Back in 2007, I made a post about “My wanted software list on a mobile device”, by the time those idea was as my describe, dreams, seems a good time to go for a renew on the topic in mid-2011.
First, lets compare the old list back in 2007…
Read more
Thanks to friend TF, when he was cleaning his house he found this nice piece of hardware, it was known that this is the first batch of engineering sample from Tapwave, and he was nice enough to gave it to me as a part of the great PalmOS devices collection.
I received the device at work today, and my other Zodiac was sitting nicely and lonely in the drawer, so why not some nice recharge and expose?
Well… Good old Palm days, it was great….
Anyway, special credit goes to friend GC, especially TF, wish you have a great life and all the best for new voyages.
Saw a few “most wanted software” list for a mobile, why not making one?
Mail client that support IMAP IDEAL, HTML mail and unicode, please no more expensive M$ exchange or Blackberry Enterprise server….(why pay when free technology is out there?)
A login/passwords PIM that syncs with desktops, I wonder why no one bundle them with their “Smartphone”? isn’t it so common for us to have way too many passwords to remember?
A “normal” media player, TCPMP is very close, all I want is an open skin/plugins system support media player, at least support XVID/DIVX, MP4, MP3, FLV, WMA/WMV/ASX/ASF, http/RTSP/MMS streamming…
Data syncing in all connections, any computer.
WiFi Activesync has been disabled (now AS only sync with M$Exchange OTA, claims by M$ this change is to enable better security from corporate users…), and users are limited to sync with only 2 sets of PCs, more partnerships will not be allow, I mean, I am the owner, I choose whatever devices I want to sync to! (Miss hotsync for that)
A real, up to standard, normal browser!
Blazer is a joke, Oprea mini is buggy/slow, PocketIE is slow/render pages badly, Opera WM is buggy, Netfront (Access) is not updated…
I don’t care Firefox on mobile, Opera Revolutions, PocketIE X.0 with WebKit/Opera/PIE engine, just give me a browser that support CSS1/2, Standard XMLSocket, JavaScript 1.2+, a “normal” HTML rendering engine, We web programmers will show you the rest!
Mapping network resources as local resources.
FTP/SFTP/NFS/Samba are so common now, why not mounting them as a storage card in the system but pre-downloading data everytime we want/need them?
To be honest, I think the above is not a “Day dreamming” list, all Smartphone OS now a days should have enough power and abilities to do so, some of the features even existed by 3rd party software addon on different platform, but just no one bundled them all in one in a device yet….
What do you think?
Just saw an Ad on some local computer magazine about the M70, I made a post about the suggested selling price of $HK 2800, which is about $US 359.
And the listed price for it is actually $HK 1980, which is about $US 253!!!!
Hum…………not a bad price!!!!
Anyway, looking back in Expansys, which is still listed as “Pre-Order”…………
Links:
Theo’s weblog – New PalmOS smartphone – the Xplore M70
GSL Xplore Offical site – Xplore M70 PDA Phone
Mum utp just came back from biz trip in Africa, and brought me back with this very interesting photo!!!
Click to enlarge
This is actually a piece of hardware with Palm we don’t see often, it is a color scanner used in industrial with color matching.
At the bottom of the device there is a “eye like” scanner for scanning, apply it on cloth/fabric, and color data will be scanned and data will be stored in the Palm device (in the case, PalmTC!) then device can then be connect and data will be uploaded to computer for more analysis…
I couldn’t find much info of this device online (even with google….)
Do you know more about this device?
ITU Telecom World 2006 was held in Hong Kong this week, I have a chance of getting in from work, so how about a review for Palms?
Don’t think Palm have a booth in the ITU, but ACCESS do!
Start from ACCESS 
Click to enlarge
The NetFront 
Click to enlarge
First in the booth, I spotted the Netfront poster, do you know that the broswer we face EVERYDAY call Blazer is actually powered by NetFront, ACCESS!
The Treooooos 
Click to enlarge
I think ACCESS should spend just a little bit more time on the Treos, the name tag of the 700p and 680 was incorrectly place (the other way round…)
Treo680 
Click to enlarge
The Treo680 was more lighter then what I thought, I think it is due to the reduced size of the battery….. and a little bit slim in width too.
Treo700p 
Click to enlarge
As Treo700p never released in HK due to different bands used, this is the very first time I have it on my hand!
Click to enlarge
Tri-Treos, from Left to Right (Treo650, Treo680, Treo700p)
Click to enlarge
UTP’s Treo650 “borrowing” some juice from ACCESS booth.
OS6~Palm OS Cobalt~ALP 
Click to enlarge
Chatted with a manager in PalmSource (thanks Mr D!), he was very kind to show me the ALP prototype, a demo was shown running GoogleMap for Treo on the ALP prototype, it ran without any error, I was told that in the Linux conference last year prototype was shown and trial with many PalmOS application and they work without any problem.
I was introduced in details about the ACCESS Linux Platform, like how it is going to run GTK App, MAX Linux Apps, Java Apps and of coz the Palm OS Apps in the ALP.
Then I asked the very question EVERY Palm lover would ask, “When do we expect to see a REAL product?”
I got an answer that we are looking for Q1 ~ Q2 of 2007 for a real product! (I hope this is the truth! we was waiting since end of 2002!!!)
The main board of the developing ALP prototype, Internet was connected var the top-right hand ethernet port, and notice the CF slot
A demo of the media player was shown.
I obtain a very interesting poster from ACCESS booth called ACCESS Powered Devices, I may post it if there is any interest, it listed many Palm devices!
The other Treo 
Click to enlarge
Finishing the ACCESS booth, then I headed to the Microsoft booth for the Treo750v! (It was also shown in some other booth I think, like SmartoneVodafone)
Not Treo! It is GSL! 
Click to enlarge
The GSL m70 is not vapourware! I got confirm by staff it is on sale for HK$1980 (~192EU) in shops now! (Hong Kong)
I am very impress with the m70, IMHO the g18/g88 from GSL (OS4) was not very good (in stablility, build-quality, customer support, buildin apps), but I think GSL is getting better and better!
I think if you like a smartphone which act like more a phone than a PDA, GSL does worth a try!
Where are they? 
Click to enlarge
Finally, I went thur booth of Samsung and LG, for some reason they both have a window showing “The World’s First XXX”, like the first 10MPix mobilephone etc, but where is the “Worlds’ first Samsung PalmOS smartphone (i300)”, and where is “World’s first LG PalmOS smartphone”?
π
Ok, after selling off its child (the only child, the biological one, not the adopted one from M$), and now they want a piece back!
π
Palm has license back the Palm OS Garnet source code from ACCESS for 44 millions USD.
Quote from PalmInfocenter:
Under terms of the agreement, ACCESS has granted Palm specific rights to modify the code base of Palm OS Garnet for use in its devices such as the Palm Treo smartphone family and the companyβs other handheld computers. The agreement also grants Palm the right to use Palm OS Garnet in whole, or in part, in any product from Palm and together with any other system technologies.
Hum…..what a “great” step Palm! does that mean we then will have YET ANOTHER Treo680.1 with OS5.9.9.999??
Links:
PalmInfocenter – Palm Licenses Palm OS Garnet Source Code
Broswing online and found that Kinoma released info () for 3rd party programmer to launch their Kinoma Player 4EX and Playback target URL.
Too bad WMV playback on Kinoma 4EX is still so buggy, and bandwidth is still very limit on GPRS connections….or it should be really fun to play around….
Links:
Launching Kinoma Player for Streaming Media Playback
Click to enlarge
Just received a newsletter from event@palm-edm.com about “Introducing Palm Treo 750v from Vodafone”, Treo750v is now selling unlock at HK SmarTone Vodafone at HK$5980.
Actually unlock Treo750 was selling on street for the same price for almost few weeks already (with gift packs like SD card, headset etc), so what makes this $5980 offer so “special”?
And a so call HK$1300 special rebate is even more of a joke, user must subscribe 15 month to either one of the following service:
$128 or above SmarTone iN! on 3G price plan + $198 or above Vodafone Business Email plan / $188 or above 3G data plan
OR
$198 or above Vodafone Business Email plan + $188 or above 3G data plan
So lets do the lowest count, HK$128 (Base Fee) + HK$10 (Admin fee) + HK$188 (3G data) * 15 month = HK$4890, then you get 1200 mins airtime, 100MB of data a month, and the so call HK$1300 rebate….
Yeah, what a great deal, for SmarTone Vodafone right?
π
Oh yes, it must be a careless typo mistake, click on the enlarge image, you see the Special Price: $5,680.00^ tag, where ^ means the HK$1300 rebate, shouldn’t it means by HK$4680? (Well still….that offer, come on!)
Links:
SmarTone Vodafone – Palm Treo 750v – Phone details.
I did a post back on July about another Gameboy emulator project on PalmOS.
Just by chance I visit their site on sourceforge page today, and sadly found that the project has been discontinue short after my post (1 week after), the only developing device (TT2) of the developer carloshasan was stolen and he lost the main developing device and lots of personal data.
Is so sad to see a project gone for such a reason….
