Palm Pre Whether you're a Palm person or not, you've probably been salivating for months now over the Pre's slick design, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and multithreaded webOS. And finally, the Palm Pre ha hit stores. If you already have a Palm device, transferring your life over to the Pre won't be a simple, one-step process, however. That's because the Pre uses Palm's brand-new webOS, so none of the old software—including Palm Desktop, HotSync, and third-party apps—is compatible out of the box. Our guide will show you how to move your important data, including media files and even Palm OS apps, over to a shiny new Pre.
Move your documents, MP3s, and video files
If you used your Palm OS device to store media files, you'll be able to do the same with the Pre. It connects to PCs and Macs with a USB cable as a mass storage device, so you can move files on and off the handset easily. There will also be an Amazon client for buying MP3 tracks over the air. And now that the iTunes Store sells DRM-free AAC tracks, those will also play natively on the Pre.
How to move raw PIM data into the Pre native apps
Since the Pre works with Google Calendar and Contacts, you can export your Palm Desktop PIM data—or your local Outlook data—and then import it into Google's cloud. From there, the Pre will live-sync with Google as well as Outlook, and even your Facebook contacts. The Pre will also synchronize with at least one Exchange account out of the box. Palm will soon unveil more information about migrating data if you want to go straight from a Treo to the Pre without involving a Web portal.
Which new Pre apps replace old Palm apps?
Sprint TV will run natively on the Pre, and looks much nicer here than on other Sprint handsets. The Pre will play sideloaded videos out of the box, so there's no more need for TCPMP downloads. For travel info, FlightView lets you track the current location of flights around the U.S. by route; it, along with Google, will be enough to replace Handmark's Pocket Express. In addition, Pandora, Amazon, TeleNav-powered Sprint Navigation, and NASCAR will have native Pre apps. Better yet, Pandora runs in the background, which means you can listen to Internet radio over the built-in speaker, or a wired or stereo Bluetooth headset, while performing other tasks. Finally, DataViz is expected to introduce a compatible office suite, since Documents To Go has been a top-rated Palm OS stalwart for years (and even came burned into the ROM in later Treos and Centros).
Run Palm OS apps on your Pre
Anyone with treasured third-party Palm OS apps should check out MotionApps Classic. It's an aftermarket emulator that will let you run old programs at about twice the native speed of a 312-MHz Palm Treo 700p given the Pre's upgraded hardware. Classic contains the entire OS, including the preferences screen. Like other apps, Classic can also run in the background—meaning you can open a Palm OS app, shrink the emulator-plus-app combo to a card, move it aside, and then start another task in webOS. Not only that, but you can use the Pre's hardware QWERTY keyboard to enter data into Palm OS apps. (You can finally ditch that LandWare GoType keyboard.)
Which old Palm apps are compatible with Classic?
At press time, MotionApps was still updating its application compatibility list. There are over 30,000 of 'em out there, so it might take a while. Still, even graphics-intensive games like Bejeweled 2 will work. Already, other Palm OS apps that work in Classic include Pocket Tunes, Kinoma Player, Oxford Dictionary, Agendus, SplashID, SplashPhoto, Pocket Quicken, Astraware Sudoku, eReader, and Google Maps. Even vertical apps like Epocrates, a medical data tool, will work when running in Classic.
Move your apps
Using a USB cable, you can drag any PRC and PDB files over to the new device. You should follow PreCentral's advice and rename your current Palm OS backup folder to something else. Then, HotSync your old Palm OS device. This way, the system will create a brand-new backup directory that contains only the latest apps that are actually in use. Then plug in your new Pre, open the Classic folder, and copy programs and relevant data from the old device's backup folder into the Pre's Classic folder.
What if your software has HotSync ID–based DRM or is otherwise HotSync dependent?
The Classic emulator comes with a utility that will let you use an arbitrary HotSync ID to get any Palm OS software running that requires one. Essentially, you can "clone" your older Palm OS device on the Pre—without having to repurchase any third-party apps. HotSync itself doesn't work in Classic, though, which could be a significant limitation in some cases.
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