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Color Palms Announced
viking099 writes "Palm announces Color Pilots - to be shipped the first half of next year. This should ensure Palms' dominance. " I have to imagine that the battery life is going to be bad on these new Palms - anyone have more details? Still, all things considered, another good move by 3Com.
Seems we were just speculating on the announcement of the DragonBall VZ chips with color LCD support and here comes the new pilots.
Color LCDs have really come to age. They are now using super-reflective backgrounds and many of them are able to rechannel ambient light towards the screen. Look at some of the newer DV and digital cameras (from Casio among others) for examples.
Darn, I have a HandSpring on order too. Hmm.
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Hopefully 3Com will get their act more together with Handspring breathing down their necks. A nice color Palm with a form factor of a V. A wireless model off of the VII with color would be marvelous also. They are definitely on the right track with color palms. This was about the only detractor when people were comparing PalmOS with WinCE. But, I can't imagine Handspring being TOO far behind the curve here with their own color models. I would guess that once they get past their current production delays, then into Christmas, they will probably wait and see how the technology goes and announce some stuff around early next year. Now we need a color PDQ. Color PalmOS, plus cellular phone. Woo hoo!
Where the wind blows, the tumbleweed goes.
It's not really color screens that suck battery power. It's the backlight that drains it the most. Look at Gameboy Color for an example of a color LCD device with a remarkably long battery life.
This will be tricky, though. What Palm will have to do if it wants to keep its battery life long is to use one of the super-reflective displays with a backlight that can be turned on and off, as with the current Palm devices. The backlight will still drain power, of course, but only when it's on (as with the current Palm screens), and thus will have only a minimal impact on bettery life (no more than it currently does).
I'm not sure if this actually possible with the current super-reflective LCD's; the backing might be too opaque to allow for backlights (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong about that, because I hope I am). It's better than the two alternatives, though: a battery-draining handheld or a clip-on light for the non-backlit screen.
I wonder if someone will be offering a trade-in program for Palm III's...
I almost safe to say that you can compare the color palm to the gbc.
When the gbc was first anounced people did they saem thing they are doing now. Going "WAAHH! what about battery life?" and "WAHH! We don't need color". And "WAHH!! what about the older games?"
Well, turns out that not only does the gc use only TWO batteries(as opposed to 4 on the orginal) they last ALOT longer then 4 on the orginal gbc.
About color. People thought "tetris only needs four colors of cabbage green". Well, also turns out that things really do look ALOT better in color. Even games that weren't ment to have color, using some of the default pallets.
And finally, about the applications. Some people thought that the GBC would split the gameboy market into color and non-color. Turns out that the vast majority of gbc games also work on a normal gb. A couple not all the way mind you(extra maze in Zelda dx is an example) but that's few and far between.
So I think very much will happen with the color Palms. Color will catch on nicely. Battery life will IMPROVE. And there will be nice backward b&w compatability with older aps, and new aps will run in a b&w mode much like most gbc titles do now.
The question is, will the new 33 MHz Motorola CPU be fast enough? My Palm V is fast with most PDA type stuff, but when I run Quicksheet or StarPilot, it's somewhat sluggish, even when I use Afterburner at 29 MHz (though it's not as slow as the WinCE devices).
Assuming the color interface eats up more CPU time, it seems like 33 MHz isn't going to give us much more capabilities other than color. I still am wondering why Motorola doesn't come out with a 100+ MHz variable speed CPU like the StrongARM.
On a different topic, does anyone know what kind of color screen Palm is considering? Is it going to be the same technology as the low-power Color Gameboy screen? How's it going to perform in sunlight?
In any case, this is good news!
If I know Palm, and I'm not saying I do, I'd guess that they'll keep at least one monochrome, entry-level model. At this rate, it looks like the Palm IIIx or IIIe would be that model. If they crack the $100 price point with the Palm OS, I see big things in the future for the Palm line. More importantly, it'll satisfy those people who still prefer the look of monochrome screens. Personally, I don't think I'd buy one of those devices until sufficiently many color apps were to be available.
For more information, click here.
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Just a suspicion.
I've never popped open a Palm device, so keep in mind that this is mere conjecture based on external observation. :)
:)
It's a space concern. It may seem like a small deal to up the battery size to AA, but when you look at a Palm Pilot, it's very small. One of their big selling points is size and portability. Increasing the battery size would involve at the very least an increase in thickness, possibly an increase in width and/or height. When you're gunning to have the best size-usability-power ratio in the biz, every millimeter counts.
It's the same deal with CPU marketing. "Yes, that extra $400 is worth 150MHz!"
So, while you may be getting twice as many mWH, that may not necessarily be enough to justify an increase in volume because your target is to produce a product with very low volume.
$.02 in the can
I don't know about you, but my servers run on the power of cotton candy and happy thoughts. -Anonymous Coward
I was just thinking that the word "pilot" could have really helped out the title of this article.
(Thank god it didn't contain the word "hairy")
I dont think work will be buying me one of these anyways though. damn.
--Evan
In other news, the TRGPro (www.trgpro.com) was announced. It's basically a modified Palm IIIx produced by TRG (makers of FlashPro and various memory upgrades) to include a Compact Flash slot. The device includes 8M ram and 2M flash, and will retail for about $320 when it is released in December.
I don't even want color. What I want . . .
Is a portable telnet (actually SSH) box.
Specs:
- fold out "full size" keyboard. I have seen what I want on TV, about 4x4x.5 inches folds out then "squeezes" together to align the keys properly.
- "half height" 80 column display (wide aspect ratio.
- Build in cellular/modem for data connection.
The whole thing folds to 4x4x1.8 or so.
Why? Who cares how fast the proc is. SSH to my home box . . . 400mhz and 26gb of HDD. Great for typing notes in class, coding on the subway/bus, even reading slashdot with lynx!
-Pete
Moderator, read the top again before you moderate me "off topic". Pleeeease don't kill my karma!
Actually, the metric base unit of time is the second. It's exactly as long as a second in any other system that uses the measure. So in the end there's no real difference.
I want color!
People take this funny philosophical stance against color. Granted, color isn't required to satisfy the functions of a Pilot, but neither is the PDA itself (I could still use a daytimer). PDA's offer speed and compactness in the same sense that color can help visualize the data stored in the machine. Neither is required, but both are nice. Seems like an obvious choice so far...
Some argue that color sucks off too much power. However, with the rate that technology develops, there's no doubt that battery life will evolve to match the increase in consumption. Laptops with 10" screens used to last 30 minutes on bulky batteries. Today's portables can play full-length DVDs with plenty to spare.
Color certainly doesn't affect the size of the PDA. And to that effect, competition will shrink them down, too. Processors will get faster and smaller, memory cheaper yet, and wireless networks more prevalent.
I for one want a powerful electronic tool in my shirt pocket. I want to be able to play 3D games, browse the Internet, watch TV, video conference, listen to music, etc. If you're among those of you who believe on principle that PDAs should be limited to black-and-white phone numbers, you're setting yourself up to be left behind.
Not really. If you lose the notebook, you're toast; unless you have the habit of "backing up" your contacts/other data by regularly photocopying it or keeping double notebooks. A paper notebook will not allow you send and read e-mail using a cell phone, and you will have to be extraordinarily talented to be able to play a game of Space Invaders with a deck of cards.
/. have a very similar and predictable flow? There's the obligatory "Palms are expensive, use paper and pencil" note, the "Woohoo! Beowulf cluster!" note, the "Does it run Linux?" note, the inevitable comparison with Game Boy Color, the even-more-inevitable WinCE bashing, and the quintessential "One shall also consider Psion PDAs" post from a *.uk address...
Ever noticed how all Palm related discussions on
Zigbee Central: A Zigbee weblog
What I really want to know is when will my Palm Pilot be as useful as a Startrek tricorder/phaser?
.357 Magnum Revolver, and it seems to effect a fairly decent phaser...
I don't know whatfor when it comes to tricorders, but I duct taped my Palm III to the top of my
by Mike Buddha -- Someday the mountain might get him, but the law never will.
Really.
The Palm is nice because you can back it up, but if you lose it, you're out $200. Lose a notebook and a trip to the drugstore will get you a new one.
So the question is value. If you can't afford to lose the info in your notebook, then your notebook has value, and you'll try not to lose it. With a Palm, you don't have to worry about losing info, but the machine costs so much that you'll also try not to lose it.
My point is that so long as you compare them with respect to the same function (here: storing info), neither can be argued to be better. You're both wrong.
Here's an interesting factoid about the Palm community on Slashdot:
I keep my talkback threshold set to 2 (except when I'm moderating), and with most articles, I end up seeing between 5 and 15 percent of the articles. When a palm article hits, I see around 25% of the articles!
I'll have to keep tabs on what these Palm folks have to say...
Take a look at psion's web site for more information.. then take a look at pricewatch to find it cheap. Good luck!
Palm dominates now because they have ease-of-use, battery life, and a form factor that's much better than Microsoft's devices. Not because of color. I can see how color could be an enhancement to some aspects of the user experience (like, for instance, overdue to-do entries appearing in red), but the danger for Palm is that, although current small device color screens are pretty good, they are likely to require a larger form factor and burn more battery.
It all ties in to what a Palm is for "the average users". I, for one, use a Palm not because it has color - this didn't even enter into my thinking when I bought it. I use a Palm because it fits into a pocket, runs for a long time on a charge, and works with my Mac just as well as it works with my PC (except my Mac can't sync AvantGo yet). If color spoils either the size or battery life, I'll stick with my Palm III, thank you very much.
(or maybe I'll get one of those slick HandSprings - but I digress...)
- -Josh Turiel
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
Color displays are not the one-true-way to defeat Mr. Gates CE, but it sure would help.
Considering how much LCD displays have matured recently the color-screen Palm probably wouldn't have to be *much* larger than the III's.
If the unit would be small it would attract a lot of the CE users, as the 'sexiness' is a very important thing for many. Problem is that a lot of people do not realize the difference between the two platforms. They see the PalmV, which is slick, then they see the CE with color-display and cry out "Waoaow, thaaat's what I want daddy!!". And even though such users probably wouldn't add much to the Palm community, their money sure is wanted...
Conclusion: Color displays are not the only thing, but they really would help attract a lot of users - and their dough.
It's already available at Sun's Java web site for all the "early access" people. The startup is a little slow, but once it's going it runs fine - not much difference between Java apps and native palm apps. The virtual machine takes a "whopping" 114k and the test apps are all in the 10-20k range. Give it a try!
Ita erat quando hic adveni.