[mangochutneyman]

Originally Posted by Cybrid

jees....I see this kind of statement all time here. It's indicative of how ignorant Palm users really are of modern PalmOS.

Who said I was only a palm os user? I luv my x50v btw...

If they kept to standardized memory formats for one thing. My 7 year old 8Mb CF still runs fine and will do so for most PPC's. I cannot say the same for MS pro/duo/x/x. What about running the same card on another Palm?
My GPS Cf card was not cheap. I need to get atleast a few years of forward compatibility.

what does that have to do with the OS??! Palm fyi has always and only ever supported one expansion format which is SD...that's pretty consistant imo. Go blame Sony for their stupid proprietary nonsense if you want. A legitimate gripe would be changing the PUC etc, but even that I can understand...

I still couldn't run a webpage over WiFi and cut'n'paste text into a word doc back and forth without knowing that it shut the webpage off and restarted it again. If it seamless switched back and forth ...Ok! I would consider it an acceptable compromise. A multitask OS is wasted on this single task brain. Seamless switching between single threads could easily compete with multitask in most respects but the key is...it didn't!

Get a diff browser. You can do this on xiino w/o having to reload fyi... Like I said, typical post around here...

[mangochutneyman]

Originally Posted by Cybrid

jees....I see this kind of statement all time here. It's indicative of how ignorant Palm users really are of modern PalmOS.

Who said I was only a palm os user? I luv my x50v btw...

If they kept to standardized memory formats for one thing. My 7 year old 8Mb CF still runs fine and will do so for most PPC's. I cannot say the same for MS pro/duo/x/x. What about running the same card on another Palm?
My GPS Cf card was not cheap. I need to get atleast a few years of forward compatibility.

what does that have to do with the OS??! Palm fyi has always and only ever supported one expansion format which is SD...that's pretty consistant imo. Go blame Sony for their stupid proprietary nonsense if you want. A legitimate gripe would be changing the PUC etc, but even that I can understand...

I still couldn't run a webpage over WiFi and cut'n'paste text into a word doc back and forth without knowing that it shut the webpage off and restarted it again. If it seamless switched back and forth ...Ok! I would consider it an acceptable compromise. A multitask OS is wasted on this single task brain. Seamless switching between single threads could easily compete with multitask in most respects but the key is...it didn't!

Get a diff browser. You can do this on xiino w/o having to reload fyi... Like I said, typical post around here...

[Fishie]

Originally Posted by IcemanMN

Embedded Linux will be the same threat to the PPC platform that Linux is to the Windows platform. I predict that Palm's GUI on top of Linux will be very successful, but I agree that locking it down will drive everyone away.

The reason that Pa1mOne split from PalmSource is, Pa1mOne still has to sell handsets while they're waiting for PalmSource to get its s**t together. The current Treo is the leading seller in its market segment, so spare me the obituaries. The next Treo will run Magneto, and will continue P1's market dominance.

What dominance would that be?
A million units a year is NOTHING in the phone market.

[mcsouth]

Originally Posted by mangochutneyman

Cobalt is actaully very nice OS fyi. The lack of Cobalt devices is more to do with stupid Palmsource lisencing policy imo. Plus there's lots of issues between PalmOne and PalmSource regardng telephony support and etc that dissuaded them from releasing cobalt device yet. It doesn't mean the os was bad...

I will agree that the screenshots of Cobalt looked promising, but the bottom line is.....where are the units? Saying that Cobalt is a very nice OS is sort of like saying the 2010 Jeep Wrangler is a very nice vehicle based on the appearance of this year's show vehicle. Until a unit is actually released to the public, and can be properly benchmarked and reviewed, it is ludicrous to call it a nice OS.

[Ed Hansberry]

Originally Posted by mcsouth

I will agree that the screenshots of Cobalt looked promising, but the bottom line is.....where are the units?

:confused totally:

Is that how an OS is rated? It has pretty screenshots? Has anyone here actually USED Cobalt? I don't care how the specs read on paper. When you have used it, then you can rate it. Otherwise, Cobalt is a actaully {sic} vaporware that may appear nice on paper, and it has very pretty screenshots. :hippy:

[Tim Rapson]

Originally Posted by PDANEWBIE

Off Topic -

Tim Rapson -

I am just wondering about your statement about Sony lying to you about their memory cards and the 1 gig size? That comment struck me as I have a 2 gig memory stick currently. Was it perhaps a limitation on the device you were using it with?

Yes, when I bought my Sony NR70V memory sticks went to 128 MB and they were exactly between the price per MB of CF and SD. Sony showed charts of their cards going all the way to 1 gig.

Then the January or two after I got my NR when I was ready to pay $100 for a 1 gig card, they revealed their new super-duper "compatible" MS PRO and MS DUO and MS DUO PRO. None of those cards work in my NR and there are no cards for it above 128 MB. Just when I was supposed to be able to get a card big enough to have some room for music along with my apps, Sony says SORRY SUCKER! Well, so long Sony for me.

Now, Palm has not outright cheated its users, but they simply are not offering a contemporary OSed product.

[Cybrid]

Originally Posted by mangochutneyman

Who said I was only a palm os user? I luv my x50v btw...

Yes, The X50V rocks. I assumed nothing. It simply strikes me as being amusing that you personally didn't do a "head to head".

what does that have to do with the OS??! Palm fyi has always and only ever supported one expansion format which is SD...that's pretty consistant imo. Go blame Sony for their stupid proprietary nonsense if you want. A legitimate gripe would be changing the PUC etc, but even that I can understand...

It's powered by Palm OS...it's a Palm!!! Even so. I believe I've read compatibility reports wherein SD accessories for one did not work for another.

Get a diff browser. You can do this on xiino w/o having to reload fyi... Like I said, typical post around here...

Hopefully xiino is freeware. nonetheless it points to the gripe amongst Palm converts against WM...The apps don't work as i advertised and I've got to buy 3rd party items to actually make it useable. Glad to see Palm is so...."on top of things". BTW It still didn't answer the basic gripe. Garnet is single task and not seamless. Multitask is considerably better. Why not do some homework?
My challenge to you is try this. Take a standard set of tasks you normally do. And Do them on each with a clock running. Post back in a week!

[Terry]

After a month, I've dumped the LifeDrive...into the junk drawer at the office...the current OS just isn't stable...constant crashes and 2-3 minutes to "reboot." I think Palm knows it has hit the end of its OS life. The LifeDrive is nice in that the OS and everything else is on a hard disk...when the battery dies, nothing is lost...that's a clue MS should take from this device. The OS itself is easier to use than the WM and I can read the screen without my reading glasses...but the reboots... :|
I wouldn't mind at all getting a Palm OS "skin" for a PPC.

Now I have a PPC "LifeDrive"... an hx4705 with a 4GB CF MicroDrive (we'll see if the new Hitachi versions of the MicroDrive fare any better than the cr*ppy IBM versions...I lost 2 IBM drives in less than a year). If there was a CF Edge Modem, I'd be in heaven again. The VGA screen is very easy on the eyes, but not as easy as the LifeDrive. Pocket Informant is a true pleasure in VGA though. I'm not happy with the touch pad yet, but I'll get used to it. I also added a PocketPCTechs 128mb upgrade...very helpful for loading everything I want. This is now my new favorite device. Even so, I still use a Blackberry for e-mail and iPod for music. Everything else (calendar, tasks, photos) goes on the PPC "LifeDrive."

[mcsouth]

Originally Posted by Ed Hansberry

:confused totally:

Is that how an OS is rated? It has pretty screenshots? Has anyone here actually USED Cobalt? I don't care how the specs read on paper. When you have used it, then you can rate it. Otherwise, Cobalt is a actaully {sic} vaporware that may appear nice on paper, and it has very pretty screenshots. :hippy:

Ed: My point exactly....as I indicated, the OS may look promising based on nice screenshots, that for all we know were dummied up in Photoshop, but until someone actually ships a unit that can be operated, reviewed and benchmarked for performance, then calling the Cobalt OS a nice OS is ridiculous. Cobalt has to be perhaps the biggest joke in pda history - the promised land that Palm hyped for years has now been released for almost ...what, two years?....and yet not one vendor has announced plans to release a unit with Cobalt. Not exactly a screaming endorsement for this "nice OS", is it?

[Jereboam]

This is very topical for me because I just bought a Treo 650 - still in the honeymoon period but so far it has to be the best mobile device I have used. It whips my P900 for usability and expandability.

I have an hx4700 as my "main" PDA, and must admit to have really struggled with it, in terms of actually, properly, using it. Basically after multiple hassles with everything from syncing to wifi it got relegated to being an ebook reader. A couple of conversation points below -

E-mail

Sorry, but the 4700 sucks at this. Yes, I have tried both the standard WM client and also WebIS' Mail. The standard client is rubbish. Really. Mail is a nice app but glacially slow. Minutes to pick up headers only? Forget it. And this is on fast broadband over wifi.

The Treo is online and instantaneously grabs all my mail. Instant. And this is over GPRS/EDGE.

PIM

WM wins this one, but only because I use Pocket Informant and it is simply the best PIM on any mobile platform bar none. Iambic Agendus on the Palm comes close - but PI in VGA on my 4700 is just stunning. Both devices' standard apps are very ho-hum.

Office-type stuff

MS codes the Office suite and WM and even with WM5 there will still not be full compatibility between desktop and handheld. Hang your heads in shame.

Yes I know you can buy Textmaker etc but that's a substantial extra cost.

Docs-to-Go, while not being 100% compatible and also a cost option, is an extremely well thought out app. The Treo's small screen makes it unusable for anything but minor spelling edits though...

Input

I am never going to buy another device without a built-in hard keyboard. I am utterly convinced that a mobile optimised keyboard is a massive enabler. SIPs, even very good ones like Fitaly, are not good enough. I have the Stowaway BT KB and mouse, and it is just too much stuff to carry and waaay too much hassle to actually use.

Digital Life

Storage. Lots of it. Out of the box. LifeDrive despite flaws is a pointer to the future. Don't market a device as a digital video player, music player if I have to spend hours doing it or hundreds of dollars to enable it.

This also means nice screens (4700, X50v etc). Good media viewers and players. Good graphics hardware (X50v). Strong (replaceable) battery life. Being able to connect with cameras and printers and so on. Why don't current PDAs support DPOF or PictBridge? This would be awesome.

One-Handed Use

Treo is superb at this and it is truly a revelation to be able to perform any task without resorting to the stylus. Wonderful. Let's see if WM5 can match this, I hope so...

Convergence

I've struggled. I've held on to the two-device theory. But it's bollocks. Converged, wireless, telephony-enabled mobile devices are the way forward. The Treo has convinced me of this utterly, despite flaws. Interestingly, my P900 never did. I honestly don't know why.

I agree with a previous poster that the Treo is currently the best converged device available.

Of course, providers have to slash data costs, increase coverage, and be more generally supportive of PDA/Smartphone devices.

WiFi is nice but I want to be connected ALL the time, not drifting between home, office or hotspots. We're looking at 3G or wide-area wireless like Wimax.

Those are the things that are most important to me specifically...

Basically, anyone who has read Peter F. Hamilton's books will know what I truly want .

Oh yeah one final rant - syncing...too much hassle, too many proprietary syncing methods. Unless a syncing standard comes along like SyncML that is properly adopted and implemented and allows anything to sync with anything else I will just give up and go back to pen and paper.

J'bm

[Ed Hansberry]

Originally Posted by mcsouth

Cobalt has to be perhaps the biggest joke in pda history - the promised land that Palm hyped for years has now been released for almost ...what, two years?....and yet not one vendor has announced plans to release a unit with Cobalt.

Bingo! They have actually been hyping this since 2001 with OS5 (Garnet) being the interim OS on the way to the big enchalada, OS6.

If people had known in 2002 when Garnet was released that they would be on that until 2007 or 2008 Palm would have gone bankrupt in 2 years. One of the larger vaporware add campaigns in the history of software.