Cameron's Thoughts

I purchased a Palm Pre as soon as they were available Saturday morning, so this is my review of the unit after using for the last four days. Just to give a background, this review will be comparing the Pre to some other similar devices I am fairly familiar with. My last phone was the HTC Touch that was running Windows Mobile 6.1. I also have a 2nd gen iPod Touch, so I'm familiar with most of the features of the iPhone as well. Additionally, I've used Palm devices in the past, owning a Palm m130 and a Sony Clie NX-60.

Exterior

There are a couple aspects that need to be explored, first is the hardware. I love the size of the device. Based on the pics, I was expecting it to be a bit larger. It's actually almost the exact same size as my HTC Touch which I feel is basically the perfect size for a phone. One thing I miss from the Touch is the rubberized case. Before the Touch I had a Motorola PEBL and both had rubberized cases and it gave a secure feeling grip when holding the phone. The Pre on the other hand is the exact opposite. It is super smooth. It's not bad however and I'll get used to it. The device is extremely light-weight. Much lighter than you'd expect it to be. The screen is completely amazing. Super clear, really bright. It's right on par with the iPod Touch, but with an even higher DPI.

Keyboard

The keyboard has been an area of love and hate among a lot of people. It is in fact really small. I've only used two PDA's with keyboards, those being the NEC MobilePro 450 and the Clie NX-60. The Clie's keyboard was pretty crappy for the most part. The NEC had an amazingly nice keyboard, but the device is also at least three times the size of the Pre and has the keyboard oriented the long length of the device. I don't know if having the keyboard slide from the bottom up is the best idea. I think I'd prefer a keyboard on the side of the device like most other smartphones with keyboards. However, after the first day, I found myself getting pretty quick at typing on the keyboard. I'm already faster at typing on the Pre than I was on my HTC Touch which just used an on-screen keyboard.

USB

The USB connector is somewhat annoying. I don't really like the fact that it's on the side of the device. The battery life isn't insanely great by any means, so there does come times where the phone needs to be plugged in while on a long conversation. Talking on the phone with the cord coming out the of the side is not that comfortable. I also would have preferred a mini-USB connector as opposed to the micro-USB connector solely due to the fact that my last couple of phones have also used that connector and so does my girlfriends T-Mobile G1. Now all my chargers are useless. The plus side is that the micro-USB connector is being slated to become an official standard power connector for future cell-phones from a number of major manufacturers. Additionally, I'm not a fan at all of the cover over the USB connector. The first couple times I took it off, I was almost certain I was going to break it. It probably will break off in due time as the thing holding it on doesn't seem that sturdy. I'm guessing this was placed on the phone for aesthetic reasons, and I don't think it would have been as big a deal if the USB was on the bottom. This is one area where Palm decided to go with style over functionality.

Storage

When it comes to storage, I am really sad that there is no microSD card slot. With the ability to sync with iTunes, this phone could have possibly replaced my iPod Touch. However, with only 8GB of storage, I don't really see that happening. The 8GB is probably plenty for using just apps and such, but can't unseat the iPod when it comes to being a media device. With the Internet connectivity it has though, it may get more using as a streaming device, it already has Pandora, and hopefully we'll see more apps such as Sling Player and a Hulu app would be amazing.

Hardware Issues

There are a couple of hardware annoyances I have found. When the slider is closed, the top screen portion can pivot quite a bit. Having never owned a slider before, I'm not sure if this is normal, but it feels like the slider mechanism could break because of this. It feels pretty solid when opening and closing it though. Just not after it's closed. There is a problem that comes up after charging the device for a while. The touchscreen loses it's calibration. It doesn't happen right away, but about 30 minutes into charging, I can't use the touchscreen anymore. The clicks register in the wrong locations, and swipes show as numerous random clicks all over the screen. I don't know if this is heat-related or what, but it seems to be corrected right away once the charger is disconnected.

WebOS

Now on to more of the software end of things. WebOS is really amazing. It looks so good. The text is really clear and easy to read. All of the animations are really smooth and everything really seems to be generally user friendly. I can't wait for more applications to come out to really show off what the OS can do.

Text Entry

I mentioned before, the keyboard isn't great, but you get used to it. I'm already pretty quick at text entry. I like that there is a dedicated @ button and a period. The slider opens and closes really nicely, so it's super easy to shoot out a quick text. There are a couple area's where the text input is lacking. One is the lack of a suggestive dictionary. The Pre will do minor corrections like adding apostrophes and changed 'U' to 'you'. It would be nice to see an on-screen selection of suggested words though as the Touch would get really good at choosing the most likely word and a simple press of a space would complete the word and be ready for the next. I'm a really bad speller, so this would also be a life saver for when I'm guessing at spellings. Another missing feature is a character count when sending SMS messages. I try whenever possible to keep my messages under 160 characters as it's annoying to get multi-part messages, especially when they come out of order. And with Twitter being the latest craze, the 140 character limit is important to not surpass. I hope Palm adds something in a later update.

Camera

The camera is pretty decent, though the software is really lacking in extra features. Two things really stand out though. A big one being the background processing of the images. When you take a picture, you can take another one instantly. This is something that is usually only found in higher end digital camera. My Fujifilm 8MP camera isn't even as quick to recover from a picture. The flash found on the camera is also really nice. It's fairly bright and does a good job of allowing inside shots to look decent. The overall picture quality is probably average from what you'd expect from a 3MP camera phone. It really easy to take the pics and then email, send over MMS, or add to Facebook. However, I had some trouble adding to Facebook when I tested. The first pic worked fine, then further pics would give an error. This could have been an issue on Facebook's end too though.

Google Maps

The Google map app is really basic. It's got the standard features of map view, satellite view, GPS and directions and search. But, that is about it. I'm sad to see things like Street View are missing and especially Latitude. The GPS on the Touch took forever to startup, so I didn't use Latitude much, I was hoping this phone would give a good experience with it.

Contacts/IM

Synergy is a great change in the way to handle contacts. Being that I have most the people I communicate with on Facebook, a big portion of my contact list was automatically imported when I synced up with Facebook. The Gmail integration is great too. If you are using Google products, the Google syncing is nice. I was already using them, but if you weren't before, you'd want to if you have the Pre as your contacts and calendar are constantly up to date both online and on the phone. The syncing with Google's service is fairly quick. I'm not sure how often it updates, but it's not too extremely long. Facebook on the other hand, I'm less certain on the update frequency. I added a couple contacts this morning, and as of late night, they still aren't showing on the phone. I also went into the account preferences and clicked the sync accounts option and that had no effect. Otherwise, the Facebook integration is pretty slick. It's nice having all the contacts images show up when interacting with IM, email and such. Pretty much ever camera phone has the ability to show pictures with contacts, but I rarely ever actually had pictures for my contacts as it's a lot of work getting them and adding them. Now my caller ID almost always actually shows the person calling. It's a really nice touch, and in the future my contacts won't even need to inform me if they change phone numbers or email addresses. As long as they keep their Facebook up to date, I'm all set.
The IM software seems a little rough still. One thing I find odd is that the Synergy concept of combining contacts doesn't translate over to the IM buddy list. Right now the IM client only supports AIM and GoogleTalk, but if you have contacts that use both, they show up separately on the list. This is another area I hope Palm touches up a bit in an update later. AIM contacts don't really seem to be manageable either, so you will want to make sure to clean up your contact list before importing your AIM account. I have been using the same account for around 8 years or so, which means I have numerous contacts that I no longer communicate with and many I have no idea who they are anymore. The minute you add AIM to the Pre, all these names will show in your contact list though. And there is no way to remove them without removing the whole AIM account. I ended up doing that first, and then when through and deleted a bunch of contacts, then re-added AIM. I would like to see Facebook chat added in the future. Facebook is already integrated into the contacts, calendar, and photo app, doesn't seem to be a reason to not have chat as well. One last note, the IM app keeps kicking me offline a lot, and doesn't reconnect me. I realize that the data service is down when on calls, so if you are not in a Wifi area, you will have no data service. But, it seems it should reconnect when the data returns. And it often does, but it's inconsistent.

Other App Stuff

The App Catalog leaves much to be desired. Not much apps on there at all. There is finally one game. I was somewhat surprised to see there wasn't at least one or two basic games included on the device. Also, the App Catalog states it is in beta. There is no prices on anything, they all just say "Try Me", so it's hard to see if apps are demos or free. The Classic emulator gives a message after you download it that it's only good for 7 days. There is no way to purchase anything via the App Catalog yet though. There are actually two Twitter apps though. I haven't been all that impressed though. I was using PockeTwit on Windows Mobile and really like that app. I expected to see the Twitter apps on WebOS to be a little more integrated, giving notifications when I received DM's or my username was mentioned for instance. I hope there is some improvements in the Twitter apps because I've really been lost when it comes to Twitter this last week. What really needs to be done is the SDK needs to be released to everyone so that people can get some better apps out there. Also, I don't see anyway to delete apps once they have been installed. I hope I'm missing something obvious, but there is no program manager like Windows Mobile has, and I can't seem to do anything except move the app icons around. Holding the icons down doesn't do anything like it does on the iPod.

Final Notes

I'm not planning to review all the apps. I think the rest of the apps work pretty much as you'd expect. I'm curious if there was an user manual that came with the Pre. Mine didn't have one, and this is probably the first gadget I've ever owned that didn't have a nice fat manual. Maybe it's expected that you will download a PDF off of Palm's website. I really feel that a lot of the apps were rushed to get the Pre out the door. I really hope to see that vast improvements in features in coming updates. Battery life, it's pretty bad. If you talk on the phone a lot at least. I've been charging my phone overnight, and then also once in the middle of the day. I expect this to be less of an issue once the newness runs out and I'm not tinkering around as much. Much of this review may sound pretty negative. I don't want people to get the complete wrong impression though. I love this device. Easily the best phone I've owned. All the main issues I have are all software related, so I really hope Palm spends some more time on the software and releases some amazing updates.

My last post was about my excitement with Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and how I loved that show and how I couldn't wait to see Terminator Salvation. Sadly, I learned the show, which has now been cancelled, has a much better storyline. Please note that there will be SPOILERS in the review so you probably don't want to read past the second paragraph if you haven't watched it yet.
Terminator Salvation has had a lot of good reviews, and a lot of bad reviews. This will be a bad one. I suppose the issue is, depending on what you are expecting from Terminator, you will really enjoy the movie, or really hate it. For an action movie with a lot of visuals, it was an amazing experience. It did in fact look like what you can imagine the world would be like. That's about as good as the movie got though. I really get into the whole mythology of the Terminator world. I realize the story is complete fantasy, but even in fantasy, there can be a lot of principals and rules that need to be followed. Just ask any Trekkie. I am also really into time travel which is probably what draws me to Terminator. On that note, I just watched an AMAZING time travel movie, Timecrimes. I really suggest watching that. It is a rare story that actually presents time travel with a closed causality loop, something most movies seem to avoid as it's hard to get right. Anyhow, that is another story.
A lot of the problems I had with the movie had to do with the reality of what should have been possible if Skynet really did exist and really was trying to eliminate mankind. I'm sure this is complicated to get right as the movie in a way is both a prequel and a sequel. What I mean by this is it takes place about 15 years after Terminator 3, at the same time, it's about 10 years before the Terminators go back in time. So, Skynet isn't quite as developed as it was when it created time travel, but it's had a fair amount of time to work on it's human elimination plan. I'm sure that could possibly explain some of the failings.
The movie starts out alright. The initial scene where Connor and the other resistance fighters sneak into some Skynet base is actually pretty cool. The helicopter scene was pretty exciting. Though, it did have some Mission Impossible feel to it as they were dropping down into the base. After that whole helicopter incident though, I guess we see why John Connor becomes the savior of mankind. He is apparently a super-human. He is taken back on a helicopter and jumps from the helicopter into the ocean and swims into a submarine. Without SCUBA gear might I add. At that point, I was already in a WTF mind-frame.
After this, we see the first of Marcus Wright. Of course, the trailer had to ruin the fact that he is part-machine, which would have been interesting to have found out part way through the movie. The first scene is just him in some mud screaming. The same scene in the trailer. At that's it. There is no explanation further than that. It seemed to be one of a number of scenes that solely existed to make the trailer more interesting. He then makes his way into LA where he is saved by Kyle Reese. The initial exchange, which is also fully shown in the trailer, is very basic and too quick. Pretty much "What year is it? What happened here?" Of course, Judgement Day at this point happened nearly 15 years before, so if some random stranger was asking me "What happened?", I don't think I'd just assume he was asking about Judgement Day. I'd also start asking a number of questions as to "Why don't you know what year it is?" and "How are you unaware of Skynet?". Instead, Kyle just happily lets him hang out and explain everything no questions asked. Cause it's pretty common for people to just show up and not know what's happened for the last 15 years. Then, for whatever reason, Marcus decides to randomly fix a radio, just a the right time to hear a speech from Connor that explains how to kill the T-600's. And to also hear Connor's name, which conveniently sets up the later scene where they meet him. The whole radio thing just seems a bit too set up.
The next part that is troubling is the fact that Kyle Reese is even named as the number one target by Skynet. Maybe I've been watching the TV series too much, but it seems that John would have to keep the whole thing about Kyle being his father a complete secret. So, why would Skynet be interested in him? Makes no sense. Basically, if Skynet knew future events and that John was going to help humanity take down Skynet and that Kyle was going to go back in time and be his father, wouldn't it be easier to just not build the time machine? I guess this opens up a lot of the problems of the time travel story anyhow, but it just doesn't seem like Skynet should have known about him.
Though, now that I think about it, the next part of the movie that was really annoying was the scene where Marcus was captured. John goes into his rant about "you killed my father, you tried to kill my mom, you tried to kill me". And he does give names out. Which doesn't make sense. Seems like he knows that Skynet found out about his mom and went back in time to kill her, so keeping her name quite may be a good idea. And also to keep Kyle's name quite as he is still around. Why would you tell a machine your father's name. However, that doesn't matter because Marcus very calmly explains that Kyle was just captured by Skynet. He doesn't question the fact that Kyle is only a young man, way too young to be John's father. And on top of that, John takes the news without question. I mean, this information was just given to you by someone you consider to be the enemy, yet he takes it as fact right off the bat.
Let's see, after that, or actually, maybe before that, we learn that Skynet has fully taken control of the area around San Francisco. However, the fact they were sending machines into LA was unusual and it was mentioned that they don't normally travel that far. It doesn't seem like Skynet has really taken over all that much actually. Plus, people have a full military with jets and submarines. It makes the destruction of the world not seem quite so bad. I suppose this made me feel like Skynet wasn't quite so scary. They must have made some good progress between 2018 and 2029 as at that point, they have fully taken over LA and people are hiding underground. Another odd thing to note, how come more people aren't in LA? They even said Skynet doesn't normally go there. Seems like a good place to hide out.
Back to the Marcus capture scene, another thing that seemed really random was the one pilot chick he saved setting him free. I'm sure she felt some connection to him after he saved her life. However, she then just found out that he is a machine. The same things they have been fighting from for years. I can see her arguing to have him be studied and to learn more about him as he was different. But, to just set him free? She risked her life for a machine. Doesn't seem like a normal reaction even considering that he saved her.
Moving on further into the movie, the whole thing inside of the Skynet complex was just nuts. The main thing being that Kyle was the number one target on a Skynet termination list. So, they capture him and put him in a prison. Now, they try to explain this away by saying he is bait to capture John Connor, but if they actually killed him, Connor would have still come. I don't see why they didn't kill Kyle. Even so, somehow, John Connor is inside of the Skynet complex, and Skynet is STILL unable to kill him. They have one actual Terminator in this entire central base? What type of operation is Skynet running. The first base they went to had no machines, and their main base had one?
The scene where Skynet explains their whole plan to Marcus was just too stupid to mention. It was basically the same thing that happens at the end of every episode of Scooby Doo after they take the mask off the criminal. I guess at that point in the movie, I was unshocked at how stupid it could get.
Finally, the movie ends with a heart transplant being done at some medical base that is just throw together in the middle of nowhere. I'd like to think that by 2018 heart transplants can just be done at anytime and anywhere, I'm sure it's a lot more complicated than that. Plus, didn't Marcus just die and have to be resuscitated moments before? I'm not sure if he was really a good candidate for a heart transplant.
I suppose that will conclude my rant for now. There is probably a lot more I could say. It's been a week now since I saw the movie, so it's not fresh in my mind, and I only saw it the one time. I'm sure I'll see it again once it's on DVD. This movie may actually be a rental though, and might be the first Terminator I won't actually own.

I first saw a can of Monster Mixxd at Speedway a few days ago. The same Speedway where I first saw Monster M-80. The same one that sadly no longer carries Monster M-80. I was sick earlier this week, so I wanted to save it for when I was feeling better. I've been looking forward to drinking this all week.
You may or may not know, I love Monster Energy drinks. The original Monster Energy is a classic, and Monster M-80 is my favorite drink of all time. I can never get enough of the M-80. So, I had high hopes for this new Monster as it is also in the "Energy+Juice" category like my beloved M-80. Though, this one is only 30% juice as opposed to 80%.
I cracked open the can and took a smell. Bad idea, was gross, yet familiar. Took a sip. Worse idea. This stuff is horrid. I've since taken about 6 sips over the last 20 minutes thinking maybe the taste would grow on me. It's not. I have determined it smells kinda like a rum and Coke. One made with really crappy well rum.
If you like Monster or M-80, I'd recommend sticking with those, don't waste your money on this one. It's exciting to see a new Monster on the shelves, but this one just doesn't live up to the name. Speedway, please bring back the M-80!!

I've been a fan of Monster Energy drink for some time now. It's helped me ween off of my 6-a-day Mountain Dew dependency that I had. I drink about one Monster a day and then water or Coke Zero now. It's helped me lose a few pounds. Plus, Monster has real sugar, so it's much better than that HFCS shit that is in Dew and every other pop out there.
But, a little over a month ago, I discovered a new flavor of Monster, M-80. It was love at first taste. It's probably the greatest beverage I have ever tasted. I just bought two at Quality Dairy since they have the 2 for $3 sale. I am so happy right now. If you love Monster, but have not tasted M-80 yet, you must track it down. Many stores don't have it yet, but it's becoming more and more common. I first saw it at Speedway, and it seems all Speedway's have it, so that's the place to start looking. It's the greatest tasting Monster, plus it's 80% juice, so it's got a healthy factor to it also.

I'm not post much as I'm heading off to bed. But, I will say, go see King Kong. I don't make many movie recommendations, but this is got to be one of the best movies to come out in a long time. FULL of action. And also a love story. It's got a little for everyone.

Now, I'll start by saying I am not real big on watching children's movies. But, there are a few I do like such as the Lion King and Shrek. But, Saturday night after work, Nickcole and I decided to go to the movies. There wasn't really any outstanding movies playing, but I noticed that there was a 3D version of the Polar Express playing at the IMAX theater. I have never been the IMAX as it has mostly had movies that I haven't wanted to see. And anything I did want to see was just a normal movie blown up for the bigger screen. But, based on the previews, I knew the Polar Express had some pretty impressive animations, and to see it in 3D would make it worthwhile to pay the extra charge for going to the IMAX. Now, this wasn't cheap. At the Celebration Cinema in Lansing, it was $12 a ticket for adults. But, it was definitely worth it. I could not only believe how good they made the characters look in the movie, but the 3D was sooooo good. Every little detail was 3D. I was afraid it was going to be something where the 3D was an afterthought and they just had some parts where it looked good, but I am certain that the movie was made with the 3D in mind. Some scenes such as the roller coaster type ride seemed so real. It almost felt like you were really on a roller coaster. The snow looked like it was coming down in the theater. And a couple scenes where there were flybys of train were impressive.
If you just want to see this movie, watch it in a normal theater, if you want to experience this movie, watch it in the IMAX.

Saw The Passion of the Christ last night with Nickcole and her friend Mandy and her (now) fiancee Tim. It was quite a movie. Very realistic in every respect. I wasn't aware that the movie was going to be in another language. They went as far as to use the native tongue during the time of Jesus. Everything had to be read as subtitles. I usually will completely avoid movies like this since all the reading takes away from enjoying the movie. But, in this movie, it wasn't bad at all. For one thing, there wasn't a whole lot of dialog. When there was, it went pretty slow, so you could still view the movie comfortably. The movie basically depicted the arrest and brutal punishment that Jesus went through in his last hours with the movie finishing with the crucifixion. The movie was almost 2 1/2 hours long, and the movie was basically about the last four hours of his life, so, you can imagine that there wasn't much that was left out. This isn't a movie for kids at all. I really have no idea how they made it so realistic. The scene during and after Jesus was being punished was amazingly real. You can see his body being ripped apart. It's actually quite hard to watch. It really does make you think though. No matter if you believe that Jesus is the son of God, or not, most people agree that the events of Jesus' last hours are pretty accurate and did actually occur.

Eating some lunch right now, and this Bowl Appetit stuff is good! Just add water and microwave and it's a good hot meal. Even better, it only cost $1.28 at Wal-Mart. A whole meal for a little over a dollar. Eating the three cheese kind right now, but I'm gonna have to get more of this stuff.