Matthew Miller

Contributing Writer

Matthew Miller started using mobile devices in 1997 and has been writing news, reviews, and opinion pieces ever since. Matthew started using mobile devices with a US Robotics Pilot 1000 and has owned hundreds of devices running Palm, Linux, Symbian, Newton, BlackBerry, iOS, Android, webOS, Windows Mobile, and Windows Phone operating systems. His current collection includes the latest and greatest foldables, wearables, and more, along with classic devices like the Apple Newton MessagePad 2100 and Sony CLIE UX50. Matthew can be found on various social networks under the user name of "palmsolo."

Matthew is a professional naval architect by day and a mobile gadgeteer at all other times. He purchases his own devices and then sells them on Swappa to buy more. Many other devices are sent for review on a typical 30-day or long-term loan basis and then returned to the carrier or manufacturer.

Latest from Matthew Miller

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CTIA 09: Is the Palm Pre keyboard the Achilles heel of the device?

CTIA 09: Is the Palm Pre keyboard the Achilles heel of the device?

Since I didn't have a chance to see the Palm Pre in person and there are no review units out yet, I couldn't really pick a favorite in my first Clash of the Touch Titans article. Last week I was able to see the Pre in person and get my hands on it a bit. I shot a video of the Pre in action showing some 3rd party apps and overall user experience. I will say that the experience and some of the functionality look quite amazing. However, I was able to also get my hands on and enter text using the Pre keyboard and found it to be a major disappointment that may be the Achilles heel of the device. I find the onscreen keyboard on the iPhone to be much better than the Pre keyboard. So far we have only seen keyboard input as being the only way to enter text so you always have to switch to portrait mode to do this and my first impressions were not good. In the photos I saw before I actually touched it I thought it would be more of a Treo 800w or at least Treo Pro keyboard, but it is much more similar to the Palm Centro keyboard with rubber sticky keys/bumps set on a flat panel. The keyboard felt pretty cramped and I am sure I could get used to it over time since I do have magic thumbs, but Palm was always known for excellent Treo keyboards and to not put one of these types on this new flagship product may be an issue for many people.

MobileTechRoundup show #176, I need a Hero

MobileTechRoundup show #176, I need a Hero

We missed recording a show last week since I was in line for my iPhone 3GS, the first time, and so now have our second show of the week for you all to enjoy. James, Kevin, and I all started off MobileTechRoundup show #176 by talking about the announcement of the new HTC Hero and HTC Sense UI coming later this year. Palm seems to be doing well with Pre downloads, but needs to get their SDK out for applications to start filling up the Palm App Catalog. Kevin mentioned that iPhone tethering works with a simple provisioning file and then we each told how much we would be willing to pay for the service that should be coming to AT&T a bit later. There are a couple of slick new netbooks available from HP and ASUS and Kevin has one in his shopping cart. There won't be a show next week since we'll be off enjoying the 4th of July.