Multitasking, How We Missed Thee
When Apple launched the first iPhone many pointed out the things it was missing. It had no support for 3rd party applications, no copy/paste functionality, no GPS, no voice dialing, no MMS support...the list just goes on and one. If Apple had attempted, with the first iPhone, to do everything a smartphone should do the iPhone would have been no different than the Windows Mobile devices that were on the market at the time: a cluttered wreck. Instead, Apple chose a handful of important features that any smartphone should have and perfected them.
Apple brought us a beautiful UI, the first truly usable touchscreen interface, an SMS application done right, visual voicemail and a proper mobile web browser. One of Apple’s mantras during the iPhone development must have been interface speed above all, because the platform does its best to preserve UI speed regardless of what you’re doing - something that smartphones before it didn’t do so well. Part of the iPhone’s ability to maintain responsiveness despite its relatively pedestrian hardware is due to the fact that Apple doesn’t allow most applications to run in the background. When you go back to the home screen and launch another application, whatever you were previously viewing is tossed out of memory. There’s some recording of state but there’s no way to switch between two applications (for the most part), you always have to visit the home screen, effectively closing one application, before starting another.
We’re never quite satisfied with what we’re given, and although the iPhone UI works quite well - I’d personally like to be able to do more. I’d like to be able to switch between IM conversations and browsing the web and checking email and I’d like to do it quickly.
The Pre can do just that.
Palm achieves the significant productivity advantage by enabling true application level multitasking. Simply launch an application then, when you’re ready to launch another one - hit the home button, zooming out to a card view, hit the launcher and fire up another app. You can do this as many times as you’d like until the Pre tells you that you can’t open up any more cards.
More importantly, the apps stay fully active and connected while in the background. If you’ve got Palm’s excellent messaging app open in the background, you’ll still show as logged on in AIM/GTalk and you can still receive messages while you’re reading emails, browsing the web or watching a movie.
The latest iPhone update enables background notifications, but nothing gives you the productivity of actually being able to run more than one app at a time. And thanks to the Pre doing a good job of managing memory, the phone doesn’t get horrendously slow if you’ve got a few cards open. There’s definitely a drop in smoothness and response time but not terrible. Plus, if things ever get too slow, just hit the home button and flick some cards off the screen to reclaim memory and reduce processing load. It’s not as hands-off as Apple’s approach, but it’s way more productive.
The multitasking ability of the Pre is honestly one of two features I really, really wish my iPhone had. Multitasking has been done by many smartphones before the Pre or iPhone, but no one has done it as smooth and as Apple-like as Palm.
Obviously if you have a lot of applications running your battery life will suffer. I have noticed that with a number of apps running I can make the Pre easily die before my iPhone 3G, but as long as you’re smart with what you have running in the background and only have things open that you really need open you should be just fine. I’ve found that in general usage, the Pre lasts about as long as my iPhone 3G. I’ve got actual numbers to share later in the review.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
91 Comments
View All Comments
Griswold - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
"Multitasking has been done by many smartphones before the Pre or iPhone, but no one has done it as smooth and as Apple-like as Palm."We're in the 3rd generation of iphones now and they still cant multitask. If palm does it perfectly, calling it "apple-like" is certainly inappropriate. Palms Pre is now the yardstick for multitasking on the mobile sector. Credit where credit is due, please.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
I meant it in a flattering way. That sort of praise is normally reserved for Apple; bestowing it upon Palm, not traditionally a recipient of such praise was intended to be an honor :-PTake care,
Anand
Johnmcl7 - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
"Shame on Nokia, Motorola and the established cell phone industry for failing to do what it took Palm two years to do."Ok, so this point is made followed by compliments for multitasking and the cloud syncing however Nokia have had a similar multitasking system implemented in S60 for years (hold the app button to get a list of all apps and change to them as you want). Background apps can have their own data connections without interfering with each other and if you do push them too far the phone will warn you it's running low on memory. I find it strange that the lack of multitasking which is really a requisite for a smartphone has been so overlooked with the Iphone. Nokia's Ovi product lets you sync your system remotely or you can hook your contacts directly into the likes of Facebook with the latest version of S60.
While Nokia lack the flash of other companies however Apple still cannot match the featureset of the S60 phones that were out before the Iphone 2G and I find their core features to be extremely strong particularly signal reception - the 5800 can hold onto a signal where no other phone can which makes it considerably more useful given it is a phone after all.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
While Nokia has done a great job adding features to its phones over the years, on the UI side the innovation just hasn't been there. Both Apple and Palm deliver far more usable, simple and smooth UIs on their smart phones than I've seen from anyone else.If your cellphone UI has never bothered you then Nokia more than delivers capable handsets, however I believe (and I feel that a significant portion of the high end smartphone market agrees) that it's only been since the iPhone that we've seen real attention paid towards improving UI and user experience on these phones. Palm does a wonderful job of carrying the torch for the next leg imho.
Take care,
Anand
Connoisseur - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
I totally agree. Everyone keeps harping on this article regarding the "features" and how they've been available for a long time in other phones. The feature-set aside, these phones just offer a level of smoothness and ease of use in the UI that 90% of the population is wowed about. Sure my old Treo offered a lot of functionality but it took an Apple to take the key components and make it such a pleasure to use.jmaine - Saturday, June 20, 2009 - link
Please define "genuine smartphone". Enlighten us to what the iPhone cannot do (and do well) that a Nokia smartphone would be a better choice for the masses? I switched to an iPhone after years of using Nokia, Motorola, Sony, Samsung and Blackberry phones. I even have a Treo 750 from work right now and I absolute hate it and all the former phones I've used and constantly switched between.TheProf, Connoisseur and Anand hit the nail on the head. It's the interface and usability, not the features that make a smart phone a commercial success. You can have a 12 megapixel phone with an OLED display, but with horrible software, support and application support. It will fail despite the strength of its hardware.
I've been reading a lot about the Palm Pre's problems since launch - overheating, poor battery life, and software crashes. Don't forget that a smart phone's function is to be a phone first, and everything else after. If you can't use its features without affecting it's essential functionality as a phone, it's a failure.
Johnmcl7 - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
I don't see the point in having a fancy UI if there's nothing underneath it, I expect a lot of functionality from a smartphone (otherwise I would use a normal phone) and Apple still seems to be far behind where Nokia were years before. If you want a fashion phone then yes, a fancy UI is definitely a desirable feature.Also, I still fail to see why you 'shame' Nokia then praise Palm for a system which Nokia have had for many years.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
I believe that the iPhone and Pre do offer much more than a fancy UI, I believe they offer a good balance of features and good interface. Not holding phone makers to a high standard when it comes to UI is how we ended up in this mess in the first place, I don't believe now is the time to go back to our old ways.I'm not shaming Nokia for its multitasking support, I'm shaming Nokia for not producing a comparable Pre-like or iPhone-like UI in the years since the original iPhone's release. In my mind it should have been Nokia and Motorola who built the first iPhone, they had the experience; for Apple to come in and build such a successful smartphone indicates that there's something wrong with the way the established makers approach phone designs.
Take care,
Anand
Johnmcl7 - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
That's because Nokia make genuine smartphones, not devices pretending to be smartphones just because they have a fancier interface - on the initial Iphone release it was missing features even standard phones had (such as proper bluetooth support). I honestly don't know how a phone as basic as the Iphone gets such a free ride on what is supposed to be a tech site - it's very slowly getting there but to me a device without multitasking cannot be considered a smartphone as that severely limits the device.Even on media features Nokia had Apple beaten hands down and still do in some areas, I'm waiting for the next release in the drip feed series of Iphones which will have a decent camera as at the moment they seem to be around three years behind on that front.
Overall I just much prefer Nokia's approach to a mobile phone - pack as many features into a phone to make it a powerful device rather than Apple's approach of putting at little as possible to force people to upgrade constantly. I guess I'll never understand how tech sites can get so wowed by an interface they can completely overlook the lack of any substance underneath it.
Samus - Saturday, June 20, 2009 - link
Yea... Nokia's smartphones are 'true' smartphones. Thats why Blackberry and Apple outsell Nokia smartphones like 50:1.Nokia makes sturdy dependable phones, but their IU has the elegence of a VW Golf dashboard. Boring. Boring. Boring.