Palm Pre Tips and Tricks
Here are just some of the tips, tricks and shortcuts we've found whilst playing with the Palm Pre.
Please feel free to add any more you've discovered, or that we've missed.
- Need to perform a soft reset? Hold the Power button and cycle the Ringer button on/off three times.
- Want to turn your Pre into an ebook reader? Install Classic and then eReader for Palm OS.
- Save battery life reducing the interval for email synchronization; I’m using 15 minutes for now. Note that each email account can be set for a different interval. Sascha Segan has a few more useful tips in this area too.
- Use Palm’s one-time, web-based Data Transfer Assistant to get contacts, calendars, tasks and memos from Microsoft Outlook or Apple’s iCal / Address Book to your Pre.
- Press the Orange key, Sym key and P key for a screenshot that you can use as a wallpaper or send in an email.
- Turn on Advanced Gestures so that swiping the entire length of the Gesture Area moves you through your open cards. You’ll find this setting in the Screen & Lock app.
- Customize which Calendars appear under the “All Calendars” view. In the Calendar Preferences, find the calendar account(s) you want to modify. In each of the calendars, there’s a “Display in ‘All Calendars’ View” switch you can turn on or off.
- Compact your daily calendar by tricking out Pre’s accordian view. Create a “Start Day” event for the first five minutes of every day at 12:00am. Create an “End Day” event for the last five minutes of every day at 11:55pm. Pre will compress your free time so appointments will stand out with far less scrolling.
- Want an exact percentage of remaining battery life? Just tap the battery icon. You’ll also see the date (including day of the week) and options for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Airplane Mode. Another way to turn on Airplane Mode is to press and hold the power button for a few seconds: you can choose to turn Pre off or enable Airplane Mode.
- Don’t want Pre to capitalize a word that you’re typing? Press the backspace key one time after the capital letter and Pre won’t erase the letter. Instead, the letter will become lowercase.
On-screen Virtual Keyboard a Possibility for Pre
It was just about two months ago that we pointed your eyes towards WebShell and its on-screen software keyboard. The browser-based SSH input served more as a tease for our desperate eyes than an actual usable keyboard. But that’s changing, and thanks to webOS Internals we’ve got a native on-screen keyboard looking like a real possibility. By modifying the files that control the SYM pop-up extra characters list, a real on-screen keyboard can be crafted, as seen to the right. The keyboard works in both portrait and landscape orientations and is available as a patch for installation.
Now, before you get your Linux all in a twist rushing over to install this patch, take a moment to calm yourself. As is noted on webOS Internals, this patch is “pre-alpha” and not yet ready for prime time, so you should only use this if you really know what you're doing. There are a number of issues still to be addressed, but it’s simply exciting that progress is being made on this front. We'll be sure to keep you updated on the progress of the onscreen keyboard, hopefully it won't be too long before a truly functional variety is ready.
Mad props to rboatright for the tip and to everybody at webos-internals for the awesome work here!
