Dear Readers,
I have to wholeheartedly apologize for the short downtime experienced today around 08h00 local time.
As of this writing, I have not been informed about what has caused the downtime. I am thus extremely thankful if you could report any oddities via email…
With best regards and apologies
Tam Hanna
Palm’s Foleo has hit quite a few web sites in the past – I thus wonder why nobody stumbled across this so far.
A blog called IXLE Foleo now shares the image below:
The blog is operated by a former Palm OS developer, who managed to get his hands onto a Foleo. In case you are interested, find out more via the URL below:
http://ixlefoleo.blogspot.com/
The Pixi Plus, on its own right, can hardly be considered news nowadays. However, the machine has just hit AT&T with a twist:
Leaving the 299$ no-commitment (aka OTC) price aside, careful lookers will see that the device is available in both black and blue (pictured above) color shades.
As of now, no photographs of the back side of the device are available. However, I assume that the blue version will be blaco on the front and will have a blue back shell. Order yours via the URL below – and don’t forget to tell us how that blue Pixi Plus really looks:
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/cell-phone-details/ …
Developers doing business with PalmGear should already know about their excellent bookkeeping – they had insane issues paying out royalties in the past. Handango, on the other hand, were known to be moronic but pay on time. Murphy’s law states that minus and minus is more minus – and it looks like the merger brought out the worst sides of both companies.
According to insider information, Handango has suspended payments. A group of developers are fed up with this situation, and are planning to gang up on the boys:
We de-listed everything from Handango as soon as we heard about the PalmGear take-over. Too late though. Handango immediately implemented a freeze on all developer payments as per PalmGear’s mo. That was back in March IIRC.
At this point we have had multiple email requests for final payments ignored or answered with template text that all dev payments are suspended until the restructuring is completed. We threatened to sue but HD couldn’t care less. Obviously.
So – seems we’re not alone in this boat and even small claims court costs money. Hence the question – maybe pool a bunch of claims? Is that even possible?
Should anyone of you be interested in joining in on the action, please leave a comment with your email address here – we will then put you in touch!
Legal disclaimer: Tamoggemon Ltd has no active business relationship with any of the companies mentioned above. We are reporting the story above only to inform our readers on the happenings, and are thus covered by the Austrian constitution. However, we would welcome a statement from Handango or PalmGear and would publish it unchanged immediately.
When HP announces its intentions to take over Palm, two open questions remained. a) was whether the FCC would accept the merger, while b) was whether the stockholders would agree.
a) has just been solved in favor of Palm and HP. The SEC filing contains the following passage:
…
On June 1, 2010 the Federal Trade Commission granted early termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended, relating to the pending acquisition by Hewlett-Packard Company (“HP”) of Palm, Inc. Palm has also received all required pre-closing foreign antitrust approvals. The proposed merger remains subject to other customary closing conditions, including the approval of Palm’s stockholders. The special meeting of Palm’s stockholders to vote on the proposed merger is currently scheduled to be held on Friday, June 25, 2010.
…
Now, all that needs to be cleared is the agreement of the stockholders – let’s wait and see what happens on the 25th…
Strange things to happen in business – for example, HP’s CEO has just retracted part of his statement on the acquisition of Palm not being about the smartphone space.
Engadget just got the text below:
When we look at the market, we see an array of interconnected devices, including tablets, printers, and of course, smartphones. We believe webOS can become the backbone for many of HP’s small form factor devices, and we expect to expand webOS’s footprint beyond just the smartphone market, all while leveraging our financial strength, scale, and global reach to grow in smartphones.
Of course, all of this could just be a smokescreen-style maneuver to keep developers loyal to the Palm webOS platform until a critical amount of applications is reached. On the other hand, few companies know mobile as well as HP does.
Stay tuned…
Smartphone users were long considered unaware that applications existed for their devices – they used what was in the ROM, and often didn’t even bother to look at the goodies on the included software CD.
Nielsen now polled US consumers, and found out the following about the number of applications found on the average user’s handset. Nokia was left out – but given the state of Ovi, I predict that the number of free apps is likely to be close to +inf, while the number of paid ones will correlate to about 0.001 or so:
Average number of apps: Smartphone: 22, Feature phone: 10
* BlackBerry: 10
* iPhone:37
* Android: 22
* Palm: 14
* Windows Mobile: 13
When looking at content categories, the following picture emerges:
Hit the link above to find out a bit more or to order the full report…
When HP snatched up Palm, most of us assumed that the buy-up was intended as a “fuckyou” gesture at Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7. This was only too logical if you look at the recent history of HP’s iPaq line.
ZDNet now quotes HP’s CEO as following:
We didn’t buy Palm to be in the smartphone business. And I tell people that, but it doesn’t seem to resonate well. We bought it for the IP. The WebOS is one of the two ground-up pieces of software that is built as a web operating environment…We have tens of millions of HP small form factor web-connected devices…Now imagine that being a web-connected environment where now you can get a common look and feel and a common set of services laid against that environment. That is a very value proposition.
Folks – I have to admit that I am not yet sure what to make of this. webOS is intended for smartphones, and I struggle to see much value in a “Palm Printer”.
Ideas, anyone?
P.S. Talking back is free and anonymous. So, HP heads – why not hit the comments form below?
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