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PalmOS 5 Turns Gold
Stalke writes: "On sunday, PalmSource (the spinoff from Palm responsible for the development of the PalmOS) announced that PalmOS 5 has gone gold. This latest version of the operating system includes support for ARM processors, Bluetooth and 802.11b, high-res displays (320x320; although Sony already uses even high res displays in its NR70) and more. Products with PalmOS 5 should start shipping in just over a months' time!"
Open the source, Palm!
So they can get the nimble development cycle of such projects as Mozilla and Gnome? I'm sorry, but I don't think so. Any operating system -- especially something embedded like PalmOS -- is going to be over the level of many programmers. I certainly wouldn't want to have to deal with lines and lines of palm assembly...
In the case of PalmOS, I don't see any advantage to opening the source. Palm does a good job with it, and I don't think there's enough "flashy" jobs to keep OSS programmers going.
Not to mention that they need the royalties from other companies licencing it.
I don't see them open-sourcing it anytime soon.
Dragging people kicking and screaming into reality since 1996.
Isn't about time the Palm OS provided threaded applications? My understanding it that it is build into the OS, but there are currently no APIs. In the Treo, at least, when you are on the phone, you can't continue to use your applications. It seems to me that this will put Palm OS at a disadvantage as PDAs are integrated with cell phones.
Ok, you're a luddite.
Not really, though: I see where you're coming from, but I think the real key to Palm's wonderful simplicity is in its UI. Color Palms, for better or worse, don't make tremendous use of color--generally just getting better readability and color icons, and of course allowing games and image viewers and what not to be in color. The UI is the same, and for my money is about as simple and reliable as ever.
Same thing with "more colours, better resolution, more MP3, full feature video": if there are seperate MP3 and video apps, and the UI is the same as always (without CE's "i think i'm a small desktop" mistakes, and "Aqua"-like "enhancements") then what does it hurt?
It's always a set of trade-offs. If you want really robust, really simple, you mighta been happy with one of those old school keyboard/character based PDAs...a few even offer synching to the desktop. Palm needs to keep pushing its capabilities, since eventually those gee-whiz features will be cheap enough (in terms of battery life and usability) to make sense.
Of course, the super hightech feature I'm really jonesing for is a clipboard that can hold an entire memo (and maybe ditch the 4k memo limit while they're at it...) I mean, Microsoft finally made Notepad so it didn't choke on 32K files, can't Palm do the same?
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
This is not true. Consider the following:
Palm's introduction of the SD Card led Handspring to discontinue the Springboard. Why would anyone want a proprietary "Springboard" module when the industry could standardize on existing technology?
Palm's devices are "whiz-bang" with all the latest gadgets. Have you ever heard of the "zen of Palm"? Palm owes it's success to the fact that they have kept it simple. While it is nice to have streaming video on a handheld, is it worth the extra weight and price? Do you use it that much? If so, then a PocketPC is the right choice for you!
Sharp's Zaurus has a fatal flaw: they require a licensing fee for every application developed. Palm had developers coming from everywhere because they were easy to work with. To develop for the Zaurus, it costs money. While this is not a major obstacle for most people, the majority of Palm developers are lone individuals with very limited budgets. I have developed applications for the Palm, and seriously considered the Zaurus. But I am sticking with Palm.
OS 5.0 promises great new features. I am excited about the possibilities in some of the new hardware due out.
Don't discount Palm because they don't have all the features of your laptop.