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More Of Palm Product Line To Go Wireless
Spasemunki writes: "The NYTimes has an article lurking in their tech page today on Palm's plans to add wireless connectivity to their whole product line. Wireless connected versions of the Palm III and Palm V lines should start appearing "in the reletively near future", with some changes to the product line appearing by the end of this year. Free registration required; you know the drill." From this article, it's not even clear what sort of wireless they're going to choose, but even so: the ubiquitous, wireless personal computer is crawling up onto land. If you had a nearly-a-billion-dollar IPO, you might want some wireless tools / toys, too.
Is this a response to RIM's new blackberry pager?
I don't know if it is best to respond to product changes from another company when you're not fully ready to release your latest product. Look @ intel and AMD.... intel seriously didn't want to compete with 1ghz AMDs......... instead they wanted everyone to associate their name with 1ghz, since they are the 'name brand' people will think that they should buy from them, instead of the 'no name' or 'little name player'
this is the story with Palm and RIM.
I like RIM's products, but still the monthly charges are ridiculous considering you don't have a cell phone only a pager...... likely the same story with palm....... just give me a phone PDA any day that can sync with linux!!
nil*
short range sync solutions and others long-range wireless networking. Hopefully, some will have both.
--
I'm not looking forward to this. Okay, maybe it's great for 99% of the population, but I work in a high security government installation, and we aren't allowed to have devices with wireless conductivity. Once it starts becoming a standard integrated feature, we won't be allowed to carry them anymore.
Right now there are hundreds of us carrying palms just to do standard PDA type stuff. Security doesn't have a problem with this as they're all used only for unclassified information, the IR port can be disabled and even if it wasn't, the range is too short for there to be a danger of inadvertant capture of classified information.
But the spread of wireless technology has already had an impact where I work: all the machines and especially printers with IR ports on them that are going to be used for any type of classifed work have to have the IR port physically removed. Not a trivial task for some of these new printers with the fancy injection molded shells.
Anything with any real range, like a cell phone, is right out. Even if it's turned off, because most of these devices don't really turn off, they just go into standby mode which allows for the potential of them being turned on remotely and used for the capture and transmission of sensitive material. We are allowed to carry government owned cell phones, but only if the batteries are removed. Obviously, this isn't an option with the palms.
So keep in mind that the umbicious (sp?) wireless network is probably not a good idea because there are still plenty of places that that is exactly what is not wanted.
Of course, I speak only for myself. Nothing in this message should be considered to be the view of my employeer or the government. I'm not giving away any national secrets - all my info is from the stuff they tell all employees, regardless of whether or not they have a clearance.
Thank you. The Palm as the screen, the Mobile as the connection, Bluetooth to connect the two. It's called Personal Area Networking and it will slaughter that Qualcom PQA and even badly mame the Nokia 9110...
The other day, I asked if anyone had got Blogger running with a Palm. When I checked yesterday (it's in the "Feedback" section) there was still no response...
"Free registration required; you know the drill..."
Yup, we sure do...
http://partners.nytimes.c om/cnet/CNET_0_4_1697833_00.html
Word is that major wireless service providers are going to supply bandwidth on their CDPD networks for wireless-enabled palm devices.
no, it is not a wide area solution. I think CDPD is the way these will connect.
Lesse... out of all the exisitng Palms, here's what I want in my new one:
Color (IIIc)
Wireless (VII)
Rechargable (V)
8MB or more (x)
That would be a superset of all the exisitng Palms, and do a lot to eliminate some confusion. Sure, I suppose there will still be a use for models that are cheaper, so they have some of the features knocked off.
Now, for software/sevices..
I want it to function as a pager. This is probably pretty easy.. someone just needs to do the telephone front-end. Possibly a slight improvement in sound would be needed. I could forego a vibrate mode.
I want real IP (could be there now... I've never used the VII) so that I can do (painfully slow) telnet, ssh, VPN, etc..
And of course I want the service to be reasonably priced. Ideally, flat-rate.
On a different note, why does a $99 Rio have 4x the memory of a $400 palm?
Well, why does a $400 Palm have 10x the display space as a $99 Rio? Obviously, the devices are designed to do different things. The Palm is much more versatile than a Rio.
For more information, click here.
The stock price of some random linux-focused company has no relationship to the quality of Opensource code or the vibrance of the opensource community.
Many posters here are presuming that wireless automatically means internet access over pcs networks etc. There's another, "unseen" market, that I think Palm is going for.
Just about every office worker in America sits in front of a computer, which is anchored in their office/cubicle. However, they still have to get up and walk around to ask people questions, deliver papers/material, and have meetings. Questions and appointments generated during these trips usually have to wait until the user walks back to their computer and either queries it or enters the commitment in their calendar.
With a short-range wireless Palm device, users could keep continuous contact with their e-mail and time manager software. They'd be able to take notes in meetings that save straight to their desktop, rather than transferring a note from their Palm. The Palm device would serve as a mobile terminal to the desktop.
IMHO, Palm is looking to create a "must have" accessory for every office worker in America, rather than build more expensive geek toys for those of us who need to check our e-mail fifty times a day (it's a bigger market segment, after all).
Marc Siry || interactive media professional, motorcycle enthusiast ||
I'm going to be buying a green-screen Visor in a coupla weeks. I recently discovered that the local Franklin-Covey place has IIIc's on display that you can acually turn on and use, unlike the other places which yank the batteries and put a fake-looking sticker over the screen.
I found that the color screens are actually less readable than the green screens because the color ones are so pixelated. They have so much more glare, too; not much easier on your eyes. Add to this the added couple hundred bucks and the decreased battery life, and you have a dubious feature indeed.
-JD, Certified geek
I don't own a palm. I've thought about it, but at this point in my life, a nice TI calculator is really more useful for me :)
My question to those with these things is: is there any content out there for you to read? I imagine they can do email, which is nice. But can they read any regular webpages (the point, for most people, of an internet connection)? With wireless devices like this apparently increasing in popularity, is there anything we should do to our webpages to make them more palm-friendly?
Communication is only possible between equals
Palms are already wireless for short distances, and if you've got a PC or other device with a stronger IR than the Palm, you can get more than a couple of feet away. So if that red glass on top of your Nokia phone actually *did* anything (on the 6160, it apparently doesn't, but on some models it does), you could use that. Wouldn't be tough to build a gateway system, since all you need is PPP on an IRDA port on a PC.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
a quote from the article: In the relatively near future, Palm will market versions of the Palm III and the Palm V that contain built-in capabilities for wireless communications. These new products could contain all the technology necessary for direct wireless communications, or they might contain Bluetooth chips. Bluetooth chips are radios that allow devices to hook into networks without wires.
This sounds like it may help get rid of the sync cradle, but is it really a solution for wide area access?
___
From the FAQ:
Q: What is the range of Bluetooth transmitter/receivers?
Bluetooth is designed for very low power use, and the transmission range will only be 10m, about 30ft. High-powered Bluetooth devices will enable ranges up to 100m (300ft). Considering the design philosophy behind Bluetooth, even the 10m range is adequate for the purposes Bluetooth is intended for. Later versions of the Bluetooth spec may allow longer ranges.
Given the range limitations noted above, I find it doubtfull that bluetooth can be employed as a wide area access solution. I think bluetooth will be a replacement for the IR port, and may help get rid of the sync cradle, but it is hardly a "confirm the-fedex-shipment-from-the-back-of-a-cab" kinda thing.
___
Come on, nice people at 3Com, let's see a GSM-enabled Palm... Look at the mobile coverage in Europe, look at the use of WAP that's rising, look at the number of people willing to use poxy UIs for their text messaging, look at the substandard design gone into the first generation WAP phones...
Frankly, if I could find a reasonably-priced PCN/GSM enabled PalmOS PDA, I'd buy it tomorrow. And I know I'm not the only one. It's far too footery linking it up via IR to an Ericsson SH888, uses up too much batteries... And when wireless broadband comes in this year... Wow.
For those with a Nokia phone (and suitable cell service) you can get one of these cables and connect to the internet wirelessly for much cheaper (again, depending on your cell service) than the seemingly ridiculous high prices charged for the VII. Combining this connection and the wealth of great Palm online apps you are all set...
For the love of $DEITY, loose != not win!!!!!
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He shunned PalmVII for their per dl and roaming fees. Etc. and Suggested that I get a Palm Vx and aquire a Minstrel modem from Omnisky. Cheaper, more reliable (more established network), better CS...you name it! I remember wondering at the time just how dominant was Palm VII feeling that they could justify the Service Plans being so outrageous.
A little more research revealed that PalmVII had, not more than 5 days prior, wised up and slashed/remodeled their Service plans.
Really makes me wonder just what prompted this latest descision on Palm's part and I'll be curious to watch prices and such for hardware and Service Plans as Palm starts to lose its "mini-monopoly". Capitalism at work, folks!
Ruthless
The light at the end of the tunnel is undoubtedly the headlamp of an oncoming train." - Mrs. Murphy