Inspecta-Gadget
1Oct/090

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.
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2Jul/094

Quick Tip: Bring up Pre Menu in Landscape Mode with Volume Button

Palm Pre Menu in Landscape Mode

You can still bring up the menu on the Palm Pre while in landscape mode.  You may have noticed that when you put the Palm Pre into landscape mode in the browser or in email (after applying the Palm Pre Landscape mode email trick), the menubar on the top of the Pre disappears.  Good news: it's still there, you just can't see it.

Rdaex in our forums was amongst several PreCentral.net members to discover the trick. Just hit one of the volume buttons and the Pre will not only show the volume indicator at right, but at left the menubar will re-appear and you can tap the Menu to bring it up.