I bought my first Pilot 1000 in 1996 for a specific purpose: writing where I happened to be. It's a bit frustrating, then, that my Palm Pre is not (yet) the writing device that that Pilot 1000 was.
One reason is input method. Palm's brilliant Graffiti worked and worked well; I was able to hand write my name correctly the first time I tried it. Input could also be done one-handed, with something that resembled a pen, which helped with inobtrusive notetaking. For those who preferred, an onscreen, tappable keyboard was also available, and text could be entered on a PC and synched to the Pilot (more on that below). Later, of course, the PalmOS platform gained multiple input methods, including external keyboards, but even from the start, there was choice.
By contrast, at least upon release, the Pre is limited to a single input method: the thumbboard. While it works well enough (the first draft of this blog was written on my Pre, for example), it's the only choice, at least for now.
Of greater concern, though, is that the Pre did not ship with any way of synchronizing text (which is why, having drafted this on my Pre, I'm retyping it on my laptop). Because Palm chose Microsoft ActiveSync and Google Sync as the underlying sync architecture for the Pre instead of its own Hotsync, it got stuck with the fact that neither ActiveSync nor Google supports synching memos, just calendar, addresses and tasks. While one can read Microsoft Word docs and PDFs manually transferred or e-mailed to the Pre, and import (once) PalmOS memos into the barebones Notes apps, there are no categories and no synching changes or new writing back. This is an unconscionable omission on Palm's part.
Happily, with Hotsync coming to MotionApps' Classic PalmOS emulator and with Dataviz reportedly working on a full version of Documents To Go, some sort of back-and-forth writing feature is coming soon. I also maintain hope that Palm will enable Bluetooth keyboard support (a safe bet, based both on history and some references to the relevant protocol in the released WebOS code), and expect that some creative developers will provide new input (and output) methods. Until then, though, to those like me who write often and everywhere, the Pre is just not finished. {ProfJonathan, whose Pre-related tweets are at @PreLawyer}
UPDATE: Thanks to Twitter friend @PalmDoc, who correctly pointed out that Evernote, which does have a WebOS client, can be used to move text back and forth between PC/Mac and the Pre. It's not the most elegant solution (nor does it sync Outlook Notes properly), but at least it's a start. Thanks, @PalmDoc!
