Popular Science ranks Pre among best of 2009 21
Tue, 17 Nov 2009 8:55 am EST 
The year is winding to a close, so it’s time for all sorts of publications to put together their year-ending lists. And Popular Science, the gadget heads that they are, put together their listing of the ‘Best of What’s New 2009.’ Since you’re reading about it here on PreCentral, we think you can figure out what made the list. Yep, the Palm Pre.
What about the Pre was deemed to be cool enough to be among ‘the best’? It’s social aspects, specifically integration with social networking (i.e. Facebook and LinkedIn) as well as its integrated messaging combination of IM and SMS.
The Pre isn’t the only thing to make the list of coolness. Also in the gadgets category you’ll find the Canon EOS 5D Mark II DSLR camera, the Microsoft Zune HD PMP, Fujifilm FinePix Real 3D W1 stereo 3-D camera, and the Android operating system.
Thanks to amarub for the tip!
21 Comments
and the Pre Only keeps getting Better! :-D Who knows maybe by December it will be the Worlds Best Gadget... ;-P I'll keep my fingers Crossed. :-D
Perhaps Popular Science and the Borg-Queen know how to make the Pre as functional as a Treo.
Lets not get too excited by a PS endorsement. If you've read them as long as I have, we're 20 years overdue for solar powered cars, mag-lev trains and centralized geo-thermal energy transfer facilities.
its a shame they didn't read your other article.Maybe they would have known the truth!!!!!
Now that is quite funny :D
Man the Palm Pre is getting ranked among the best of 2009 everywhere. Kind of makes me wonder why this phone isn't at the top with all the smartphones in terms of sales, maybe when it hits Verizon and AT&T. Not to say it isn't doing well of course.
The creepy lady commercials can't possibly help.
The 'best' technology does not at all lead to the best selling. BETA was a better technology than VHS!
Unfortunately marketing, advertising, word-of-mouth, ease of use, inertia, etc often dominate over the underlying technology. I say unfortunately because I make technology for a living :-)
And agreed, Creepy Lady ads probably didn't help.
I would go so far as saying the terrible add campaign was the primary reason for the lower than expected sales. They needed to come out with a bang, not a whimper. They never sufficiently explained to consumers why the pre was a better choice. So far, the pixie commercials seem to be repeating this mistake.
Yep. Marketing has been really pathetic. Commercials appeal to a really small niche and are a little confusing.
You know what else made that list. Android. Ridiculous. In my opinion, webOS is extremely more revolutionary.
They probably had to do that, since android is more popular, and it would look weird if you had webOS but not android
I own a Pre and hate it. I will like this phone the day Palm moves from CPU->GPU. The lag on this phone is ridiculous. Ever try making two phone calls one after each other? Music player is ridiculous also.
Well, I don't HATE my Pre, but I have to agree: the Phone app is pathetically sluggish. I'm amazed more of a stink hasn't been made about this yet, either. There's a significant delay with the buttons, it usually takes me 2 or 3 tries to speed dial correctly, switching back and forth from keypad to recent calls list is achingly slow. Seriously, we shouldn't even be talking about this.
Ah well. I too hope the CPU - > GPU will speed things up. As much as I like WebOS (and I really do... moreso than iPhone software), the sluggishness of it really sours the experience. All the accolades the phone gets are well deserved for what the phone represents and is aiming to accomplish, but in everyday use there is a lot that needs to be refined. The phone app, however, should not be one of them.
Personally, I can't wait for WebOS 2.0
My Pre has less lag than Google Wave =)
Just for grins, I went back and looked at Popular Science Best-of for 2006 in the gadget section. It has some things that did well and others that I never heard of.
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/flat/bown/2006/product_50.html
Sony Reader PRS-500 "Goodbye Paper"
Back-up Pal
The Gremlin Music Player
Motorola Moto Q
Pioneer Inno XM Reciever
Nokia N95
Fast forward 3 years, and the only thing I've heard of on that list that isn't trashed by a lot of people is the Nokia N95. The main reason for that is because its one of those smartphones the majority of cell phone customers have never seen or wanted, because it's primarily sold unsubsidized.
The Moto Q was liked? My ex HATES her with the passion of 1,000 suns.
I believe most of the Q's were 2G and I've never seen anyone excited by a 2G phone. Except for certain trendy sheeple 2.5 years ago when someone "invented" the touchscreen smartphone.
I even had a 3G Q (Q9M) on Verizon, and that thing was pathetically sluggish. My Pre is super zippy compared to that pile of garbage.
I guess this means they got a good Pre build XD
@drewkora my thoughts exactly. The quicksearch feature is something that is in my opinion the most valuable feature the phone has. I love it how you can just start typing and then twitter, google, map, or wikipedia it.
The notifications are pretty but sometimes lag the phone and it gets in the way with the music player control buttons. The experience using this phone makes me want to throw it against a wall and pull my hair out. I am eagerly awaiting webOS 2.0.
good fun in his absence.
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