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Originally Posted by BobR
File management was a weakness in Palm devices, and it sounds like they want to strengthen that.
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There is no such thing as "files" on a PalmOS handheld device (well, not until the T5 anyway).
All PalmOS devices are basically little SQL query engines. Each "file" is simply a row in a database. You look up the list of files by doing a query, you access records by doing a query. You check which applications "own" which databases and records by doing a query. You delete files by doing a query. Its all a little mobile database, basically. There is no "filesystem" on a PalmOS handheld (not in Flash, ROM, or RAM.. but VFS is another issue entirely).
Now with devices using expansion we have VFS, which is as close to a filesystem as they can get, while still retaining the record/resource function that is required by these devices. Some applications can read and use real "files", but they still go through the VFS layer (as a stream resource), such as mp3, ogg, Microsoft Office documents, images, and so on.
Now with the T5, the device can deal with "real" files. This is a first for them. It should be interesting to see how this works out for their market.