New Treo 850?!?!

So Palm has announced its latest Treo on its way the 850! I’ve also seen a number of posts listing the specs. And for the most part I keep hearing praises. Yes this phone is a good thing, not only has Palm finally added WiFi but they’ve also added GPS. So why do I not sound so exited about this? Very simple…. check out the last spec line in the PalmAddicts post linked here: PalmAddicts: Palm again makes me want one!

Do you see my problem with the 850? You don’t… how can you not… its running WINDOWS MOBILE(WM). Palm keeps telling the market and there followers that they are committed to there own OS and that they are working hard to release a new linux-based version of PalmOS, but if this is the case, why more WM phones?

I know, there are separate development teams at work, one working on the new OS and one on Palm-based hardware and another on WM-based hardware, but other than a miniturized Treo (aka the Centro, which don’t get me wrong if it was available for T-Mobile USA I’d already have one), but what have you done for Palm OS? Wasn’t one of the reasons given for discontinuing the Foleo that you didn’t want to be developing and maintaining 2 OS flavors? so what is the difference, okay so MS is developing WM, but don’t you have to support it on your phones?

So Palm, Congrats on moving in the right direction by adding WiFi and GPS (and a much better with the Centro). Also the move to mini-USB is also a good one. But please do something for the PalmOS world soon, otherwise, I see a nice new shiny BlackBerry in my furture, with the exception of a touchscreen the Curve has everything you’ve just added to the WM-Treo with the bonus that it is not WM.

The power of Apple

News stories like this one from BusinessWeek are all over the place with Apple and its iPhone. They all make it sound like Apple created the idea of using a touch screen. And far be it from Apple from admitting that they were not the first. Yes way back Apple had the Newton, but Palm (or back the as part of 3Com) had the first PDA the Palm Pilot with a touch screen too. Then in the late 90s HandSpring released the first Treo, which was a phone/pda and yes with a touch screen….. Over the years Palm has release a number of Treos (I think to date we are up to 11 maybe more), even Microsoft has release a number of touch screen based phones (including some by Palm), HTC has been at the forefront of their hardware. But then Apple comes along and they decide that buttons are a thing of the past…. and thus the iPhone is released and now the whole world talks like they created the touch screen, heck they even created an iPodTouch and tried to trade mark the use of the name Touch with handheld devices… Anyways… I like Apple as much as the next, heck I’m even an MacOSX admin, but I’m a bit tired of all this articles about Apple and how its iPhone with a touch screen has revolutionized the market. That is not to say that is hasn’t had an affect on the market, heck its affect has been one of the greatest… but history…. tells all.

read more | digg story

The Old Phone

Well my new Treo 650 arrived today. This will actually be the first entry sent via my new 650. Out with old 600 in with new 650, so I hope. I'll be giving this phone a spin and hpefully make the complete move soon.

Working on the road: SiEd for Palm OS

While sitting at the Firestone this morning (link) I had a good chance to try out an app I had just installed on my Palm Treo600. Actually last night I first tried it out with use of my external keyboard, but this morning was the great test…. I’m currently in the process of trying to complete my Master’s Thesis and this requires sitting at a computer and typing. I’m writing my thesis using LaTeX. While I have yet to find a good LaTeX editor for the Palm, I did run across SiEd. I’ve tried others including tjepWriter and SrcEdit, but while both have their merits… SiEd’s ability to work with any text file found on a memory card is the clincher for me. I was ably to keep working on my thesis while sitting at firestone with out losing time. With this ability to work on the road…. hopefully I will finish sooner than later.

PS: in the near future I plan to finally put together a “whats on my Treo 600″ post that and give a more detailed review of the above mentioned text editors.

PDA Repairs

I know this article is a little old, but it came via a new post at PalmAddicts who just got back his treo 600 that was sent in. Anyways…. he fixes PDA and form the looks of it cheap and with great care. I’m planning on contacting him about an old Clie N series I have.

Article link: One man company fixes PDAs
Direct ebay link: BROKEN-Palm-Evaluation-and-Repair-Service-FULL-SERVICE

If half of this proves true, I can’t wait for an ALP powered Palm

While link jumping from a post at PalmAddicts, I stumbled across this post through Palmsource’s Opensource news site. If have of what is posted is true about the ALP system, I can wait to grab hold of a new Treo running ALP as soon as it is available. I’m really beginning to be happy that I decided tosave my money and buy a used 600, instead of goinging with the 650 since hopfully ALP should hit the market mid next year. I wouldn’t be able to justify buy 2 $400 dollor phones in 1 year.
Software Everywhere � Top 10 things for developers to love about the ACCESS Linux Platform

If half of this proves true, I can’t wait for an ALP powered Palm

While link jumping from a post at PalmAddicts, I stumbled across this post through Palmsource’s Opensource news site. If have of what is posted is true about the ALP system, I can wait to grab hold of a new Treo running ALP as soon as it is available. I’m really beginning to be happy that I decided tosave my money and buy a used 600, instead of goinging with the 650 since hopfully ALP should hit the market mid next year. I wouldn’t be able to justify buy 2 $400 dollor phones in 1 year.
Software Everywhere � Top 10 things for developers to love about the ACCESS Linux Platform