Meazura recall: possible button problem

Palm News No Responses »
Aug 192007

Aceeca recently provided us with specifications for their new Windows Mobile Meazuras – in case you would like to see them, just take a look over at our sister site TamsPPC. However, this wasn’t the only announcement the boys sent out – they also announced a “limited recall” for their palm OS powered Meazura…read on:

I would also like to take this opportunity to let you know about a design issue that has arisen on the MEZ1000. It appears our in-house testing of the keypad durability did not replicate the real world and we have had some customers experience a problem with keypads failing – typically any key that is used extensively. The good news is, we have rectified the problem and all devices that have been shipped over the last few weeks have the modified keypad design. This problem may never affect you, as we have many thousands of devices out in the field that are 3-4 years old. However, if you do encounter this problem we will fix it for free even if your device is not under warranty. All you will have to cover is the freight to the nearest service center; we will cover the return freight. I think it fair if we honor any repairs of this nature for up to two years outside of warranty.

To be honest – I have tormented my Meazura heavily in the last year, and so did many of my comrades – dropping, gaming, SrcEdit usage – the full tank of sewage straight over the poor Meazura’s head…and it still works very well. Comparing that to Palm’s power button catastrophes, one can really see that Aceeca stands behind its customers.

Palm really could learn a LOT from these boys…

P.s. More on the Treo 700p fiasco later on(I start to grow tired of it)…they managed to bork up the Sprint Desktop installer, too…

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 3:14 am

TamsPalm exclusive: The Resco Backup Pro beta

Palm News, Software News No Responses »
Aug 182007

TamsPalm readers were among the first to hear about the new features in the upcoming versions of Resco backup in July – in case you missed the article, here it comes again:
http://tamspalm.tamoggemon.com/2007/07/13/news-from-the-resco-backup-front/

Anyways, Jan Slodicka has provided us with an exclusive beta of Resco Backup Pro for Palm OS – it adds the following features to Resco Backup v2.01(emphasis by me):

FTP
—

In short, the users can exchange the backup sets with selected FTP server.
This can be done either manually or as part of the scheduled backup.

Free DriveHQ.com accounts
Every user can make use of a free FTP account at the FTP hosting service www.DriveHQ.com.
This account includes 1GB storage and 1 GB download/month and can be used with Resco Explorer or desktop ftp clients.

Secure FTP login
SSL login is supported. (Means your user name and login are transferred via safe lines.)
RscBackup always attempts secure login and if it is not supported, the standard plaintext login follows.
You can disallow fallback plaintext login in the FTP setup dialog.
Condition for using secure login:
- Your FTP server must have this ability. (Ask if it supports AUTH command with the parameter ‘TLS’.)
- Your handheld must support SSL transfer. (In other words https links in Blazer.)

FTP features:
- Minimized data traffic: FTP upload transfers just changed files
- Robustness: RscBackup reliably recognizes transfer failures
- The user is notified about the scheduler FTP failure

FTP sets dialog:
Displays both local and remote backup sets as indicated by the icons.
I.e. each row represents a backup set that is either local, remote or both – i.e. local set copied to FTP.
The dialog allows for upload/download, but also for:
- Diff (fast check against a backup set description file)
- Update (Copies only the modified files)

AES encryption
————–

RscBackup Pro supports (besides of the zip encryption) also strong 128-bit AES encryption.

Compatibility:
AES implementation is WinZip compatible. This means the zip archives creating a backup set
can be opened in WinZip. (After you copy them to a PC, of course.)

Settings:
To switch on the encryption – setup the password in the Project setup.
Further encryption-related settings are accessible from Project setup Advanced settings:
- ‘Strong encryption (AES)’ specifies encryption type: zip- or AES-encryption.
- ‘Encrypt known files’: Public data (e.g. applications downloadable >from the web) need not
be encrypted. It is faster so and even safer.
- Full compatibility requires switching on Crc computation.

AES processing brings speed penalty:
Typical backup will slow down by 50% (if known files are not encrypted) and impact on the
Verify procedure is even larger.

Other changes
————-

(These changes will be ported also to the standard Resco Backup.)

Backup sets dialog:
- Modified design (less used features are under the combo box Actions)
- Possibility to assign icons and notes
- First line of the notes – when nonempty – is displayed in place of the date
- Backup set error state (e.g. interrupted due to card problem or crash) is marked by color
- A backup set can be pinned. This means the backup set is taken out >from the scheduler
update mechanism (scheduler performs cyclic update of a given number of backup sets), i.e.
such backup set can be updated only manually.

Other news
- DateBK plugin
- Scheduler: Disallow if battery is weak (set the threshold in the scheduler options)
- Partial restore starts with all files unselected
- Restore preserves original DB dates

The beta can be downloaded here.

I did a swift check on my Treo 680 and feel that the program works very well – if you find out about any issues, either shoot me a line at Tamog@gmx.at or just post it here…the Resco boys read TamsPalm frequently!

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 7:14 pm

Why Brando doesn’t include PSU’s with its cardles

Palm News No Responses »
Aug 172007

TamsPalm has reviewed Brando’s cradles multiple times in the past – and always wondered why the cradles had a port for a power supply(wall wart), but never shipped with one. In fact, Brando didn’t even offer one – strange…

Our author Oliver Leibenguth has now found out why…the cradle’s internal circuitry connects the PSU directly to the 5V lane of the USB port of the PC. Thus, when the PC is turned off, the cradle “feeds” power into the PC(this is not confirming to the USB standard). Oliver had two CPU failures before finding out about the error given above. German users have reported even more problems at Nexave’s:
http://www.nexave.de/forum/thread.php?threadid=29278

For me, Brando’s cradles always worked very well WITHOUT the PSU on a variety of machines including a Medion workstation and an Acer laptop – so, unplug those wallwarts in case you managed to find one!

P.s. We forwarded this to Brando’s and currently expect a reply!

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 11:52 pm

Philippines-only Treo 680 SMS update

Palm News No Responses »
Aug 172007

Someone at palm’s apparently likes philippinian Treo 680 users – according to the German Nexave forum, a SMS patch was released for them yesterday. And indeed, as of now, the patch can be downloaded for free from here:
http://www.palm.com/ph/support/downloads/treo/680smsupdate.html

Nexave users did not report any differences – if you know what this update does, please let us know asap!

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 5:52 pm

Palm announces Centro Smartphone – what it really is…

Editorials, Palm News 2 Responses »
Aug 172007

After a long trail of “gandolfini” rumors and posts, the PIC now received confirmation that a new smartphone called Centro is due in fall. It is EVDO-based, will run on Sprint, is Palm OS powered and HAS a touchscreen and a keyboard. It is said to be targeted at people new to the smartphone space”…ok, so we have the Gandolfini confirmed(and it ISNT a Treo:-))…

Interestingly, Paul Loeffler also stated that:

…there is a “bigger story” behind the Centro which will be revealed closer to the product release date…

If you ask me, the Centro is the device that Jeff Hawkins hinted at in CNET’s Foleo interview(page 2):

tradeoffs. Well, if I have something with a bigger screen and a keyboard–whether it looks like this (Foleo) or something else–where I can view and manipulate data, does it change how I design this guy (pointing to Treo)? Yes.

So, maybe a Treo without a keyboard?
That’s an example. I’m not saying we are doing that. But it’s much deeper than that and I don’t want to say what those deeper things are. It’s not just about e-mail. All you have to remember is you’ve got this thing in your pocket (smart phone) which has got a high-speed Internet connection and huge amounts of memory, just imagine huge, assume almost unlimited at some point in time. Now, what do I do with that data? I can assume this thing is relating to other objects in the world. I have to just leave you with that as a teaser. It frees up some of the constraints you’re living with when you’re trying to design one of these guys (Treo).

Essentially, I expect that the Centro will NOT be a member of the Treo line, but rather, a device with a “dual purpose”. Firstly, it is aimed at teenies and soccer moms who want a phone that’s a bit smarter than their average Nokia S60 phone, but not as heavy and big as a Treo.

Secondarily, however, it will be aimed at Foleo owners and will provide their Foleo with always-on internet access, acting as the “center” of their “digital world. The focus wont be on high performance or stand-alone capability(like with a Treo) – here, the focus will be to act as a “smart USB stick” for the Foleo… This explains the smaller keyboard and keys – if you want to enter large amounts of data or look at images, you just open up the Foleo and use its rather big screen. For entering a short SMS, however, the Centro’s tiny QWERTY keyboard is more than big enough…millions of teens manage T9/Multitap keyboards every day.

An existing Treo owner without a Foleo probably won’t want to upgrade…but as already said before, we aren’t the devices intended audience…

What do you expect?

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 5:14 pm

SplashID 4.03 review – Brand New Ways to Protect Your Data

Productivity, Security, Software reviews 3 Responses »
Aug 152007

SplashData has recently updated their password manager to version 4.03. The new version of SplashID introduces a number of new features, including:

  • Enhanced Security
  • Web AutoFill (In the Windows version)
  • The ability to synchronize multiple SplashID databases
  • Enhanced Lookup Feature
  • The ability to e-mail securely encrypted SplashID records
  • The ability to add additional standalone desktop users
  • Updated Icon set (with the ability to add custom icon sets)
  • 100% Vista Compatible

So, why, should you use SplashID over, for instance, SmartList To Go? SplashID can not only be used as a Password Manager, but also as a secure way to store other tidbits of information, such as contacts, and small notes that you would like to keep separate from your normal data set. For example, my application registration keys now exist in SplashID, rather than an unencrypted Pilot-DB database:
SplashID 4.03 Reviewed html 550eff42 SplashID 4.03 review – Brand New Ways to Protect Your Data

When you first start up SplashID, you are greeted with this rather foreboding password screen:
SplashID 4.03 Reviewed html 7e35d6dd SplashID 4.03 review – Brand New Ways to Protect Your Data

After 10 tries, you are locked out of the application and your database is erased. This prevents password cracking programs that may rely on a Brute Force Password Cracking Technique (yes, I have seen applications like this in the wild, running directly on the device…)
SplashID 4.03 Reviewed html 4ceaec8 SplashID 4.03 review – Brand New Ways to Protect Your Data

As I said before, SplashID has plenty of uses outside of a password manager; Even from the first instance you start it up, you know that there are plenty:
SplashID 4.03 Reviewed html m1536e2f1 SplashID 4.03 review – Brand New Ways to Protect Your Data

One of the features that I saw very interesting was a view called List View. As implied, List View presents you a tree that you can use to view records by categories, type, etc. Pretty cool, imho:
SplashID 4.03 Reviewed html m4946ea2c SplashID 4.03 review – Brand New Ways to Protect Your Data

So, if you have a bunch of data sitting in an unsecured database, or you have a snoopy relative, or you are just plain paranoid, SplashID is a wonderful application to keep your data safe! This review covers version 4.03 of SplashID, which can be purchased for 29.95$ at the TamsShop, however, previously registered users can snag this wonderful application at 9.95$

Posted by Ryan Rix, Vice Administrator at 10:55 pm

C gotchas for free: CERT C Programming Language Secure Coding Standard

Miscellaneous, Sample code No Responses »
Aug 132007

While googling for something more-less unrelated, I stumbled upon this link which really is worth its price in gold:
https://www.securecoding.cert.org/confluence/display/seccode/CERT+C+Programming+Language+Secure+Coding+Standard

To cut a long story short, the CERT has posted a list of common C gotchas there. No, not the kind of gotchas you can find in a beginner’s book…but real gotchas from everyday development/porting work.

Take a look by all means…and plucker it if you feel like it!

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 9:05 pm

Treo 700p whac-a-mole – Verizon update offline again

Editorials, Funny Stuff 2 Responses »
Aug 122007

Apparently, Palm’s employees still haven’t completely satisfied their lust for Treo 700p update whac-a-mole! Verizon’s version has just been pulled once again because of “of increasing customer reports of network connectivity issues following the updates”.

(sarcasm on – you know who we talk about)
Senior Urp Burp management has been seen hitting Eeker 900f’s with over-sized, furry rubber spoons all over Urp Burp’s office; celebrating that their developers have managed to bork up the Eeker 900f maintenance release once again.

Urp Burp expects that the permanent borkups with the eeker 900f will lead to significantly increased sales of the new Eeker 955f – a device that offers only minimal improvements over its predecessor and has been difficult to sell to new customers after the arrival of the Apple iPhone.
(sarcasm off)

Let’s be honest: there is a pattern behind this, folks. It could be very possible that Palm is borking up the maintenance releases on purpose in order to increase sell-through for the Treo 755p. In fact, this is entirely possible – what does the Treo 755p offer that makes it worth 300$ to a 700p user(let’s ignore the form factor for now)?

Incompetence could of course be a reason, too – but why has Palm then managed to release a rather well-working Treo 755p?

What do you think?

P.S. I wouldn’t wonder if carriers start to “upgrade” their customers to 755p’s for a nominal fee to keep them happy…
P.S.2 I guess that you now know why Palm won’t use ALP. Yes…customers could switch to another manufacturer easily after such a borkup…without leaving all their old software behind. If HP would bork around with my ipaq as much as Palm did with the 700p – I’d just get a box from somewhere else!

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 1:34 pm

Aceeca Meazura goes Windows Mobile – is this the end of Palm OS Meazuras?

Palm News No Responses »
Aug 112007

Aceeca, the maker of the ever-popular Meazura rugged PDA, has just released a newsletter containing information about two new upcoming Windows Mobile/Linux devices with color screens and ARM processors. Our sister site TamsPPC has all the news and a first picture – more will be posted there soon(we WILL get a sample):
http://tamsppc.tamoggemon.com/2007/08/11/meazura-goes-windows-mobile/

Anyways, Palm OS developers, fear not – the MEZ1000 we all know, love and review will not go away. Aceeca will continue to produce it and in fact will even release source code samples, as stated below(from official newsletter – for full text, see above):

Firstly, please be assured that the new devices are NOT replacements for the existing MEZ1000. Our reliable, low cost, long battery run time, Palm OS4 based MEZ1000, continues to satisfy the requirements of an expanding customer base. It’s a very healthy market. Long live the MEZ1000!

Secondly, developers are Aceeca’s lifeblood. Aceeca will continue to provide as much assistance as possible to ensure the ongoing creation of successful Meazura based solutions.

To further assist and encourage developers, we will be releasing significant amounts of source code for our software over the coming weeks, e.g. the Wedge. The release of the source code will commence as soon as we resolve licensing issues that will enable us to provide the code without compromising our intellectual property. Sorry, but we can’t give you the source code for Palm OS 4 as it does not belong to us!

I personally know people all over Aceeca and can reassure you that the MEZ1000 is not dead at all! We will keep you posted!

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 5:08 pm

Urgent PSA: SplashBlog going DOWN

Palm News 2 Responses »
Aug 092007

This could be very important for all users of SplashBlog, a photo-sharing application for Treo smartphones.

According to www.splashblog.com, the service will go down on the 10th! All images contained in the blogs will then be destroyed irrecoverably. The only way to save your pictures is to log into www.splashblog.com and download all photos. The developer of SplashBlog has promised to send out an email to all customers soon with informations on where the images can be uploaded!

Get the full scoop here:
http://www.splashblog.com/index.aspx

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 9:49 pm

TamsPalm exclusive: thumbboard DA version 1.10

Palm News, Software News 5 Responses »
Aug 092007

Peter Thorstenson, the author of thumbboardDA and the famous tejpWriter has just informed us about the imminent release of a new version of thumbboardDA. To cut a long story short, here’s the “announcement”:

==================================
thumbboardDA 1.10

Release Notes

A lot of work has been put into this release as bugfixes, memory optimization to make it more stable, reliable, and faster.

Examples of improvements:

•Handling of forms popping up on top of thumbboardDA.
•Field size sensing, eliminating field size overshooting.
•Launching a second time, closes thumbboardDA making it possible for TealLaunch users to open and close thumbboardDA with the same hard button.

Enjoy!
Peter Thorstenson
===================================

A quick test on my Palm TX has shown that the memory leak is gone – entering very long messages now works very well. The program still feels very fast.

Last but not least, the beta itself can be downloaded here.

P.s. Looking for a good, free DA launcher? Use DALauncher from SimplePalm’s to launch the on-screen keyboard with a command stroke(turn on-screen graffiti off!!).

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 3:22 pm

Access announces ALP “demo board”

Palm News 4 Responses »
Aug 082007

TamsPalm reader Alphasmartuser has just made us aware of this very interesting press release from Access, the owner of PalmSource and the developer of the Access Linux Platform:

ACCESS Announces Turnkey Mobile Evaluation Kit

LinuxWorld Conference & Expo, San Francisco, CA, August 7, 2007 – ACCESS™ CO., LTD. today announced the availability of a mobile Linux evaluation kit based on the ACCESS Linux Platform™ and optimized for the Marvell® PXA30x and PXA31x application processors. The evaluation kit will make it easy for OEMs, ODMs and mobile operators to evaluate the benefits of the ACCESS Linux Platform and native Linux applications for future mobile devices. The kit offers a complete solution with a full suite of mobile applications, including multimedia and messaging.

The pre-integration and optimization of the ACCESS Linux Platform for the Marvell application processors make it possible to evaluate the kit on a real form factor without worrying about low-level system integration. Customers can focus their investment on the level of customization they need to target a variety of markets with their future products.

“Today, customers are looking for turnkey solutions to reduce time to market and at the same time, the flexibility to differentiate their products,” said Toru Arakawa, ACCESS CEO, president and co-founder. “Marvell’s scalable, high-performance PXA3xx processors, running the ACCESS Linux Platform evaluation kit, provide a turnkey solution that integrates the technology our customers need to create exciting native Linux applications and devices without compromising on performance and usability.”

The Marvell PXA3xx family of application processors (internally named Monahans) with Intel® XScale technology was designed for industry leading power/performance features and a broad roadmap that is architecturally consistent for maximum software re-use. Marvell silicon provides the headroom for advanced applications with intelligent power management allowing manufacturers to differentiate current and future offerings.

“Marvell’s PXA3xx family of application processors brings exceptional performance and integration to low-power applications. Through our work with ACCESS, customers can benefit from the rapid advances in the mobile Linux environment to more efficiently develop devices that address a variety of markets with ultra low power, high performance, innovative products,” said Sam Arditi, senior vice president and general manager for Marvell’s Cellular and Handheld Group.

The ACCESS Linux Platform is an industry leading, integrated, commercial-grade Linux®-based platform designed for smartphones and converged mobile devices. The ACCESS Linux Platform is designed to provide handset and device manufacturers, operators and application developers with an open, extensible platform to develop, distribute and enhance a wide variety of mobile phones and converged devices. Because the ACCESS Linux Platform includes three runtime environments, it represents an attractive opportunity for third-party developers who can create applications that are ACCESS Linux Platform native, Garnet OS (previously known as Palm OS) native or Java™ native.

The Product Development Kit (PDK) for the ACCESS Linux Platform was made available to licensees in February 2007.
……

from here.

To cut a long story short…this means that developers can soon get their hands onto hardware running ALP. Yes, they won’t get PDA’s – but they can have evaluation boards for software development.

TamsPalm is currently attempting to get one of those from Access – let’s see what can be done!

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 8:28 pm

Palm has Treo 800p clip removed from YouTube – confirmation, step m of n

Palm News 1 Response »
Aug 082007

Our comrades at PalmInfoCenter’s have just received another confirmation of the Treo 800p…namely, a short video clip of the device. It was available here…emphasis is on WAS. Palm has already had the clip removed from Youtube…

For me, this is yet another tell-tale sign that the 800p is real. First the photos, then the insider confirmation, and now the pulled video. However, news services apparently don’t have access to the devices yet – otherwise, they would already stop reporting about further rumors.

Something similar has happened in the past with the Palm Tungsten E2… . As always, rest assured that the TamsPalm team will NOT accept a STFU pill and will keep reporting rumors until the release date!

P.s. If you have any news to share on the Treo 800p – send them in to Tamog@gmx.at! Your privacy is our obligation of honor!

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 8:06 pm

The Palm Treo 800 series – officially confirmed

Palm News 7 Responses »
Aug 052007

I have just received information from a credible source that the Treo 800 series is indeed genuine. To quote him:

From Palm…there is little new coming from them except the Treo 800p…of course. But all the important data has already been spilt onto the internet…so there is not much to add.

Inside Palm, I feel that the PalmOS-based Treo series has come to an end with their 800p – probably, no new devices will follow. All energy has been focussed on their Linux OS…

While the TamsPalm team cannot disclose the source of information, it is almost 100% secure. The Treo 800p is coming…the only question is when!

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 11:43 pm
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