Palm’s time at the zenith of high-resolution displays seems to be over. The PocketPCs now ship with VGA displays that have a resolution of 640×480. These displays have 100% more pixels than the best HiRes+-Palms. Look at the graphic below for a comparison of a few different screen sizes:
Attention-This graph has a little bug-QVGA is 320×240(but the dimensions are right)! I will fix it when I get home!
Tam Hanna
This looks like we are behind the PPC once again. But, as so many times before, the operating system is the part that slows the platform down.
While fonts and buttons look smoother, the better screen does not show significantly more information. The statement above is also true for most other core components of Windows Mobile 2003SE. When Sony shipped the first CLIE, it’s OS was optimized to the max-the user immediately had the advantage of being capable to display more data. However, it won’t be that easy to promote a device where the OS does not work well with the screen-core components can’t be updated by third-party engineers that easily. And even if the user installs VGA-capable applications, some components still stay ‘Low-Res’.
Concluding, the VGA PPCs aren’t that much of a threat as one may believe. Their hardware is definitely better, but the OS doesn’t support the new features. So, we are back in the old situation-the PPC’s hardware rules, but the simplicity of the Palm OS equalizes the equation just like in the old days of the IIIc.
I am-as always-waiting for comments.
Recently, I wondered why many portals(also Information ones, not only software vendors) give away a few free licences in a lottery-like game! You just type Email Address and Name, and off it goes. Well, the portals definitely don’t make any income from this-so why do they do it then?
When you look at these giveaways a second time, you immediately understand that only people visiting the portal can participate. Thus, a possible reason is generation of new visitors! But, people who don’t know about the portal won’t even hear about the giveaway-and thus won’t come. This reason cannot really be accepted then! Criminal motivations(selling the addresses) will be left aside now..
However, looking more thoroughly at the pages, usually a list of prices can be found. As software portals are getting more and more expensive(an ad for SplashPhoto was spotted in a German newspaper called c’t), it gets more and more difficult to tell users about your new or updated app! But without advertising, nobody will find the program. Nowadays, even the smallest categories at PalmGear’s contain more than hundred applications!
When the user participates in a giveaway, he usually looks at the prices to know what he can win there! And alas, he sees the new/updated app. His interest is awaken, and he googles up a demo version that should be readily available and not too crippled! If he wins it, he is lucky. If not, there is a chance that he buys it off his favourite portal!
So, to cut a long story short: Developers, support giveaways at your local/global portal! If you offer a few licences of your app for free, you may get 20 times as many registrations and net a nice profit. The “loss” that you make will still be much less than the cost for a newspaper ad(the c’t is expensive, boys). In addition, users will think of you as a “nice” developer.
And that’s always good!
Brighthand today reviewed a mouse for PocketPCs-and the reviewer was full of praise for the unit. The Targus product connects to the PocketPC via Bluetooth and then works like a regular desktop mouse! Impressive, isn’t it? The left mouse button works well with most PC apps(replace stylus tap), but e.g. the right mouse button isn’t suported. By the way, neither Smartphones with Symbian nor Palm OS handhelds are supported.
This report lines up with the information that a new HP PocketPC has a touchpad instead of the 5-Way navigator that can operate like a notebook’s touchpad! It looks like PDA’s will soon move away from the touchscreen…
Actually, when I have a keyboard on my PDA with a big screen(like a Tungsten T3), I sometimes long for a mouse too in order to save me the grip to the stylus. A Notebook-like Unit like the UX50 would also become more usable if equipped with a mouse.
However, with an IIIc or another Low-Res handheld, the mouse pointer would practically just take up way too much screen space. And using it on the go would be a pain too. I can still remember trying to use my Gericom Notebook with an external mouse(yes, it was a 486) in a car….
In addition, many third-party developers haven’t yet added support for mice into their Applications. Also, PDA’s are intended to be small. Mice, however, need to be approximately as big as half a hand-so they will incrase the size of the units.
Concluding, Mice are a good idea, but not for everyone. I don’t that PPCs will become more mouse-centric, because well-a touchscreen still is faster than using a mouse or touchpad(that’s why I dont own a Laptop). In addition, Mice require too much space when used-PDA’s must still stay small and comfortable to use on the go!
Tell me your experiences? Have you ever used a PDA with a mouse? Did you like it? I am-as always-eagerly waiting for comments and discussion!!
I already thought that the Wifi topic was finished-but hell, am I wrong! The boys at Tapwave’s have recently released drivers for a multitude of Wifi cards and also a mail app for the Zodiac.
While the official announcement at the Tapwave homepage states that a PalmOne WIFI card is required, other pages at Tapwave’s state that a Sandisk card shall be used. In addition, Tapwave states that the older Sandisk card with additional 256MB of memory on-board shall be supported pretty soon.
In addition, Tapwave released a Zodiac version of PalmSources email client available for free to all Zodiac owners. The program’s feature list seems to be quite impressive, as it supports attachments, IMAP and POP3 and even SSL. The documentation that ships with the program still says PalmSource Confidential at the bottom side of each page and states that OS 5.4 is required. This is amusing because the Zodiac runs on a OS 5.2 derivate! I tested the program on my Tungsten T3, and it installed alright. Even the setup app worked. The program itself didn’t start up though-looks like Tapwave checks the device creator feature to limit the program to its own devices.
Now, if that isn’t customer support! Tungsten T owners are still waiting for a free VersaMail or WebPro update. We see that Tapwave-unlike other manufacturers-is really caring about its customers. When my TT3 breaks(or I get a refund for it), my next handheld will definitely be a Zod. That’s a company that earns every cent of my money for a change!
Multitasking is one of the oldest discussion topics-essentially, it exists in three variants: Does a Handheld OS need it, how does it work in Cobalt and how does it work in older Versions of the OS?
Here, I will discuss the third incarnation. The Palm OS documentation itself contains the following passage:
The Microkernel
Palm OS has a pre-emptive multitasking kernel that provides basic task management.
As we see, the Palm OS is a Multitasking OS. Now, why can’t more than one App run at the same time? Applications run in a special program called UIAS. Palm licensed the original kernel used in the 68k machines from an RTOS manufacturer called Kadak or Kodak. In order to reduce the licence price, Palm agreed to keep the multitasking API hidden from third-party developers. Thus, there was no need to make the rest of the OS multitasking-capable. Only the parts that needed to multi-task(e.g. Hotsync, TCP-IP-Stack, sound streams) were coded in a special way to allow this kind of operation. This is the reason why the creation of Cobalt took that much time.
Now, that doesn’t help the developer trying to create the impression of multitasking. After reading lots of documentation and discussing with others on the developer forums, I see two ways of solving the problem:
The first method is to take a look at the Palm OS sources in the resource pavilion (Hotsync,TCP/IP-Stack) and at the functions labelled system only. BTW, the only documentation about them is in the source file where they reside-there is more there than in the books. PalmSource insiders say that this method is difficult because of the badly designed code-but still possible. However, a program created this way will need thorough testing on each handheld to ensure compatibility.
The second way is officially documented by Palmsource and also widely implemented-actually, I experience it right now. This blog article was written in my Tungsten’s Memo application. I switched over to Plucker to retrieve the passage about the microkernel. When I returned, the memo was in the same state. I had a really comfortable feeling doing all of this, because my handheld stayed blazingly fast. Unlike the PocketPC, the application had no chance to damage any data without me noticing immediately. When every developer implements this behaviour into his program(s), the multitasking experience is perfect. The preferences allow easy storage of the data needed for such a process. The Palm OS UI Guidelines provide additional infos on the topic-look it up in the section on exiting applications.
Comment about this article, please. I am always interested in hearing developer’s opinions.
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