Palm OS 5 On Track for June Launch

PalmSource to ship Palm OS 5 in June
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/03/28/020328hnpalmos.xml

> Developers are going to have a field-day at what they will be able to do with the new system. We'll see some real games, and some powerful database/office applications.

You're surely joking. The API is virtually the same. As for a "field-day", we still have to wait for OS 6.0.

And we already have "real games" and powerful office applications: Wordsmith, Docs to Go. If you want more "real games" get a Gameboy Advance. I have one and it's great.

Please tame your expectations. If you want more, either use an ultralite laptop or a PocketPC. I will stick with my Palm m515.

Sure the OS5-only software will be great but that will take some time. The first generation OS 5 handhelds will surely be obsolete before some of these new applications are out. Think about it. What developer is going to write software that only runs on OS 5 handhelds the during the first year?

It should be called OS 4.6arm, instead of 5.0

There's some good factual info on OS5 at: http://www.palmos.com/platform/os5/ for anyone that's interested.

Assuming the hardware is on track for the Fall or Winter, then, one has to wonder whether YOUR favorite applications will be compatible. I have a many apps that, if incompatible, would not make OS 5 worth having. Some of these are niche apps that have not been modified by the author for over a year. Think about MathLib. The last update was about three years ago.

Just think about how long it has taken for many apps to incorporate VFS and that was supposedly planned way in advance.

<< The NR-series devices weren't worth getting in any case. >>

I agree. They're cool and all, but coolness is not worth a minimum $500. Especially not when there will be new devices, at least as cool, with more functionality, and all available by the end of the year. The only people who buy, AND KEEP (a very important point), the NR series will be the hard-core gadget enthusiasts.

it's not even a digital camera, my $20 webcam can take higher resolution than the NR.

>>The NR70V means not having to carry around three >>separate items:
>>1) Digital Camera
>>2) MP3 Player
>>3) PDA

On the entire planet Earth there are probably only five people carrying around these three separate items at one time. All five read PIC. Three will buy the new Sony Clie'. One will get the veto from the wife, and later divorce. The fifth will get run over by a bus crossing the street to get to CompUSA. Life will go on. Those of us who actually use a pda in making a living will wait for OS6 because, in reality, we don't really care about the operating system, and waiting for OS6 is just the excuse we need to put off wasting $400 on another handheld computer that we don't actually need because the one we have works just fine.

>> On the entire planet Earth there are probably only five people carrying around these three separate items at one time. All five read PIC. Three will buy the new Sony Clie'. One will get the veto from the wife, and later divorce. The fifth will get run over by a bus crossing the street to get to CompUSA. Life will go on. Those of us who actually use a pda in making a living will wait for OS6 because, in reality, we don't really care about the operating system, and waiting for OS6 is just the excuse we need to put off wasting $400 on another handheld computer that we don't actually need because the one we have works just fine. <<

You forgot to mention that the 3 PIC readers who do buy the Clie will post ENDLESSLY to PIC, claim ad nauseum about the apparent superiority of the new Clie, and acting like we're all neanderthals because we've got better things to do with our money. One will cuss like a 13-year-old who just discovered the shock value of profanity and wants to appear cool; one will use the phrase "reality distortion field" when criticizing for keeping our current Palms even though they're low-res, and one will try to act like he knows everything about computers.

well if you don't care about the speed increase or multimedia capabilities (and you can give a crap about the extra security features) then you are probably right.

It'll be more apparent (i think) in a year or so when the new apps you want will only run on ARM.

Sort of like die hard DOS people holding off on buying windows 95/98/2k. Sure they had tons of DOS games and apps that they loved........but now they couldn't use them.

While OS5 will not be a major upgrade from OS4.x, the new devices will have two important features:
1) ARM-based processors
2) upgradeability(sp?)

So buying an OS5 machine when it's available won't be a wasted purchase, because you can upgrade to OS6 once that's released. However, OS6 might have capabilities that your OS5 hardware can't take advantage of, so it is, indeed a leap-of-faith, somewhat. One would hope that the hardware manufacturers would anticipate this and build it into the OS5 hardware, but sometimes our hopes are dashed.

OS5 supports much faster hardware. The difference will be like upgrading from a 25 MHz 386 or Mac IIcx to a 100-266 MHz Pentium MMX or PowerMac; some new apps and games rewritten for OS5 will run around 10- to 100 times faster (e.g. much faster than by just the clock scaling factor).

Some of the main beneficiaries will be rewritten action games and web browser type applications. Ever try to run a web brower on an old 386?

OS5 will also give you standardized hires support, multivoice sound, and better built-in security. The built-in PIM apps will look pretty much the same.

>Nevertheless, if all you want to do is keep track of
>your contacts, or even just do word processing, you
>will still be happy with OS 4.1.

Ed,

If that's all I did with my Sony S320 I'd have chucked it into the kitchen junk drawer months ago ;-)

PDAP work has been going on for well over a year now, so it is surprising that they are calling that breaking news. When it gets to public review, that'll be news. It won't surprise me if it is even supported on pre-OS5 devices as well though.

Depending on how much RAM the new OS5 Palms have, I wouldn't be surprised to see something more substantial like a Personal Java implementation on that platform.

I was refering to the jsr82:java/bluetooth spec. message that was posted awhile back. RIM is one of the members of the jsr82:java/bluetooth expert group. It seems that the post has been deleted? It must be. I think it was a little off topic, although it was an interesting post.

c'est la vie

> past behavior by Palm and company indicates that you
> will have to buy a new PDA to take advantage of OS 6.

What past behaviour would that be??? That Palm provides upgrades for any Palm III or later device to the current OS 4.1? With the right upgrade hardware, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the old original PalmPilots can even run OS 4.1.