Hardware:

In terms of hardware, the phones couldn’t be much more different. In terms of size, the EVO is considerably larger with a 4.3″ screen rather than the Pre’s 3.1″. Screen resolutions scale appropriately, with the Pre running on 320×480 and the EVO on 480×800. The Palm Pre is a vertical slider with a physical QWERTY keyboard, while the EVO uses a soft keyboard. The Pre has a 3MP camera while the EVO features two: an 8MP camera on the back and a 1.3MP on the front for video calls.

At first I thought the EVO’s massive size would be a problem, but after a day or so of use it felt perfectly natural to hold and fits fine in my pockets. Also on the outside of the device, the EVO features a kickstand, presumably for when watching video, as well as an HDMI port for outputting to a TV, which I have yet to test.

Internally, there’s a lot of difference as well. The Pre runs on a 500MHz TI OMAP processor, where the EVO has a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU. The RAM has doubled as well, from 256MB to 512MB (although due to a software bug, Android 2.1 can only address the first half of that, this is supposedly fixed in 2.2, as well as some custom ROMs). The Pre has 8GB of internal memory, while the EVO has 1GB along with an expandable 8GB via micro SD.

And of course, there’s the Sprint 4G radio in the EVO, but since Louisville isn’t even on the roadmap for that yet, I’ve been unable to test it.

The closest thing I have to a benchmark utility for these phones is Sunspider, so here goes: (single run each, both on WiFi, totally non-scientific, lower is better)

Palm Pre: 30480.0ms

HTV EVO 4G: 13165.8ms

and, for fun:

Dragon (Core i7, Ubuntu, Chromium): 389.2ms

Software

This is what was most appealing to me about the new phone. The Palm Pre ran on Palm’s webOS which, while nice, doesn’t have the same development community that Android does. The EVO is running on Google’s Android operating system, currently the latest (stable!) version, 2.1.

Surprisingly, there were actually a good number of software elements that I miss from the old phone. First up is cardview, the method that Palm uses to handle multitasking which basically puts each app in its own “card” that can be switched between and then tossed off the screen to close. Android, on the other hand, leaves most apps running in the background after close, and instead of cards, a long press of the home key brings up a list of the six most recently used apps (whether they’re still running or not). If you want to access a running app older than that, you’ll have to find it’s icon and launch it that way.

Another oddity in Android is the way apps seem to “stack.” For example, if I’m in the Reddit app and I click on a link, it opens in the web browser. However, if I now hit the “back” key, I’m taken back into the Reddit app. In situations like this, it makes sense, but I’ve run into a couple of cases where I’m taken between apps unexpectedly by the back button. In general, apps don’t seem as contained as they did in webOS.

Another small touch that I miss from webOS is screen rotation. While Android will rotate the screen automatically, it does so instantly with no sort of animation for the transition, where Palm had the screen rotate and expand, which gave it a nice appearance.

Synchronization with web services is just as good if not better than on webOS, especially if those services are run by Google. I was already using Google Voice to manage my voicemail, but now I’m moving towards using it for more, since I have a good level of integration with my phone. I also now have proper support for Google Latitude without having to hack in support as well as a much more full-featured Maps application in general, with Street View and Turn by Turn Navigation.

The amount of available software for Android is one of the big reasons I decided to switch to the platform. Apps that I’ve found without equivalent on webOS include: Dropbox (for accessing my cloud-stored files), Layar (an augmented reality app that for now is more of a toy since I’ve yet to figure out how to use it properly), Mint (frontend to Mint.com, a financial management service), Shazam (for identifying music), and XBMC Remote (lets me browse and control playback for my media PC). Upcoming apps seem to include Audible (I’ve already played with the beta client), Kindle, and Netflix. And that doesn’t even take into account all of the Google services I was unable to use before, like Earth, Goggle, Latitude, Buzz, Sky Map, etc.

Since the Android SDK is based on Java rather than Palm’s Javascript based solution, apps seem to have better control of the hardware, which allows for some of these cooler apps to exist. One of my favorite features is the barcode scanning ability, which allows you to, among other things, install apps from the web by scanning a barcode off your computer screen.

I’ve yet to get into running custom ROMs on my EVO, but I’ve been following the development pretty closely and will probably give one of them a spin in the near future, especially if they can get Froyo working well.

Cities XL is developed and published by a French company called Monte Cristo. The game is currently available through Steam as well as the developer’s website. The “Solo” version of the game is $39.99, with the “Online” version available for $9.99/mo. Alternatively, a “Premium” version that includes the single player as well as 1 month of online multiplayer is $44.99. Currently, I’ve only played the single player version.

First impressions are not one of Cities XL’s strong points. My first annoyance came before the game even started, as it forces you to sign into your Cities XL online account every time, even if you just want to start the Solo game, and there’s no way to save your login, so you’re forced to type it each and every time. The menus are a little clunky and lack the kind of polish and attention to detail that a lot of PC games have nowadays. The game also has a steeper learning curve than I had originally expected, and I found myself having to play through most of the tutorials in order to have a good idea how to go about building my first city, which I named “Miranda,” seeing as it’s more than likely going to be a complete disaster.

Once you get to the game itself, though, the experience improves dramatically. The amount of detail you’re able to put into your cities it much higher than city sims I’ve played in the past. For starters, Cities XL includes the ability to create a curved road, which right away breaks you free from the traditional “Grid” that you’ve been locked into in the past, which gives your cities a much more organic feel. There’s also a greater variety of zones for you to choose from. While it uses the same three types of zones SimCity has used in the past, there’s a greater number of options within those zones:

• In housing, you have multiple tiers rather than just densities, including smaller homes for your “unskilled workers,” larger suburbs for your middle class residents, and even larger, more luxurious homes for your executives and other “Elites.”
• When it comes to industry, you have an option of several types of farm area (such as livestock, fruit, vegetable, and grain, among others) as well as manufacturing, “heavy” industry, office space, and “high tech” industry.
• Your options for commercial properties includes a number of different types of shopping and leisure activities in order to keep your citizens happy.

In addition, when you’re building these zones, you have more options than the traditional “grid” method. you can build your zones against a curved road, place plots individually and even mark out an area free-form.

The game does a decent job of letting you know what problems there are and what is in demand or needed. Keeping the city in balance is a tricky process though, and requires paying attention to the alerts at the top of the screen.

Overall, I’ve only played the game for a couple of hours. The download and install alone took up a better part of a day, with the game needing to download updates even though it was downloaded from Steam. I may put up a more detailed review later, but in the meantime, you should be able to check the game out by signing up for an account on the game’s website, and choosing “free trial” when it asks for your game CD key.

First, some background info:  It should be said that I’m not exactly a huge fan of Microsoft. I switched from Windows to Linux almost exclusively starting in 2004.  Since then, I have used Linux as my day-to-day operating system, and have only used Windows when I had to, usually by way of virtualization.  When I bought my new laptop in 2008, my desktop returned to Windows as it was now the weaker of the two systems and was rarely used, except for some light gaming.  Then, at the beginning of this last semester, I bought a USB Tablet in order to start taking all my notes digitally. Unhappy with the note-taking apps available on Linux, I installed the Windows 7 RC onto my laptop in order to use Evernote and PDF Annotator.  As a result of this, I’m looking at this operating system from the perspective of a Linux user that hasn’t used Windows on a regular basis since XP.

Test Computers:

Dragon (Desktop):

• Core i7 920 2.66GHz
• 6GB DDR3-1333
• 300GB 10,000rpm hard drive
• 2x Geforce GTS 250 1GB

Krayt (Laptop):

• Core 2 Duo 2.5GHz
• 4GB DDR2-667
• 160GB 7,200rpm hard drive
• Quadro FX 570m 256MB

Both computers serve different purposes.  My laptop is my general day-to-day machine, handling internet browsing, communication, and development.  My desktop, on the other hand, is primarily used for gaming and anything else that would potentially need or make use of it’s processing power.  Both machines use WUXGA (1920×1200) displays, and both are running the x64 version of Windows 7 Professional.

First impression:

I had used the Windows 7 beta in a virtual machine, and the release candidate on actual hardware, so the user interface wasn’t much of a shock to me. I was struck, however, at how clean the default desktop is.

The default desktop on Windows 7

Unfortunately, it’s not a sight that most people will see, as most people get Windows preinstalled on their computer, and most vendors will load it down with additional software.

User Interface Improvements:

The most prominent UI change is the new taskbar, which abandons the Icon/Window Name approach we’ve grown used to in favor of a more “dock-like” style that shows only a larger application icon for each running program.  While several people have complained about this, I personally like it as it does help to clean up all the clutter that can be onscreen when several applications are running.  When you click on an application’s icon, it pops out to show all windows in that application.  The taskbar also now has the functionality of the quick launch bar.  Applications can be “stuck” to the taskbar, meaning their icons remain visible even if the program is not running. Active applications’ icons are shown in a box, while the launchers are not.  In the screenshots below, Eclipse is not running.

The newly designed Windows 7 taskbar

The taskbar showing an application with multple windows

Another new feature of the new taskbar is the ability to embed controls in the popup, as shown in this media player screenshot:

Media player controls embedded in window preview

The start menu has remained mostly the same from Vista, with a couple minor tweaks.  First, the search functionality has been expanded to include items from the Control Panel, and items in the start menu can now fly out to list “tasks” which usually list the most commonly used functions of that application.

The start menu

The start menu showing an application's tasks

Included Applications:

Internet Explorer 8:

It’s Internet Explorer. Really, what do you want to know? The user interface is almost identical to IE7, although it does now appear to run each tab in a separate process, similar to the way Google Chrome works.  It also features several “accelerators” which are basically context menus that allow it to easily hook into Windows Live services from anywhere. Beyond that, I can’t comment much except to say it did an excellent job of downloading Google Chrome for me.

Media Player 12:

Likewise, Media Player hasn’t changed much since it’s previous release (version 11). The only difference that I notice immediately is the hook in with the new taskbar, which I mentioned above.  Although, it seems to have come a ways (at least since XP) in file format support, especially related to video.  At least to the point that I haven’t bothered to install VLC yet.  However, with more advanced codecs, you will need to install something, whether it’s a new player or just plugins for WMP.  The first file type that wouldn’t play for me was an mkv.

Wordpad:

Wordpad

Wordpad, on the other hand, has seen significant changes.  The user interface has been updated to resemble that of Microsoft Office 2007 with the “ribbon” UI element.  Like IE, though, I can’t comment in depth as I don’t really use it.  However, it does support both Office Open XML and OpenDocument Text formats, which should make it a decent word processor for people who don’t want to shell out for office.

Paint:

Paint

Paint is another app that has received the ribbon treatment, though it’s functionality stays largely the same.

Performance:

Unfortunately, I don’t have a lower end system on which to test Windows 7.  However, my manager at VMware did run the beta on his Dell Mini 9 (specs: Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz, 2GB DDR2-667, Intel GMA 950, 16GB SSD), and seeing as, in my experience, the OS has been further refined since the beta release, it stands to reason it should run just as well now.  Performance on the netbook seemed to be just fine, as it was able to run Aero without issue and run a few application concurrently, usually Firefox, Outlook, and some sort of instant messaging software.

On my laptop (and of course desktop), Windows 7 absolutely flies.  Startup is quick, and resuming from sleep or hibernate is even quicker (usually just a few seconds).  It connects to wifi instantly (and is ready to go by the time I’ve typed my password to unlock the machine).

(As I’m out in San Francisco at the moment, I don’t have access to my desktop to test startup and shutdown times, among other things.)

Security:

Windows 7 continues to use UAC for security measures, and I continue to urge people to use it.  It operates in a similar manner to sudo in Linux distros, by only elevating user permissions when they are needed.  However, it does popup less often than in Vista.  While it is still being used for any action that needs it, minor actions (such as opening Resource Monitor, or changing the system clock) do not prompt the user for permission, but go ahead and elevate permissions for that action.  The primary action that I notice actually prompting for permission is now application installation.

Windows 7 ships with Windows Firewall and Windows Defender as well, although I still augment those with my own antivirus. During the RC testing stages, I used AVG’s free antivirus tool, and now I’m using ESET’s NOD32.  Both applications work well and are detected by Windows 7, but the primary reason for my switch was the increasing nagging of AVG to upgrade to their paid version.  So far I’ve yet to have a Virus or Spyware infection (knock on wood).

Conclusion:

Windows 7 is a very usable operating system. If you need to run Windows applications and have moderately decent hardware, I’d suggest it over XP or Vista.  The included applications are reasonably useful, and by the virtue of it being Windows, there are a ton of additional applications available for installation.  It also (for the moment at least) tends to have a leg up on XP in terms of security, and is less invasive in that regard than Vista.  Hardware support is also excellent, the only driver that I installed on either system was a video driver.

My primary use of my cell phone is text messaging, because I can use it to manage and receive updates from Twitter, Facebook, and Google (including Google Calendar), so it was my first concern.  At first, I was hesitant about going with a touchscreen keyboard, but I have been pleasantly suprised with the Instinct.  The phone vibrates just a bit whenever a button is pressed giving it a little bit of tactile feedback.  The on screen keyboard is also very accurate, and I rarely mistype on it.

The next feature that sold me on this phone was the GPS navigation (though a lot of Sprint phones are capable of that).  Turn by turn directions are very good, and the rest of the phone also makes good use of the GPS location feature.

The phone has also replaced my iPod as my primary mp3 player.  While the iPod is still a superior player, it’s not enough to warrant carrying two devices.  It came with a 2GB MicroSD card, but I’ve ordered an 8GB card that should give me plenty of storage.

I’ll be writing some more in-depth thoughts on the phone over the next few days, for now I have to head to sleep.

At 9.3mm thick, the keyboard is incredibly thin.  It uses laptop style keys and, true to its name, the keys are backlit.  Unlike other backlit keyboards I’ve seen, however, it’s still very easy to read the keys even when the backlight is turned off.

Another nice thing about this particular keyboard is that Logitech didn’t decide to mess with the location of the backslash/pipe key, which a couple of models I looked at did (by using a large Enter key, then moving the backslash/pipe to the left of the backspace).

The Illuminated Keyboard doesn’t have a lot of unnecessary keys like my MX3100 did.  There are a couple of media shortcut keys at the top of the keyboard, but that’s it.  For comparison, the MX3100 had a few programmable keys, keys for launching Office and several other applications, a volume knob, zoom & scroll wheels, etc.  The result is that the new keyboard fits much better on my desk that the previous one, and I now have plenty of room to put my mouse and mousepad alongside it in the keyboard tray.

Summary:

Retail Price: $79.99

Pros: Laptop style keys, incredibly thin, well designed backlight.

Cons: Pricey for a keyboard, but as a programmer a good keyboard is essential.