[ifonline]

I have a Bold that I use pretty heavily with my business, but I am a sucker for technology, so I went out Friday with the intent on buying the Palm Pre as a second phone. I decided to go to Radio Shack (erm... The Shack, I mean) because they were selling the Pre for $150 with no rebates needed, and they were waiving the activation fee. I ended up leaving the store without one.

The Shack had nothing to do with my decision... the sales people were fine. It was just that for all the oohs and ahhs over the Pre, I was disappointed with the following:

- The keyboard is tiny and gummy, and the top row of keys is very cramped against the bottom edge of the top half of the phone making typing that much more difficult.
- The top half of the phone would wiggle when the phone was in the closed position. The phone didn't feel particularly cheap, but it didn't feel particularly solid, either.

Beyond that, I had been reading a lot on the Palm Pre forums and blogs, and wasn't terribly impressed with the selection of software (I would not install homebrew apps any quicker than I would jailbreak an iPhone), Palms apparent lack of interest in moving the Pre development forward, or the hit-or-miss attitude of returning/exchanging defective units to Sprint (and there seems to be quite a few problems being reported).

Lastly, while it will connect with Exchange, there doesn't seem to be a task application or the ability to schedule appointments with attendees. Additionally, the cut and paste is, as I understand it, only available in text fields, so you can't, for example, copy a selection of text off a web page and enter it into a new e-mail. Odd...

A PalmPilot was my very first electronic organizer, way back when the company was 3Com/USR. I had many different versions of the old Palm Devices, and then picked up a RIM 950. I stuck with the PalmPilots for a long time, and eventually moved to RIM as my only device. I was really hoping that Palm was going to knock one out of the park with the Pre, but in my opinion, they hit the ball close to the fence, but not over it. Now, it seems like the third base coach (the user base) is telling Palm to round the corner and make a run for home plate, but Palm is balking at second unsure of what to do next.