2008 May » TamsPalm - the Palm OS / web OS Blog

Palm Centro interview – DataViz speaks up

May 202008

The folks at DataViz’s have not made too much of a splash in the last few years – yet their (excellent) products have managed to sneak into almost every Palm OS device. Today, we have DataViz’s Jenn Figueroa speaking up on the Centro, on their relationship to palm, and a variety of other interesting topics. Enjoy!

Please tell us more about you and your company
The company is recognized as an industry leader in developing and marketing Office compatibility and productivity solutions across a variety of platforms including BlackBerry, Java®, Linux, Palm OS®, Symbian OS™, Windows Mobile®, Windows® and Macintosh®. Founded in 1984, DataViz began its business developing file conversion software between Windows and Macintosh computers. In the late 1990’s the company expanded its expertise to providing solutions that meet the increasing demands of the handheld and mobile markets.
DataViz Logo LoRes Palm Centro interview DataViz speaks up

Now in our 25th year of buisness the company has two outstanding and award wining mobile office software solutions that enable users to mobilize “Microsoft Office” wherever they go.
The solutions include Documents To Go to view, edit and create Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files and the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync client, RoadSync.

DataViz partners include RIM, Palm®, Motorola®, Microsoft®, Sony Ericsson®, and other industry leaders.

Have you already handled a Centro yourself? If yes, how do you feel about it. If not, why not!
No. Personally I have not. We have a limited amount of devices in house. Those devices are currently being used for testing and development. Working in PR, I do not have access to those devices.
jenn figueroa Palm Centro interview DataViz speaks up

Do you feel like the Centro could become a mayor source of income for developers given the target demographics?
Yes the Centro has the potential to succeed on a much larger scale in the mobile market, branching away from the traditional enterprise market to now reach the consumer market. With a low cost price point the Centro makes it affordable to purchase a smartphone. Nearly 75% of these users are new to the smarphone market and there are twice as many women purchasing the device.

Have you seen users migrating to the Centro from other devices? If yes, which were the most affected? Would you migrate yourself?
I don’t have this information. But I do know that those who purchase a Centro are new to the smartphone market.
Nearly 75%. Yes I would migrate myself. It’s a great price point and it has all the essential tools to make it an ideal smartphone.

Do you think that the Centro’s camera is good enough?
Sorry I can not answer this question as I have not used the device and have nothing to compare it to.

Has Palm done a good job helping developers to get their apps Centro-ready before release?
Palm has always been very helpful, but we are a slightly different case than most developers in that we are bundled on their devices. Because Documents To Go is included on all Palm devices, we have to be device ready long before devices are released into the market. This way Documents To Go can be included in Palm’s device testing, and this means that we tend to get information a bit earlier than the general developer community.

Have you experienced technical issues porting your apps to the Centro? If yes, of what kind have they been?
We did not experience any significant Centro specific issues during our last product release. Most development was actually done with non-Centro Palm devices, although our testing team focused on using Centro devices. In fact, Palm took an off-the-shelf version of Documents To Go to bundle on the device.

Which device do you currently use yourself(and why)?
I am currently carrying a Palm Treo 755p which I love. The Qwerty keyboard enables me to efficiently work on my business documents when I’m out of the office.
In addition our DataViz employees carry a wide variety of handsets. They carry those that encompass the mobile platforms we develop for such as Symbian UIQ, S80, and S60, Windows Mobile, Palm, Java and BlackBerry. By actively using devices based on these platforms it enables us as a company to stay in touch with our marketing and development efforts.

Feel like giving us a sneek peak at your upcoming apps which are optimized for Centro?
We don’t have any new and upcoming apps for the Centro. What I would like to mention I that every Centro comes pre-loaded with Document s To Go Professional Edition right out of the box. Customer who purchase a Palm centro will be able to view, edit and create Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. We do offer a paid upgrade to Documents To Go Premium edition 10 which includes support for the following. To Learn more visit: www.dataviz.com/centro
• Upgrade to Documents To Go Premium Edition version 10.0 for only $29.99!
Feature Enhancements included in this upgrade:
o Spell Check word processing files
o Open Password Protected Word & Excel files (Office 97-2003 only)
o Support for Excel Charts & Charting
o Suport for Pictures/Graphics (JPG & BMP)

LightSpeed 3.1 released

Software News No Responses »

May 192008

LightSpeed has been reviewed on TamsPalm some time ago – it did an excellent job overclocking my Treo 680 back then.
banner w LightSpeed 3.1 released

Jonatan Fernstad has now informed me of an update improving the following:

Performance optimizations in the code that changes the CPU speed. Changing the CPU speed now takes considerably less time!
User preference added which decides action taken at device wakeup.
GUI updated for Zire31, Z21 and Z22 devices.
Minor device specific changes related to icon drawing in the list of applications.

As always, the program is available for approximately 20$ from www.clievideo.com. However, the app currently is on special offer for an undetermined time span – it costs just 15$ atm.

Cutting a long story short: if your Treo is too slow for you, get this program immediately. Speed-ups of up to 100% are possible!

Palm Zeppelin – first real-life shot

Palm News No Responses »

May 172008

Now that the developer program for the Palm Zeppelin(powered by Windows Mobile) has begun, keeping the lid on any potential leaks is becoming more and more difficult. The folks at Shadowmite’s Treo web site somehow managed to get their hands on this pic(it seems to be gone by now):
palm treo 800 prototype Palm Zeppelin first real life shot

Please visit our sister site TamsPPC for a list of tentative specs…

Palm Centro interview – Radoslaw Nowak from RNS::

Interviews, Uncategorized No Responses »

May 172008

Resco’s Jan Slodicka debuted the Centro Interview series with an excellent article full of useful info. Now, it’s time to hand the word over to Radoslaw Nowak from RNS:: – let’s see what he has to say!

Please tell us more about you and your company
My name is Radoslaw Nowak, and I live in Krakow, Poland. I’ve been programming for over 10 years now, and I focused on Palm software development in 2001. Soon after that, I established my own company, RNS:: which now offers over 50 freeware and shareware products for Palm OS, including 15 created especially for Treo and Centro.

Our first notable success started in late 2003 with the release of Hi-Launcher, followed by the success of TopSelecText (formerly known as TreoSelecText) developed on request of Treo communities on various forums. These products are still our leading titles, perfectly integrating with the latest devices, including Palm Centro.

For the visitors of our website, it can be easily noticable that we focused on Treo/Centro software development in recent years. This has helped us remain in the mainstream of the Palm OS software developement market, and allowed us to continue creating software for you!

Have you already handled a Centro yourself? If yes, how do you feel about it. If not, why not!
Centro is a funny smartphone. Technically it does not differ much from previous models, while the outer look does. It was designed to be as simple as possible to attract new customers. Because of these 2 facts, I don’t think I’ll have my own Centro ever – I can test my software on previous models and the way Centro looks does not appeal to me.

Yes, I handled a Centro… for half an hour or so

Do you feel like the Centro could become a mayor source of income for developers given the target demographics?
Perhaps. I’ve seen the statistics you mentioned, but I’d be more optimistic about them

For example one of my software, Butterfly, has always been targeted to similar demographic targets, and now it’s in the limelight again!

Have you seen users migrating to the Centro from other devices? If yes, which were the most affected? Would you migrate yourself?
Not really. We all know that users tend to migrate to other platforms nowadays. As I already said, I’m not planning to have my own Centro. I still like my Treo 680

Do you think that the Centro’s camera is good enough?
As for a mobile phone – yes. However there still remains the same poor user interface as in Treos a few years ago, so it needs third-party software to become useful. Yes, my company offers one of such titles, too…

Has Palm done a good job helping developers to get their apps Centro-ready before release?
Did they have to do anything? It was good enough to announce the new button layout – all the rest remained unchanged since Treo 755p and Treo 680.

Have you experienced technical issues porting your apps to the Centro? If yes, of what kind have they been?
Well, perhaps the difference between the GSM and CDMA Centro was confusing for me at the beginning. The former is similar to Treo 680 while the latter to Treo 755p. At first I thought that – as with previous models – they don’t differ that much.

Which device do you currently use yourself?
I use Treo 680. I am still loyal to the Palm platform, and I don’t find any better device they produced so far… I switched to Treo 680 from Treo 600 because of various new features like high screen resolution, Bluetooth, smaller form factor… Today new Palm devices are not that innovative.

Feel like giving us a sneek peak at your upcoming apps which are optimized for Centro(emphasis on Centro optimizations, please)?
This question is tricky If Centro is so much similar to previous models, how can the optimizations be made especially especially (sic!) for Centro? I’ve already optimized all my applications for Centro. The last one was TopAreaCodes, whose new version was released last week, as it became compatible with the GSM version of Palm Centro. All my Centro-optimized titles are included in RNS:: Phone Tools Pack offered at a reduced price.

Anything you’d like to add?
As you see, I have mixed feelings about Palm Centro. Sometimes all that hardware developer needs is a sneek peak at the competitors’ products to get the idea of what to produce. Palm needs this. That’s good that they continue to release new devices but I think we’re all waiting for something that can really be called NEW.

Palm Centro interview – Jan Slodicka from Resco

Interviews, Uncategorized 7 Responses »

May 122008

Now that the Centro review is over, it’s time to ask developers about their Centro-related feelings. Ever-talkative Jan Slodicka from Resco was willing to share his knowledge and feelings with you – tune in for an interesting look at the Centro’s effects on software sales!

Please tell us more about you and your company
Hi Tam, first – thank you for the pleasure of being interviewed by one of the top Palm OS bloggers.
Some of your readers will know my name and even more of them will have some association when hearing the name Resco. Well, it’s primarily a PPC company, but we have created also couple of Palm OS titles that have a broad audience. Resco Explorer, Viewer, Backup and other titles are all leaders in their respective category. Plus there is attractively priced Resco Suite – the all-in-one package. (Old Resco users have interesting discounts).

Have you already handled a Centro yourself? If yes, how do you feel about it. If not, why not!
Unfortunately, I did not. First of all we have a lot of Palm devices in-house and as far the Palm OS modifications are concerned, Centro should behave more or less identically to the latest Treo models. Hence I don’t feel a real need.

Do you feel like the Centro could become a mayor source of income for developers given the target demographics
That’s the main problem – the user demographics. Centro sells wonderfully and acc. to the specs it is a very good PDA. Unfortunately, we do not see corresponding impact on the sales.

To tell the truth, Centro ranks as the device #3 in our sales stats after Palm TX and Treo 755p and more or less on the same level as other newer Treo models – T680 and T700p. But since the Centro is the top-selling Palm handheld…

Acc. to Palm 95% Centro users get a data plan, i.e. they buy the relatively cheap locked version. These users will hardly buy software.

Have you seen users migrating to the Centro from other devices? If yes, which were the most affected? Would you migrate yourself?
I got occasional user reports of such migration. Of course – the old Resco users asking for a new registration. But I can’t judge if there is any trend.

I would migrate – if my old device stopped working. Of course – unless we decided to say farewell to the Palm OS programming.

Do you think that the Centro’s camera is good enough?
I am no big photoshooter. (Despite we created an excellent photo viewer – added by yours truly). I take pictures a few times a year and then my requirements are higher. In other words – nothing for me.
polysend Palm Centro interview Jan Slodicka from Resco

Has Palm done a good job helping developers to get their apps Centro-ready before release?
Was there any such action? And was there any need for it? The OS is the same since years and there are only very few things where you would do something Centro-specific. For example all our titles have just one Centro-dependent thing – reaction to the Home button. (I apologize to Resco News users that the promised patch was not yet released – it is ready and will hit the road soon).

Have you experienced technical issues porting your apps to the Centro? If yes, of what kind have they been?
Partially answered above. But it is basically the same as for other new Treo
models: For example if the Explorer user opens an html file in the Blazer, then the Home button needs to be handled specifically.

One small thing is the run-time device recognition. Palm broke the rules applied to the last Treo models. (I mean companyID and deviceID.) If they went the old way, there would be no need to patch our apps.

Which device do you currently use yourself(and why)?
I am still a Treo 650 user. It fits to my needs and I am a bit lazy to change the device if there is no real need.

Feel like giving us a sneek peak at your upcoming apps which are optimized for Centro?
If you tell me some substantial difference, we could consider it. Maybe the point is that the Centro apps should be designed differently – with stress on UI rather than on the functionality. This isn’t the best message for us as our apps always tried to be the leaders in functionality.

We were thinking of adding for example sweeps to the Viewer, but I would like to first see that Centro really starts selling software.

Anything you’d like to add?
Thanks for running this great blog.

Palm Centro unlocked GSM review – the verdict

Hardware Reviews No Responses »

May 092008

After a few delays, the editorial part of our Centro review has finally come to an end. In case anyone of you missed any parts, here’s a quick overview:
Centro unlocked GSM review – unboxing
Centro unlocked GSM review – physical
Centro unlocked GSM review – size
Centro unlocked GSM review – screen
Centro unlocked GSM review – system and performance
Centro unlocked GSM review – camera

The overall review was rather negative…even though the box is said to sell by the cartload. How does that go together?

I personally thank everyone who talked back about how he was happy with his Centro – comments are what keeps sites such as this one alive. However, I still stick don’t like the box…read on to find out more.

Palm’s Centro sells very well…to teenagers, soccer moms and other people who aren’t interested in the technology behind phones. For them, the Centro is interesting because of the keyboard that speeds up typing – any everything else is in the lands of dragons.

For them, the Centro is ideal. However, for people who really stress their handheld with things like video playback, spreadsheets, PDF’s,.. – the device IMHO is too small. People who currently have a Treo should carefully evaluate the Centro’s size – as sweet as the small size may appear, as annoying it becomes when using the box for an extended period of time.

The Centro definitely is a great device – but it’s not a great device for a power user like me. And this is what I tried to express in the review…not more, not less…

But this isn’t the end of our Centro coverage – stay tuned for a bunch of interviews with leading developers!

Palm’s list prices set to become realistic

Licensees 3 Responses »

May 092008

Palm has recently announced that it plans to end it’s “Minimum Advertised Price(MAP)” policy effective June the 1st. Cutting a long story short, an MEP is a manufacturer’s policy that aims to hinder retailers to sell devices at price points lower than a specific point(to prevent price battles).

Apparently, the orange folks never did too good a job at enforcing their policy – all recently-released Palm devices have fallen significantly below the list price very quickly.

Seeing Palm give up this policy is great from my point of view – it shows that the orange folks finally start to understand that they are not Apple(even though they have many ex-Apple employees ). Having list prices that are sky-high and rock-bottom over-the-counter prices(sometimes as little as 50% of the official MSRP) is a very bad sign IMHO…and seeing Palm understand this definitely is a step in the right direction…

Blue Palm Zire – blowout@Expansys.at

Miscellaneous No Responses »

May 082008

The Austrian branch of Expansys currently does a blowout on b-stock of a special edition of the original
Palm Zire(the DragonBall-powered one):
0 Blue Palm Zire blowout@Expansys.at

In case anyone of you still needs such a box for his PDA collection, it can be had for 23€ via this web site…

P.S. In case you do get your hands on one: PLEASE send me a few pics!

Sprint plans new TV ad for Centro

Palm News No Responses »

May 082008

Long gone are the days of Palm’s classic TV ads(anyone remember the one for the Palm V). Nevertheless, sometimes, a carrier helps Palm’s products to get on TV – and Sprint apparently plans to do just that!

The folks at BrightHand’s managed to get their hands on a film that they claim is made by ad agency Stardust and that shows the Centro – unfortunately, the film currently does not play on my workstation(all I can see are a few images of a Centro surfing the web).

In case anyone of you wants to take a look, please give them a click here and scroll to the bottom of the page…

Proporta Advanced Screen Protector for Treo 680 – the review

Hardware Reviews 2 Responses »

May 072008

Over the years, two types of screen protectors have been developed: reflecting and non-reflecting ones. Like with laptop screens, reflecting(glossy) screens offer better contrast, while matte screens are better outdoors. Unlike most other manufacturers, Proporta never entered the market for glossy screen protectors – can their matte offering stack up?

The screen protector ships in a huge blister inside of Proporta’s standard envelope:

Proporta included a special screen cleaning cloth, the protector and an application card:

Applying the screen protector is rather easy: first, the the old protector is removed. After that, the screen is given a good rubbing with the orange side of the cloth – the final step involves gluing the protector onto the screen and hoping that no dust was captured(I didn’t have such luck).

Once the protector is on the device, the screen’s reflecting properties change. Reflections are gone for good;the maximum contrast and brightness sink by approximately 5 to 10%. However, the lack of reflections significantly improves outdoor usability – look at the images below for a quick comparison:

In the end, the Proporta Advanced Screen Protector definitely is worth having; as it significantly improves the outdoor readability of the Treo’s screen(less glare). If you have a Treo and use it outdoors, definitely get this 10$ thingy….you’ll not regret it!

Palm Centro unlocked GSM review – camera

Hardware Reviews, Uncategorized 4 Responses »

May 072008

Sorry, had a specs slip-up here. The Centro’s cam is 1.3MP, not 2MP. Thanks for all who pointed this out!
Palm’s phones never were famous for their imaging capabilities – in fact, the Treo 600 was almost universally loathed due to its gruesomely bad VGA “noiseograph”…but nobody really cares about the camera on a business smartphone anyways. Palm’s Centro is targeted at consumers who do care about cams…is it worth it?

The Centro’s camera has a native resolution of 1.3MP, which leads to 1200×1024 images. The lens is a classic fixed one(no autofocus here); and don’t even ask about a flash LED.

Here are a few sample images from the Centro’s cam – click on the icons to see them in their native size.

As for the 2x digital zoom – its effect is illustrated in these indoor pictures:

In the end, the image quality of the Centro’s cam won’t make anybody happy – Palm definitely wasted money on the ad in the JPG photography magazine. Yep…the Centro does make better pictures than a 680…but other boxen remain miles ahead.

Stay tuned for your final verdict and an interview series with leading developers!

Asus silently reduces eee battery capacity

Palm News 3 Responses »

May 072008

The German c’t magazine reports that Asus has begun to replace the 5200mAh battery in its eee device with a smaller battery having a capacvity of just 4400mAh. This is said to reduce the endurance to 2.8h from 3.3h – Asus claims that the reduction is due to a fire at its battery supplier LG Chemicals(ever heard about second sourcing, folks?).

Anyways, the c’t claims that the outside of device’s boxen are not altered in any way – while some may call that an oversight, I feel that this smells a bit like wilful deception and fits well into the overall picture of a company that can not handle its recent success…

P.S. I have not bothered to send this article to Asus for a comment – the folks in their German press department have proven themselves useless for any kind of productive cooperation multiple times in the past! I don’t want wine and food – I want devices and valuable content for you guys!

Opera Mini receives server-side update

Software News, Web browsers 1 Response »

May 072008

The folks at Opera’s have updated their Opera Mini browser once again. The latest update is said to bring the improvements shown below:

The Opera Mini 4 servers have been upgraded with quite a few improvements. To begin with the servers should now be nicer to phones that are low on available memory. but what we are are especially pleased with the new feed system and hope you will like it too:
* Improved feed (RSS/Atom) viewer to support for bidirectional text and layout. Oh, and it’s faster.
* Fixed bug with select items being wrongly positioned.
* Fixed problem with images in object tags not being rendered correctly.
* Made sure image maps gets rescaled to fit the screen width.
* Fixed problem with page being zoomed in when going to page which is in history.
* Fixed problem with some phones with little memory getting too many images.
* The server now prioritizes sending images at the top of the document if the phone’s too low on memory to display them all.

And for those of you using the 4.1 beta client:
* Downloading of files which require authentication now works (gmail etc).
* Redesigned the file download page.

Please let us know if you feel any changes on your Treo!

Palm Zeppelin and Skywriter enter launch process

Editorials, Emulation, Palm News 2 Responses »

May 062008

A Palm insider has given us access to information that definitely and finally confirms the existance of two Palm devices currently codenamed Zeppelin and Skywriter.

The document that we are looking at covers a developer program that allows Palm’s favorite developers to make their applications ready for the two new devices AND maybe even comarket them with Palm. All applications must be submitted by May the 30th – this could point at a launch of the device(s) in Q3 2008.

Last but not least, a mock-up of the devices has been included and can be viewed at our sister site TamsPPC along with a copy of the original text!

Older Entries Newer Entries

TamsPalm – the Palm OS / web OS Blog

Palm Centro interview – DataViz speaks up

LightSpeed 3.1 released

Palm Zeppelin – first real-life shot

Palm Centro interview – Radoslaw Nowak from RNS::

Palm Centro interview – Jan Slodicka from Resco

Palm Centro unlocked GSM review – the verdict

Palm’s list prices set to become realistic

Blue Palm Zire – blowout@Expansys.at

Sprint plans new TV ad for Centro

Proporta Advanced Screen Protector for Treo 680 – the review

Palm Centro unlocked GSM review – camera

Asus silently reduces eee battery capacity

Opera Mini receives server-side update

Palm Zeppelin and Skywriter enter launch process

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