feature).
• Calendars.
• Account settings.
• Downloaded applications.

Camera, Photos & Video

How do you adjust the flash settings?

• The camera is automatically set up to recognize if a flash is needed. To change the settings, and turn off the Auto setting located on the screen.

What type of file is the picture saved as?

• Photos save as .jpgs

How do you fast-forward or rewind through a video?

• Tap the circle on the player bar and move forward orbackward, releasing where you want the video to resume play.

Can you watch a video in portrait mode?

• No. Videos must be viewed in landscape mode.

What video formats are supported?

• The Videos application supports MPEG-4, H.263, H.264. DRM-protected video files are not supported.

Amazon MP3’s

How do I get credit for a download?

• All transactions are handled by Amazon. You can also access your download history from your account on amazon.com after logging in.

Where is downloaded Amazon music stored on the phone?

• MP3s are stored on the mass storage partition.

Will downloaded songs be backed up automatically?

• No, you must access and back up files via the USB Disk mode.

Web Browser

Does Flash work in the Web application?

• No, as we learned earlier, the Web browser supports JavaScript, Secure Socket Layer (SSL), and cookies, but does not support plug-ins (Flash, Shockwave, VBScript, WML script, and so on) or Java applets.

How do you delete bookmarks?

• Open the Application menu and tap Bookmarks. Swipe the bookmark off the side of the screen and tap Delete.

Can you select/highlight text on a Web page?

• No.

What other options are under the Applications menu?

• You can clear cache, clear cookies, clear history, toggle on/off, block popups, accept cookies, and run JavaScript.

How can I know if Google Maps is using Cell or Wi-Fi ID or GPS?

• If the map shows an outer circle either Cell ID or Wi-Fi ID is being used to determine the phone’s location. If the map shows a dot by itself, it means either Standard GPS or Assisted GPS is being used to determine the phone’s location.

Sprint Applications

The Pre phone does NOT support Sprint Music, Sprint PictureMail, or Sprint Digital Lounge.

Resets

Resets are much different on the Pre phone than other smartphone or PDA phones you are familiar with. Even the language is different—out are terms like soft and hard reset; they’re replaced with terms like Restart, Partial Erase, and Full Erase.

Saving Battery

• Turn-off the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios when not in use.
• Charge frequently and often! Batteries perform better when charged frequently.
• Make sure a data-intensive app isn’t running in the background (e.g., Music).
• Log out of IM apps if they’re not in use.
• Adjust the screen brightness.
• Check your signal strength – fringe coverage between 3G and 1xRTT will use more power.
• Reduce the frequency of syncing on e-mail accounts.
• Waking the screen often will use more power (e.g. opening and closing the slider).

And finally….using your Pre for a long time? Seem sluggish? Here’s the fix:

So… there you have it! I’ve used the Pre a few times now, and I’m very impressed – despite the lack of the touchstone charger in the box. If you take that out of the equation, the only actual device complaint is the inability to select/hilight text on a webpage – ALTHOUGH you can send a screencap/image of any page you’re viewing, so that’s *almost* the next best thing, and it has worked really well when I’ve tried it so far. So how about it.. .ready for the Palm Pre ?

Feel free to comment below, or take it to the forum over at SprintGurus as they have some of the in-the-know and knowledgeable folks around, here’s the link to the topic: http://sprintgurus.com/forum/showthread.php?t=315

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