TamsPalm – the Palm OS / web OS Blog

Capacitive screens have brought us all kinds of funny input tools for use in winter: in Korea, some users even resorted to sausages in order to keep in touch with their friends without freezing their hands. MobileFun now plans to help out with its Dot Gloves – can they stack up?

MobileFun’s products ship in well-padded envelopes from the UK. I haven’t had any issues with them so far, as the contents have always arrived safely so far:

The gloves themselves ship in a small plastic bags. Mine were marked as Large – a size I almost never need with actual gloves:

Nevertheless, the fit of the wool gloves was relatively tight:

Finally, a look at the actual product. The gray tips on top of the three fingers are the active areas. You must use these to touch the screen – the black areas do not conduct:

We performed tests on a variety of devices with a capacitive screen, and had no issue with any of them. The devices remain usable with your hands in the gloves – and this is all you need.

Given the price of 18 UK pounds, there is not much one can expect from the gloves. They will obviously not verse your leather gloves in terms of looks and workmanship, and they will probably also do a bad job at impressing possible mating partners. Nevertheless, they serve their purpose perfectly – if you are willing to trade wearing slightly weird-looking wool gloves for more work time (and have small hands), they are perfect.

Expect to see them on Austrian roads next year…

Thanks to our long-standing relationship with Aceeca, we were given access to a very early prototype of the PDA32. Due to this, we have refrained from performing system performance and battery life evaluations – the tests we performed on the beta unit are below:
Aceeca PDA32 – first impressions
Aceeca PDA32 preliminary review – size, 1
Aceeca PDA32 preliminary review – size, 2
Aceeca PDA32 preliminary review – physical
Aceeca PDA32 preliminary review – screen

Minor technical details aside, the PDA32 is an interesting device. It is huge – but has a very ergonomic form factor which makes the device comfortable to hold during use. The screen also is best described as very good.

On the other hand, of course, this large size makes transporting the device difficult. It barely fit my trouser pockets – which is a fact you need to keep in mind.

Compared to the TX, the weakness of the larger size is obvious. However, the 32 is more comfortable to hold and has the significantly better screen. Plus, it seems well-built, can soon be bought fresh off the assembly line and comes with a warranty.

As an industrial device, there is little not to like about this 200USD handheld – for size-conscious consumers, deploying this device is an option only if other OS’ses like Windows Mobile are not an alternative.

Stay tuned – we will update this review the moment we get a production device!

The PDA32 is bigger than anything which Palm ever built. This alone makes the device predestined for good build quality – if you add its intended industrial audience, high expectations come naturally. Can the machine stack up?

At first glance, Palm veterans will note the DIA-enabled screen and the lack of application buttons:

Indeed, Aceeca has given up on the traditional application buttons. Instead, the device has a power button, a fiveway and – get this – a brightness toggle. All the buttons are well-built:

Unfortunately, the black rim around the screen gets in your way when you try to hit elements close to the border of the screen. Being a right-hander, I had consistant problems trying to hit the scroll bar of the launcher with the stylus:

The speaker and the stylus silo can be found on the back of the unit:

Looking at the top, we see an unusually large IR element and the SD slot:

Whereas a MiniUSB port is lurking at the bottom:

The stylus is ok, too:

Finally, a look at the side. If you look carefully, you will see that the bottom part of the case is textured for better grip:

In the end, the PDA32 reminds me fatally of the Samsung i780. A design by a genius – fuxated by small details. If Aceeca fixes the issues outlined above, the final release device would be a total killer.

Tune in soon to find out more about the screen.

This is a preliminary review, which is being generated on a non-final sample of the PDA32. A full review of the shipping model will follow at a later date!

Given that the PDA32 will likely replace a nice bit of aging Palm hardware, I have decided to give you a special size comparison against each and every Palm OS device I could find in my archive.

When it comes to thickness, the PDA32 is hard to beat. A Treo 650 looks slim:

The same can be said of the Treo 680:

Palm’s Centro is a bit smaller, too:

Don’t even get me started on the webOS-powered Pre:

A Palm TX may be similar in size, but also is thinner:

The Palm Tungsten T3 also is slimmer:

Next to the m500:

Finally, a shot next to the Palm IIIc:

In the end, the PDA32 is fat. However, it is insanely ergonomical (one of the most comfortable-to-hold handhelds I ever saw) and very transportable – I had less issues with the box than I initially thought!

Tune in tomorrow for a comparison against our standard roster of devices.

Traditional Palm OS handhelds were famous for their swift start-up – a stock Tungsten T managed to start from cold in less than a minute, and didn’t bug the user too much.

On webOS phones like the Pre, the process is more difficult. The process starts by making you pick a country, language and region:

Next, the SIM card must be unlocked:

When this is done, you have to accept the webOS license agreement.

Afterwards, its time to create your Palm Profile:

And accept another set of licenses:

With that out of the way, the machine boots up and shows an introductory video. Some key scenes are pictured below:

Even though the process definitely is slower than the one we used to know from traditional Palm OS devices, it nevertheless is acceptable. The only – but major – nuisance is the requirement that a valid SIM be installed during the entire process…