I think if you said to me, "what's wrong with the iPhone?" I'd probably give you a list that is largely addressed by the Pre. I'm really glad someone actually challenging Apple here, they've gotten a little complacent, and I'm really glad it's Palm and not some WinMo kludge. It's absolutely an improvement in some areas - though I'm not a keyboard fan and we'll see whether the LEDs are actually useful. I actually miss Graffiti - I could fly on that.

But let's look at what the iPhone represents compared to the Treo. Apple's designers said, what if we started over with a smartphone design, reducing the clutter to its absolute barest minimum, what do you need? A screen, a speaker, a mic, maybe one button, and a finger. And then they developed a UI (clearly "inspired" by existing touch systems never used on a phone) that made it work, especially with gimmicks like the motion detector. Should they have used OSX, considering its limitations? Maybe not, considering Palm says they can handle multitasking. But I give Apple credit for the revolution. Though, as some blogger I read pointed out, Apple popularized the graphic UI but still got killed by Windows.

The reason why I'm disappointed is because I really wanted Rubin-Palm to take as big of a leap as Apple did. I don't know what that would be. Maybe something that does all that without me having to look at it at all.

That's just getting started. You have very clearly not kept up to date with what has been announced so far about the Pre, so you might want to get caught up before you join the conversation again. (The Palm keynote video is up, and if you skip past the superfluous bits, there is a good 35-40 minutes of live walk through of the device)

Keep in mind, Palm mentioned to Engadget that the device is basically not even to the beta stage of product quality. (Other than some general slowness in launching some of the apps, this is not evident from any of the videos of the device in action) It will get much better than the already smooth and fluid experience shown so far.

While I agree that iTunes is a bit of a kludge, Apple has the ability to create a whole experience that starts with the computer and extends to Mail, iPhoto, iTunes, GarageBand (etc.) and then into the iPhone as an extension of the same philosophy of experience. Palm doesn't even try that depth, and probably never will. Even Microsoft, who could do that, doesn't. And Apple certainly isn't perfect here - where's my touch-screen Mac? - but at least they're putting their products where their philosophy is.

As far as the total experience, I'm not sure where you get that using iTunes to manage every aspect of the iPhone shows somehow that they care about the total experience. iTunes was not meant for such functionality, and the pair are a cumbersome and ungainly couple.

I guess your actual point was that we don't know about their Mac integration details yet. You do get the whole "Synergy" thing that Palm is going for with the Pre, right? You will still need a computer to manage songs and video, but that's about it (for most people).

I'm still not really sure what your point is. Palm has executed horribly in the past, that is true. But the Pre is absolutely awesome, from everything Palm has shown us (we'll have to see if the final unit holds up to scrutiny), and it is the first phone to really innovate since the iPhone was originally launched. It is unequivocably, without a doubt, not an iPhone clone.

In all seriousness, I've owned Palms and PalmOS PDAs since the early 90s and only switched to a Blackberry when it just became too annoying to have two devices. That's what makes Palm so frustrating. The old OS was OK, but like the iPhone it's the software community that made it so great. Lots of freeware and cheap shareware to do fantastic stuff (WinMo apps are expensive)... I owned two early Palms then a Visor then the Cleos came out... Oh, those were things of beauty. Hardy, well-designed... I was praying that Sony would do a Cleo phone - that could have actually prevented the iPhone from being innovative. But Sony has become an equally messed up company and they saw the Cleo as baggage rather than an opportunity to keep innovating. The last Cleo they made was like a mini-computer... It was beautiful... So when I sat on my Cleo I had to go back to Palm and ended up with a T3, not wanting to fork over for a LifeDrive when I knew they HAD to be coming out with a Treo/LifeDrive love child. I mean, that made sense, right? Well, they didn't and I didn't want to wait 6 months for a first-ed. iPhone so I ended up with a POS Windows Mobile Blackjack. I'm getting ready to get a new phone and I'd LOVE to go back to Palm, iPhone clone or not. And if they they do good Mac integration I will. But they probably won't, because they don't (or didn't, anyway) care about the total experience - at least not up to now. The Palm desktop software blows.