Tungsten T6/2005 -- Too Good To Be True?

[Bob Russell]

There's been a lot of skepticism about the rumored specs of a new T6/2005. Some think PalmOne is a little backwards and this is too much to expect. Some just think it's too much for too little money.

Well, maybe it makes more sense than you'd think at first glance. I have no reason to think the specs are right, but I think they're reasonable. As I said previously, there were already rumors that the next PalmOne device to come out about now was said to be something that would knock your socks off. And PalmOne may seem slow with technology, but I think it's more a matter of waiting for the right time to introduce the technology. They are much more conservative about that. Combine the conservative approach with slow product development life cycles, and they seem a little behind the times. But I think they're just crafty.

The T5 has positioned PalmOne for all kinds of devices with large internal flash memory. They are using the Tungsten line to develop technologies for the Palm power users that will also set their path for smart phone technologies. And they waited to implement wireless and flash and VGA screens until the technology was ready and able to support lots of function and lots of profit margin at the same time. They haven't abandoned powerful "traditional" form PDAs, it just wasn't time for what we wanted. PalmOne realizes that a large part of the smart phone success will depend on technologies that can be implemented much earlier and cheaper in a traditional PDA form, without all the expense and difficulties of squeezing a phone inside also. They can also gain a lot of smart phone buyers by keeping people on PalmOS until they want a convergence device with a phone. If they flee PalmOS, they may no longer be a PalmOS smart phone buyer either.

So, with all that in mind, let's take a look at some of the rumored features and see if they are really too much to expect from PalmOne...

1) OS6, i.e. Cobalt
It's supposed to have been ready a while ago. Why not in a product now? PalmOne is not ready to abandon PalmOS completely, and they can't live on Garnet forever. If they're smart, they'll license Cobalt partly to support PalmSource through it's transition to a Linux core, because PalmOne still needs PalmOS for smart phones. The real question is what version of Cobalt. PalmOne is known for such long product development cycles, it might be an older version of Cobalt already.

2) Bluetooth/Wavelan(WiFi)
Despite all the protests from PalmOne that wireless is not needed, the market dictates it. I don't think PalmOne is as stupid as we've tried to make them out to be. They were just playing dumb while they stalled until new integrated chipsets came out. For example, if Wavelan is a reference to one of those new chipsets, it all starts to make sense. A lower power drain, and cheaper solution is now at hand for portables, and I bet PalmOne was planning and waiting for this opportunity for a long time. Remember that they are very sensitive to choosing just the right time to jump on a technology. To the relief of many, now may finally be the time!

3) 1-gig flash
Integrated flash is not very expensive any more, and it's the near-term future for PalmOne storage. Surely they can add a gig on board for about $30-$40 these days with a good supplier contract. You can even find after-rebate deals on 1-gig SD cards yourself for not much more than that. Again, PalmOne has probably been planning and scheming for this quite a while. And the T5 was a trial run of the technology needed to support big internal flash memory. The technology wasn't at the right price/performance level for them until now. They've been looking ahead to this day all along.

4) 3 megapixel cam
This one, I have to admit, is impressive for PalmOne. But not unreasonable, and 3megapixel doesn't even seem to mean what it says anymore in cameras because they report "effective" resolutions after software enhancements. Camera technology has progressed very rapidly over the last few years due to the efforts to make it work for camera phones. Still, I wonder if maybe this is something that is going into a new Zire and not the T6/2005, and the rumor just got things mixed up a bit.

5) New connector (ethernet included)
This would be pretty embarrassing to PalmOne if they are already forced to have a new connector for ethernet connectivity. Is Ethernet so important? If your PDA is in the cradle or connected to a cable, you can do wireless sync without battery worries. And who has an extra ethernet wire laying around not connected to your computer or printer already anyway? Besides, people are more likely to use a wireless adapter. I've gotta figure that if this part is true, they got some very specific functionality in mind that we haven't figured out yet. This one just doesn't make a lot of sense to me right now.

6) VGA
Yehaw!!!! This is great news! Unfortunately, it may wreak havoc with existing apps unless there's some kind of screen compatibility mode. The screen pixel ratio is all different. But I'd say PalmOne is right -- they need to get there sooner or later, so with the release of the first PalmOne Cobalt PDA is a good time to combine the transition pain. VGA is where it's at, and if they are making the leap, it's great news for Palm fans everywhere.

Too good to be true? Yeah, this one just might be too good to be true. So what if there's a twist? Like, for example, a hires+ screen, but a VGA video output?! We'll have to wait and see, but I predict either original list price is greater than $400, or it's not a VGA screen that can compare to the Dell or HP VGA screens. Or maybe someone out there just happened to have excess capacity for producing these VGA screens and made PalmOne a deal they couldn't refuse?

7) Graffiti 2 plus, with voice commands
Voice commands is kind of a gimmick in my opinion. I had it on my current PDA, but never tried it. It was worthless to me, so removed it altogether.

More important is the choice of Graffiti 2 plus. Hopefully with no more multistroke characters. Ruins the flow of data entry and makes it unnatural. If they didn't improve the core graffiti, I'd say they missed the boat on that one again. But my guess is that is exactly what happened, and they probably did miss the boat. This is likely to turn out to be more functionality in the graffiti software, not an improvement of the actual graffiti characters. Something like type ahead work completion features and transparent graffiti areas or full-screen entry, etc.

I like Fitaly better anyway, and most users will probably find another alternative also. Anything to avoid Graffiti 2 multistroke characters! Whatever happened to original the Graffiti? It would be great with just a little tweaking.

8) Interface to iTunes (Apple iPod)
Who knows. This is no big deal to make happen, and it makes a lot of sense for PalmOne. But did they really get this done with Apple? We'll see.

9) The device is maximum 200 grams
Easy one... Cheap plastic case. Makes sense to me!

10) Automatic software update over internet
It's about time!

11) Compatibility mode for pocket Windows is built in
If this is activesync compatibility, I'd be amazed. If it's Windows Mobile application compatibility I'd be amazed. More likely, this is just built-in compatibility with Outlook that doesn't require a 3rd party app.

The earliest rumors rarely pan out, unless they have something like FCC site leaks to support. But they usually have an element of truth unless they are started by a bored Photoshop user. We may have quite a fun time sorting this one out, and it's sure fun to speculate and drool over potential new devices!

[Chaos]

Originally Posted by BobR

8) Interface to iTunes (Apple iPod)
Who knows. This is no big deal to make happen, and it makes a lot of sense for PalmOne. But did they really get this done with Apple? We'll see.

Maybe what is meant is built-in support for AAC audio? Maybe even the DRM'ed stuff from iTMS.

Originally Posted by BobR

10) Automatic software update over internet
It's about time!

I hope it's optional, because I'm very wary about letting anything automatic go on... Personally it's not a big point for me. Remind me about updates, sure. But don't go and do anything on your own.

[TadW]

Originally Posted by BobR

6) VGA
Yehaw!!!! This is great news! Unfortunately, it may wreak havoc with existing apps unless there's some kind of screen compatibility mode. The screen pixel ratio is all different. But I'd say PalmOne is right -- they need to get there sooner or later, so with the release of Cobalt is maybe a good time to combine the transition pain. VGA is where it's at, and if they are making the leap, it's great news for Palm fans everywhere.

If you have ever seen a VGA PDA in action, whether it is a HP iPAQ or a Dell Axim, you know at least one thing: your next PDA has to have VGA. Of all the features mentioned, this would be my favorite.

[edeab220]

IMHO, this is too good to be true. It would be great if this actually did happen, but I honestly don't think it will.

Heck, for one thing, if they release a T6 w/ Cobalt, they'd be going against what they themselves said a few months ago...saying that they won't even release a Cobalt device in '05. But hey, they could have been lying to us .

Also, wouldn't it be a little tooo early to release a replacement for the T5? Looking at the specs, I would think this may be the replacement for the T|C...as the T|C is OLD in terms of advancing technology.

But, if palmOne does release this handheld, with all these rumored specs, my T|T3 will be going to a box soon .

[hacker]

Originally Posted by BobR

4) 3 megapixel cam.
This one, I have to admit, is impressive for PalmOne. But not unreasonable, and 3megapixel doesn't even seem to mean what it says anymore in cameras because they report "effective" resolutions after software enhancements. Camera technology has progressed very rapidly over the last few years due to the efforts to make it work for camera phones.

I've mentioned this here before... if they're targeting any sort of corporate or business users with this device, this is going to kill them.

In many (most?) business, government, and corporate environments, cameras on devices are forbidden. This includes PDAs, cellphones, and laptops (Sony Vaio, for example) with built-in camera devices. In many companies (including one I've been doing quite a bit of work for recently), its a terminable offense. If you're found with one on-site, you're fired, no questions asked.

This is yet-another reason why device convergence is a bad idea. If I can't decouple the camera, I can't buy the device, and will find a vendor that makes one I can use.

[Pride Of Lions]

I think some of the reason that we're soooooooooo excited about any new PDA from PalmOne because we were soooooooooo disappointed with the T|5, and we know that they can do better. They've completely lost my respect as a hardware company and, while I'm willing to let them prove themselves to me again, I've become a TapWave Zodiac guy (when my T|3's digitizer went South) and if these new features spur development of a knockout Z3 then that's where my money goes.

Plus, even if this is true and is released on the stated date, it's going to take time for app's to be made compliable, and it cannot be forgotten that Mac users WILL HAVE TO WAIT anyway for the third party support we'll need.

Member of the forgotten OS.
POL9A

[Francesco]

I think the worst enemy of Palm1 is doing its homework again. Huge expectations will be created and, no matter how good the actual product is, it won't meet them and everyone will be disappointed.

[hacker]

Originally Posted by Pride Of Lions

Plus, even if this is true and is released on the stated date, it's going to take time for app's to be made compliable, and it cannot be forgotten that Mac users WILL HAVE TO WAIT anyway for the third party support we'll need.

Third-party support of what? Palm devices? We're already supporting more devices than palmOne supports, on more platforms, at faster sync speeds..

What third-party support were you looking for?

[Pride Of Lions]

Originally Posted by hacker

Third-party support of what? Palm devices? We're already supporting more devices than palmOne supports, on more platforms, at faster sync speeds..

What third-party support were you looking for?

That's exactly what I meant. I know you work on the super-geeky pilot-link stuff (I don't think you'll let me forget), but I need a more user-friendly product.

Truth be told, I came across your AvantGo solution several years ago when AG dropped support for OS X, and it was very buggy and there were no responses to my support queries. So, if a company wants to provide a user-friendly third-party solution with proper support, then I don't see what's wrong with waiting for their product to evolve with the latest technologies.

Maybe your consortium provides better tech. support now, maybe your product(s) don't require your customers to be fluent in Perl and C++ and whatever. But, as for me, I'm invested in Mark/Space's Missing Sync and until a BETTER product comes along, I'll just have to wait for their product to help me sync this mythical future PalmOne PDA with my Mac.

That's what I meant.
POL9A

[hacker]

Originally Posted by Pride Of Lions

Truth be told, I came across your AvantGo solution several years ago when AG dropped support for OS X, and it was very buggy and there were no responses to my support queries.

You must have me confused with someone else. We don't have an "AvantGo solution" at all. At least, not anything has ever had our name on it, or shipped with our project, or our source code.

So, if a company wants to provide a user-friendly third-party solution with proper support, then I don't see what's wrong with waiting for their product to evolve with the latest technologies.

We are not a company, we are an ever-evolving group of Free Software authors who work on the code because its a fun project. We don't get paid, and we definately don't get support from ANY of the vendors (well, except Handspring a couple of years ago). Everything we've done, we've had to do by reverse-engineering every single byte of data, either on the wire, or in the data API on the device itself. Believe me, this is no fun task, but its pretty amazing how far we've gotten by just using that approach. Dozens of projects and products rely upon and use our code every single day; commercial and free.

Maybe your consortium provides better tech. support now, maybe your product(s) don't require your customers to be fluent in Perl and C++ and whatever.

I'm not sure what you're speaking of here, or what "consortium" you're referring to, but if you've submitted any bugs in the bugtracker, they are assigned and accounted for. We don't let bugs slip through the cracks, when they are reported with useful information.

We're also available on irc (irc.pilot-link.org in #pilot-link) for your real-time debugging needs. One of the library maintainers uses OSX as his primary platform, and he's the main reason the code works so well on that platform (he's also the author of SyncBuddy; v2.0 was just released, you should try it, its an amazing product).

I would argue that we provide exponentially better support than most of the commercial companies, and we always have. Ask any of our loyal userbase of several thousand users, and they'll tell you.

That being said, you definately don't need to be fluent in Perl or C++ or C or any development language to use the code provided. In fact, you don't even have to use the interactive conduits provided with pilot-link at all, you can use the GUI tools that are developed on top of it, such as J-Pilot, KPilot, gnome-pilot, Evolution, PilotManager, SyncBuddy, and others.

But, as for me, I'm invested in Mark/Space's Missing Sync and until a BETTER product comes along, I'll just have to wait for their product to help me sync this mythical future PalmOne PDA with my Mac.

Missing Sync also relies upon pilot-link's core libraries; it wouldn't function without them.

You can be assured that when/if this mythical PDA is released, we will support it, and the other applications, such as MissingSync, SyncBuddy, and so on, will inherit that support.

[phillynewshound]

I'm an avid T3 user but I would gladly dish out another $399 (usd) to get a unit like this one!