Sorry Palm Pre

I really wanted to want a Palm Pre. The UI is really amazing, I played with it in the store and was impressed by how intuitive it was for me. I love the size and shape, it really works for a pocketable device, but what finally killed it for me was the 8gb of non-expandable storage. I tried to get over it. I mulled it around for the last few days and finally came to the conclusion that if my 30gb zune was too small 8gb was never going to cut it.

Better luck next time Palm, I wanted your phone I really did. I am sort of dissapointed with the overall size of the HTC hero I will be getting, but expandable storage of 16gb now and 32gb sometime in the future sealed the deal.

OS X Atom support

I think with the release of the new beta with atom support re-enabled the move to disable atom was one of three things

1. A genuine bug, even the mighty Apple isn't infallible
2. Apple testing the waters their for technical ability to lockout the platform. Given how little doubt there was associated with that this was deployed and their proclivity to block the Pre and pretty much anyone that doesn't genuflect at the Steve Jobs reflective pool and leave their wallet at the door.
   
3. To gauge backlash and stir the pot. The company thrives largely by capturing mind share, and their lackluster new commercials and a VP promising no new products for the year maybe the shrewed marketers thought of a way to get themselves in the news. If so it worked.

I don't care really I have a mini 9 that I keep threatinging to cook up a hackintosh on, or rock windows 7 on and them locking that option out would speed up my decision for sure. I don't like some things about the OS X paradigm, but that comes from someone that likes to build my own machine and tweek the rigs often so I may not be the best person to ask this question to.

Zune, Analysts, and Navel Gazing

Zune, man do you get some hate out of the Apple fanboy camp. I will wager that few if any of them have used the damn device, and all they can say is that it sucks. I can say from using both that either will play your music, and games with the only real difference being the software and pricing options for music. The Zune pass is pretty damn compelling for the younger set, I remember buying several cd's a month in High School I have to imagine that there are several parents that would find this a cheap alternative (though Pandora and Last.fm may make this moot).

The analyst in this article thinks MS should buy Palm and try to emulate Apple seems all kinds of off base with his recommendations, given that the Zune software is not a mobile telecommunications device, and Palm's historical response to those types of situations (remember HandSpring) is not positive. Couple all of this that the stand alone media player may be going the way of the Dodo Bird even the Zune HD coming, we may see the Zune device folded into Mobile offerings I doubt much would come of Palm talks or at best a partnership with Palm so that their device can sync with the Zune software.