He wanted the keyboard so much, as mentioned, he sacrificed screen real-estate on the Palm Pixi for it. I find that absurd.

I think you got it the other way around. The iPhone sacrificed screen real-estate to stick the virtual keyboard in it, not the Pre.

I thought you wrote “Pre” instead of “Pixi”. In that case, if you mean Ruby sacrificed screen real-estate on the Pixi relative to the Pre, I see what you mean.

…But then again, they didn’t sacrifice any real-estate on the Pre to get the keyboard in there. And even the older, smaller-screen’d Treo series and the Centro–with its 320×320 screens–still had more screen than what is left on an iPhone when you get the keyboard up.

And then someone else also mentioned that you can do a lot more with the keyboard than type… with the iPhone, its keyboard is used ONLY for typing. The keyboard on WebOS phones–and even on the Treos and Centro as well–double as any other kind of control. The most common non-typing use for the Palm keyboard is a shortcut to programs or phone numbers: if you hold down, say, the H-key for two seconds, you can call your friend. Hold down the D-key and you load up your email. Easy and quick!

Well, it isn’t great. … The execution … especially on the early units, was really unfortunate given how much else Palm got right.

It’s not all rosy for Palm, webOS, the Palm Pre, Palm Pixi, and their mobile strategy going forward.

Well, you gotta admit that it’s not bad for something that was barely a year old (at the time the article was written). The iPhone 1 wasn’t ANYTHING like you guys compared the Pre against, and certainly not as “rosy” as the iPhone 3GS was in January (hopefully you didn’t forget the fact that it took about a year or two for the iPhone to get copy-and-pasting and video recording, right?)

I dare you to write an article comparing either the Pre to the iPhone 1, or the iPhone 4 to the iPhone 1, and see if ANYONE gets their execution perfect in their first year.

He wanted the keyboard so much, as mentioned, he sacrificed screen real-estate on the Palm Pixi for it. I find that absurd.

I think you got it the other way around. The iPhone sacrificed screen real-estate to stick the virtual keyboard in it, not the Pre. I mean, look at this:

http://www.nick15.com/images3/youve.gotta.be.kidding.me.large.jpg

At least with the Pre, I can type AND have ALL 480×320 pixels to myself. Typing on the iPhone means losing at least half of the screen in order to get some text in. Sure, it’s not all the time you see the keyboard hogging up the screen on the iPhone, but at least with the Pre I can keep all 480×320 pixels 100% of the time.

some people have been so raised on physical keyboards, even on tiny little devices, that they wouldn’t transition to virtual even if, from an overall usability standpoint, they could or should.

Smartphones are evolving beyond priority messaging devices to priority (data/media/etc.) consumption devices and hardware keyboards are legacy, bolted-on technology comforting for the former but waiting to be obsoleted when technology allows virtual keyboards to better serve the latter (and we’re part of the way there with the iPhone).

“Should”?

I don’t quite understand where you’ve come to the conclusion that virtual keyboards is the end-all, is-all way of keyboards, and that it’s only a matter of time before anyone “left” using physical keyboards makes the “transition” over. Virtual keyboards have their place and their reasons to exist, but there’s a reason why physical buttons and keyboards still exist on devices; I mean, why isn’t the Home button, volume keys and the vibrate switch on the iPhone all on the touchscreen as well? (Not to mention other devices with touch screens like the upcoming Nintendo 3DS and those Logitech super remotes…)

You even said it yourself: “I won’t be writing novel-length compositions on a BlackBerry”

You recognize that people COULD write novel-length compositions on their devices, even if YOU don’t. THAT’S what physical keys are for, that’s why they exist even on an iPhone; virtual keys can’t fulfill 100% of a user’s needs, 100% of the time… even the iPhone needs physical keys. (And don’t start saying “well the iPhone’s physical keys are totally different than a physical keyboard”… ok, how is it different then?)

As I said, until this review, I would have whole-heartedly exclaimed “the era of physical keyboards is over”.

No, but you instead said “the era of physical keyboards won’t die because there are too many old farts who won’t yield to the future!”

Physical keyboards aren’t “the past”, virtual keyboards aren’t “the future”… they’re “an alternative” from one-another. It’s like saying that “Pepsi is the future over Coca-Cola, that EVERYONE will make the switch to Pepsi sooner or later, because Pepsi is geared more towards younger drinkers”. People aren’t “holding onto” physical keyboards anymore than someone is “holding onto” their Mac or Windows computer; I prefer physical keys over virtual ones because I prefer the advantages of what physical keys bring over virtual keys–specifically muscle-memory. There is nothing “outdated” about that, unless you consider “typing words with a higher rate of efficiency AND without having to resort to the auto-correct” as “outdated”.

One day haptics may be sufficiently advanced enough that mighty-morphin’, there-and-gone-again virtual-that-feel-like-physical keyboards are enough for everybody.

The only times I’ll make the switch to virtual keyboards is if somehow the touch screen can physically bulge out at specific points that replicate the actual feel of physical buttons, only to disappear when you don’t need it. If that’s what you meant here, then I totally agree with you there.

I’m so happy with the iPhone keyboard that I’ll never go back to a physical one.

Well, good, I’m glad you do. But don’t assume that just because YOU like it, the rest of us SHOULD as well, and if we don’t, we’re actually lagging behind in the digital dust… or that we’re just a bunch of fundamentalists who want to keep holding onto the “past”. There’s room enough for both to co-exist, and it also doesn’t mean that one will eventually replace the other either. I mean, why does the future have to be so narrow minded that only one type can exist?

One last thing:

Not having to engage forearm muscles to depress tiny keys and hold the rest of the phone stable while I do so is a huge advantage in my book.

…you have problems keeping a phone stable? I mean, you HAVE to engage your forearm muscles to hold a phone stable while you type?? (@_@) I can understand if the phone is like, 40 pounds. But for something that’s barely 10 ounces, the only muscle that should be engaged while typing is your brain.

The Pre and Pre/Pixi Plus prefer to connect to known Wi-Fi networks (rather than EVDO) for several reasons: lower power consumption on Wi-Fi, ability to do both data and voice simultaneously, and a presumed speed boost via Wi-Fi. iPhones do the same thing although being GSM, they already could do voice and data simultaneously.

The keyboard is very much intrinsically linked to universal search. Universal search on webOS (while not nearly as “universal” as iPhone’s OS 3.0 search engine) is a global thing. From card view (swipe up once), you just start typing with the keyboard and it immediately searches app names, and contacts. If none of those match your query, it gives you a choice to which search engine you’d like to send the search terms.

In addition, the physical keyboard isn’t just for us to type, it is a direct interface to the machine. Just the other day a Pre user I support brought his Pre to me in some weird, locked-up state. I did the Alt-Sym-R reboot and all was fine. That kind of direct-to-the-hardware connection simply cannot be duplicated with a software keyboard. (Yes, I realize there is a hold-switch combo for that–I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to look it up.)

Also, the physical keyboard plus the screen plus the gesture area gives us TONS of flexibility, with Gesture + keyboard presses, multi-key presses, gesture+taps and key-presses that modify gestures.

You want super speed dial? Set any of the 26 letters as a shortcut key and from card view, press and hold that key for 2 seconds to dial that number.

I’m just sayin’, there’s more to physical keyboards than just typing.

1The hardware problems with the first Pres has totally disappeared in all devices form August and onward. Disinformation #1

2-I have a screen protector on and it works quite well with the multitouch. It’s not true that the phone is insensitive with a screen protector.

3-The attack on physical keyboard is silly. Some people like them, some don’t. Having a physical keyboard does not mean a phone is ancient like is suggested above.

4-The end of the article is about vapourware about the alleged new iPhone and a weird way to end a review.

The reviewer writes about the lack of contrasts in webOS. What the hell does that mean. What is she raving about? What contrast? A lot of the comments are cheap shots and not objective. Will have to write a longer rebuttal with a check list of all that’s wrong with this article written in bad faith.

If it wasn’t for the small screen and small keyboard, I’d actually entertain the thought of owning a Pre. But until those things change, I’ll be an iPhone owner for many years to come.

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