Android on Palm OS Hardware
Dmitry Grinberg, famous for his still-on-life-support-as-of-June DGOS Palm OS-compatible OS rewrite, has now managed the substantial task of getting Android installed and semi-functional on Palm OS hardware. Dmitry posted a picture of the Palm Tungsten C, a device originally released in March of 2003, running Android 2.1 on his blog. There appears to be some graphical issues onscreen, likely due to the compression necessary to accommodate the T|C's 320x320 screen, but the results appear more encouraging than the Treo 650 we reported on last year.
The project is a dual-boot SD card-based project for any PXA-based Palm OS device, as most Palm devices would not have enough flash memory (if at all) available to store Android. The SD card containing the OS must remain in the device while the OS is running, so any serious multimedia efforts would be hampered due to the lack of external storage. In a followup post, Dmitry does state that he is attempting "full Android with proper optimizations, in hopes of better performance".
Additionally, Dmirty goes on to say that a combo of a Palm TX + SD card is his main development platform, and the T|C is the only other compatible device at the moment as it requires a full 64MB+ of "real" RAM, though he does mention the T5 and LifeDrive also as other possible candidates. Dmitry states that a fast SD card is a must, due to the limited and slow RAM in Palm OS devices. Right now, there is no Wifi or Bluetooth connectivity nor any audio capability.
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RE: I Was Playing Around With My TX Today
that's just dumb. do you still watch TV on an old 27" CRT?
RE: I Was Playing Around With My TX Today
On another note, Dmitri is the the only developer who seems to love Palm as much as some of the people that haunt this forum. Great job with the C, but what we really hope for is Garnet running on an Android device. Can't wait to see that come to fruition. All Access has brought to the dance is G1 for Android as a freeware app. While it is nice it doesn't show much return on their investment. It's not all that great using my finger on that capacitive screen either.
RE: I Was Playing Around With My TX Today
DG is amazing. I have little use for old Palm hardware or Gooogle's OS. Still fascinating.
I miss pen computing on the new capacitive devices. A certain amount of apps are obsolete due to them, and some important apps. Dream would be to have capacitive and the nice OSes, with the ability to have stylus available for that 5% of the time.
Pat Horne
RE: I Was Playing Around With My TX Today
Gary
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RE: I Was Playing Around With My TX Today
Gekko wrote:
that's just dumb. do you still watch TV on an old 27" CRT?
Not normally but if I'm in a hotel or a guest in someone's home and it has composite inputs and I can just plug in my iPod and that funky Apple cable why not? The same principal applies with the TX or any other old PalmOS device. If it still works why not play around with it to see how much it can still do? It's certainly much better than throwing it away or leaving in to gather dust in some drawer....
Fool/Palm Apologist
Shouting down the PIC Faithful Since 2009
Screw convergence
Palm III->Visor Deluxe->Visor Platinum->Visor Prism->Tungsten E->Palm LifeDrive->Palm TX->Palm Pre
Visor Pro+VisorPhone->Treo 180g->Treo 270->Treo 600->Treo 680->T-Mobile G1->Palm Pre
http://mind-grapes.blogspot.com/
RE: I Was Playing Around With My TX Today
i hate clutter. i don't like collecting junk. give it away or trash it.
i'm a minimalist. try it - it's very calming.
http://zenhabits.net/zen-mind-how-to-declutter/
RE: I Was Playing Around With My TX Today
grandpa - make me another clock app please. the world needs more.
RE: I Was Playing Around With My TX Today
OK smart guy. Show me an Android or iphone 4 app or combo of apps that would replace Agendus and memo pad. At a minimum the datebook needs monthview and icon support with an icon editor on the handheld. It should be as useful.
If the software is so useful there should be at least one that blows it away. I will be watching for your reply. Let the members of this forum decide if it is more useful.
The app catalog looks like it was designed to wow the cast of "Jersey Shore," and of course, you.
RE: I Was Playing Around With My TX Today
RE: I Was Playing Around With My TX Today
Pissing on Android isn't an app, it's an opinion, mine.
Gekko, when you get my age you'll appreciate clocks more as you watch your time run out ;-o
Gary
Tech Center Labs
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RE: I Was Playing Around With My TX Today
I fart app in your general direction.
And Gekko a MINIMALIST???? OK, that was the LAUGH OF THIS DECADE!!!
RE: I Was Playing Around With My TX Today
Tech Center Labs
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RE: I Was Playing Around With My TX Today
Tech Center Labs
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RE: I Was Playing Around With My TX Today
be careful watching that video, grandpa. i don't want you to have a heart attack.
RE: I Was Playing Around With My TX Today
IIIxe-->M505-->TT-->T3
RE: I Was Playing Around With My TX Today
Not sent from my LifeDrive -- because it has MINIMALISTIC functionality.
RE: I Was Playing Around With My TX Today
Have a nice day!
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->Pilot Pro->IIIe->IIIc->M500->M505->M515->TC->T3->T5->Treo 650P->Treo 700P->Droid>Pre Plus
RE: I Was Playing Around With My TX Today
God Almighty, is there NO term you filthy money helots won't leave pure and unmolested and not twist to justify your hollow avarice?
RE: I Was Playing Around With My TX Today
There is more than just fart apps. You can start your car with your phone if it has a Viper alarm. You can monitor your home security video feed, upload HD video to YouTube, have TomTom navigate your way home, edit a document you received in your Exchange email, or watch Netflix.
Ines Sainz represents bimbo journalism at its finest. One more step towards Idiocracy.
RE: I Was Playing Around With My TX Today
I suppose with age you do come to appreciate what works best and you don't care much about the latest device if it doesn't do what you need to get done. I've been around for a while too. When I was an undergrad I programmed in FORTRAN 77 and COBOL. Used punchcards with a rubber band around them. Kept my programs (piles of punchcards) in a shoebox. When the computer loaded your program it sounded like a machine-gun. My friend had the latest-greatest PC, the new TRS-80. We all learned to program in Basic then ASC-II. His was too cool because it had a cassette tape recorder he could keep his programs on. The sky was bluer then too. Sometimes I wear black socks with sandals.
I still don't appreciate disposable Android apps for $0.99.
I do have the Directed Electronics remote starter on my new G37x. Have the Andoid app on my EVO. If you get it, keep the keyfob remote handy because it doesn't always work. Mine uses AT&T for the signal and coverage isn't great in the Midwest.
RE: I Was Playing Around With My TX Today
RE: I Was Playing Around With My TX Today
Wouldn't it be easier to
RE: Wouldn't it be easier to
linds wrote:
create a good browser for the existing Palm OS then porting over android? I have no idea but it seems like that would be the main thing that could breathe new life into Palm OS. Or on the other side of the spectrum if style tap could work their magic on the android platform.
Well, if there were a way to create a decent PalmOS browser, you'd think that someone would have figured it out at some point in its ~15 years. I'm being a little facetious of course, since Blazer in its day was a perfectly adequate, even exceptional mobile browser. But the modern mobile web has left it far behind and there is no indication that it can catch up.
In any case, the point of putting Android on old Palm hardware like the TX would be just to see how well it could run not because it would be somehow better than say and EVO 4G.
Fool/Palm Apologist
Shouting down the PIC Faithful Since 2009
Screw convergence
Palm III->Visor Deluxe->Visor Platinum->Visor Prism->Tungsten E->Palm LifeDrive->Palm TX->Palm Pre
Visor Pro+VisorPhone->Treo 180g->Treo 270->Treo 600->Treo 680->T-Mobile G1->Palm Pre
http://mind-grapes.blogspot.com/
RE: Wouldn't it be easier to
but IMHO, to even be remotely considered "modern", a Palm OS device needs:
1. A better web browser (something native, not that silly JVM-based Opera)
2. Better/updated wi-fi support. WEP and 802.11b doesn't cut it anymore from a security or a speed standpoint. As the PDA32 shows, Garnet can support 802.11g
3. Support for >128mb RAM and >4GB storage volumes.
Isn't it funny how things come full circle? Just off the top of my head, we now in addition to the iPod Touch, a slew of Archos Android-based "tablets" in sizes ranging from 2.8" to 10" and a Samsung Android-based "touch" device heading to market. And Garmin's Nuvi 295W looks (and is priced) awfully similar to something from the PDA glory days.
Palm could easily have kept the TX alone on the market for another 2+ years, giving it an annual hardware & ROM refresh (2 or 4GB internal flash, faster CPU, higher capacity battery). And I still say the lack of a WebOS-based "touch" device cost Palm dearly last year, especially with the Sprint exclusivity. If a "Pre Touch" had arrived ~90 days after the CES unveiling as a palm.com exclusive, a lot of early WebOS bugs could've been addressed by the time the Pre arrived.
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->Verizon Moto Droid + Verizon Palm Centro-> Verizon Moto Droid X + Palm TX
RE: Wouldn't it be easier to
hkklife wrote:Isn't it funny how things come full circle? Just off the top of my head, we now in addition to the iPod Touch, a slew of Archos Android-based "tablets" in sizes ranging from 2.8" to 10" and a Samsung Android-based "touch" device heading to market. And Garmin's Nuvi 295W looks (and is priced) awfully similar to something from the PDA glory days.
Palm could easily have kept the TX alone on the market for another 2+ years, giving it an annual hardware & ROM refresh (2 or 4GB internal flash, faster CPU, higher capacity battery). And I still say the lack of a WebOS-based "touch" device cost Palm dearly last year, especially with the Sprint exclusivity. If a "Pre Touch" had arrived ~90 days after the CES unveiling as a palm.com exclusive, a lot of early WebOS bugs could've been addressed by the time the Pre arrived.
I wonder how much effort it would take to shove the innards of a Palm Pre into a TX chassis and give it a capacitive screen? Considering how much bigger it is than the Pre, likely not much. Bam! There's your Pre Touch.
Fool/Palm Apologist
Shouting down the PIC Faithful Since 2009
Screw convergence
Palm III->Visor Deluxe->Visor Platinum->Visor Prism->Tungsten E->Palm LifeDrive->Palm TX->Palm Pre
Visor Pro+VisorPhone->Treo 180g->Treo 270->Treo 600->Treo 680->T-Mobile G1->Palm Pre
http://mind-grapes.blogspot.com/
RE: Wouldn't it be easier to
what's the point of this? this is like putting a Ferrari engine in Bosco's Civic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT7nM4ddoCM
RE: Wouldn't it be easier to
In fact, wait a frikkin minute, there are devs HERE, so why hasn't one of THEM done it, reading the demand here?
RE: Wouldn't it be easier to
hkklife wrote:
As the PDA32 shows, Garnet can support 802.11g
Not yet... the last I heard Wi-Fi on the PDA32 was an optional add-on that is not yet available. Until it is available, the PDA32 Garnet support for 802.11g isn't really proven.
RE: Wouldn't it be easier to
mikecane wrote:
In fact, wait a frikkin minute, there are devs HERE, so why hasn't one of THEM done it, reading the demand here?
Contracts. Any code I write belongs to someone else even if I write it in my sleep.
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I Was Playing Around With My TX Today
Fool/Palm Apologist
Shouting down the PIC Faithful Since 2009
Screw convergence
Palm III->Visor Deluxe->Visor Platinum->Visor Prism->Tungsten E->Palm LifeDrive->Palm TX->Palm Pre
Visor Pro+VisorPhone->Treo 180g->Treo 270->Treo 600->Treo 680->T-Mobile G1->Palm Pre
http://mind-grapes.blogspot.com/