Palm Conducting a Times Square Marketing Push

Palm can't seriously be thinking that this nonsense will generate buzz for the company. Right now the Pre/Pixi are essentially unmarketable. The Palm hardware sucks and every Android phone and iPhone makes the Pre/Pixi look like crap.

Palm needs to release webOS on hardware worth buying and then focus on marketing *those* phones. Do they REALLY think that givng away Palm-labelled Chapstick and other useless trinkets is going to sway people from buying an HTC EVO or iPhone 4G and make them get a Pre/Pixi instead? Please.

FJH

Remember when people would write positive comments on here and had enthusiasm for Palm like this (same story):
http://www.precentral.net/palm-hits-times-square#comments

Submitted as an article for PIC:

It's time to face what we have dreaded for years, yet tried try to pretend was not inevitable: Palm's demise.

As a public service, I, Fake Jeff Hawkins am pleased to offer the following advice to current PalmOS users that are not sure what to do next in these uncertain times.

1) Decide whether or not it's time to completely pull the plug and abandon PalmOS for good. Review the advantages and disadvantages of PalmOS for your unique usage patterns and compare them to the features offered by competing operating systems like iPhone OS, Android, and Windows Mobile. In many cases, these competing operating systems have evolved to the point that you may feel that they are competitive with PalmOS. If you dislike the features and user interface of these other operating systems then it is probably in your best interest to stick with Palm for at least a little longer.

2) Review the programs that you use the most and check to see whether or not the same or equivalent programs are available on competing operating systems or whether or not a PalmOS emulator that can run all of your favorite PalmOS applications is available for the competing operating systems. Make sure that you actually test any emulators yourself and inquire as to whether or not these emulators are compatible with any conduits that are necessary to work with your applications. In many cases developers have begun releasing versions of former Palm-only applications and in some instances these non-Palm versions are actually superior to the original Palm applications (e.g. the superb application tryda was recently released for iPhoneOS). Given the size of the Palm application catalog it will not be surprising if you find that there are some applications that you use that have no equivalents on competing operating systems. In those cases you will need to decide whether or not the lack of availability of these unique programs are a dealbreaker for you.

3) Review how much it will cost in both hardware and repurchasing all of the software needed to fully recreate your previous PalmOS application environment. Decide re: whether or not these costs are prohibitive.

4) Review your current PalmOS hardware and decide how important it is to you that unique form factors (e.g. Palm Centro, Sony CLIE UX50, Palm Vx) may not be available in the hardware running competing operating systems.

5) Decide re: whether or not you are willing to carry a separate phone and PDA or if you want to carry only a single device. If you are interested in only carrying a single device, in many cases modern non-PalmOS hardware is significantly superior to the hardware running PalmOS smartphones. In these instances, sticking with PalmOS would be ill advised, given the number of features that users would miss out on if not taking advantage of newer smartphones running competing operating systems. If you are willing to carry 2 separate devices decide re: how best to combine these devices. By using 2 separate devices users maximize flexibility, ease of upgrading, data redundancy and work efficiency at the cost of added bulk. Some of the combination options include:
Latest smartphone hardware (e.g. Sprint HTC EVO) + old PalmOS PDA (e.g. Palm Vx)
Latest smartphone hardware (e.g. Apple iPhone) + unique PalmOS PDA (e.g. Sony CLIE UX50)
Latest smartphone hardware (e.g. Google Nexus One) + PalmOS smartphone (e.g. Palm Centro 2)
PalmOS smartphone (e.g. Palm Treo 755p) + non PalmOS PDA or tablet device (e.g. Apple iPod Touch)
Dumbphone (e.g.Samsung Rogue) and PalmOS PDA (e.g. Palm Tungsten X)
webOS smartphone (e.g. Palm Pixi) and PalmOS smartphone (e.g. Palm Centro 2)
Dumbphone (e.g. Blackberry Bold) and PalmOS smartphone (e.g. Palm Centro 2)

6) If deciding to carry 2 separate devices decide if you want to have 1 or 2 active cell phone plans and 1 or 2 active data plans. Factors in this decision include need for having a backup cell phone; desire to have the option to have a SIM chip-enabled device to facilitate easy switching of phones or easy use in other countries; local coverage and voice quality issues; availability of alternate means of making voice calls with each device, including Skype; availability of phones provided by one's employer; and cost issues.

7) Download the latest (often final) copies of all PalmOS applications that you have purchased, use, or even think you may use in the future, as in many cases these applications will eventually disappear from availability on the Internet. Obtain registration codes for all device names for all purchased software from developers ASAP and write these down in a text file, as once the developers stop selling PalmOS applications in many instances they cease supporting these programs almost immediately. Burn at least 2 DVDs containing copies of all applications that you are interested in, in addition to the corresponding registration codes. Also include copies of useful articles, reviews, etc. you may have come across over the years on the Internet or via other sources. Assume that if something has not been backed up it will never be available to you again.

8) Make yourself familiar with all competing operating systems so that you are capable of making an informed decision as to whether or not these OSes have the potential to replace PalmOS. Personally test as many different hardware and software configurations running competing operating systems as you can, because there remains wide variation in quality amongst these implementations (see Android hardware and software as Exhibit #1).

9) Experiment with new hardware, software and other technologies and become familiar with their advantages and disadvantages - you may ultimately find that you no longer need or want a PalmOS device. Examples of some interesting hardware/software/technologies include:
- "Cloud" based services. But be aware of risks of compromised security and potential loss of data availability whenever connections go down
- Pimlical
- Evernote
- Xobni
- ritePen
- iPad
- Windows Speech Recognition

10) If you decide that you want to stay with PalmOS, purchase at least 1 or 2 backup devices (ideally in new condition). Cell phones and PDAs get lost, broken or just plain fail at alarming rates. Also purchase the corresponding accessories like styli and charging stands. If you are planning to rely on PalmOS for a long time it makes sense to get reliable backup hardware while it is still available. If possible, always purchase devices that have been proven to be superior performers over the years:
Palm IIIxe, Palm Vx, Palm m500, Palm TX, Palm Centro 2 (revised 128 MB model that had been released for Sprint only), almost every Sony CLIE, TRGpro, HandEra 330.

Is anybody home at Palm?? A Hummer?? Great way to show you are thinking in the past and out of touch with the present. They were cool in the '90s. Since then, we've had an economic disaster. An ongoing environmental disaster is making the Gulf a total long-term mess. In our current social environment they are seen as pretentious, gaudy symbols of greed by many. Many others see them merely as a tribute to a much stupider time. This is the vehicle that Palm dresses up? Why not use something like a Tesla "S" as your vehicle? Beautiful, young and clean.

I just submitted an article on how to surve the death of PalmOS.

Let's see some fresh articles getting posted here - the site is becoming like a morgue!

Here are some suggestions (others can add their own suggestions):

1) Comparison between iPhone (and then iPhone 4G) and Pre and HTC EVO and Centro 2

2) List of top 20 webOS apps

3) List of top 100 PalmOS apps

4) Article outlining how to migrate from PalmOS to webOS

5) Interview with DateBk6 creator, CES Dewar

6) Interview with PalmOS UI guru, Ron Haitani

7) Interview with Jeff Hawkins discussing the Foleo project

8) Review of Foleo

9) Review of CLIE VZ90

10) Review of a Palm Tungsten T3 running Cobalt

11) Interview with Ben Combee

12) Review of StyleTap running on iPhone or iPod Touch

13) Review of Classic running on Pre

14) List of top 10 PalmOS devices

15) List of top 10 PalmOS advancements

16) Interview with Tapwave CEO/founder

17) Voice quality comparison test between Treo 755p, Centro 2, GSM Centro, iPhone, HTC EVO and a good dumbphone

18) GPS comparison between PalmOS (with Garmin XT), webOS, iPhone and Android

19) Review of personal finance software for PalmOS and webOS

20) Review of alternate browser options with PalmOS

21) Comparison test between Chatteremail and native webOS, Android and PalmOS email applications

21) List of top 10 PalmOS launchers

22) Software review of Butler

23) Software review of LauncherX

24) Software review of FontHack

25) Daily software review of 1000 other unique PalmOS apps... One new app in the spotlight every day

There is ZERO excuse for the lack of content other than a lack of effort. There is a ton of stuff to read + write about with PalmOS and webOS - let's see multiple daily articles getting posted here before it's too late.

FJH

There is no censorship, just removing old inappropriate anonymous attack posts. Since there are better things to do than monitor trolling on the Internet on a holiday weekend, I will have to close this off topic discussion temporarily.