Quickies: April Fools, MemStick Pro, Free Zire & More

Hope everyone got a good laugh out of our two April Fools stories. For the record Palm OS 6 has not been canceled. Also in this news update is a new vector based drawing application, find out how to get a free Zire with a new set of tires and a new turn based Medieval strategy game.

Leonardo
wirejunkie has released of version 1.1 of Leonardo, a vector based drawing application. The new version features an improved interface and high resolution support. Leonardo's Workshop, the desktop conduit, allows you to view, edit and print your images from your desktop. Additionally you can now export images to DXF format for use in all your favourite desktop imaging or CAD applications. The program can be downloaded here, it sells for $24.95 USD.

Memory Stick Pro
Several readers have let us know that Sony's Memory Stick Pro cards are now on sale at SonyStyle.com. Introduced earlier this year in 256MB, 512MB and 1GB capacities, the cards are available for about $150, $320 and $640, respectively.

Free Zire with Tires
A new promotion from Michelin gets you a free Palm Zire, with the purchase of four new Michelin tires. The offer is only valid through participating dealers in the U.S. from March 30 through May 10, 2003.

Medieval HeroesMedieval Heroes
Arcona Magi has just released Medieval Heroes for the Palm OS. This is a turn-based strategy game (with RTS elements) based on the Middle Ages. As one of the medieval lords, you will engage in combat with surrounding provinces in an attempt to unite Medieval Europe under your leadership. The gameplay allows one to design and govern your army, engage in battles, spy on your enemies, and conquer their domains. More info here, the full version costs $14.

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Stay-Puft Michelin Man

Fammy @ 4/2/2003 10:32:02 AM #
Better yet, there is a link to download the Michelin man for your Palm! How can you go wrong with that?

If I needed new tires I'd buy Michelin just for a free Zire. My fiancée has been bugging me to get her one (and she likes the look of the Zire, so why not).

_____
Fammy

RE: Stay-Puft Michelin Man
maao @ 4/2/2003 1:22:34 PM #
I won't be buying Michelin tires, or anything else owned by French companies for a while.

Besides, no one can beat Bridgestone.

RE: Stay-Puft Michelin Man
sr @ 4/2/2003 1:38:04 PM #
True, or Firestone - I mean who needs their tires to actually stay on the rim.

Btw, watch the news, France is your ally now. Stop the hate.

RE: Stay-Puft Michelin Man
jho4thclie @ 4/2/2003 1:54:51 PM #
Haha seriously... be mad at Turkey not France.

Boycott thanksgiving this year (!?)

-JWH

RE: Stay-Puft Michelin Man
wrongnumber @ 4/2/2003 2:07:08 PM #
why restrict it to the turks and the french...hate everyone!!

Share the hate.

RE: Stay-Puft Michelin Man
Altema @ 4/2/2003 3:27:45 PM #
"Btw, watch the news, France is your ally now. Stop the hate."

Agree with the second item, have not heard about the first and can't find the info on Reuters or CNN. Got a link?

And, just to remain partially on topic, does Michelin warranty the tires in case you "accidently" run over your Zire?

RE: Stay-Puft Michelin Man
Token User @ 4/2/2003 3:47:10 PM #
I am about to get new tires. With the difference in price between a set of Bridgestones (had Potenzas on a previous car, am leaning toward touring version for current car) and a set of Michelins (had MXVs on same previous car), I could just about afford a Sony NZ90 :)


~ "Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed." - DV ~

RE: Stay-Puft Michelin Man: France Boycott
talos4 @ 4/2/2003 11:17:44 PM #

Thanks for bringing to our attention the fact that Michelin is a French company (I've bought my last set of Michelin tires). If you want to debate France's behavior pls take it to the off-topic forum. There's lots of good stuff there.

R

RE: Stay-Puft Michelin Man
kunstmann @ 4/3/2003 2:17:29 AM #
BTW, if someone should ban a product from somewhere, the world should ban any product coming from a US company. In protest for a war they illegally started without consentment of the UN, for the sole reason of stealing another country's oil!.

RE: Stay-Puft Michelin Man
helf @ 4/3/2003 8:38:25 AM #
*BTW, if someone should ban a product from somewhere, the world should ban any product coming from a US company. In protest for a war they illegally started without consentment of the UN, for the sole reason of stealing another country's oil!.*


ahahahahhahahhaha. Give it up peacenik.
You piece people lost that battle before you even started. So give it up already. It's annoying.

RE: Stay-Puft Michelin Man
helf @ 4/3/2003 8:38:25 AM #
*BTW, if someone should ban a product from somewhere, the world should ban any product coming from a US company. In protest for a war they illegally started without consentment of the UN, for the sole reason of stealing another country's oil!.*


ahahahahhahahhaha. Give it up peacenik.
You peace people lost that battle before you even started. So give it up already. It's annoying.

RE: Stay-Puft Michelin Man
Lidocaineus @ 4/6/2003 1:39:14 PM #
God forbid we have differing opinions in this "land of freedom".

$ony

HeavyUser @ 4/2/2003 1:15:30 PM #
I can buy a 1GB CompactFlash card for $200 on the internet....

RE: $ony
Altema @ 4/2/2003 2:08:19 PM #
Ditto that. I just picked a 256Mb SD for $68.

RE: $ony
masitti @ 4/2/2003 6:13:09 PM #
Where can you buy a 1 GB Compact Flash card for $200?

------------------------
Mario Masitti
http://community.webshots.com/user/mariowc
RE: $ony
Altema @ 4/2/2003 8:46:38 PM #
MobilePlanet has them for $209, but I did not look very hard. Sometime the lowest price is not the best deal. I paid a couple bucks extra for my 256Mb SD cards from Page Computer, but thought it was worth it because they have always done very well by me.

RE: $ony
Cheap Guy @ 4/2/2003 10:29:34 PM #
When I saw the $640 1GB memory stick on another site, I thought THAT was an April Fool's joke - both the price and the size. I guess it WOULD be convenient to carry around a couple of movies or an entire music collection on a MS, especially for use on a Sony laptop, but I'll wait for the price to drop to the "less than a car note" range.

Artelope V

ganoe @ 4/2/2003 4:16:41 PM #
There's a relatively new version of Artelope as well. It exports to Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format.

http://www.artelope.biz/

Any comparisons between this and Leonardo?

RE: Artelope V
Altema @ 4/4/2003 11:44:50 AM #
I looked at Artelope, but it appears to not support triangles which I need for my network installation sketches. Leo does triangles in spades (you can even resize, reshape, amd move them), but it only exports in cad format.

Right now I use SimpleSketch. It does triangles and creates a BMP file on the desktop which I can email directly to cable vendors. However, there are no undo functions and no object move functions... if you mess up, you do it over.

RE: Artelope V
transmitcomplete @ 4/4/2003 6:06:29 PM #
Artelope V does triangles. (Look at the picture on http://www.artelope.biz). It actually does any kind of polygon that you can draw. It doesn't have specific tools for specific shapes; instead it uses shape recognition, like on the old Newtons.

APRIL FOOLS JOKE

TSC @ 4/2/2003 5:43:35 PM #
It's fun reading a good joke, but I feel that on a source point like PALM INFOCENTER they sould be qualified and stated first that the following is a first, i.e., April Fools Joke:
Blah, blah (text), etc.

Oten when one reads in a hurry and the data is accepted as fact. Do any of you remember Orsen Wells' "War of the Worlds ... and what happened?

TSC



RE: APRIL FOOLS JOKE
masitti @ 4/2/2003 6:13:39 PM #
Putting something like:

APRIL FOOLS JOKE! DON'T TAKE FOR REAL! IT'S NOT REAL, JUST MADE UP!

Kinda spoils the whole story, no? :)

------------------------
Mario Masitti
http://community.webshots.com/user/mariowc

RE: APRIL FOOLS JOKE
maven @ 4/2/2003 6:33:52 PM #
Suprisingly, even stating a story is just a joke wouldn't be enough in many cases.

On Gambit Studios web site, we have "April Fools" in big letters, and we are still getting email from people interested in testing.

But I have to agree... if you are going to pull an April Fools joke, you don't give it away up-front. It spoils the purpose.

Have a great week, and enjoy life!

RE: APRIL FOOLS JOKE
Altema @ 4/2/2003 8:52:18 PM #
"and we are still getting email from people interested in testing."

Does this mean my order is going to be late?

;)

joke?

palm_pilot_guy @ 4/2/2003 8:13:37 PM #
next year, lemmie do the april fools stories, please?

----
two sl10s in the hand don't make an sj30 in the bush.
RE: joke?
pen_n_paper @ 4/6/2003 6:17:31 AM #
lol not from you....really....you will make it april torture day.

----------------------------------------
Join my forums and read my reviews at,
www.pants-onfire.2ya.com
Current reviews,
TT,Zire,NX60/NX70v

maybe they should cancel it

mj6798 @ 4/3/2003 6:27:38 PM #
Palm could ship a Linux-based PDA, running both Palm OS 4 emulation and Palm OS 5 emulation within a month if they wanted to. They'd instantly have lots of new, native software available that took full advantage of the machine and all the old stuff would continue to run.

Instead, they are getting later and later with another proprietary operating system with little tool support and no native software for it.

I think what Palm is doing with Palm OS 6 is a serious case of "NIH". And it may well kill Palm.

RE: maybe they should cancel it
abosco @ 4/3/2003 10:30:47 PM #
Hey, I've got a suggestion that will do us all a favor. Before you decide to talk again, do some research as to what "proprietary" means before you use it in a sentence in which it's the exact opposite.

Palm OS has been licensed by multiple companies running multiple devices on multiple platforms (it's on a watch for Christ's sake). Palm, Sony, HandSpring, Samsung, Kyocera, Symbol, HandEra, Acer, AlphaSmart, Garmin, Acer, Fossil... I mean really here, proprietary? It's running on screens ranging from black and white 160x160 on a 16 mhz processor to 320x480 16 bit color and a 300 MHz processor capable of up to 1 GHz. It can be included with a 2 MP camera, GPS, or in a watch.

... Jeez.

-Bosco
Proud Member of the Top Non-Mods
Members: abosco and ImpReza M3
Now accepting new applications

RE: maybe they should cancel it
ganoe @ 4/4/2003 3:06:02 PM #
I do have to ask:
1. Why you would think Linux is a good OS for PDAs?
2. What software would "instantly" be available for a Linux PDA?

The only somewhat successful Linux PDA is the Sharp Zaurus, and despite being "open" it has its own "proprietary" issues that I suggest you investigate.

There are plenty of good proprietary operating systems out there (QNX and Solaris for example).

RE: maybe they should cancel it
mj6798 @ 4/6/2003 1:01:12 PM #
Palm OS has been licensed by multiple companies running multiple devices on multiple platforms

Yes, and it is still proprietary: Palm owns it, they just license it to others. One of the important consequences is that there are no standards for it (it is whatever Palm decides to make it) and there are no other implementations of it. Another important consequence is that it is 2003 and Palm still hasn't managed to ship a native ARM version of their OS.

It's running on screens ranging from black and white 160x160 on a 16 mhz processor to 320x480 16 bit color and a 300 MHz processor capable of up to 1 GHz. It can be included with a 2 MP camera, GPS, or in a watch.

Well, but let's look under the covers, shall we. The current ARM version of PalmOS doesn't run applications natively, and the move from the 68k to the ARM seems to require a major rewrite and several years of work. When it's done, you will probably have to rewrite large chunks of your applications to take advantage of the new APIs. Cameras and audio on many devices aren't actually handled by PalmOS, but by oddball processors and data paths that go around the OS. And the way that vendors of new Palm devices use the OS is by making custom versions of the OS, as opposed to merely supplying new drivers.

Linux, in contrast, runs on anything from stamp-sized embedded systems to supercomputers, including dozens of different processor architectures. Porting it to a different processor architecture is simple, and applications usually only require recompilation if you want them to run natively (of course, you can run them emulated as well). And it has mature and open APIs and a huge number of development tools and libraries.

In fact, so do lots of other operating systems: I don't want to get hung up on Linux. BSD would be just as good, as would be many commercial, POSIX-compliant kernels.


RE: maybe they should cancel it
mj6798 @ 4/6/2003 1:17:11 PM #
1. Why you would think Linux is a good OS for PDAs?

Well, it's available now, it works well on handhelds, it has lots of drivers and software available for it, and it doesn't cost Palm anything. Those seems like good reasons to me. Furthermore, there are hundreds of people working on making it better and more full-featured.

Note that "Linux" does not mean that the Palm has to greet you with a "login:" prompt. Palm could put whatever user environment they like on top of it. A Linux-based Palm would probably look just like an OS5 device and be running most of the same application software.

2. What software would "instantly" be available for a Linux PDA?

Well, let me be clear that I'm not primarily referring to end user handheld applications. Palm users might or might not want to run some of the existing Linux handheld applications.

I would expect that in a move to Linux, Palm would create a GUI library that gives a Linux-based Palm a distinctive Palm look-and-feel.

What I am primarily referring to is things like libraries, development tools, utilities, scripting languages, and drivers. If I need support for some weird networking protocol, image format, etc., on Linux, chances are it's already there and at most needs recompilation for a Linux-based PDA.

The only somewhat successful Linux PDA is the Sharp Zaurus, and despite being "open" it has its own "proprietary" issues that I suggest you investigate.

I have a Zaurus (in addition to a Palm). It has no "proprietary" issues as far as the Linux kernel is concerned. Sharp made the mistake of picking a proprietary GUI, but that's a mistake that Palm could easily avoid. And even with its proprietary GUI, Sharp's use of Linux makes those devices immensely more useful than Palm's, and there are lots of third party applications. If Sharp offered the SL-A300 (which is comparable in size to the smaller Palms) in the US, I'd throw my Palm away in a heartbeat.

There are plenty of good proprietary operating systems out there (QNX and Solaris for example).

The software is proprietary, but the APIs are not, and that's really the issue here.

I'd be just as happy if Palm were to pick QNX or Solaris or any other POSIX-compliant OS for their handheld. But once you decide on supporting open and standard APIs, you might as well go with the implementation that is cheapest and most mature, and Linux is probably that (QNX and Solaris have some features that are good in niche markets but probably don't matter on handhelds).

What is not fine is for Palm to hack away forever reinventing the wheel.

RE: maybe they should cancel it
ganoe @ 4/7/2003 1:38:03 PM #
I'd love to point to some of the discussion threads on zaurus.com, but the website is down at the moment. There's some "good" discussion in the two-part "Trouble in Paradise" column on http://www.zaurii.net/ on the state of the Zaurus. Sorry, but there have been zero successes in the open source PDA OS market as far as I'm concerned, so I don't see that as a reasonable direction for Palm to take at this time. It is certainly not because I don't like the Zaurus; I tried to buy one form HSN yesterday.

Furthermore, your biggest argument seems to be for "open APIs". Well, AFAIK Palm publishes all the APIs it considers stable for developers to use. I don't expect that to change.

You also seem to want to argue that legacy Palm OS apps will not be easily portable to native OS 6. Maybe you have some inside info that I am not aware of, but I have every reason to believe that PalmSource would attempt to make porting legacy apps as easy as possible.

Oh, and don't forget that PalmSource has BeOS to work with.

RE: maybe they should cancel it
mj6798 @ 4/7/2003 11:46:50 PM #
There's some "good" discussion in the two-part "Trouble in Paradise" column on http://www.zaurii.net/ on the state of the Zaurus. Sorry, but there have been zero successes in the open source PDA OS market as far as I'm concerned, so I don't see that as a reasonable direction for Palm to take at this time.

We have two companies in the US, Palm and Microsoft, which for historical reasons dominate the market. Of course, it's difficult for any company to break into that market and attract developers. We have had the same situation with desktop operating systems in the past. That tells you nothing about the quality of their software.

If Palm were to use an open source kernel, it would be a success--simply because Palm is still in a position where anything they put out will catch on. The only question is how long Palm will make it and whether that is good for users and developers.

Furthermore, your biggest argument seems to be for "open APIs". Well, AFAIK Palm publishes all the APIs it considers stable for developers to use. I don't expect that to change.

How does that make the APIs "open"? Open APIs means that they are independently standardized and can be implemented by anybody.

You also seem to want to argue that legacy Palm OS apps will not be easily portable to native OS 6.

No, I'm arguing that PalmOS apps will not be able to take advantage of the new capabilities without significant rewrites. That doesn't depend on what Palm puts into PalmOS 6, it depends on what is lacking in PalmOS 4 and 5.

Refresh

HeavyUser @ 4/4/2003 3:04:04 PM #
what's going on with this site? No news is NOT good news....

RE: Refresh
Altema @ 4/6/2003 9:30:48 PM #
I was wondering that myself. I used to check several times a day... guess that needs to be adjusted. Of course, everyone needs a break now and then, or maybe he's just working on big breaking news.

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