2009 June » TamsPalm - the Palm OS / web OS Blog

Windows 7 drops October 22nd

Jun 042009

image 15 Windows 7 drops October 22nd Vista haters will be happy to read the lines below, which hit us via Xinhuanet:

… confirmed that Windows 7, the next version of its operating system, will hit stores on Oct. 22, in time for the holiday shopping season,
…
Microsoft said it plans to offer a guarantee program that would offer a free upgrade to Windows 7 for people who purchase computers installed with Windows Vista close to the launching date of Oct. 22, The Seattle Times newspaper reported on its website.
…

Even though I haven’t had any hands-on time with Windows 7 as of this writing, other Tamoggemon employees have had this pleasure and have described the operating system as “amazingly fast compared to Vista, and more featurerich than XP”…

Palm Pre – Pre-Launch sentiments 1/n

Interviews No Responses »

Jun 032009

Peter Shankman’s HARO service is extremely useful, as it allows bloggers to reach literally thousands of users with little effort. My query regarding Palm’s Pre has led to a torrential flood of email hitting my inbox – from now on, user opinions will be posted for your enjoyment frequently.

Our first “user” is Sam Dependahl from Jarvis Communications, who has some pretty interesting ideas:

I’m excited about the Pre. I actually check all of the blogs and search Google News every day for the updates. That being said, I will not be buying a Pre any time soon. For most of 2009 I was set on buying it the day it came out, but the more I thought about it, the less sense it actually made.

I have a Treo Pro which I absolutely love, and it doesn’t make sense to give it up for a new, unproven OS. Even if the Pre is as ground breaking as the reports, it will take a long time (if ever) before it has the apps to compete with the competition.

I think it might also have a bit of an identity crisis. I don’t think it will ever have the cool “it” factor of the iPhone, and will never be taken as seriously as RIM or WM for business users. I love Palm, and I really hope the Pre lives up to the hype. I’ll give it some time to prove itself in the market before I get one.

Keep in mind, I am not a tech expert and I’m not in the phone industry.

Classic for WebOS: next demo video

Palm News 2 Responses »

Jun 032009

MotionApps has just posted another video about the WebOS’s PalmOS emulation to its YouTube feed – the video shows Agendus, SplashShopper and Epocrates starting up and displaying a few forms each:

Of course, the really interesting bits still aren’t shown: MotionApps has – as of this writing – never demoed an application which fires alarms, and furthermore has not said anything about how the PIM data of the Pre will be synchronized with the PIM data held in applications like Agendus.

Now that Access is hell-bent on resuscitating its Palm OS franchise, I personally think that people interested in continuing to use existing Palm OS apps are better advised to get in touch with the A boys rather than get a Pre – but this is of course just my personal opinion.

Ideas, anyone?

On early Touchstone sales – or – Sprint is unprepared

Palm News 3 Responses »

Jun 032009

EverythingPre shared the picture below:
touchstone cover On early Touchstone sales or Sprint is unprepared

It was accompanied with the following story:

Forum member Artap99 managed to purchase a Palm Touchstone to go with soon-to-be purchased Palm Pre. His local Sprint Store charged just $49.99 after the customer representative quoted him the incorrect price.

As usual, the analyst community went batshit…not understanding the significance of what they just saw: we didn’t just see a Touchstone charger being sold, but we saw a Sprint employee proving total incompetence in all things Pre a few days before launch.

If this level of knowledge persists across Sprint stores (which is likely), the launch could quickly become a total fiasco/mayhem. Back to the drawing board, folks…

P.S. Palm has loads of experience with botched launches. Think Treo 680, Tungsten T3 and so on…

MSI introduces X-Slim X340

Hardware News No Responses »

Jun 032009

msi 07 MSI introduces X Slim X340 TechieLobang.com is fortunate, as he lives in Singapore – this gets him access to loads of cool events which are not held in Austria. An example is the one pictured on the left…it is MSI’s introduction of the X-Slim X340.

Long-term followers of the Tamoggemon Content Network probably know that I am a diehard MSI Wind U100 fan…and thus naturally am interested in a “larger and stronger” version.

According to Lobang, the X340 is just that:

Here are some of the shots that I have taken on the X340. Personally, I think that it is really light at 1.3kg. The thickest portion of the laptop is just 19.8mm and the thinnest is a mere 6mm!

Further information at the link above!

BrightHand – mindshare stats for May

Hardware News 2 Responses »

Jun 022009

BrightHand’s mindshare stats are one of the few benchmarks which tend to get published every month – they measure the interest exhibited by members of the mobile device forum, you guessed it, BrightHand.

The latest issue covers May – the rankings are as follows (figure in brackets=April’s rank):

Nokia E63 (4)
Nokia E71 (5)
BlackBerry Curve 8330 (3)
HTC Touch Pro 2 (1)
Samsung Impression (2)
Nokia N97 (new)
LG Incite (10)
RIM BlackBerry Storm 9530 (6)
Palm Pre (new)
BlackBerry Bold (returning)

Breaking this down by operating systems, we see RIM and Symbian leading Windows Mobile with a 3-3-2 advantage. The remaining spaces are occupied by a WebOS device and a dumbphone – iPhones are nowhere to be seen…

Sprint preparing for Pre launch

Uncategorized No Responses »

Jun 022009

Forbes.com is partially owned by Elevation Partners, who furthermore own Palm. This explains a lot about why they cover some companies more than others…but doesn’t make the quote below any less interesting:

…Extra employees will be on hand to manage crowds … Sprint is also borrowing manpower from partner Palm … the additional help will stick around for two months, Owens says.

Both companies are also establishing “situation rooms” to quickly address problems that might arise during launch, particularly tech support issues…

Crazy Sunday 7 – with TamsForum

Giveaways 1 Response »

Jun 012009

In Austria, couples are afraid of the seventh year of their relation…which means that essentially every number can be construed to mean something negative. Fortunately, Crazy Sunday is here to stay!

This week, there is stuff to be had. In particular, you can get your claws onto a free license of NS Basic for Palm OS. NS Basic is the only Visual Basic compiler for Palm OS in existence – and should get existing VB coders coding within seconds.

Getting your hands onto the goods is really easy: leave a non-spam comment on ANY post on TamsPalm. DO fill in your email address so that we can contact you if you have won – it will not be abused in any way. Multiple entries are permitted!

New from this week is entry via the TamsForum. The TamsForum has been around for quite some time, but didn’t quite get off the ground so far – participating in the discussion there also enters you into the raffle.

Finally, it’s time to look at last week’s price. We had a wonderful license of SplashShopper for Palm OS – it went to user Baalthazaar. In case anyone of you feels like taking a stab, use the discount code CRAZYSUNDAY to get 20% off the product’s list price in the TamsShop.

P.S. If you have ideas about the TamsForum, leave them here. They will be counted towards the competition!

QualComm QSD8650A: ARM CPU with 1.3 GhZ

Hardware News No Responses »

Jun 012009

QualComm QSD8650A: ARM CPU with 1.3 GhZ After Palm gave up on the 68k processor when moving to OS5, the mobile computing platform was dominated by ARM processors. Intel originally was the one and only supplier; but companies like Samsung and QualComm quickly followed suite.

QualComm has now managed to take the performance crown with its new QSD8650A processor. It runs at 1.3GhZ, and furthermore consumes less power than its predecessors clocked at 1GhZ:

… The new Snapdragon QSD8650A™ chipset – scheduled for sampling before the end of 2009 – offers significant performance improvements including a 1.3 GHz processor for 30 percent higher performance as well as enhanced multimedia and 2D/3D graphics. Utilizing 45nm technology also allows power consumption improvements such as up to 30 percent lower dynamic power than previous-generation Snapdragon products and an unmatched standby power of less than 10 millwatts.

Now that we have the specs above, it’s time for a little predicting: I am pretty positive that we won’t see this CPU in any devices until Q2 or even Q3 2010…

Further information can be had here…

P.S. The image doesn’t show the newly-announced CPU, as QualComm did not share any images so far. It instead shows a Microchip PIC16F84a in a TamoggeTalk doerchen2 prototype…

Sprint: Pre exclusive all through 2009

Palm News No Responses »

Jun 012009

Roger Cheng from Dow Jones Newswires reports the following:

…Sprint Nextel Corp.’s (S) exclusivity agreement with Palm Inc. (PALM) and its Pre smartphone runs through the year, according to a Sprint spokesman.

“We have the Pre through 2009,” said spokesman James Fisher.
…

via SmartMoney.com