PalmGear Now Officially Retired

Posted By: Kris Keilhack on Thursday, November 29, 2007 6:55:43 PM

In a rapid closure of the events first mentioned here earlier this month, the PalmGear.com domain is now officially shuttered as of November 27th. All traffic to the PalmGear.com site is now being redirected to the "new" hybrid PocketGear.com site in a effort to swiftly dissolve all references to the classic PalmGear domain, URL and branding.

In addition to the main PalmGear site closure and redirection, Motricity, the owner of both the PalmGear and PocketGear trademarks, domains, and online stores, has also closed down their network of affiliate sites. One casualty of these closures was that our very own PIC/PalmGear store was terminated without prior notification. The ACCESS (formerly PalmSource) and PalmGear co-branded store has also vanished with only a brief message to inform customers of the closure.

Interestingly, Palm Inc.'s Motricity-powered Software Connection store is still going strong as of this writing. With new apps being regularly added to their new releases page and no mention of the PalmGear/PocketGear merger on Palm's site, it’s possible that their Software Connection store is going to continue on indefinitely and/or could be spun off and merged into the MyPalm online portal at some point in the future.

Another long term fixture at PalmGear that did not make the move is their once extensive library of freeware titles. It's unknown how many classic Palm OS titles have lost their online presence in the process as the site used to host a large number of niche freeware titles maintained by smaller independent developers and hobbyists.

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Article Comments
16 total comments

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that's just about it then

drw @ 11/30/2007 12:36:42 AM #

No hits for one of my favorite free palm apps of all time: HandyShopper.

Windows Mobile, iPhone, and Blackberry are not "there" yet in regards to ease of use or number of applications available.

Looks like Palm will continue, but it will be a very very small niche player.

Imagine if Microsoft still sold MS-DOS v6.2976 franken-c-colon-prompt operating system. Palm dropped a million bucks on BeOS which was had some following only to kill it. They shipped Palm OS 6 and all the licensees dropped dead. The split, merged, renamed, relocated, restaffed, reshuffled, and still we have the same old franken-garnet. I wouldn't be surprised if one day www.palminfocenter.com points to brighthand.com the way things are snowballing.

---
David

RE: that's just about it then

TreoAnon @ 11/30/2007 12:45:34 AM #

For "Palm" you should read "PalmSource" aka "Access", which is a different company and organization than the Palm company that builds the Treo, Centro, etc.

It's Obvious!

LiveFaith @ 11/30/2007 1:09:38 AM #

It's obvious what is going on here.

They were secretive and then wham! The site and affiliates are locked out. PalmGear is ramping up it's web portal for the gigantic release of PalmPlinux Inc OS II in 16 months and counting. Gates and Jobs are certainly preparing to cut losses once the release and near instantaneous global adoption takes place according to Ed's timeline. Ladies and gents, don't cover those calls, Palm is about to take off like a rocket!

*Disclaimer* This correspondence contains forward looking statements which should not be misconstrued as a representation of guaranteed results. Past performance is no indication of future expectations. Always read the prospectus before investing.

Pat Horne

RE: It's Obvious!

magjm @ 11/30/2007 2:02:31 AM #

Does that mean Foleo II is coming soon? :) - It will have the palmgear.com site on it for compatibility !!

RE: It's Obvious!

adamsmark @ 11/30/2007 1:29:00 PM #

I'm waiting for the Foleo X -- you know, the one with the touch screen, robust operating system, fast processor, stylish form, etc.

"I believe in the atomic bomb."

Blogging at http://agabus.com">Agabus.com.

Palm V > Vx > Clie Peg T615C > T3 > Clie TH55 > T3 > Treo 650 > Treo 700p & T3!

Well, THIS doesn't bode well...

tuvor @ 11/30/2007 1:52:16 AM #

I've registered.

I've indicated that I'm a TX user.

I click on New Releases.

The top of the page says All Titles for Palm TX.

However, all the software listed is written for Windows Mobile Pocket PC.

Hello, Handango!

RE: Well, THIS doesn't bode well...

magjm @ 11/30/2007 2:01:23 AM #

You can get to the old Palmgear.com by using http://accounts.palmgear.com/ - I still have programs registered on there that I do not want to lose the information for.

RE: Well, THIS doesn't bode well...

tuvor @ 11/30/2007 2:24:44 AM #

Thanks very much, magim. Because of your message I discovered that three of my applications have been updated in the past day or two!

RE: Well, THIS doesn't bode well...

magjm @ 11/30/2007 2:33:16 AM #

I got this email from pocketgear.com about getting access to www.palmgear.com -

Greetings from PocketGear.com.

PalmGear.com is now a part of PocketGear.com. PalmGear customer accounts have been transitioned to PocketGear.com, however a percentage of PalmGear accounts did not make the transition. If you are unable to sign into PocketGear.com using your PalmGear login information, you will have to register a new account at PocketGear.com to continue purchasing.

You can still access your PalmGear account, and past orders, by going to the following link:

http://accounts.palmgear.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=account.login&PartnerREF=&siteid=1

(You may need to copy the entire link and paste it into your web browser if clicking on it does not work.)

Once you have signed into your PalmGear account, you will need to click on the "Order History" link to access your old orders.

The above link is available at PocketGear.com as well. To access it, you will need to sign into your PocketGear.com account (your PalmGear login information should work, though if it does not, you will need to create a new account on PocketGear.) Once you have signed into your PocketGear account (https://www.pocketgear.com/en_US/html/login.jsp) you will then need to click on the "View Past Purchases" button. On the next page you will see a "Log in to your classic PalmGear Locker" link.

If you have any additional questions regarding this matter please contact us and please include all previous correspondence in order to better assist you.

Thank you for shopping at PocketGear.com.

RE: Well, THIS doesn't bode well...

Patrick @ 11/30/2007 2:54:46 AM #

All of my purchased titles accessed through that link show today's date. I don't think they were just updated so I suspect it is bogus and a casualty of the change.

RE: Well, THIS doesn't bode well...

dave_rein @ 11/30/2007 7:03:07 AM #

I managed to login using the link provided by Magim but when I tried downloading from my account I got taken to an error page.

-----------------------------
III -> m505 -> T -> T3 -> TX
London, UK

RE: Well, THIS doesn't bode well...

happyPalm @ 11/30/2007 1:55:29 PM #

the new site for soo freaking slow and it totally sucks.
when you search for palm stuff you can the WM crap too.

we need a palm specific site again. Both handango and PocketGear sucks.

RE: Well, THIS doesn't bode well...

Ryan @ 11/30/2007 2:00:10 PM #

>> we need a palm specific site again.

I'm a little biased, but the PalmInfocenter store works pretty well and has a large Palm OS section including freeware.

http://software.palminfocenter.com/platformMain.asp?platform=1

RE: Well, THIS doesn't bode well...

NuShrike @ 11/30/2007 5:32:53 PM #

It's like switching from Windows XP back to Windows 3.1.

Just finding software for my HTC Kaiser has been a pain on PocketGear. Seriously, did all the PalmGear developers leave a long time ago and hacks are working on PocketGear now?

You would think it would have merged the other way around considering the maturity and polish of PalmGear.

RE: Well, THIS doesn't bode well...

joad @ 12/1/2007 8:36:26 AM #

...It's more like going from Windows 98 back to DOS, but anyway.... It's an awful, javascript-laden garbage site now. Sad. Can't find a damn thing anymore, and won't even let you download a trial or update without signing in. But Handango recently changed for the worse lately too, though they were pretty bad already ("download protection" and other BestBuy-type scams).

Palmgear's had their problems over the years, but I guess this just shows us that it's possible to get even worse. More and more my favorite site to purchase and use is Mobihand - to top it off they even offer discounts regularly.

R.I.P. Palmgear/Pocketgear/whatever. We hardly knew ye.

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

Has anyone been able to log in with Safari?

FlaSheridn @ 12/1/2007 3:26:24 PM #

Has anyone been able to log into the new PocketGear site with Safari? I’ve tried both at home and at work (Safari 2.0.4 on OSX 10.4.11, with AcidSearch), and as soon as I enter the first character of my email address, the form takes me back to the main page. I tried to report the problem, but the feedback page does the same thing.

Palm Software on sale