Chronicles of a Windows Mobile User Gone Palm Pre (part 4)

I have been using Windows Mobile and Pocket PCs as my MP3 and media players since 2000. They were the first pocket computers to have most of the capabilities that you see in all of the smartphones these days. For that reason, I have never used iTunes for my media library. It never made sense for me to carry an MP3 player and a phone as separate devices especially since even early Windows Mobile devices from 10 years ago were capable media players. So since I’ve got the Palm Pre now, I thought it was time to try out iTunes in order to see how it works. Not with my own Windows Media Center library though.



I started up iTunes 8 on a Mac OS 10.4 desktop and plugged the Palm Pre in the USB. The Pre gave me a dialog box asking if I wanted to connect as mass storage or media sync or just charge. I choose Media Sync and iTunes started up a spinning beachball before connecting to the Pre. The Pre also notified me that I would be unable to use the device at all while syncing. No phone calls or text messages even. How is this acceptable behavior for something that calls itself a smartphone?

My Windows Mobile devices are completely capable of all functions at the same time (depending on program memory and CPU). I can be syncing TV shows, music, Outlook, etc., while texting people through Pocket Controller on the PC and answering phone calls from a Bluetooth headset.

Anyway, after a couple hours of not being able to use the Palm Pre at all while it was syncing with iTunes, it finally came back to life loaded with music.

The music player on the Palm Pre is pretty nice. It’s got large finger-friendly menus and kinetic scrolling. The now-playing screen shows the media playback controls as well as album art that you can flick side to side to switch tracks. This is a great way to interact with a touch screen device while listening to music in the car because you don’t have to be very accurate in trying to find the next-track button (by taking your eyes off the road). Unfortunately, sometimes the screen dims itself or turns off completely, and then you have to search for the power button to change your music again.

The music library screens also support searching with the keyboard. This is similar to the way you can auto-filter library lists in Windows Media Player on Windows Mobile… a great feature sorely missing from many other platforms. Another excellent feature of the Palm Pre is the mini-music player buttons in the notification area. Tap the bottom notification area while the Music player application is running and you can skip tracks or pause the music right from there. This also means that you can have access to both the GPS Navigation program and the music player at the same time! I’ve been asking for that for years!

On the other hand, the Palm Pre does not have any voice command control over the Media Player. That’s something I love to use all the time in the car with the Bluetooth stereo, car kit, or headset.