Well:
1. Palm has never been all that great at doing Bluetooth. That was one of the BEST things about the Blackberry after years of Treos – rock solid Bluetooth all the time every time. 2. WebOS Bluetooth seemed to be better . . . almost as good as the BB, until the “improvements” in 1.4. I notice that the connections to my regular headsets don’t seem to be as clear or consistent now, and, of course, they broke my Volvo car system. Some improvement!! 3. I think they’ll fix this problem, and perhaps all will be well again. Not because I think they care all that much about MY problem (they didn’t really ever offer to follow up again after determining that it really IS a bug in 1.4) but because they also broke Bluetooth for many BMW owners with fancy BMW built-in Bluetooth systems . . . They are not happy! And, for those of you who, like me, wonder if the grass is greener over on the Android side of the fence, two anecdotes that can serve as a cautionary tale: 1. My daughter Katie lost all her email on her Droid a couple of weeks ago. It was there, and then it was gone. A little Google research showed that this is a common Android problem. This was ALL of her email, not just some. Easy enough to get back (Gmail, Exchange and Yahoo) for her, but still very disruptive. Had it been POP email, it would have been GONE. 2. Last night she got a text message while we were having dessert after a show she was in, and immediately after receiving that text message ALL of her text messages disappeared. A little Google research at the table showed that this is a common Android problem. And, unlike email, her text messages (some with important information she had not yet transcribed anywhere) are GONE. Yikes! Android might be cool and have more apps, and stuff, but my palm Pre has NEVER lost stuff for me in the middle of using it!! This cautionary tale reminds me of my baseline opinion of Google: they are the software equivalent of Belkin hardware: excellent, elegant, powerful concepts, realized in a way that’s about 90% finished, leaving that other 10% to rise up and bite you in the arse (take THAT US content filters!!) when you least expect it. All of Google’s services are like that. I just need reminding once in awhile. Katie got a BIG reminder last night! She is most displeased with her shiny new Droid. The HTC Hero still looks interesting to me, and in June it’ll still only cost me $80 to take a look at that $600 (retail) phone, but lest any of us get too antsy about Palm moving forward or being perfect, remember “The Cautionary Story of Katie”!!! Cheers, Don From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jim Griffin Sent: Monday, March 01, 2010 11:18 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Treo] Briefly - 1.4 problem? Hardware problem? We shall see! Great summary (i.e. bullet point forrmat is easy to read). I agree...great service! Don't get that very often from anyone anymore. I agree...seems suspect that it is hardware-related, esp after a software update. As mentioned, my BT is slow to connect now after 1.4. I fault the software update...not hardware...because it would be just too coincidental. Jim (Via Palm Pre) On Mar 2, 2010 12:29 AM, Don Ferguson <[email protected] <mailto:don%40ferguson.us> > wrote: Well, as briefly as I can manage. Perhaps a list! ... Updated to 1.4 ... Enjoyed 1.4 ... Noticed that Bluetooth wasn't behaving with my Volvo car system after 1.4. ... Contacted Palm on Sunday night by chat. ... Was guided through troubleshooting to no avail. ... Was promised a callback Monday from a level 2 support engineer. ... Support engineer called back Monday! ... Support engineer guided me through WebOSDoctor reload of 1.4 (interesting process). ... Reload of 1.4 didn't address the problem. ... Told by Palm that it's a hardware problem. ... I don't really think it is; I think it's a Bluetooth change in 1.4 that made it incompatible with my Volvo car system. ... However, it won't work with my son's car system (also Volvo, but 6 years newer) either, so maybe it IS a coincidental hardware problem. ... But I don't really think it is. ... Ah, well. ... Could send in to Palm for repair for free for 5 days. ... Can't do without the Pre for 5 days. ... Could spend $100 deductible and get insurance replacement with new one. ... Don't really want to spend $100. ... Could spend $30 and get advance exchange from Palm. ... Don't really want to spend $30, either. ... Could go to Sprint repair center and get refurb exchange for free. ... Free is good. ... Went to Sprint repair center to get advance exchange refurb for free. ... Had an appointment. Started right on time. Service person immediately said "just replace it". ... I like that! ... Refurb exchange for free will arrive day after tomorrow at my house! All in all, I'd rather that the hardware not fail (or whatever) but the overall experience was very positive. Skilled, proactive support that actually cares about resolving a problem: when did that become exceptional?! Cheers, Don [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
