Comments on: Northglide NeatFreak Pack Updated

1. is anyone here going to replace their palm PDA with this ipod Touch?

2. does anyone here still use a palm PDA?

this "Touch" seems like what the PDA crows has been clamoring for -

a. large beautiful display
b. best-of-class browser
c. wifi
d. large memory storage
e. great price point
f. NOT MSFT/Windows
g. thin/slim/light
h. intuitive GUI

what's stopping you?

I've opined that PALM's CFO has hinted - or outright suggested - that PALM could rethink their decision to get out of PDAs.

I think now that PALM would be stupid beyond belief to try to get back into PDAs.

Apple has ideas, eh?

Talk about potential, wrapped up in a beautiful package.

After the cancellation of the Foleo, Palm says they are going to be back with a vengeance. Here are the benchmarks they have to match or beat:

Smartphone with keyboard: Blackberry Curve & 8800 series
Smartphone with touchscreen: Iphone
PDA with touchscreen: Ipod Touch

I don't know where they should even start... maybe it would be a good time to get back into the Foleo niche market.

Handspring Visor, Palm V, Treo 180, Treo 90, Treo 600, Treo 650, Treo 700p
MTT

Giggle.

and what better place to sell iphone/ipod APPLICATIONS?

itunes istore!

I agree. I can see Itunes eventually selling applications for the Iphone & Ipod Touch. It would allow all sorts of benefits... Apple could do QC & testing before releasing the apps, developers would have a very easy and direct way to get their apps to the consumer, payments would run right through the Itunes account, updates to apps could be applied right through the Itunes sync, and it would be easy for the end user.

It seems like a win/win solution - Developers would probably get pretty good revenue & terms (if Apple's contracts with indie record companies are any indication), and it would give Apple a great deal of control, to help keep quality, stability, & consistancy at a high level.

Handspring Visor, Palm V, Treo 180, Treo 90, Treo 600, Treo 650, Treo 700p
MTT

If Apple open it up to third-party developers, and use iTunes for the delivery and installation of applications, it will be killer. It will be exactly what Palm's customer's have been asking for. The only other stumbling block is the total absence of PIM, but if they open it up that could be fixed quite easily.

But who knows whether Apple actually want to? (open it up) Maybe they'll set themselves up as the orifice and only let people run Apple-approved apps. That would suck.

Interesting times!

Tim
I apologise for any and all emoticons that appear in my posts. You may shoot them on sight.
Treo 270 ---> Treo 650 ---> Crimson Treo 680

You know, the Touch is to Apple's iPhone what Palm's PDA line is to their Treo line---devoid of carrier interference and lacking any mission-critical voice functionality.
But instead of squandering that aspect like Palm has, Apple can easily run with it (and breathe new life into the "it's only dead if you say it's dead" PDA market).

Another example:

16GB appears first on Touch then a few months later on iPhone?

3rd party apps appear first on Touch then at some point in the future on iPhone?

SOME kind (write only microSDHC?) of external expansion slot appears first on Touch then later on iPhone?

BRILLIANT!

What if Apple decides to eventually start putting a decent quality camera in the Touch? I am almost positive we'll see a BT A2DP-enabled Touch within a year.

Boy, just 2 months or so ago Hawkins told our very own Ryan Kairer that the PDA had been "perfected" and evolved about as much as it can be. Those haughty comments taken in the context of today's news makes Hawkins look like a 2-trick pony instead of an industry visionary, huh?

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

Boy, just 2 months or so ago Hawkins told our very own Ryan Kairer that the PDA had been "perfected" and evolved about as much as it can be.

Oh yeah, do I ever remember. I just about went ballistic over that comment. It "ranked" (pun intended) right up there with Colligan's comment about how the computer guys couldn't get it right the first time with a smartphone.

I'm getting really tired of the excuses from Palm leadership/management about why things aren't working. Others have been trying to tell you but you aren't listening. And if you don't know what you are doing, resign and let someone else do it.

Ehh, why am I even bothering?!!


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a/ We're about to see if the PDA was indeed dead. As claimed by it's creator.

b/ Will Apple take this all the way and open up the platform to 3rd party developers?

c/ Will VOIP come to iPod Touch? I see opportunity in combining a great PIM (such as Agendus with an Apple touch) with VOIP in this form factor and I know Apple could sell it! ;)

You peeked around the curtain, huh?

What's the original Subject of this thread again?

That's about it, right?

-- http://mobilemedics.co.uk/images/bluetooth_icon50.jpg

is the Bluetooth icon.

Apple is giving a $100 gift certificate to all prior buyers of iPhones if they are otherwise ineligible for discounts.

http://www.cell-phone-accessory.org/motstarwirph.html

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

Back when Motorola's StarTac design started getting a bit long in the tooth---this must've been around 1999 or so (the 'Tac came out in Jan '96)--they came out with this little gadget that was surprisingly decent. It didn't have a touchscreen and you couldn't input data on it. But the battery life was decent, it was easy to use with a fairly friendly UI, little rubberized hard buttons and even an EL backlight on the surprisingly amply-sized "widescreen" mono LCD. And it came with some kind of rudimentary sync/contact management software and the piggyback module could somehow sync or share contacts with the main phonebook of the StarTac. It was certainly a solid effort for the time!

I ALMOST bought one of these as a novelty when I spotted it on the clearance table at CompUSA back in '01 or so but I figured WHAT was the point (I had either my Palm Vx or m505 at the time) of buying one of these when I was about to get rid of my StarTac (I was eagerly awaiting the V60 Moto).

A better picture of it + a mini review:

http://www.cellular-battery.com/motorola/star_tac/organizer.htm

http://www.mobile-review.com/articles/2007/form-factors2-en.shtml

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

It is programmable, comes with things like calendar, etc etc etc.

Looks like a damn good PDA to me.

I think you are WAY wrong.

Stuff like cut'n paste can always be added via ROM updates. I'd personally still like to see a d-pad and/or a stylus but those would be very un Apple-like.

But for those of us who have come to accept the Palm standard as the de facto featureset for PDAs (touchscreen, stylus, hard app buttons + 5-way d pad) might be waiting a very long time indeed for a replacement.

So let's just go ahead and call the Touch a PDA and the iPhone a smartphone and be done with it, alright?

P.S. I consider the Touch more "PDA-ish" than I do the iPhone "smartphone-ish" if that makes ANY sense at all!

P.P.S. At this stage of the game, it doesn't matter how good or bad TCPMP or CorePlayer are in comparison to Apple's offerings. The iPhone & Touch eat the Treos alive in every way possible (3.5mm stereo headphone jack & a beautiful 320x480 LCD). If Palm has the brilliant stroke of genius to add a proper stereo headphone port to the Centro line, it'll be a small but crucial step in the right direction.

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

But I'm not holding my breath for things like cut-n-paste updates and opening up to third-party apps. That's still just wishful thinking. This is Apple. It'll happen if Steve wants it. Otherwise you're SOL. But I can more likely imagine some kind of "Apple approved" apps as long at Apple has all the control and finds a way to make money off of them.


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Want an alternative? Try this: http://www.ubuntu.com/ or http://www.mepis.org/

All good things...

They'll either step up to the plate and use this as an opportunity to improve what they have - OR they'll sit back and keep telling their (remaining) customers to shut up about what they want/need in a device as they have for years.

Until the Apple devices have a keyboard or Graffiti (*ONE*) I have NO use for them. But they could be added by the next model - and I doubt Palm will even figure out how to add any RAM beyond the 50MB before 2012.

If Palm's next "big idea" is a toasteroven because "sometimes people eat toast when they use their Treos" then the game's up.

|
**Another vote for a >100MB RAM Treo**

xpan said:
I am sorry, but Ipod touch is NOT a PDA. Therefore, not so many pim-oriented applications would be developed for this thing. PIM is what makes a PD an A.

Doesn't the iPhone (and therefore I assume the iPod Touch) synch with Outlook through iTunes? If not, it wouldn't be that hard to add the functionality back with a software update. And maybe they'd even make sure to build the PIM functions into the iPhone & iPod Touch (iP/iPT) correctly to synch ALL of the data from Outlook the first time instead of having to have 3rd party apps at all!

And how about adding a decent VOIP app and tie it into the PIM functions? You'd then have a pretty compelling PDA if you ask me! It wouldn't replace a cell phone totally, but if you lived in an area with city-wide WiFi, you could use your iPT for "free" phone calls quite a bit of the time.

Even better, wouldn't it be great if Apple licensed a POS emulator from Access to add to the iPhone & iPod Touch?! You could then run all (or even if most) of your PalmOS apps on the iP/iPT. There's probably a way to do that in protected space to keep the basic iP/iPT functionality from crashing.

I love my Palm TX, but the iPhone & iPod Touch have gotten my attention in a big way, especially with the new reduced pricing on the iPhone.

I'll probably limp along with my TX and my Motorola RAZR V3xx (3 months old) on AT&T until I see what Apple has to deliver in the next 6 - 12 months. Maybe by then they'll have a chipset for 3G that is low power enough and/or they'll have integrated some of the PIM functions into the iPod Touch.

OR....

Palm could respond with a really great TX2 type device with a phone.

BUT NAH....

my money's on Apple in that race...

Brent

Palm Vx --> Long wait --> Palm T|X