TamsPalm - the Palm OS Blog

The news struck me like a bombshell - an industry alliance called Open Handset Alliance announces a new mobile OS to be licensed under the Apache license(aka no need to give back derived code). Among the members of the committee: Google, a variety of carriers and semicon boys - and, most importantly - HTC.

Many of my colleagues think that this will affect Nokia(S60 OS) and Palm(Palm OS) the worst - however, I think that Microsoft is the one who really has a lot to loose here. Both Palm and Nokia have hardware and software in their hand and can thus afford to loose all other licensees(Palm has already lost most, as for Samsung….their cool-looking S60 phones have yet to hit the road). However, Microsoft doesn’t have an own hardware division doing smartphones(forget the Zune, boys).

Continued at our sister site TamsPPC…

Thats right, today is the day…June 29th. There are already people waiting in line to get them at many Apple stores, and no doubt they will all sell out within a couple of hours. I however, will not be getting an iPhone. Here are a few simple reasons why the iPhone is not the phone for me. Ill start with some background.

Currently, my cell phone is a Samsung D807. It is a small slider phone with a relatively large screen and a 1.3 megapixel camera. It is a good cell phone and I enjoy alot of its capabilities such as:

• EDGE network capability (although its slow, it is faster than GPRS)
• Bluetooth connectivity (I use it for handsfree in the car)
• Camera
• MicroSD expansion

However, more importantly, my phone has its drawbacks, which would prevent me from recommending it to others. The EDGE network is slow, even with the excellent Opera Mini browser installed. It has proprietary connectors, which means I would need an adapter to play music through my regular headphones. Most importantly, although it uses the Java platform, the actual OS of the device is proprietary. That means it only uses Java, and can run no native apps. This means I cant replace the interface or add a new launcher, or even move categories on the phones menus around.
This is the absolute biggest problem with the iPhone. Its running FauxSX. They claim its OSX, but it cant run OSX apps. Now, I believe that at some point either hackers will figure out a way to run native apps on the device, or Apple will open it up to developers, but for now, if you get an iPhone, you are stuck with what you got. Here are my top 5 reasons why I am not getting an iPhone:

1. Lack of 3rd party application support
2. No 3G network, just EDGE (this is supposed to be a revolutionary device, EDGE doesnt cut it)
3. Only 8GB of space in the premium version? (that wouldnt hold my entire music collection (About 9GB), not to mention my collection is all in WMA)
4. $599, you have to be kidding me. What are the chances it will even last me two years (no gadgets of this type last me longer than 2 years).
5. No stereo BT headphone support (was apple just being lazy or stupid here, it must be one of those two options)

There you have it, those are my reasons. If you want a truly good converged device, you are going to have to look further. If you are like me, and you want to be able to customize your devices, the iPhone is not for you. I will likely either be getting a Treo or a WM based device for my next phone. I am not sure which yet, but I can tell you one thing. It will not be an iPhone. What do you look for in a phone, and is anyone considering the iPhone?

PS: For reason number 4 above, you must understand that even if the iPhone does not fall apart after two years, there are other drawbacks to keeping it. By then, we will likely be seeing the second or third iteration of the iPhone, which will have either 3 or 4G network capability. Even if your iPhone works in two years, you will probably want to get a new phone.

Resco is an uniquely interesting company because they sell similar products for Palm OS, Symbian and PocketPC � so if one company can make qualified discussions and comparisons, its by almost all means them. Jan gladly shared with me a few very interesting insights � but before that, we need to look at a significant part of the Resco history.

The Resco history - short
Essentially, Resco was a PocketPC company right from the start � the Palm OS development division was added only much later by aquiring JSoft, Jan Slodickas company. There are more than 15 PocketPC people, but only 5 Palm guys at Resco�s; one of the Palm guys also does Symbian!

Platform sales � a few significant examples
For Resco, PocketPC generally is the top selling platform(if you look at the history, this probably explains why though). Palm is second, and Symbian development was an expensive venture that didn�t quite pay back. Please treat the following two apps as case studies:
Resco Sudoku
Resco Sudoku was released for Palm OS and PocketPC nearly simultaneously. Both applications have similar look&feel. The PocketPC version outsold the Palm OS version approximately 5:1.
World Cup Mobile 2006
This application was released for Palm OS; PocketPC and Symbian. Palm and PPC versions had very similar look&feel, Symbian version was a bit weaker. The PocketPC version outsold the Palm version 4:1, and the Palm version outsold the Symbian version 5:1.

The Top 10 selling devices
As a special gift from Resco I can bring you a top-selling devices list from one of their software distributors. The following devices �purchased� the most licenses in the last quarter:

• Dell Axim X51v
• Motorola Q
• Palm Treo 650
• Palm Treo 700p
• Palm TX
• HTC TyTN
• Cingular 8125
• Palm Treo 700w
• Dell Axim X50x
• HP hx4700

3 moths ago the order was(the Palm OS devices kept their positions - the shifts were in the PocketPC camp)

• Dell Axim X51v
• Motorola Q
• Palm Treo 650
• Palm Treo 700p
• Palm TX
• Cingular 8125
• HP iPAQ hx4700
• Dell Axim X50v
• Palm Treo 700w
• Audiovox PPC 6700

I am not totally sure about the significance of these numbers � after all, Resco is mainly a PocketPC company that runs the Palm department more-less separately. Also, there are less Palm developers than there are PocketPC folks � so as said, I am not the one who wants to interpret these numbers.
How would you interpret them?

The people at AllAboutSymbian seem to have telepatchic capabilities recently. They recently posted a post about how most Series 60 users don’t “want to” understand the Series 60 OS and treat it as they would treat any other IOS:

http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/features/item/Turns_out_you_dont_need_a_smartphone_after_all.php

Ladies and Gentlemen, I declare myself guilty of not having purchased or used a single third party application for my now dead Siemens SX1 for more than half a day. Yeah, I had a file manager on it - but this thingy was used like once a year at best. The only benefit that I reaped from the innovative operating system was the capability to transmit more than one photo at the same time - and this as a Palm OS developer.

The reason for this actually is simple - people who already have a PDA and are satisfied with it(Palm Tungsten T3) usually dont see a need to try out software for their mobile phone. For them, the handheld is the notebook - and the mobile phone only adds extra functionality to the handheld, sort of like a bluetooth dongle adds functionality to a PC.

So, the only kind of software that they would use are things that make the “connection” between the two devices even stronger. For example, the file manager made it easier to transfer images from the SX1 to the Palm - thus, it stayed on the mobile phone. Games, clocks or calculators, on the other hand, took up space where more photos could reside - so they usually were booted off the box before the evaluation period ended.

IMHO, the Series 60 economy must start to accept the “Tam Hanna’s” in their market sector - and the faster they do it, the better. While most people who buy an expensive Palm Treo smartphone understand that it is so expensive because of the capability to add third party applications, a person who chooses a Series 60 machine because it looks cool or is pink will probably never feel a need to add a feature!

What Series 60 developers should instead do is focus on the existing niche of interested customers - those that are interested in stuff like gaming, for example. Creating a market out of nowhere usually is difficult, entering a market is rather easy…

What do you think?

Recently, yours truly assisted a friend at a recording session. The recording went well-until we needed a camera stand that we didnt have in our shack. Luckily, an old friend of us lived closeby, and so we went over to get the stand that we needed. And-oh wonder-our brand new Sony camera fit onto the 20 year old camera stand beautifully.

But why doesn’t every manufacturer abide to some sort of standard? For example, why cant each Opamp have more-less the same pinout if it comes in the same packaging? The answer is binding customers to a product line-if a customer owns hundreds of bucks in accessoires, he is not very likely to switch brand, even if the current lineup of the manufacturer is far-from-perfect.

Standards can work very well though-if the following conditions are met:

• The standard can “grow”
• The standard is smart
• The manufacturer does not produce a product that can replace the standardized one

Number three is the main reason IMHO. Palm does not produce memory cards(it just rebrands them), and thus they chose an open format. Sony produced its own memory cards, thus, its Clies were “Memory S(t)icked”. The same thing applies in many areas-only a select few manufacturers adopt open standards when able to produce an own, and those usually produce very good products…

How do you feel about this?

Recently, a few rumours were flooding all over the internet. The gist of the theories was that Apple was ganging up with RIM to create a “blackberry ipod”, however that box may look.

Immediately, people were bickering about how the CEO’s of the two companies were incompatible and about how this would never ever work out because of that. If you ask me personally, this is no reason though-I often worked together with people I really really hate, and the stuff that came out always was usable.

But Mike Mace(former PalmSource/Palm employee, many Palm OS veterans will still recall him) has a different theory about why the product would dump. He believes that iPod users and BlackBerry users are so different, that the users won’t want to “merge”:

http://mobileopportunity.blogspot.com/2006/06/why-apple-rim-would-be-bad-idea.html

What do you think?

Technorati tags:
Apple
RIM

ZDNet Australia took a few Windows Mobile bigshots in for an interview about Windows Mobile 5, enterprise usage and lifecycle of mobile devices.

Basically, the core points are:

• Microsoft says that their internal lifecycle is now 2.5 years
• Many customers demanded Windows Mobile 5 for 2003 devices; even where upgrading was technically impossible
• Enterprise customers demand “in-action” updating without need to erase all data

Get the full scoop here:
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/soa/Windows_Mobile_still_faces_issues_Microsoft/0,2000061733,39257430,00.htm

This image gave me a start when I first saw it. My buddy Peter wantd to play a PC game with a gamepad, so he took the gamepad of his XBOX 360, connected it to his PC, installed a driver and had fun:

Up to now, getting a controller working with a PC was extremely difficult. The german elektor magazine once managed to wire a Nintendo 64 controller up for usage on a PC; but had no chance in the end. The circuit was complex, the driver bad, and nobody really used the thingy.

This move from Microsoft’s IMHO is a sign how serious the company takes its XBOX 360 system, and how high they rate the need for its success. The XBOX 360 is a bit more expensive than the Nintendo Wii(more on Nintendo another day, pls remind me, anyone)-but this move by Microsoft “equalizes” the prices a bit.

Good PC gamepads cost 50$ or so last time I checked, and from what I feel the XBOX 360’s controller is excellent. Now, a gamer who purchases an XBOX 360, automatically gets a gamepad for his PC as well. And should the XBOX ever die, the controller’s can be recycled or sold to fellow PC gamers. This adds in a load of “future safety”, and this is something that many people love!

Overall, when offering stuff to customers, try to make it as compatible as possible. You may loose a bit of sales at first, but the universal compatibility will make your product more popular. The Handera 330 was extremely popular due to its Palm III style connector, which alowed recycling of peripherals that Palm themselfes had declared dead(m500).

What do you think?

Technorati tags:
Compatibility
Console wars
XBOX 360

NMokia created a web browser for its Series 60 smartphones about a year ago. The browswer was based on opensource technology in order “to save cost”, according to Nokia.

Now, Nokia had released the code for their browser under a BSD-Style licence for everyone to use. Nokia officially say that they want to reduce the diversity in mobile internet software-but if you ask me personally, this is just a move to get cheap mainstream media attention.

Because, um, Series 60 is like no other platform. It has no touchscreen support and has a very proprietary API that no other OS can emulate. So, the released code will probably never ever be ported to other platforms, and will remain only on Series 60, which is-if we all recall correctly-property ok Nokia. So, any developer fixing a bug in the released code is basically doing Nokia’s job without receiving a salary from them!

The availabiolity of a good web browser is what makes a mopbile platform stand or fall IMHO. The Palm OS would be much farther by now if PalmSource had backported their Web Browser 3.0 from Cobalt to Garnet, or if the Minimo porting project started a bit of time ago would have succeeded.

To cut a long story short. Cool. Another sourceforge project. But I don’t really care!

Get the news release here:
http://www.pcworld.com/resource/article/0,aid,125867,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp

Shaun McGill’s Treo 650 army was off to Palm for a repair. His eplacement device was a HTC machine, so we basically have the shootout Palm OS vs Windows Mobile here.

Overall, the Treo 650 wins the fight, but it gets pretty close at the end. Get the full scoop(with comments) here:
http://www.clieuk.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?threadid=6243

Aperently, more and more companies are starting to jump the converged devices train! Nintendo recently announced the DS lite, and now they follow it up with the announcement of a Opera card. The card will cost 32$ and will be sold only in Japan as of now.

Also, a card has been announced that will allow Nintendo DS users to watch TV with their machines. Language assistants,.. also are announced, but there isn’t really too much information about them yet.

http://www.leadingthecharge.com/stories/news-00146063.html

In addition, Engadget got an interview with a Nintendo executive. He talks a bit about the new Revolution console, about how the GameBoy Micro sells pretty well and will stay on sale, about how they ran out of stock in Japan,.. . The interview is a bit long, but makes a nice read:
http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/20/the-engadget-interview-reggie-fils-aime-executive-vice-preside/

Last but not least, here is an image of a still packed-up Nintendo DS lite:
http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/21/ds-lite-japanese-caught-all-dolled-up-in-packaging/

Loads of news for all Nintendo freaks reading TamsPalm(all others stay calm..more stuff is on the way). What do you think?

Some of you can still remember the editorial on how the PalmOS is ideal for use in digital cameras. In case you didn’t, here is a link to it:
http://tamspalm.blogspot.com/2005/01/palm-powered-camera.html
Anyways, Archos apperently reads TamsPalm :-), and thus they launched their Gmini 402 Camcorder portable media player. The most outstanding feature is the integrated 1.3 megapixel camera. The machine still lacks a touchscreen though, and apperently can’t multitask or send email. However, it supports Mophun games-so, the device can somehow be programmed after all!

I am not sure what to say about this box. It doesn’t endanger the LifeDrive IMHO, as it doesnt have a touchscreen and is a clean media player(the LifeDrive is more of a convergence device). However, it shows that Archos knows what to do, and adding a touchscreen is not an act requiring too much skill!

What do you think?

Read more over at CNET’s:
http://reviews.cnet.com/Archos_Gmini_402_Camcorder_20GB/4505-6499_7-31595017.html?tag=sub

Recently, TDG announced that it expects Symbian Series to be number three in the handset market by 2010. The top places would be taken up by Microsoft and-um-an undefined form of Linux. Immediately, all kinds of Symbian people began to shriek about how this was impossible. I personally believe that this is entirely possible for Series 60.

Most “smartphone” users dont even realize what IOS their phone runs on. Symbian Series 60 got big because the old proprietary operation systems used by various handset manufacturers didnt quite make the jumpo to support the features one demands from new handsets(for example, compare a Siemens SX1 and one of the latest Siemens RTOS incarnations). Manufacturers use Symbian for one simple reason: it saves their coder gangs time.

Now, imagine what would happen if there would be a free Linux derivate that was as easy to adapt as Series 60, could do everything S60 did, and um as already said was free?

What would hold manufacturers in the Symbian camp? The regular user will not note any difference, he wont really care either as his ringtoines and images work on both boxen. The loosers would be the technicians(as always): those who bought/developed Series 60 apps and now need to port them…

For a long time there was a browser on Palm devices called Blazer. Contrary to the name, it was not very fast. Sometime in the last couple years, Palm did something smart. They licensed the Netfront core from Access to use for their browser. Then came something we did not expect. People loaded up the browsers on the new devices, and they were not that much faster. In fact, they looked just like the old browsers. Something must have been wrong! Anyone who had had one of the newer Clies has seen Netfront, and knows what it can do; how fast it is. This was not Netfront. In alot of ways they were right. Palm took the Netfront core, and added and tweaked it to give people the “Blazer experience”. Palm, we have to tell you, the Blazer experience is not that great. For these reasons, I am making a move, and trying to get something started. I will call it the “Straight Netfront Petition”. All I ask of Palm is that they give us Netfront. Access now owns PalmSource, and so they certainly have the resources to make a great Palm version of Netfront. They have no excuses, only angry customers.

Palm, you have to compete against Windows Mobile. Im sorry to say that I think Blazer is just about at the level of IE on Windows Mobile. They arent your competition. People dont compare your browser to the worst browser on another platform. You are competing against Opera and Mozilla, who both have very impressive offerings, not to mention Netfront on WM which is lightyears ahead of Blazer. All we ask is that you give us something a little better. Something that we know you can deliver, but just aren’t. Give your customers something back. We are sticking around because we expect this much from you. Dont show us we are wrong.

To “sign” the petition, click this link and sign up!