The written musings of a long-time Apple //e and Macintosh tech nerd. Opinions are my own.
I’m probably making something out of nothing, but all this talk of swivel phones has gotten me thinking. Are swivel phones all the rage or are designers just geeking out about the new Star Trek movie and the 1960s era flip open communicators? I have no idea.
If you like to use Opera’s Mini Java browser on your Palm OS smartphone (or PDA) Opera Front End 1.1 looks like the app for you.
“Opera Mini is the outstanding mobile browser from Opera which also works on Palm OS devices. Unfortunately, it doesn’t behave like a default browser, URL’s can’t be transfered from other apps and access to special characters is limited.
OperaFrontEnd is made to change all this: Opera Mini is now your default browser, URL’s are enqueued into Opera Mini and the access to the build-in keyboard makes it possible to enter every single character your Palm can display.
OperaFrontEnd v1.1 even allows you to fall back to good-old Blazer whenever you need it for downloads or compatibility issues.”
Opera Front End is on sale for $2.95 at MobiHand until December 31, 2008. For more details, visit the MetaViewSoft blog.
BoyGeniusReport.com has a picture of a Research In Motion BlackBerry keyboard patent that shows a drawing of a BlackBerry Pearl-like device with a fold out keyboard.
Interesting that this photo surfaced. Didn’t we see an “unidentified” smartphone that transforms to allow you to use a hidden keyboard? I wonder if these transforming phones are all the rage in smartphone OEM developer circles?
Gadgets On The Go is reporting that Wal-Mart will begin selling the Apple iPhone G3 this coming Sunday, December 28. The retailer will carry both the 8 and 16GB editions of the phone at $197 and $297 with a new 2-year service agreement.
“We are delighted to bring customers this ground-breaking mobile technology,” said Gary Severson, senior vice president, Entertainment, Wal-Mart, in the press release. “Our electronics associates have been preparing for many weeks for the arrival of iPhone 3G. We are excited to now help new customers learn more about the features and services that make the iPhone unique.”
[Via GadgetsOnTheGo.net…]
Merry Christmas and Season’s Greetings from your friends at Smartphone Fanatics!
I was about to write up a review of Palm’s new App Store when I saw that TreoCentral’s Annie Latham has a well written review posted. Rather than rehash what has already been written, I thought it would be a good idea to revisit my vision for an integrated, wireless, cloud based solution from Palm in which a Palm app store is a critical componant along site a Palm customer service portal along the lines of the myPalm.com beta.
As you can see from the screen shots below, the App Store icon launches a web page that is the same on a Palm OS Treo or Centro as it is on a Windows Mobile Treo. The web app solution gets Palm around a problem that they had previously had with the myPalm application which was that it was only for Palm OS handhelds and smartphones. (This was because the previous myPalm app store was based on the Bluefish Wireless AddIt application that Palm has included with their PDAs and smartphones since late 2003.) Now all of Palm’s customers can join in on the buy-it-on-the-go fun. I wrote about why I think Palm needs an integrated on device application store in the 1SRC.com editorial, “Palm Needs an App Store.”
(Tapping the green App Store icon lauches a web URL to the online Palm App Store which contains some 5,000 combined Palm OS and Windows Mobile applications.)
The app store that I envisioned when I wrote that editorial operated more like Appl’e App Store and the older myPalm AddIt application that Latham wrote about on TreoCentral here. I would like to see Palm provide an integrated solution. The web based app store will download and install the Palm OS or Windows Mobile application installer over the air (OTA) to your device and that is really cool and simple for novice users to get apps on to their devices. But what happens when the device gets hard reset? Palm needs to make sure that it is easy for customers to access their unlock codes, serial numbers, and installers. An integrated solution would make this possible. One solution could be similar to the now defunct myPalm.com portal where customers would login to a Palm customer service portal and be able to access their purchased software and find their serial numbers. An alternateive or companion option would be to use some of the features of also defunct Palm Backup application where the software prompts users to login to the Palm portal server and then be able to redownload and install their software. All over the air without the need to sync to a Windows or Mac OS X desktop computer.
This leads me back to a cloud computing portal solution that I suspect that Palm could have been looking at before the economey took a turn for the worse. A Palm solution similar to Apple’s Mobile Me offering could offer a spot to sync your PIM data to, manage OTA device backup and restores along site OTA software download and installation. A small desktop application for Windows and Mac OS X could plug-in to the cloud portable to provide a similar destkop experience that we have today only without the hassle of having to deal with wired data synchronization and USB device drivers.
In conclusion, I think that Palm has all the pieces for a new cloud based solution. The question now is when can it be implemented. Palm clearly has all hands on deck to ensure that Palm OS II / Nova is successfully launched on new hardware. Will a new cloud portal solution go live at the the same time that Nova does? What about Windows Mobile? Will the software be developed for Windows Mobile Professional 5 and 6; or will Palm focus on a new integrated on device application of Windows Mobile 7? My guess is that Palm will focus new software devlopment on Nova and Windows Mobile 7 while existing devices can still access the PocketGear web app store that Palm recently rolled out.
Now that integrated, cloud based solution (desktop to device wireless sync, customer service portal, and OTA application installs and backups) is one that I’m looking forward to. It has the potential to reduce the toubleshooting and support issues around USB drivers and data synchronization; it will give customers easy access to new applications for their devices; and all of their information (PIM data, purchased software, and device backups) can be easily accessed from anywhere you have an Internet connection.
Let me know what you think by using the comments link below.
As planned, I activated my Sprint BlackBerry Curve 8330 this morning. The folks at the local Sprint customer center had some trouble removing the Power Vision Pack from my account and adding in the BlackBerry personal Internet data pack, but everything seems to be working now.
The next step is to get my email accounts configured on the BlackBerry. At this point I’m not sure how I’m going to acomplish that. Looks like I’ll be spending some time with the BlackBerry user manual this afternoon.
In a press release issued earlier today, Palm has announced that investment firm Elevation Partners will make an additional $100 million dollar investment into Palm, Inc. Elevation will purchase the additional shares from Palm’s newly issued Series C stocks and has paid a 31% premium by acquiring the shares at $3.25 each. The Series C stock issued by Palm has a 0% dividend rate. With the second planned investment of $100 million into Palm, Elevation Partners will have invested about $425 million dollars into Palm.
“The additional capital from Elevation Partners will enable us to put added momentum behind the new product introductions scheduled for 2009 and will provide us with enhanced stability in unsettled economic times,” said Ed Colligan, president and chief executive officer of Palm, Inc. “Elevation has been a great partner to Palm, and we appreciate their continued confidence and support.”
“We believe that Palm is in a position to transform the cell phone industry, and we are pleased to have the opportunity to make this additional investment in the company. Palm has an industry-leading team and an exciting, differentiated product roadmap. We are proud to be associated with the company and look forward to great things from Palm in 2009 and beyond,” stated Roger McNamee, co-founder of Elevation Partners.
The transaction is expected to close by January, 31, 2009. Palm also has the option to trigger a sell action by Elevation of up to $49 million dollars before March 31, 2009 to other investors under the same or better prices.
This is just a quick note to say that I plan on activating my BlackBerry Curve 8330 today.
There are a few reasons for deciding to turn on the BlackBerry now. The first is that after looking at Palm’s new App Store, there is no need for testing on my Treo 755p; my Treo 750 is up to the task.
Secondly, if the rumors about Palm are true, it looks like the company could be on track to release a new device with the Nova operating system before the May/June 2009 time frame. I want to use the BlackBerry in between now and then. If Palm is going to deliver in the next quarter, I need to get going with the BlackBerry.
Sprint is still reporting that they are working with RIM on ironing out the kinks in the BlackBerry OS 4.5 upgrade. That means that I won’t be able to use DataViz Documents To Go until the update has been certified by Sprint.
I’ll post again once I have the BlackBerry activated for voice and data with the BlackBerry Internet service.
It looks like 2009 will be Apple’s last appearance at the MacWorld Expo trade show.
For those not familiar with the MacWorld shows, they are not run by Apple. The shows are actually put on by the publisher of the MacWorld magazine.
Steve Jobs has always been a my way or the highway kind of guy, so I can see why the company has chosen to leave the show after the January 2009 event. Trade shows and magazines have become marginalized in the last few years. If you have been to a trade show or a user conference in the past, you understand the great educational and networking opportunities that can be had from such events.
As you might expect, the Mac magazine has a few articles posted on their website on the topic. I’ll save you the time, the three articles are:
You can read the full Apple press release on the Apple website.