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Palm VII Field Trial

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the stuff-to-read dept.

Querist wrote in with some review experiences of the Palm VII. I can't really confirm or deny if this is real, but it looks legit so I'm running it. Some interesting comments about the next generation of PDAs. Hit the link to read it. querist writes "I am on the field trial of the Palm VII ... the Palm system with the wireless internet and e-mail. To put it mildly, this thing ROCKS. Fairly quick connection via the local cellular phone network (account is set up by 3COM/Palm Computing) with e-mail.

It comes with 2 mb RAM and a host of PQAs -- Palm Query Apps, including MapQuest, Yahoo! People Search, E*Trade, ESPN.com, ABCNews, and OAG flights, to name a few. It also has the standard applications, including (I have a Pilot 1000 upgraded to 1MB normally) an app for the Graffiti chart so you don't have to use your pen shortcut for it and all of the other normal apps.

I've tested numerous 3rd party apps with it and they all work just fine, including games with greyscale!

The "backlighting" isn't. The pixels themselves glow green when you activate the lighting. That's right... the pixels glow green, not the background. It looks really odd at first, but you get used to it. No more using your Palm units as night lights, folks. :-)

The service is good, but they're still working out the prices for air-time (metered by the KB) and the actual units.

A couple of VERY nice features are that most of the web sites which you hit with the PQAs will warn you if a download is more than 1kb, and on the e-mail it will only download the first 500 or so bytes and then tell you how much is left, so you can opt to get more, get all that's left, or delete the message without spending your KBs for the month.

Overall, I am very impressed with the unit and we have some solid potential uses here at my company for this new technology. I would strongly urge anyone who is working and developing PalmOS applications for business use to look into the Palm VII for applications which need to access large amounts of data on the run.

No, I am not a Palm Computing or 3 COM employee. I just think PalmOS is a great OS to use for handhelds and it's great that there are good Linux apps out there for development, so I can limit my Windows time to playing games with my 4 yr old.

-Q "

4 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. Connectivity by pineapplehead · · Score: 2

    Would be interested in knowing (1) what wireless carrier was used, and (2) what wireless data comm technology was used, e.g., CDPD, Paging network, Analog cellular, etc.

  2. It's Bellsouth's Mobitex... by Jules · · Score: 2
    I've got a RIM 950 Inter@ctive pager that uses the same network as the Palm VII will. Coverage is sometimes spotty in "non-business areas" (as classifed by BellSouth). That means it won't work at my house which kind of sucks. And incentive to get out more?

    When it's doing its thing, it's awesome. I've had some problems with the net-bound mail taking anywhere up to 1/2 an hour to leave their network but unit to unit communication is almost instant.

  3. Not real TCP/IP? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3

    I hear that the wireless access on this thing is limited to HTTP access, through a proxy, to things that have a PQA and maybe even a special deal with 3Com. If that's true, that's not cool. Using a Ricochet modem, people in the San Francisco Bay Area can get full, real, bi-directional TCP/IP support on anything going back to the Palm Professional. They can then use any of a large number of Pilot network apps of all descriptions, including things like an SSH client. If that's not possible on the new model, it is a real step backwards (except for the wider service area).

  4. So? by Eric+Wayte · · Score: 2

    As a long time (2.5 years) Palm user, I am afraid that 3Com is taking Palm in the wrong direction. The market perception is that Palm is not evolving while the WinCE platform is.

    Yes, the PalmOS doesn't need much RAM, but they really should put more RAM into the little buggers. Color - boy, they've missed the boat on this one. Color always sells more - look TV, the PC and the Mac. Once color became available, nobody wanted monochrome. And the Palm V - people are already referring to them as the "Lady Palm" - just look at their latest ad in Wired! They slimed it down so it will fit in a purse - come on, ladies - what's wrong with wearin' 'em on your belt? :-)

    As for programming them, the Palm may be easier to code for than WinCE, but then again, you're coding for a 15 year old Mac SE disguised as a handheld! 16MHz 68000, 2MB RAM, monochrome display, proprietary OS...

    I keep eyeing the new WinCE handhelds because I think color is cool but - there's the battery life issue and big bad Microsoft.

    How far away is Handspring (Jeff Hawkins/Donna Dubinsky - Pilot creators) away from their initial product?