There were many concurrent sessions at the event today and I, being but one person, had to choose carefully.  It was difficult and sometimes I feel I chose… poorly.  However, the first meeting of the morning I chose to attend was Enabling Mobile for Business.  Charnsin Tulyasathien, Sprint Group Manager, started off the session, which included three Sprint partners.  He laid out the case for targeting business customers with mobile applications:  271 million mobile devices, 6.5 million mobile connected laptops, Bank of America’s mobile banking site has 1 million users.  Mobile is becoming a bigger part of business.

The first partner to speak during that session was Eric Kowalchyk of Intuit.  He outlined Intuit’s GoPayment system, which provides mobile payment processing.  He spoke about the iterative process they went through to get a payment system that served the needs of mobile professionals in a clear, easy to use manner.  He said:  “Focus on the end user to end user experience.”  Next up was Daniel Obodovski, director of business development at Qualcomm.  He talked about Qualcomm’s location tracking system.  He discussed some pretty interesting applications of location tracking devices.  They are targeting cargo tracking, asset tracking and consumer devices, such as the Best Buy child-tracking solution.  Following Daniel was Steve Hudson of Omnilink, a partner of Qualcomm.  He told us a story about how Delta had lost his luggage and he was able to track it down into a warehouse in Las Vegas.  One of the benefits of network-based LTS is that it doesn’t require visibility to Satellite, which is very useful for applications such as tracking Alzheimer’s patients.

Following those three partners Charnsin took the stage again to discuss the particulars of Sprint’s developer program.  If you are interested in the program visit their site:  http://developer.sprint.com or send e-mail to BAP@sprint.com.  The developer program is free to join for those interested in teaming and co-marketing.

After that session I attended the Alcatel-Lucent presentation on their Open API service platform.  Their API allows for some pretty comprehensive network-based services for mobile applications, including ‘geofencing‘.  One of he opening slides of the presentation discussed the fact that very few applications ever reach a very large user base.  The slide backed up the claim that there are very few iPhone App millionaires.  What Alcatel-Lucent hopes to provide is a framework that will allow app developers to create more compelling applications.  The services included the ability to detect users being online, opt-in tracking and more.  Check out their site above for details.  One thing to note is that although they are planning support for multiple carriers it seemed to be implied that they have not actually signed up other networks.  They demonstrated how a partner developed an opt-in advertising campaign for REI that sent special offers to users who came within one mile of REI stores.

We got a chance to enter the exhibit hall to see the booths set up by Sprint’s partners.  Of course, for me, the big draw was the Palm booth.  Palm was just setting up the booth when I got there but they were soon up and running, showing off the Pixi and Pre.  Manning the booth were lots of excited and friendly Palm folks.  I got the opportunity to meet my Palm App Catalog rep Rob Katcher, which was really great.

Following this was the keynote speech by Sprint’s president of network operations Steve Elfman.  Steve addressed the question:  Why Sprint?  The takeaway was that Sprint has the best devices and has taken an open approach.  This is Sprint’s ninth open developers conference.  He discussed how Sprint moved from a traditional provider-centric approach where they decided everything about what devices would run to what software and services would appear on those devices to a more open approach where the users and manufacturers could define those things.   Sprint has certified 300 non-Sprint devices for use on their network.  He described how they are already testing 4G in select cities and will be rolling it out to more cities.  He then said that Sprint is doing away with the call forwarding fee in mid November.  To drive home why this is important for Sprint subscribers he brought Brad Horowitz of Google onto the stage to discuss Google Voice on Sprint.  It’s clear that unlike other networks, Sprint is embracing Google Voice and consumer choice.

Following this was a Q&A session with Sprint personnel.  During the Q&A Sprint reaffirmed their commitment to open standards and open services.  They’re actively looking at how they can support industry standard API’s, even where it may conflict with technologies they had been supporting, such as Titan, which was intended to be a Java-based mobile platform.  There was also ominous discussion about tiered pricing for data.  Sprint’s contention was that the unlimited plans were put in place to get people to adopt mobile data and encourage the development and usage of mobile software.  I don’t see what benefit it would bring customers to limit them at this point.

The next session I attended was on BlackBerry mobile development.  I don’t have anything to report on this session because I don’t think anything really stuck with me except that JavaScript will have full access to the services on the device with version 5.0.  After that I attended the discussion on Sprint’s developer sandbox.  This was a more interesting discussion about a testing platform that allows developers to test their use of Sprint’s API’s without having to access their live network.  There’s a lot of power in the Sprint API so if you’re looking at developing services that take advantage of Sprint’s network API’s you should check this out.  It is important to note that these API’s can be easily accessed from webOS applications.

I decided to skip the next session to stand in the long line to get a free BlackBerry Tour.  I was successful in getting one, which I added to the HTC Hero I got last night.  Using these two smartphones really makes me appreciate what Palm has done with webOS.  Admittedly, I have not had a chance to really use these devices seriously but what’s clear is that for a user just picking up the phone for the first time the Pre really shines in usability.

After quickly ducking out of the BlackBerry session I went back to the exhibit hall to see what was going on there.  Again, I made a beeline for the Palm booth and talked some more with the folks there.  Kudos to Palm for having so many people who are excited about what they are doing.  I must say that the dinner they served was a big cut above the lunch and breakfast they offered earlier.

On a more personal note, I had a chance to catch up with a cousin here in California and went to a fantastic ramen shop.  I’m definitely going to be hunting for ramen shops back home!

Stay tuned for part 3!  Again, you can follow ‘live’ on twitter by click here:  http://twitter.com/Pre101

Built-In Help

Believe it or not the Pre’s built-in Help app can be very useful.  The quickest way to launch the Help app is to type ‘HE’ from card view, then click on the Help app icon.  You can also navigate to the 2nd page of the launcher and then click on the Help app there.  The only downside to the Help app is that it requires an internet connection.  The help files are not stored on the device.

The main Help screen has a search box and three categories:  Tips, Clips and Featured.  The Tips are broken down by application by default.  After clicking on Tips, you can click on SORT BY CATEGORY to divide the list into functional groups.  Clips show you how to perform various actions through animations.  The last selection, Featured, gives you a short list of some common tips.  Clicking on various items often gives you a further breakdown of tips to read.  You can go back by performing the ‘go back’ swipe on the gesture area or by taping the Help menu and selecting the category to jump to.

Palm’s Solutions Website

Palm’s Solutions Web Site is another good place to go for help if you’re in front of your PC.  Similar to the built-in Help app you can drill-down into the areas that you’re interested in.  The information here is very good though sometimes you might have to hunt for something if you’re not sure exactly which category it might be under.

User to User Forums

Sometimes, you just want to tap a real person for information.  Besides using this Web site you can hit up PreCentral’s forums or Palm’s Community forums.  Both contain a lot of information that you’ll find useful.  You’ll find good discussions at both.

The Manual

As a last resort, you could download the User’s Guide in PDF format.

If your questions aren’t answered use the comments below.  You can also use Twitter to ask questions and get answered, follow @Pre101.

Turning on the Pre

The following methods will turn on the Pre:

• Press the Power button:
  

  (1) is the power button

• Slide open the keyboard when it’s closed
• If the keyboard is open, press any key
• Insert the USB cable connected to a power source

Pressing the power button turns on the phone in locked mode, the other methods do not.

Turning off all radios

“The cabin door is now closed, please turn off all electronic devices.”  If you need to turn off all the transmitters in the phone quickly, Airplane Mode is for you.  Enabling this mode will turn off all radios, disabling it will turn back on the radios that were on when it was enabled.  After enabling Airplane Mode you can turn individual radios back on using the methods below.  To turn Airplane Mode on or off:

• Tap the connection menu (upper right corner of the screen where the signal strength bars are), then tap Turn on Airplane Mode or Turn off Airplane Mode.
• Press and hold the power button until a menu appears then tap Airplane Mode.

You can tell you’re in Airplane mode because the following icon appears in the upper right where the signal meter usually goes:

Turning on and off WiFi

WiFi decreases battery life on the Pre.  You can disable WiFi when you don’t need it.  Here are a few ways to enable and disable it:

• Tap the connection menu (upper right corner of the screen where the signal strength bars are), tap Wi-Fi,  then tap either Turn on Wi-Fi or Turn off Wi-Fi.
• Use the above mentioned Airplane Mode.
• Launch the Wi-Fi app and click On or Off.

Turning on and off Bluetooth

Bluetooth can be another battery drainer.  Here’s how to enable and disable it:

• Tap the connection menu (upper right corner of the screen where the signal strength bars are), tap Bluetooth, then tap either Turn on Bluetooth or Turn off Bluetooth.
• Use the above mentioned Airplane Mode.
• Launch the Bluetooth app and click On or Off.

If there’s something else you need to know how to turn on or off let us know in the comments below.

For more information on updating check out Palm’s page.

First, the simple ones:

Shift : Enter uppercase letters.  Press and release, then press the key you want.  Press twice for CAPS lock.  Press a third time to clear the shift state

Sym :  Brings up a list of the symbol characters.  You can scroll through the list by dragging or flicking.  You can also press a letter on the keyboard to filter by that letter.  Pressing another letter with a matching symbol key will change the filter.  Press Sym again to clear dismiss the list.

Orange :  Selects the alternate keys on the keypad (the numbers and symbols printed on the keys).  Press twice to lock to this input mode.  Pressing a third time clears the mode.

Center : Switches to card view, allowing you to scroll through your applications

Now, the more complicated ones:

Cursor movement:  Press and hold the Orange key () then swipe on the display to move the cursor.  Left and right work in move input fields, up and down will work in some.

Text Selection:  Press and hold the Shift key () then swipe on the display to move the cursor.

Cut, Copy and Paste:  Press and hold the gesture area then press X (cut), C (copy) or V (paste).

Screen shot:  Press Orange + Shift + P.  Note: You must hold all three buttons at the same time.  Images will be saved in the screencaptures folder in the Photos app.

Reboot: Press Orange + Sym + R.  Note: You must hold all three buttons at the same time.

Bold: Press Sym + B.  Note: This only works in Rich Text fields, such as e-mail.  If a selection is active then bold is applied to the selection.

Italics: Press Sym + I.  Note: This only works in Rich Text fields, such as e-mail.  If a selection is active then the selection is italicized.  Also, if you don’t press another letter (such as Q) while still holding Sym after doing this combination it will insert an i with an accent into your text, replacing your selection.  Use with caution.

For more information check out Palm’s list, this Pre Central Keyboard Tricks post or the excellent Palm Pre Tips and Tricks post.