Obviously software from other developers can be added to the pre. The app store for the pre is in Beta but fairly robust. There are a few apps available now and for the first week I had seen one or two new apps appear a day. The rate of app release seems to have slowed down, but the pre existing apps have been updated. I suspect once the developer platform is release this summer there will be a large number of apps the spring up.
The pre doesn't have the developer base that the iphone has but as long as good apps get turned out who really cares if I can donwload a flashlight or iFart. In all honesty the apps the come with the pre make it fully functional. It appears that some time this summer we will see the developer platform released which should lead to an increase in available apps. Also fortunately for the pre the iPhone went through the same phase during its initial release. During that time there were many webkit apps developed that are still out there. Almost all of these apps work on the Pre as well. The one app I needed was a password keeper which is available. Coincidentally it is "the same" app I use on my Treo so I am even happier.
As the 3rd party apps have their own review capability i will dedicate this entry to the base software that comes with the pre. I am breaking these down into sections to make it easier to read parts of.
Generic interface --
I love the wallpaper welcome screen. It probably seems silly, but it is great to have a very clear palmtop in which I can bring up an application launch menu. The background image can be either a default image or something you have added (or snapped with the camera) although I haven't really played with that yet.
I probably should have mentioned this in the hardware section but the screen is split into 2 sections. The main screen is most of the face of the device. Just below the main screen is the gestures section (no snide comments form the peanut gallery :-). The gestures section is where the home button is located. One uses this section of the screen to interface with applications. There are a number of gestures that can be used. The one I use most frequently is the "back" gesture which is just a swipe (from right to left) across the home button. This brings you back to the last screen.
In e-mail, for example, it brings you from the message view to the inbox view, then if you went back again you would go to the folder view. One final swipe would bring you back to the card view where you can switch between applications. If you swipe up across the home button it will also bring you into card view from any screen (a message view for example).
Swiping down form card view will bring you into an application screen. The final gesture I will call the launch menu. In any application if you tap one finger in the gesture area and slide up it will bring the launch menu up and you can open the phone, mail, launcher, etc. This is a very smooth and easy to operate interface even if I am not doing a great job describing it. It really doesn't take long to get the hang of either.
The notification section is a great feature. When you have a new text message, e-mail, missed call, or a number of other alerts. The bottom of the main screen moves up a small amount and displays an icon that shows you what you might want to pay attention to. You can tap on the icon to get more info then tap further to read the mail, sms, etc. You can also slide the notice to the side to dismiss it. This all happens without interfering with what ever application you are currently working on. This notification system seems to be extensible as well. Pandora for example has an icon. You can listen to Pandora while you are composing an e-mail. From the e-mail compose screen you can tap the icon and give a song a thumbs up or thumbs down then go right back to editing the e-mail. I am impressed to see that the notification system seems to have an API which means other apps can use it as well.
Universal Search --
The universal search is a great feature. I find myself starting to type application names rather than paging through to find them. So popping open the keyboard and typing "we" will instantly get me to the "web" browser. It was also, coincidentally, find all my contacts that have some combination of "we" (maybe a "wendy ..." or a "william edwards" for example). The latter example is a carry over form my Treo functionality and it is a near must have feature for quickly dialing someone. I can generally dial, sms or e-mail anyone in my phone book by entering 3 or 4 letters. In addition you can add contacts (and web page book marks) to the launhcer screen. This will allow you to access contacts and web pages even quicker.
If you keep typing and there are no matches on the device itself you get an option to search google, wikipedia or a few other options. One disappointment is the "universal search" isn't so universal. The search function doesn't search in all applications. Specifically I would love to search calendar appointments. I do understand that this might clutter the screen up so even a button that says "search calendar" would be a welcomed addition.
Memos --
The memo application looks a lot better than the memo app from the treo, but I really miss some of the functionality that previously existed. I probably over used the memo app on my treo storing directions, phone numbers, lists of things to get(there is a task app which is great for this), measurements, and a bunch of other stuff. I had all of these notes in different categories and I could usually easily find a memo. The new memo application has 4 categories you can use and they are designated by color only. I suppose the idea is to eventually use some cloud note app. This would be great if they had a synergy version that plugged into google notebook, or some other app program (there is an Evernote app available but you need network access to get the data). I suppose I will have to look into this.
For now I have far to many notes and only 4 categories. Finding a specific note is a challenge. Once they are paired down this will be a great app for quick notes, like a hotel room number or a flight times. I will need to find something else for my longer term note needs.
EDIT - After writing this section I discovered that you can search your memos from the memo application. This functionality is actually even quicker than the category method I used to use (assuming you can remember what it is you are searching for :-) ). So this Memo took a big step up in functionality in my mind. I should point out that it has always been there. Maybe I would have found it earlier if I had red the Manual.
Other Apps --
The other Apps you would expect to be there are in fact there. There is a Camera app which works fine. The camera does have a flash (again I probably should have mentioned that in the hardware). I haven't tried many low light situations but it can't be worse than my treo in low light. The photo application will automatically upload pictures to facebook or flickr right now. I am guessing more services could be added. You have to put in your user info then it is just a matter of selecting the menu item and selecting upload then picking the account you have activated.
There is a calculator app which is fine for quick calculations. I would like a more advanced one, but probably don't need it. I used a scientific calculator on my treo to convert miles to meters and farenhight to celcius. I would like similar functionality. I can get the info on the web assuming I am conneted.
There is a doc and pdf viewer which seem to be okay. The screen size isn't great for pdf reading but it is the same on my ipod touch. I just don't like paging around to read the document. It seems as if the doc viewer is a viewer only. It did allow me to look at files but not edit them.
There is a YouTube interface as well as a google maps interface. It all works as expected. There doesn't appear to be a latitude app yet, but again I would expect one eventually. The location services are a big improvement to my Treo (which had none). You can get directions from google apps, geo tag photos. Other apps can use the location services as well. You get a proper warning for any app that can track your location.
I would like more features in the clock/alarm application. You can set multiple alarms and they can be of varying frequencies (Once, Daily, Weekdays, Weekends). There isn't however a stopwatch or countdown timer similar to the functionality of my iPod. Again while these features are not something I use all the time on my ipod they would come in handy for cooking, and other things.
Web Browser --
Like sports or the weather I have saved the best (or perhaps the most interesting) for last. The brower is based on the same code base (WebKit) as the iPhone, so the browser functionality is almost exactly the same form a rendering standpoint. There is no flash, but many flash sites are probably bandwidth intensive any way. I would prefer that sites move to a more mobile friendly programming model. I do like some features of the iphone browser a bit better. The iPhone gets around not being able to multi-tasking by allowing you to have multiple "tabs" or pages open in the browser application. The pre assumes you will open a new instance for each "tab" you want. Really the only problem is on the pre all of the browsers are then running at once and you can quickly run out of memory. The pre does have an initial "bookmark" or thumbnail view where you can save frequently visited pages. This has similar functionality to leaving a bunch of tabs open on a iPod.
The difference is there isn't a convenient way to get back to this view. You can eventually navigate to the screen using the back gesture to go all the way back to the first page you viewed. There is a separate software based back button to allow page navigation. The only way (it seems) to get that view quickly is to open a new instance of the browser. I would love it if the the back gesture to get me back to the thumbnail view and teh software back buttons were used for page navigation.
The browser is also the only app right now that is orientation aware. It stinks that the standard apps aren't orientation aware yet. I would expect e-mail, memo,contacts, etc. to also be orientation aware. Right now the browser seems to be the only app that will switch into landscape mode. (There does appear to be an EASTER EGG/Hack to allow you to turn orientation awareness for e-mail right now it lasts until you close the program).
One nice thing about the landscape mode is the gestures area become a page up/down area which allows you to scroll without having your fingers in the middle of the browsing area. It make it fairly easy to read and scroll at the same time. All in all the browser is great and works well. There are reports that the browser is a bit faster on the pre than on the iPhone, but I don't know how noticeable this is the the basic user.
e-Mail --
Another great improvement over the email program on my treo. The e-mail app knew about gmail and just set everything up for me. All I needed to supply was my user name and password. I can get gmail to my inbox as it arrives without using any relay server or 3rd party service to get push e-mail. I have also set up a work account which is a generic imap server. The configuration wasn't as automatic as gmail, but it was straight forward. I set this to check manually.
Reading e-mail is great. The treo didn't do great at formatting html messages. The pre is excellent at it. Deleting messages is a breeze. From the mailbox screen you can just swipe an e-mail to the left or right to delete the message. Form a message view there is a trash can. You can get a quick view of your different inboxes form the main mailbox screen. It is easy to see which accounts have new mail. You can select to "star" certain folders to make them appear at the top of the list as well. You can also select to have your inbox automatically starred or not. This would allow you to add a junkmail account that you don't want to check that often.
I have yet to figure out what "check manually" actually means. There does seem to be some automation going on. I will randomly get notifications that my work mail has new messages despite the fact that I haven't asked it to check. I am guessing that when I launch mail it checks all inboxes (or maybe all starred folders)
Calendar --
This is an amazing impementation of a calendar solution. The Synergy view really shines here and in contacts. The basic idea is that eveyone has multiple databases for names and events so why not provid eone consolidated view. So for the calendar application i provide my gmail and facebook username and password and the calendar app goes and gets my events. It keep s a copy on the pre for access while I am not on a network and changes are uploaded every 15 minutes or so. One can for a sync form the options menu. The great thing is it make it very easy to operate multiple calendars.
I now have 3 google calendars that I operate. A work account where I put all my work events, my plan is to eventually share this with colleagues. This calendar I can share so people can only see that I am busy but no details about events. I operate a personal calendar, which isn't getting much use now and I may scrap. Finally I have a family calendar which has most of my out of work events (social gatherings, trips, etc.). The Synergy view make it easy to enter appointments and move them around. I can have something in one calendar and very quickly move it to another.
The facebook integration is similar. You can't change events but it will poll events you have accepted and show them to you in the calendar view as well. From any overview screen you have the ability select which calendars you want to see.
Contacts --
The final application is the contacts database. As this is a phone PDA I would say this is probably one of the most important "applications" for a business user. The synergy funcationality helps you out here also. The address book pulls contacts form the different sources you select (Exchange, Google, Palm Profile, and Facebook are the intial ones). I am using Palm profile, Google and Facebook. The synergy functionality allows contacts to exist in multiple places but have one view. Youc an force records apart, and join others it seems to join by name so this is a good feature to have if you know multiple people with he same name.
I actually keep my main address book in google. I had an interesting time converting form the palm desktop to google which I will cover in another post. However, now that the google address book is set everything is working well. If a person has a profile picture in google or facebook it will actually use that as the pictures for their address entry which is nice. It looks like you can choose the facebook picture, google picture or your own picture (form the camera or uploaded separately)
You can assign certain numbers to character on the keyboard. So holding down "h" from main screen will automatically call my house. You can also put any contact as a launcher so they are quicker to dial. All in all getting a hold of someone is fairly quick. The only major frustration is that to do most of this you need to have the keyboard popped out. I would love to have a quick dialing method without popping out the keyboard.
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