Seagate Develops 1-Inch 12GB Hard Drive

That's what I've been saying. The SDK isn't shipping until the end of this year, and the OS may not accompany the SDK. That being the case, let's say the OS goes Gold in early 2007. Even at that point it's going to take 8-12 months beyond that for ODMs to develop and build devices around this new platform. And that's just the beginning. Wireless carriers will need another 8-12 months to do thorough testing before they adopt and integrate ALP devices into their networks. Frankly I don't think there is any chance of seeing ALP devices in 2007. We're looking at sometime in 2008 as the most likely date of inception.

And that's an optimistic view, in my opinion. It's entirely possible we may get dose of deja vu, Cobalt style. Given the disastrous launch of Cobalt, and considering this is another entirely new platform (albeit one with a much better and TRUSTED foundation), hardware and software developers are unlikely to grab this os right out the starting gate. It's going to take quite some time for all players involved to fully digest the new platform. Product makers don't share out geeky enthusiasm. They're not going to take the ball and run with it like a teenage boy who just found his Dad's porn collection. To response to ALP will be one of caution and restraint.

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Editor, http://Pocketfactory.com

C'mon Foo,

You had me 1/2 angry as to why this drive would need a new Palm SDK. I was like ... what on earth are they thinking, requiring software rewrites for another HDD. : - o

Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com

It'll be a while before you see the GoForce in anyone's product, I would imagine.

May You Live in Interesting Times

Nobody is going to buy a phone with a mechanical hard drive..

Pilot 1000/Palm Pro/Palm VII/m505/Tungsten T(with T68i)

Building on the "near-competency" of the TX, Palm could add the following basic features crucial for any high-end handheld:

1. SLIM & STYLISH metal casing

2. Charging LED

3. Vibrating alarm & voice recorder

4. HIGH capacity fixed internal battery ala T|C/LD or removable battery in varying capacities ala Treo 650/700.

5. Good d-pad & build quality and a decent assortment of hard buttons (again, all like the LD) including a hardware screen rotate button.

6. Solid software bundle out of the box including "fixed" Blazer & VersaMail, GOOD multimedia apps (not crippled PTunes) and a cradle in the box like the good ol' days.

7. Boing boing stylus like T|T series & LD

Then pick & choose from a couple of the following "esoteric" features that are still possible under FrankenGarnet:

1.128mb RAM, 1gb+ flash internal storage drive (ala T5)

2. Dual SD slots- at least one has to be SDIO

3. Accelerated graphics (perhaps Imageon chip lifted off of the corpse of the Zodiac?)

4. Physically larger 18-bit 320*480 screen of uniform brightness/quality.

5. BT 1.2 (at minimum) with A2DP for wireless stereo headphone mp3 listening--lifted from 700p/Cobalt?

6. 802.11g (Yes, I know the Palm's CPU/OS cannot really utilize the speed but at least it won't drag down everthing else to "b" speeds on the network)

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX

the trend is clear. pdas are YESTERDAY. smartphones are the future. smartphones are what smart handheld companies are focusing their R&D on. consumer pdas are over, stop dreaming. they're not coming back. they are dinosaurs. they are buggy-whips.

and don't shoot the messenger.

Radu Coc - agreed
Gekko - I hope you are wrong. There should be a market for both PDAs and SMartphones.

@Radu Coc
"YES, A2DP IS A MUST IN THIS DAYS and not an "esoteric" feature."

Was this a sarcastic comment? I hope so. Is it also a must have feature in the billions Ipods sold so far? Or the Rios and Nomads? Maybe this lack of A2DP is what has hurt Palm so badly and is the primary thing keeping them from driving MS out of the market.

Handspring Visor, Palm V, Treo 180, Treo 90, Treo 600, Treo 650...
MTT