New Palm OS Devices Coming: HandEra, Smartphone and Watch

Posted By: Ed on Saturday, March 17, 2001 8:43:33 AM

HandEra, the new name for TRG Products, is on the list of people with a booth at CeBit next week. They may use this as an opportunity to release their new model, which is rumored to have an improved screen and an updated design.

Samsung has finally posted a picture (left) of the SPH-1300, the smartphone they announced at PalmSource, though they give almost no details. The most interesting thing about it is that it will have a color screen, giving it a leg up on the recently released Kyocera smartphone, which does not.

At its announcement, Samsung called their smartphone a "wireless intelligent terminal". It is expected to use CDMA, cost about $500, and be released in the second quarter of this year.

Fossil is rumored to be developing a watch that runs the Palm OS, accordingthis Geek.com article. According to Joel, "it will sync with the Palm, be able to beam, and is slated for a Fall launch." It is supposed to be close to the Matsucom OnHand, the world's smallest PDA.

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Soft Silkscreen?

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/17/2001 2:16:20 PM #

Maybe its just my imagination, but to me, the grafitti-entry/soft-button area looks like its in software, along with the battery info, etc. above the standard palmos display...

Earlier picture...

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/17/2001 8:20:17 PM #

I'm a little surprised no one mentioned this thing earlier. There's a picture of this pda phone on p. 38 of the March issue of Gear magazine (received in the mail almost a month ago). It's a black & white pic which shows a different set of icons on the screen. They don't give much info other than stating it's Samsung's thinnest phone, but state a $395 price.

RE: Earlier picture...

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/17/2001 8:32:51 PM #

Quick addendum. Looking at both the new pic and the old one, there's an extra line on the LCD visible in both units that's not part of the standard Palm display. In the new picture, it appears to have some icons in the upper right. In the old picture, this line says "Phone OFF" in the upper left corner, and has a battery icon in the upper right corner.

I also remember hearing from a Samsung rep at CES that this unit also has a small LCD on either the side or top of the unit that shows caller id, time/date, battery information (like a pager display) so you don't have to take it off your belt to see what's going on. He did mention that it was an early prototype that he saw, but this same info was also present in an earlier CNET article, so hopefully it'll be included on the final product. He also told me that the unit is the same thickness as the Palm V (not sure if that includes battery or not).

RE: Earlier picture...

Ed @ 3/18/2001 12:05:55 PM #

I try to find everything I can about what is going on with the Palm platform, but I need your help. If you run across something really interesting that we haven't covered, please contribute it.

Thanks!

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Plenipotentiary
Palm Infocenter

I like it

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2001 12:29:57 PM #

Yeah It's a little bigger than you average Palm based PDA, and your Cell phone, but I like it. I think it is a much smoother look than Handsprings add on to their Visor for the phone and other Palm based Phones I have seen. I think it's interesting that this would have to have "soft buttons" to dail out. I don't know if that would be a good thing or not.

RE: I like it

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2001 12:34:39 PM #

I was curious about the "keypad" buttons myself. Here's wondering if there's a "standard" keypad on the other side - although that might be a bit kludgey in and of itself.

Pete

RE: I like it

CharFeld @ 3/19/2001 12:48:18 PM #

I would much rather have soft buttons than a flip piece with keypad. I think a flip piece would get in the way when using the palm portion. Also, I have found flip phones to be less sturdy than one-piece units.

This picture looks amazing! If it does sell for $500, it would clearly force Kyocera & Handspring to lower the price on their products.

Smartphone and MP3 Player

Ed @ 3/19/2001 9:22:15 PM #

Hey, I was just playing the PalmSource keynote address again and got reminded that Samsung announced that this smartphone would also be an MP3 player.

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Plenipotentiary
Palm Infocenter

Palm Software on sale