So, those crafty buggers behind Inside Sprint Now have done it again. This time, it’s a second set of frequently asked questions, though this time it appears that the questions have not been lifted from the support documents, but are instead those that Inside Sprint Now has received from readers.
There are some mundane questions, like if you can receive calls during USB mode (no), disable browser cookies (yes), choose your calendar colors (yes), run multiple IM conversations (yes), set your music as a ringtone (yes), and so forth. But there are interesting questions too, like how much does this Palm Backup service cost? Nothing, at least out of your pocket. Apparently video capture will not be in the mix at launch, but ISN says "hang in there as great things are on the way, and as the Palm Pre uses the webOS, updates are just a gesture away!"
Oh, and here’s an interesting little bit, though how to interpret it is not exactly clear:
Office 2007 - Any issues?
Nope. Go ahead, tell your boss about it, and bring it to work. Welcome to life with the Pre - it just works!
Huh. Is that referring to the Doc Viewer application icon that we’ve glimpsed before, or is this something more sinister, perhaps DataViz’s (launch partner!) superb Documents to Go software will be on the Pre at launch. Either way, we’re now in the less-than-two-months-left window, so keep you ears to the ground for more news.
Thanks to Peter and Mahootzki for the tip!
Comments
That's a shop'd picture of excel in card view, right?
I don't know... It seems to have a WebOS look to it
It is very much Photoshopped. ;)
Who is to say that is not a WebOS Office Suite app? Just because you or I has not discovered such a thing, doesn't mean it hasn't been developed.
Yeah, now that you mention it, I can see the cut off bits at the side where the rest of the Office ribbon would be on a desktop.
If not Excel is pretty slick looking. . .
Indeed.
no video recording?
I think that's been known for a while.
Like on the day it was announced!
oh, sorry, didn't know.
strange that treos and other older phones have been able to record video for a while but now iphone and pre will not be able to. Maybe the PTB are tired of getting busted in the act by cell phone video cameras
"like if you can receive calls during USB mode (no)"
What the hell?
Does that mean I can't use my usb data cable as a recharger? Any time I transfer data (and would be quite often do to the lack of a storage card) my phone is offline?
Charging is one thing; USB mode is likely something specific. I suspect USB mode is like Card Reader in PalmOS; it may lock out the file system and the rest of the OS to avoid data corruption. {ProfJonathan}
I wouldn't label this one as "mundane" at all. Just to make sure I understand what USB mode is, I'm assuming that's where the Pre registers itself as a mass storage device to Windows?
If that's the case, then why couldn't calls be made/received when in USB mode? That makes absolutely no sense. You can still make/receive calls in WM when you're using Card Export right?? So if I'm using my Pre to store all my music and podcasts, and I have it hooked up to a car which can read music from any generic USB mass storage device, I'm out of luck if someone tries to call me? Ouch...
A work-around would be to use the headphone jack to connect it to your car's stereo. This is what I do with my MP3 player now.
As for it "making no sense," I think the reason is to avoid data corruption. Sure, they could work around it, but it would be more trouble than it's worth. I'd rather they worked on video capture and Flash support.
Yup. To work around it, essentially you'd need a cluster file system or to make the phone act like a file server. Both would be pretty complicated.
I was at staples last week checking out some new phones and PDAs glad i waited for the Palm Pre to come out i love it.
No, it is almost certainly about killing tethering. nothing to do with possible data corruption unless the Pre has a data storage problem other phones don't have?
Also may be an attempt to cripple the phone as modem function (assuming the USB mode pertains to device being recognized as a mass storage device)? Just a thought
Noooooooooo! Thats the best feature of winmo. At the moment i've got a Touch Diamond on 600 mins, Unlimited texts and unlimited internet for £25 a month thanks to Orange. The data tethering means I don't have a land line or broadband line at my house so saves me an extra £15 a month. Without this feature that Pre will end up costing me a lot more.
Although maybe it can still tether using bluetooth.
Cannot receive calls during USB mode? If "USB Mode" is where the Pre is acting like a Windows mass storage device, this doesn't make sense. The Pre can multi-task, so it shouldn't have any problem managing the file system and a phone call at the same time.
My BlackBerry only runs J2ME, and it can do a phone call or synchronize with the desktop at the same time I am transferring files in Mass Storage Mode.
Maybe "USB Mode" refers to tethering.
MASS STORAGE: so, i was reading these forums and comments and someone hit on a very interesting topic to me personally.
On the Palm and Sprint sites they highlight:USB mass storage
So, does this mean i could use a micro->usb adapter and then plug in a USB drive? Or does this simply mean u can transfer to a computer? (wouldnt it all be the same?)
Also, in reference to file hosting through either FTP or ShareMyDesktop; Even if you could access ur files through the internet, would you even be able to open them?
Specifically opening a 1gig backup copy of movies, or even a full 5Gig movie? What about text documents?
Furthermore, how would that even work? Is downloading going to be possible and saving to directory? Would it depend on the file itself? Only streaming?
Any info would be awesome, Even speculation from some of the folks more familiar with IT would help, thanks.
You guys are all confusing practicality with sexy, suave, synergistic curb appeal. If Palm cared about making your life easier, they'd enable my practicality by getting the following roadblocks out of the way I experience with my Treo:
1 - first, and foremost, the phone must be able to accommodate entering appointments into the calendar. I cannot do this today. Why can't I do it? Because hot-syncing with my exchange datastore requires me to do it uni-directionally, otherwise recurring meeting invites from other organizers are broken up into individual invites and the owner changes to me. This means I end up being the organizer of an orphaned meeting object I did not create, rendering my inability to respond to the original organizer. In other words, palm doesn't handle recurring objects well, and the work-around is to have desktop overwrite handheld. Brilliant...
2 - calendar app doesn't have the "hyperlink" feature of phone numbers. I cannot click on phone numbers in the appointment to dial. Even worse, I cannot copy/paste (unless the numbers are in the notes attachment) because when clicking the field (location) the text is cut-off and not accessible. So if I need to dial into a conference, (get this....!) I have to have a piece of paper, pen, and transcribe the number from the Treo calendar app, and then type it back into the phone app. Again, brilliant....
3 - versamail. putting email in outbox (vs. hitting send) eventually results in versamail trying to send it despite my intentions.
4 - versamail. When responding-all to emails, attempts to add recipients ends up butchering the recipient list and often result in failed send attempts (bad message format, invalid option, etc). I would love to be able to use the "Smart Addressing", but what I end up having to do to ensure inserts aren't right in the middle of existing addressees, is go to the end of the addressee list, ensure there's exactly 1 semi-colon (or comma), a space, then use 'lookup' to add addressee from contacts. Otherwise, it's a surgical procedure of cut/paste, correct, seeing that existing addressees were partially overwritten, etc. Very frustrating, distracting, and not at all useful. I've often had to wait until I get back to the office to respond to emails I want to add a few more recipients to.
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