Sprint Palm Pre Review, Westin Huntsville Review

Palm Pre
I didn't want to be an early adopter... I wasn't -too- early of an adopter, as I waited 2 weeks before trying to get a Palm Pre. For the previous 24 months, I had owned a Sanyo SCP-8400 power flip phone.

Let me start by listing what I do not like about my new Palm Pre, having used it for about 2 weeks now.

1. The lack of a physical dialing pad. I find myself inadvertenly hitting the screen and accidently activating apps or other things unintentionally. This thing really needs a voice dial option.
2. The lack of T9 text. I didn't realize how use I got to that functionality, literally typing whole sentences with like 5 button presses.
3. I swear the Palm freakin' grows fingerprints.
4. The lack of video camera. My Sanyo had this functionality, while not totally useful with it's lame camera, I bet the new Pre camera would work a lot better.
5. The lack of a web based Sprint phone usage check. On my old phone I could access the Sprint Website and it would show usage for all 5 phones on my plan. I can't do that with this one.
6. The lag time when using Speed Dial functionality. You have to press and hold for a second before the speed dial kicks in. Sometimes it misfires and it just inputs the number.
7. No dedicated SMS text area. It all gets combined with chats.
8. The included Facebook app is weak. Use the real website through the browser. Much better.
9. Standard Ring tones. There are like 10 of them, and they all suck. I'm working on making new ones on my computer with a Presonus firepod, cubase, and a mic and some instruments.

What I do like about the Palm Pre:

1. Web functionality. I surf a lot on my phone and use to use Opera Mini on the Sanyo. The Webkit based browser is a lot more functional. And, with Adobe Flash 10 being supported for the Pre, The mobile web experience is going to only get better.
2. Instant Messaging. The free Yahoo and AOL IM on my Sanyo were weak. I had to constantll refresh to get new messages. Now with the Pre, it updates in real time! yay!
3. Synergy contact list. Pulls in all contacts from all social media apps. good and bad really. But handy.
4. Basic apps... good start but need more. I'm not an "app" user. I use my phone to call and surf.

Ok, so there are a lot more cons than pros. However, the big deal is the web and IM surfing ability. It is so handy!

The other thing is, we have the 1500 minute family plan for $129/mo (includes 2 lines), and 3 extra lines at $20/mo each, so our total bill is about $189/mo. However I get a 25% discount, so it's about $142/mo for the following:

• 5 Phone lines
• 1500 anytime minutes
• unlimited text
• unlimited data
• GPS with voice and turn by turn directions
• Sprint TV and Radio
• Nights starting at 7 PM! ( 2 hours before everyone else)
• Nights ending at 7 AM! (1 hour after everyone else)

You simply can't beat the Sprint value! That's why we use them.

The Westin: Huntsville, AL
Over July 4th weekend, we stayed at Huntsville's "Only 4-star" hotel. The Westin is located at Bridge Street Town Centre, which is Huntsville's attempt at an upscale outdoor mall. They did it fairly well. However one has to wonder how well the whole thing works when it's 90 degrees with 100% humidity, as often happens here in the summer. I sure don't want to be walking around in that!

Was it nice? I guess so. Clearly the furniture was significantly upgraded over a normal hotel. I thought the room walls were thin though, because we could clearly hear the TV in the room beside us. The shower was super cool with two shower heads and an all glass shower. The King bed was comfortable at first, but seemed to actually get harder as the night went on. The thermostat was set on 68, but never felt that cool in the room. Elevator was key card activated, and you could only go to your floor which is a nice security feature. The pool was packed out. Never got a chance to use it.

The staff was cordial. Friendly isn't the word I would use.

Would I stay here again? I really don't know. It's handy, but is it worth $160/night? Probably not.