Post-Leak Palm Rumor Analysis

Why wouldn't Palm OS II or whatever Palm winds up calling it be compatible with older PalmOS apps? Palm has everything it needs to build in compatibility, a perpetual license to Garnet and the PACE emulator which AFAICT is what really runs most PalmOS apps even now under Garnet. I suppose POSII would break applications which dig themselves too deeply into the OS in much the same way that Garnet broke Hackmaster hacks which were so popular under PalmOS 2, 3, and 4.x but the vast majority of PalmOS apps continued to run on the new PalmOS 5.x. Hell at this point, the main -- some would say the only -- reason to use PalmOS is because of all the third-party software. PalmOS will be compatible with Garnet because it has to be for Palm to survive.

These small and cheap notebooks are more or less just cheap notebooks that happen to be small.

Vote for John Kerry... best man for the job.

I would gladly pay $100 more for the Foleo's screen, instead of the 800x400 screen on that laptop.

This has been a common refrain in comments on the EEEpc as well.

Also, let's see hard info on weight and battery life. That thing has a hard drive, which is going to suck up a lot of power.

Looking back in hindsight, what was mainly wrong with the Foleo was that it was tied to a smartphone, and didn't have enough horsepower for YouTube.

Still, I think Palm desperately needs to focus on Palm OS II, as it is already years too late.

"All opinions posted are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled."

> ...I notice treocentral pushing people to their winmob site...

What I find surprising - and have commented on probably more than once - is how well PiC hides the fact that they have current-day-relevant sister sites as well!

I still spend a vast majority of my time working on PIC, it's a lot of work and I still get more traffic in a couple hours here than I would on all my other sites combined in a month.

My mobilitybeat.com site was more of an experiment than a whole new site for me. I haven't been able to update it much lately because of recent traveling but it should pick up again soon. I had hoped it would be more community driven as anyone can submit news articles and posts there are voted on by the readers.

PhoneFavs.com is my current project that I am most excited about as that is a mobile portal and surfing tool that works well on all mobile devices.

^^ And it has the best mobile search page, to boot.

1src has decided to go down with the PalmOS ship. They refuse to carry content from the other OS which Palm supports, which results in them having more podcasts than actual articles on their front page. I think they made their articles registration only (it did not use to be that way) to make it easier to ban people from using their site. They are committing slow suicide by burying their heads in the sand.

I dont doubt they will change their policy soon.

As Joel said many years ago now:

The 700w is news but the device is Windows Media-powered not Palm-powered. We would go in circles about discussing the semantics of "Palm-powered" but we feel that 1src's "on topic" and front page news areas will continue to be PalmOS-related.

http://www.1src.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97307&page=1&pp=15

Even POS Treo's are in general discouraged there. They are a site dedicated to a dying niche (PalmOS PDA's).

See, I just don't see that. The forums perhaps are a majority PDA users but the news and podcasts rarely even discuss any devices other then Treos. I find it nice to have a place to talk about the TX. It maybe a dying niche market as you say but there are still many users of these devices that enjoy discussing them. The TX community on that site has come out with some awesome applications that keep me enjoying my TX.

PDA's Past and Present:
Palm TX (Number 2)
Palm - IIIxe, Vx, M500, M505, Tungsten T, TX
Handspring - Edge, Platinum, Deluxe
Sony - SJ22
Casio-EM500
Apple - MP110, MP2000, MP2100

TX and Centro are both mobile devices. Each one has areas of specialization. Each have a role. I own both a TX (and T5) and 680; and I use them both heavily, in different areas of my life. Both phone centric and less phone centric mobil devices have a very prosperous and long futur ahead of them (likely endless).

My concern with 1src is that you HAVE to register just to read articles. That discourages newcomes and even old times alike when the browser's cache is emptied and you have to log in.

As for WM vs POS site content, same principles apply as to why Palm Inc. should not have gone down that route in the first place. They are 2 different worlds and resources are spead thin. A mobile device and its OS is complicated enough as it is and fans have to invest lots of time to master a software base. So who the hell wants the annoyance of having the added task of doing a triage to avoid WM content and see its own OS preferred articles look "shelf space"?

Problem here is that many people think Palm OS is dead. I know its fundamentals are good and they are 1 major update away from making everyone change their tune about the OS' fate.

And if people REALLY have to see both the POS and WM world just to be sure they made the right choice, let them bookmark 2 sites; god forbid that is so difficult to do.

I am not in favor of hybrid sites when it comes to software and hardware coverage of a mobile plateform and OS economy. Hybrid sites are a sign of panic, fear and only serve to transition and ultimately destroy a given platform.

If Palm Inc and webmasters want a unique product that results in a strong fan base and recurring excitement and development, they have to pick. If they don't, when Palm OS II is released, another site will be dedicated to it and fans will flock there. Change sometimes comes swiftly, and once you lose momentum, its hard to get it back.