Palm really didn't have much of a choice in releasing it. They were frantically racing to get it out the door before the new iPhone 3G-S, but it wasn't 100% ready. I can't even say it was at 85%. To Palm's credit though, it's been evolving in front of our eyes, with frequent OS updates, and the Homebrew community has exploded beyond anyone's expectations.
One feature of the operating system, webOS, is a feature called Synergy. The phone connects to various services you're already a member of and aggregates the contacts, combining them with your existing phone book. If someone updates their contact information on one of these services, such as Facebook, it automatically updates the phone.
My friend Jim Vestal died a few years ago, and shortly before his death, he had signed up for Facebook. Friends of his had requested friendship on Facebook, but he died before getting the chance to accept them.
This past week, Jim's brother Brian was able to gain access to Jim's Facebook account. With the login information, I added my GMail address as a contact so I could receive emails, and made his page public so friends of his could find it. I also uploaded some pictures of him.
Last night, I was at my church's men's group a bit late, when the phone rang. It said I was getting a call from Jim Vestal, with his picture attached! Now, I'm not stupid, I know Jim died, but for a split second, I thought wow, Jim's calling... come to find out, it was my wife. I was disoriented momentarily, then thought about it.
What had happened was I had Jim in my phone as a contact already, I had never removed it. When I changed the contact email, the Pre saw this and immediately connected his Facebook account (and images) to mine, saw there was a new avatar, and put his picture in its place.
So as I said, I think the Pre worked a little too well with Synergy this time around. I just had to share the experience with everyone.
