I have always hated the whole “respect your elders” comment because most of the people that say that mean that I should respect anyone that is OLDER than myself. And to be honest respect is earned not just given. =)

Hugs.
Love ya.

Thank you for taking the time to reply, I will definitely check out your blog about the Pre as I am interested in what other users have encountered from not just the hacking aspect of it, but the usability aspect as well. I have a few ideas on things I’d like to do, but haven’t had time to start working on it.

I wish I had more time and more detailed knowledge of Javascript and CSS as I’m not good with either.

I have to admit, I was in the same boat you were in about the iPhone, but once the glamour/new fangled device thing wore off I was left with frustration more than anything. Add to that, AT&T’s draconian TOS and their horric pricing scheme, it was a dealbreaker for me.

- I think the contacts thing would work out for you as the contacts can be searched from anywhere except the URL bar on the browser of course. I can be in my music application, hit the “front” button and start typing the first name of the contact and actually get their “card” from the contacts. If I’m in gmail or the Email application, typing a person’s name will present the email accounts I have on file. Really tight integration on that aspect, sometimes tighter than actually thumbing through the contact list itself.

- You might be impressed then. I have had four cards with a site on each and can thumb through them with ease. The one thing I did notice is that if you hold the phone upside down, the browser (and camera pictures) will flip to match which I thought was a neat touch. I know the iPhone does landscape but am not sure if you put the top end down if it will flip to match. One big downer is that the browser does not have support for Flash applications (unlike the iPhone, I’m afraid they have the Pre beat in this one).

- The mapping software is pretty decent for a phone based application. It can lock to where you are, then plot a course based on your driving. I recommend the Google Maps version over the builtin Sprint version as Google had a lock within 4 minutes of coming out of a well-sheltered building and Sprint was still confused.

- If you ever need it, you can use it as a standalone USB drive. I have some recovery tools for that “just in case” day, but the fact that you have to kill all phone functionality may not work all that well.

- Something that I haven’t gotten my hands on but have heard rave reviews about is the “touchless” charger adapter called the Touchstone. It uses a magnetic coil and a pickup in the battery cover in the Pre to charge it via induction. Novel idea for those of us that know we’re going to leave it somewhere but don’t want to fumble with the USB cover. It’s a bit steep at $75 from my local Sprint store, but I’m sure pricing will come way down.

Thanks for your opinion, I’m always happy to have people interested in the articles that I post.

Matt

Anyway, I’m still on the fence about switching to a Pre. Here is what I normally do on my iPhone, can the Pre keep up?
– I talk very little actually but the dialing / contact list is pretty good
– Massive amounts web surfing!
– Google mail, contacts, & calendar
– I use maps/geo-location/driving directions quite a bit. Can you easily search for something, get an address/phone number, and get directions or call them?
– Don’t really listen to music or watch videos so I don’t need much storage
– I keep it on the charger at work almost all day so battery life is not a big priority
– Don’t use a lot of 3rd party apps

Thanx!
Richard