TamsPalm – the Palm OS / web OS Blog

Palm OS / web OS news and opinion source

January 30th, 2007

LifeDrive – the obituary

According to PalmInfoCenter, the long-expected EOL’ing of the Palm LifeDrive has just happened. The LifeDrive was a significant development for (Palm powered) PDA’s, I originally wanted to buy it when it first leaked. However, the final version had a few lethal quirks – this obituary is my personal ‘goodbye’ to the LifeDrive.

The LifeDrive was a great idea, but it was hampered by the catastrophic implementation(which had no reason whatsoever). Palm’s experience with the Tungsten T5 showed that users accept “internal external VFS” memory. The LifeDrive was originally rumored to ship with 32MB of RAM and a 4GB internal VFS partition – which was a useful and good idea.

However, Palm decided to go the ‘cheap’ route and decided to use a hard drive as RAM replacement media(!!!). Palm probably didn’t expect the harsh reaction, but the prototyping phase should have clarified matters.

But the LifeDrive concept wasn’t dead when the LifeDrive 1 shipped – first generation products often have eekers that get fixed over time. Hitachi ‘leaked’ information on Palm’s plans to release a second LifeDrive with 6GB of internal memory, and when the 4GB CF card mod came out, Palm should have finally accepted that internal hard drives are not a good RAM replacement.

By this time, however, Palm probably had already given up on the LifeDrive market segment – their not-releasing of the Wifi patch for LifeDrive(while it was available for Palm TX) showed that they didn’t really care about the LifeDrive’s fate anymore.

If Palm still has a LifeDrive2 ready for release, it will still make a nice PDA – if the hdd lag problems have been fixed. It will, however, be no longer a novel and unique item…Palm lost this opportunity back in 2005!

P.s. I wouldn’t wonder if the LifeDrive gets covered inn the third edition of in Search of Stupidity – review of the second edition(without LifeDrive) coming soon!

January 29th, 2007

Dmitry Grinberg on piracy – or – a PR master’s stunt

Before I start this off: Dmitry, I am a Palm OS developer myself and know how one feels when this happens. I had my Palm OS apps cracked and lost money due to that. I can fully understand how you feel, and felt the same way. Except that I filled meh hide up with chinine and got back coding…and in my case, the damage was worse than in yours(patched product versus a few useless keys).

Please take this with a grain of salt, try to laugh about it!

It has been a long time since TamsPalm last covered Dmitry Grinberg, the Palm OS coding ace and master of self-presentation. Recently, a (rather aggressive) pirate posted a few threads on his official forums(!!!) containing links to a torrent of a few registration codes for Dmitry’s Palm OS applications. Eeker!

Dmitry, true to his tradition of efficient use of every PR-Opportunity, decided to throw a big tantrum and go about how he wants to exit Palm OS development for good. User reaction was a big eeker of compassion and probably also quite a few purchases out of solidarity. The poor Dmitry had his apps cracked, eeker….

First of all, piracy is a problem for EVERYONE in the Palm community. Every developer I talked with told me that piracy is a big problem for him – and that he is ready to invest time and money into reducing piracy… . So getting your apps cracked is common – but this response shows great PR prowess.

Dmitry, I congratulate you warmly on your smartness, thank you for reading TamsPalm and for beeing around!

P.s. If you really want to quit the market – DONT. You are just cutting the tree off that you are sitting on… . Reestablishing your presence in a different mobile sector will take a long time – and be sure that the pirates will be right behind you!

P.s.2 Your apps seem to have a very stable key system that wasn’t cracked so far. so just take a chill pill and relax =).

January 29th, 2007

NEC N908 review – a preview of the Apple iPhone

NEC’s N908 is very similar to the Apple iPhone as it does not have a numeric or QWERTY keyboard – it uses a touchscreen for data input instead. CNET took a look at the NEC N908 and pointed out the problems of touchscreen-only designs – if you are interested in the iPhone, this could be an interesting “preview”:

http://reviews.cnet.com/NEC_N908/4505-6454_7-32318249.html?tag=nl.e404#more

January 29th, 2007

On trademarks

The last weeks brought us a huge trademark lawsuit between apple and Cisco about the iPhone name. I personally expect quite a few licensees to look at trademark law carefully concerning the use of the Palm OS name in the next weeks, so trademark lawsuits are probably gonna be our daily bread in the next six months.

SecurityFocus’s Mark Rash takes a look at the US trademark law in a very interesting article – get it here:
http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/430

January 28th, 2007

Palm OS becomes Garnet OS – what I think about it

The news that Access decided to rename Palm OS(5) to Garnet OS hit us a few days ago – my first reaction was an outburst of maniacal laughter. Garnet means as much as not at all in German, so this was quite funny. But now, a few days after the laugh, I think that this renaming gives the Palm OS economy yet another problem to chew on.

I as a developer will definitely not benefit from the renaming. Marketing campaigns established the name Palm OS in the minds of PDA and smartphone software customers – if it runs Palm OS, it can run Palm OS apps like FileFind or Binary Clock. Now that we have two (compatible(!!!)) OS’ses with different names, developers need to redo their marketing campaigns and sometimes even product names to reflect the new situation. This will lead to long and clumsy names like Daily Quote for Palm OS and Garnet OS(yikes), even more text on already overcrowded banners and generally effort for nothing.

Licensees are in an even bigger dilemma, loosing the benefit of the Palm OS name in their products. I can already imagine millions of Joe Consumers walking into a store, looking at a GSPDA M70 or Aceeca Meazura and asking the clerk if this is compatible with my Palm Os applications.

IMHO, this move wasn’t exactly smart(yes, I know it was necessary and all, but I still don’t like it one bit) – I wonder if Palm will start to license thew Palm name separately to other “Garnet OS” licensees…

What do you think about it?

January 28th, 2007

Put a Palm Treo 650 into a Palm Treo 700p housing – english version

TamsPalm was one of the first sites to cover Clieler’s Treo 650 modification.

Due to increasing demand, Clieler decided to create an english version of his tutorial for fitting a Palm Treo 650 into a 700p housing:
http://clieler.blog.de/2007/01/28/on_english_please~1635200

January 26th, 2007

Secure your Palm – with the updated Teallock 6

Teallock is known as one of the best security programs for PalmOS PDAs. Now Teallock got much more powerful: Tealpoint has completely redesigned Teallock and released it as version 6. In comparison with version 5, Teallock 6 has got many more features. At first you have the choice between four program types:

-Lite Edition (this edition is limited in several things like designing the lock screen; password options like expiration, a need for a special length/complexion; no possibility to lock special programs…)
-Standard Edition (normal edition � should fit for most users)
-Corporate Edition (several additions like administrator password; remote locking/unlocking; installation files for easy copying settings to other palms; password restrictions …)
-Enterprise Edition (adds powerful AES encryption)

With Teallock you have the ability to secure the Palm and its programs against unauthorized use, based on time, time of inactivity or other events.

The first thing you see when you start the program is the login screen (Teallock supports Hires+ now!) with the possibility to switch Teallock on or off, to change user/quick password, a button to access the preferences and a big button for locking the Palm immediately.

teallock.thumbnail Secure your Palm   with the updated Teallock 6

When you try to change the settings you are asked to enter a password. Corporate and Enterprise version users have to enter in the admin password (an admin password must be assigned) standard and lite users must enter in their standard password. A number-pad makes the entry much more comfortable.

teallock0001.thumbnail Secure your Palm   with the updated Teallock 6

The preferences window is split into two parts. On the left you can see the main categories, on the right the sub-categories. This review is based on Teallock Enterprise Edition. So don’t wonder if a point in your menu is missing.
In the first category you can define the activation of Teallock e.g. the delay after which the Palm gets locked, when private records (in memos, todos…) are displayed etc

teallock0002.thumbnail Secure your Palm   with the updated Teallock 6

A lot of settings are relatively similar to version 5. So I will just show up the main changes.
The first big addition is the possibility to define which rights a user has. For example the administrator password can have access to every setting, locked program etc.. The guest password instead can only unlock the handheld but can not access locked programs. These restrictions can be defined for each user separately

teallock0003.thumbnail Secure your Palm   with the updated Teallock 6

The next big change is the ability to have a history log. In this log a lot of actions can be logged e.g. when which user logged on, when which preference was edited, when which protected program ran. The log can be accessed via other => History Log. Now you can define several settings for which action a log entry is written. You also can define how much entries are kept.

teallock0004.thumbnail Secure your Palm   with the updated Teallock 6

The log itself is held simple. The days are separated, for each action a timestamp is added, the most recent entrys are at the top.

teallock0005.thumbnail Secure your Palm   with the updated Teallock 6

With Teallock 6 it is possible to prevent special programs to run without a having the correct password. At first one has to put the program on the Protected-App list. Now, when someone tries to launch the locked application Teallock asks for a password. The method how the password is entered is similar to other one: one can use the num-pad, the hard keys or via graffitty… .
Teallock offers some more possibilities for defining special rules for special programs. E.g. there is an option to prevent Teallock from activation while in special programs, or to allow apps/alarms when locked.

teallock0006.thumbnail Secure your Palm   with the updated Teallock 6

An other speciality of Teallock 6 is the ability to influence the look of the lock screen. One can redefine text colours, the position of screen elements like the password field. Adjusting the elements is pretty easy by using drag and drop.

teallock0007.thumbnail Secure your Palm   with the updated Teallock 6_teallock0008.thumbnail Secure your Palm   with the updated Teallock 6

When using Teallock on a Treo Smartphone and it is lost, one can define via SMS what Teallock should do. There are options to
-lock the handheld
-erase all data
In order to achieve this one simply has to send a SMS with a predefined message to the phone.

So you see: Teallock is a very powerful security app for your Palm. It has many settings so that it can fit to most wishes. In addition it is easy to handle.

January 25th, 2007

30 dark designs you should see

Most ads on the various Palm sites(including mine) are black on white. Creating an ad that is white on black would definitely male for an interesting variation – but getting it right is much harder.

Smashing Magazine published a list of 30 “dark designs” for web sites that they consider excellent:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/01/13/30-dark-designs-you-shouldve-seen/

Take a look if you are bored for a moment, and tell us if you created a new ad for your Palm products and want to explain it to the public =).

January 25th, 2007

Fit the Palm Treo 650 into a Palm Treo 700p housing

My old friend Clieler’s Palm blog has been very silent for a long time – but it recently took off again(its still in German, though).

Clieler’s latest project is fitting his Treo 650 into a Palm Treo 700p housing – he believes that this will seriously improve reception quality. Clieler didn’t finish his mod yet – but it already looks interesting:

Part 1(GERMAN!!)
Part 2(GERMAN!!)

What do you think?

January 25th, 2007

New CommWarrior variant

The guys over at F-Secure’s have just discovered a new version of CommWarrior(that famous virus for Series 60 phones).

The special feature of that new version dubbed CommWarrior Lite is that is was recompiled from the original source instead of just being a hexmod of the original file – it looks as if virus people are still very active…

Get the full scoop here:
http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/archive-012007.html#00001090

January 25th, 2007

Drive Mode / MS Import in background

On 1src’s freeware archive you can download an Desk Accessory (DA) which starts the Drive Mode application in background, while you can continue working in another application. But let’s see what the developer writes:

This is a Desk Accessory to use Drive Mode (on palmOne units equipped with it) or MS Import (on Sony Clie units equipped with it) while another application is running. (The Clie version is completely untested, and I suspect will typically exit the current app on termination.) USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. PUBLIC DOMAIN INCLUDING SOURCE CODE.

You can download it here:

http://www.1src.com/freeware/fileinfo.php?id=1645

January 24th, 2007

Resco Photo Viewer update – now with image editing and multisend

Resco’s photo viewer scored a rave review on TamsPalm a few weeks ago(Resco Photo Viewer review) – Resco’s Jan Slodica just informed me about an update to the product(should be released as you read this) that adds a few interesting features. This is not a full review – it just looks at the most interesting new features:

Image “editing”
Resco Photo Viewer can now crop, rotate, resize and decompress pictures. These options can be accessed from the context menu:
rotmenu Resco Photo Viewer update   now with image editing and multisend rotform Resco Photo Viewer update   now with image editing and multisend

The crop area can be selected by dragging:
cropsel Resco Photo Viewer update   now with image editing and multisend

The resizing happens with fixed factors, and the rotation mode lacks a 180 degree flip option:
dsscale Resco Photo Viewer update   now with image editing and multisend rotscale Resco Photo Viewer update   now with image editing and multisend

I resized and rotated this XGA image and got this decently looking result(original file):
right8xdown Resco Photo Viewer update   now with image editing and multisend

Multisend
Resco Image Viewer now allows you to “bundle” files to be transferred. This means that all files go into one email in VersaMail and that you don’t need to click on the preferred transfer method once per file!
polysend Resco Photo Viewer update   now with image editing and multisend polyversa Resco Photo Viewer update   now with image editing and multisend

Overall, this update adds most features I wished to see in the original version of Resco Photo Viewer. Congratulations to the Resco team – this is how we do it!

January 22nd, 2007

Treo 680 news

The PalmInfoCenter just brought us another load of news on Palm’s current flagship smartphone(the Treo 680):

Cradle problems
Palm admitted that earlier revisions(a,b) of its Treo cradle kit have problems with the Palm Treo 680. Only c revisions of the cradle are safe for Treo 680 use. Palm reports a variety of strange problems – looks like using such a cradle with a Treo 680 is a really bad idea. Additionally, true to Palm tradition, there is no exchange program for a and b revisions…

Orange Treo 680 no longer available
The Palm store page for the Palm Treo 680 says that the orange(aka copper) Treo 680 is no longer available. Other colors still seem to available in ample supply..

January 22nd, 2007

My 3 commandments for all Palm OS Garnet owners

The news about Palm’s buyback of OS5 rights has slowly but surely sunk in – we now have two Palm OS ‘owners’. The current version of Garnet has a few quirks, but is a reliable platform…this is what its owners should do to it 2007 to keep it competitive:

Get a GOOD web browser
Face it, all current Palm Os web browsers suck badly. OK, the Treo 680 version of Blazer/Netfront is said to be decently usable at the least – but it still lacks many features in comparison to PDA browsers for other platforms.

This point should be really simple for Access – all they need to do is add a few features to their old Sony Clie Palm OS NetFront browser. Alternatively, Palm could bug Opera or buy up the Universe3 project before it ships.

Give Garnet a competitive UI
Face it – Garnet looks ugly compared to Windows Mobile. Ok, black on white means great contrast, but the average user doesn’t give a f*** about a few nits more. Instead, he wants a cool-looking device…

This is also a no-brainer for a licensee. Buy up either SkinUI or its competitor(probably cheaper) – and party.

Unlock the multitasking API/ARM development API
First of all – I got much of this information from a reliable source inside a Palm OS licencee. However, I cannot disclose the name for obvious reasons.

Palm OS’s core is multitasking capable – people like Dmitry Grinberg have used the Kernel for quite some time. The problem is somewhere else – Palm’s original license for the Kadak kernel forbade them to publicly release the multitasking API(Kadak sold such an SDK, fyi only).

Now, if Palm owns the complete rights to the OS, what speaks against looking at the kernel rights once again and maybe opening up multitasking in one sort or the other? And if you are already at it, why not unlock the ARM native stuff, too?

IMHO, the three steps outlined above should help Access/Palm get their operating system back in-line. Garnet’s days may still be counted and its architecture may eventually need an overhaul(dual core ARM processor, come) – but implementing the 3 commandments should be able to add at least 3 more years of life to Palm OS Garnet.