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Palm OS 5.0 Preview
Propane sent in an
excerpt from Palm's Palm OS 5.0 Preview
"Palm OS 5, the latest version of the world's leading mobile platform, redefines market expectations and creates new opportunities for licensees, for developers, and for end users. In addition to supporting ARM®-compliant processors from industry leaders Intel, Motorola, and Texas Instruments, Palm OS 5 also enhances multimedia capabilities, incorporates a suite of robust security options, and expands support for wireless connections. In providing these new capabilities, Palm OS 5 builds a foundation for the future of mobile computing while also maintaining compatibility with existing software. "
I am not a patent lawyer, but what about Xerox's patent on the Graffiti technology? With all due respect to Palm for making a popular product, Xerox patented the technology that makes them the most popular. Plus, Palm sales are down 44%, and people are wanting to get the flashier HP PDA's these days. I remain skeptical over how much this can improve. Palms are pretty good for the amount of money they are (although Visors are better), but they really cannot compare to the HP-Jordana series and the Compaq iPaq, not to mention all these Linux PDAs that are coming out.
If only they had included some B&W screenshots of this beauty...
Well, it looks like they finally have the basics right and the OS is moving in the right direction. I used OS 3.5 on the Visor and it was well integrated and easy to use. If the Palm OS is truly going to to compete with WinCE, they have to innovate yet maintain the Palm OS look and feel. True wireless support is the next step and it looks like they are planning to execute it well.
I wonder if Handspring will continue software development/upgrades for their rumored end of life for the Visor Handheld. I'd like to see OS 5 on my Visor.
~.Evanrude
A downside of the Handspring visor is that it is not flash-upgrade compatible. (At least, the Visor Deluxe that I won, all models down, and presumably a few more)
So, most of the current visor users are stuck with Palm OS version 4.2 or something. Unfortunately, there are a few downsides to that particular version and bugs. And... we can't upgrade!
Now, if this upgrade is really to die for, we can be seeing Palm's sales go up and Handspring's go down. Or no?
Just an issue I thought I'd raise.
PayPal $$ if you sign up for free offers (eBay, cred cards, e
I've been waiting for this OS release, because I expected the JVM to come along with it. I see no mention of java on the site.
read this:
"Palm OS 5 incorporates support for the APIs in Palm OS 4.0, thereby enabling existing software applications that comply with these APIs to run on Palm OS 5. This compatibility support ensures that an investment in 68000-based software is protected into the future. "
if I'm right this means a m68k-to-PowerPC style move where the new OS running in a new hardware will provide the software compatibility AND emulation of the older CPU machine language.
Now, will it keep the small size and memory footprint of older versions ?
My old Palm IIIC had 2 Mb of flash memory and only 1.4 Mb were actually used by the OS and PIM apps. compare this with the 14 Mb+ that WinCE or QTopia takes in my current iPaq and you'll see how eficiently and fast a 2-4 Mb PalmOS would run in ARM hardware.
now a question ? will Palm sell this new version to iPaq owners ? I'll certainly give it a try.
What ? Me, worry ?
I've been using Palm devices since 2/16/99, when I finagled a 50% discount on a Palm III at Staples (and subsequently helped others do the same). Since then I've owned a IIIxe, a Vx, an m500 and an m505, and have been pleased with all of them except the m505. Poor illumination killed it for me, though spending so many years at the same resolution should have done it.
I went out this weekend and upgraded to the Sony Clié 615, and I've never been happier. 16MB RAM, 320x320x16 resolution, continuously variable brightness control, Memory Stick slot (with a flickering drive light beside it!), polyphonic sound, and one absolutely thrilled user.
The OS is flashable, so I expect I'll upgrade to 5.0 when the time comes, but I've seen the future of Palm hardware, and it ain't at Palm Computing.
Discussion Topic 1: Palm OS 5.0 supports display resolutions "from 160x160 pixels to multiples of 160x160 pixels." That takes in my 320x320 display, but it raises an interesting point: What is the ideal aspect ratio of a handheld device? Pocket PC and others use quarter-VGA, while Palm devices use this square format (which on a Clié provides 33% more pixels than QVGA). Any opinions on which display format is more ergonomic for a handheld, or for a desktop for that matter?
Discussion Topic 1½: I have nearly three hundred ebooks sitting on my 128MB Memory Stick right now, with room for another couple hundred, and I love reading from my Clié. My question is this: why would anyone buy a dedicated ebook reader, unless it were simply too cheap to turn down?
You're confusing Palm the device maker with the Palm OS subsidiary.
Palm OS is releasing a new version that will be licensed to many different hardware manufacturers. The point is that these hardware manufacturers can take a multimedia-ready Palm OS 5 and build something more than a "39 cent paper note pad".
> What about a real window system?
The Palm was designed with the intention of not having windows to focus the user on the task at hand. Since the user can jump to another program at any time without losing data, this is actually an advantage. Plus, all these windows controls would just take a lot of screen estate away.
> What about a real file system?
The Palm has some sort of a file system, but it's hidden from the user, because the user is not interested in defining a filename everything he wants to save a note. If you need to transfer your files to a, there are utilities to help you with it.
I agree.
But: I say shrink the old Palm IIIs a bit (I'm biased), and resell them for $20 - $40.
Instant niche market. The Duron/Celerons of handhelds.
Then refocus the rest of the line with competing against the Pocket PCs.
That out of the way it was a sweet bit o technology, if big and bulky and with handwriting recognition that took a few revs to get worked out.
However it also had NewtonScript which appears to have been a fab development environment and incorperated some really useful ideas about a common OS-service database; something which Palm & MS-Palm folks are now really hurting for.
So, and regardless of the move to ARM processors, I'm wondering if anyone is considering doing a gnuwtonscript and releasing that? I'm well aware that Apple holds that code tightly to it's breast, has no intentions of making it's own palm-device (and so averred in an SEC-regulated announcement last year) and that the Newton folks were soon scattered to the winds after their unit was shut down...
But a decade later it seems to be a thing that would be wildly popular and fit right into the emerging needs of the little beasts.
-- Michael
ps Please feel free to correct me on the details, like I said I was never a Newton-person other then admiring them from afar.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
Um, that means everything will have to be recompiled, right? So you'll have to download new versions of everything you use? And hope that the developers are still around to recompile them?
I merely mention this because on their PocketPC vs. PalmOS page, they make a big deal about the compatibility stuff. Since all the PocketPC stuff just needs to be recompiled to work on new platforms, it seems to be the same thing...
I travel alot, and I find planes to be extremely boring. Heh I never intended to use this to replace my 27" TV at home.
I downloaded an episode of Quantum Leap to my PocketPC on my last trip. The resolution was like 160 by 120, the screen ghosted, the frame rate was 7fps, and the idiot next to me who, saw me watching this show, didn't realize that his questions were interrupting my experience.
Despite these limitations, it worked surprisingly well. A spacebattle wouldn't work too well here, but for watching a character based show, the story came across just fine. The best thing is, the entire trip my laptop stayed in the overhead bin.
Now if I could bring a 25 inch TV on a plane, I'd agree that'd be a better solution. In the mean time, this solution worked pretty well. My only complaint was that I only had enough RAM for one episode.
When I can get a 400mhz PDA with a 1gig Microdrive, I'll have one hell of an entertainment option for airplane travel.
"Derp de derp."
I'm not sure what aspect ratio is "ideal" (it's certainly handy to have a square screen if you want to support 90 rotation of your UI without breaking a sweat), but in my mind the big win with high-res devices isn't multimedia; it's text readability.
At 72 ppi, anti-aliasing (and subpixel LCD tricks like ClearType) will only get you so far, especially with users looking so closely at the screens on these devices (they're handhelds, after all -- you're likely to hold them closer to your face than, say, your 30-pound CRT). Reading long passages of text at 72dpi, even on a good LCD, is still miserable.
However, with 320x320 packed into a couple of inches, we're talking about a dot pitch of 150ppi or higher, which approaches the pixel density (read: sharpness!) of a low-end inkjet printer. Assuming Palm (er, "PalmSource") can come up with some high-quality screen fonts (to replace the now-quaint bitmap fonts that once contributed strongly to the visual identity of the platform), future PalmOS devices could finally offer a pleasant e-book experience to end users.
Don't forget to include Netscape and Borland in that list!