Comments on: Palm Announcing New Smartphone Tomorrow

Bring the Foleo anyway.

USR Palm Pilot 1000 --> Palm Pilot Professional --> TRG SuperPilot --> Palm IIIc --> Palm V --> Palm M505 --> Palm M515 --> Tungsten T|2 --> Treo 600 --> LifeDrive --> iPhone

I mean, I though the Foleo had promise, and I was disappointed they killed it, but bringing the Foleo to tomorrow's event would be like bringing your mistress to your wedding anniversary - an embarrassing distraction. It would simply muddy the message they want to get out tomorrow. Far better to hold a separate event, when they're ready, to announce Foleo 2.

At this point Palm desperately needs a base hit, not another foul ball (sorry for the sports analogy).

Stewart Midwinter
PDA user since 1992 (Sharp PC-3100)
Palm TX

Dismissed.

Next!

"Let the name of Fooleo be stricken from every book and tablet, stricken from all pylons and obelisks, stricken from every monument of Sunnyvale. Let the name of Fooleo be unheard and unspoken, erased from the memory of men for all time."

This is cyberspace.

Nothing is EVER forgotten.

nobody caught the reference?

-e

Apple will likely continue the glacial progress of adding a PDA feature here & there to the iPhone & the Touch, bit by bit. Aside from the lack of removable media, IR, a stylus, handwriting recognition, hard buttons, and 3rd party apps, the iPhone/Touch twins will probably mostly resemble an early Palm OS PDA by their 3rd generation (at least as far as PIM capabilities) that no one will really mind.

Now, if Apple IS serious about this (I have to wonder Jobs' enthusiasm, Apple's R&D budget + gang of industrial engineers & codemonkeys can support five "core" product lines) then Palm had better hang it up. In fact, good bad or otherwise, with the relase of the TX in '05, Palm was inching close to PDA perfection, despite the limitations of Garnet. Had Palm continued to roll out annual improvements to their PDA line it's very likely HP would have thrown in the iPaq towel completely and Apple would never have given a Newton 2.0 another thought.

This is yet another situation (assuming the rumor is correct) where Palm manages to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. So, Palm, if those "PC guys" cannot do a phone right the first time around, can they at least do a PDA right? After all, Apple costly Newton fumbles paved the way for nearly everything the Pilot got right initially back in '96.

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

Palm manages to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory

ROFTLMAO.

Don't forget it was Apple that popularized that. (Note I did not say INVENTED. But what was Xerox PARC doing with it? Zilch...)

BTW, I'd say look at the trackpad on the new thin MacBooks coming soon. I think we'll see a hint of what's in store for this future Apple UMPC.

Seeing that the iPhone and iPod Touch both run OS X it's probably not difficult for Apple to add handwriting recognition should the need arise:

http://www.apple.com/uk/macosx/features/inkwell/

I've noticed some of the Inkwell's dialogue boxes and options are suspiciously similar to those displayed in the Newton's handwriting preferences.

removable media, IR, a stylus, handwriting recognition, hard buttons, and 3rd party apps

Well the entire Newton range had all of these over ten years ago, so it can't be difficult for Apple to add these features to a device now that parts are smaller, faster and cheaper. It's simply a matter of whether Apple thinks there's money to be made from such a device. Remember, Apple has a PDA which it decided not to market. I'd be unsurprised if the iPhone and iPod Touch were actually based on this unreleased PDA.

I'm skeptical about these reports unless Apple is thinking of offering an OS X UMPC. I think Apple/Jobs see UMPCs as niche and toy devices, Apple is definitely after the mass market. However the iPod Touch may well be the Trojan Horse that transforms into a PDA, especially if Apple achieves this via a software update of existing Touches and allows 3rd party apps. This will totally kill off the Tx. Mind you, even Palm wants to kill off its own Tx and PDAs.

ROTFLMAO.

It kills Palm, period.

The site above says $25/month...simply me being out of the loop again?

So tack on (a two-year additional) $240 to the cost...

Me: "I'm Mike Cane. Did you bring the Foleo?"

Palm: "No. Wanna see our new phones?"

Me: "&%$# off!"

Nah, it's new PHONE,as in singular!

And now.....Engadget is reporting a $199 EFFECTIVE price with a $100 lame mail-in rebate that'll likely never materialize?

NEXT!

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

Don't need Engadget to rumor that - the Sprint web page directly says it.

But...if yer gonna say THAT, then you MUST add in that additional $240 over the contract period to get $439.

Or...if you are being charitable and say the $100 rebate actually DOES materialize (I would, BTW), you MUST add in that $240 STILL and get $339.

It has a $199 price with a $100 mail-in coupon if you sign a 2 year contact for a net purchase price of $99. Either way a vey good price.

The "standard" Sprint data plan is $15/month.

This phone, however, requires a $25 (or more) per month "data" plan.

That is, it requires $240 extra (at least) over the two-year contract term.

Idiot indeed - nothing like ignoring something that might be...you know...critical to a buying decision...

Ah, clever, aren't they?
They are masking the phone's hardware costs by forcing Centro purchasers to subscribe to a pricier data plan.

Now, SV, I'm no math whiz but how are you getting $240 over 2 years?

24 months x $25/month= $600!

And I think all of the CDMA carriers mandate that you must have a voice PLUS data plan on their "smart" devices. I know I tried to get Verizon to let me have a data-only plan ($45/month I believe) on my 700p. But they INSISTED I take the minimum $80/month "Smartphone/PDA voice + data plan. So I get 450 mins a month of voice time on my 700p and I probably only use about 45 minutes per month (if that!)

Hey, Palm, here's a tip to get the c00l kidz, hipsters, AND PDA faithful buying your stuff again:

Take THIS device (the Centro). Call it a Z33 or something. Remove the cellular & voice "stuff" entirely but keep the microphone and speaker. Throw in wi-fi, same as the TX. Replace the 2.5mm headset jack with a proper 3.5mm stereo headset jack. Stick a gig or two of flash memory in it. Sell it for $200-$250 at retail as a replacement for both the Z22 and Tungsten E2 and a kinda/sorta iPod Nano/Touch competitor. Partner with someone and "hint" that it can be used as a solid VOIP handset in addition to a poor man's PMP & PDA. People have been begging for a non-Graffiti, QWERTY PDA for years, ever since the Treo 90 died a quiet death.

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

-- http://www.videonewswire.com/event.asp?id=42256

Nothing is ever forgotten.

Nothing ever works correctly.