Skype Arrives on the Palm OS
EQO Communications has announced immediate availability of EQO Mobile for Skype. This move finally brings the ability for the Palm OS and Treo smartphones to take advantage of Skype Internet telephony for mobile voice communications.
EQO Mobile for Skype lets users make and receive calls, send Instant Messages, and view presence information about their buddies over the Skype network. It is available for free to consumers as a Beta product via the EQO (pronounced "echo") web site.
To get started you need a Skype account, a Palm OS device that can connect to the internet, Windows XP/2000 and a broadband connection. EQO states the Treo 650, 600 and 700w are supported devices.
With this announcement, made at the CTIA Wireless 2006 conference, EQO brings the number of EQO-supported handset models to more than 45, including some of the most popular devices from Nokia, Motorola, Palm, and Sony-Ericsson.
"We've built a platform and a solution that is both flexible and adaptable," said Colin Quon, Founder and CTO of EQO. "This enables us to respond quickly to customer demand in expanding support for new and popular phone models as they hit the streets."
Using a combination of a phone-resident J2ME client and a presence-enabled Voice-over-IP (VoIP) signaling network, the EQO Mobile Internet Phone Service is able to bridge online identity, VoIP calling, and Instant Messaging services to more than 200 million J2ME-capable mobile phone handsets already in use worldwide. With more than 74 million registered users, Skype is the dominant player in Internet calling and Instant Messaging communications services worldwide.
While the company is working with Skype to improve this solution, EQO has built the foundation to extend presence-enabled voice and instant messaging to mobile devices in partnership with other high-profile online communities, instant messaging networks, and wireless carriers.
"Skype is just the tip of the iceberg for EQO," said Ian Andrew Bell, EQO Vice President of Marketing & Alliances. "The hundreds of millions of people associated with online social networks like MySpace and Match.com can enjoy enormous benefit from accessing these communities through wireless devices. We have the technology to deliver it to them."
Thanks to Moaz from Palm Dubai for the tip.
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RE: Skype via TX?
Wont work. The actual phone call goes over the cellular network.
Surur
They said I only argued for the sake of arguing, but after an hour I convinced them they were wrong...
RE: Skype via TX?
That is skype out - but skype has always been pure internet for skype-to-skype. So should work.
RE: Skype via TX?
Correction: Skype STILL unavailable for PalmOS
http://www.skype.com/download/skype/mobile/
No Opera.
http://www.opera.com/download/mobile/?man=Windows+Mobile
No Slingbox.
http://www.slingmedia.com/slingbox/slingplayermobile.php
No Multitasking.
No new OS in the past 4 years.
No further OS development.
No future.
No kidding.
Thanks for all the memories, Palm. Die MoFo, die!
TVoR
RE: Skype via TX?
No crashes due to multitasking taking up too much of system resources.
No problems with alarms.
No playing 'russian roulette' with ActiveSync.
If your masters to fix these problems, the I may switch to a WinCE device. Until then, you Propagandists have a 'hard sell' on your hands.
Not for me
T3 & T5 user
RE: Not for me
POS getting the crumbs...
Like Opera Mini, this is just a client meant for dumb phones, to extend their ability. It uses GPRS and a Java client to maintain a presence on your phone and the Skype network, and then wastes you SkypeOut minutes while people with WIFI or unlimited EVDO would use for free. Its rather sad. Soon, when Thunderhawk comes to Java mini-browsers, we will have a similar headline.
This is software meant for dumb phones. Is the Treo 650 a dumb phone then?
Surur
They said I only argued for the sake of arguing, but after an hour I convinced them they were wrong...
RE: POS getting the crumbs...
I tried it with mu T|C. It runs and install fine over WiFi, but it still needs:
1) a Windows PC running all time, with Skype also running
2) minutes on SkypeOut
It seems you cannot run it over WiFi "for free". If you don't have enough funds on Skypeout, it won't allow the call.
RE: POS getting the crumbs...
I mean a non-POS Skype device e.g. the Treo 700w or any number of pocketpc's.
Surur
They said I only argued for the sake of arguing, but after an hour I convinced them they were wrong...
RE: POS getting the crumbs...
David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
Software Everywhere blog
www.pikesoft.com/blog
RE: POS getting the crumbs...
Yeah but Thunderhawk for Windows Mobile is also client/server with the Thunderhawk service doing heavy lifting on the server side.
RE: POS getting the crumbs...
Last I checked, there was a pretty huge market of Palm OS5 owners. I don't quite understand why developers are ignoring this market. I personally could care less about Skype, but I'm amazed and disappointed that we don't have more and better web browser options for OS5. The Treo 650 is still selling strong and the rumored 700p will still be running OS5 and will be around for another 12 months. Why does Opera ignore this market? Why have the owners of Xiino given up improving upon their product? I just don't get it.
http://Tapland.com
- Tapwave Zodiac News, Reviews, & Discussion -
RE: POS getting the crumbs...
This is ironically true. Thunderhawk is just a huge vnc client/server system in the end. Which makes it further more surprising why there is no POS client.
Surur
They said I only argued for the sake of arguing, but after an hour I convinced them they were wrong...
RE: POS getting the crumbs...
>> 1) a Windows PC running all time, with Skype also running
>> 2) minutes on SkypeOut
>> It seems you cannot run it over WiFi "for free". If you don't >> have enough funds on Skypeout, it won't allow the call.
Hmmm. Based on what I read on the EQO site - you can't use this just over Wifi - it requires a cellular voice connection.
Here is how i understand it from looking at their site (which dumbs down the details to the point where it is difficult to say exactly how it works):
- when calls are made using the phone java client, the client first signals to the EQO service (via cell data network) to provide the 'presence' info and basically forward the call details.
- the client app then initiates the voice call over the standard cellular voice channel as normal, but the client app actually calls to a local skype-in number (to your skype-in number? a local code EQO in?).
- the plugin recieves the signaling data from the EQO service/network and based on this, it effectively uses skype to re-route the (now purely ip) call (incoming to your PC via Skype-in) to either a skype-out number or a skype pc client.
A bit of a simplification - but that is basically how it works as I understand it.
Does this jive with other peoples understanding of how this works? This is just my half-baked theory based on what I read they don't fully explain everything (this simple diagram just shows the voice call going into the 'skype service' - it doesn't explain how: http://www.eqo.com/download_how.html ).
Also, obviously the EQO Skype IM component is not as much of a big deal: it purely uses the cellular data network (I don't think that it interacts with - or at least there is technically no need to - the PC skype in anyway).
RE: POS getting the crumbs...
The indication from the Opera developers has been that it would be simply too difficult bordering on impossible to make a working port for Palm OS. Unfortunately, this is pretty much the same thing that the Minimo devs said. So for the time being, it looks like you're going to have to play with Blazer and Opera Mini.
RE: POS getting the crumbs...
It is difficult for 2 main reasons: on desktop platforms and on Windows Mobile you have nice high-level APIs/objects that do a lot of work for you AND becuase you have multi-threading.
But 'bordering on impossible' is an exageration. More like "making enough money to justify the development effort is bordering on the impossible.":)
There is no technical reason why it cannot be done - but i can understand why it doesn't make sense given the extra effort. There are several browsers for PalmOS and while they are not as good as Opera or others, they do show that building a browser that is capable of rendoring HTML, xHTML, WML, JavaScript, CSS, and SSL is possible. Really, i wish there was a greater focus on improving existing browsers such as Blazer. There is a lot that could be done - including some rather obvious things that would greatly bring these 'up to scratch'.
RE: POS getting the crumbs...
> Xiino given up improving upon their product? I just don't get it.
Well, Opera is a for-profit company. I think they make most of their money from licensing deals with handset vendors. So unless they can convince Palm to switch from Access/Netfront/Blazer to Opera, they'd have to start selling their own browser directly and in competition with the free stock offering from Palm. Competing with "free" is hard even with a superior product.
Why have the owners of Xiino given up? I don't know. But I suspect it wasn't because they made so much money that they could retire early...
Oliver
Visit www.tapland.com for Zodiac news and discussion.
RE: POS getting the crumbs...
RE: POS getting the crumbs...
Last I checked, there was a pretty huge market of Palm OS5 owners. I don't quite understand why developers are ignoring this market.
I hardly think it's being ignored. I know I'm certainly not ignoring it and there still seem to be a decent number of nice applications rolling out for Palm OS. I do think it's harder today than it was 5 or 10 years ago to do well selling shareware for mobile computers because the market is more saturated.
Why does Opera ignore this market? Why have the owners of Xiino given up improving upon their product? I just don't get it.
I am a little mystified about this, too. Opera I can kind of understand: as many connected Palms as there are out there, the number is still very small compared to PCs and feature phones, plus Palm OS is an ideosyncratic platform to port to from something like Win32. Same problem as for Skype: it may just be cost/benefit. Xiino I don't understand. It seemed so promising when I tried it 3 or 4 years ago--they were beginning to support some Javascript even on OS 4 devices and it seems like they could have something great by now without too much trouble. Unless the code was badly written and just couldn't be maintained (which happens).
David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
Software Everywhere blog
www.pikesoft.com/blog
RE: POS getting the crumbs...
Do you really think it's going to be that soon? I thought we were going to stuck with WinMob for the next-gen Treos...
This sig is a placeholder till I come up with something good
RE: POS getting the crumbs...
Ha! Buddy are you in for a disappointment. Try TWO years minimum. Even if Access can shove ALP out the door next spring, it will be minimum of one year before hardware begins appearing, plus another 8 months for carrier testing. A "year or so"? Wishful thinking at best.
And besides...what will it matter you? ALP will be a totally new platform, bearing little resemblance to the PalmOS we are accustomed to. It's important that everyone understand...ALP is NOT the next release of PalmOS...it's something totally different which just happens to have the ability to run PalmOS software. ALP will not be another OSX.
PalmOS, as we know it, is dead. It continues to live on only in Garnet, as long as Access continues to license out that platform. Once they roll out ALP, Garnet is gone. And I suspect Palm won't adopt ALP, but will instead shift over to Windows Mobile entirely, or roll their own platform.
-------------------------------
Pocketfactory.com
RE: POS getting the crumbs...
Ha! Buddy are you in for a disappointment. Try TWO years minimum. Even if Access can shove ALP out the door next spring, it will be minimum of one year before hardware begins appearing, plus another 8 months for carrier testing. A "year or so"? Wishful thinking at best.
Maybe. Maybe not. Actually, I have it on pretty good information that this year's Treos are the end of Garnet and that the next round will be Linux--as early as Fall 2007. As I've mentioned before, you should not assume that Palm will wait for ALP to be complete. They have their own "Palm Linux" framework in development, which might be built on parts of ALP (sans MAX) or possibly on top of MontaVista Linux or some other already complete Linux phone platform.
David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
Software Everywhere blog
www.pikesoft.com/blog
RE: POS getting the crumbs...
Does Beersie know something the rest of us doesn't ?
;-)
Seriously, I think that Palm has the 700P and Lowrider ready to roll with FrankenGarnet this year and that, plus maybe one last PDA refresh will be it for the OS that would not die.
In fact I think it's eerie that nearly all POS development has slowed to a halt. Just take OS 5.x units out there--you have a tremendous installed base of OS5/Garnet PDAs + the two current Treos. Palm's still shipping new PDAs in pretty decent numbers, the 650 is still selling and there are at least one or two new Garnet models coming out this year.
Short of just outright apathy does anyone have any solid reasons why even the established developers are slowing/halting updates to their POS software? Are developers seeing the writing on the wall before any of the rest of it? Is it the hassle/cost/headaches of developing for OS 5.x where every single device breaks something (AKA the Fitaly issue)? Do Treo owners historically not buy/install much 3rd party software as POS PDA owners do/did? Is it because of the Treo 650's miserly RAM size or because they don't want to cause potential system instabilities? Or are Treo owners neophytes that don't even know they can load anything other than games onto their devices?
I realize there are no definitive answers to many of these questions but I've just noticed on my monthly perusal of all of my registered apps' developer websites that ANY updates have been few & far between. In fact, I think when I upgraded from my T5 to the TX I only had two apps that were ready to roll with updates coinciding with Palm's new product launch-and that was ~7 months ago!.
Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX
RE: POS getting the crumbs...
I resent that. We also use them to check our star signs.
This sig is a placeholder till I come up with something good
RE: POS getting the crumbs...
In a little study I am performing, Ive looked at tittles added to palm and pocketgear, who conveniently list the number of tittles in their library for each OS at the top of the page.
Over the last 9 days Palm added 44 tittles, and pocketpc's 97 tittles. There is definitely a malaise there. Of course at that rate it will still take 5 years for pocketpc software to catch up with the Palm software tittles.
Surur
They said I only argued for the sake of arguing, but after an hour I convinced them they were wrong...
RE: POS getting the crumbs...
The whole "huge installed based of tens of thousands of apps" is rapidly becoming something of a Pyrric victory for Palm/POS faithful.
Why?
Well, just look at the evolution (?) of OS 5.x aka FrankenGarnet over the past four years. You first had to take OS 4.x apps and make them OS 5 compliant. Then you had stuff needing recoding for 320*320. Then you had the Graffiti 2 switchover that surprisingly didn't cause AS many headaches as I anticipated. Then there was the T3 and HVGA compliance along with BT support if the app/game called for wireless connectivity/beaming. Next came NVFS and 160*160 OS5 devices (Zire 21 & Treo 600). Then came the LD and its wacky memory architecture. And then the TX changed things again slightly from a DIA standpoint (Fitaly again).
So an app that might run fine on am m515 from '02 may not run at all on a T|C from '03 which might not run on a Treo 650 from '04 which might not run on a LD from '05 etc etc.
I'll wager that the never ending parade of reworking/rehacking/retinkering & rebreaking has left such a sour taste in most developers' mouths that unless it's an absolutely top tier program like PTunes or DTG they just say the he11 with it and throw in the towel at a particular point. That's why you are seeing SO precious little Palm software updated/released nowadays. And, of course, the Treo's SSS 320*320 is a blessing as it gives developers ONE MORE excuse not to support HVGA.
And even if you do have a legacy app from 2002 that still works you have to admit it's not much looking at an 8-bit color 160*160 program that doesn't even support the 5-way navigator!
Example: I've had Doom in some form or another (the original Doom mind you) installed on every PC I've owned in the past twelve years. By just tweaking the frontend launcher from DOS to Win3.x to Win9x to NT/2K/XP the same basic program code from 1993 continues to live ad nauseum.
Hopefully whatever Linux solution Access or Palm serves up in '07/'08 will at least be able to semi-elegantly run the older POS software without too much of a performance hit (assuming you are not running a POS emulation process on top of too much else). Advanced options such as OS5/OS4 "compatibility" modes or HVGA "stretching" (think a more robust Code Diver built into the OS)
Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX
RE: POS getting the crumbs...
I used to have 20+ apps on my old palms. All I can say is that I pray every day for ALP. Next year would be a dream. I hope palm doesn't do their own thing, as the stuff they've done to PalmOS so far seems like a disaster. I want the stable old PalmOS back. I don't want to have to switch to Symbian.
RE: POS getting the crumbs...
However, there's still a stopgap solution between the 650 of today and ALP/Palm's Linux solution in '07/'08 and it's called the 700P (assuming it really does come out). Hopefully it'll at least address the 650's main software & RAM shortcomings. Depending on carrier availability, of course, it MAY be enough to hold off the competition until something Linux-powered if in the wings.
VersaMail right now is the biggest shortcoming amongst the apps that Palm ships with their devices. Palm either needs to get VM right or just offer a 3rd party solution on their devices as VM creaks mightily under the demands of HTML e-mails/attachments/multiple accounts on one device.
Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX
RE: POS getting the crumbs...
I think anything else is asking for a whole new set of growing pains (i.e. bugs and crashes). Give me a stable 650 with a huge chunk of RAM and fast networking, and that will be as close to perfection as I can reasonably expect. ALP sounds great on paper - but think I'll wait for the 1st couple of generations to get the bugs out (which means the 700p will probably be it for me until late '08 - or early 09!).
RE: POS getting the crumbs...
Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX
RE: POS getting the crumbs...
Another sign of the impending 700P release. I was at the Verizon store the other day and saw a Treo sideways holster belt case in the new Palm Orange packaging. This one also said "For Treo 650 and 700". No "W" anymore. I've seen this same case recently in similar packaging stating "For Treo 650 and 700w".
So the signs are slowly but surely appearing!
Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX
RE: POS getting the crumbs...
That requires a following wind, a fair sea, and no bad luck.
As I've mentioned before, you should not assume that Palm will wait for ALP to be complete. They have their own "Palm Linux" framework in development, which might be built on parts of ALP (sans MAX) or possibly on top of MontaVista Linux or some other already complete Linux phone platform.
They bought out Tapwave's IP, didn't they?
POSE on MobiLinux would be sad, I think, but not at all impossible.
May You Live in Interesting Times
RE: POS getting the crumbs...
I thought Motorola bought out Tapwave's IP!?!
How could the remnants of Tapwave's heavily modified Garnet IP be of any help to getting POSE running on top of Linux (of any flavor)?
Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX
RE: POS getting the crumbs...
Marty
May You Live in Interesting Times
RE: POS getting the crumbs...
There you go again, Surur.
Looking at the new application listings over at palmgear and pocketgear, since March 31:
1) there were 42 WinCE/PPC/WinMob/whatever apps submitted; and
2) there were 46 Palm OS apps submitted.
The only 'malaise' evident here is that experienced by Propagandists who have difficulty finding figures to support their spin.
RE: POS getting the crumbs...
(One of the updates is MxCalc 12c - a financial calculator which emulates the old HP12c - must try this out when I have some spare time.)
RE: POS getting the crumbs...
Simony, ye of litte faith! Why do you doubt me?
Even since yesterday, 14 apps were added to Pocketgear, and 6 to Palmgear.
If you go to Archive.org, between May 31 2005 and 15 April 2006
31 May 2005 15 April 2006 Added
Palmgear 26,818 29,647 2,829
Pocketgear 16,979 21,487 4,508
http://www.palmgear.com
http://web.archive.org/web/20050331092823/http://¬¤¸.palmgear.com/
http://web.archive.org/web/20050331033011/http://¬¤¸.pocketgear.com/
http://www.pocketgear.com
Surur
They said I only argued for the sake of arguing, but after an hour I convinced them they were wrong...
PalmOS is DEAD. Irepeat: PalmOS is DEAD. Get over it.
That requires a following wind, a fair sea, and no bad luck.
It also requires a 10,000 horsepower engine. Last time I checked, Palm doesn't have one of those. A less ambitious Palm-sponsored "PalmLinux" is coming, but PalmOS 5 Treos can be easily made more stable and milked (along with WindowsMobile Treos) easier than it will be to debug the PalmLinux version. Palm can't afford to pi$$ off carriers by shipping a half-baked Treo - they realize carriers will not accept the kind of crap that's been foisted onto PalmOS PDA consumers for the past few years.
As I've mentioned before, you should not assume that Palm will wait for ALP to be complete. They have their own "Palm Linux" framework in development, which might be built on parts of ALP (sans MAX) or possibly on top of MontaVista Linux or some other already complete Linux phone platform.
They bought out Tapwave's IP, didn't they?
POSE on MobiLinux would be sad, I think, but not at all impossible.
No. Motorola (wisely) bought the TapWave IP and also hired several of their star codemonkeys. If Motorola is smart they would quickly buy (outright) the rights to PalmOS 5 and 6 from Access or at least negotiate a license for PalmOS 5 that allows them to hack the OS in any way they want without having to give back any code. For a (relatively) small investment of say, $100 million, Motorola could end up getting the good parts of PalmSource without all the CRAP they would have been stuck with had they actually bought the company.
I just hope Motorola doesn't end up wasting these resource by releasing another stupid device like Gizmondo or Nokia's embarassing N-Gage.
As usual, Palm was asleep at the wheel. Palm should have bought up TapWave's and HandEra's IP and hired as many of their codemonkeys as possible when it was obvious that they were imploding. These two small companies each had a LOT more talent than Palm has ever seen and could have done a lot to help develop a solid, simple, STABLE PalmOS-compatible platform for Palm. Oh well. At least my bunker is stocked with enough Samsung i500 and Sony CLIEs that I don't have to care that we'll never see another good PalmOS device again...
TVoR
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Skype via TX?