Top 20 Palm Pre Feature Requests

Preonauts Share Ideas, Feature Requests To Improve The Palm Pre

Although I’ve had my share of issues (nothing really major) with the Palm Pre I have to admit that I have been very (pleasantly) surprised to see just how overwhelmingly positive the general feedback has been to date – it appears that the vast majority of Preonauts are either extremely or very satisfied with their purchase.

The Palm Pre webOS is still far from perfect in its v1.0.4 iteration but it does nonetheless seem to offer a veritable wealth of possibilities – something that until now only the iPhone appeared to provide.

The overall excitement surrounding the Palm Pre has naturally awakened the passion of many to get involved and help make this smartphone even better.  Below is a list of the Top 20 Palm Pre Feature Requests as voted by Preonauts:

1. Blinking center button for notifications [698 Votes]
Enable the option for center button LED to blink or stay lit (based on user preference) as a visual notification indicator when screen is off.

I had not really thought about this but I guess that the idea is for it to function just as it already does on the Palm Treo Pro. [The functionality is apparently in the Palm Pre ROM but not yet enabled.]

2. Improve battery life [588 Votes]

As I had already outlined in my Palm Pre Battery Life Tips post, there are many ways that you can improve battery life with some simple tweaks.  Having said this, what Preonauts evidently _really_ want is for Palm to figure out a way to either build a higher capacity battery for the Pre and/or to figure out ways to further optimize the OS to deliver longer battery life.

3. Customization of system sounds [475 Votes]
Enable the ability to customize control over all system sounds and events, i.e. separate sounds for New SMS, New Email, New Voicemail, etc.

Clearly, the matter of “personalization” via unique systems sounds is something that would be absolutely great to have…

4. Improve copy/paste functionality [362 Votes]
Extend copy/paste functionality to non-editable text, images (i.e. webpages)

Although the Palm Pre does have a copy/paste functionality the fact is that it’s “messy” and needs much improvement still.  As this feature request also notes, there is currently no way to copy text from webpages, SMS messages and other places…

5. Visual Voicemail [310 Votes]
Enable visual voicemail feature, with a position slider to move back and forth within the voicemail.

I have a feeling that the lack of visual voicemail has less to do with Palm than it has to do with Sprint but hopefully they’ll both eventually figure this out since dialling into my voicemail is becoming rather old-fashioned…

6. Video Recording App [251 Votes]
I have to assume that Palm did not add video recording simply because it did not have the time to complete this function in time for launch but that it will become available soon.

7. SDK (Software Development Kit) [250 Votes]
The release of the Palm Pre SDK (Software Development Kit) is probably inevitable, but vote this one up if it's of interest for YOU.

The main benefit to you of the webOS SDK release is simply that this means that there will be a lot more apps available so evidently this is a rather important major request…

8. On-screen keyboard [234 Votes]
Allow the optional ability to toggle an onscreen keyboard, which would be especially useful in landscape mode.

I absolutely love the physical keyboard on the Pre but it’s also true that sometimes I wish that I didn’t have to slide the keyboard out and could simply type on the screen.  The main implementation limitation is likely going to be that the screen is too small to fit a virtual keyboard in portrait mode but a landscape mode should be feasible.

9. Improve signal strength [187 Votes]
My coworkers with their Blackberry's and their Palm Treo's have no problem getting good signal strength in my area. Why should those of us who have adopted the Palm Pre suffer with poor signal reception?

I have personally had the opportunity to test a Sprint Palm Pre and a Sprint Treo Pro to determine their relative signal strength and the fact is that they both performed _exactly_ the same so not sure what this issue is about…

10. Optional "Today" screen as home screen [145 Votes]
Allow customizable "Today" screen as optional homepage replacement, which could include the latest two emails or text messages, the next two calendar events, etc.

This definitely gets my vote – I would love to have a Today screen with modules from apps such as weather, email, calendar, messaging and more all integrated in one view (much like on my Treo Pro).

11. Data tethering (Phone as Modem) [139 Votes]
Allow the use of the phone as an internet connection via USB or Bluetooth.

Considering how much you’re paying for the phone, voice and data plan it’s kind of ridiculous that the Pre does not offer tethering.  Please note that this is _entirely_ an issue related to Sprint and not Palm though.

12. Add a good spell checker and autocorrect. [134 Votes]

I hate making “speling miztaques” when writing on my Pre… ;-)  Would be nice if it could help me avoid the embarrassment…

13. Make it so you can filter Gmail and Facebook contacts. [92 Votes]

My understanding is that most of the filtering issues are caused by the Google and Facebook API’s but it would certainly be nice if “someone” could fix them…

14. Turn off backlight for touchstone (option) [91 Votes]
Need the option to disable the backlight when using the Touchstone charger. For both conservation of LEDs and excess ambient light at night.

I found this issue particularly annoying since I like to sleep with the Pre next to my bed overnight resting on its Touchstone.  The problem is that the backlight is so strong that I kept waking up to it…

15. Slide-out keyboard answers and hangs up calls [84 Votes]
Allow the user to set a preference to slide out the keyboard to answer a call, and slide in the keyboard to hang up a call.

There are some usability difficulties in enabling this but as long as it’s set as a user preference I really don’t see why Palm could not implement…

16. Email Search [76 Votes]
I never knew how much I depended on this feature! I get tons of emails every day, and the ability to search the inbox is greatly needed.

Considering how much effort has gone into the Pre “Universal Search” functionality it is indeed more than annoying that you can’t search/filter your emails…

17. Voice control [76 Votes]
Add the ability to dial contacts and control music settings with spoken commands.

If Palm can’t do this themselves I very much hope that they will allow existing voice command solutions to be installed via 3rd party apps in the future…

18. Stronger Vibrate [63 Votes]

I would add not only stronger vibrate but also louder speaker since I regularly cannot hear my phone ringing…

19. Touchstone car charger [47 Votes]
A Touchstone charger for the car would be mighty handy, especially for extended trips that require the Pre's excellent GPS Navigation App!

As I pointed out in my Palm Touchstone For Pre In Your Car post, you can install it to power your Pre but it would indeed be ideal if Palm could provide a Touchstone _specifically_ designed for in-car use…

20. Open PDF’s in web browser [36 Votes]

Although you can view PDF’s already saved within your internal Pre memory there is (quite annoyingly) no way to view PDF’s from within your browser as you get an error message stating “Cannot find an application which can open this file”…  Another thing is that there is also no option to “Save target as…” within the browser either…

Overall, aside from the above Top 20 Feature Requests, I have to say that my own top request is: Please find a way for me to sync multiple Outlook Contact folders with my Pre.  [I’m told that a couple of developers are actively working to make this happen but for now at least I’ve only been able to transfer 100 of my 3,000 contacts…]

Make A Difference.  Get Involved.

The starting point for any future improvements on the Palm Pre is YOU.  If you have ideas about how you would improve the overall Pre experience then I suggest that you get involved by visiting this Palm Pre Feature Requests feedback forum and either create a new idea or vote for one or more of the existing ideas that you would most like to see implemented.  As they say, “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem…”

Preonauts always get involved…