1SRC Podcast FiftyEight

[Alan G]

This week: 1SRC launches Planet Gadget and Palm CFO Andrew Brown to speak at the Neddham & Co. Growth conference. Is Palm getting ready to release a Find Bug patch for the Tungsten E2 and a TX compatible Universal Wireless Keyboard driver? Run Fitaly on your Palm TX, and a few rants on Picsel ViewerPro and the Treo 700-series smartphones. [details (http://www.1src.com/?m=show&id=1394)]

[JAmerican]

No one can beat Apple in Design? Ever heard of Sony. Apple laptop designs suck. I like the iMac look but most Apple's designs are just too dam simple, especially for a $2000 price tag.

JAmerican

[red_sun]

No one can beat Apple in Design? Ever heard of Sony. Apple laptop designs suck. I like the iMac look but most Apple's designs are just too dam simple, especially for a $2000 price tag.

JAmerican

Design not only includes design for look, but also design for cost, design for reliability, etc... the ultimate gauge is design for marketing sucess :) In this sense, I have to agree with Alan, no one beats Apple in the past 5 yrs or so. I haven't seen any company make so much money by just re-packaging the existing technology.

Sony makes some good products, but also failed so miserably in so many new products they tried to market in the past few yrs. So, if there is an overall "design for excellent" award, I have to hand it to Apple.

BTW: I also think PicelView must be screwed up by Sony. It's unthinkable to have one product 3 yrs ahead of market but not selling it.

[rcartwr]

Anyone else have trouble playing the web cast of Palm's CFO's talk on the 12th? I was curious about the slides. Other than being pretty Treo centric and the confirmation of 4 Treo's being released in 2006 there was nothing on the slides to indicate a handheld release in 2006. I am hoping that he gave some details in the talk. Further, I an worndering if what he said was worth fracking with the site anymore to get it to play<G>

[depret]

PieselViewer:

Respectfully, my experience with PieselViewer has been completely different. Browsering and setting up was very different than what is standard on most Palm applications but the payoffs have been great.

PDF viewing is okay but nothing to write home about. With 7MB of heap you can open pretty larger PDF but PieselViewer takes a very large overhead. PieselViewer has only 0.9MB free out of 6.4MB heap after PieselViewer is launched with a blank screen. The Piesel Pro for $30 will have to eliminate the bloat for me to even consider buying it. After the TH55 dies my story may change.

Browsering an application html documentation (e.g. ShadowPlan) is a pleasure in landscape mode (mobile Landscape application is NOT required). What makes it worth while is the ability to "follow" the links to other html documents (very nice). Just 'double-tap' the link.

Have been wanting to create my own reference html documentation but Plucker makes doing this irrelevent.

http://www.1src.com/planet/ is very nice. I basically skipped the thread in the news forum because I thought it was a conference announcement. Again, thanks for highlighting it. One comment on this page, at first glance it looks just like most of the Palm RSS feed aggregators, their snippets are too short. I would like to see a longer snippets. It is probably not possible because the source probably sets the amount of text to provide to RSS collectors. It's a fine line between keeping the page small for quick mobile updates (follow link the 'back' buttonl and large enough to make the content satisfying in case you don't want to follow the link.

Bashing Clie and T3 users in one podcast, are you looking to set a recorder? I think I will have to stop listening because I am completely offended. ;)

If you have not listened to the recorded Mac keynote from Engadget, it is worth the time, IMO.

http://stadium.weblogsinc.co/engadget/podcasts/Engadget_Podcast_062.mp3

PalmLinux OS: I believe there is a thread on what the new OS will be called and after listen to the podcast I came up with some during the drive home.

What's In A Name: GNU = GNU Not Unix

In the tradition of GNU and Linux by using a recursive acronym, how about the following?

P.A.L.M. = PALM = Palm Access Linux Mobile.

PalmOne was really Pa1mOne (right?) so turn around is fair play. They only have to register the 'P' as something other than 'Palm'. The 'P' could be Portable, Phone or something depending on the version and the device in which the new OS is installed. For example:

PALM = Phone Access Linux Mobile
PALM = Portable Access Linux Mobile
PALM = Px Access Linux Mobile

The "M" could also stand for Manager, Mini, Mobilesoft, Munged, Mangled, Masked, Mixed, Mash, ... depending on your mood.

In the end, 'its still a P.A.L.M.'. :)

http://www.1src.com/mobile/showthread.php?t=103208

Thanks and listening is always a pleasure.

depret

[joeags]

The one thing I wonder about your podcast is the remark of you believing more WM Treos will be sold this year than POS Treos. I'm really thinking that this shouldn't be the case this year. First off, Verizon will be the only supplier of the WM Treo for the forseeable future, and many companies are not interested in Verizon as their wireless carrier. Secondly, it takes Palm a long time to roll out a handheld to other carriers and countries even when they are able to. Thirdly, Palm is still selling the Treo 600 as their flagship Treo line in some countries, and if they are going to upgrade there, it will be to the Treo 650. Besides, in my mind, the number of Treo 650's that are being sold all around the world will no doubt be greater than the Treo 700w, especially since the selling price appears to be half of the 700w. And that's without taking into account if there is a 700p that is sold on competing networks that comes with Blackberry Connect. On the other hand, who knows what the other 2 Palm releases will really be this year and how they will skew the numbers. Anyway, that's just my thought on that single comment.

Finally.... that's how you pronounce Clie?!?!? Clee-ay?!? Wow, never would have thought it!

[Alan G]

I'm not sure how I managed to miss the replies here, but lets see what we've got.

JA wrote:
Ever heard of Sony. Apple laptop designs suck. I like the iMac look but most Apple's designs are just too dam simple, especially for a $2000 price tag.

Ok, this is one of those times where I have to agree to disagree with you. And that's ok. I have heard of Sony, they are the company who infects people's PCs with root kits and makes Windows even more vulnerable to Internet-based attacks (read: hackers and their malware) just because you try to listen to their music on your computer rather than a Sony CD/DVD player.

A researcher recently discovered that Apple tracks which music you are playing, and not telling you about is a black eye for Apple, but that is in a different category all together. I like Apple's iTunes Music Store suggestions module, and tracking what I buy and listen to from their store helps me find music that I wouldn't have found otherwise. I can understand if people don't agree with my view point on that.

All that aside, Apple is about making computer simple and approachable to everyone, not just "techies" and, you have to admit that is exactly what Apple has done. Look how popular the iPod is. iTunes Music Store. The iMac. No, JA, Apple's products aren't simple, or toys, no, they are well marketed and engineered products. And, yes, there is a new iPod 30GB video on my desk right now.

Alan G

[Alan G]

red_sun wrote:
Sony makes some good products, but also failed so miserably in so many new products they tried to market in the past few yrs. So, if there is an overall "design for excellent" award, I have to hand it to Apple.

Didn't Sony make a PDA? Clie-something or other? LOL!

Alan G

[Alan G]

rc wrote:
Anyone else have trouble playing the web cast of Palm's CFO's talk on the 12th? I was curious about the slides. Other than being pretty Treo centric and the confirmation of 4 Treo's being released in 2006 there was nothing on the slides to indicate a handheld release in 2006. I am hoping that he gave some details in the talk. Further, I an worndering if what he said was worth fracking with the site anymore to get it to play<G>

I listened to the webcast on Saturday just before the 1SRC chat this past weekend. There where only two slides and a brief mention of the PDA business. This webcast was all about the Treo 700w and the Microsoft partnership. Some people are begining to think that Palm might be abaonding the PDA market. I don't think that is the case. PDAs are in decline, but of the remainin PDA market, Palm has a 70% share. Not bad. I suspect that Palm will continue to dominate the PDA market for as long as they are still being made. I do suspect that there is something going on with the PDA business. Maybe Palm is purging all of the device that still have the "palmOne" name on them. The T5 is no longer listed on the webstore, and all the electronics stores I've been to in recent weeks no longer have them on display. This spring, there will be a rename of the OS currently called "Palm OS" which is part of the Palm buying the "Palm" name back from PalmSource. So, PalmSource will no longer exist (name change only) and Palm OS will have to be renamed to something else. The "new" Palm OS will be appearing in the devices in this year's spring line up.

Alan G

[Alan G]

depret wrote:
Browsering an application html documentation (e.g. ShadowPlan) is a pleasure in landscape mode (mobile Landscape application is NOT required).

Landscape mode in Picsel is a nice feature, I have to admit.

http://www.1src.com/planet/ is very nice.

I like the idea of RSS, but I really don't use it that much. Planet Palm OS and Gadget is a really good compromise.

Bashing Clie and T3 users in one podcast, are you looking to set a recorder? I think I will have to stop listening because I am completely offended.

No, you misunderstood! Clie and T3 cultists I'm Ok with. It's wingnuts that I can't stand! I'm also a card carrying T3 cultist! :D

If you have not listened to the recorded Mac keynote from Engadget, it is worth the time, IMO.

I watched the QuickTime feed. I'm really thinking about getting a new Intel-powered Mac this year. I'm really impressed with iLife and the Garageband and podcast support in particular.

PalmOne was really Pa1mOne (right?)

That is correct. Lots of people, myself included, thought that having "one" and "1" appear in the name was a bit much. Thankfully, they are back to just good old "Palm" again. I liked the idea of P.A.L.M.


Thanks and listening is always a pleasure.

You bet! I'm glad you enjoy the show.

Alan G

[Alan G]

joeags wrote:
The one thing I wonder about your podcast is the remark of you believing more WM Treos will be sold this year than POS Treos. I'm really thinking that this shouldn't be the case this year.

There are few things that make me believe this. First off, Verizon is already seeing higher than expected demand for these devices. I wounldn't be suprised to hear in a week or two that Treo 700w's are back ordered. Secondly, corporate sales. A Windows Mobile Treo is going to sell like mad. Palm might as well start printing their own money. If you are a corporate customer, get a 700w. If you are a personal user or "prosumer" stick with the 650.



Secondly, it takes Palm a long time to roll out a handheld to other carriers and countries even when they are able to.

Resest assured, just because they aren't selling 700w's on other networks, Palm and the other carriers are already working on deployments and final testing. Waiting would be foolish. Buy the time the 6 month contract with Verizon runs out, there will be even more pent up demand for 700w's on other networks. I suspect that the 700p will begin selling on Sprint before the end of the first quarter.

Thirdly, Palm is still selling the Treo 600 as their flagship Treo line in some countries, and if they are going to upgrade there, it will be to the Treo 650.

Palm does use a rolling deployment/launch program. Yes, I agree, it will be some time before the Treo 650 and 700 will be available everywhere. When I was talking about the Treo 700 outselling Palm OS Treos this year, I was speaking about the US market. Palm's standing in other countries is not as great as it is here in the US.

Finally.... that's how you pronounce Clie?!?!? Clee-ay?!? Wow, never would have thought it!

That is the way I've always pronounced it and heard people say it. I'm not Texan, but I can mangle works with the best of them!

Alan G