Palm Pre: The Missing Manual

Appendix C. Get Help

If he were alive today, Dr. Seuss might say this about the Pre: “A computer’s a computer, no matter how small.” And computers, no matter how small, have problems from time to time.

The Pre, too new to have a track record for long-term reliability, is by all appearances a solid smartphone. So consider this appendix a guide to the little—and big—things that might go wrong and what you can do to get out of a pickle.

Update Your Software

From time to time, Palm issues updates to the Pre’s operating system, the program that controls the smartphone’s basic functions (see The Pre from the Outside), to fix bugs and add features. When that happens, you’ll see a note in the Pre’s notifications area.

You can tap Install Later to postpone an update, but unless you have a compelling reason to do so, you should install it right away. Palm wouldn’t provide one if it weren’t important, and you can only put off an update three times. After that, the Pre automatically installs it. So tap Install Now to get it over with and possibly avoid problems the update is designed to fix.

You can manually check for updates by going to the Launcher and tapping Updates. You’ll not only see updates to the Pre’s operating system (in case you somehow missed a notification), but updates to any third-party programs you own, too.

Battery Issues

Palm estimates that you can charge the Pre’s lithium ion battery ...