A few speed tests done on the new iPhone 3GS pitting it both against the old iPhone as well as its main rivals. So far, these have either been eyeball tests or page rendering/boot time tests that take a bunch of variables into account. Mobile analytics and advertising company Medialets has released numbers for a test that it considers to be the most direct line of comparison for the iPhone 3GS against the iPhone 3G, the Palm Pre and the Android G1. And once again, the 3GS blows everyone away.
In Medialets test, they are specifically testing WebKit JavaScript performance. This makes sense since all these devices have a WebKit-based browser. WebKit offers a JavaScript test suite, SunSpider, which is used to determine the results. And just to make clear how fast the iPhone 3GS’ JavaScript speed is, Medialets set a 2GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook as the baseline.
Compared to the MacBook, the iPhone 3G running the iPhone OS 2.2.1 software had JavaScript performance that was 96 times worse. Meanwhile, an iPhone 3G running the iPhone 3.0 software was on 36 times worse. A T-Mobile G1 running the new Android 1.5 “Cupcake” software was 67 times worse than the baseline. And the Palm Pre was 36 times worse, equalling the iPhone 3G running the 3.0 software. So how did the iPhone 3GS do? It’s performance was only 12 times worse that of the MacBook — three times better than the Pre.
That’s pretty incredible when you think about it. Sure, this is only a JavaScript test, and hardly indicative of everything you can do on the device, but JavaScript is an integral part of the web, and sites continue to use it more and more as websites get more robust. And the rate of improvement that the iPhone is seeing in performance in that regards means that soon we could see a mobile device that handles the web just as fast as an actual computer. → Read More
Sprint’s CFO got crunk all over an investor conference, informing them (between WHAT!s) that Pre sales don’t seem to have been affected by the launch of the iPhone 3G S. WHAT! Yes, they’re still selling out, but hopefully will be catching up with demand soon. That’s all there is to the report, really, other than an uptick in both Palm and Sprint’s stock prices. Come on, little guy! [image from Say Crunk] → Read More
The Palm Pre Touchstone got raked over coals when it first launched after someone did a little math and discovered the massive mark-up that the $70 accessory carried. Well, Amazon is selling it for only $29 which is a lot better. There is a little trick to get it for this price though. → Read More
Hey, Preeps! That’s what I’m calling you from now on. Your phone should soon be receiving the boon of webOS 1.0.3, a very incremental upgrade that fixes some Google Calendar and contact sync issues, as well as probably a few minor changes to your core apps. All the information you need and more is available right here. → Read More
The Pre is emerging as a polarizing device, even more so than the G1 (which everyone agreed was kind of beta), probably because it’s the closest thing to a legitimate threat that the iPhone has faced. Who wouldn’t get defensive? With strong sales in its first two weeks and an entirely new OS for developers to do their thing with, it’s strong out of the gate but controlled — because the jockey is holding the reins tight. Palm didn’t expect a dynamite launch or a million app sales in a week; what they’ve got so far is, if we can believe what they say, pretty much what they’d hoped for. Of course, the TechCrunch network is a treasure trove (a rat’s nest, some would say) of opinions, and we have been known to attack the Pre (savagely and repeatedly) despite our interest in it. The app sales numbers for the Pre need more context than a direct comparison to the iPhone App Store, but that is an important data point, so let’s do it thoroughly. → Read More
One month after the launch of the App Store in 2008, Apple had seen over 60 million downloads of its apps. The Palm Pre hasn’t been out for a month yet, but it’s about halfway there, so how close is it to that number? Not close at all. Not in the same ballpark. Not even in the same city.
Palm’s App Catalog has seen roughly 666,000 app downloads in its first 12 days, according to the mobile analytics firm Medialets. And what’s worse is that the download momentum is slightly slowing down since the initial launch. So don’t be too surprised if one month after the launch, the App Catalog downloads are near 1 million. Yes, 1/60th of what the App Store was doing last year. → Read More
Right before the launch of the Palm Pre, the press was buzzing about a feature that had remained quiet until that time: That the Palm Pre can sync with iTunes. This is a key feature at least in theory as the Pre is seen as the biggest competitor to Apple’s iPhone to date. It stands to reason that Palm may have wanted to keep the feature under wraps until the launch neared, so Apple couldn’t neutralize it. Which it seems is exactly what they’re getting ready to do.
In a rather odd update on the support area of its site today, Apple has an entry titled: iTunes: About unsupported third-party digital media players. While it never explicitly mentions the Pre, or any other device, it doesn’t take an Apple Store Genius to figure out what it means. Here’s the full text of the article: → Read More
In an example of rolling over in the name of “good relationships,” the Pre Dev Wiki has shut down their tethering page because “Sprint could get angry.” This is in stark contrast with iPhone devs who couldn’t give two squirts about “good relationships” and instead produce interesting technical content including unlocked phones.
“We have been politely cautioned by Palm that any discussion of tethering during the Sprint exclusivity period (and perhaps beyond—we don’t know yet) will probably cause Sprint to complain to Palm, and if that happened then Palm would be forced to react against the people running the IRC channel and this wiki.
If you were wondering the age ol’ question of “Will it run Doom?” about the Palm Pre, the answer is yes. We’re kind of thinking though that more would be surprised if the Pre wouldn’t run Doom. But anyway, one dude took it upon himself to reprogram an open-source version of the game to use WebOS’s DirectFB graphics library. So what we have here is a hardware-accelerated version of the classic FPS. Well done. → Read More
If you were wondering the age ol’ question of “Will it run Doom?” about the Palm Pre, the answer is yes. We’re kind of thinking though that more would be surprised if the Pre wouldn’t run Doom. But anyway, one dude took it upon himself to reprogram an open-source version of the game to use WebOS’s DirectFB graphics library. So what we have here is a hardware-accelerated version of the classic FPS. Well done. → Read More
According to the WSJ, Verizon Wireless will begin stocking store shelves with the Palm Pre in January of 2010. That is all. → Read More
It was bound to happen eventually: the recovery tool used by, presumably, Palm and Sprint employees to breathe life into dead Pres has leaked onto the internets — I’m thinking maybe some techno-Robin Hood did it and jacked a copy of Snow Leopard on the way. Included with the tool is a full root copy of webOS. Inconceivable! While this doesn’t mean anything for the lay Pre-user at the moment, it does mean that enterprising developers can start rifling through Palm’s code and perhaps finding unfinished or locked features (what Java VM?). Pretty soon I expect that you’ll be seeing hacked ROMs to flash with enabling buggy and weird apps, interface items, and so on. You can download it if you want, but at the moment there’s very little you can do with it unless you’re an experienced coder… you know, like me. I’m super experienced. → Read More
Bonanza! I’m afraid it’s a bit like a little kid saying “I ate more hot dogs than ever before!” when they’re up against Takeru Kobayashi, but we’re still proud of little Sprint. Check out what their excited VP of Business Marketing had to say: We experienced our best one day of sales and single weekend sales for any phone we’ve launched in our history. We sold out of the device over the weekend in most of our store locations. And it happened at a much faster rate than we had planned on. Independent estimates place the Pre sales at more than 50,000 and less than 100,000 over the weekend, and hey, that’s great, but when your opponent in the race is a rare tortoise-hare hybrid like Apple, slow and steady isn’t going to cut it. I’m still rooting for you, Sprint, but you guys need to go big or you’re not going to have a home to go home to. → Read More
Some early estimates are in on how the Palm Pre did its launch weekend. J.P. Morgan puts sales at more than 50,000, other analysts go as high as 100,000. Everyone is trying to spin this as a success because Sprint stores “sold out” of their inventory. Investors aren’t buying the story. Shares of Palm are down 10 percent, as of this writing.
The opening weekend Palm Pre inventory was too low to begin with—either because of manufacturing constraints, Palm’s own financial constraints, or by design. It’s always good PR to be able to say you sold out. But if Palm seriously wants to go up against the iPhone it is going to have to do a lot better. When the first-generation iPhone launched two years ago, in comparison, Apple sold 146,000 units its first weekend. By the time Apple came out with its second iPhone 3G last year, it sold one million units the first weekend. → Read More
$70 for a charger is asking a lot, but when Palm announced the pricing for the Touchstone, we all acquiesced because it was such a cool little device. And of course if you’re getting a Pre, you really should have the thing. But it turns out that, while the Pre itself costs nearly as much to make as you’re going to pay for it, the Touchstone charger is made of bargain-bin electronics that probably cost only a handful of ducats to manufacture.
Highway robbery? Not really, since Apple (among others) has been doing this kind of thing for a decade. → Read More
No, we didn’t get a Palm Pre to check out before its launch today — something which is a bit fishy and contributed to a big heap of drama earlier today. But it does seem like a ton of people both on the web and in real-life are very excited about the device. And they should be, having just read others’ reviews and talking to friends who have used it, it seems like it will easily be at least the number two coolest phone out there.
So for those of us who didn’t get one today, here’s the video that plays upon starting up your new Pre. It’s pretty damn awesome — much better than the iPhone’s startup screen — which I’ve been seeing a lot of lately. This one actually reminds me a bit of the cool Apple TV startup video. → Read More
Judging from the reaction on the web, people aren’t having too hard of a time getting the new Palm Pre at Sprint stores across the country. But last night, one woman was apparently so concerned that she wouldn’t be able to get one that she sped her car to a Sprint store — wait, let me rephrase that — she sped her car into a Sprint store.
Check out the video embedded below from NBC Chicago. It’s pretty incredible. Joking aside, I highly doubt the elderly woman behind the wheel actually wanted a Pre and more importantly, she was fine aside from a few bruises. But as you can see, the store didn’t fare so well. And it was probably the worst time something like that could have happened given the Pre launch today. → Read More
As with every gadget that comes out, someone had to go and disassemble the darn thing. And even though the Palm Pre only come out today, Rapid Repair has already torn it apart, rapidly. A rough “guesstimate” of the cost for Palm to put the Pre together? Around $170; the device retails, sorta, for $199. → Read More
/* widget config */ var jtw_search = ‘(pre OR sprint) OR crunchgear’; /* keywords or phrase to send to search.twitter.com and display */ It begins. The first liner-uppers are in line at Sprint stores around the world. The Internet is abuzz with excitement. We will be updating this post during the day when we’re not drinking and if you have any info, tweet us at @crunchgear or let us know what’s up in your line in comments. Let the madness begin! Some humdingers: → Read More
San Francisco, CA
