Oh dear. Microsoft still doesn't get it. Different people want different things...right now, my TRG does want I want of it, and I will not play the technology chasing game until it doesn't. If MS could deliver a machine/platform combination with the same form factor, battery life and OS stability as my TRG Pro...plus something else I NEED (emphasis on the word NEED), I may be interested. However, on past performance, they just haven't been able to deliver; the ball is in Microsoft's and the hardware vendor's court. I agree the IPaq is a good start; its fast, small and attractive. If you want the features it sports buy it, if not don't. For me, it has absolutely nothing I NEED which I don't already have, so until my unit doesn't satisfy my needs, I won't change it - its too big a job and I object to throwing money away just to keep up for the sake of it!

"Simple" LOL... Ben must not have checked out palmgear.com... Just try to find 1/2 the available software for CE.. You will not. The ONLY difference between palm and Wince is that Palm works reliably EVERY TIME you sync. And you can not listen to MP3's or Watch Videos. Come on now. do we really want to watch videos & listen to MP3's on a HandHeld? No thanks. I'll keep the "simple" device with outperforms the WinCE every time, is reliable, and the software doesnt cost my an arm and a leg.

I'm a librarian for major corporation, with a 140 IQ. and the most cynical woman on the planet, brainwashing, give me a break. If I had the IQ of a rock, I'd be insulted. I try to be neutrsl regarding MS, but they have gone too far this is just damm insulting. Tell me I wonder have they brainwashed all of us regarding their products and operating system

Oh, my GOD! He's RIGHT! My Palm is a piece of JUNK! I can't believe I didn't see it before! We've all been HAD! I'm calling my lawyer right now. Maybe we can put a class action suit together, just like they're doing with the tobacco companies. It's not brainwashing, it's an ADDICTION! I'm gonna go buy an iPAQ right now! Wait...before I do, I've gotta play another hand of Solitaire on my Palm V. Doh! It's got me! I can't escape! Somebody help! Microsoft, please rescue me!

Two words, "Sore Loosers". Microsoft's logic dictates that since CE devices aren't selling well but Palm products are, then there must be something sinister going on. There is something sinister going on. Palm is creating elegant software and hardware products that have great developer support and they're blowing Microsoft's doors off. If anyone can be accused of 'Brainwashing' it is Microsoft. What do you think Microsoft's advertising and marketing budget is compared to Palms?

I owned a CE device. It suffered from more crashes than Seattle traffic. Palm won my business with stability, performance & size. The Palm Vx sure beats carrying a brick in your pocket!

Microsoft has fallen prey to the pack-as-many-features-into-a-product at the cost of stability pit, and yet continue to dig. In a portable device, stability and reliability are of primary importance. Whatever Palm (or anyone else) can pack into a palm-sized device while keeping the product robust is okay by me. I think Palm has done a great job of maintaining that balance. Maybe Microsoft should pick up some pointers rather than throw stones.

Palm is good.... I love my Palm... Simple.... Palm Screen Good enough.... Palm is good... I will be happy with "less".... Only Palm is a Palmtop.... Hotsync is good... Functionality is better than Glitter... Palm is good....

Thank you for showing me the real light Microsoft!

Though I agree with the Palm OS philosophy of keeping it simple, I feel that they have left out quite a bit.
For starters, I would appreciate a world time clock, financial calculator, and spreadsheet built-in. How about a simple database to go along with it and a simple sketch programme.
There are so many quality sharewares available in the market. Why does Palm not choose some of them to include it in the OS?

Let's keep it simple, but do not skim the features. Palm can add all those useful stuff and still keep it simple.

My advise to Palm is not to wait for the competition to force them into it.

Just who's doing the brainwashing, eh? Not everyone needs to play MP3s at 5Meg a pop on a measly 32Mb device, despite what the marketroids from MS want us to think. I want my PDA to work without crashing, and my Palm Vx fits the bill perfectly, unlike my earlier HP 360LX/620LX with a Pocket IE that was unusable for browsing HTML. In contrast, my 20Mhz Vx with Avantgo reads Slashdot.org beautifully without so much as a hiccup.

If you want a bloated, not-quite-Windows-not-quite-an-embedded-OS funny bird OS, then CE might be for you.
But poke it with a stick and you'll see how fragile the entire piece of crap is. And WinCE software!!
Rare by definition, that.

PalmOS could do with more features, yes. We all want the earth. But these are "wants", not "musts". But there are some of us consciously choosing the right combination of size, power and functionality given the constraints of the current state-of-the-art. What MS fails to understand is the few sweet spots that exist in devices like PDAs - which Palm has well covered.

Instead of producing bulky, overpriced PPCs running similarly bulky OSes to no apparent benefit & with no upgrade path (remember Everex, Nino et al.), why not ditch that abortion of an OS called WinCE and use a proper embedded OS instead? A decent IP stack would be good start. I've had enough of being MS's guinea pig on their abortive attempts at producing a decent OS for a PDA - there's just too much WinCE roadkill lying around.

There's something new buyers should be aware about.
Will your PocketPC be roadkill like the rest? And just how often are you going to wait for that ridiculous movie to sync just so that you can fill up all your PDA's RAM for 6 seconds worth of playback? Jeez.

The Palm organizer is useful and pretty much feature-complete. I'd rather see them spend their time on getting one thing _right_ instead of getting multiple things _in_.

However, I just looked at the toys that are going to be available this winter for Christmas. Not one of them retailed for over $150. Most all of them had RF communications with each other, and they used basically the same components as the Palm.

Why do Palms still cost so much? The technology just isn't that expensive: a B+W screen, an old-tech processor, a touch screen, and 8MB of RAM for $250? Give me a break... These things should be selling for $100, tops. And now they're going to charge for OS upgrades and sell shareware apps as "upgrades".

IMHO, the only reason people pay the money is that there are hundreds of apps out there for it. Palm was smart in hooking developers early and keeping them friendly.

I love my Palm, but I really think they are quite overpriced.

From the Emperor of Bloatware itself.

Not to mention the Grand Poobahs of Brainwashing.

I was enticed away from my trusty 'DOS' HP200LX by the colorful WinCE HP620LX. It turned out to be too big and heavy to carry conveniently, AutoSync was atrocious, it refused to work with a PC card modem, battery life was short, and it crashed daily. I gladly gave up Word, Excel, and Explorer for the smaller, lighter Philips Nino PPC. But it was also crash-prone and the one time I had to resort to alkalines due to the rechargeable not going the distance on a trip, a delicate prong broke, disabling the rechargeable. Since alkalines lasted only about a day (!), I elected to buy new rather than repair the discontinued. As I was checking out the new WinCE 3.0 PocketPC, it crashed hard right there in the store. I now wear a slim, light Handspring Visor on my belt in one of the bijillion cases available. It handles all of the essential functions I need, thanks to the bijillion software titles available, the batteries last just short of forever, and I have yet to reset the unit. Oh, yes, it was half the price of a PocketPC. Does this sound like I was brainwashed by Palm? MS had me, and lost me (along with Philips and most of the original WinCE system vendors, perhaps they were brainwashed by Palm, also?). MS just doesn't get it.

M$ just wishes it was *them* brainwashing us. Palm has a device that works within its form factor/battery. I have no doubt that featurs will improve as the technology does.

Microsoft is truly the biggest bunch of pansies I have ever seen. Is it any more obvious that they are frustrated because of THEIR inability to brainwash the consumers into thinking that WinCE is superior product? We finally have a situation where Microsoft is unable to force the consumer on their product - and they are apparently not taking it well. Welcome to reality.

Hey Ben, anyone can ask a bunch of people what they want and cram it all into a little box. Palm's success has been the ability to read between the lines and figure out what the user really needs. This concept must sound pretty foreign to you (and Microsoft), eh?

IDIOCY.
Never Underestimate the Power of Stupid People in Large Groups. (taken from a poster from http://www.thinkgeek.com" CLASS=NEWS TARGET=_NEW>http://www.thinkgeek.com ) .. and we all know how big the group at M$ is. Palm does what palm does best.. make simple products that make our lives easier. i don't want an mp3 player with my organizer. we all know there are mp3 players that have some PDA like qualities, but how big is that market? more colors would involve more changes to the OS.. and what would happen to all the developers when all of a sudden their software is obsolete because we whined about more colors? i know it would be a matter of time till the market caught up. i mean what is "our" dream machine? besides a Palm V with a gig of memory, an mp3 player,something for watching mpgs i got of the net (eh eh), WAP/CDMA/TDMA/CDPD/GSM capabilities (so we can call from the desert island after our three our tour.. ) oh yeah.. i want my Palm V with a min 65000 colors. IMHO i think palm is doing a great job of creating this thingy that allows me to play sim city in board (bored?) meetings, keep track of appointments, read net articles, carry some docs, phone #'s, and all the other stuff.. oh yeah.. sometimes i feel adventuous and go on the web via my nokia at a blinding 9.6kps while pacbell sticks me with 15c a min. but what else am i gonna do while waiting to get through the 101 -405 interchange.. yeah that was me that almost rearended you.. cause i was waiting for the traffic report to refresh. everyone knows wireless (in any USABLE.. and incase you didn't see it.. USABLE form) is a ways off.. cause we all know we won't be happy w/o broadband wireless.. and the FCC is still fighting with DTV to free up that precious bandwidth.. so for the time being.. keep on rockin me baby.. cause PALM is solving most of my needs ...... for now..

2 points:

first can they relly define "simple"?

second can they relly define "brainwash"?

I'm still using my PILOT 5000. NO UPGRADES! It does what I need it to do. However, I'm a bit disappointed that there aren't many applications out there for us O/S 1.0 users that don't even need the neato features like backlights, and IR.

Happy Piloting!

All I know is that Palm beats Microsoft in the mobile devices arena. Whether they "brainwash" us or not is up to the people decide, which is all that matters in business. Personally, I love my palm, and I don't care if Palm says it's simple or not. I buy what I think is good, not because some millionaire says it's simple. Microsoft is taking cheap shots at Palm, and they only wish they could attain the status that Palm does.

Too Bad...Mr. Waldman can certainly kiss his chances for jumping ship and working for any company that flies the PALM OS banner goodbye.

Brainwashed myass. MY PDA (TRGpro) gives me functionality and dependability. Essentially,it is my competent support manager when I am out on the road.

Windows CE is geared for the (pre)pubescent mind. My kids get off on color and noise. Exactly what it ever will be>......

Bring on pacman and walkman!!!

Perhaps Microsoft can also explain to me how Palm brainwashed me into swapping my Win CE handheld for a Palm without ever my having seen any Palm advertising?

My old HP CE device was just too complex and power-hungry to be practical. I gave up on it after less than 2 months' use. In a blaze of glory after a sudden cash windfall I bought a Palm IIIx. My only regret now is that I didn't know about the soon-to-be-released 8Mb model. Had I known about that, I'd have held off until then.

When I rolled my pickup truck at 80 mph on I-5, my first thought was NOT for my Windows-powered laptop--I refused to let them put me in the ambulance until they found my PalmPilot and handed it to me.

I don't need my Palm Pro to do anything more than when I bought it 2 years ago.
Why does MS and others get freaked out about having the latest stuff?

The LAST thing I want is for the PDA market to start looking like the bull***t PC market, where my computer is obsolete a couple months after I walk out of the store. And two years later, I need a new harddrive just to install Office so I can read other peoples files, even though I don't need any new *features*. Heck, most of the time all I need is MS Write.

What's the rush for color? What's the rush for paying for everything that SOMEONE might need pre-installed? I just pay for what *I* want installed, thanks.

We'll let's see, a Palm V runs several days without needing a recharge while a pocket PC runs about 12 hours or so. Is that about right?

Considering the way Micro$oft plays this game....they got some major balls making a statement like that.

Would it be great if one could do more with the Palm? Yes! But with each generation of palm products one can do more. I also think many underutilize their Palm but that is their own fault. The comments by MS are just another attempt to try to discredit this awesome tool!

My reasons for choosing a Palm IIIxe over CE include years spent trying to support Windows & watching minimum system requirements grow exponentially. Palm OS works.

Boo Hoo, poor Microsoft. Palm does an excellent job of serving it's users. They make a device that serves their USERS' needs well for a good price. Microsoft just wishes that their bloated, expensive, crash-prone PDA's were selling so well and since they aren't they'll whining about "brainwashing". Give me a break!

Palm's big advantage is that they don't try to be everything, they focus on the basics and then let the users decide what extras they want. When their is a large demand for some feature (ex: more memory) they have added it to the product line. Most importantly, Palm has one of the most stable OSs around, because of its simple nature.