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New Wireless Handhelds On The Way
Imran writes: "Palm and Handspring have both received regulatory approval for three new wireless devices. According to documents filed with the FCC, the Palm i705 will have a built-in antenna, a universal connector for add-ons and syncing, and a postage stamp-size Secure Digital expansion slot. There will also be new features aimed at making e-mail a key function of the device. Handspring's devices, the Treo k180 (which has a keyboard similar to that of the BlackBerry) and Treo g180, can surf the Internet using Handspring's Blazer browser. They feature a 33MHz Dragonball VZ processor, 16MB of DRAM and rechargeable batteries. Both can connect to a PC using a USB or serial cable. The cover of each device flips up and acts as the earpiece for the phone, while a microphone is located at the bottom of each unit."
This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
This article was posted 2 days ago. Since then (also on CNET), the FCC has pulled its approval for both devices at the request of the companies. Odd, no?
Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket?
Palm and Handspring have both received regulatory approval for three new wireless devices
And according to this article, the approval has been immediately retracted by request. Nice try...
I've been running the Pocket PC OS on my handheld for the last couple of months. It's amazingly fast and stable. The interface is clean and intuitive. Wireless connectivity is transparent and seamless. Truly an amazing wireless palmtop OS, maybe the best yet.
True, they have a lot of marketshare NOW, but that's because the early adopters were all nerds and geeks.
Yes, the early adopters were nerds and geeks, but I think if you bought one now, you aren't considered an "early adopter". They are close to mainstream now--no one stops in amazement if you pull out a Palm III.
And as for all this about how "no one wants a whole computer in their pocket", I happen to like having a lot of power in my pocket (in the computing sense, and otherwise).
Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket?
How useful is a keyboard on handhelds of this size? I had a blackbury for a while before I got sick of it. I found it was usefu for reading email but replying was too painful to bother with... Besides, Grafiti is intuitive enough for most people. I can see using it with an extension like 'screenwrite' to reply to email... or anything else for that matter...
[Next issue] Generally, I think the PalmOS enabled phones have a lot more promise as wireless devices go. The PDAs without connectivity were useful in their own right, but adding connectivity of this sort - counter-intuitively - doesn't add that much value when compared with a cell phone having the same feature set, for aproximately the same price. And besides, Cell service providers are still subsidizing the hardware, so you get more for your money. Palm needs to concentrate on improving this aspect of the PalmOS platform's capabilities with reard to use within cellular phone hardware.
Whatever happened to Palm's plan to exit the hardware business and become the 'Microsoft of Handheld Devices' anyway? This was an announced strategy back when a bunch of their hardware designers quit and founded handspring...
--CTH
--Got Lists? | Top 95 Star Wars Line
I predict that this device will be a big hit with my mom, who likes to play games on my Handsring but can't enter her name for the high-score list!
Lasers Controlled Games!
I wonder if there's some marketing gimmick in naming a wireless device after a well-known pain-killer (Treo). Most wireless devices I've tried have regularly been so furiously limited that I had to use pain-killers after using the device...
Black holes are where God divided by zero
Everyone knows that Palm and the Palm-a-like Visior rule the handheld workplace in the States. For those of us who use the more European Symbian products, like the Revo,Series 5, or even older Series 3 which are the keyboardful equivilent of the Palms, and include Web browsing as standard, does anyone know if there is a wireless product in the works?
I know that both Ericsson and Nokia are a big partners - this this is their neck of the woods, - and that the new OS has wireless fuctionality, but I don't know of any solid hardware in development.
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Make a man a fire, and he'll be warm for the night,
Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life
I've had my Handspring Visor Deluxe for about 5 months now and discovered *yesterday* that it has a built-in microphone. There are no apps that ship with it that use it, and I hadn't heard about anyone hacking it to be useful. Am I missing something? Turning it into a voice-recorder would be nifty, and I can think of other things (voice-activated, etc) but it appears that you need to buy something like the Visor Phone to get any use out of it. Has anyone come up with a cool hack?
Well, something like 98% of Palm's revenue comes from the sale of hardware, and what's left from PalmOS licensees. They did recently spin off a subsidiary to handle PalmOS and licensing it. Now Palm proper is just a hardware company.
According to this MarketWatch article, October 15 will be the date when the application will be re-granted (and thus the information will be made public again).
___________
PocketGamer.org - For Gamers on the Go..
No one wants to have a whole computer in their pocket
I do. The thing I like about the first Palms is that they were computers, not just PDAs. Sure, I bought one because I wanted a PDA, and I bought a Palm PDA because they had better HotSync than any others, but the reason I'm still using them today is because they're also a quite useful pocket computer. I calculate IP netmasks and tide timetables on mine. I can even write my own programs to convert video tape timecodes (and other personal weirdness).
Moore's law for bandwidth is increasing at a slower rate than processing power. I think Palms have a limited lifetime (in their current incarnation) but the future is going to be more like a desktop PC (thicker clients), not like a Blackberry (limited and task-specific).
We'd better all learn to bend over and squeal like a piggy, because there's a real risk that the "Palm of the Future" might be a Windows-spawn gadget, horrible prospect though that is.
So show me one company that is giving out Palms to their employees.
How many do you want ? Even today, I know at least six local companies doing this, and they're suits, not nerds.
Oh boy, a $700 phone number and appointment organizer. Just what I need.
I've got one, and they aren't perfect, but all in all, its not a bad device. I get my Visor functionality, and by adding a very small module, I can ditch my old cellphone, and get similar, if not better reception. And I can use the internet. Not the WAP internet, the full internet. I can pull up slashdot. The Blazer software is just a giant proxy server that strips out the useless code that the Visor can't run anyway (Java, Flash, etc.) But all in all, it is a solid product that was probably ahead of its time, proven by the fact that they are making smaller hybrid devices. But these "big and old" VisorPhones will definately go down in history as the first useful convergent device. If what I remember is correct, the Visor line was created with the VisorPhone in mind. (Hence the hardwired microphone that is useless to any non-springboard device.)
I think the people above me are having sex - or they're sleeping restlessly and agreeing with each other a lot.
Why is Handspring going with GSM? Isn't that a dying protocol? I thought the future protocal was CDMA. That seems to be (one of) the way to 3G phones and higher data bandwidth. IIRC, Sprint (and maybe Cingular and Verizon) are using something like CDMA for their network. This should make it easier for that network to migrate to 3g.
That's why they also made the g180, with Graffiti and no keyboard. There are some people who would rather learn to use a stylus, and others who would prefer to stick to a familiar keyboard. This is a good move on Palm's part to offer identical features with both input methods and let the consumer decide.
The Palm IIIc came out (I didn't hear if the wireless modem for it came out yet finally or not), handspring has color now too.. So what the heck? Why are we still milking the mono LCD market for them? I'm anxious to upgrade my PDA and I wouldn't mind wireless/color/8megs+ of ram as a base feature. Oh ya, and TRGpro has better sound support so you can use it as an autodialer. Palm's sound still sucks. I think they are waiting for Sony to be the one that opens up the wonderful world of MP3s/Video on the Palm. But still, I can't help feel like this is all BULLSHIT. Get on with the flagship model already, people got feature lust damn it!
-Matthew
Palms and Visors are cool, but just too slow to compete with the screaming-fast CE Handhelds. Between the CE machines and all of the upcoming Transmeta based "webpads" that will be coming out, Palm and Visor will eventually get creamed.
Anyone know any more information about the new Blackberry that RIM is supposedly working on? Rumour has it that it will also have cellular capabilities as well. I haven't heard if it'll be GSM, TDMA, or CDMA (although CDMA and TDMA are unlikely, IMHO), but if it's a RIM product, it should be pretty good...
It's great that such a device is coming out finally, but what is the cost of buying this, and then using the phone etc ? If I understand the VisorPhone correctly, I need to get service on top of the phone.. service that is probably not competively priced. Imagine being able to buy the Treo in a cellular store, with a service plan from AT&T or whoever is in your area. I need to use the AT&T National coverage, as do all the other employees of my company, they have a palm V, and a cell phone.. imagine getting rid of both the devices and just using the Treo. Along with the competive rates offered by the celluar companies ?
These devices would sell like hotcakes.
I've been wanting a cellphone headset jack in my PDA for a while now. Hopefully Palm also does this. (The article seemed to indicate that only the Treo's would)
This would definately be a deal breaker.
Also, the FCC may have pulled approval, but both companies can get it back with a check of a box
I'm hardly a technophobe and I see real potential in having a thumb-keyboard (like RIM pagers) built in. Although I know all graffiti characters by heart, it is aggrivating to use for anything more than 50 characters at time. [Yes, I use and like Fitaly stamp, but this is better in my opinion. Certainly more comfortable..] This has NOT been my experience with the RIM pagers, where I can comfortably write 30 words a minute. If Handspring can create a similar thumb keyboard (though I think it has less to do with the keyboard and more to do with the form factor of the device itself) it might well be a hit with people like me as well. I love the RIM pager, but I can't carry a cell phone, PDA, and pager with me all the time....
I think that should be:
from the Department of Redundancy Department.
m00.
I can show you one company - our diocese.
We've found the Palms to be so enormously helpful to clergy doing the sort of everyday work that clergy do - visiting the sick, dealing with relationship crises, making calls - that for those who don't have a secretary, the Bishop is personally buying Palms and giving them away.
I'll take credit for the idea - my palm with my calendar (linked to Outlook) and parish phone directory (linked to our parish database) has saved my bacon more times than I want to count - especially when we've got a real emergency (e.g. dying parishioner, relatives to be gathered, advance directives to be followed etc...
-Nick+
In illa quae ultra sunt
Charge-N-Run
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
Okay.. I am going to ask for general advice here...
I severely want to get wireless e-mail. I am going to Germany in about a month until the end of the year, and I am putting it off until January as I don't want to buy something and instantly put it aside.
Slowly, my main form of communication has become I.M.s and e-mail. I have both wireless already on a PCS, but as we know the interface SUCKS BAD!! I need a solution so that I can IMAP or POP into my central e-mail and see what is going on and not type 3 several times to see a "C".
Here are the contenders so far, in order of what I like best:
1) Blackberry. Small, limited, and has a small keyboard built in. I don't know the capabilities in terms of using IMAP or POP or anything of the sort... I see some weird comment about "syncing with Outlook..." ew...
2) Any of the Motorolla 2-way pagers. Essentially a wireless e-mail device. Again, has a keyboard. Also, don't know about POP/IMAP.
3) Palm. My least favorite solution because I never have liked stylus interfaces. I don't like the idea of carting an external keyboard around in my pocket, no matter what the size. Big plus is that there is probably a mail program to do ANYTHING I want...
Any other solutions that we have now or that we will have in January? What does everyone think?
"Yes.. no matter what the culture, folk dancing is stupid." -MST3K
"... new features aimed at making email a key function of the device."
In otherworks, RIM and the Blackberry are starting to eat their lunch and they are trying to fight back.
The Blackberry does exactly what the Palm made it's initial success for; a small, focused device that does a few things extremely well rather than trying to do everything. Palm has really lost their focus in this regard lately, so I'm glad to hear they might be trying to get back on track.
-- Rob "Xemu" Fermier
I was under the impression that they cost like $300. URL, please?
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
I've been thinking about getting a handheld of some type, and I have a question.
What can one do for me that a notepad, a pen, and a cellphone can't do for considerably less money?
There's also the fact that I want to do heavy number crunching on my PDA. Factoring large numbers into primes, running software to design chips with millions of transistors, etc. Palms just don't cut it in that department.
But maybe these CE devices are what I need. Since I also have tremendous strength, it would be no trouble to carry out the trash despite being weighed down by the many batteries that the CE devices would burn through.
-- My comment is above.
I've been carrying a Kyocera Smartphone for a while. It's a palm-os based cell phone. I like it but would love to know where I can get a keyboard for it... Looks like Visor is playing catch up.
-- $G
no offense, but what crack ass moderator said this was offtopic?
Can anyone tell me something about the wireless devices which may be used in restaurants, for taking orders, billing etc. Are there specialized devices for this application, or could one use a Palm with Bluetooth?
Paul Gillingwater
MBA, CISSP, CISM
For the interested:
Found these pictures available at palminfocenter.com - looks great, and seems even better.. time to upgrade this Palm III!!
X-Box, coming soon to a dumpster near you.
Moderators need an additional choice: "Karma Whore" for people who cut-and-paste articles as their comments!
RIM isn't the future, it's a starting point and wireless PDA's will do everything that RIM does, and more.
The PocketPC with a GPRS sleeve or PC Card give me full up wireless access to the real Internet. Replace the iPAQ's OS with Linux if you really want. Personally, I use it all the time but I'm just lucky to actually have early access to the gear.
Do you realize that you asked a question in every sentence? Doesn't that seem like a bad idea? Are you aware that it's annoying? Is there anything else you'd like know? Am I just as bad for replying with all questions? Would you like fries with that?
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word to your moms... I came to drop bombs...
Don't forget "Danger". The touted "RIM Killer" that will offer pager-like functionality with a full HTML desktop browsing experience. Promised later this year by www.danger.com, this device will be around $200 w/ $25 unlimited monthly access. No spy photos as yet. hk