Pre Reviews Begin to Trickle In

The Palm Pre is coming out soon and the big gadget websites are getting their reviews in:

Boy Genius Report loves webOS but feels that the keyboard is too small and that the Pre itself feels cheap and plasticky.
Gizmodo has a similar opinion.
Engadget puts up a huge three part review. They really loved the Pre but complained about glitches with Synergy and feel that Facebook integration fills your Pre with worthless contacts.

Update I: Boing Boing Gadgets has a much more complete roundup of Pre reviews.

Update II: Businessweek has one of the more negative reviews and it points out that MotionApps Classic application which allows the Pre to run PalmOS applications only has a seven day trial. This is disappointing as it becomes one more thing that users moving from older Palm devices will have to buy in order to upgrade to the Pre.

Update III: Associated Press has a fairly positive review with an interesting look the bugs which sap the Pre's battery life:

When I first got the Pre, I was dismayed by its battery life. I got less than 24 hours of light use out of it, and it would lose nearly a third of its charge if left inactive overnight. It turns out there's a bug that drains the battery if your Google instant-messaging account is connected to your AOL Instant Messenger account. Palm says it will fix that. When I logged Google out of AIM, I got much longer life.

I extended battery life even further by setting the Pre to receive my personal e-mail instantly rather than checking every 15 minutes. That's counterintuitive — usually getting the e-mail automatically "pushed" to a device consumes more power.

I ended up with nearly two days of battery life, which I think is acceptable for a hardworking smart phone. But it would be great if Palm made it easier to manage power consumption.

Update IV: Palminfocenter, one of the oldest and biggest Palm enthusiast websites, posts their exhaustive review of the Palm Pre.

Mars Phoenix Speaks

NASA has been posting first person accounts of the Mars Phoenix lander's mission via Twitter for some time now. It's basically the only reason why I got a Twitter account—in order to follow Phoenix. It's cool and sometimes even poignant to receive these little messages from Mars. Now, nearing the end of its life, the Phoenix Lander saying goodbye as a "guest blogger" on Gizmodo.

Now another NASA mission, New Horizons is jumping on the Twitter bandwagon as it makes its way to Pluto. If nothing else, it seems like a great way to get young people interested in science.