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Scenario

I've had a Palm Pre for more than 2 years now. Like dog years, that's about 14 years in technology world. After this time, the phone started to show signs of wear. Random shutdowns, cracks in the case and the like prompted me to move to a newer, better looking model that requires less maintenance.

I switched to the iPhone 4s. The decision was more out of necessity, than by choice. What other phone could I really choose? The Android or Droid is absolutely horrendous. So that left me with one option, the iPhone.

While it seems like everyone has this phone and absolutely loves it, I'm a little different. After only a week, I can already find myself wanting some of the features of the Palm Pre I've become accustomed to.

Rationalization

You see, I'm a geek. I admit it. I like things a certain way. The litmus test for most of my project implementations is the following:

Perfection is achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away– Antoine de Saint-Exupery .

This has much to do with User Interface design or UI. But it also has to do with how we operate and perform tasks. In projects, I refer to this as processes and procedures.

Only give them the buttons you want them to use. If you don't want them to use a button, don't give it to them. Don't give them 2 steps when you can only give them one. You get the idea.

Top 10 Items I Miss About the Palm Pre and WebOS

As I apply these ideas to the iPhone 4s, I'm amazed. Not at what a wonderful tool it is but how in the world did it become so popular? There are great items about·the device·and it's a cool party topic but most of it is soooo 2007. It's almost 5 years later. We deserve more. We deserve the features the Palm Pre had over 2 years ago.

Here are the top ten·items the Palm Pre/WebOS has/had that I dearly miss:

01. Visual notification. This is really a stroke of genius. The Palm Pre had a visual notification when someone emailed me, texted me or called me. If I didn't get the buzz (or disabled the buzz altogether), the light would flash letting me know even from across the room that something happened. That's great because I'm not tied to my phone all the time but it usually is in close proximity. Now I have to do 4 steps with the iPhone, get the phone, turn on the screen, swipe it to activate and visually check for messages. With the Palm Pre, this only took a glance of my eye. No extra steps required.

02. Unified Swiping. This means that with the Palm Pre, everything was like a book, left to right. That's great because to go back, you don't have to find a button, just swipe to the left (or book backwards) at the bottom of the phone and it will take you back. Again, very intuitive. The iPhone has back buttons scattered all around. Sometimes at the top, sometimes at the bottom. I find fingers going schitz looking for where to push. To me this translates as a slowdown. With the Palm Pre, this is only a swipe of a thumb from the hand that's holding it. No extra steps required.

03. Card Multitasking. This was brilliant as well. On the Web OS, every new item was a card. A simple push of the button will allow you to visually see all the cards so that you can get to the one you want. Want to see a contact while writing an email? No problem, just push one button to activate the carding system and go to the contacts. Then go back via the same route you came. No extra steps required.

04. Screen Size. Believe it or not, in some cases, the screen size was larger on the Palm Pre than the iPhone. When I have to text something, the virtual keyboard takes up more than half of the physical screen size leaving my texting visual field to nearly that of a calculator I had in high school. Ugh... I miss the larger usable screen size.

05. Texting App. I can barely read texts on the iPhone. I don't need to shrink and see a comic-bubble like on the iOS. The WebOS had texting in full font size and differentiates people by a simple different color background. It also time stamped conversations easily to see when conversations happened. I miss the WebOS texting app.

06. Cloud. I mean really. It's November 2011 and the iOS is just coming out with cloud which requires a forced upgrade. WebOS has this by default and has it by design and since inception almost 3 years ago. If I drop the phone in the ocean, who cares. I buy a new one type in my username and password and viola... all my important stuff is there including my APPS. No extra steps required.

07. Synergy. This is something iOS still hasn't caught onto. Lets say I have a Facebook Friend named Dallas Herrmann. Guess who's contact is in my contacts? Dallas's. Guess who's picture shows when Dallas calls? Dallas's. I didn't put it there, it pulled from Facebook. Chances are if he's my friend in Facebook, he'll call my cell phone. If he changes his picture on Facebook, it changes on my phone. I can override this of course. I really liked this. No extra steps required.

08. Phone App. The Phone App on the iPhone is terribly thought out in my opinion. Going from voicemail to missed calls to contacts is clumsy. Trying to make a phone call requires more scrolling than an ancient library. Finding contacts is such a slowdown since everyone is listed by last name. With the Palm Pre, I open the phone app and start typing either their first or last name and a short list shows. No extra steps required.

09. Notifications. On the iOS, I get a little read circle with a number. That tells a whole lot of nothing. The WebOS has a notification system that shows a notification with what happened and who did it. Getting rid of them wasn't entering the app, it was a simple swipe to remove the visual item. No extra steps required.

10. Touchstone Charging. The iPhone still has to be plugged in to get a charge. The Palm Pre could have a touch back that rested on a pedestal. This limited the chances of breakage of tiny part or of dirt entering the internals of the device. It was less moving parts. No extra steps required.

Additional Notes

So there you have it, the top 10 items I miss most about the Palm Pre and WebOS. I could have put other items in like the single swipe to delete emails or the sticky note app but the list above is good. If I missed something or if you just want to sound off, let me know. We're a small group.

Also note that there are things that I won't miss about the Palm Pre that should be put into a different post.·As well, there are items about the iPhone 4s that are superior to the Palm Pre which again is a different post altogether.

I suppose my biggest suprise is the lack of support of a large company for the WebOS. It is a viable and in some cases preferred alternative to the iOS. Not everyone needs to have games and apps of the iOS. People like me don't have time for that stuff anyway. What we need is productivity. And that seemed to be the gap the·WebOS filled for me. My device needs to do some things really, really well: phone, contacts, calendar, email, texting and twitter.

There's a Pepsi for Every Coke

In my perfect world, Sprint would have bought the WebOS (instead of HP, yuck) and married it to their services. This would have created a synergy in the mobile communications sector defining themselves for productive people and attracting people who don't prefer the iOS or want·the opposite of items that can be seen as childish. Doing this would have created a clear personal brand that defined Sprint and WebOS for productive people and pitted themselves against the iPhone which is nothing more than an unproductive toy that requires attention that I·have set for other important items. I would used a tag line, Productivity Begins.