Comments on: Rumor: More Info on Palm's Upcoming Models

My mother doesn't need the same capabilities I do. Like many users, this device will be a replacement address book with a builtin calculator and calendar. She probably wouldn't load up anything else, and will be lucky if she remembers to back it up (ever). I think she is the type of user this device will be targetted at, not the average PIC reader.

While in theory a bargain basement unit is a tremendous idea, every aspect of the Zire model is that of a directionless, clueless company with no forward thinking vision whatsoever. I'd think a moderately equipped model selling for around $90 with 4 buttons and the UC would do their reputation less harm than a totally stripped down model whose hardware is totally incompatible with every other Palm unit ever and shares only branding and OS with the rest of the lineup.

So here we go again, Palm's gonna go off and alienate a whole new segment of the user base, *just* as they had managed to cobble together a reasonable lineup of UC/SD equipped OS4 handhelds. If this is an indicator of what's to come, I'd rather have seen refreshed versions of the current lineup for the holiday season (faster draonballs, 16 megs of ram, etc).

Heh, all kidding aside, you have a pretty good point. I think that a low-cost Palm OS based PDA is in order, but why not stick with the m1XX type connections etc.? Well, unless this new one IS very low cost (a possibility!), it won't sell well. IMO. I mean, they're not even going to have the Palm name -- they'll be regarded as a completely 'new' company by those uninformed about Palm news.

I also don't get the 2 button thing. Really, put a few more cents into it and have 4 buttons.

The Zire is not intended for those who hotsync daily. Period. It's for on the go people who want a small, inexpensive device to remember all their phone numbers and appts and so on.

"The Future of Palm Handhelds:
...The expansion slot will be an integral part of the majority of our handhelds offered in the next two to three years, with the first product introductions scheduled for the first half of 2001... No matter where the future takes handheld computing, Palm will be leading the way."

They've slipped in the second part of that (my opinion), so maybe the first part too? Either that or delay the product launch and they'll be in the clear in a year or so ;-)

-Craig Bowers

You are comparing what you *think* the Zire will cost on the first day it is released to what the m105 cost 2 years after its release. In a few months, the Zire will drop in price another $20 -$30. Before it is discontinued, it will be half its original cost, if it follows the usual price trend.

Even on that first day, the Zire will have several advantages over the m105. We know it won't have the large housing that turns so many people off. It probably won't have a reduced size screen that also turns people off. That's enough to put it ahead in my book.

I hear people calling for the Universal Connector. I don't think it is going to be an issue. How many people are going to buy a $50 - $60 handheld and a $100 keyboard? About the same number who buy a $500 PC at Wal-Mart and a $2000 graphics card and get mad that the two don't work together.

1/ Battery life(hence only using 320x320 not 320x480 & virtual grafitti)
2/ Size. The sliding grafitti area will reduce the size of the unit (maybe slightly thicker) and make it more pocketable. 50% of users will only need to slide open to use grafitti 50% of the time. And yes you would still be able to get to a home button somehow. Remember all this talk about voice recognition, and now the Palm will have the processing power, WHAT THIS SPACE!

Bruce B

Was this from a newsgroup?

the m555 name sounds fishy to me, if for no other reason is that 555 is the prefix used for fictitious phone numbers in movies and on TV. Otherwise, the unit sounds top-notch!

Also, any word if this unit supports the current Universal Connector standard?

However, MX1 hits the 175MHz mark, is certified, and Bluetooth support chips are said to add about $5 to the cost of a unit.

The m555 does sound bogus though. I guess time will tell. I hope the October and price estimates are true ... this could be the device I am waiting on (astill on 3.1H, and 3.0 in my VII :)

Token

Palm is losing the name 'Palm', PalmSource is getting it. There will be no more Palm mXXX. I don't know if these new names will be Tungsten or Zire, but they won't be 'Palm'.

Even if it were real, that's not nearly enough RAM.

Maybe Dragonball VZ for the low-end; Dragonball MX1 (an ARM chip) for the high-end; and OMAP for Smartphone? After all, they don't have to use the same processor for all devices.

I don't go to McDonald's, order a hamburger, and then say "What is this crap? No porcelain plate? No wait staff? No lace doilies? No romaine lettuce?" The question isn't whether Zire is a good PDA for you, the question is whether it is a good PDA for the money.

And I like McDonald's very much.

Good point. However, although some Joe Sixpack might realize this and buy a M105, my grandma may still think that "newest = best", or think that she doesn't need expansion anyway, and get a Zire instead.

Especially if Zire is selling at <$80...

Also, the supply of M105 is limited, maybe it'll be completely out in 4-6 months... (there are just too many m10x series in the store rooms)

I thought that Sony flunked the buttons on the T-series, but that's just the buttons. Palm flunked form factor overall and I would issue a warning to Palm that if they come out with this ugly device, you will not be able to survive in 3 years (since the form factor for palm usually retains longer ---V series to M)

In contrast, you can already get 512Mbyte MMC/SD cards, there are many vendors, and plenty of readers. It is clearly the standard on handhelds. And there are CF adapters for it.

I've added this to the article to make sure you aren't the only one who doesn't remember this from earlier articles. It is pretty important; I should have included it in this one already.

---
News Editor

Also, i am sure fab costs,size, and power consumption play a role as well (primarily cost).

Now, if anyone remembers back to the old Nintendo and SNES days, nintendo had some sort of gimmicky technology for certain 8-bit NES carts that somehow increased a game's color palette and enabled better music and digitized sound. For the SNES they had some sort of add on chip they called the FX (i think that was the name). It was used on Starfox and on a motorbike racing game to add very basic unfilled polygon acceleration. We're talking sub-S3Virge 3d capbilities but at least it was _something_. Sega also added a dedicated z80 processor to their Virtua Racing cart, back in the later years of the Genesis. The cart was bigger and much more expensive but it did do some nice 3d.

If anything, I'd see Sony partnering with ATI and adding some sort of graphics acceleration into their 2nd gen of OS5 handhelds, maybe mid/late 2003 or so. They already have a nice relationship with ATI to supply some of their desktop and notebooks with graphic cores so this would flesh out their lineup nicely.

I think that for now, it's be nice just to see more games sold at retail pre-loaded onto an SD card to free up precious RAM space (*cough, Rayman, cough*, especially since OS5 units are rumored to only still have 16 megs of ram. Also, having a game bundle/compilation that utilizes the majority of a MMC's capacity would be nice. You really feel ripped off when you look at how much free space is on the Palm Game MMC Card that is totally unusable!

Really? I'd never have guessed (sarcasm ;)

Actually, I was point out that the new model is rumoured to have a mic, which make Voice Recognition a possibility. However, as you pointed out, VR is barely adequate on a highend PC, but picture this ...

VoIP (much lower CPU resource requirements), but higher bandwidth needs. VoIP connection to a backend server running VXML, VXML then doing BASIC Voice Recognition, and sending the result back to the PDA for use. This would off load the processing to a beefier box, but limit the functionality of voice recognition. VXML can take incoming text, and process it out as soundex phonomes which might then be able to be matched with names, addresses commands, etc.

All very shakey, but the technology IS catching up.

GE and GE Capital - both have GE in the name, both are traded.
Shell and Shell Transport and Trading - both owned by Royal Dutch Shell, both traded publicly.
Pacific Bell, Bell Atlantic, and all the other "Baby Bells" - seperate companies, Bell still in their name.

Nothing wrong with having the Palm Tungsten or the Palm Zire (ala Sony Clie PEGxxx, Handsping Visor Deluxe, ) ... they will all have the "Palm Powered" branding on the outside of the box.

My thoughts. YVMV (and probably will)

Token.

In any event, I am a relatively advanced Palm user (FAR more advanced than the Zire's apparent audience), and although I rely on all four buttons for convenience, I don't think that any program I use would be "crippled" by losing two of the buttons. (Except for some games... I rarely play button-based games though.) I primarily use the buttons as application switchers, and I can do that (less conveniently) with only two buttons as well.

And the people who buy Zire will not be installing complex relational database applications. A small handful of them might install a recipe tracker, or a football schedule. We're not talking about power users here.

This makes no sense. AvantGo requires no buttons at all.

You are putting too much importance on the buttons or lack there of. Can anyone name a application that requires buttons and is not an action game? I can't.

What disappoints me is the disappearing graffiti area, as opposed to a virtual graffiti area. It just seems silly. Virtual graffiti means more screen area, and that's HUGE--just ask anyone who's used an NR-70 or even a Handera 330. Covering the graffiti to go to the 320x320 square is lame.

Cell phone manufactures have learned this -- at least I think they have.

Mike Lohsl
Palm & ACT! Advisor

www.successwizard.com

[I]Proud user of a Palm i705 Mobile Office and Kyocera 6035 phone[/I]

Zire will be the new entry level design, it's code name is cub.

PDA Master

I can't wait until october!!