My Favorite New Tip: Viewing Email in a Pinch

The good people over at PreCentral.net really make owning a Pre an exciting unfolding. With each new update, users play and test and hack and then post everything they find.

Yesterday, Jonathan Downer posted a tip for previewing email. This feature is thought to be new with WebOS 1.1 though it was not one of the many noted by Palm when they released the update. We know about it now because it was reported in the forums by Pre Central user imop45 and also over at jkOnTheRun.

The short-but-sweet original tip:

Go into your inbox and pinch out on a message (like the zoom in gesture). This will expand the message without having to open the message. You can do this on multiple emails at once also.

And a follow-up tip from chodaboy:

Here's an even easier way: you can anchor the thumb of the hand holding the phone *anywhere* on the screen, and swipe horizontally over any message with the index finger of the free hand and the preview will expand.

Though some users have described the original method as "tricky," I have found that all methods work really well and are pretty easy to perform. The best part about this for me (and others, of course) is that I don't have to open and close every single email just to see what each is about. All I have to do is pinch out (across or up--it all works) and preview some or all of one or more emails.

This might qualify as not only my favorite new tip but my favorite WebOS 1.1 feature. Sweet!