Comments on: StyleTap Coming to the Apple iPhone / iPod Touch?

Now, what would really get interesting would be Windows Mobile emu on the iPhone. Maybe that's where Apple should focus it's sw work. Palm, WM, Symbian emlation. Then watch the migration. Or at least the lawsuits.

Pat Horne

Option 2: A Treo as your phone (and all that entails), Mixed Bag media playing, and Blazer as your browser.

Apple: No doubt they'll be around next year.
Palm: Nothing *but* doubt.

Apple: Designing what customers want/Listening to them - scoring something like 8 out of 10?
Palm: Designing what customers want/Listening to them - Not for at least 8 of the last 10 years.

(Disclosure: Typed on a Mac, with a Tungsten T2 and a Blackberry on my belt, while my TX sits in a drawer because I refuse to give Palm any more money replacing that tissue paper digitizer).

Palm: Give me a TX with an iPhone-esque glass screen with an un-wearoutable multi-touch display, and while you're at it, throw a mic, voice recorder button, vibrate alarm, and charge/alarm LED back in, and I'll buy another one even with the same antiquated OS. Oops there I go again, thinking I know what I want, better than you do.
"Please Sir, can I have some more?"
It's just that I have a Dickens of a time with my stylus taps jumping Oliver the place, and I have to Twist the case to get it to calibrate.

MemoPad

SmartDOC (no longer made)

MiniWrite

-- until iPhone devs knock them out.

That demo was a revelation to me. I'd forgotten all about that simulator.

I. Want. It.

In addition, when I have played with a WinMob device (not a lot of effort on my part there, I admit), I have not been "thrilled" by the experience. I still prefer Garnet with it's limitations to WM.

Obviously the thought of having to pay again for the collection of apps I've acquired over the years will not make me a happy man. So for purely economic reasons, I'd rather just be able to run what I've already got until such time as a truly superior product is offered, something that does everything my current app does and something more that I really need as well. So I consider not having to repurchase apps a distinct advantage of sticking with a solution that allows me a slower migration path away from Garnet apps.

Taking a look at the alternatives:

Apple's iPhone and Touch are options, once they are really open so that I can either replace a few of my critical apps or still use them via something like StyleTap.

Nokia's internet tablet might have been a really good option, particularly since we already know that it can run Garnet VM, but the device is a little too big for me to carry everywhere on my person.

ALP is a quite realistic option from everything I've looked it. But ALP is the software platform, and I'll have to wait to see what shows up on the hardware end of things.

Android? Palm's next gen OS? I don't know enough about either of those yet to make any kind of guess, but I suspect that Palm's next OS will be able to run Garnet apps (similar to ALP; and if Palm doesn't build that in, they are truly crazy).

So now after all that, back to the question at hand: apps.

-iSilo (for the aforementioned reason)
-A really good PIM app like DateBk
-Chinese character handwriting recognition (does this eliminate Apple's offerings?)
-KDIC Chinese/English/Chinese dictionary with the DA to pop up definitions of marked words

There are some others, but I can either live without them or it's my guess that they are readily available or will be in the near future on something else.

And as always, YMMV.

"twrock is infamous around these parts" (from my profile over at Brighthand due to my negative 62 rep points rating)

On the other hand, the price difference is not negligible. Up in that price range, I'm going to want them to throw in the phone as well. But at least it is something to consider.


"twrock is infamous around these parts" (from my profile over at Brighthand due to my negative 62 rep points rating)

No. I use FileZ to shuttle them back and forth. I like it that way. When I tested other programs that did read from/write to the card, the time it took to build the frikkin index was ginormous. Ah, yes, now it all comes back to me: the trauma that was Docs2Go!!!

Yeah, so I guess I better add FileZ to that list. Erp.

Gekko: Hello! I *had* a PPC -- Toshiba GENIO. Pocket Word *wasn't* what I needed. SmartDOC is plain doc. WORD was overkill -- and SLOWER!

After typing that original list last night, I remembered that, duh, Calendar & Contacts are PALM apps so probably can't be used. But I was reminded there is DateBook+ and I suppose a 3rd-party Contact replacement too.

Anyway, this would just be a crutch until the iDevs CRUSH PalmOS to death death death. And good riddance!! *mad cackle*

Colligan won't have to be fired or resign. The company will simply die. Buh-bye!

i don't like my data trapped in black-box proprietary closed apps.

that's why whenever possible, i use excel/word docs.

i don't like my data trapped in black-box proprietary closed apps.

that's why whenever possible, i use excel/word docs.

TX: .61" D

BAH! Foiled by facts again.

tw --> Don't do it!

Apple has actually done the bare essentials here: It's just enough different from their original idea of Safari-based apps to qualify as an SDK. And that's all.

iMirror?

It has pretty pictures!

http://mikecane.wordpress.com/2007/09/07/dumbass-of-the-year-ed-colligan/

i wonder if colligan reads this site.

"It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages." - Henry Ford

"The customer is not an interruption of our work, but the purpose of it." - Ray Kroc, McDonald's

I hear he's that clueless.

Even with his pink Centro in hand.

(Oooh, pink! My God! Steve Jobs is bashing his skull for not thinking of THAT!)

Yeah, but according to the alleged dickhead from Palm above, 700K is a "fringe."

Just like the one at the bottom of the slip that dickless eejit no doubt wears.

Come out, come out, wherever you are, twrock!

Do you think it's possible for someone to write an app enabling stylus use on an iPhone? I could see the use of that. A stylus is a much better drawing tool than a finger.

I too wish it was in focus. At first, I wondered if it really could handle complex characters (i.e. many strokes), but at the end he started to do just that. So I really wanted to see if it was coming up with the character he was writing (vs. just something in the neighborhood). From what I could see of the stokes on the screen (the blue lines), it looked surprisingly precise. If so, someone really has done an amazing job of getting a "blunt" finger to be recognized with really good precision. I assume that is simply part of Apple's touch technology, which must be anything but simple. Yep, amazing!


"twrock is infamous around these parts" (from my profile over at Brighthand due to my negative 62 rep points rating)

You must jailbreak or pwn the iP/iPT to get it on.

So is this just going to end up being one of those many examples of great ideas that Apple won't let see the light of day?

"We are sorry to inform you, but your square peg didn't fit through our round orifice. Next time try sending us something that we can completely understand and control. But thanks for trying, and better luck next time." The Apple Control Center


"twrock is infamous around these parts" (from my profile over at Brighthand due to my negative 62 rep points rating)

Gimme a break. Apple has done more to fulfill customer expectations in the iPod line than Palm *ever* did with PDAs. In fact, in many cases Apple *exceeded* expectations.

And if you really want, you can get a damned stylus that will work with an iP/iPT.

Apple has done more to fulfill customer expectations in the iPod line than Palm *ever* did with PDAs.

And in my book, Apple is also disappointing with their supposedly "open" SDK, yet anal-retentive distribution system designed to keep all of the control in-house. Premium pricing for limited functionality might be fulfilling your expectations, but not mine.

All the hype (from everyone) might be interesting to read and discuss, but I'm not holding my breath for any of these companies. And I am definitely not buying "promises".


"twrock is infamous around these parts" (from my profile over at Brighthand due to my negative 62 rep points rating)

P.S. I already have Firefox & IE7 installed. Can anyone offer a good reason why I'd WANT Safari on my Wintel machine as well?

P.P.S.
"Premium pricing for limited functionality might be fulfilling your expectations, but not mine."
AMEN!

Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p

Industry sources told Times Online that the device will have a "radically different" appearance to the current device, which has a 4.5 inch screen and slick, aluminium backing. Among the possibilities are flip version, which would enable the screen to be larger, and a sliding model with a regular qwerty keyboard - as opposed to a touchscreen one.

"I think ultimately you going to see multiple versions," one Asia-based analyst, said. "One for customers who want it principally as a music and video device, which will be similar to the existing model, one for people who want to communicate - with the keyboard, and one for people who want it as a substitute for their laptop - that will let them browse the internet on a larger screen."

[sarcasm] Who'da thunk it? Multiple versions for multiple purposes and larger screens! It really is too bad that PIC readers didn't have a clue about what Palm could have been doing all along to keep in the lead in this market space. [/sarcasm]

"twrock is infamous around these parts" (from my profile over at Brighthand due to my negative 62 rep points rating)

Can anyone offer a good reason why I'd WANT Safari on my Wintel machine as well?

Of course it is. And isn't the trade-off with a small square screen obvious?

It really is simple. No one is saying that the Centro (and other small smartphones) isn't the kind of smartphone some people want. For you, sounds like you are really happy with the trade-offs you are making by having an especially small screened smartphone. Great! That's not what I (and quite a few other people around here) want. I don't want it to the extent that I don't even mind carrying two devices around just so I can have my Palm OS functionality in a large screened device, but still have to carry a separate phone.

I certainly didn't mean to imply that a Centro-sized phone is perfect for everyone. Sorry if I gave that impression.

What I was reacting to was the notion that the release of the Centro was some kind of Homer Simpsonesque blunder, and what the world really needs is a Palm iPhone clone. I was also trying to get a handle on what the big advantages would be of a larger device and screen. It's not that I begrudge anyone the device that meets their needs. I'm just trying to figure out what need the larger screen satisfies. Hell, if the advantages of a large screen are really that stellar, maybe [i]I'll[/i] want my next device to have a large screen! :)

I hear you. And I can see how people might get from the things that I said about the Centro that I thought it was a major mistake. I didn't think so much that it was a mistake per se than I was just frustrated to see Palm just doing the "same old thing" when we'd been begging for something much different. Whether it is primarily the small design or primarily the pricing, the Centro is selling well. Can't fault them for that. But I can fault them for letting someone else come out with the "TX-with-a-cell-radio" before Palm did it themselves. (How many times did they want Pat to draw it up for them?!!!)

The large screen is important to me for a number of reasons. The two biggest are the age of my eyes and more "readable" data being available on the screen at one time (for getting work done or simply reading). Editing documents in landscape mode on a TX is very nice.

I wholeheartedly agree with you about editing docs on the TX. That's much easier than doing it on the Centro. (It's possible on the Centro, if you've got the Universal Wireless Keyboard, but the size of the screen makes it less than pleasant.)

I do think the iPhone isn't the "TX-with-a-cell-radio" that you're looking for, though. From my perspective, it looks more like an "IPod-with-a-cell-radio", which is slightly less impressive to me. The SDK is what ruins the iPhone/iPod Touch as a Palm-like device. Apple has it too locked down to do most of the useful things you can do with a Palm.

So, if they want to do it, I think there's still an opportunity for Palm to come back with a TX-with-a-cell-radio. I just wouldn't count on it having great battery life or being a great text-editing machine (without an IR or Bluetooth keyboard).

Incidentally, that's the space I thought the Foleo was going to fill for Palm: If you have the large screen and keyboard right there, any Treo or Centro could effectively become that large-screen PDA. I think the problem was the price point. They priced it like a subnotebook, when that's not quite what it was.

Mike Cane: Enema of the State

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTzl0PzPiK0