Help magic vs. pre

[samuelmaskell]

Hey, guys
I was almost completely sold on the pre until two things happened.

1.They announced that the pre will be released in "the second half of 2009" in Canada, where I am. Maybe that will be soon but probably not..
2. Rogers announced they're getting the dream and the magic next month

I've always been a HUGE fan of google so this is very hard to pass up. I even went out of my way to go to google HQ while on holidays.. they gave me a free smoothie and it was probably the best one I've ever had in my life.
but anyway, the pre does still seem to have some advantages(aside from the fact that it's coming to bell rather than rogers but you guys probably don't know the difference).

Obviously the two main things are multitasking with "cards" and what they call "synergy". Now, I've heard that you can do some multitasking with android. I suppose no one can compare it to the pre since it's not out yet but how easy is it to use and how well does it work? Does the phone slow down noticably when you have multiple applications open?
As for the whole "synergy" thing well.. I'm not sure how that will compare to android. any thoughts?

I'd like to hear any reason you think that the magic will be better than the pre. Why do you support android?

thanks for you help,
Sam



btw, the question it asked me when I signed up was "what does the U stand for in USA"
not everyone is from the US, you know? obviously anyone should know that but still..

 

[RozzaC]

To be honest......

I'm interested in how good the Pre is myself...purely because of the hype it's creating (that's NOT to say I'm thinking of leaving Android or my G1 behind..)

The problem is...the phone doesn't particularly have much information available on it yet (at least not from what I've seen) ....

And I haven't seen any hands-on videos of the phone either....so it's going to be pretty difficult to answer your questions..

 

[samuelmaskell]

okay well..
it doesn't necessarily have to be a direct comparison with the pre
what's great about android?

 

[durhamite]

I am also trying to decided between the Pre and and Android phone (right now most likely the I7500). There are some Pre hands on videos all over youtube and if you go to palm.com website there are a few commercial like videos that always sway me to the pre when I watch them. this is a very hard choice for me also. My advice would be wait until the next android phone is released in Canada and once the Pre is released in the states, check forums and see what other people are saying about it and make a decision for there.

 

[sergey]

Well the Palm Pre is set to be released June 6th (2 days earlier than Apple's WWDC) for $199 after rebate with a 2yr contract- there are no special "Palm Pre" plans. The simple everything plan is pretty good- $70 gets you 450 minutes and

• Unlimited data, GPS Navigation, Music Premier, TV Premier, NFL Mobile Live, NASCAR Sprint Cup MobileSM
• Unlimited messaging: Text, pictures and video
• Talk: Unlimited mobile to mobile, night calling and weekends starting at 7 p.m., nationwide long distance and no roaming charges

I just wonder how good Sprint's network will be? And if it becomes a big hit, will the network be able to handle the increased traffic. And what bugs and problems are in store for the Palm Pre rollout?


Anyways, the biggest advantage of Android is freedom, things are improving- from handsets to software, it's been out for awhile now, and background processes, IMO.

The problem with Android now is that it's not fully developed yet. There is only one phone, one carrier, app store has not matured. Other phones are coming though. Battery life is a big concern for me, it's a big concern for me for all smartphones.

 

[justjimjpc]

Well the Palm Pre is set to be released June 6th (2 days earlier than Apple's WWDC) for $199 after rebate with a 2yr contract- there are no special "Palm Pre" plans. The simple everything plan is pretty good- $70 gets you 450 minutes and

........

The problem with Android now is that it's not fully developed yet. There is only one phone, one carrier, app store has not matured. Other phones are coming though. Battery life is a big concern for me, it's a big concern for me for all smartphones.

Not Fully-Developed or Not Mature = Good Thing IMO ... Means there is room for growth and improvement not finished and stagnant....

 

[sergey]

Not Fully-Developed or Not Mature = Good Thing IMO ... Means there is room for growth and improvement not finished and stagnant....

Yes that's true, but some people may not want to spend their money on something that's not quite finished yet.

 

[RozzaC]

Yes that's true, but some people may not want to spend their money on something that's not quite finished yet.

That's just because humans are selfish creatures and want everything handed to them on a silver platter...

 

[slarti]

I'm a long time Palm OS user, I've exclusively used Treos for the last 7 years and have a spent a lot of time and energy supporting the Palm community (especially mytreo.net). I was tired of the Palm OS devices getting long in the tooth, lacking many of the modern abilities of other smartphones (3G/wifi/GPS, etc) so as soon as I heard the details about the Pre I was sold on it. However, all this smoke and mirrors routine that has played out with them refusing to name a release date has worn out my patience. If I knew the Pre GSm was coming in June/July I'd probably would have waited. But they refuse to say anything other than it'll be soon.

So I'm now the owner of a shiny new HTC Magic and can see a lot of similarities between and the Pre. Both WebOS and Android are young platforms and lack the depth of software needed to be the perfect solution. With WebOS you have the advantage that you can drop back to use Palm OS apps (under emulation) filling this gap, with Android you've either got to make the app yourself or hope someone else does.

One major issue i have with the Pre is the lack of a memory card slot. On my previous smartphones I have always been swapping memory cards and routinely carry more than 10Gb of data.

In my opinion I don't think the Pre is the WebOS device to buy, I would also avoid the cut down version (Palm EOS) and wait for the more mature versions to appear late 2009 or early 2010. These second and third generation WebOS devices will be the killer ones, assuming Palm Inc last that long.

 

[LansdowneMike]

I'm a long time Palm OS user, I've exclusively used Treos for the last 7 years and have a spent a lot of time and energy supporting the Palm community (especially mytreo.net). . . . So I'm now the owner of a shiny new HTC Magic . . .

So what did you end up doing about converting your old Palm OS data? Calendar? Contacts? Memos? Please tell me there is some easy way to do it as I'm thinking very seriously about going from a heavily used Treo 680 with much data to be converted.

 

[sharky34]

So what did you end up doing about converting your old Palm OS data? Calendar? Contacts? Memos? Please tell me there is some easy way to do it as I'm thinking very seriously about going from a heavily used Treo 680 with much data to be converted.

Hi there,

I'd too like to share your experience since I am a Palm TX user.

In fact, I would like to choose between Pr

 

[slarti]

So what did you end up doing about converting your old Palm OS data? Calendar? Contacts? Memos? Please tell me there is some easy way to do it as I'm thinking very seriously about going from a heavily used Treo 680 with much data to be converted.

I sync my Treo data with outlook, and used the google calender outlook sync plugin (download from google) to get all my calenders onto google calender which any Android device will sync with. For my contacts I use Soocial to keep my gmail and outlook contacts sync'd, again any android device will sync with gmail.

Memos I didn't really use but you could export them as txt files and find an android app that's compatible.

Coming from Palm OS I found the Android marketplace a massive improvement over the Palm approach of installing software from random websites.

The problem with Android now is that it's not fully developed yet. There is only one phone, one carrier, app store has not matured. Other phones are coming though. Battery life is a big concern for me, it's a big concern for me for all smartphones.

Don't agree with this at all; only one phone? Would that be the HTC G1 or the HTC Magic both are readily available in multiple countries. And as we're comparing the Magic to the Pre, how can the immaturity of Android mean the Pre is better? when WebOS is even more immature with a far less mature app store compared to Android marketplace?