Palm Rumors Exposed!
Editor's Note: The following article is a new section we have created to allow us to pass along the rumors that we hear about developments in the Palm Community. Please keep in mind that these are all rumors. That means that many of them will turn out to be half right, or mistaken, or the products of someone's fevered imagination. Please use at your own risk. On the rumor board for this week is: What happened to the OS 3.5 upgrade?, Details leaked about OS 4?, and everyone's favorite rumor the Apple PDA.
FYI: This is a article from 2000, for the latest Palm rumors click here.
Palm OS 3.5
Possibly the number one question Palm users are asking now is, "Where is OS 3.5?" The most recently released Palm models, including the IIIc, have 3.5 on them but an upgrade hasn't yet been posted to the support section on Palm's Web site for older models. According to some sources, this is because the current version of 3.5 has a memory leak that Palm is working to fix. The best information we have heard indicates that an upgrade will be available early this summer.
Several people have reported that at a recent meeting in Europe, Erik Bos, the Sales Manager for Palm in the Netherlands, announced that Palm would begin charging for OS upgrades sometime in the future. This was also confirmed buy a news tip from someone calling himself dirty palm. Dirty said he spoke with a "Palm higher-up" under strict confidence who stated "upon going public, Palm had to agree to the new board's demand that they not give OS updates away. Look for Palm to make an official announcement regarding this in the next couple of weeks. The price has yet to be determined as of May 1st." hmmmmm.....
That explains the long delay.
Palm OS 4
Palm Inc. has already announced that they are dropping Motorola's Dragonball chip for the increased power of the ARM chip. This will require almost a complete re-write of the Palm OS, which will be released as OS 4 sometime this fall.
OS 4 is also rumored to support different display sizes and resolutions and handle over 8 megs of RAM.
Palm Hardware
There have been numerous complaints to Palm Inc. recently that their product line has gotten too complicated. Supposedly, Palm is considering reducing the number of handhelds to four: a wireless and non-wireless version of the Palm V and a wireless and non-wireless version of the Palm III. They are also considering dropping the Roman numeral scheme of naming their versions.
Apple's PDA
Apple could teach secrecy to the CIA but MacOSRumors reported on Friday that they received documents that say that Apple's PDA will be previewed at their Developer's Conference in two weeks and released next month.
On the off chance you haven't heard this already, Apple's PDA is currently rumored to boast a combination of the Palm OS and their own OS X and run on an ARM chip.
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RE: Palm Fatal Error
I can tell you that Calligrapher's handwriting recognizer was so-so at best. It
got better with subsequent updates to the OS, but it still wasn't as good as the
printed recognizer that Apple itself developed for Newton OS 2.0.
Apple's recognizer was much better than Calligrapher, and didn't require "training" in
order to be useful out of the box. In fact, I could enter text faster, and with fewer
errors, than I currently do with Grafitti on the Palm. Apple owns that technology
and they could easily cross-license it to Palm for use on their OS.
One advantage of Grafitti is that it requires a lot less CPU than "real" HWR
engines like Calligrapher and Apple's recognizer. Basically, the Palm's Dragonball
processor doesn't really have the resources to do real HWR well. With Palm
moving to the StrongARM family, real HWR on the Palm will finally be feasible.
RE: Palm Fatal Error
RE: Palm Fatal Error
RE: Palm Fatal Error
RE: Now heres an idea.....
Paying for upgrades!
If this does go ahead then I don't see any reason to buy a palm as apposed to a Visor. At least with the Visor I can get modules for it & I don't have to worry about upgrades.
And one more thinq! What happens to us 'Dragonball Chip' users when the new OSes will be made for the ARM processors?
Thats my moaning done.
RE: Paying for upgrades!
to be trying to accomplish. In order for them to truly charge for upgrades, they would
have to ensure that all other PalmOS licensees (IBM, Handspring, Symbol) would also
charge for upgrades. For example, IBM sells an OEM version of the Palms. If you REALLY
wanted an upgrade, you might be able to d/l from IBM...
I think it's bunk. The reason most of us out here pay more for the flashable Palms is to
FLASH them! Palm knows this and markets the higher priced units. On top of this, isn't
OS 3.5 supposed to make the OS standard across the varied platforms? Can anyone other
than MS sell a standard?
Paying for upgrades!
B. you will still be able to flash your OS on your palm, you will just have to pay for the download of the file.
C. Do you really think that Palm would make this change and let IBM give the OS away? get a brain dude. they would either give them an OS that was a generation behind, or not let them do upgrades.
Think dude, think!!!
RE: FREE UPGRADE TO OS 3.5 for PALM III SERIES USERS
The possiblities are endless. Buy a Palm IIIxe and IIIe. Switch guts, and return the IIIxe with the transplanted IIIe innards... believe me, as an employee at
RE: Paying for upgrades!
RE: Paying for upgrades!
hmm.. i have nothing to do this weekend. free up grades for all!!
have you seen ardiri?... he stole a small german military officer (with the liberty crack) from us.. and we would like him back
"Love the Munkey"
-Raishe
"Moster Pig kills Jesus
More at 11"
PalmOS 3.5 Memory Leak
Description:
Upon a reset (soft), the file "System" grows by a couple K. Only a hard reset will shrink the size of this file (note: I haven't tested this yet, although it seems obvious).
This leak is probably why the update hasn't been released yet.
I've got a IIIxe in my pocket, (running 3.5), and I've personally seen the above problems with the "System" file. I sure hope they come out with a fix soon...If they charge for it, I'm returning my Palm and getting a Visor.
RE: PalmOS 3.5 Memory Leak
for free and charge for a full upgrade (3.X).
They do have to make money after all and I cannot
fault them for doing that. We can always tell
them we do not like it and vote with our wallets
by not buying a Palm next time.
If they charge for the patches then I will
definitely get a visor.
RE: PalmOS 3.5 Memory Leak
RE: PalmOS 3.5 Memory Leak
IIIx with OS 3.5
some rough calculations
And I tested this on my emulator to simulate a "virgin" Palm IIIx. Same problem. Obviously, since the EZ ROM goes into the IIIx, IIIxe, V, and Vx, this problem should appear on all of them. In fact, the emulator indicates that the Palm IIIc will also have this problem.
Not just OS 3.5?
RE: PalmOS 3.5 Memory Leak
It has been discussed on usenet groups. One person mentioned a program called "Victor", which
is unsupported, but does reclaim "orphaned" memory. I tried it. To my surprise, there was
177kb "leaked"! Victor reclaimed it, no problem.
http://www.djw.org/product/palm/victor/index.html
" CLASS=NEWS>http://www.djw.org/product/palm/victor/index.html
Who cares
Things move on, and its out of our direct control. Its always been this way - know one worries about DOS users who can't upgrade to Windowss. Personally at the moment my Palm is brilliant (it contains half my brain) - I don't have the need to upgrade, and before more info on OS4 comes out I'm not concerned. I'll decide later if it warrants me spending more money on a new Palm device. I fully understand that when I spend £200 on a PDA that is based on the same processor as a washing machine, then I'll have to upgrade device if I want to play MP3's or video link with my mates.
Palm's will be commodity items (Handspring is trying to prove this) at least the older verisons. We will always be put in a position of throw out the old and bring in the new.
Regards
James
RE: Who cares
OS 3.5
And here I figured there was no updater because everyone who wanted to would find out how to do it...
Upgrading to OS 3.5
Addendum
RE: OS 3.5
I tried this however after choosing my ROM PalmOS330_ENG_PalmV.exe for the Palm Vx, I got an eror message which reads:
"Encountered an error preparing to flash the handheld - couldn't attach to the handheld. Time out error"
Any suggestions?
RE: OS 3.5
However, what you are citing as your ROM file doesn't make sense. The file name seems to be that of your update installer executable, which is not the same as a ROM image. ROM images have the extension .rom, and in my case, is called palmos35-dr4-en-ez.rom
The error message doesn't seem to indicate an improper image file, so I'm a little confused. But first try getting a proper ROM image, and see if that's your problem. ROM images can be found in various places (see other posts for some ideas)
RE: OS 3.5
Sorry about the mix up. Yes I am in the advanced mode, and the rom file i am trying to load is the palmos35-dr4-en-ez.rom. I have down loaded two separate times from palm to see if there was corruption in the download. Thanks for your help.
Oh, the palm is set in Debug Mode before i select the option to flash the rom.
Thanks, as always,
Khal
RE: OS 3.5
Um, hmm. And it still won't work? What OS are you currently on? Actually, what matters is were you able to update to OS 3.3? My friend had a IIIx which refused to update to OS 3.3, so Palm sent him a replacement...
My last guess is that I used the Upgrade Utility's backup method (rather than manually setting backup bits or Backup Buddy or whatever, see my first reply to this post for what I mean). And I believe that that method installs a program called FlashPrep which is supposedly used in the flashing process. That could very well be your problem.
RE: OS 3.5
Did you also use Chapura.PocketMirror? I wonder if that is affecting the upgrade.
Jim
RE: OS 3.5
Half fair to charge
Even Monopolistic Microsoft gives everyone free OS patches and updates at windowsupdate. I don't see why Palm would or should invent practices worse than MS.
Justin Ng
IF they are going to charge ...
For instance: There have been several revisions that create spurious low battery readings, causing alarms to not sound due battery saving actions - a reasonable action IFF the battery is low.
If they are going to position themselves in the market primarily as the owners of the Palm OS, then they had better be getting ALL the bugs fixed. And none of this "we'll come out with a new version to fix some bugs, and add a bunch more via new features" that is all to common in PC software.
FREE UPGRADE TO OS 3.5 for PALM III SERIES USERS!
The possiblities are endless. Buy a Palm IIIxe and IIIe. Switch guts, and return the IIIxe with the transplanted IIIe innards... believe me, as an employee at
RE: IF they are going to charge ...
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Palm Fatal Error