Jimtac.com

TweetDeck even with it’s reliance on AIR is hands-down my favorite desktop client, and I’ve used [and paid for], but I keep going to TweetDeck on the iPhone only to be disappointed time after time. It crashed 4 times while trying to set it up, and at varying steps in the process which made it hard to blame one step that I could skip in order to proceed, one of which was that unlike the desktop app, you are required to allow TweetDeck to update Facebook [if you so choose to add FB access at all], or not be allowed to continue, which was also one of my crashes…

Once set up, I did like that there were decent options, and the ability to finally add multiple twitter accounts, though the MySpace account in the desktop version is not included, admittedly not a huge deal, but notable nonetheless. The look of the Light UI option was nice, but it does feel to me like it was tossed in as an option after other twitter apps included it. In the end I find that it’s with reservations added to my roster of twitter apps for the iPhone that will actually remain on my iPhone [if it remains crash free]. If TweetDeck adds push notifications, It’ll be my primary twitter app for the iPhone too. [I've also posted this to the related TUAW article]

So today’s the big day for Palm, and for everyone who wants an iPhone, but not an “Apple phone”. Frankly speaking, this is one day that I’ve been looking forward to as well, (even as I’m writing this on by iPhone). Today is the day when a “true competitor” to the iPhone is released to the public.

Now some of you may be saying, “But wait… There are already a bunch of competitors out there now.” and to that, I say… Weeeeeeeell not reeeeeeally. When you take a good hard look at the phones on the market today, many have similar functions, and many have large touch screens, however they are all very different classes of devices.

RIM’s BlackBerry Storm is their response to the iPhone, but it’s still primarily a corporate device with consumer frills added on to an email device. In my experience, the Curve and the bold do better as consumer devices, mainly because RIM stuck to the format that their are good at, and made the tools better all around, instead of trying to make something different for that sake of being different, not to mention the gimmicky click screen that has garnered oh so many complaints.

Samsung’s offerings are kind of in the same boat, except that they tried to keep the interface relatively similar to the previous itterations and just add features which seem to be tacked on as afterthoughs… Including the touchscreen inteface. LG is right up there with them, but at least most of their touchscreen phones, have some kind of flip up keyboards, though they rarely make use of the great big screen.

Nokia is perhaps the best of the “major” manufacturers. I personally want an N97, but don’t want to pay €500 (~CDN$800) for one.

There are others like the G1, but this is supposed to be about the Palm Pre, and many of the points are the same.

I’m hearing a lot of buzz about how great the phone can/should/would/will be, and about how some are overlooking bugs because it’s a “1.0″ device, and that it’s not really fair to compare it to the iPhone, or other such Gen 2+ devices. To me that’s all crap… Of course it’s fair to compare them, it would be ridiculous NOT to. If a brand new company was to release an 8 bit console (a la the original NES) today and sold it along side the PS3 and Xbox 360 for the same price; would it be excluded from comparison BECAUSE it’s a 1.0 device? If a new car from a major manufacturer comes out that only gets half of the gas mileage of the competitors in it’s class, should it be forgiven because it’s a new model? Of course not. Nor should the Palm Pre (or the G1 for that matter) get the same pass in this arena.

It is to be noted that I have yet to get my anxious little paws on the Pre, which is why I’m not reviewing it. That being said, journalists should not be “forgiving” of any products faults, because it’s a new model. It’s simply reality that when you release a product it will be competing with the other “top of the line” models for all of your competitors, and fashionable it is to bag on the iPhone for it’s faults, I remember back to when it was first released, and even with the faults being pointed out, it still performed as advertised and didn’t rely on the “v.1.0″ excuse.

I hope the Palm Pre is a huge success, competition breeds innovation. The current smartphone space most certainly needs innovation. Just look at Apple’s announced features for iPhone OS 3.0, on the heels of the Palm Pre, even going so far as to say that they will be matching the Pre feature for feature upon 3.0′s release. I just hope that Palm’s history with the Treo (I still love mine) gives them the edge they need to be the number 2 player in the smartphone market, and force the hand of the other manufacturers in order to get them to make true smartphones, and not just phones that play mp3′s, take pictures, and sell them as smartphones.

Here’s hoping… GO PALM!!!