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First Look At The New Palms
Jason Prini writes: "Take a look at ZDNET for pics of the new Palm pilots." They talk about the wireless models, as well as the new entry level models to compete more with Visor (which feature 25% smaller screens, but only a $150 price). I find it amusing that they offer changable color face plates (ala those Nokia phones).
I mean ok, 8 megs of RAM instead of 2 is nice (just like how Gameboy games got bigger size-wise with the advent of cartridges that hold more memory), but is the processor any beefier? Is there some correlation between hand-held devices and a power increase that is more sluggish than Moore's law would predict? I had it in my head that it should actually grow faster on new kinds of devices, but copmpact devices (Palms, mp3 players, videogame systems) seem to not get beefy as fast as they should. Am I crazy?
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i just want a 200MHz CPU, 24 bit LCD, 64MB RAM, 128MB flash, linux and X windows and sound/accelerated video/scsi connections/pcmcia slots on a device the same form factor as the palm. and it should last a month on 2 AA batteries. anyone know where i can get one of those ?
I'm not surprised at this one bit. The Palm Pilot has become the new tech toy on the block, and it would naturally follow the path of business-oriented tech evolution - to be stylish.
Business people are snatching Palm Pilots up like crazy, and many want to add their own dash of individuality. It's a given that some want to be chic while being productive. (i.e.: The Nokia Faceplate.)
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Whew, dodged the bullet one more time. I dread the release of each new generation of PDA, because I know that one of these days they're going to begin offering voice recognition for input. Then, in addition to the construction guys and their offices shouting back and forth via Nextel phones, the yuppies chatting up their brokers, the teenagers with their pagers, and the dweebs who set their watches to beep every ten minutes, we can look forward to everyone bellowing into their fruit-colored brain-crutch. Where's a High-Energy Electro Magnetic Pulse when you need one?
I had the dubious pleasure of owning a MP120 5 or 6 years ago. It wasn't the 2100, which was supposed to have repaired some of these problems, but it wasn't the first model, either. My palm does a lot more for me that's useful than any of the messagepads ever could, and while they were a nifty piece of technology at the time, I can understand why Jobs gave them the axe. For example(s):
All of those relegated newton to the niche market, and that's not what apple wanted. Had they have done more research a la palm, we might have something here.
What palm should do is work on getting the processor speed up without hurting battery life too much. This would enable a lot of applications that aren't possible right now, like handwriting (although graffiti does well for what it was intended to do). Color isn't important. If the screen went from 160x160 to 320x320 - whoooeee, baby. Or, paper white on black. I remember those notebooks back in the day.
This wasn't meant to flame anyone, but just put things in perspective. IM(ns)HO I think the vaio and the palm are a superior combination.
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From the looks of it, they've actually made this particular new version of Palm worse than the previous ones. Technology has a trend of making things better, but making them cheaper at the same time. This new Palm only follows the second rule. The screen is 25% smaller (and this article markets it as if it's a feature), and the thing runs on Alkalines - it's back to the Palm III!
Personally, I'd rather have a Palm Palm V when they reduce the price (or discontinue and find them clearanced) down to $150. That way I can have my pretty nice-looking screen (after you install the hack to make the backlight look normal instead of reversed as by default), built-in lithium ion batteries (incredibly preferable over alkaline or do-it-yourself NiMH), and a convenient dock. The changable plastic pieces don't do anything for me, I kinda like the silver Palm V myself (why don't they just offer different colors but not make them changable? Everyone loses those things anyway).
Anyway, I hope the generation after this one provides an improvement over what we already have.
"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
A friend of mine recently picked up a color Palm. I played around with it this past weekend and basically found the color to be more of a "wow, look at me" factor. I was really disappointed in the display, each pixel has a black outline which made the image appear as if viewed thru a screen. Also the screen resolution of the Palm seriously limits what you can do (the palm is 160x160, the MP2100 is 320x480).
I guess I'll stick with the Newton, haven't seen anything better come along yet.
The pricing for Palm VII service isn't great, especially compared to Omnisky service. But it's competitive with American web-enabled phones, so there's not much to complain about there.
I think the month of solid use I get out of a pair of AAA alkalines on a VII is just fine; granted, it's not as good as the 6-8 weeks I got on a Palm Pro or III. And it's much more convenient than having to worry about buying weird batteries or having to carry around a cradle when you travel just so you can charge the thing.
It really did need more RAM, though; thank goodness they've bumped it to 8MB. As far as I'm concerned, that should be the norm for anything they sell for $200 or more at this point.
I love the palm. I've had a III for ages and really appreciate what it does well (and am fairly irked by the few things it doesn't do well).
But this connectivity model is for the birds. The recurring costs are high, the PQA infrastructure is not an open standard (as far as I can tell) and it's too easy to go over the limit. The model of the VII just doesn't work for me (I like the design and size of the V better anyway).
What we need is something the size and weight of teh V with color with full net access for $15 / month (how much data could you really transport with that damned stylus). The US would really do well to get off our collective butts, scrap our analog cell phone network, finish building some of the digital networks, and then allow them to be used for packet-switched data.
RESOLUTION matters a bit more than size to me. More pixels == more information. Bigger size != more pixels (well, not necessarily). Or maybe this isn't true for LCDs?
baldeepThey seem cute but one of the biggest problems I have with my palm is that the screen is not big enough. A larger format screen would allow more info to be viewd at once. I use it to read books on flights as it is eaiser to hang on to. It would be nice if the LCD was perhaps longer. Cutting the screen by 25% will make it much more diffucult to read. IMHO always.
marv
it is better to light a flame thrower than curse the darkness. -Terry Pratchett Men at Arms
Tried Palm. Just not the same. Tried CE. Puked on my shoes and had to buy new ones. Tried some of the off-brand PDAs with teensy no-name embedded "operating systems" and had a good laugh. After it all, dug out and looked at my MP2100 with its cracked screen and bawled like a baby...
Don't get me wrong... Palms/Visors/&co. are light and cute and run a long time on batteries... But they're also impossible to read, inelegant when it comes to handwriting, low-res, low-powered, and just plain primitive.
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Interesting -- the new G4 cube is touted as smaller too. I wonder whether we're starting to get infected with the Japanese mania for tiny things? It wouldn't be such a bad thing.
Probably the new tiny palm is going to be a dud, though. There are ergonomic issues with reducing the area. It's a bitch to design software to fit on the screens already. Thickness is a different story. I'd like to see something like the IIIxe with a rechargeable battery. Most of the III series thickness is to accomodate the AAA batteries.
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Disclaimer: I own and adore my Handspring Visor Deluxe.
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With the M100, Palm is repositioning its entry point. Obviously the cell phone custom-cover idea is carrying over to treat this as yet another consumer electronics device. The features set is pretty much established: you can hit 80% of the market with 20% of the functionality. Make it smaller, put on bright colors, keep the price low, and you've instantly targeted a new demographic.
The Palm has amply proven itself in the business market, and they're clearly not abandoning that with their high-end models. The VIIx (mentioned later in the article, but not pictured) will up the ante for wireless PDAs with more RAM and custom software. Personally I think this is just a lot of experimentation since Bluetooth is going to be the real future in this area, but there is a market for the well-connected businessman or geek.
People are saying things like "gosh, same old Palm, just with colors". Well, yes. It's a proven product that they are now trying to expand the market for. "It's the iMacification of everything". Well, get used to it. Most people don't care about the Megahertz or the Level II cache on their motherboard. The iMac does what they want for a good price and it looks attractive in a den. But the iMac hasn't made towers or big beige boxen disappear, has it? This M100 isn't going to hurt the PDA market at all. In fact, this will be the starter PDA for a lot of people, who will later realize they need wireless modems and web-browsing-on-the-go (or whatever). But a lot more people are willing to experiment at the $150 price point than spend $500+ on yet another electronic toy that turns out to be useless to them.
Also, some people have complained about the wedge at the bottom -- don't forget this is a smaller size case. I haven't used a Palm V... series so I can't comment on how it feels. I do think that it would actually be easier to hold if the bulge were at the top, but maybe that's just me.
As for replacing the IIIe and competing with the Visor, I think they have a good chance. I've bet on Handspring, mainly on the strength of their expansion technology, but the long delays in getting Springboard modules released is getting frustrating (e.g. still no GPS unit; only two games, both golf!). I was also hoping for more movement towards a high-end Visor. I think the M100 is clearly a much stronger competitor than the IIIe ever was, and if it had been out last fall it would have been a more difficult decision for me.
Get ready for the M100 to be under a LOT of Christmas trees.
P.S. M100 is also a nice spiral galaxy, as well as a classic Mercedes Benz sedan
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I can see the influence of the visor (which IMO is a better product) the colors are very visor like.
I don't know what they are thinking with the bulbous bottom of that thing, The palm III series (I myself own a IIIx) tapers downwards at the bottom and thus it makes it comfortable in your hand.
The V series (which I truly dislike) has this stupid outward taper to the bottom, that digs a little edge into your hand. It also makes the thing harder to hold on to.
Palm makes good organizers, but they are going to be up against some stiff competition with the Visor, its just better designed. (Jeff Hawkins has still got it I guess...) Of course, we all know that the better product does not always win.
It either case it seems that the OS (palm) has already won, its just a debate over the form factor and the peripherals. (The Visor cartiges kick ass over the upgrade slots in a Palm.)
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It's nice that they decreased the price, but aside from making an already too small screen smaller, I don't see what innovation this brings? I mean, it'd be nice that new versions meant new stuff...new stuff that doesn't include the "iMac-ification" of every piece of electronics on the market.
Pretty see-through colors don't increase useability. I'd prefer a better res. screen, a larger screen, or a 25 dollar lower price tag over pretty colors; but that's just me.
-Jer
Smaller? Hell no, I already had trouble when I tried using a friend's normally sized Palm -- I'd like a larger display so I can more easily write. (I guess I just have trouble moving the stylus accurately on a small area.) Maybe when something close to a letter- or A4-sized sheet of paper becomes conveniently priced, I'll try this. The pocket-sized form factor just doesn't do it for me.
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...as well as the new entry level models to compete more with Visor (which feature 25% smaller screens, but only a $150 price).
The wording of this is slightly confusing. The new Palms have a 25% smaller screen and a $150 price. The Visors have a full-sized screen and start at $150.
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Sam
I intend to get a palm VIIx and use it to read my horoscope online. Nothing like predicting the future by reading palms.
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