Ask Matt Crowley a question this week (1/21 - 1/28), it could be about large prime numbers or who he’s calling Spaz this week. To learn more about Matt visit http://twurl.nl/f28idq

I went to the ATT store 3 times trying to convince myself to get an Iphone. I went to the Verizon store 2 times trying to convince myself to get a Blackberry Storm. Couldn't put the trigger and now I am rewarded with the opportunity to buy an almost perfect phone, the Palm Pre.

Will phone insurance be available through Sprint and others for the Palm Pre? (If Apple had allowed phone insurance, I probably would have gone with the Iphone.)

What was the reasoning behind no expandable storage? It seems that really limits music and videos, two very important issues for consumers, particularly the younger generation.

A final concern is Flash. Will Palm Pre support Flash?

As I see it, Palm has hit a "triple" with the Pre. Address the matters above and it's a grand slam.

Thanks.

To add to Chris' question about expandable storage, I would really like to know what Palm is thinking about backup of user data and being able to restore it on the go.

With my Treo 700p, I have run into quite a few instances where something got corrupted, and being able to restore from the backup on my SD card was a life saver. Another instance that it came in handy is when I had to have my 700p replaced through insurance. I was up and running with everything the second I left the Sprint store, because I was able to restore from a backup on my SD card.

To Chirs:

Why was the decision made to not include a MicroSD slot on such a consumer oriented smart phone?

Can the Palm Pre include a visual notification system. What I mean by this is similar to the Nokia E71 where the light around the nav wheel will glow if you've missed a call, appointment, or a new text message has arrived. This provides a very visual way of detecting something from across the room without having to turn the screen on. After some thinking, it seems like this could be easily done using the white LEDs underneath the gesture area... Just have them glow and pulse in some ways.

Finally, What's on your MP3 player these days? What's your wallpaper on your desktop (home and work)? What's in your Xbox360/PS3 lately? What was the last movie you saw in the theater and what did you think about it?

Thanks for the great work,
Thomas

Great news about the 3.5mm headset jack.

Now you've got a few months to squeeze in a MicroSD slot, or at least design some method for the Pre to access external memory, say via the mini USB port?

Harold

Palm is great. Most hourly stuff (call management, texting, PIM, etc.) is a breeze even with one hand.

The Pre/WebOS demo was nice; closes the gap on technology. But I'm afraid the legendary Palm experience might get lost in translation? Is the gesture area fully one hand operable? Is selecting text gonna be as easy as it's with TreoSelecText and the 5-way?

Also wanting some good news about external storage.

I want to chime in on the removable storage idea also. The actual size of storage in GB is not the key issue for me, but, rather, as Alex above mentioned, I'm interested in the ability to backup and restore at the drop of a hat. I've had every Sprint PalmOS phone (excepting the Centro) since the 600 (so: 600, 650, 700p, 755 currently), and, since about 2004, I've gone into a Sprint store and left with a replacement phone about 10 times.

Each time, the key to my happiness and peace of mind was being able to backup my phone to my card essentially as I walked into the store, take out the card, receive the new phone, pop in the card, and restore on my way out.

Up and running, with all my PIM data, media, and up-to-the-second-of-my-backup call history and text messages.

I'm really looking for that kind of security with the Pre.

Size isn't a big issue with me, 'cause I'm using a 160GB iPod Classic for my music and videos. That's a capacity expectation that I feel is simply not anywhere near possible in a phone (yet), Palm or otherwise.

Please chat about the battery size...I've heard concerns about that

When's the release date, and are any real changes going to be implemented from the demo? I'd rather know right now that I need to accept that it will only have 8GB of storage instead of waiting 2 months and becoming disappointed that there were no significant changes.

No video?

Will there be any changes to Sprint's normal plans, or will they apply to the Pre?

Then again, having just lost several programs that were only stored on a SD Memory Card that popped out when I dropped the phone and I didn't notice it until too late, I'm not averse to simply having internal storage (I was leaning towards getting an iPhone until I realized I couldn't live without the physical keyboard, so I got used to the idea of limited memory).

Great questions. Thanks for getting involved and sharing your excitement about Palm Pre.

Okay, let me get into some of these questions and comments. Some I can answer, some I can’t. Some you won’t like, some you will. I will do my best here. But whatever the case I do appreciate your input and it does matter.

microSD:
‘Design’ was the highest goal on the Palm Pre project. The phone has to look and function great in the hand and up against the face on a call. The decision to include or not include expandable storage is an easy one when design is the highest priority. The physical size of the device would have been compromised if we added another physical component to Pre. Just a millimeter can seriously impact the curvature of the design in a way that minimizes the design intent. We wanted to maintain a slick curved slider design without building out too much thickness. When you look at the two parts of the product and see how thin they really are, you may be amazed that we were able to fit everything in. And yes, all the stuff does fit.

The other advantage of embedded memory is that you have a large amount of storage out of the box for media and files. Including 8GBs of storage on the phone is a large amount of storage for many people, but not all. Yes, not all. We know that not everyone will be happy, but that is one of many decisions that needs to be made and the product goals help define these decisions.

The last point I will make on storage is to think about how you currently use remote storage. For example, I have my Google Calendar for family events and I have my corporate EAS Outlook calendar. These calendars are pulled down from remote storage (Internet) to my device. If my device is new, all I need to do is log into my account(s) and the content gets pulled to my device over the air. This is true for Contacts as well. We call this "Synergy". This is something that is just straight out cool. Contacts are now pulled down from the web to my device. So if you update your Facebook contact information, and I am friends with you, your contact information will be updated on my Palm Pre address book. Think about that for a second. I no longer need to cable my device to my computer to make an update to my contacts. I get the updates over the air. Now my contact information is more up to date and if my device is replaced or new, I just enter my account information and I get it over the air to the device. This puts a whole new thought on external storage. The Internet is a BIG microSD card.

One Handed Operation:
We made sure that we designed the device and the user interface around one handed operation. A good example of this is the Back gesture. The Back gesture is a flick from right to left on either side of the Center button. You can be right handed or left handed (like me) to navigate back.


Thomas Lane writes:
"What is on my MP3 player?"
Answer: Podcasts. I love console video games, so I listen to the Giant Bombcast <http://www.giantbomb.com> podcast every week to/from work. I feel like I know those guys even though I don’t. I also listen to other Podcasts from GameSpot, 1UP Yours, TWiT, Engadget, and gdgt.

"What’s your wallpaper on your desktop (home and work)?"
Answer: I use Phanfare to store all my digital photos. There is a cool desktop application that pulls my pictures from Phanfare to my background wallpaper. So my background wallpaper is constantly changing with family and beach pictures from the BVIs. I use "John’s Background Switcher" application found at http://www.johnsadventures.com/software/backgroundswitcher/

"What is in my Xbox 360/PS3 lately?"
Answer: Well my Xbox 360 just ‘red ringed’ for the second time this last week. So nothing much is in that bad boy. It is off to Microsoft via UPS today. My PS3 has Motor Storm Pacific Rift and Little Big Planet. I like racing, so the racing games are fun for me. Little Big Planet is fun, but it can be frustrating at times. The physics are not quite right. My Wii, well it is collecting dust since we lost our Wii Sports disc.

"What was the last movie I saw in the theaters...and thoughts?"
Answer: I saw Bolt with the family. It was okay. Not bad, not great.

We will provide more information to some of these other questions as we get closer to launching Palm Pre.

Matt:

What about Handhelds? There are no longer links to Handhelds on the Palm website, is Palm not going to produce Handhelds any longer? I use a Centro as my primary mobile phone, but actually utilize a three year old T5 for work because it is very robust. With the WiFi card I prefer it over the TX, which sits in a drawer unused. With my T5 showing some signs of wear and tear, I really hope Handhelds will still be a viable product for Palm and there is a new Robust Tungsten type product launch on the horizon.

Regarding the Pre, I am really excited about it. Is there a seamless HotSync from a current Palm OS device so the integirty of Data remains intact? Or is the user file from the current Palm Desktop able to be moved over to the new Pre Desktop software? With no MicroSD slot, what is the provision for a system backup? Maybe I am overlooking it, but I do not see any reference to a camera in the specs... Is there a camera?

Thanks,

Jimmy

Technical Question:
Can previous Palm OS software work on Pre?

What's the interface on PC? Can the interface be easily be synchronized and user friendly with PC, not only on Schedule, Phonebook but for music and video as well.

Marketing question:
is there any exact schedule for the release?
when will Pre be available in Asia and Hong Kong?

Pre really caught my attention as I longed for years for the new OS and phone. I hope we won't wait too long for it before our passion goes out...

My main question is concerning contacts. i can understand "cloud" computing and syncing online with Google calendars or what have you, and also contacts, but what about all the contacts I have in my 755 Treo that are extremely different from my contacts online? am I going to have to export them to my gmail online and then clean-up the mess of duplicates? also, I had read or heard that additonal storage can be had by attaching some type of USB storage device to the Pre.
I am ready and love the concept, style, all of Pre's great technology. I'm a Palm lover since the inception of the 600 and also have a TX. We've been waiting and some have crossed over to the iPhone, but maybe there's another audience/market out there for something terrific like the Pre. I am ready! did I say that already?

Hey, Matt. As a crotchety old Palm user, who waited for the introduction of a WiFi version, who has struggled through the Treo 800w experience (incompatible headsets, unavailable software, required patches, required registry hacks, ignorant sales force, etc.), I just wanted to put some feed back about future development. Hopefully including the Pre!

Simple and elegant hands free phone operation is should be a primary goal for all phones.

Thanks.

You didn't think Bolt was Great, How dare you :(

other than that, I am totally ecstatic that Palm is finally releasing a new phone and OS to boot! I've been waiting for years, ever since the Foleo was canned I was really disappointed but Knew and kept telling everyone "Palm with prevail and come out with something that will really Kick iPhone's and BlackBerry's Butt!!" Nobody believed me, But this can provide a real WIN for Palm's corner!

My only real question is: How about Palm Desktop? Especially for Mac OS X?? Will it be re-written? I'm very disappointed how Palm Handles Duplicates on Windows and I'm very saddened that there isn't any tool within Palm Desktop for Mac to handle duplicate Contact entries and such...

I understand about the Synergy and how all your contacts will be updated retroactively via the web which is very spiffy, but I really would appreciate a new well written Version of Palm Desktop o.o;

I'm okay with there not being external storage support, but I'm really bummed that there doesn't seem to be any IRDA any more, I loved beaming my contacts to my Aunt and vice versa, I really miss being able to use Nuvii Remove To control my TV's and entertainment center o.o That's why I'm a bit hesitant to replace my unlocked 680 but I really need a new phone...

Hi Matt, i am krish from New Delhi, India. i want to know when palm will launch pre in India and who is the contact person in India

Hi -- Palm hasn't yet announced any specifics around carriers for Pre outside the US. Stay tuned!

I was wondering if I would be required by Sprint to get a Simply Everything Plan to use the Palm Pre. I was also wondering in the details of pricing .


Thanks

Matt -

Your arguments against removable media and external media are, frankly, compelling.

The prevailing counterargument is from long-time Palm users who have had to deal with an occasional hard reset. The easiest recovery from hard resets has always been restoring from SD card. I doubt that you can guaranty nobody will ever need to hard reset a Pre, so is it your expectation that the cloud will be how one 'restores' an 8 gigabyte unit?

Regardless of broadband capabilities, that could take a very long time.

What are your thoughts in that regard?

Harold

The other issue with only 8GB is media storage. Sure its great to upload all of your music and videos to the internet and stream it, but uploading all of that takes forever, and besides that most wireless carriers limit you to 5GB of transfer a month. Don't get me wrong, I'll still be getting the Pre, but a removable card for more storage, or even 16 but especially 32GB would be great.

Anyway, one question that I would love an answer about if you're allowed to answer it, has to do with Facebook integration. I've got around a hundred friends, but quite frankly I don't want all of them in my contact list. Don't get me wrong, for the people who are already in my address book, Synergy will be great, but for everyone else I don't want to talk to them or I'd have probably added them already. Is there a way to limit whose information gets downloaded?

How about releasing a SDK that allows the use of faster programming languages and direct access to the display, for applications that would need that sort of power and optimization? Is Palm considering it? (for a later release probably, just like Apple did)

Also, about codec support: Any chance that we will see support for Ogg Vorbis? And perhaps FLAC? These are open source formats, and decoders should exist for mobile platforms etc. Sure not everyone uses these formats, but some do, and if it's not too much work...

I'm curious what audio chip the Pre uses, how serious are you about audio? Is there any shielding done to improve audio quality etc.? A 3.5mm plug is of not much use if the thing doesn't sound right.

Ps: Why Bose headphones? You know the saying, no highs, no lows, it must be Bose. There are other excellent choices that block out noise.

You'll have to wait for Sprint to announce detils on service plans for Pre. Stay tuned!

I'll let Matt handle the techie stuff, but consider this another Palm fan for Bose headsets. Agree they're not the best audio fidelity in their price range, but they're so much more comfortable than other headsets and earbuds I've used and the noise-cancellation is also better than others I've tried.

Jon Z

All I know is I'm not giving up my Etymotics earphones for anything... except maybe their HF2 stereo headset if the Pre works well with a standard iPhone type 3.5mm/4-conductor stereo headset. :P

Since most apps run on HTML, Java and CSS couldnt a malicious code inject itself within the WebOS? How does Palm plan on testing Apps in the marketplace so this does not happen?

I too think the internet could be a big ol' SD card (macroSD?) but it would be a damn slow one.

I'm on my 3rd Centro in a bit over a year. W/o immediate backups from my microSD, I and my business would have been down a long time. Ditto when recovering from various system instability or corruption issues. And of course, 8gb is small for some of us. I micro SD slot is darn small. Would gladly have added a mm to the phone. All cute and smooth is nice, but many of us need a larger device with a backup plan. The otherwise awesome Pre is a giant step backwards from my Centros and Treos.

P.s. the move to a 3.5 jack was GREAT! Just need the microSD back!

I'm wondering if the WebOS supports Asia region languages out of the box like Mac OSX, or must rely on 3rd party add-ons like the Palm Pro for web browsing, SMS, contact information or what now. I'm sure there are people out there who are bilingual and would like to view web sites or their email from people who do not necessarily type in English.

Another concern I have is over the air sync in case I need to do a hard reset in a foreign country. Sure I can log on to the web and sync everything again, but then my roaming cost will be too much to handle. Any plans for either a backup solution for the PC or Mac where backup files are saved on the computer? If not, will the Pre be offered with a version that has a bigger HD? Like 16G?

Great job on the Pre! I can't wait for the Pre to become available in Asia!!

Matt:
I've been a palm owner since USR days and am excited to see the new webOS as it was obvious POS has run its course, but the explanation about lack of expandable storage sounds like a bunch of BS. Most of your rationale is behind pulling from the cloud. Quite a few flaws. One, you (Matt) use a cloud based PIM and a corporate server for your info. Based off of chatter on forums, you're the exception rather than the rule and that's from people more tech savvy than your average consumer you're trying to appeal to. But syncing PIM info from the cloud has almost zero (backups being a small small percentage) to do with wanting expandable storage outside. That 8gb of storage is for music, video and files of all sorts. Do you plan on providing 8gb of online storage for all Pre users in case we need to restore the Pre when not near our computers? You've limited the ability to change, transfer and use all the non-PIM info on the Pre. The Pre is supposed to be more useful and more intuitive than the Centro. It is supposed to have desktop like functionality which I believe was Palm's words, yet I don't know one desktop that doesn't have expandable storage of some degree. The Pre will be more useful as a converged device than previous Palm phones which means I will use it more and my laptop less. Yet I have less storage capability/flexibility than my Centro.

You're force feeding us cloud syncing and non expandable memory when it's not really what we want. Sure, it's a great option to have and one many will embrace, and in time many local syncers will surely migrate to, but your solution is not necessarily ideal. Online PIMS are not as simple and functional as Palm Desktop for basic PIM needs. They're also not accessible without internet access. Outlook is just too much, and though it is a true standalone solution it requires the additional expense of Exchange to sync. Of course we can opt to spend even more money for a 3rd party local sync solution, but that just doesn't make sense since it's something we currently do for free.

As far as squeezing out every inch of usable space to come up with this thin design, I guess you won't have any room left for a SIM card then. I mean, there isn't room for a microSD card and a SIM card is about the same size so that must mean non-US GSM owners won't be getting a phone because the Pre is the perfect design of form and crammed in goodies.

Do I love the Pre, 80% yes, but after seeing it and reading about it, I think you hired too many people from Apple. I'd rather see the real reason for the lack of expandable storage(the upsell on upgraded models and limiting the consumer so they want more) that a thinly disguised lie.

As others have mentioned, Synergy is great, but what if we don't want it? What if we want separation of church and state. The people in my contacts are the ones I want there. I don't want contacts from other sources merged in. I surely hope the user has control of how information gets integrated. It seems like you're doing a lot of thinking for us, and I think your definition of intuitive might not jive with that of others.

And yes I'll buy the Pre. I'll kick and scream a little, but I also won't sell my Centro. Can always revert back to it, sell the Pre and just wait for something else to come along. Heck, I'd still like to see the porting of Android as it becomes more polished, but I don't see that being reality in the near future.

Those are some nice earphones. The Palm Pre 3.5mm pin out is standard, so they should work great.