Tag: General Hardware

My Developer Palm Pre 2 Arrived

Yesterday was just a day of receiving crap. Not only did my PK-01 V arrive but so did my Palm Pre 2:

If you read this site yesterday you know that I received this phone for free from HP/Palm. They’re looking for developers for their WebOS platform and have 100 99 phones available to send out to developers gratis. I haven’t had the phone in my possession long enough to give a detail review but I will give my initial thoughts.

First the phone has almost the exact same form factor as the original Pre. The back covers are the same and the batteries are the same meaning upgrading from an original Pre to a Pre 2 will allow you to keep using your already purchased accessories. Sadly this means the screens are also the same and honestly 320×480 isn’t a lot of space to work with when you’ve been using an Evo 4G and an iPhone 4.

The Pre 2 feels a bit more solidly built that the first Pre. Much of this is due to the fact that HP/Palm replaced the plastic curved screen with a flat glass one. I can’t tell you how much of a difference this makes in how a device feels (also the glass screen doesn’t attract finger prints as much as the plastic one). The entire outer casing is also covered in a soft rubberized finish meaning the phone doesn’t feel like it’s going to slip out of your hand.

The slider mechanism still has some noticeable play in it. If HP/Palm wants to continue making slider phones I’d appreciate a solid slide mechanism with little to no play in it. It’s not a deal breaker but it does make the device feel more like a quality product.

The used Pre I obtained a few months back was an original Sprint model meaning it only has 8GB of internal memory. The Pre 2 has double that giving you 16GB to work with. Honestly I wish HP/Palm would offer a model with 32GB so they could match my iPhone. I never thought I’d use so much memory but honestly I’m filling my iPhone up fast. The files I like to carry around with me on my phone is already beyond the 16GB barrier. It seems HP/Palm will copy Apple on refusing to have a microSD card slot but won’t copy them on the amount of memory internally.

One thing HP/Palm hasn’t copied Apple on is the battery compartment. Yes the Pre 2 has a battery compartment meaning you can actually swap the battery. This is such a novel concept that I wish every phone manufacturer would do it. Then again you almost have to have this ability on the Pre 2 as the battery life isn’t very good (I’d rate its battery life akin to my Evo’s which will get you through a day unless you use it a whole lot).

Having a hardware keyboard just kicks all sorts of ass. I was using a Treo so long that the keyboard layout apparently became ingrained as muscle memory since I was able to pick up the Pre 2 and type just as fast on it as I did my Treo. I would like an on-screen keyboard available for times when I’m holding the phone in landscape position but HP/Palm doesn’t seem to keen on doing that right now.

The Pre 2 also has your standard stock of built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 3G (only on AT&T though as T-Mobile uses a different chunk of the wireless spectrum for their 3G). I have to say I really like the fact that I can take my SIM card out of my iPhone, insert it into an adapter that allows it to fit into a normal sized SIM slot, and insert it into the Pre 2 and start using it. I love your coverage CDMA but I love having a swappable SIM card even more at the moment.

WebOS 2.0 is pretty awesome. I’ll be honest, I still think WebOS is the best mobile operating system out there at this point. Not only is developing for it dead simple but it has real multi-tasking with an interface that makes working with multiple applications easy. One thing I don’t like about WebOS 2.0 is the fact HP/Palm removed the Palm OS 5 ROM from WebOS meaning the Palm OS emulator, Classic, no longer works. This wouldn’t be that big of a deal if WebOS had most software available for it (which is why HP/Palm is looking for developers).

The card interface is innovative enough that RIM in stealing it for their PlayBook table device. With a simple swipe up of your finger you will be shown every currently running application. Speaking of swiping the Pre uses gestures for tons of things and this makes using the operating system very easy. If you want to move back in an application swipe your finger from right to left in the gesture area. If you want to copy something it’s as simple as highlighting it, holding a finger in on the gesture area, and tapping the ‘c’ key. Need to bring up the launcher? That’s as simple as moving your finger from the gesture area up to the screen. Doing almost everything in WebOS is quick and easy which is why I really like it.

WebOS 2.0 also added VPN support… which I’m still unable to get working. Maybe I’m misconfiguration something or maybe VPN is broken as it is in Android. I’ll let you know when I come to a conclusion. Apparently WebOS 2.0 also includes Wi-Fi hotspot functionality but I’ve not found it leading me to believe it’ll be coming in a future update.

So my initial impressions are good. I can’t wait to start really delving into WebOS development in the coming days. Although I don’t see the Pre 2 replacing my iPhone as a day to day phone as this point.

PK-01 V Red Dot Optic for AK Pattern Rifles

Yesterday my new red dot optic for my AK-47 arrived. The optic I ordered was a PK-01 V Russian red dot optic that mounts on the AK’s side rail. Here it is mounted on my rifle:

The optic comes fully assembled and in that camouflage carrying case you see above the rifle. I chose this optic because it has several features I found desirable. First and foremost is mounted on the side rail of my AK. I wasn’t about to pay money to get hand guards with integrated rails just so I could mount my optic on top of that large moving gas piston. The second feature this thing has that I really like is the power source, two AAA batteries. I hate having to stock uncommon coin style batteries so I look for things that use regular old AA and AAA batteries. The third major reason I went with this optic is because it sits low enough that it co-witnesses with the iron sights as seen here:

I apologize for the crappy picture but trying to photograph a co-witnessing optic with your camera phone is a pain in the ass. I’m not one to trust electronic gear fully as batteries can die and other stupid shenanigans that make the optic worthless. That’s why I like an optic that co-witnesses with the iron sights, if the optic goes down it’s not a huge deal as I can just switch to the iron sights.

Some things I liked about this optic immediately were the adjustment knobs. Windage and elevation can be adjusted while you’re wearing gloves, no special tools required. Likewise the optic is built like a fine Russian tank, it strong like bull. Supposedly the entire optic is water proof but I’m not willing to submerge this thing in water just to test that claim. The battery compartment has a rub gasket on it which leads me to believe water shouldn’t be getting into the optic. Installation and removal is dead simple as are most side-mounting AK optics.

Sadly I haven’t had a chance to take it to the range yet so I can’t give a full report on how well it works. I can tell you that the red dot can be turned up to a very bright setting through. My eyes have a terrible red affinity meaning there are many red optics I can’t see. Giving my anything besides the brightest of red laser pointers if futile because I won’t be able to see the dot. The PK-01 V has eight brightness settings and I can see the dot anywhere from setting four on up.

I’ll have more to report when I get this suck to the range, sight it in, and either put rounds on paper or totally miss (in which case I’ll consider the optic shitty as I can’t possibly blame bad shooting on myself).

HP/Palm’s Unveiling

Yesterday HP/Palm unveiled their new WebOS product line. Needless to say after seeing it I’m feeling a bit underwhelmed but am certainly impressed with some of the announcements. First HP/Palm announced two new phones, the Veer and Pre 3.

The Veer is the new entry level WebOS device. It’s smaller than the Pre 2 which I find a bit perplexing as the Pre 2 is already a pretty small phone. Specs-wise the Veer is certainly not going to blow you away with a 2.6″ 320×400 screen, 800 MHz processor, 8GB of internal memory, and a goofy proprietary connector.

The second phone unveiled was the far more interesting Pre 3. This appears to be the new high end flagship phone for HP/Palm putting the Pre 2 between itself and the Veer. The main complain I have about the Pre 2 is the screen, it’s 3.1″ with 320×480 pixels of real estate. The Pre 3 on the other hand has a 3.58″ screen with 480×800 pixels of real estate (the same as the Evo 4G).

Likewise the Pre 3 has a 1.4 GHz processor which is pretty powerful for a phone. Since WebOS is known for its multi-tasking capabilities it makes sense to dump a decent amount of RAM in it, say, 512 MB. Sadly the internal storage is either 8GB or 16GB depending on the model you get. This is a rather pitiful maximum as the iPhone can go up to 32GB and any modern phone with a microSD card can be topped off with a 32GB card. HP/Palm really should have released a model of the Pre 3 with 32GB on board. I’m actually looking forward to this phone.

The third thing HP/Palm announced was the iPad TouchPad. This device looks rather familiar with it’s 9.7″ 1024×768 screen in a tablet format. With that said the TouchPad has some unique features such as 512MB of RAM on board and a far more pathetic choice in internal memory, either 16GB or 32GB (the iPad can have up to 64GB). The processor clocks in at 1.2GHz which is very respectable.

HP/Palm did some nice things to integrate the phone and tablet. The coolest feature is probably the fact if you physically tap a WebOS phone to the tablet whatever web page you’re viewing on the tablet will automatically open on your phone. Taken a bit further this feature would be absolutely awesome. I often look up an address on my iPad and then have to retype the address into my phone when I leave. I’d love to be able to tap my phone to my tablet and have them communicate the address themselves. Likewise WebOS lends itself much better to multi-tasking than anything Apple has attempted in iOS.

HP/Palm also announced something very interesting, WebOS will be coming to PCs later this year. The idea of having a universal operating system between my phone, tablet, and computer does have a nice ring to it.

All in all I think HP/Palm had a good show and unveiled some interesting, if not overwhelming, products. I’m looking forward to seeing if they can carve out a piece of the market for themselves or if they’ll end up being a complete niche which almost nobody uses.

HP/Palms Unveiling Event

So today is the big day, HP/Palm will finally be unveiling new devices. It’s likely going to be a combo of one or two smartphones and a tablet. Either way Pre|Central will have a live blog going which will be available here.

Honestly I’m rather excited and hopeful that HP/Palm unveil something impressive that could rekindle people’s interest in WebOS.

Since the Cat is Out of the Bag

My interest in Palm’s WebOS should be well known to anybody who’s read this site for a while. Although I’ve had a lot of interest and did eventually get a used Palm Pre I never ended us using a new Palm device as my primary phone. The main reason was the fact their hardware was woefully behind once I finally decided to upgrade form my Palm Treo 755p.

Palm (well technically now HP but I like calling them Palm better) has been running a discount program form developers. If you’re a developer Palm will give you $200.00 off of an unlock Pre 2. It’s a pretty sweet deal when you consider it’s an unlocked phone that gives you access to WebOS 2.0. A couple of weeks ago I inquired with Palm about this program and they sent me back a couple of e-mails asking about the applications I was planning on writing. This was basically a quick screening process to ensure I wasn’t just trying to get a cheap unlocked phone, but instead actually planning on developing for the platform.

After a couple of e-mails they offered me a free Pre 2 for development purposes. I figured that was a pretty good deal and took them up on the offer. I’m not exactly sure when the phone will arrive but I was told it could arrive as early as this week (although being Palm is having their big event tomorrow I was told that was no guarantee).

Either way I didn’t say anything as I was unsure if this was something Palm was doing but wanted to keep if to developers expressing interest in the discount program. Well it seems that’s not the case and Palm has 100 99 Pre 2 phones they’re planning on giving out to developers free of charge. So if you’re a developer and have interest in WebOS you could get a hold of Palm via the Pre 2 discount program. It’s likely you can nab yourself free reference hardware (that will function properly on either T-Mobile or AT&T but will only have 3G speeds on AT&T).

After a Few Months on the iPhone

I’ve been using my iPhone as my primary cell phone for a few months now and figured now is a good time to give my overall thoughts so far.

Overall I like it, it’s been a dependable phone and I haven’t had to reboot it once so far (any system that lasts more than a week with me without crashing and burning is pretty damned solid). This is the first computer (face it modern smart phones are just small computers) I’ve owned that has ever made it past week one without some kind of major operating system crash. Much of this could be contributed to Apple’s insanely tight controls over what you can and can’t down on your phone but it also requires a pretty solid operating system as a good foundation.

Using the phone has been pretty bloody simple. When it comes to interface design Apple is usually pretty solid. There really isn’t anything included with the phone that requires actions to operate that I would consider not being obvious. With that said having a nice dedicated back button ala Android phones would be a nice addition. I do think Apple is trying to cram a bit too much functionality into the single home button. Currently the home button will take you back to your list of applications, bring up the task manager when double-clicked, and bring up the voice controls when held down. I know Steve Jobs hates buttons but really some other system should be thought up besides using the single front facing button for everything.

I still think the multitasking system isn’t well thought out. Only being able to run certain services in the background really limits the types of things you can do. My main gripe comes from the fact an IRC server can’t run in the background for more than 10 minutes (an application can request up to 10 minutes to finish up doing work when you tap the home button) because there is no service for keeping a network connection open in the background. For the most part though you really don’t notice the lack of multitasking as most phone apps really have no need for it.

The number of available apps is rather insane. This would be a great thing if Apple actually had a decent method of searching for new applications. When you search for anything popular you may be that app you’re looking for but it’s equally likely you’ll get a list of unrelated apps that used a name purposely selected to show up when people search for more popular titles. This is also a problem on the Android Market and frankly both Apple and Google need to find a way to fix this shit.

Likewise using iTunes for everything is fucking retarded. Why am I using a media player to sync my phone and install applications on it? The name iTunes implies media functionality, it doesn’t imply syncing with a phone. There is an application in OS X called iSync that implies syncing devices with your computer, why not just use that? Hell iTunes is used to sync books, music, podcasts, apps, notes, calendars, e-mail accounts, and practically everything else on the planet so why doesn’t Apple just change the name to iDoFuckingEverything? This isn’t that big of a deal but it does go against Apple’s usual attempt to at least try to be somewhat logical with what applications do based on what they name it.

The antenna on the iPhone is retarded. Yes “holding it wrong” in your left-hand will cause your signal to drop. Apple did a short campaign showing this was a problem on every phone but they kind of missed the point. My Evo 4G will lose signal strength as well, when I grip the top of the phone. Who the Hell holds their phone by the stop of the device when talking on it? Nobody. Who holds their phone in their left hand when talking on it? A lot of people. And that there is the main difference.

Even though the antenna design is stupid at least the phone feels solid. Although making the back out of glass was a poor choice in my book (come on glass isn’t durable when it comes to dropping and people drop cell phones all the time) it does make the phone feel like it could take a bullet. Nothing on the phone flexes, creaks, or otherwise gives the impression of poor construction. I do appreciate the amount of time Apple’s industrial designers must have taken to ensure the phone doesn’t feel like a cheap piece of crap.

The number of accessories available for the iPhone is pretty damned impressive. Then again when you’re talking about a phone that everybody and their grandma is practically using I guess this shouldn’t be surprising. In the sea of stupid accessories there are some really neat ones that I find useful. My favorite are the video-out cables that are available. These cables are either AV or composite cables (depending on the ones you buy) that allow you to display movies on your phone onto a standard television. Being all my movies are on a computer it’s kind of difficult to bring them over to friends’ houses as they usually don’t have a computer plugged into their television. With the video-out cables I can load them onto my iPhone and play the movies are other peoples’ houses via my phone. Simple things like that do make my day a little nicer.

One of my biggest gripes about the Evo 4G was the simple fact the battery life was measure in hours. There is no way I could get through two entire days on one charge with my Evo but I can do that pretty easily on my iPhone. Then again I could swap a dead battery in my Evo for a fully charged one whereas Apple doesn’t allow such useful functionality on their precious phone. Trade offs I guess (although I’d say it’s more stupid design decisions by Apple).

Overall I recommend the phone as it’s a pretty damned solid platform, unless you actually like customizing your phone. Apple doesn’t allow you many freedoms with their devices but what is there works well. Android allows you far more customization of everything, Hell you can replace the default phone application. Likewise when the iPhone you take what you get and realize you’re not getting anything else until the next phone is released where many manufacturers are releasing Android phones meaning if you want little things like 4G you’re likely to find a vendor who provides it.

Yeah I like the iPhone.

HP/Palm WebOS Tablet

Engadget has a couple very nice renders of a possible upcoming HP/Palm WebOS tablet. It looks very much like an iPad with a plastic back and running WebOS.

Even after running Android for a while and now iOS I must say there is a soft spot in my heart for WebOS. Of the three WebOS is the only operating system with a combination of actual mutli-tasking and a good interface for swapping between tasks. Android’s interface for swapping between applications is pitiful while iOS lacks what I’d consider real multi-tasking. Likewise WebOS has remained the most open of the three operating systems in that is includes and easily activated developer mode which has helped create a very good homebrew community around the little platform that almost nobody knows about anymore.

HP/Palm have sent out invitations for an event in February where I hope to see a lot of new and interesting WebOS based products announced.

Sprint Increasing 3G Data Plan Cost

One thing I liked about Sprint is their data plan. Not only do you get coverage almost everywhere but it’s also unlimited (for real unlimited, not 5GB and then overage fees) and cheap. At least it was cheap because now Sprint is going to increase the cost of their 3G data plan by $10.00 a month. Basically everybody will be paying the same price for data as current holders of 4G phones (such as myself).

If you’re currently on a 3G phone you won’t have to worry about an increase in your monthly bill until you either upgrade or activate a new smart phone. So as long as you stay with your current phone you’re fine. This is kind of dickish as previously this “premium data” plan applied to 4G devices which you could claim are capable of consuming more data as they can download at higher speeds than 3G devices. Charging everybody for the “premium data” plan whether or not they have a 4G device just seems like a bad idea, especially considering most of Sprints future phones will most likely be 4G capable.

A Truly Useful Gadget

Dvorak Uncensored has a post about a truly useful gadget. It’s a noise canceling device that plugs into your MP3 player and apparently blocks out the sound of dental drills. Frankly dental drills are one of the most annoying sounds in the universe, probably because they are always associated with pain and misery. It would be nice not having to hear them.