T5 theory

[BilboBaggins]

The following occured to me as I was reading Brighthand's review of the T5 and the description of the long reset times and the general strangeness of it.
Perhaps, it's not the T5 hardware that's an interm product, but the T5's software.
Just hear me out. PalmOne decides to develop a Cobalt-based T5, based on the version of Cobalt we saw some time ago. Meanwhile, Palmsource discovers that Cobalt is somewhat lacking in a few areas (perhaps from consumer input) and decides to give it a major overhaul. However, the T5 is so far along in it's development that there's no time to make the changes and ship it in a decent marketing-window. PalmOne has no choice but to abandon the new OS, given it's changed so much, and revert back to something tried and true.
Think about it. Palm can't release a handheld with a "beta" vesion of Cobalt on it, that's something they want to avoid at all costs. They need the first Cobalt handheld to be released with as much fanfare and (positive) marketing as possible. On the other hand, they can't just scrap the T5 either. There's a lot of money tied up in it's design and creation, so they need to get it out the door ASAP. So what do they do? A slightly modified version of Garnet, slapped together with just enough new features to make it worthwhile seems like a good solution.
The buginess and strange loading times of the T5 seem to support this idea. So does the inclusion of certain new features, such as the look of the launcher screen and the ability to add background images. There's also the recent annoucement by PalmSource of dramatic changes to the Cobalt OS...and the long delays in seeing any Cobalt-based handhelds.
Strangely enough, if this theory's correct, the dissapointed attitude towards earlier versions of Cobalt by some people may have resulted in a dissapointing T5!
(..not getting into the lack of wi-fi or voice recorder. That's food for another topic.)
Based on this theory, I'm not sure if Palm's eventually going to release Cobalt for the T5 or not. It wouldn't suprise me if they decide to wait till the next generation of handhelds to annouce Cobalt to the world, and leave the T5 in it's current state with a few bug fixes.

[Cyker]

For their sake I hope so!

[jmg_NX21]

Plausible and like Cyker above me says, I HOPE for OUR and P1's sake, that you are right...

[kp*]

A very interesting theory. I can't explain the lack of Wi-Fi either, except that maybe PalmOne had more than one model planned to be released with Cobalt, and this was the lower-end one. Maybe they're still saving the new flagship for the big release with Cobalt. Rather than this being a mislabled T|E2, maybe the Tungsten T line was going to become the mid-range starting with the T5, and something else with a different name will be the new everything-including-wifi line. Just a thought. If Cobalt is anywhere near release, they wouldn't want to blow all their great hardware ideas on Garnet and have nothing new to show when Cobalt comes out.

[foghead]

It might be tryue, but I don't think that Palm OS 6.0 was ever intended for retail devices. It was for hardware and software developers.

This is just like the release of OS5. The initial release(5.0), was to give the h/w and s/w developers something to use to get things going. The first commercial devices to ship were the Sony NX and Palm Palm Tungsten T devices. They all used Palm OS 5.1 because that was the first release that was intended for consumer use.

Based on my use of the 6.0 simulator, I would guess this to the case.

But I could be wrong. :)

[bryus]

I was thinking that OS 5 was substituted because OS 6 wasn't ready myself. It is entirely possible as the hardware probably won't change much between Garnet and Cobalt.

[SoS]

Guys....this thing is a TE2...someone has a pre-production model somewhere with TE crossed out on the back label and T5 stuck over it. They couldnt get OS6/T5 finished on time so they took waht was going to be a TE upgrade (their best selling line) and turned it into a 'T5'....its a fact, live with it!! The new memory setup is built with smartphones and OS6 (presumably) in mind so they had to kluge a 'new' version of OS5 (5.4) to cope and didnt have time to debug it, or even release the SDKs to developers....its a mess!

[PixelPusher]

Current PDAs: PalmOne Zire 72, Sony TH55, Palm Tungsten T3, Toshiba e800, HP iPAQ 4155, HP iPAQ 5555, Palm Tungsten C, HP 2210

PDAs in storage (I can't ever seem to just get rid of 'em): Palm Tungsten T2, Palm Zire 71, iPAQ 5455, iPAQ 1910, Toshiba e755, Sony NX-60, Sharp Zaurus 5500, Pilot 1000, Pilot 5000, Palm Pilot Professional, Palm III, Palm IIIX, Palm IIIe, Palm Vx, Palm M505, Handspring Visor Deluxe, HandSpring Prism, Handspring Visor Platinum, Handspring Edge, Sony S300, Sony N710/N760, Sony T615, Sony NR70, Everex A-15, Casio A11, Casio E-10, Casio E-100, Casio E-105, Casio E-115, Casio E-200, HP 360, HP 650, HP548, HP 568, iPAQ 3635, Toshiba e740, Palm Tungsten T

:eek: I bow before the gadgetmaster! You ought to get a bandolier and carry all of your PDAs with you. (It would be like the Dilbert cartoon where the person with the most gadgets on them would win.)

I used to buy every gadget, until I got married. Sigh ... :(

You have a lot of PocketPCs in that list, how do you feel about them? I'm lusting for VGA resolution and came very close to getting a HP 4705 over the weekend. It will be a couple of years before we see VGA on a PalmOS handheld ... if ever.

-Eric

[foghead]

I've also picked up a T5, iPAQ 3715, iPAQ 4705 and an Asus a730 recently, but they haven't made the list yet. :D

[PixelPusher]

Now for the big question ... If you could only keep one PDA which would it be?

-Eric

[foghead]

On the other question, VGA is incredible. I have three VGA PPCs - the e805, A730 and 4705.The screens are uniformly wonderful. The Toshiba and HP are huge. The Toshiba has pretty bad support since Tosh apparently released the WM 2003 SE upgrade with little effort or support. The e805 is the only device that I have seen that takes longer than the T5 to reset.

The A730 is a great device. Nice size, tolerable battery, great display, questionable support in the US, but I love it.

The 4705 is the best PDA that I have ever used except for the touchpad. It is lightning fast, has huge memory, an 1800 Mah battery, CF, SDIO, WiFi and Bluetooth. It has a large footprint to support the 4" screen but is fairly thin. I am just not sold on the touchpad yet. I use them on various notebooks every day so that isn't the issue. I just think that it is a clumsy implementation. I may just try using this device exclusively for a week or so and see if I change my mind. But even if I do, I can't see using it for games.

As for the OS, PPC is a big switch for Palm users. The UI also sucks out of the box. The first thing that I do is to install a couple of apps to give better process control, better launching and easier PIM viewing. At that point, the PPC becomes very usable and stable. Of course, I do the same things with a new Palm OS device, I install a launcher, file manager and PIM replacement to make it usable for me.

As far as Palm OS VGA devices are concerned, Palm OS 6.1 supports VGA and I would be surprised if there isn't at least one PALM OS VGA device available by the end of next year.

But as far as the great PPC versus Palm argument is concerned, after nearly a decade of development, they are both great. They can both do whatever people need to do.

[foghead]

Now for the big question ... If you could only keep one PDA which would it be?
Today, probably the Zodiac. I am a huge gamer and it is the absolute best gameplaying PDA in existence.

But ask me again tomorrow and I may have a different answer. :p

[jjesusfreak01]

A very interesting theory. I can't explain the lack of Wi-Fi either, except that maybe PalmOne had more than one model planned to be released with Cobalt, and this was the lower-end one. Maybe they're still saving the new flagship for the big release with Cobalt. Rather than this being a mislabled T|E2, maybe the Tungsten T line was going to become the mid-range starting with the T5, and something else with a different name will be the new everything-including-wifi line. Just a thought. If Cobalt is anywhere near release, they wouldn't want to blow all their great hardware ideas on Garnet and have nothing new to show when Cobalt comes out.
My thoughts exactly! WiFi was supposed to be integral to the new os, as they included an integrated browser and integrated wifi functions in its design.

[PatrickS]

Guys....this thing is a TE2...someone has a pre-production model somewhere with TE crossed out on the back label and T5 stuck over it. I think it is probably true that this was originally a TE2 and something went wrong with the real T5 -- probably Cobalt was too buggy.

However, I really don't think that TE with the E crossed out (FCC filing) proves anything. My guess is that they put together a prototype T5 (or whatever it was called at the time) really early, before a real T5 case was available, so they just used a modified case from a TE for the time being.

[Ni+Mh]

Well during the launch of the T|5 in my region, well one would definitely ask 'why is there no wifi'?

PalmOne answered; "You see, in Malaysia we discovered that the usage of WiFi is rather different from other countries. In other counties people pay for the usage of 802.11b, and it is such from our research that not everybody requires wifi, and from our market research we've decided not to splurge extra money or research into having wifi implemented".

!?

Well then what explains PPC from having both BT and Wifi in thier not only high end but entry level devices?

[clie_wannabe]

....

i used to also get every gadget, making new purchases every three months until i got engaged...

...

[mrbjg4]

TE2 is correct and although i like my TE, it and the T5 get zero points for style and I have had to remap the power button on my TE since it doesnt work anymore and the 4 way control works about half the time it's pressed. Quality blows.

[minimalposter]

I also had high hopes that a WiFi PDA was on the way. After reading that PalmOne may not produce a Cobalt PDA for years, I have almost lost hope. Honestly I don't think PalmOne is going to rest its whole future on the T5 and Treo 650 and they are probably just protecting their current sales, but I don't see a WiFi or Cobalt PDA anytime soon.

Actually I think the idea behind the T5 is good. I have had so many collegues who are thinking of reinvesting in a Palm now that their data be protected even if the battery dies. We would all think PalmOne was ingenious if they took OUT some features and priced the device $150-199.