Ars Technica: Traveling with a Palm Pre is draining; makes you want your iPhone back

“Palm’s new phone is great for keeping you connected while on the road, but you can’t do cloud messaging when you’re physically in the clouds. You also can’t play games, because there really aren’t any, and in fact the Pre doesn’t offer much in the way of sheer fun (unless your idea of fun is tweeting about the lack of available apps in Palm’s store),” Jon Stokes repots for Ars Technica.

“Because I’ve now spent lots of quality time with the Pre in airports and on planes (some of them grounded on runways for hours), I can now report with authority on what it’s like to travel with Palm’s newest phone. What I found is that the Pre is a pretty boring travel companion who tires way too easily,” Stokes reports. “The first thing to note about air travel with the Pre is that airports are very iPhone-friendly places. You don’t notice just how many shops and electronics vending machines have iPhone accessories—chargers, battery extenders, external speakers, etc.—until you’ve rejoined the ranks of the iPhone-less. So, when traveling with a Pre, you need your charger with you at all times.”

Stokes reports, “Speaking of not being able to buy things for the Pre, Palm seriously needs to get its App Catalog in order. Compared with the iTunes App store, with its tens of thousands of diversions and amusements, Palm’s App Catalog is a barren wasteland with only about 30 titles currently on offer.”

“You also have to be careful how much you message on the ground, since doing intensive e-mail and IM seriously drains the battery. After a full night’s recharge, I picked up the Pre and began doing e-mails and IM over breakfast. By the time I was on the shuttle back to JFK an hour later, my battery was down 30 percent. Ouch. If you are going to sit and tap out one message after another on the Pre, make sure you’ve got access to a power outlet,” Stokes reports.

MacDailyNews Take: Multi-tasking on a device that is inadequately designed to support it is utter stupidity.

Stokes continues, “Sprint TV’s live TV streaming to the device works quite well, and I got a huge kick out of watching ABC News and some reality TV shows on my phone. But I estimate (I haven’t formally tested) that I could stream about 30 minutes of TV to the Pre before completely nuking the battery.”

MacDailyNews Take: That sounds really useful. (dripping sarcasm)

Stokes continues, “Ultimately, traveling with the Pre made me want my iPhone back, because while the Pre keeps you connected, when you’re stuck on an airplane you often just want to watch a TV show or play Field Runners.”

Full article here.