Comments on: Opinion: Is the PDA Industry Losing Its Design Enthusiasm?
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RE: One exception
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Editor, http://Pocketfactory.com
Contributing Editor, http://digitalmediathoughts.com
RE: One exception
I don't think the V was the last one though... the M515 was very similar in form factor and was a very good value for a Dragonball device. I'm also biased towards the T3, not as sexy as the V, but much cooler based on the reactions I get; still causes meeting disruptions when I snick open to full screen and snap it onto the UT keyboard. Usually takes a few minutes to get the meeting back on topic.
I mourn the loss of design enthusiasm, can we use the T5 as the tombstone?
RE: One exception
RE: One exception
[signature0]the secret to enjoying your job is to have a hobby that's even worse[/signature0]
[signature1]My PDAs: Visor --> Visor Neo (blue) --> Zire 71 --> Tungsten T3[/signature1]
RE: One exception
Form = Function = Form = Function = Form = Function = Form =
The form is the function is the form is the function... ad infinitum™
******************************************************************
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
Part of a bigger trend?
RE: Part of a bigger trend?
Gmail invites:
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I Am Canadian
http://mousky.blogspot.com
http://the-wastebasket.blogspot.com
RE: Part of a bigger trend?
RE: Part of a bigger trend?
In my line of work I see alot of Treo's and use them. I can honestly say the Treo is less of a PDA for what the Palm OS can do and has traditionaly done in the past for "real PDA users" than being just a pretty cool smartphone to the average and 1st time users of the Treo and it's OS (and I deal with hundreds of customers who use Treos). Even in my office where there's about 15 of use who use the Treo, I'd say about 14 of them barely use the Treo beyond, a phone, checking email, and surfing the internet. Now I don't know about you but that's pretty sad and in all reality doesn't even deserve to use the Palm OS if that's all people are going to do with the Treo. Any half decent smart phone could do the same and I think palmOne needs to Wake up and realize this. What is the Treo if it's not for the OS 1st? I think current PDA OEMs need to look to other markets and make the Palm OS work those areas as well if they are going to abandon standalone PDAs.
http://mypdacorner.blogspot.com/
T3,
The only official explanation I read regarding why they gave up the design is, the EX-CEO of Palmone thought, people didn't realise it could be stretched when they saw it on the shelves. Unbelievable isn't it?
T3 is a classic PDA already, in my opinon!
Repeat of Apple
RE: Repeat of Apple
Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com
F Design! Give me FUNCTION!
Built-in WIFI, VGA, Multi-Tasking, Native Security, Bigger Clipboard, Graffiti 1 Option, Charger Light, Sound Recorder, REAL 256 MB Memory, Long-Life Battery, etc. etc. etc.
RE: F Design! Give me FUNCTION!
New uses will drive new forms and the technology will stay on par with the uses. Until people start using PDAs in some significantly different way they will continue to look the same--unless you subscribe to the General Motors philosophy of styling your way to sales. It worked well until the 80s, didn't it?
"Give me FUNCTION" also seems to neglect "beauty." I's submit that ugly cousins FUNCTION mostly the same, but they remain ugly.
RE: F Design! Give me FUNCTION!
Design/beauty and function do not have to be mutually exclusive.
Death comes to those companies that stand still.
The Palm apologists are the biggest fools second only to shareholders.
RE: F Design! Give me FUNCTION!
RE: F Design! Give me FUNCTION!
That's an interesting observation.
In case you hadn't noticed this is a 'Palminfocenter' - a website run BY Palm enthusiasts FOR Palm enthusiasts. Yet, you come here and use the word 'apologists' like it's some sort of pejorative. Well it isn't, not here.
All you have succeeded at doing is insulting us all, yet again.
I hope you will realise someday that insults are not generally productive when practicing the art of advocacy.
RE: F Design! Give me FUNCTION!
Besides, the 3 things most Palm users are looking for (Replacable battery, Cobalt, VGA, and BT/Wifi) would not need a great deal of re-designing to fit into today's chassis.
RE: F Design! Give me FUNCTION!
_________________
Sean
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.
RE: F Design! Give me FUNCTION!
The T5 is a piece of garbage. I'd rather have 16MB or ***REAL*** Memory than that GARBAGE FRIGGIN CRAP SHIIIIT SHIIT FLASH SHIIT RAM CRAP GARBGAGE SHIIT THAT THOSE MOOTHA FUUCKSA put on us wit the T5. Unless one of you MOFOs had a T5 or T650, you know not what the FUUUCK i talk about.
(another straight ketel dirty martni - 3 olives plz)
RE: F Design! Give me FUNCTION!
RE: F Design! Give me FUNCTION!
No, it is the industry maturing
What we are seeing it not a decline but a maturing of the business. The "turbo geeks" that proliferate this site are quickly becoming the minority voice in Palm OS product determination.
You don't like it, well you take a hard look and put your Palm devices in a nice box that you put in the attic next to the Commodore-64, Kaypro and Osborne you have there. Palm execs don't listen to you much anymore.
While you all hate the T5, it is selling quite well. You will not see it at a local geek fest, you will see it in real world use. Microsoft is still not getting it right and frankly, they will cut this line loose when the first wave of last recession hits their internal coffers. [Gekko and Voice, bring it on!]
Look at that clueless user that taps and syncs their notes and photos. That is the new face of the Palm community. Why were hacks not supported in OS5? Because losers like you were the only ones that cared for them. The rest of the real world had more to do on a Saturday night than manage multiple HackMaster configurations.
And when there is another high-tech frontier to trailblaze, I'll be in that territory faster than you think. In the meantime, I'm having fun taking bids on the land claims that I settled and grew for some city slicker to pay top dollar for as I ride into the sunset.
Ride on boys!
BubbaSteve, BubbaSteve, BubbaSteve...
You don't like it, well you take a hard look and put your Palm devices in a nice box that you put in the attic next to the Commodore-64, Kaypro and Osborne you have there. Palm execs don't listen to you much anymore.
While you all hate the T5, it is selling quite well. You will not see it at a local geek fest, you will see it in real world use. Microsoft is still not getting it right and frankly, they will cut this line loose when the first wave of last recession hits their internal coffers. [Gekko and Voice, bring it on!]
Look at that clueless user that taps and syncs their notes and photos. That is the new face of the Palm community. Why were hacks not supported in OS5? Because losers like you were the only ones that cared for them. The rest of the real world had more to do on a Saturday night than manage multiple HackMaster configurations.
BubbaSteve, a few corrections to your weak (even for you) post:
What we are seeing is not a maturing of the business but a withering of a fad. A fad from a company not creative enough to develop its core product to the point that it could sell because of its indispensible FUNCTIONALITY rather than its fleeting FASHION.
Do you really think the T"5" is selling well?
You are correct in implying that Palm should not cater to the narrow interests of power users. EXCEPT when those interests include features that would be useful to a significant number of mainstream users. Not many companies that keep their sights low and fail to innovate survive for very long in a tech industry. Especially not in niche, non-commodity, shrinking market spaces. If Palm wanted to do the snake oil salesman act, they should have paid a lot more attention to haw Apple does it, including hiring Apple's industrial designers and their marketing company. Sleazy Steve Jobs could (easily) manage to sell ice to Eskimos...
Microsoft obviously isn't going anywhere. They're whittling away at PalmOS marketshare, and PalmSource is a disorganized mess right now. In retrospect, we'll see that Microsoft didn't kill PalmOS. Palm killed PalmOS.
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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
BubbaSteve, BubbaSteve, BubbaSteve...
You don't like it, well you take a hard look and put your Palm devices in a nice box that you put in the attic next to the Commodore-64, Kaypro and Osborne you have there. Palm execs don't listen to you much anymore.
While you all hate the T5, it is selling quite well. You will not see it at a local geek fest, you will see it in real world use. Microsoft is still not getting it right and frankly, they will cut this line loose when the first wave of last recession hits their internal coffers. [Gekko and Voice, bring it on!]
Look at that clueless user that taps and syncs their notes and photos. That is the new face of the Palm community. Why were hacks not supported in OS5? Because losers like you were the only ones that cared for them. The rest of the real world had more to do on a Saturday night than manage multiple HackMaster configurations.
BubbaSteve, a few corrections to your weak (even for you) post:
What we are seeing is not a maturing of the business but a withering of a fad. A fad from a company not creative enough to develop its core product to the point that it could sell because of its indispensible FUNCTIONALITY rather than its fleeting FASHION.
Do you really think the T"5" is selling well?
You are correct in implying that Palm should not cater to the narrow interests of power users. EXCEPT when those interests include features that would be useful to a significant number of mainstream users. Not many companies that keep their sights low and fail to innovate survive for very long in a tech industry. Especially not in niche, non-commodity, shrinking market spaces. If Palm wanted to do the snake oil salesman act, they should have paid a lot more attention to haw Apple does it, including hiring Apple's industrial designers and their marketing company. Sleazy Steve Jobs could (easily) manage to sell ice to Eskimos...
Microsoft obviously isn't going anywhere. They're whittling away at PalmOS marketshare, and PalmSource is a disorganized mess right now. In retrospect, we'll see that Microsoft didn't kill PalmOS. Palm killed PalmOS.
******************************************************************
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
RE: No, it is the industry maturing
RhinoNerd - Stop blowing smoke up everyone's ass with your silly quotes and predictions. The difference between you and I is that you're some kind of nerd who treats this shiit like some kind of religion and I could care less which company "wins" while you seem to be in love with your Palm (pun intended) - I just want this company to improve its products since I've already got time and money invested in the platform and would actually prefer to remain a Palm customer. I'm in sales with 3,000+ contacts and if that makes me a power user than so be it. Palm is sitting on the ball and at this point it looks like they're going to lose the game - like it or not. Don't make this shiit personal.
RE: No, it is the industry maturing
Perhaps. But this company is creative enough to produce units which sell at a profit - which means that their palmpilots are sufficiently appealing to people who are willing to hand over their wages for them.
Compare that to the performance of that epitome of creativity ... that paragon of innovation ... Sony ... who produced unsuccessful products. The buying public had a very simple message for Sony: take your creativity and shove it!
So you think Palm's PDAs are profitable?
Perhaps. But this company is creative enough to produce units which sell at a profit - which means that their palmpilots are sufficiently appealing to people who are willing to hand over their wages for them.
Compare that to the performance of that epitome of creativity ... that paragon of innovation ... Sony ... who produced unsuccessful products. The buying public had a very simple message for Sony: take your creativity and shove it!
Let's consider two business plans for a minute:
Company A is first to market with a highly profitable, solid, functional design. Instead of investing in R + D and pushing the envelope, they concentrate on maximizing short term profits by cutting costs, slashing production quality and issuing one incremental upgrade after another. Arguably a wise strategy if (a) you're the only game in town and (b) the market keeps booming.
Then there's Company B who's arrives later on the market. They burn through a ton of cash, creating + releasing around 20 different models within three years. Each model experiments with hardware designs and many models sport custom OS upgrades. Several models completely miss the mark, some have only one or two decent ideas, but the feedback rolls in and ideas from the R + D lab sink or swim based on their own merit once they're out on their own in the real world. Arguably a wise strategy if you (a) have a good R + D department, (b) are looking for long term profitability (c) envision the future of PDAs as more than just PIM devices and (d) the market keeps booming.
But guess what? The market doesn't keep booming. In that case, PDAs that have capabilities beyond mere PIM seem to be the way to go. How likely is it that Company A would be able to adapt and produce a design that takes PDAs to the next stage? Simple. They can't. Company B, on the other hand already has prototyped - or even sold - the kind of devices that could define the PDA of the future: PIM/video player/camcorder/digital camera/watch/alarm clock/MP3 player/wireless internet/desktop file storage + viewer/voice recorder/micro laptop/universal remote/email/gaming console/etc.
Yes, Sony probably lost a hell of a lot of $$$ on its PDA sales department. But as I stated before in my article here (http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_Story.asp?ID=7519), Sony pulled out just when they were starting to get everything right. Furthermore, Palm's PDAs have lost the company tens of millions in the past three years. Treo sales are Palm's only decent money maker. And that could easily disappear if a competitor comes out with another phone. (Any phone as long as it runs PalmOS and isn't as poorly built as the Treos.) Or if PalmOS facilitates abusing cell networks and the carriers get skittish. Great business model, Company A!
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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
RE: No, it is the industry maturing
I guess that means that you agree that Sony was producing the sort of palmpilots which most users did not want to buy. Have I misunderstood you point, again?
RE: No, it is the industry maturing
The Kent/Foo Fighter, thank you for an interesting and thought-provoking article. I hope that you will be able to find the time to continue to make quality contributions like this in the future.
RE: No, it is the industry maturing
1) Memorystick has always been a proprietary disaster
2) SONY's track record of NOT standing behind their products, and leading the industry toward dropping consumer electric warranties down to 90 days.
3) Designing for style rather than usability (compare their hardware buttons to any other manufacturer and you'll get my drift).
4) TOO MANY MODELS with little difference between them to care.
SONY pushed the envelope of the PDA in many ways, but their core incompetency at the basics is what killed them. There's a reason the Ipod is in everyone's hands and the Walkman is a memory from 25 years ago... Apple was free to design a usable MP3 player, SONY owned too many things and was conflicted everywhere it turned (SONY music won't let them use MP3's without ATRAC mucking it up, the Minidisc division wanted it to sell Minidiscs, etc).
PalmOne is heading in the same direction in many ways- downsizing the warranties, dumbing down and outsourcing the support, selling "flashy" Palms that sell once, break, and collect dust in a drawer while the owners go back to their daytimer... IMHO for $400-600 dollars PalmOne should give me- someone who has consistently purchased Palms- MUCH better quality and specifications than the crappy T5s and Treo 650s. Their short-term strategy of selling garbage that's *flashy* but underpowered as a truly usable device will bite them in the long term. 16MB of usable RAM in the Treo 650, and the unlocked version is $700.00? Absolutely ridiculous.
You can sell a lot of people with clever and colorful advertising ONCE. But if you want to make another sale after they realize how badly they were suckered on that last $600 (or $700 now for the unlocked Treo), you will pay dearly (as PalmOne is beginning to find out...).
Fool me once, shame on you,
fool me twice, shame on me.
RE: No, it is the industry maturing
I'm still convinced that this is maturing of the industry. And with that "maturing" comes cycling through MBAs types 'til you realize the emperor is not wearing any clothes.
McDonalds came back, Apple came back and that was done by getting back to the basics that made them successful and not being some petri dish of a liberal/socialist MBA manager type. PalmSource will too quicker then you guys think.
The current purge of management is good for the industry in a whole.
RE: No, it is the industry maturing
Go find some top professional salespeople and ask them what they make. Apparently, you'll be shocked and angry.
RE: No, it is the industry maturing
Sales: the last to know, the first to complain.
RE: No, it is the industry maturing
RhinoSteve -- as in Rhino Records?
Gekko -- a *salesperson*? I can't see that personal contact kinda stuff working... must be boiler room work. Or a Colombian Connection. Se Habla Espanol, El Gekko?
I wish I had the Pay-Per-View rights for this face-off...
RE: No, it is the industry imploding
When did you sustain the head injury?
Sony sold PDAs that tended to cost more than Palms. Those who know quality tend to buy CLIEs. Newbies buy Palms. Newbies, casual users and those with limited disposeable make up the bulk of the PDA market.
Sony did pull a fast one by conducting what amounts to a four year, 20 model beta test, while charging users for the privilege of tyring those "beta" CLIEs.
******************************************************************
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
RE: No, it is the industry whimpering
1) Memorystick has always been a proprietary disaster
2) SONY's track record of NOT standing behind their products, and leading the industry toward dropping consumer electric warranties down to 90 days.
3) Designing for style rather than usability (compare their hardware buttons to any other manufacturer and you'll get my drift).
4) TOO MANY MODELS with little difference between them to care.
Sounds like you're the kind of person that would cut off their nose to spite their face.
1) Memory is memory. For data storage, format really doesn't matter these days.
2) Who cares if that's true or not? Buy a quality PDA (CLIE) and it doesn't matter. I've never had a single CLIE break on me in four years of heavy use. Enjoy your 90 day Tungsten E warranty. You'll be needing it...
3) The S300/320/360 and their jogwheels + external media handling redefined usability. The TH55 was an experiment that (I feel) failed, but at least it was a new attempt to push the envelope. The UX 50 remains the most impressive PDA design ever released. What has Palm given us? Tungstens with Decomposing Digitizers and crappy build quality. Thanks, but no thanks.
4) You never bought a CLIE because Sony released "too many models"? That really makes a lot of sense. Wow. No choice is always better than several choices, right? Are you living in a communist country, perchance? How sad.
******************************************************************
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
EDIT:
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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
RE: No, it is the industry maturing
1) Memory is memory. For data storage, format really doesn't matter these days.
2) Who cares if that's true or not? Buy a quality PDA (CLIE) and it doesn't matter. I've never had a single CLIE break on me in four years of heavy use. Enjoy your 90 day Tungsten E warranty. You'll be needing it...
3) The S300/320/360 and their jogwheels + external media handling redefined usability. The TH55 was an experiment that (I feel) failed, but at least it was a new attempt to push the envelope. The UX 50 remains the most impressive PDA design ever released. What has Palm given us? Tungstens with Decomposing Digitizers and crappy build quality. Thanks, but no thanks.
4) You never bought a CLIE because Sony released "too many models"? That really makes a lot of sense. Wow. No choice is always better than several choices, right? Are you living in a communist country, perchance? How sad.
=================
Nobody probably wants to read why I never purchased a sony... but hey...
1.. MAIN reason was size... cant keep it in my pocket...every single day....
2. memory stick... yeah it put me off... big time...
and it does matter more then ever... size and cost... cost... cost...
3. cost... sony had always = more money and for features that were not really needed i.e. camera etc..
Its interesting how people uese their devices PDA or Mobile Phones etc..
One thing that should happen is for PALM PDA to have mobile phone capabilities but keep T3 T5 (large (vga) screen) design and use a bluetooth headset for talking... its a simple solution..
Its not a phone but a PDA... with all the advantages of a pda... yet its a phone that can be used all the time...
The only reason phones got / getting bigger, because they needed somewhere to go needed to continue getting people to upgrade...
mobile phone /digital communication in a watch... intergrated into the second hand.... with bluetooth v3or4 connections...
RE: No, it is the industry maturing
No more big talk from you until you answer the question, RhinoFraud.
RE: No, it is the industry maturing
Hey Rhino FRAUD
Hey Rhino FRAUD - I never said "millionS' plural - I saild "million" - singular. and yes - one saleaman can handle multi-thousand customers - and yes I have admin help you piece of trash. YOU are the FRAUD - not me. You're a NOBODY. If you were , you'd realize my $1M is nothing.
SO SHUT THE FFUC*K UP YOU FRIGGIN FRAUD,
GG
RE: No, it is the industry maturing
Warm up those lampposts, Comrades!
RE: No, it is the industry drunk wherein it dressed itself
1.. MAIN reason was size... cant keep it in my pocket...every single day....
2. memory stick... yeah it put me off... big time...
and it does matter more then ever... size and cost... cost... cost...
3. cost... sony had always = more money and for features that were not really needed i.e. camera etc..
Its interesting how people uese their devices PDA or Mobile Phones etc..
One thing that should happen is for PALM PDA to have mobile phone capabilities but keep T3 T5 (large (vga) screen) design and use a bluetooth headset for talking... its a simple solution..
Its not a phone but a PDA... with all the advantages of a pda... yet its a phone that can be used all the time...
- The CLIE UX50 is one of the most pocketable PDAs ever built. No case needed and it's also as rugged as hell. Even "back in the day" Sony's first PalmOS PDA - the CLIE S300 - was more pocketable than Palm's competing models.
- Memory Stick is definitely overpriced, but I was willing to pay the price to get the best PDA hardware possible. I'd rather pay an extra $50 on an expansion card and use a high quality TH55 or UX50 than buy a self-destructing Tungsten or Zire just so I can get cheaper SD cards. It's a matter of priorities.
- Sony greater cost buys you both more features and MUCH better quality. The features may or may not matter to you, but most people choose quality if they can afford it.
- Adding cellphone radios is how traditional PDAs will survive. This change is both inevitable and long overdue.
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******************************************************************
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
RE: No, it is the industry maturing
Woohoo!! That is it. Ok, you can sell me laundry detergent while I geek off and download porn in my nowhere IT job. We are both "rich." ;-)
Touche!
Wet clay can be sexy
Obviously you never saw Demi Moore in "Ghost"...
;-O
******************************************************************
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
RE: Wet clay can be sexy
-------------------------------
Editor, http://Pocketfactory.com
Contributing Editor, http://digitalmediathoughts.com
Exception 2
I think there is another exception: The Garmin iQue 3600a. What i have seen so far is really what i like: Stylish, elegant and discreet design usually combined with superb built quality. Wow. I really hope, somebody posts a review and that this time battery life is better.
I really don't understand why PalmOne is going for this nasty battle: "Yes we can make the cheapest handhelds on the market". I am really wondering if managers think this is good strategy. The cheapest thing you can get is: NONE. And this will happen with PalmOne if they continue. I really need some Wow and the last time i had was with my beloved UX50. Unfortunately Sony made so many mistakes (usability) and left the PDA market, that i ebay'd it. And it is maybe hard to imagine, but PalmOne listen now: I would spend a 600 Euro's or even more (maybe even 800), if you give me a Tablet PalmOS PDA with VGA screen, Wifi & BT (+ keyboard would be nice) and battery life 10hours+. That's everything i want to have!
Cheers
*Andreas
RE: Exception 2
You obviously have not been around here much for the past few months. When "true" rumors came out on the real T5, I boldly proclaimed that "PalmOne might be stupid, but their not suicidal". How wrong I was.
Although, P1 is surviving on Treos and the PDA is becoming a leftover in profit terms. Either serve the masses and survive or please the geeks and die, I guess. Then again ... a PalmOne Treo iPod with 40GB mini-hardrive, VGA, GSM-EDGE, WiFi and BT wireless earphones could rock the world right now.
Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com
RE: Exception 2
Since this has turned into the self-denunciation thread, let me add that when someone PhotoShopped a TT to give it a 320x480 screen, I lashed into him by saying such a beast simply could never exist and that the entire slider design with such a screen was just dumb. (Or even worse words to that effect!)
RE: Exception 2
>>"Then again ... a PalmOne Treo iPod with 40GB mini-hardrive, VGA, GSM-EDGE, WiFi and BT wireless earphones could rock the world right now."<<
Well, at least for the three minutes that it actually ran before imploding the battery.
_________________
Sean
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.
Deconstructing the UFO MoFo
Looking at today's offerings from PalmOne, it's not hard to see why the PDA industry has lost much of the enthusiasm that marked its early days. Palm PDAs have lost the classic look and feel that set them apart from other competing products on the market, particularly the Palm V form factor.
Take the Tungsten T5 for example. Though a decent looking product compared to other PDAs sitting on store shelves, it's just another nameless face in the crowd. The Tungsten line as a whole lacks the elegance that drove so many consumers and business professionals to covet the original Palm V, which wasn’t just a PDA..it was a status symbol.
Buying a PDA today is as boring as buying a pair of socks. The value proposition of mobile devices has certainly increased exponentially with introduction of new features, and we get far more bang for our buck now than ever before. But aesthetics have suffered dramatically as the PDA market has become commoditized. I haven't seen a PDA in recent years that really looked fashionable. Not since Sony’s departure anyway. We all had a good laugh at the Claudia Schiffer Palm V model, but I'd gladly take a Palm V that packed the same features of today's models into a similar form factor and slick looking design.
The Zire line is another example of lackluster design. Popular consumer PDAs of past generations like the Handspring Visor Deluxe sported fun designs and color options that allowed the consumer to personalize their PDA. When Handspring first introduced the Visor, people were buying these things like candy. Visor owners proudly flaunted their color choice to friends and fellow Visor enthusiasts. As trivial as color and style may be to some, it offered a great experience to consumers.
In its glory days, PDAs were much more than a piece of technology, they were a wearable fashion accessory; sleek, stylish, and infinitely cool. There is no better example of this same philosophy than the iPod. Has that product become so successful simply because it plays music? Of course not, its classic design has made it an icon….with an almost cult-like following that Palm devices once had. Those days are long gone for the PDA it seems.
PalmOne needs another homerun design that breaks molds and sets off a new trend in hardware design. Something that screams...cool! So far all we've seen are a bunch of dud designs that have the sex appeal of wet clay. Obviously just slapping an existing PDA into a more elegant design isn't necessarily going to propel PDAs back to growth. But it may reinvigorate a market in desperate need of excitement and relevance. The PDA market needs an iPod!
-Kent
I realize your heart's in the right place, but you appear to be confused. You like the Palm V ascetic aesthetics? Thank blind luck. And the design genius of IDEO. http://www.ideo.com/portfolio/re.asp?x=50008
You like Handspring's early designs? Again, thank IDEO. http://www.ideo.com/portfolio/list.asp?p=&c=Handspring&k=&s=&so=4
Palm is now primarily about cutting costs, pinching pennies on design/manufacturing/quality. Ergo the Tungsten "5" (nee Tungsten TE2). Face it: the original Pilot pretty much nailed the design of a tablet-style PDA. Yes, you can make the Pilot thinner, lighter, add Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/color hi res screen/camera/etc (e.g. CLIE TH55), but it's still basically the same overall design. If you're not going to innovate in terms of design you need to sell based on style (e.g. iPod), slick marketing* (iPod), price (Dell Axim), or name (Palm). And just ask Netscape or WordPerfect how long consumers remember name. You DO remember Netscape and WordPerfect, right?
It's evident that while both Style and Substance help sales, Style is by far more important. Exhibit 1: TRGpro and HandEra 330 - both brilliantly functional designs, but hobbled by plain (or in the case of the 330, HORRID) styling. Meanwhile, Palm sold boatloads of the egregious m505. Go figure.
I would argue that in the past 9 years there have been only five significant PalmOS PDA designs:
1) 1996 - PalmPilot 1000
2) 1999 - Palm V
3) 1999 - TRGpro
4) 2003 - CLIE UX50
5) 2003 - Treo 600
Honorable mention goes to the CLIE TH55 for being the most highly evolved member of the traditional tablet PDA family tree.
My UX50 is the only PDA I've seen other than the Palm V series that has the ability to drop jaws. People seem irresistably drawn to it wherever I go and that kind of "Whut tha fcuk?" slackjawed amazement is what Palm needed to sustain if they were serious about maintaining the momentum they had in 1999-2000.
The PalmOS platform is moribund, partly due to the overpriced, unappealing hardware being sold. PalmOS needs the following models to be released ASAP:
1) $200 phone-centric smartphone based on a Sony Ericsson T630-style phone
2) CLIE UX100 with 4 inch OLED screen, 128 MB "real" RAM
3) 320 x 480 screened Palm V-style tablet PDA with black aluminum or magnesium case
4) CLIE TH75 with 1 MP camera and 64 MB "real" RAM
5) Samsung SPH-i550 + GSM equivalent
6) Tungsten T7 - 512 MB RAM, slider design, black metal case, OLED screen, Bluetooth + Wi-Fi + GSM/CDMA radio (integrated cellphone radio for wireless web/email is THE killer app PDAs have been waiting for over the past five years)
I believe at least two of those devices will be here within four months.
*Steve Jobs will begin selling his own feces to Apple Cultists beginning March 1. Apple's new iPoo™ lineup is expected to easily surpass the iPod shuffle as the company's most popular product. Yes, Apple Cultists can already easily create their own iPoo™, but feces didn't seem cool until Jobs told them it was cool. Remember, kids: the ONLY cool feces is Jobs' highly individualistic, rebellious iPoo™ (coming soon in six different colors/flavors, including the red [hematochezia] and black [melena] U2 GI bleed model)
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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
RE: Deconstructing the UFO MoFo
This would be sweet, but I would be happier if Palm made it. Palm makes better keyboards, and it would have SD sockets instead of MemoryStick ones.
I just want a text-oriented Palm device that isn't built into a phone.
"All opinions posted are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled."
RE: Deconstructing the UFO MoFo
FYI: IDEO is by no means the first design firm to have a hand (pardon the pun) in PalmOS hardware design. The original PalmPilot was actually designed by a Palo Alto Products. And if I'm not mistaken, Sony designers played a large role in the design of the Tungsten T. Even Tapwave hired a well known product designer (whose name escapes me at the moment) for the Zodiac.
-------------------------------
Editor, http://Pocketfactory.com
Contributing Editor, http://digitalmediathoughts.com
RE: Deconstructing the UFO MoFo
Please...
The problem was marketing not design.
Tell me please (looking at the front of the device), the difference between a TrgPro and a Palm III/IIIx? Visually, virtually none. And that was the point of both the HandEra models. Familiar to what people were already buying in great numbers from Palm, compatible with existing accessories, and yet adding in the features Palm leaves out.
RE: Deconstructing the UFO MoFo
Don't bogart that reefer TVOR!
sure would be a killer P1 device though (exhaling)....
RE: Deconstructing the UFO MoFo
That would be Scott Summit (of Summit ID). He's had a number of slick designs over the years, including: AlphaSmart Dana, Xenote iTag, the original Palm V prototype and (his best work) the Stowaway keyboard.
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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
RE: Deconstructing the UFO MoFo
AlphaSmart Dana.
Wait a minute - I forgot that the Dana has four year old specs (PalmOS 4, 16 MB RAM) pricing by the Marquis de Sade (don't drop the soap) and hefty weight (2 pounds).
The Window(s)™ of opportunity to launch a PalmOS microlaptop (PalmTop™) may have passed, finding Palm asleep at the wheel yet again. A T3 or TH55 with Bluetooth/IR keyboard? No thanks. The OS deserves creative hardware, not kludges.
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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
RE: Deconstructing the UFO MoFo
Please...
The problem was marketing not design.
Tell me please (looking at the front of the device), the difference between a TrgPro and a Palm III/IIIx? Visually, virtually none. And that was the point of both the HandEra models. Familiar to what people were already buying in great numbers from Palm, compatible with existing accessories, and yet adding in the features Palm leaves out.
Please...
The problem was design (in the case of the HandEra 330), marketing, naivety, arrogance, slow production schedule, Palm's desire to kill competition, limited funds, lack of color screen, lack of a cohesive distribution network (hello, Tapwave!!!), manufacturing issues (HandEra 330) and a number of other things that have all been discussed before.
Form and function are inseperable components of design. The TRGpro was functionality incarnate, and thus its design was unquestionably brilliant. In terms of aesthetics, obviously it looked like just another Palm III. But in 1999, FFS/Compact Flash capability/real speaker/CFBackup were as "revolutionary" as anything the platform has seen since then. At least until the CLIE UX50 and then Handspring's Treo 600 masterpiece.
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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
RE: Deconstructing the UFO MoFo
A modernized and slightly revised Visor Edge and/or an m500 update would be absolutely killer products. Best of all, the majority of the design is already done on the exteriors. Tweaks would just have to be made for Athena connectors and a 5-way navigator. And of course, in the case of the Edge, a proper SDIO slot (or two!). Add 320*480 & BT and you've got a good model to hold the masses over until Cobalt drops this fall.
If they could just do them in a matte black finish as I mentioned the other day (as did Voice) they'd stand from the old OS 3 & OS4 models as well as stand out on the shelves.
As an aside: I know a guy who used to work for IBM and he still has the final WorkPad--a c500 (rebadged m500 in black case). It still looks great and serves his needs--SD slot, UC, G1--what more do you need for a basic PDA.
RE: Deconstructing the UFO MoFo
RE: Deconstructing the UFO MoFo
I'd also put the notorious T|T in place of the Treo 600 (I consider that a phone, not a PDA). Love it or hate it, the slider brought lots of attention and plenty of buzz to Palm when they were in desperate need of it. Remember the early reviews likening it to the "BMW of PDAs"? HAH! And then just today I read an article about a new Samsung CDMA cell phone for Verizon that uses a variation on the Matrix phone slider mechanism. Imagine how everyone would be slidin' around had Apple released a slider iPod?
RE: the iPoo
That's as good as the iPod Muffle -- dreamed up by http://www.billpalmer.net -- for when you *don't* need to listen to music!
RE: Deconstructing the UFO MoFo
I'd also put the notorious T|T in place of the Treo 600 (I consider that a phone, not a PDA). Love it or hate it, the slider brought lots of attention and plenty of buzz to Palm when they were in desperate need of it. Remember the early reviews likening it to the "BMW of PDAs"? HAH! And then just today I read an article about a new Samsung CDMA cell phone for Verizon that uses a variation on the Matrix phone slider mechanism. Imagine how everyone would be slidin' around had Apple released a slider iPod?
The N series PDAs were just too big to take seriously. Sony is about elegant designs and it's surprising that those Newton-class behemoths ever made it out of the Sony PDA lab. PDAs need to be small enough that normal people don't mind carrying them around. The N series is For Geeks Only.
The T|T and its slider design is little more than a gimmick. The Treo 600, on the other hand, represented a quantum leap forward in smartphone design and required a truly frightening amount of PalmOS hacking to be performed. It's a shame that people don't seem to realize what a engineering accomplishment the Treo 600 was for Handspring. Even more unfortunate is the fact that the basic design was undermined by several stupid cost-saving decisions and shoddy construction by Handspring's contractor. And MOST unfortunate is that Palm has taken all of Handspring's hard work and done precisely NOTHING with it in the past year. Palm needs to remove the external antenna and shrink the Treo 600's size, weight and price around 25% before this will catch on with "normal" people.
*************************************************************************************
Press release: CUPERTINO, California — February 11, 2005 — Apple® announced today that Steve Jobs will begin selling his own feces to Apple Cultists beginning March 1. Apple's new iPoo™ lineup is expected to easily surpass the iPod shuffle as the company's most popular product. Yes, Apple Cultists can already easily create their own iPoo™, but feces didn't seem cool until Jobs told them it was cool. Remember, kids: the ONLY cool feces is Jobs' highly individualistic, rebellious iPoo™ (coming soon in six different colors/flavors, including the red [hematochezia] and black [melena] U2 GI bleed model)
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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
RE: Deconstructing the UFO MoFo
That's as good as the iPod Muffle
Jobs to Apple Cultists (Jonestown-style): Eat my sh!t and die!
The standard iPoo is brown and comes with a roll of Jobs-approved iToilet Paper to keep the Apple Cultists from smearing Jobs' crap all over their sheep-like faces. Yes, the iPod In-Ear Headphones are in a matching designer brown color. And I coined the iPod Muffle term last year when I heard about the iPod Shuffle. I should sue this Billy Palmer MoFo for intellectual property theft.
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Press release: CUPERTINO, California — February 11, 2005 — Apple® announced today that Steve Jobs will begin selling his own feces to Apple Cultists beginning March 1. Apple's new iPoo™ lineup is expected to easily surpass the iPod shuffle as the company's most popular product. Yes, Apple Cultists can already easily create their own iPoo™, but feces didn't seem cool until Jobs told them it was cool. Remember, kids: the ONLY cool feces is Jobs' highly individualistic, rebellious iPoo™ (coming soon in six different colors/flavors, including the red [hematochezia] and black [melena] U2 GI bleed model)
*************************************************************************************
******************************************************************
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
In the PPC camp it is the same.
So this problem of lack of style is not just affecting us palm users it is a problem of all PDAs.
I have a great PDA, but didn't bring it with me today
And like mobile phones, their battery life must be measured in days, not hours as they don't spend their time sitting on desks charging like the laptops their battery-life now resembles.
Time after time, model after model, Palm has sacrificed these two cornerstones of PDA design: size and battery life, in an attempt to chase Microsoft/HP up the gadgets garden path.
Palm should reintroduce a model line based on the Palm V form factor and battery life, sacrificing anything that compromises it (including a color screen, WIFI, etc).
Brendan
(still using a Palm Vx)
RE: I have a great PDA, but didn't bring it with me today
I think they did that with the M500. Almost identical form factor, weeks between charges, no color. I still have my IIIe, but what has changed is my needs. I need to be able to manage multiple relational databases with speed similar to a desktop. Weeks between charges? Forget it now! However, I must say that that is the only loss noted. My current device actually has a smaller footprint than the V, and the charging once every few days is not so bad, but I'd be concerned about long trips!
RE: I have a great PDA, but didn't bring it with me today
Palm was *so* close to getting everything right with the m515. All it was missing was a backlite Graffiti area and a $50 cheaper pricetag. A resurrection of that classic m500 (don't you dare call the T|E the new V/m500) formfactor could easily contain an Athena connector, OS 5.x, and a 320*480 screen. As long as it had BT I'd be happy. Essentially, T3 specs in an m500 shell. Pure PDA bliss for the majority of us. The only thing I'd worry about would be how to shoehorn a decent d-pad into that shape . I could even live with a slightly elongaged bottom section.
People forget that the m500s felt vastly better (nude) in your hand than the V. They weren't as "sharp" and had nice rounded countours. The stylus placement and case rail was brilliant as well. The Palm V aluminum hardcase remains my FAVORITE PDA case of all time, btw.
I also hold the Visor Edge in higher regard now than I did when it was released 4 years ago. Go figre.
RE: I have a great PDA, but didn't bring it with me today
Yeah, it was a sweet one. My daughter still had my old M515 until a few days ago. Her brother took her cradle, so she dug up an old one and used the wrong power adapter. No replacement motherboards at GetHighTech either.
RE: I have a great PDA, but didn't bring it with me today
To Innovate = To Take Risk
I don't think Palm can afford to take the kind of risk they need to innovate to the next level. I'm talking both about featuresets (new Palms with Wifi AND flashing alarm lights) but mostly about core OS and application functions. The hints should come from the third party programs that power users pay for and install, but these features need to become fundamental.
On the flip side, I don't think the Pocket PC folks can afford to innovate because of the strictness of their platform requirements and the entrenched, "I came from a Windows Desktop" mentality. Any radical departures for them will certainly have high user resistance.
Finally, I will say that I think the Blackberry series is the most innovative thing happening in the PDA space (although arguably it's in its own area). The people at RIM seem to be really user-oriented, and are raking in the bucks. I think their next few devices will be the ones to watch.
Palm Enthusiast since 1998
Now THIS is design
Show Citizen how it was supposed to be done...
http://www.rex6000.org/Images/datasync-citizen.jpg
http://www.rex6000.org/Images/datasync-citizen-colors.jpg
(Thank you Google and Rex6000.org!)
RE: Now THIS is design
That SHOULD be Thank you YAHOO. Google image search is actually inferior to Yahoo. You figure it out...
RE: Now THIS is design
http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/333/C2195/
Dream, palmOne! Dream!
Ed: Remember "Delight the customer"?!
RE: Now THIS is design
Don't be silly, Lapdoggie
The market for PDAs should have split into 5 major categories:
High End Tech Toys - with all the bells and whistles
Basic tablet PDA
Microlaptop
High end smartphone with Treo 600-style keyboard
Basic smartphone with form factor of a typical "regular" cellphone
You're proposing a niche product that has no raison d'etre.
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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
RE: Now THIS is design
RE: Now THIS is design
In Japan, the Rex was called the DataSlim. I'm still trying to find out if its being sold there. Probably not. They never did go with a color screen, dammit.
RE: Now THIS is design
just to clarify it-this machine has NO color screen. It only has a 4bit grayscale screen that appears as blue and red in the photo!
BTW, I deem that a credit-card sized machine is not going to have much chances nowaways. People want huge screens for movie playback and word processing-have fun with excel on your credit card....
Best regards
Tam Hanna
Find out more about the Palm OS in my blog:
http://tamspalm.blogspot.com
RE: Now THIS is design
RE: Now THIS is design
Any manufacturer catering to what YOU want is an idiot that deserves to go out of business. Almost everyone buying PDA these days already has a cellphone. No one is going to buy an extra monochrome small screened PIM device that can't even compete with their color small screened cellphone's PIM abilities. Think about it, Cane. What's happened to you these days? I haven't seen an even remotely interesting post from you in months. Even Ska had more useful things to say than you now do. Don't come back here until you've got your act together. Punk.
The REX is dead! Long live the REX!
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Press release: CUPERTINO, California — February 11, 2005 — Apple® announced today that Steve Jobs will begin selling his own feces to Apple Cultists beginning March 1. Apple's new iPoo™ lineup is expected to easily surpass the iPod shuffle as the company's most popular product. Yes, Apple Cultists can already easily create their own iPoo™, but feces didn't seem cool until Jobs told them it was cool. Remember, kids: the ONLY cool feces is Jobs' highly individualistic, rebellious iPoo™ (coming soon in six different colors/flavors, including the red [hematochezia] and black [melena] U2 GI bleed model)
*************************************************************************************
******************************************************************
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
RE: Now THIS is design
You mean like Sony? No wait, that can't be right, they have already left the business.
To all the Sony Haterz: Don't be a Hater. Kumbayah...
Yes, they pulled out of the non-Japanese PDA market. But they have other interests to contend with and are focusing resources on The Profit-making Machine Formerly Known As PSP (TPMFKAP). TPMFKAP will bring in several BILLION $$$ per year to cash-starved Sony. CLIEs could only realistically be expected to make a few hundred MILLION $$$ per year for Sony. The expensive groundwork was already done for CLIE, but (for now) conservative thinking dictated the retreat.
Palm, on the other hand could easily go bankrupt in 2006. What do they have left to fall back on?
Beware the monster known as Jealousy, Grasshopper. It will slowly consume you alive.
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Press release: CUPERTINO, California — February 11, 2005 — Apple® announced today that Steve Jobs will begin selling his own feces to Apple Cultists beginning March 1. Apple's new iPoo™ lineup is expected to easily surpass the iPod shuffle as the company's most popular product. Yes, Apple Cultists can already easily create their own iPoo™, but feces didn't seem cool until Jobs told them it was cool. Remember, kids: the ONLY cool feces is Jobs' highly individualistic, rebellious iPoo™ (coming soon in six different colors/flavors, including the red [hematochezia] and black [melena] U2 GI bleed model)
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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
RE: Now THIS is design
And what do we have to look forward from p1 Cobalt devices? -- the same screwy RAM scheme as the T5. No thanks!
Design is DEAD.
And what do we have to look forward from p1 Cobalt devices? -- the same screwy RAM scheme as the T5. No thanks!
You're saying a $2000 Sony U71 "is better suited for non-PIM tasks (ie, real work)" than a $300 - $400 PDA? Errrm... no kidding. Is that somehow a revelation for you?
I think for anything bigger than a typical PDA (4 - 6 ounces) a decent keyboard is mandatory. The U series and OQO don't make sense: too big to be pocketable and lacking keyboards to replace a laptop. Like those tablet PCs that were supposed to be the Next Big Thing, these pseudo PCs will also fail. Real laptops have now shrunk to sub-2 pounds and make a lot more sense than the U series etc.
The future is:
Traditional desktop ($500 - $2000)
Minilaptop (less than 2 pounds, $1500 - $2500)
Traditional desktop-replacement laptop (4 - 8 pounds, $800 - $2000)
Traditional PDA (4 - 6 ounces, $150 - $400)
The U series + friends offer NOTHING compelling to get significant numbers of people to switch from the proven hardware categories. They answer a question no one is asking.
Sony and Palm COULD have tried to cannibalize sales of minilaptops by releasing advanced (and slightly bigger) versions of the UX50, but realistically, without a stable multitasking environment (i.e. a stable Cobalt), PalmOS microlaptops ("PalmTops") don't make much sense.
It's funny, but Tungsten T3, CLIE UX50, TH55 and other older models are going to become hot properties now that Palm has butchered their architecture and QC. Start hoarding your old skool PDAs while you can. Rough times are a-comin'.
Move along, folks. Nothing to see...
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Press release: CUPERTINO, California — February 11, 2005 — Apple® announced today that Steve Jobs will begin selling his own feces to Apple Cultists beginning March 1. Apple's new iPoo™ lineup is expected to easily surpass the iPod shuffle as the company's most popular product. Yes, Apple Cultists can already easily create their own iPoo™, but feces didn't seem cool until Jobs told them it was cool. Remember, kids: the ONLY cool feces is Jobs' highly individualistic, rebellious iPoo™ (coming soon in six different colors/flavors, including the red [hematochezia] and black [melena] U2 GI bleed model)
*************************************************************************************
******************************************************************
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
RE: Now THIS is design
You're not even amusing any longer.
4.9" x 3.4" x 0.9" - 14 oz - OQO
5.37" x 3.0 x 0.63" - 5.4 oz - T3
4.9" x 3.0" x 0.62" - 6 oz - Toshiba e550g
5.17" x 3.03" x 0.59" - hp hx
Not pocketable. Right.
Mike Cane: Are you INSANE???
You're not even amusing any longer.
4.9" x 3.4" x 0.9" - 14 oz - OQO
5.37" x 3.0 x 0.63" - 5.4 oz - T3
4.9" x 3.0" x 0.62" - 6 oz - Toshiba e550g
5.17" x 3.03" x 0.59" - hp hx
Not pocketable. Right.
Cane, you used to be amusing (in a court jester kind of way). Now you're just pathetic.
Sony U50/U70/U71:
Size: 6.57(W) x 4.25 (L) x 1.03 (H) [inch]
167mm× height 108mm× depth 26.4mm
Weight: 1.21 lbs / 550g
OQO weight: 14 ounces!!!
And what did ZDNet have to say about your precioucs OQO?
http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/notebooks/0,39023980,39170249,00.htm
"The OQO Model 01 weighs 397g -- more than any handheld and rather too much to carry in a pocket. You'd need big pockets, besides, as the device measures 12.4cm wide, 8.6cm deep and 2.29cm high. Its size and weight feel good in your hands, but it runs hot, which makes it uncomfortable to hold after a few minutes."
Enjoy carrying around one pound BRICKS in your pocket? Trying to hide a certain anatomical (comical) inadequacy?
Have a seat. Biotch.
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Press release: CUPERTINO, California — February 11, 2005 — Apple® announced today that Steve Jobs will begin selling his own feces to Apple Cultists beginning March 1. Apple's new iPoo™ lineup is expected to easily surpass the iPod shuffle as the company's most popular product. Yes, Apple Cultists can already easily create their own iPoo™, but feces didn't seem cool until Jobs told them it was cool. Remember, kids: the ONLY cool feces is Jobs' highly individualistic, rebellious iPoo™ (coming soon in six different colors/flavors, including the red [hematochezia] and black [melena] U2 GI bleed model)
*************************************************************************************
******************************************************************
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
RE: Now THIS is design
Go cut some paper to the OQO dimensions and maybe it'll sink in just how teeny that baby is.
I *know* the Sony U dimensions. I wasn't arguing that *it* was pocketable -- or even possible to carry on one's body (ie, holster or belt clip).
Mike Cane: Get onboard the Clue Train™
Go cut some paper to the OQO dimensions and maybe it'll sink in just how teeny that baby is.
I *know* the Sony U dimensions. I wasn't arguing that *it* was pocketable -- or even possible to carry on one's body (ie, holster or belt clip).
Once again: OQO weight: 14 ounces!!!
Only a true geek would carry around a non-laptop device weighing over 8 ounces. You posts are pathetic cries for help.
*************************************************************************************
Press release: CUPERTINO, California — February 11, 2005 — Apple® announced today that Steve Jobs will begin selling his own feces to Apple Cultists beginning March 1. Apple's new iPoo™ lineup is expected to easily surpass the iPod shuffle as the company's most popular product. Yes, Apple Cultists can already easily create their own iPoo™, but feces didn't seem cool until Jobs told them it was cool. Remember, kids: the ONLY cool feces is Jobs' highly individualistic, rebellious iPoo™ (coming soon in six different colors/flavors, including the red [hematochezia] and black [melena] U2 GI bleed model)
*************************************************************************************
******************************************************************
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
RE: Now THIS is design
Yes, you are correct. Send me the two grand for an OQO and I will no longer have to cry for help.
I will, however, gloat like mad!
Words mean things
> Have PDA's as we know them lost that enthusiasm
> that created such ascetic beauties as the Palm V?
as•cet•ic
Pronunciation: (u-set'ik), [key]
—n.
1. a person who dedicates his or her life to a pursuit of contemplative ideals and practices extreme self-denial or self-mortification for religious reasons.
2. a person who leads an austerely simple life, esp. one who abstains from the normal pleasures of life or denies himself or herself material satisfaction.
3. (in the early Christian church) a monk; hermit.
Or...
aes•thet•ic
Pronunciation: (es-thet'ik or, esp. Brit., ēs-), [key]
—adj.
1. pertaining to a sense of the beautiful or to the science of aesthetics.
2. having a sense of the beautiful; characterized by a love of beauty.
3. pertaining to, involving, or concerned with pure emotion and sensation as opposed to pure intellectuality.
No lack of design enthusisasm, we saw everything....
I personally do not know what one can still change. we had it all already-slider keyboards, thumbpads, foldable units(Revo was there before the UX even was born),....
So, there is no lack of innovation IMHO-it is just that we already saw almost everything that is practical....
Look here for a further discussion of the editorial:
http://tamspalm.blogspot.com/2005/02/pda-industry-is-loosing-its-design.html
Just my 2 cents
Tam Hanna
Find out more about the Palm OS in my blog:
http://tamspalm.blogspot.com
RE: No lack of design enthusisasm, we saw everything....
So, there is no lack of innovation IMHO-it is just that we already saw almost everything that is practical....
Ridiculous. Is innovation dead in automobiles? Airplanes? Architecture? Basic designs have been around for years in most fields, but that doesn't mean companies stop trying to push the envelope.
You want innovation? How about:
1) Quality control. That would be the single most important "innovation" for Palm to make. Their hardware offerings over the past several years have had an embarassing number of design flaws + construction defects.
2) Integrated GSM +/- CDMA radios in a tablet or microlaptop-style PDA. Bluetooth or wired headphones or speakerphones could be used for phone use.
3) A 4 ounce UX50 followup with 4 inch OLED screen, dual expansion, 128 MB RAM, more tactile (IBM laptop quality) keyboard. Include integrated GPS + cellphone radios to create the ultimate PDA.
4) A TINY phone-centric smartphone using PalmOS.
5) Integrated voice transcription software. Now that we have 600+ MHz CPUs in PDAs, this should be seriously looked at.
6) 8 - 12 hour batteries. The CLIE TH55 hinted at what could be done with attention to detail. Those of us who remember what it was like only having to change batteries in our Pilots/Palm III/etc every month miss not having to worry about battery life every day.
7) Video out (to monitor or TV) ability. Or PDA as PC with docking stations at home or work for use with better keyboard/mouse/monotor.
8) PDA as laptop replacement. Aggressively market item #3 in this list along with Documents To Go, Outlook-compatible full-featured email app, optimized NetFront or Opera browser, easy Wi-Fi integration/setup + Wi-Fi file utility, easy VPN (e.g. Mergic VPN) or Mobile TS, easy Bluetooth setup, and docking station from item #7.
9) Included a COMPLETE multimedia suite. Licence best of breed apps to make it easy for users to organize + play MP3, record TV shows onto expansion cards (video/audio in), convert DVDs to expansion card-readable files, organize + display photos, etc etc.
10) Maximize hardware specs: 3 or 5 MP digital camera, high quality CCD or CMOS chip, high quality digital camcorder, 128 - 512 MB of "normal" RAM, dual expansion with CompactFlash and SD or Memory Stick, high power universal remote +/- garage door opener, FM transmitter (so MP3 can be broadcast to car or home stereo), make devices USB mountable/allow charging via USB/allow use of regular USB peripherals with device, with drivers already being included in the OS.
I think of the CLIE UX50 and TH55 as being the PDA equivalent of the Ford Model T. Manufacturers should be pushing towards designing the equivalent of the Toyota Prius, Honda S2000 and the Ford GT40.
Your suggestion that everything has already been done before is as ridiculous as saying that now that the alphabet has already been invented, nothing new can be written.
- TVoR
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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
RE: No lack of design enthusisasm, we saw everything....
what you are writing about basically is minimal improvements-not major stoff. The major housing shapes have all be done, and that is what our editor was talking about IMHO..
Best Regards
Tam Hanna
Find out more about the Palm OS in my blog:
http://tamspalm.blogspot.com
RE: No lack of design enthusisasm, we saw everything....
With that line of "reasoning" he can probably also claim there have been no significant "major" improvements in:
PCs - over the past 20 years
Cars - over the past 100 years
Architecture - over the past 2000 years
Literature - over the past 5000 years
Maybe he should do an editorial about how the wheel hasn't been improved in thousands of years. That's a more legitimate complaint.
Sheesh...
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Press release: CUPERTINO, California — February 11, 2005 — Apple® announced today that Steve Jobs will begin selling his own feces to Apple Cultists beginning March 1. Apple's new iPoo™ lineup is expected to easily surpass the iPod shuffle as the company's most popular product. Yes, Apple Cultists can already easily create their own iPoo™, but feces didn't seem cool until Jobs told them it was cool. Remember, kids: the ONLY cool feces is Jobs' highly individualistic, rebellious iPoo™ (coming soon in six different colors/flavors, including the red [hematochezia] and black [melena] U2 GI bleed model)
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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
The Nintendo DS Palm Option
Not with Nintendo about to release the Palm OS on it's DS gaming platform!
Check it out:
RE: The Nintendo DS Palm Option
One is that the PalmOS software (which?) was licensed to secure the V-Pocket name as a trademark.
The other is that the software they licensed is to be ported to the DS OS.
When is E3? We can start a countdown clock.
I can see Voice reaching for his medication... Sony *quits* PalmOS -- and Nintendo *embraces* it?
I find this hard to believe...
RE: The Nintendo DS Palm Option
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, will deliver a keynote address at the 19th annual Game Developers Conference, on Thursday, March 10.
RE: The Nintendo DS Palm Option
I can see Voice reaching for his medication... Sony *quits* PalmOS -- and Nintendo *embraces* it?
I find this hard to believe...
E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) starts 2 months after the GDC - it's May 18 in LA.
If PalmOS has been licenced to Nintendo and will actually be USED in shipping units, hats off to PalmSource. I doubt anything much will come of this though - reminds me of Innovation Technologies' GameBoy Advance PDA cartridge. At last count around four people bought that PDA cartridge. And one of those people was the developer's mother...
Hint to Nagel: Cellphones sell in the hundreds of millions per year. PalmOS on cellphones would be A Good Thing.
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Press release: CUPERTINO, California — February 11, 2005 — Apple® announced today that Steve Jobs will begin selling his own feces to Apple Cultists beginning March 1. Apple's new iPoo™ lineup is expected to easily surpass the iPod shuffle as the company's most popular product. Yes, Apple Cultists can already easily create their own iPoo™, but feces didn't seem cool until Jobs told them it was cool. Remember, kids: the ONLY cool feces is Jobs' highly individualistic, rebellious iPoo™ (coming soon in six different colors/flavors, including the red [hematochezia] and black [melena] U2 GI bleed model)
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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
RE: The Nintendo DS Palm Option
the future is VoIP, i.e. using a wi-fi, bluetooth or zigbee enabled handheld to make free calls using a net connection.
check out skype for Pocket PC
http://www.skype.com/products/skype/pocketpc/
soon there'll be a Palm OS version, hopefully and especially if Nintendo want the DS to be a telephone :)
oh, and i'd be selling my stock in those mobile telco's pretty fast
The Handheld Learning Forum
RE: The Nintendo DS Palm Option
And my sentence back there was misleading: It wasn't Palm *OS* software they licensed -- that is, the *OS* itself -- it was some sort of *application* or *application suite*. Don't know why they'd go and do that unless it had some sort of features they think they can also patent and then extract royalties from everybody else for using.
RE: The Nintendo DS Palm Option
Have you actually used Skype?
I use it on a Mac and a Pocket PC and it's superb nothing like NetZero and far better than the voice facilities on things like MSN or iChat.
20 million people wrong?
I don't think so.
BTW the patent that Nintendo have lodged contains a licensing of the Palm OS. Which of course doesn't guarantee they'll use it but if they do it certainly puts the Palm operating system back in the game against Windows Mobile and Symbian.
RE: The Nintendo DS Palm Option
but I'm not sure they'll try and monetize their community via moving voice data around but probably via added value services such as calls to non VoIP lines which they already do. There's some big bucks in this activity alone if you have the volume.
For example in the UK I already get all my national landline calls free using a free sign-up service from 18866.co.uk - I even get to call Australia or the U.S. for 2p a minute. It gives pretty hefty discounts for my landline calls to mobiles also. I call 1800 numbers in the states from the Uk also for free. So they make their money from the volume of international and mobile calls to the extent that they give away UK to UK landline calls for nada.
I would imagine that Skype will be looking at a similar model until, of course, all the non-VoIP phones disappear :)
PDA Industry Losing Its Design Enthusiasm?
Two; the tungsten T’s were innovative and the T3 was a marvel.
I agree with you on PDA Industry Losing Its Design Enthusiasm! The problem is not in aesthetics but in functions. Palm has really dropped the ball with the upgrade (if you can call it that) from the T3 to the T5 (who knows what happened to the T4) and is losing customers because of it. Palm has in the past changed designs that are not compatible to older designs creating the need to buy new accessories and software. They dropped functions such as the vibrator, voice recorder, and the universal connector. They continually neglect to add wi-fi, and are moving to plastics despite the constant nagging of its customer base.
I own a B&K Receiver that is plain looking but power packed, I agree with you that for the price we pay the unit should look great but even more important it should work great and have great support.
I think the people at Palm are depending on their operating system and customer loyalty and not their hardware to sell PDA’s. Management may be allowing the marketing branch to run things without customer input and ignoring their engineering branch.
Once again I hope the Palm people are reading this and they react to its loyal customer base by addressing our desires.
This is my third palm unit and I have invested heavyly and stuck with the Palm name
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One exception
Tapwave Zodiac
The Zodiac's form factor and design among other PDAs is sexy and unique.