06:40 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

News.com is loudly proclaiming that the sale won't kill PalmOS. I'm hopeful, but not yet convinced that they won't focus entirely on phones. There is the risk of delays or changes in the full robust OS favored by Palm affictionados. The Linux conversion for phones will take a huge effort by itself, so we have to wonder how many resources can be afforded for longer term gains with the full OS for Treo-like devices and pdas. But, come to think of it, that's the same situation we had before the acquisition. And with this deal they might have additional resources to build the OS for longer term purposes. Surely they won't sacrifice the more powerful devices of the future just to get phones out now.

We'll have to wait to see what happens, but for now Access is saying "it wants to finish creating the Linux-Palm operating system hybrid that PalmSource started when it finalized its acquisition of China MobileSoft this year. The company gave no time frame for completing the work." And "Eventually, Access said its plan is to combine its Linux-based NetFront browser with the Palm OS version 5x--also known as Garnet. The representative said Access may even revisit the Palm OS version 6, known as Cobalt, which was not broadly licensed by PalmSource."

I think those are the words that they have to say right now, pretty much regardless of what they plan long term. They can't risk loss of developers, 3rd party providers, current licensees, and other parties critical to current income from PalmSource. But that doesn't mean it's not true.

The future looks bright for PalmOS... but still very uncertain.

Read more at the news.com coverage.

04:11 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

In the wake of the purchase of PalmSource by Access, everyone is wondering what it will mean to Palm. Especially with the focus on mobile phones and the rumors of upcoming Windows Mobile versions of the Treo.

Palm is aware that developers are both an especially important resource, and very much affected by whatever the outcome. So Palm Developer Relations has contacted developers via email with the following letter which also had a copy of the press release describing the purchase.

Basically, this letter is just a public statement to developers saying "we need you, we appreciate you, and this will be a positive thing for PalmOS so stick with us."

-------------
Dear Developer,

Some of you may have seen the press release (see below) that was issued by ACCESS Co., Ltd., announcing the acquisition of PalmSource. This is good news for Palm and the Palm Economy. Palm is fully supportive of the acquisition and we look forward to continuing to work with ACCESS to advance the Palm OS platform.

ACCESS is the software technology partner for the Blazer Web Browser, which has been an important contributor in the success of Handspring and Palm. Having PalmSource supported by a strong financial base will help ensure the Palm OS platform moves forward to the benefit of the entire Palm Economy. In May, Palm extended its strategic license agreement, permitting Palm to continue making and marketing products based on Palm OS until the year 2010. Palm's exceptional software team and our cadre of developers have consistently delivered differentiated products by adding value on top of the OS.

We look forward to continuing our strong working relationship to advance the Palm OS platform. If you have questions, don't hesitate to contact us.
Sincerely,

Paul D. Leeper
Director, Developer Relations
-------------

01:52 PM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

Blackmask, the place where you pick from over 11'000 free public domain books, plays, poetry, etc., is now hosting a mobile-friendly mirror-site called SmartSet.

Smartset runs on an XML template that means it'll allow easy browsing in just about any mobile device--Wifi enabled Palm, Pocket PC, tablet and the new Nokia--you might be using to surf the web, and is particularly useful if you're, you know, waiting in line at the Starbucks or wherever.

[via Teleread]

01:03 PM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

From PalmAddict: Punch in this week's Promo Code DRUID to receive a 10% discount off each book that you purchase. Offer good through September 13th, 2005 on all books priced more than $3.00. Cannot be used in conjunction with other special offers.

12:14 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Engadget brought the complete scoop on the Motorola ROKR E1 also dubbed the "iTunes phone". We now know it'll sell for something around $250, with tri-band, a 172x220 color display, VGA camera and Bluetooth. But what makes this phone really special, yes we dare to say unique, is the fact that it would only allow you to hold up to 100 songs. Quoting Playlist:

iTunes 5 keeps track of the number of tracks authorized for playback on the phone so even if your 100 tracks have used only 350MB of the card’s capacity, you can’t add more. Similarly, although you can swap in a new card that contains new tracks, those tracks won’t play until they’ve been approved for playback by iTunes.

11:53 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

If you are looking for file sharing on your Pocket PC, check out Pocket G2, a new Gnutella client currently in Alpha testing. Some of its main features:

• Support for the Gnutella2 Peer-to-Peer protocol
• A fully decentralized network
• Multi-Source downloads
• Real-time file verification
• Queuing

Download from here.

06:33 AM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

The Japanese firm ACCESS, makers of the Netfront browser software, has paid a little over $300 million to aquire PalmSource. PalmSource is, of course, the maker of PalmOS. This purchase reflects a premium price of about $18.50 per share, so those who had enough faith recently in PalmSource to keep stock were rewarded. It also would seem to be a bargain price for the acquisition.

According to the press release, "Ed Colligan, Palm, Inc. president and chief executive officer said, 'Palm's award-winning user experience and application expertise, combined with ACCESS' leading software development capabilities, will allow us to continue to deliver great products for our customers. ACCESS is currently a software technology partner and we look forward to continuing our strong working relationship to advance the Palm OS platform.'"

The $64,000 question -- What will this mean for PalmOS and Palm, Inc?

01:54 PM by Pride Of Lions in Archive | iSilo/X

Darren has just posted the final release of iSilo and iSiloX V4.28. Among the highlights:

iSilo 4.28:

• Added handling of minimum line height.
• On supported devices, disable automatic turning off of backlight when in autoscroll mode.
• Increased default maximum settings size limit from 100KB to 250KB.
• Added Full Screen command to "iSilo for Windows Mobile Smartphone".
• Addressing of miscellaneous issues.

iSiloX 4.28:

• Added support for interpretation of percentage line height styles.
• Added support for GZIP compressed content in iSiloX Clipper.
• Addressing of miscellaneous issues.

If you are new to iSilo make sure to visit this thread for more information.