03:35 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Regarding the latest rumors of a new palmOne device, a PalmAddicts visitor writes this morning:

"Hi there Sammy!!! Rumor time again. Heard that somebody posted at Palm Addict about the Tungsten 2005. One thing that I know will be coming out this May is this: "I heard 4gb internal memory, bigger and a bit bulkier than the T5, NOT called the T6, and inbuilt wifi. Release end of April. Its not called the T6 though. Its a new sub-brand from palmOne."

I invite you to participate in our discussion on what to make of the latest palmOne rumors and if indeed this could be the new killer PDA device!

Once again, a major thank you to Sam from for the heads up! You rock!

01:43 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

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!

10:34 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

The most distinctive feature of a PDA is its touch-sensitive screen. In contrast to many portable computers, a PDA (usually) does not not contain a traditional, large "QWERTY" keyboard (which would make it less portable). Instead, you use a stylus to tap on-screen for entering and accessing data. Although stylus handwriting recognition doesn't take long to learn, it has been one of the biggest issues many people have with PDAs. To overcome the limitations of stylus input and to remain fully portable, HP's engineers came up with a new - patented - idea: simply attach a "QWERTY" keyboard to your handheld!

The keyboard, which has a size and shape similar to the PDA, is divided into two separated sections, which are pivotally connected to the body and rotationally move between a closed and open positions. In a closed position, two keyboard sections are stacked on top of the body and can function as a protection cover. In the open position, they move together into a full alphanumeric keyboard which can then be used as an alternative to stylus input.

For a better illustration, have a look at the five attached images from HP:

Figure 1 depicts a perspective view of a PDA with the keyboard in an extended open position;
Figure 2 depicts a perspective view of a PDA with the keyboard in an open position;
Figure 3 depicts a top view of a PDA with the keyboard in a closed position;
Figure 4 depicts a bottom view of a PDA with the keyboard in a closed position;
Figure 5 decpits a side view of a PDA with the keyboard in a closed position.

07:46 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

Diesel eBooks, one of the newer and most promising e-book stores, has a new feature which allows e-book newbies to download encrypted "test" e-books (available in Adobe Reader, Microsoft Reader and eReader format) before making a purchase. Excerpt from the press release:

L. Scott Redford, President of Diesel eBooks http://www.diesel-ebooks.com, states, "Downloading an encrypted ebook for the first time can be intimidating. While this fear has been a barrier to some in expanding their reading collection to ebooks, our hope is this free tool will take the fear out of the equation and create confidence in a smooth transaction."

Alexander Turcic, editor of the popular online community Mobileread https://www.mobileread.com, welcomes the new feature by Diesel eBooks: "In a perfect world, publishers would choose to distribute their best-sellers without DRM protection, and all customers would behave themselves and never pirate copyright-protected material. As long as we haven't reached this state yet, Diesel eBooks DRM simulator is a fast and effective alternative helping newbies to learn more about the advantageous use of digital books."

Scott is an active Mobileread visitor who listens closely to the comments and wishes of our other members.

06:57 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Sammy e-mailed us about the latest rumors of palmOne's T6 - or what could be known as the Tungsten 2005:

The unofficial announcement of the Palm developers is that the new (T6) will be called Tungsten 2005 and should have the following features:

I highlighted the most interesting features. So if this information is correct, we will have the new killer PDA by the end of next month! Damn, it really does look sweet!

05:53 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

According to ITBusiness, Computer Dealer News is reporting the following:

HP prepares to launch BlackBerry killer

3/15/2005 3:05:50 PM - HP will release a handheld later this year offering buyers push e-mail capabilities competitive with Research In Motion's BlackBerry devices, executives told the company's first Mobility Summit.

More info at http://www.itbusiness.ca/index.asp?t...anner=Wireless

01:34 PM by doctorow in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Not sure when they launched this beta, but Google Personalized allows you to personalize results by creating a profile of your interests.

http://labs.google.com/personalized

Perhaps worth a try.

10:38 AM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

This presentation by David Nagel is available as a webcast for all to see. Usually these things provide some hints of where the company is headed or most interested in pushing ahead. It's always interesting to hear a bit of what the CEO is thinking and how he chooses to say it.

Here's a portion of the press release..

SUNNYVALE, Calif., March 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- PalmSource Inc., provider of Palm OS(R), a leading operating system powering next generation phones and mobile devices, today announced that David Nagel, president and CEO of PalmSource, will present at the B. Riley Annual Investor Conference in Las Vegas, Nev. on Thursday, March 17 at 12:55 p.m. PST (3:55 p.m. EST).

A live Web cast and archive of the presentation will be available on PalmSource’s Web site in the investor relations section at http://www.palmsource.com/about/ir.cgi?action=events.