Nothing definitive yet, but I think we've finally seen a plausible explanation of that secret third line of products from Palm Inc mentioned by Jeff Hawkins as being in its infancy.
We've seen many PDA-related sites claiming that it was the LifeDrive. I was reluctant to accept that because I believe that Jeff Hawkins is more creative than that. When he comes up with a concept like that, it's going to be revolutionary. And he's going to have no trouble selling it as revolutionary. So just tying the LifeDrive line to his third business line wasn't enough for me.
But now, putting together all the clues, we see via Palm Addict an
article at Schestowitz.com talking about how portable tiny computers can become hosts to a regular computer, using the regular computer simply as a display and keyboard, etc. Not a new idea, but what is new is to link it to the LifeDrive. (I don't know if he's the first, but it's the first I've seen.)
The clues were all around us... for example the post recently on MobileRead about the BlackDog Linux product that does exactly that. However, linking it to LifeDrive is big news. Can you imagine your PalmOS pda also driving your full computing experience everywhere, whether undocked on its own, or docked via USB and making use of another keyboard and display?
If true, then it fits Hawkins' description, and it means that Palm will be investing heavily in the LifeDrive line. That sounds like big news to me, and a very promising turning point for PalmOS, because when it's not docked, everyone is going to want it to run a nice pda OS! It's good news for Windows Mobile also, because they can do the same thing with Windows. Well, sort of. It might take longer to run full Windows on a portable device and get decent battery life and price points. Sounds like a big open opportunity for PalmOS and Linux!