Palm Featured on Modern Marvels TV Show

Palm Modern MarvelsPalm was just featured in an episode of the History Channel's Modern Marvels program this weekend. The episode was entitled "Retro Tech" and Palm was profiled during a segment of the show that followed the evolution of mobile technology from the cell phone and Palm Pilot, to the Centro and modern Smartphones.

The episode and video clip embedded after the break, devotes a good five minutes to the topic. The taping must have been fairly recent as the Treo Pro and many different colored Centros are highlighted a number of times. Peter Skillman, VP of Design at Palm talks about the transition from handhelds to smartphones and the evolution of the Treo.

Thanks to Robin24k for the tip.

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the pda is obsolete

Gekko @ 12/22/2008 4:09:47 PM # Q

"...rendering the previous version obsolete."

the smartphone is the "nail in the coffin" for pdas.

nice video.

RE: the pda is obsolete
PacManFoo @ 12/23/2008 6:17:21 AM # Q
Did you get a tingle down your leg?

The last known classic PDA user.
RE: the pda is obsolete
Gekko @ 12/23/2008 9:16:27 AM # Q

There's no reason to buy/manage/charge/carry/sync/fight/fumble with 2+ devices when ONE Smartphone can do it all.

RE: the pda is obsolete
PacManFoo @ 12/23/2008 12:00:10 PM # Q
To each his own. I still prefer my phone separate from my PDA functional device. It sound like how you actually use your device is the bigger determination of if you need two devices or not. For you, talking and texting your girl/boy friend might be the most you use your device for. I do a lot of ebook reading, password storage, text document referral, video podcasts, database, and many quick hand written sticky notes (much quicker then typing out). Quite often I'm doing the writing and text/database referral while talking to someone on the phone. It's also important that I don't have a dead phone battery. So for me two devices serves me MUCH better then a single device can.



The last known classic PDA user.

RE: the pda is obsolete
DarthRepublican @ 12/23/2008 4:03:02 PM # Q
1. Battery life or rather lack of battery life.
2. Sometimes specialized devices can do their specialized task much better than a jack of all trades device.
3. Personal preference.

Screw convergence
Palm III->Visor Deluxe->Visor Platinum->Visor Prism->Tungsten E->Palm LifeDrive->Palm TX
Visor Pro+VisorPhone->Treo 180g->Treo 270->Treo 600->Treo 680->T-Mobile G1
http://mind-grapes.blogspot.com/
RE: the pda is obsolete
Gekko @ 12/27/2008 8:31:49 AM # Q

the case for NON-Convergence!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MP3 player lights rescuers' way to missing skiers
1 hr 56 mins ago

SAVOGNIN, Switzerland – Swiss rescue officials say they have found two missing skiers after spotting the light from their MP3 music player.

The Swiss air rescue association Rega says it received a distress call from the French tourists late Friday but the skiers' phone battery went dead before they could be reached.

Rega spokesman Gery Baumann says the two men were eventually found after midnight in steep, wooded terrain by a helicopter crew that spotted the light from their digital music player.

Baumann said Saturday that the two 22-year-olds suffered only mild hypothermia despite enduring temperatures as low as 5 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 15 degrees Celsius).

The incident happened near the town of Savognin in southeastern Switzerland.

RE: the pda is obsolete
joad @ 12/28/2008 4:22:12 PM # Q
If those unfortunate skiers had a Centro, they'd have been found DEAD next spring. At least with a 755's battery capacity there would have been slightly more hope...

RE: the pda is obsolete
Gekko @ 12/28/2008 4:49:59 PM # Q

the mere thought of fumbling with a pda, looking up a phone number, and then having to re-type the phone number into the phone and then fumble again with both devices is ludicrous in the year 2008/2009.

RE: the pda is obsolete
PacManFoo @ 12/28/2008 5:58:23 PM # Q
Compared to talking on the phone, needing to look something up on your device, having to tell the person to hold on while I try to find it then remember what it is so you can go back to talking on the phone. Technology is fascinating. You're so right, that is much more hip and modern then being able to look something up as you talk on the phone at the same time.

The last known classic PDA user.
RE: the pda is obsolete
Gekko @ 12/28/2008 6:16:11 PM # Q

that's what ear buds are for, silly.

RE: the pda is obsolete
PacManFoo @ 12/28/2008 9:09:38 PM # Q
So you have to carry around ear buds too? Geeze, that sucks.

The last known classic PDA user.
RE: the pda is obsolete
abosco @ 12/28/2008 9:34:39 PM # Q
Speakerphone.

-Bosco
m105 -> NX70v -> NX80v -> iPhone -> iPhone 3G
RE: the pda is obsolete
PacManFoo @ 12/29/2008 9:21:42 AM # Q
Speakerphone

So everyone can hear your private conversations? Brilliant.

Your so right about one device, I absolutely understand now how much greater one device is. With one device you just have to either carry more equipment or let everyone listen to your conversation. Besides, the battery will probably be dead when someone calls anyway so that negates the need to look up information. And when that one device is lost or stolen, you lose everything!! How could I have overlooked this concept for so long? My PDA's are going straight to the trash and I'll look into getting a REAL smartphone. Not one of those toy Palm devices.

The last known classic PDA user.

RE: the pda is obsolete
MythicFox @ 12/31/2008 6:04:58 PM # Q
I prefer specialized devices simply because I don't use a cell phone that often. I use a cell phone so rarely that any sort of calling plan would be wasted on me, so I go with a prepaid one. At the risk of sounding cheap, I don't see the point of paying a monthly service plan that I'm not going to get my money's worth from it.

Also, I just really hate Treo keyboards.

Palm Vx > m505 > T5

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PDAs are moving on, unlike some people

philpalm @ 12/22/2008 7:01:09 PM # Q
PDA's are not technically "stand alone" devices and they also could be smart cellphones. So smartphones are not the "nail in the coffin" for Palm OS devices. Smart GPS PDA's is a deadend evolution but the Palm OS group is moving towards Nova.

Another deadend evolution was the Handspring module concept. However the addition to add a memory card to the Palm group came from Handspring and Sony challenges that added memory card ability.

I believe that Kodak helped palm add a digital camera to Palm. Sony helped to make (or push) Palm to add viewing photos to the Palm OS family.

One evolutionary split off was the ebook formats developed for Palm devices. Looks like Sony and Kindle are carrying that torch now, though all those antiquated Palms can still do ebooks.

Too bad some people's opinion can't be changed. Palminfocenter is still evolving the message about the Palm devices. The Foleo concept was a great idea unfortunately the method via ARM may not be the best or acceptable method.

ARM based devices will never die because they are an energy efficient method to program things to be smarter. Unfortunately some people cannot be programmed to be smarter or less negative.


RE: PDAs are moving on, unlike some people
joad @ 12/25/2008 5:59:41 PM # Q
I believe it was TRG/Handera that was working on and brought out the first PalmOS device with an external card. Handspring was a little later, and insisted on those silly proprietary modules instead of an industry standard CF or SD format.

When Handspring came out with the precurser to the Treo - the cell phone module that only worked when it was plugged into the only slot - it was finally obvious to them soon after that they also had to go with industry standard flash cards and build the hardware into the mothership. By then it was too late, and they got ate up by Palm....

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Modern Media Propaganda Once Again

LiveFaith @ 12/26/2008 10:10:14 PM # Q
Once again the MSM gets a kickback from a corporation to "randomly" choose to cover their products in a non-threatening was to consumers. Great for Palm no doubt. But, if your looking for journalistic integrity in the nightly news and other mainstream sources forget it. Those drug companies that get featured every night are not by accident. They are infomercial cash cows, not news or unbiased documentaries!

Pat Horne
RE: Modern Media Propaganda Once Again
Gekko @ 12/27/2008 8:01:06 AM # Q

i didn't see this as a blatant shill. it was simply a documentary segment on the growth and evolution of PDAs to smartphones. love 'em or hate 'em, Palm as much as anybody is part of that history. not sure they gave a "kickback" either. companies do this shit all the time.

RE: Modern Media Propaganda Once Again
joad @ 12/27/2008 11:47:56 AM # Q
Local "News" reports have become notorious for this stuff, not sure how frequently History Channel does it.

You can usually sniff out whether or not your "news" is unethically running ad-prop when they have a slickly produced "report" that's completely voiced by your "local" anchor but that anchor never appears in any interview. Drug companies produce these things a lot, usually to announce some sort of "breakthrough" that they want gramma and grampy to add to their "must have" drug cocktails.

Frankly I doubt that Palm is that clever to hire these types of shysters.

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