I’ve just started playing with a Palm Pre and ran across some strange UI behavior. Below are two screenshots of the Phone preferences.

In the first image, the ‘turned-on’ item “Show Contact Matches” is blue. So color indicated activation. Got it. Below it is the DTMF tones item. Here, the text of the label is blue, but the arrow next to the choice seems to indicate that I should touch that item to get other choices.

So already I’m slightly confused - do I touch blue items, or items with an arrow?

Next image:

Now I’ve got two more items, but this time not only are they blue, they have arrows as well?

To top it off, the activation area on each item is different. For DTMF tones, touching the blue label does nothing. Touching the black ‘choice’ item with arrow slides out the options, coming from the right hand side, closer to the choice item.

For Voice Network, touching ANYWHERE on the line gives the options, sliding out from the black choices area, even though the arrow is next to the blue label. Same for Data Roaming (Voice Network must be set to Automatic to see this option).

Overall, this is incredibly confusing. If the label should be blue, why are the toggle switches blue when activated, and the toggle labels black? If the options should have the arrow, why do the blue labels have it, even though I can touch the option? And why are the labels sometimes on the left, sometimes on the right?

Overall, and this is just a first impression based on a few hours, the Pre seems to be an attempt to mimic the iPhone that falls short. Right down to the ‘Inspired by and designed in California” message on the plastic insert.