Additional Hints at Upcoming Devices from Palm

Another Colligan Killer from Palm.

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Tech writer, weblogs inc. http://www.tuaw.com

I was about to post the same.

Seems Palm has now left the PDA market. Should I buy a new TX as replacemente for my old TX?

Yes, it would be a VERY wise move for everyone to go and do the following things ASAP:

1. Buy a TX (if you don't have one already). if you do have a TX, buy a spare unit (funds permitting) or at least an extra replacement battery/digitizer. Also grab a few spare styli and screen protectors while you're at it.

2. Get a 4GB SD 1.1 card (NOT SDHC) in case Dmitry Grinberg never finishes his SDHC driver for the TX. Barring that, get a few decent 2GB cards.

3. Download the latest versions of all of your registered apps and burn them onto CD/DVD or store them on a backup drive somewhere. Also note your reg codes (I do this once a year anyway).

Palm has not yet officially EOL'd any TX or E2 peripherals. And the Z22 has just had its travel charger and a few cases EOL'd. I think they'll stick around through at least the end of the summer. Palm will probably blow out the remaining stocks in some big back-to-school sales in Aug/Sept.

For what it's worth, Franklin Covey, Staples and Best Buy are still selling Palm PDAs and peripherals at retail here in the USA. I'm not sure about Office Max (haven't been in one in some time) or the few CompUSA stores still open under TigerDirect ownership or Fry's (don't have one near me). I know Circuit City and Office Depot dumped all of their Palm inventory a long time ago.

Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p

Nah. What you do is you get your 'palminfocenter' domain, you drop the 'palm', and you take move the 'n' 2 characters forward. There you have it. Almost seamless cross over to the inevitable successor and we'll all look like we've been backing the winning team all along... almost....

Good advice all around. I've had 'em all: T3, Zod 2, T5, LifeDrive, & TX. While the Zodiac's rock-solid build quality, generous battery life, and huge LCD are huge pluses, it's also important to keep in mind that the TX is a "current" device that makes the most sense for a business-type user and/or someone concerned about the best PIM experience and widespread software compatibility.

Just in case anyone who hasn't been following the device history of the past few years is reading this....there are definitely a few reason to go with a new TX over a used T3/Zod/T5 etc:

-Fully Vista compatible version of Palm Desktop
-None of the Zod's lingering compatibility issues
-"Tweaked" Palm PIM (not PalmSource) apps
-Standard Blazer & VM (better than Tapwave's PalmSource Mail)
-Still supported/under warranty (the ONLY 320x480 PalmOS device that can claim this!)
-More pocketable than the Zod
-Better stylus than the Zod
-Many, many more available accessories
-Newer OS/software bundle
-Standard wi-fi
-Can use 4gb SD 1.1 cards. And Dimtry's SDHC driver is supposedly still in the works

It's funny how T3 and Zodiac prices have dropped recently. 1.5-2 years ago, a mint condition example of either device would bring top dollar.

Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p

Ah, thanks for the heads up. I'm delighted to hear the Zod is still usable under Vista and 4gb SD compatible. With that kind of support from the community, imagine where we might be now had Palm picked up the remnants of Tapwave for pennies on the dollar and kept their best & brightest working on a line of media-centric PDAs/PMPs/smartphones.

Looking back, I wish I had kept my Zod but, alas, I had to fund the great 700p effort of '06 and it really was just TOO big for the pocket, so off she went...

Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p

The last device from Palm has already been released...

Kris, I have it from a very reliable source the the Skywriter is none other than a high-end WiMax PDA! It's got an OLED 640x480, 3.5 inch touchscreen and a slide out keyboard (ala Nokia 810). Although designed for cloud computing, this thing has 4 gb of built-in storage and has micro SD expansion as well (compatible with at least most 8 gb cards that comply with the SDHC spec). Dimensions are similar to the TX, although a bit thicker (no surprise there). Another "no surprise" is the color combination: black with stainless steel trim. Here's the kicker though: it's got USB host capability! (But of course devices like hard drives will require their own power source.) Pricing information is sketchy still, but my source says Palm is doing everything it can to keep this thing under $400 and are hoping for something like $349.

OS? Nova, of course! The hackers over at Palm have all been working overtime to secretly deliver the next gen OS long before anyone expected them to.

You might have thought the Palm was done with PDA's, but they were just waiting until the rest of the technology caught up with their road map before finally releasing it.

So there you have it. And you know I wouldn't make this stuff up.


"twrock is infamous around these parts" (from my profile over at Brighthand due to my negative 62 rep points rating)

And I have as much faith in Palm under Colligan as I do in Santa Claus.

You should probably have more faith in Santa Claus. Unlike Palm, at least Santa Claus causes some excitement every year! ;)

Ron;

That's still not good enough. I want fullsize SDHC AND onscreen Graffiti 1 :-)

I assume the mantle of "Hypothetical Palm Device Wet Dream Creator" has been passed down to you from the good Reverend Horne?

Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p

> ...Since when does an OS not include a user interface?...

We need Cervesas to come back and lecture you about kernels....

I think in this case, the "core OS" being "delivered" doesn't necessarily mean "released to the general public," but rather "ready for the next stage of development," which could well mean that it might be a customised kernel only.

But of course, we're all speculating. Count me as a pessimist, though.

~k

I want to clarify whatever I may have typed unclearly about Palm, Nova, and new devices using Nova.

I sincerely believe the Nova "release" this year, if it even happens, will be WAY far from a usable version. This belief is because of those "core" words as well as the huge number of job openings at Palm (*) AND because of the words of the CFO today about all senior management people in the product development organization being totally different from a year ago.

The CFO's words that changed (at least our perception of timeframe of) the timing of new devices with Nova from "early 2009" to "1st half 2009" reinforce my belief that it's a long way to a finished device and maybe a REALLY long way to a finished SET of devices that mutually communicate, if that particular wish-to-see of mine was ever in the stars anyway.

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(*) I've commented before, maybe not here though, about the alrge number of (especially) user interface designers/developer job openings at Palm that, if STILL being filled as I type THIS, have NO WAY to design and develop "breakthrough UI" designs by end of this year...we won't discuss by "1st half 2009" yet...giggle.

You know, I would't be surrpised to see Nova rolled out in two "waves" of devices.

Palm OS 5.0 appeared on the T|T and was still (ahem) a bit rough around the edges. It was refined considerably in the OS 5.2.x products (T|C, Zire 71, T|T2, T|T3, Zire 72) thatappeared over the next 18 months before reaching its "finished" state with 5.4.x (Treo 650-755p, TX, Z22, T|T5, Centro etc). I am, of course, leaving aside the numerous NVFS woes etc. for the purposes of this argument.

I speculated once before that Palm may take the path of less resistance and launch Nova on LOW-END HARDWARE FIRST. If Nova ever sees the light of day, I feel this really might end up being a plausiable scenario. The advantages of this strategy are several--minimal expectations from users/carriers, less challenging driver writing, and the lower resolution + cost screen/memory/hardware means much of the "core" Nova UI can be reused from Garnet.

What if Palm were to ship, say, one or two low-end smartphones (Centro 2, anyone?) sometime in Q2 '09 that basically mimics the Garnet UI and have a bare minimum hardware featureset (ie no wi-fi, no GPS, still 320x320 LCD etc)? Then they'd follow, say, 6-12 months after this with the first high-end Nova devices with the large screens, dual cameras, GPS, wi-fi, WiMax we're all clamoring for.

Basically, Nova 1.2 for Palm's iPhone-esque deices, Nova 1.0 for their Centro replacements.

Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p

The webcast is available in audio:

- http://www.veracast.com/webcasts/ml/tech08/33307191.cfm

Much as it pains me, I have to agree. I'll probably upgrade my T5 to a TX soon and then hope for the best. The problem is that there is no good desktop PIM alternative. MS Outlook just doesn't cut it and Symbian's desktop software is worse.

BTW, if you are looking for a new Palm PDA, I'd move sooner rather than later. When I was shopping in Best Buy the other day, all the Northern Virginia stores were out of stock on the TX and the store I was in showed none on order and had a DNI (do not inventory) sticker on the shelf tag. Staples' website says they no longer stock them in their stores. Franklin Covey's website shows them as out of stock.

It's too bad. If the TX had just been released with a phone instead of a wifi connection, Palm could have stayed on the leading edge. Instead they played it safe (and clunky) with the Treo design.

http://www.iampowered.com/archives/2008/03/11/iambic_titles_and_the_iphone_a.php

Interesting stuff...except for two things:

1) It's vaporware to an even greater degree than Nova, at this point.

2) The iPhone SDK doesn't allow developers to run software in the background. Pray tell, how are things like alarms, etc., supposed to work, if you can't run anything in the background? As things stand now, Agendus isn't even very convincing vaporware.

Aside from the touchscreen and the PIM apps, the new BB Bold has EVERY feature Palm users (both POS & WM) have been begging for since at least 2004.

GPS, wi-fi, a decent quality camera, a 480x320 LCD, a blazing fast CPU, a gig of internal storage and even 3.5mm headphone jack. Execs will be lining up to buy this thing at ANY price (assuming the battery life remains decent-which I doubt) and RIM can fix their service outage woes. And I wish they'd go ahead and do something about that horrid skinny font!

All I can say is that for Palm's sake the 800w had better come out VERY soon and be rock-solid out of the box. Otherwise, the 1-2-3-4 punch of iPhone 3G, BB Bold, Sony Xperia X1 and ZERO new product from Palm might finally be enough to put 'em down for the count.

P.S. The bold is also the most stylish QWERTY smartphone I've ever seen. Of course, in a category filled with one clunker after another, that isn't saying much but it's still a nice effort from the traditionally very stodgy RIM.

Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p