According to some reports, Sprint sold about 50,000 Palm Pres Palm Pre handsets last weekend — not bad. What is bad is the plural of Pre. Pres? What was Palm thinking?
Anyway, to help you get started with your new smartphone, here are a few random tips and tricks I’ve noted during my time with the phone.
Take a screenshot by pressing the orange key, Shift, and P simultaneously. It’s a little like playing Twister. Afterwards, you get no feedback that you took anything, but you’ll find them in the Photos app in the screencaptures category.
Want to accurately place the cursor in a specific place within some text? Hold the orange key and drag the cursor around with your finger. You’ll have precise control as long as you hold the key down.
You can lock the Shift key into “all caps” mode or lock the orange key into full-time upper symbol typing by double-pressing either of those keys. Return to normal typing by pressing the key again.
Want to copy and paste text but the Pre won’t let you? You’ll need to make it editable first. If you want to copy a paragraph out of a New York Times story, for example, open the NYT’s application menu and choose to share it in e-mail. Once the article is in an e-mail message, you can copy and paste the text to your heart’s content. Then discard the e-mail when you’re done.
Want to change running apps without switching to Card view? Turn on Advanced Gestures in the Screen & Lock app. Afterwards, you’ll be able to switch among running apps in full-screen mode with full-width swipes in the Gesture Area (the same place you make the Back gesture).
