Xigaware

I have been a Palm PDA user for many years now, and I have been wanting to upgrade to a smart phone.  The Palm offerings like the Centro and Treo’s just didnt have the flash and moderness of the competition like the iPhone and Google phones.  So I waited.  And I carefully considered switching services.  Rumors of a new PalmOS floated around.  And then nothing.  And still nothing.The aging PalmOS needed an upgrade.  And yet my PDA’s still worked fine.

Then, the Palm Pre arrived.  I was skeptical.  Its linux based.Its based on the open source linux, which makes it quite easy to develop for.  Its all web based (I am a web developer).  Wow, the perfect phone!

I couldnt be separated from my Pre.  It syncs my Google Mail with my work’s exchange server into one seamless mail experience.  It syncs my calendars too.  Fantastic!  It multitasks.I can play back music stored in the 8gb built in memory, or stream music online.  It does everything I wanted a phone/PDA to do.

Of course, nothing is perfect.  It currently does lack Adobe Flash support although that is supposed to be coming (they have Flash on linux in general so I dont see it being much harder to get it to work on the Pre), and it doesn’t have a generic Jabber client (google talk is based on Jabber so I am not sure why they don’t have this yet).  The App Store is a little sparse so far, but there is a homebrew apps site with unofficial apps you can install.  And the biggest little complaint I have is the battery life, which for me averages about 12 hours.The battery life is a little weak, but you can get an extended battery.

It also uses any wi-fi connection you might have, seamlessly using it for faster internet access, which also saves on battery time.

Overall, I couldnt be separated from my Pre.  Its hacker friendly, its slick as hell, and its on Sprint.

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