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If you want to bring lawyers into it, it's their damn fault that they're no longer called "Palm Pilots". Oops. Hope Pilot Pen Corporation doesn't want to send me a C&D letter.

A picture of the card is here, which was developed by Hagiwara Sys-Com (and simply name-branded by Sony).

Reading the specs, nothing jumped out at me as being new when you compare it to the excellent C760. Am I missing something?

Product Specs

Review #1

Review #2

1M Bluetooth/week
Same thing labelled as a factoid (not the same as a lie, mind you)

I've got enough karma, no need to mark this up.

Unfortunately, infoSyncWorld is down for maintenance at the moment, so I can't check up. I'm sure they've just launched a new range - I thought that it was that low, but I may be wrong.

Brighthand have this interesting snippet about how the Axim X5 (one of the earlier models) affected the industry:
The Axim X5 Basic offered what had previously been considered high-end features but for an entry-level price, only $200 after a rebate. This put tremendous price pressure on the competition and we're still feeling the effects. I sincerely believe that if the X5 series had not been released, every handheld currently available would cost $100 more than it does now.

That $230 unit still trashes my iPAQ, and competes with my Zaurus. Amazing indeed - and it's got a great screen and incredible battery life, especially compared to the Zaurus.

I think that actually, the Zaurus' features aren't enough to allow it to compete. I had to charge mine several times a day, and the screen was appalling. It doesn't matter how amazing it is having a portable Linux system - I'm still chained to a power supply. The newer PocketPCs get 8+ hours of usage, and the screens are astonishing.

I will be intrigued to see how this new model compares on those points.

Thanks for the mirror of the photos!
Some other articles (mostly ones mentioning the Zaurus User Group article, unfortunately) include:

LinuxDevices.com

BrightHand.com

and

PDALive.com

Enjoy!

I can't find the article I read last week, but I did find this at least. I remember a publisher in the article saying for a book that sells 40,000 copies, they generally sell about 400 ebook versions. So to them, it's not cost effective. That really sucks though.. I have a huge library of (actually purchased) eBooks that I reference all the time.

Here is a Palm OS 5 device for less than $200: Tungsten E

..if you speak japanese. ;)

The Sharp Zaurus C760, currently available in just a few places.

When it comes to names, few companies are as unlucky as Palm. Several years ago it was forced to abandon the name Pilot -- as in Palm Pilot -- when Pilot Pen Corporation claimed ownership. Now it's being asked to leave the name Palm behind as well. While it's not unusual for a company to change its name (in fact, Palm did it once before when it shortened its name from Palm Computing), the reason behind Palm's upcoming name change is unique. And it has something to do with what happened to Apple Computer.

[....]

[....] Apple Computer in the 1980s was much like Palm today; it built the computers and wrote the software to run them. And it owned the market. But Microsoft came along with its operating system, MS-DOS, and licensed it to computer manufacturers. The rest is history. Apple now has 3% of the market while Microsoft has gone on to become one of the biggest and most powerful companies in the world.

The similarity with Apple did not escape Palm management. So it began a concerted effort to license its operating system, called the Palm OS, to other companies -- something Apple failed to do early on. Handspring, Kyocera, Samsung, Sony and others jumped on the Palm OS bandwagon and incorporated it into its handhelds. While this staved off the encroaching threat from Microsoft and established Palm OS as a platform, Palm still had a major problem. Licensees worried that Palm, as both maker of the Palm platform and user of the Palm platform, had an unfair advantage when it came to devices. So Palm addressed their concerns by dividing Palm, Inc. into two business units, Palm Solutions Group, which would make handhelds, and PalmSource, which would develop and license the Palm platform. They created a "Chinese wall" between the entities, with the Solutions Group becoming a licensee of the platform from PalmSource, just like other licensees.

[....]

Palm realized there was only one solution: split the company into two independent businesses, and give all rights to the Palm name to PalmSource, which it will then license to other companies.

Which leaves the Solutions Group with an unenviable task: change its name -- with no reference to Palm -- and hope that consumers follow. And with the PalmSource spin-off expected to be completed this fall and new handhelds from Palm rumored for October, we expect the new name to be announced very soon -- possibly even this week.

When it comes to names, few companies are as unlucky as Palm. Several years ago it was forced to abandon the name Pilot -- as in Palm Pilot -- when Pilot Pen Corporation claimed ownership. Now it's being asked to leave the name Palm behind as well. While it's not unusual for a company to change its name (in fact, Palm did it once before when it shortened its name from Palm Computing), the reason behind Palm's upcoming name change is unique. And it has something to do with what happened to Apple Computer.

[....]

[....] Apple Computer in the 1980s was much like Palm today; it built the computers and wrote the software to run them. And it owned the market. But Microsoft came along with its operating system, MS-DOS, and licensed it to computer manufacturers. The rest is history. Apple now has 3% of the market while Microsoft has gone on to become one of the biggest and most powerful companies in the world.

The similarity with Apple did not escape Palm management. So it began a concerted effort to license its operating system, called the Palm OS, to other companies -- something Apple failed to do early on. Handspring, Kyocera, Samsung, Sony and others jumped on the Palm OS bandwagon and incorporated it into its handhelds. While this staved off the encroaching threat from Microsoft and established Palm OS as a platform, Palm still had a major problem. Licensees worried that Palm, as both maker of the Palm platform and user of the Palm platform, had an unfair advantage when it came to devices. So Palm addressed their concerns by dividing Palm, Inc. into two business units, Palm Solutions Group, which would make handhelds, and PalmSource, which would develop and license the Palm platform. They created a "Chinese wall" between the entities, with the Solutions Group becoming a licensee of the platform from PalmSource, just like other licensees.

[....]

Palm realized there was only one solution: split the company into two independent businesses, and give all rights to the Palm name to PalmSource, which it will then license to other companies.

Which leaves the Solutions Group with an unenviable task: change its name -- with no reference to Palm -- and hope that consumers follow. And with the PalmSource spin-off expected to be completed this fall and new handhelds from Palm rumored for October, we expect the new name to be announced very soon -- possibly even this week.

Here's a link to a brighthand article on the same.

Interesting:
- According to this article, handspring will not ship the phone with MP3 software (though, no doubt, third party applications do/will exist)
- The API for the D-pad in the Treo600 is not the same as the API for the D-pad in other new palm devices.

http://www.brighthand.com/article/Handspring_Unvei ls_Treo_600

Well, according to Brighthand.com, "Handspring says it was successful at creating a keyboard for the Treo 600 that makes dialing the phone and sending messages and email easier than before, even with the significantly reduced size of the product. Each key on the Treo 600 has a dome shape that gives it more surface area than those on existing Treos, and letters and numbers have been enlarged for better readability. In user testing for speed and accuracy, the Treo 600 performed on par with RIM's Blackberry keyboard and significantly faster than Graffiti and T-9, the text input method found in most mobile phones. "

I think I'll give them a try before I say they're too small.

Handspring is rumored to have a new device coming out RSN. It's supposed to be smaller than the old style Treo devices. Since it's been said that it runs Palm OS 5, that would mean that it can run Top Gun SSH, though that only supports ssh version 1.

It has a thumb keyboard, but I'd rather Graffiti my way in.

Here's another minor review and pictures via brighthand.

Also, a user at externe has posted about his first impressions in the Zaurus forums.

Good info in case the importer's/converter's website gets slashdotted.

Loomis

mystery investor loans palm $50 million:
http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_Story.asp?ID=27 29

sony invests $20 million in palmsource:
http://www.brighthand.com/article/Sony_Invests_in_ PalmSource

now, palm is going to buy handspring for $169 million:
http://www.treocentral.com/content/Stories/230-1.h tm

wild.

another fun fact, more people own sony aibo robot dogs than handspring treos.

cheers,
pt

for those jonsin' to read a review that isn't slashdotted (yet), brighthand has one.

gotta admit that the backlit keyboard is sweet- something i've not seen on any Psion, Linux or WinCE keyboarded PDA.

now for the question:

Does this model have Graffiti 2, or is that only in the brand-new PalmOS 5.2.1? Graf 2 can be used without a stinkin graffiti area, which would be much better for something like this, considering its screen size.

256 MB on board wouldn't be possible as far as regular RAM is concerned. I guess they could have flash built-in, such that you'd have 16 MB of regular RAM and then the 256 MB Flash, which would basically just be an internal SD card.

Why do we see POS devices top out at 16 MB? That is, until Palm OS 5.2.1 and the Tungstep C... That is because, until a few days ago, POS devices couldn't have more than 16 MB of internal RAM! You see, Palm did us all a favor and had a major breakthrough in technology, allowing the PalmOS to finally utlitize more than 16 MB of RAM.

That sounds great and all, but guess what? You still couldn't have your 256 MB of on-board RAM, because-- even with this super-advanced technological breakthrough -- the POS can still only have 128 MB of RAM. How splendidly limiting!

Here is an excerpt from the Discussion over at brighthand on this, I followed it and had no problems with installing japanese support on a Dell Axim, Ipaq 3650, and Ipaq 5450

Here is the page

"It seems that some of you want to see and Input Japanese on their US/EUR PPC

here you are all you need and a Step by step process Enjoy!

Fisrt of all you don't need to flash the rom of your PPC, I was obliged to do that on my Japanese Ipaq just simply coz I was fed up to not be able to run some software properly and to wait for Rom Update.

What you need is very simple:
-The Japanese FONT MSGothic From a Japanese PPC
-A file called wince.nls from a Japanese PPC
-2 reg keys
-TascalRegedit soft in order to import those key.

Please not that you will only be able to read Japanese not Input Japanese

By reading I mean that you can even see the Kanji of a Japanese soft installed on a US/EUR PPC and of course surf the web in Japanese.

By not be able to imput Japanese I mean that you can no write in Japanese for that you need to buy a Japanese Input software and as well import some Key in the registry (can give you more details if you Need)

Finally I am not the guy who created this and all the Info are comming form Pocketgames Japan (Thanks Koji !)
And It has been working perfectly on Compaq/HP (3630 1910 3970 5450) or O2 devices but almost destroyed a Casio E-200 (Hard reset Manipulation was even not successful, was obliged to put away both backup battery and main battery in order to be able to use again the PDA)

so you can Dl the files there:
The reg keys (2)
Reg Key
The Font (2.2Mo zipped and 4Mo unzipped)
Japanese Font
The WinCe.nls
Wince.nls

Thru Active Sync overwrite the wince.nls file which is in your Windows folder, put there as well the Font Don't put neither the wince.nls file nor the font in any other place, folder subfolder than the WINDOWS folder.

Now form TascalRegedit Install the 2 Regkey, soft reset Et voila !!!

to make sure go into my regional settings and you should see that:

Now you can read japanese, so what about inputing Japanese?

This is not the most perfect input methode but this Methode is FREE !

Now you just have to download this soft called POBox, and you will have a New Keyborad available in your PPC. Also in the Zip file you will find a folder called Dic, just put this folder in the C: root of your PPC et voila ! it will works like a charm

(There are some bugs, I mean that the imput panel overlap the dictionary but if you know your Knaji you will recognized them easily)

14/03/03 Update on the Overlaping Problem

Thank you very much for Koji of the Famous and extremly well known Pocketgames JAPAN and Have a look to the link above !

He got the answer of the overlaping problem when using the Soft ComPOBox, you need in the registry to change one single value and you will fix the PB. here you are

in
[HKEY_CURRENT_USERControlPanelSip]
You have
MenuBarHight 0000001a
So now change it to
00000000

Enjoy"

According to the whitepaper the 5600 uses Intel's PXA250 XScale chip, which this article seems to imply may well be discontinued already!! Hopefully the new PXA255 is a drop-in replacement. In that case the new 5600s will be even faster since the 255 uses a faster memory bus. If it's not a drop-in expect a delay while Sharp figures out what the heck to do!

I would definitely wait for a version with a PXA255 xscale processor instead of a PXA250- the PXA255, which is already out, has twice the memory clock of the PXA250. It was recently reported that the PXA255 @ 300 mhz is not only 20% faster than the PXA250 @ 400 mhz but also saves considerably on battery power.

To answer someone else's suggestion, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't be able to use an SD Bluetooth card with this, but you'll have the same interference problems if you try to use the GPS service at the same time.

If you want a Palm OS handheld without GPS but with Bluetooth, check out the Palm Tungsten T or the just-announced Sony NZ90.

Their products are fluff. The Wi-Fi adapter for the Palm (Xircom PWE 1130) rocks. It integrates seamlessly with any m-series Palm and has it's own power source---plus requires no software installation. The thing doesn't even come with a CD! You actually have a *choice* with Palm browsers as well, and most of them seem dedicated to solving the screen width problem (whereas Pocket IE ignores it). And review after review after review says that DocumentsToGo does a BETTER job of handling Microsoft Office documents than the Pocket PC applications made by Microsoft themselves!

Palm is behind in one area: multimedia. Palm has never felt handhelds have the battery power to be effective here until recently. We'll see if they can catch up in the coming year with Palm OS 5 and OS 6.

That's not actually true. Despite having the Microsoft brands ("Word," "Excel," etc.) on the Pocket Office apps, the office suites for PalmOS are more compatible with MS Office on the desktop. It's a sore spot among the PocketPC faithful that the Pocket Office apps chew up some file formatting during "round-tripping" - synching a file, modifying it on the PPC, and sending it back to the desktop app.

Check out this PocketPCThoughts article for some schadenfreude.

And here's a comparison of PDA office suites at Brighthand.

actually the new IPAQ 5400 (due out soon) will have a fingerprint scanner on it. the strange thing is the sensor is only .5mm high, you have to swipe your finger across it.

there's a picture of it herehttp://www.brighthand.com/article/iPAQ_5400


Although this would proably leave a very small cross secion of the print behind, it shouldn't be enough to get a good capture of. (now the ones you leave on the sides and bottom. . . well that's another story)

There will be more than one configuration (two or three), but most important of all is the price.

Pictures included in the link.

I don't have one but I've read many accounts of the handera's having problems with build quality. Many have complained about the stylus silo cracking or breaking, and i've seen several complaints about the screen failing to responde and black lines appearing on the display. You should probably go check out the handera forums at http://www.pdabuzz.com and http://www.brighthand.com and asking around there before making any big purchase.

The LOOX was announced weeks ago. Brighthand already had a forum up for it in February. Toshiba also announced their next PocketPC (XScale processor and embedded 802.11b included) last month.

A month behind the times? That's just shameful guys.

The LOOX was announced weeks ago. Brighthand already had a forum up for it in February. Toshiba also announced their next PocketPC (XScale processor and embedded 802.11b included) last month.

A month behind the times? That's just shameful guys.

not much detail, some nice pics of a new prototype CLIE device ...looks a bit like a flip style cellphone like TREO, swivelling screen, and possibly a built in camera as well...

For example, if a collection of friends decide to create an Aqua-like theme and distribute it, what's that to prevent Microsoft from doing the same?

Battery capacity in the new iPaq is higher (1400 mAh compaired to I believe 900 in the older iPaqs.)

Also, I saw over on Brighthand.coms fourms that someone offers a battery replacement service for the iPaq. One was with a 2100mAh battery.

Honestly though, on my iPaq 3630, the battery life has been fine. It sits in it's cradle and charges while I sync it. Wasn't a huge deal when I traveled either. Brought the AC adaptor (instead of extra batteries), and just plugged it in when I got the battery warning after about 3-5 days. I was doing the same for my cell phone, so whats the difference?

I had a Palm Vx, and recently upgraded to an Ipaq (the color screen makes a huge difference, and looks much better than the Palm m505).
Palm OS has a lot of great software, though, and there were applications that I missed (such as Vindigo).
Solution- they are now working on a Palm Emulator that will run on your Ipaq- so even if you like the Palm datebk, address book, etcetera more, you can run them on your Ipaq.
Palm Emulator Brighthand Discussion
(One sad thing about the project is that many WinCE users will be running around yelling "can your Palm do that???")

• You can't press more than one button at a time. This makes gaming nearly impossible.
• The speaker "clicks" as the little amplifier turns on whenever it needs to make a sound; This is probably a WinCE thing, so hopefully the linux driver folks will make it configurable.
• Dust inside the screen. Seems to happen to everyone - it happened to me, I'm just living with it.
• Weird expansion capabilities. You can add a Smart Media or Compact Flash slot, but the sleeve you need to get to do so makes the iPaq quite a bit bigger, and you can only have one sleeve at a time.

m505 vs. EM500

Both:

• MMC/SD Card slot for expansion
• Color screen
• Probably about the same price right now, give or take $50 (I got my EM500 for $300 after a rebate that no longer is available)

m505 advantages:

• Smaller form factor
• Large software base (considerably more compatible with Linux)
• Better stability
• Better outdoor viewability, probably
• Likely more battery life (not positive, but see below)

EM500 advantages:

• 150 MHz MIPS processor, instead of 33 MHz
• Motorla Dragonball VZ processor
• 16 MB RAM instead of 8 MB
• 240x320 screen instead of 160x160
• Better screen indoors (according to most reviewers)
• Adjustable brightness
• More functionality out-of-the-box (spreadsheet, ect.) saving memory for many people

As far as battery life goes, I've never had the battery run out on me during a day of heavy use (such as an 8 hour car trip). So it's hardly a problem for me. Then again, I don't listen to MP3s and read a book at the same time, which would decrease the life.

Generally, I would say that the smaller form factor is the only reason I would go with the m505 over the EM500. Personally, since I wouldn't carry either around in my pocket all day, the large size isn't a big issue.

As has been commented on, Palm should be making a killing on Microsoft by offering stuff like the m505 at a much lower price. When I can get a processor that's 5 times as fast, with twice the memory at the same price (even better for me, since I got a EM500 with a 28 MB memory card for $300), I don't see a good reason to go with an m505.

Of course, places like Brighthand show why Palm could continue to proceed--much of the market and resellers are effectively ignoring the PocketPC, and so many reviews of the m505 have only focused on how much better they are than previous Palms--not the fact that they've now managed to catch up with Pocket PCs released a half year ago (in my opinion).

~=Keelor

I think Agenda is concentrating on getting feature-complete and bug-free before tuning for performance. Isn't that what y'all would be screaming for anyway?

The easiest way to fix the "lots of apps running eats all memory and the machine dies thrashing" problem is to do what WinCE did to deal with the same issue: automatically ask background apps to close. This would certainly solve the problem for two important classes of users: the casual "hey what's this do" newbie, and...reviewers.

This shouldn't be too hard to implement. Until then, just close apps you aren't using---that's the usage model everybody here wanted on WinCE: explicit app shutdown.

I'll paste in Shane's comment from the Brighthand discussion:

Well..., this is "Nay", of whom you speak. Shane Nay to be correct. The problems that you reference with regard to speed were solved, but Agenda has decided against implementing them.

I'm not really privy to the reasons why, I don't happen to work there anymore as you mention. But I think that they will eventually implement what Jay Carlson and myself developed, or some version of it. It is harder to work with in a development enviroment, and that is probably why they opted not to suck it into the present distrobutions. I gave them enough information to carry the torch with it.

You can access my final posted demo for speed resolution at:
ftp://ftp.agendacomputing.com/pub/dev/tests/spee d/

If you try that romdisk out I think you will see that the speed problem is just something temporary. Probably Agenda will defend themselves, but it seems right for me to do so since you reference me by name. So..., hey don't blame me ;-).

...And should your PDA be lost or stolen do you trust that no one will look through it?

I know I wouldn't want anyone to find my top secret stash of ipaq pr0n!


--------------------------------------

while i feel for you, i'd have to agree w/ the /. editors on the decision. when the m505 launches at cebit, i'm sure it'll hit the news. until now it's just a rumor.

for anyone really interested in all the latest, i've found the palminfocenter to be the best source of info. (pdabuzz, brighthand, and palmstation are some other good ones for ppl interested)

Ok, right, simple functionality is there. Now lets add more good stuff. The IPAQ can be used as a phone, by using a service like dialpad, along with a Ricochet 128k dedicated wireless modem. Sure, most Palm (and clone) owners are quick to slam any PDA that has more functionality than their Palm Pilot... but I know many people who would love to be able to surf the REAL web (no wap crap) and talk on the phone with one hand held device.

The IPAQ has that functionality, and the upcoming version of the IPAQ will do it even better. If all you want is simple functionality, then get yourself a piece of notebook paper and a pencil. Both together are small and lighter than any PDA. They can both be used to obtain simple useful functionality.

Quite simple:

Get a Casio Cassipeia with the CompactFlash camera extension, and use the Brighthand article found here or here to get your wireless connectivity.

Get any of the freeware FTP programs (some have timed upload of a specific directory), set the camera for captures every few seconds, and you have yourself a completly isolated webcam the size of (roughly) a PDA.

An alternative which involves a base station would be a video camera with a high range transmitter (a few miles). This could take the signal to a much powerful connection, where you could, say, stream the video...

Quite simple:

Get a Casio Cassipeia with the CompactFlash camera extension, and use the Brighthand article found here or here to get your wireless connectivity.

Get any of the freeware FTP programs (some have timed upload of a specific directory), set the camera for captures every few seconds, and you have yourself a completly isolated webcam the size of (roughly) a PDA.

An alternative which involves a base station would be a video camera with a high range transmitter (a few miles). This could take the signal to a much powerful connection, where you could, say, stream the video...

Well, if you want to believe the rumors on various iPAQ discussion boards (Brighthand having the best), Compaq tech support has told iPAQ users that it's a hardware limitation, and one they don't necessarily plan on fixing.

On the other hand, between iPAQ Quake, iPAQ Doom, the NES emulator, the NeoGeo Pocket emulator, and MAME CE, maybe Compaq will consider marketing a gamepad sleeve.

If you mean literally fit in your wallet, you could use a case like for your iPaq -Its a wallet case for the Palm V (yes it fits), but thats a pretty expensive gadget to put in your back pocket and sit on. If you mean figuratively, the iPaq is about $500 and comes with 32 megs Ram & 16 megs flashable rom. If that is not enough for you, add a CF sleeve, or wait for September when Compaq will release an ipaq with 64 megs internal ram.

I hate it when two companies I despise create a great product..