Hopes High for Next Week's TechXNY
Starting on Tuesday is TechXNY, which might be easier to recognize under its old name, PC Expo. Companies frequently take advantage of this large annual tradeshow to introduce their new products and make other announcements. This year will be no different as PalmSource, Palm, Sony, and Handspring are all expected to use TechXNY to get out the word about their products.
Probably the question on everyone's mind is, "Will any companies announce Palm OS 5 handhelds?" On Wednesday morning, David Nagel, President and CEO of PalmSource, will be putting on a keynote address where he'll be talking up the new version of its operating system, which was released to licensees earlier this month. This would certainly be spiced up with a demonstration of an actual handheld running it.
The best candidate for announcing an OS 5 device is Palm. It is the only one of the main licensees who isn't likely to announce a new OS 4 device at TechXNY. Announcing an OS 5 device will almost certainly cut heavily into sales of high-end OS 4 ones but Palm hasn't introduced a new OS 4 device since March. Also, the company said back in February that it would release a wireless OS 5 device by this fall. However, the company, mindful of the debacle which followed its too-early announcement of the m500 series, is unlikely to announce a new handheld unless it is going to release it in the next few weeks.
According to rumor, Sony is going to announce a U.S. version of the T650C at TechXNY. The T650C is an OS 4.1 model that is essentially a T615C with an MP3 player added that Sony released in Japan earlier this month.
It's possible that Handspring will announce the Treo 300 next week, though this is more of a long shot. At this point, Handspring doesn't appear to have received FCC approval for the 300, a necessary requirement for its release in the U.S. The Treo 300 is a CDMA version of the company's smartphone which will run on Sprint's 3G wireless network.
A dark-horse candidate is Garmin, who licenced the Palm OS early last year but has yet to release any products running it. However, PalmSource's Mike Mace hinted back in February that Garmin has plans to release a GPS device that runs the Palm OS sometime soon.
TechXNY won't be just about hardware, though. Expect a slew of software announcements, too.
I ought to warn you, I don't have a good track record at predicting what will be announced at tradeshows. Every one of my predictions for the Consumer Electronics Show in January was wrong. -Ed
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RE: Let's get it on!
Can't Wait
-Bosco
RE: Can't Wait
BUT I feel Palm Inc. are going to have to do just a little bit better. Sony has a device out, sure not OS5, but wicked screen, which is what people want now, Multimedia, etc.
This is not to say that I and many people won't buy a Palm Inc. OS5 device, but to get ahead and not just keep up, will be a challenge for Palm, and indeed any handheld manufacturer.
I feel and hope Palm will have to have something extra in the first release of OS5 m5xx?
Maybe Qrt VGA, bright saturated colours with soft graffitti, MP3 headphone jack, real speaker for voice record/playback, wireless option, all in a Palm V form factor. This would get recognition, but still would not represent anything new.
Its going to be very cut-throat for device manufacturers over the next few years as people have seen handhelds now, and seen/heard off new technologies and expectations are higher than ever, and will just get higher.
Bruce
I can
RE: I Can
Bruce
RE: Can't Wait
Integrated bluetooth/802.11a/b- yes
Always on wireless access to email and internet- yes
Smartphones- yes
Streaming video and multimedia- yes
MP3 player/playback- yes
Voice memo- yes
Voice recognition (for smartphones)- yes
Integrated digital camera- yes
320x320+ screen resolution and 16 bit color- yes
Integrated keyboard or virtual graffiti- yes
With good PIM software and one or two of these features, what more does a handheld computer owner need? What other innovation is there a demand for?
-Bosco
RE: I Can
RE: Can't Wait
This is not to say that I and many people won't buy a Palm Inc. OS5 device, but to get ahead and not just keep up, will be a challenge for Palm, and indeed any handheld manufacturer.
I feel and hope Palm will have to have something extra in the first release of OS5 m5xx?
Maybe Qrt VGA, bright saturated colours with soft graffitti,
You say they have to better sony - then you ask for "Qrt VGA". Sonys 320 * 320 is better then QVA (320*240) and the Sony NR series has half VGA (320 * 480). So why would you want to only go with handera res? BTW - to all Handera fans/users: i have never use one , but just how the heck does a 160*160 app translate to 320*240? do you only double every other pixel? how does thios work? there must be problems with this - no?
RE: Can't Wait
Whatever comes out will be better than what we actually have, according to OS 5 spects the new devices (at least not the cheap ones) will have 320x320, multimedia sound and video. And most importantly the new processor that actual devices don't have, this means they won't become obsolete and will be able to run new software titles only compatible with ARM.
Will Handspring be there?
RE: Will Handspring be there?
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News Editor
Streaming Video
RE: Streaming Video
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News Editor
RE: Streaming Video
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