1SRC Podcast SixtySeven

[Alan G]

1SRC Editoral Standy by Your Clie has been posted; DataViz releases an update to Documents To Go 8. It's here! A USB modem for the Treo 650! And I break down and wrap up Andrew Brown's comments from the recent Morgan Stanley event. [details (http://www.1src.com/?m=show&id=1472)]

[smoothjordan]

Not too shabby of a Podcast alan. Thanks for letting me know about the USB modem, this will be helpful when I'm on the go and would rather use the laptop to surf rather than my 650 (Bluetooth is too much of a battery drain)

[Alan G]

I think that June Fabrics has a similar product that has been around for a while. More info can be found here (http://www.junefabrics.com/palmnet/index.php).

Alan G

[palmcop]

Alan, there you are again trying to send subliminal messages to my head, "buy a Treo, Treo, Treo". Here is the deal. I promise to buy one only if it has the following: Palm OS, Wifi, 128mb memory, good camera, and most important Verizon cuts their unlimited data plan in half. This is my pledge to you. I will keep my TX until I see this Treo. 700P? If you see it before I do, send me the link and I'll send you a picture of mine in my hand.

Dan

[rcartwr]

Alan,

Great podcast. your Orgagami diatribe (I have to say that it was not a true rant, being only about a 4.3 on the Kirvin scale) [Kirvin Scale 1-3 "spirted discussion" ;4-6 "diatribe" ; 7-9 "rant"; 10+ "foaming at the mouth call to Aramageddon"]<G> has me thinking about my next handheld. I hope the Palm R&D folks were listening, but I fear they have been assimilated by the Treo.

[Alan G]

Alan, there you are again trying to send subliminal messages to my head, "buy a Treo, Treo, Treo".

Sorry, man. I'm conflicted myself. Do I want to keep my T5 with it's large screen or do I want to get a new Treo with Sprint? I'm hoping for an early Treo 700p launch on Sprint (as soon as April) but the rumors seem to point to a launch as late as June. I guess I'll have to get that LifeDrive after all!

Re: Wi-Fi and memory, in his talk this past week, Palm CFO Andy Brown was asked about Wi-Fi in Palm devices. He talked about Wi-Fi support in Palm *handhelds* but didn't specifically mention the Treos. Now, the Treo 700w does support the Palm Wi-Fi card. That is because WM supports Wi-Fi cards. The 700p *might* support the Wi-Fi card with a new driver. I'd like to stree there that I'm speculating. I have no official info. Palm seems to be slowly beginning the phase out of their handheld products and so Wi-Fi will have to make an appearance on the Treo sooner or later. Until that happens, you can always get an Enfora Wi-Fi sled. As for the RAM, I suspect that the new Treo 700p will have 64MB, not 128. Why? Cost control. I think that Palm is going to want to balance price vs. device cost. That has been a factor in the design of the Treo 600 and 650, I have no reason to doubt that it will play a roll in the 700p design as well. I'd rather have the 64MB RAM bump and have a larger DB cache to avoid some of the more annoying issues with NVFS devices runing out of memory.

Alan G

[Alan G]

I have to say that it was not a true rant, being only about a 4.3 on the Kirvin scale

You guys know that I'm too "diplomatic" for a Kirvin scale. Still, if Palm wants to be in the personal video player/mobile media marketspace (and I'm not sure they want to be), then they will need a device larger than todays Mobile Manager. I fully believe that the LifeDrive was an experiment to test the waters. The LifeDrive has some problems with it: the hard drive lag, Palm needed to bundle more multimedia software (eg: copy DVDs to the hard drive) and more DB cache. I'm not sure Palm will want to take another run at a media device again or not. Palm is certainly distracted by all things Treo. I doubt anyone from Palm is listening to this podcast.

Alan G

[Dick Tracy]

Palm is certainly distracted by all things Treo. I doubt anyone from Palm is listening to this podcast.

Alan G
If they aren't, then they're missing out on the cheapest possible form of dedicated user feedback. I know that I wasn't among the customers they surveyed, so I'm not part of the 30% planning to buy a smartphone on the next 12 months--unless Palm really, and I mean really delivers. Bring on a GSM Garnet Hollywood with WiFi, dual slots, a Sony screen, 128MB memory and a big fat cache. Launch with a carrier that doesn't offer only extortionary data plans.

[Alan G]

If they aren't, then they're missing out on the cheapest possible form of dedicated user feedback.

I've been trying to tell them [Palm] that for years. I'm making one more pitch soon and then I'm giving up.

Bring on a GSM Garnet Hollywood with WiFi, dual slots, a Sony screen, 128MB memory and a big fat cache. Launch with a carrier that doesn't offer only extortionary data plans.

I really hope that this is what we get, but I think history shows that Palm isn't that radical. What we'll get here in the States is the Treo 700p by early summer. All bets are off on what Hollywood might look like. But we won't see it here until the end of the year, if at all. Hollywood is being built for the European market.

Alan G

[Dick Tracy]

Well, we do know they visit some forums, but which one(s)?

I've also heard hints that Hollywood will have the darkside OS. :eek: :mad:

[Alan G]

Well, we do know they visit some forums, but which one(s)?
Heather Cullen has been spotted here and on Brighthand. I have spoken with her a few times in the past. When I was talking with Joe Fabris (Director of Wireless) he kept talking about Treo Central. I suspect that they spend most of their time there, but I have no hard evidence of that.

I've also heard hints that Hollywood will have the darkside OS.

If Hollywood is really intended to be a "cool" Treo for the overseas markets, then there would have to be a WM version. According to Andy Brown, Palm is going to spend the next year to 2 years working to build their marketshare in Europe. The leading operating systems in that market: Symbian and Windows Mobile. Palm is a distant third.

Alan G

[jwm]

Alan - a good one. They're getting even better. Keep 'em coming.