Before we begin, let us preface this with the usual "Take this rumor with a rather large dosage of salt". One of our forum members has recently spoken with a Sprint CSR (hence the salt dosage), and while configuring his Airrave they got to chatting. According to lady on the line, a memo was sent out that indicates an impending firmware update to our beloved Pre.
The information given was relatively vague, but she did specify "Improved Text Messaging Features", apparently in the way of message forwarding as well as group texting, along with "Improved Battery Life", which we'll take to mean they've refined the memory and power usage a bit further. She also hinted that "in the near future"(take that how you will), Palm would be implementing Video Recording as well as custom reminder functions (you know, so you can have your Pre tell you to get back to work).
Separately, another user has let us know that he heard about an update in a call with Palm technical support that ended up being elevated to L2 representatives. He was told that an update will be on the way as well - and according to the Palm rep, it will land by the end of the week. Two weeks seems optimistic, and just a few days even more so, but we certainly hope it is the truth. Palm and Sprint claim to be listening to user feedback, and a quick turn around on firmware updates would prove they're walking the walk. Let us know what you think in the comments, total bunk or shred of truth?
Thanks to jp700p in our forums for the tip!
Comments
Can't wait for the Video recording update if it comes out to be true. Then iPhone 3GS users have one less feature to brag about.
Improved Battery Life sounds very welcoming! Hope it ends up to be true! Let's keep our fingers crossed... :-)
Its just that the iPhone has video editing too as well
This reallty isnt a legit argument as video recording is a firmware update. Video editing is just software. We can expect video editing if not from palm then third party apps.
by editing you mean cut from the front, cut from the back? right?
its not like you can move stuff around. is it?
Well let's pray it a bit of hope. Listening to your customers and improving your product is verygood for Palm and even Sprint. This is a good hope. So I HOPE it's TRUE!!
How about some Adobe Flash support?
Flash is already announced to be coming by end of year. {ProfJonathan}
Sound plausible :) Wonder what other goodies it will be hiding...
just that it is coming is comforting enuf, but palm should let us know what will come in the the next firmware.
btw, im hoping for this week. ;)
would be nice if they fixed the the EAS in this update. also I will ve very unhappy if Dell buys Palm. I hate Hate Hate Dell.
Dull, not Dell.
"Improved Text Messaging Features?.... PLEASE!!! MSN AND WINDOWS LIVE!!!!!!!
Blah.
duhr! ADD AOL INSTANT MESSAGING AND AIM SUPPORT! ADD GOOGLE MAIL AND GMAIL SUPPORT!!!
Guys like this remind me of the lowest common denominator...and how very low it is....ugh
AOL Instant Messenger is already on there.
Most good rumors have elements of truth and most leaked truths started out as rumors, so I guess I am just optimistic and hopeful as I am growing both in love and in dislike with my Pre, but the dislike can be corrected and turned into warm fuzzies with some good "update manna"... it would be nice for Spalm and Print to formally say something, or at least acknowledge the problems other than the vague "we hear ya"s on their forums, but then it would not be a rumor, ya....
fingers crossed over my Treo...
Repeat 3 times fast:
"Owa tanup datei wan tnow"
"Owa tanup datei wan tnow"
"Owa tanup datei wan tnow"
Say this really fast...
I'm sofa king we todd did.
Thank god we got apple guy running the show, we will expect fast updates
Imagine if he wasn't at Palm? They would have cranked out this godawful resistive screen.
I'm thankful Ruby took a flamethrower down the halls, and torched as many ridiculously STUPID ideas as he possibly could.
Palm's been turned into a talent-house, people with high engineering prowess and design philosophy are attracted to Palm because of Ruby. Now that he's "the man" it will be even more so.
What's wrong with a resistive touchscreen? I have one on my Treo. I didn't see any difference when I had my Pre -- other than I can use my fingernail or stylus with my Treo and not my Pre. It seems like a capacitive touchscreen is a downgrade.
Agree
What we need is a dual capacitative screen stylus.
After using a Touch Diamond, I have ever since been convinced that resistive touch screens are a dead tech destined for no-where.
A stylus is inconvenient to drag out and mis-place. A capacitive touch-screen with an elegant UI is clearly proven to be preferred by consumers.
Now for an entirely different arguement, when you don't have a touchscreen, the blackberry users seem entirely content with a lack of a touchscreen. In fact many Storm users to this day, resent the touch screen interface on the Blackberry. RIM solved the stylus problem with the wheel/ball.
It's primitive, lower quality, and the N97 is the only resistive touchscreen-based phone with quality that rivals capacitive based touchscreens. Even then, because of the pressure necessary resistive screens are more prone to scratches among the common user, again, adding to the dilemma of even using the stylus at all.
The.Stylus.Sucks.the.big.one
Welcome to the next century, and again Palm's lucky that a longtime Apple exec is in charge. If he were still at Apple he'd have taken over for El Jobso, because he's more competent than Cook or Schiller.
I have no doubt a firmware update will be coming soon, but it seems like they don't have a firm date set yet. I'm just surprised that Palm hasn't released official statements regarding the inevitable patch. I would welcome improved battery life, especially with the problem of IM causing a huge battery drain.
I'd love to see:
1) SMS tone user-settable. I had to root my pre to change it to something easier to hear! I shouldn't have to root my phone to change something this simple.
2) Tethering. Though I realize this is up to Sprint.... maybe Palm can pressure them a little! This phone has a *beautifully* fast EVDO engine.
If this comes through so quickly afte launch, it will be a welcome change from my previous adventures in smartphone-land: the damn BlackBerry Storm.
Verizon's support for that thing as lax at best, and it's nice to have a phone that a) launched with better functionality and usefulness than the Storm had six months after launch, and b) the carrier and the manufacturer are actually supporting. Paying the cost to break that contract was worth every penny.
Palm and Sprint claim to be listening to user feedback, and a quick turn around on firmware updates would prove they're walking the walk.
[T]he dislike can be corrected and turned into warm fuzzies with some good "update manna"
I agree on both counts, quoted from separate users above. Providing updates on a regular basis (once or twice a month) would cure so much of the frustration coming from power users. I love the Pre, but I would love it more with more features. I hope the next update is coming soon.
If they crank these updates out, yeah, a lot of our sentiments exactly. What a better "official response" than the solution to the problem?
Well i hope palm and sprint are listening cause they both can use a boost in the arm, palm has to be on the ball cause they dropped the ball back in the day when they were the only one with a touch screens with treo 650, and they stopped developing and almost died and sprint well what can you say about sprint, they need to get some customers back and hopefully WiMax will put them back on top. I cant wait for the updates.
I want to believe but I do take it with a grain of salt. A lot of updates and improvements were promised when the Instinct launched. A year later I finally got IM lol and the phone is still buggy and they moved onto another version. If Sprint and Palm keep their word and support the customer. I see both of these companies prospering for a long time and even taking customers back that left.
I talked to a Sprint CSR at a Sprint store last week and he also said the video recording would be coming via a firmware update very soon. He validated the comment by saying that "video recording capability is already present on the device..." just the that "the software wasn't ready at launch". I think that a live CSR would not say such a thing face to face if it wasn't a highly probable scenario.
I hope this is true...but live CSRs say all sorts of things. When I bought my pres, the CSR tried to "explain" to me how the Touchstone worked. Basically, you could plug it in and "charge it up" and take it with you. Then when your battery is low, you can put your pre on it and get a charge. So it's like "having an extra battery."
She thought wireless charging meant you could take the Touchstone with you with no cables.
But I do hope the CSR you spoke to knew what s/he was talking about. I'm not a big vid user on a phone, but it has come in handy from time to time on my old 755p.
CSRs say the darnedest things. :-)
There are no "csr's" in store. Stores are staffed with sales reps and tech (repair) reps. And this goes for most cell stores of every carrier. Sales reps receive very limited training on devices. They rely heavily on experience to know what to do or say. This is why they will usually immediately pass you off to a tech rep unless they've seen the problem before.
The guy I talked to knew everything there was to know about almost every phone in the store! We talked for about 40 mins. I mean how would he know so much about the phone I had at the time, Instinct, an so much about the Pre - telling me that the phone already has video capture capability and that the "software wasn't ready for launch" ? He was definitely not just a cashier or tech support rep.
update wish list:
copy and paste for non-editable text
save location feature in google maps
area code/state recognition for calls, (samsung a900 feature)
im support for yahoo
website link recogniton in calender
editable ringtones for system sounds
am I alone in these rquests?????
> copy and paste for non-editable text
I second that one.
I am hoping for all those. But, we can't act like this up-coming update will be the only firmware update ever.
would love to see customizable ringtones for text messages, or at least different ringtones for notifications, plus bring yahoo messenger support!
I doubt it will be in any time soon, but I'll heartily second the area code/state recognition from the a900 loved that feature on mine.
I was actually at my local sprint store to pick up a replacement phone for my daughter (not a pre) and the lady was asking me how I liked my Pre and I told her I love it and that it will be even better with updates. She told me that in a week or so there will be an update with about 25 things on it. She didnt elaborate as to what those things are but Im waiting patiently for my update!
More features? highly unlikely..remember this is still the 3rd week, so if there are updates it might only be bug fixes that were spotted.(More EAS support, batt life. etc..) But this is good news at least we know they're out there fixing bugs "fast". precentral says 2 weeks or sooner?? HHmmmmm I bet it will be out before the weekend. or tomorrow!!!!
I think you may have overlooked the possibility that they've planned a series of updates already and currently have them at various levels of readiness and testing.
For example, they know video recording and flash support are highly anticipated features. It sounds like they planned this second update around video and some other lower profile features. Maybe the third update will introduce the flash support. I'm guessing both of these are in development already.
Of course, in addition to these features they can squash whatever bugs they've managed to discover and solve.
This is the style that Blizzard uses for WoW at least, and it seems to make a whole lotta sense.
unrelated: my Pre website - preaccessories.com is offering 1350 mA SEIDIO Batteries made for the Palm Pre: http://www.preaccessories.com/seidio-innocell-1350-extended-battery/8A37...
PRE AWESOMENESS!!!!! WAY TO GO PALM AND SPRINT!!!!!
Is there a commonly agreed upon day of the week to release updates for phones? MMOs seem to like Tuesday mornings since that's the least active use time. I really liked the phone being released on a Saturday, giving people time to set it up and get used to it before work started on Monday. I'm kinda expecting updates to happen on Sat mornings as well.
Will the update fix the screen on my Pre that is cracking from the INSIDE?
Yes. Remember McNamee said it uses alien tech.
My one big issue is reception. Without better tuning to lock onto the proper towers. It's adios PRE hello GS. Before they toss new software to keep us interested fix the Major issues first.
Before launch we feasted on cardboard rumors. Here we are eating old pizza box with cheese residue again.
pre can already group text
just keep typing another name or number in the "To:" section of the text. you could do the same for MMS
I sure hope they get the update out before my 30 days if not it's going back on July 3rd just to be safe not to get any funny biz from Sprint. Here are the things they must fix with this firmware update.
*Improved Texting: Forwarding, saving messages as draft if you get interrupted in mid text, easier resend abilities in the message, emoticons, basically all they have to do is mimic the functionality of the 755p or the Centro and they'll be good
*Facebook contact updates: it's cool that it refreshes the pics and all however when I add a new FB contact through FB it doesn't sync the new contact in my Pre...the work around is to delete the FB account and reload this is a pain if you have a lot of contacts!
*Ringers, Ringers and more ringers, please bring back the 755 ringers and our ability to customize what sounds work with what!
*And please bring back a desktop sync through cable! Palm must have forgot what they built the palm on! This is crucial!
I suggest you go ahead and take your phone back now and get an old palm os device which is clearly what you want. Better do it soon before you can't get a palm os device.
Yup, if you're looking for all that functionality just pickup a used Treo 755. No shame in passing on the Pre.
The Treo 755 can offer 16GB of memory. Long before your 8GB Pre contract is over the 32GB and probably 64GB memory cards will have been released and working in the Treo 755. It also runs "classic" Palm OS *AND* syncs to the desktop. It can also be used as a modem. And it has a much stronger battery.
Not everyone wants an iPhone-ish smartphone.
Xsecrets and Joad, I do agree that not everybody maybe want an iPhone-like device, however I feel as though his requests are valid. I think his points are valid since Palm has done these before, porting the ringers is simple and the sms features he says are right too. I'm sure Palm will get around to it, perhaps not in this update.
As for the Facebook updates, I definitely must agree there. I think the "Synergy" concept is wonderful and some things like this will need to be improved. They made a great start and I too hope as time goes on the sync features (and customization abilities to remove FB contacts I don't talk to and would prefer not being in my primary contact list) improve.
The current music/data sync is a little discouraging to be honest. Not being able to call or text to load music or files on my device? That's kinda crazy. It seems to have a slower USB chip on the device and took me 20 minutes to download 2 gigs of files. I have to ensure I only transfer files at night so that I don't miss important calls during the day, that's a major kick in the butt for a phone that is otherwise amazing at multitasking. Losing 20 minutes of productivity on a productivity-aimed device? Talk about a major negative. I shouldn't have to time when I load work files or personal music and pray I don't miss an important call.
Need pre to sync memo with notes, I have too many damn notes to retype it.
Ability to create group and use group for msging.
Need to sync google task as well.
Multiple instances(cards) of sms/chat.
Qhicker way to answer phone, (press center button) instead of swiping...cause that's just too much work.
More launcher than 3 screens
copy paste everywhere
more control over settings
I also hope they come up w/ a better way of letting us answer a call...that swiping up is so annoying...and if you have your phone is password protected, you can't even see the call info when you answer the call...you're taken to the 'enter pin' screen. bleh.
I would also like to see a more accurate way of placing the cursor in text, it's hard to put it where you need it...iphone has that nice magnifying glass thing, which is kind of overkill, but it does the job.
I wish there was a way to get the music controls up on screen easily when the phone's locked...iphone has that convenient double press of the main button to access the controls, and it's super useful. I know i can use the headphones, but i shouldn't have to.
I hope they integrate mail in to universal search.
Google maps needs more features!! Public transit is sooo necessary in some locations. And it's way too strict with it's search logic...iphone's implementation is really good at figuring out what you're searching for. Like if I don't specify a city, it assumes I mean locally...if I put 'SF", it know's I mean san francisco, etc. And where is street view??
cmon flash integration!
I'd love more customizable system sounds, and louder alerts!
Regarding an accurate way of placing the cursor in text... Just place the cursor close to where you want it. Then hold down the orange key and swipe on the screen in the direction that you want to move the cursor. It sounds like a lot of work, but it actually works very well.
Use the same process to select text for copy/paste, except instead of the orange key, use the arrow (caps) key.
Wow! That's a handy tip that I didn't know. Thanks for sharing it.
I just need the battery and tuning worked out. That's more important than social networking IMO
So Im on my second Pre as of today and while I was in there the Sprint girl told me there would be another update in a week. So whether thats true remains to be seen. Theres still much left to be updated!
yeah a load a crap that "update" turned out to be .. my phone doesnt do anything different... 1.0.3 is whack attack
Want to leave a comment? Register for free!
In an effort to reduce comment spam, you need to log in to comment. Registration is fast, free, and easy and gives you access to comment, discuss the Palm Pre on the largest Pre forums on the 'net, enter contests, and much more. Join now!