The written musings of a long-time Apple //e and Macintosh tech nerd. Opinions are my own.
What a difference a week makes! I returned home a few hours ago from sunny Orlando Florida to learn that Palm has been busy while my family and I have been lounging around the pool under sunny skies!
Be sure to check back later for a wrap up of the week’s Palm news and analysis.
As you will recall, I purchased a Sprint edition BlackBerry Curve 8330. Smartphone Fanatics reader BaDZeD wrote me to ask how I was doing with the BlackBerry.
The short answer is that I’m not. I am a hardcore Palm OS user and if a device can’t match the feature set of my Treo 755p, it just can’t be my day-to-day device. There are a lot of things that I like about the Curve. They include things like a smaller footprint and weight; a full Qwerty keyboard, and ok PIM applications.
There are things that have kept me from adopting the BlackBerry. For one, the software on the device is BlackBerry OS 4.3, not 4.5 or later. Without BlackBerry OS 4.5, I can’t run DataViz Documents To Go – an essential tool in my opinion. I’ll also loose the ability to sync with my corporate calendar at the office. That isn’t a big problem because I have access to Treo 700p at the office that I can use to sync my calendar to. (I won’t need to bring that Treo home, I just want the calendar when I’m not in my office during the week.)
I’d also have to convert my corporate wireless email account from a Palm OS license to a BlackBerry license, but that isn’t suppose to be hard process.
The latest word from Sprint is that the BlackBerry OS 4.5 upgrade for the Curve 8330 will be out during or after the week of 12/15/08, which is next week. We’ll see. Sprint is had to push back the date a few times already.
I want to play with the BlackBerry, but until I have a plan to ensure I have access to all of my “stuff” I’ll stick with my Treo 755p. Maybe I’ll convert in January.
Thoughts?
Astraware Board Games is now available from the Apple App Store for iPhone and iPod touch users. Astraware Board Games is a collection of eight classic board games including Chess, Backgammon, Ludo, Checkers, Reversi, Nine Men’s Morris, Snakes & Ladders and Tic Tac Toe.
For the iPhone/iPod edition of Board Games, Astraware has applied some of the Apple special sauce to the mix to enhance the gaming experience not found on other mobile platforms. For example, players shake their device to shake the dice, touch and slide their piece to move it, and enjoy enhanced graphics that take advantage of the high-quality screen on the devices. In addition, players have the choice of playing against the CPU, against friends using “hotseat” multiplayer on one device, or against a friend on two separate devices using a local Wi-Fi connection.
Astraware Board Games is available now from the Apple App Store and sells for $4.99. For more information about Board Games, or to see a short video of the game in action, head over to the Astraware website.
My kids love playing this game on my Palm Treo 755p. I know that they are going to enjoy it even more when they get to play against Dad on his iPod. I am definitely going to get this game for our upcoming family vacation.
My Palm OCD meter has just hit the roof! Reports are coming into Smartphone Fanatics that Palm has sent out invitations to a special press event to be held during the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this coming January.
Based on the wording on the emailed invitation, the Palm community is brimming with excitement. The invitation reads, “Come to CES to see all that Palm New-ness you’ve been waiting for.”
That “New-ness” can only be Palm’s next-generation operating system that I’ve been calling Palm OS II for years now; and that Palm has codenamed Nova. As many Smartphone Fanatics readers have pointed out in the past, Nova translates to “New” in some languages.
Palm fans have been waiting for the successor to Palm OS 5 literally for years and after all the waiting, it is clear that Colligan & Co. are about to make good on all their promises.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
I just saw this over on Barron’s Tech Trader Daily website.
“Remember last week’s rumor that Wal-Mart (WMT) is about to start selling Apple (AAPL) iPhones?
Apparently, it’s true. Both Bloomberg and the San Jose Mercury News quote employees at various Wal-Mart stores saying they expect to start selling the phone before the end of the month, likely between Christmas and New Year’s Day – maybe sooner.
According to the Merc, Kim Nguyen, manager of the cell phone department at the Milpitas Wal-Mart, said she was told by an AT&T representative that her store would be getting a 4 GB model. She also said the store was supposed to get some iPhones two days before Christmas.”
Via Tech Trader Daily…
Two weeks ago, in my 1SRC editorial, “It’s Time for Something ‘Nova’,” I suggested that it might be time for Palm OS fans to get some love by way of unofficial info about Palm OS II/Nova and the hardware that it might run on. While this photo is far from evidence, scuttlebutt around the Internet seems to be that no one knows what this device is. According to Jenn K. Lee of Pocketables.com, the photo had a born on date of June 3.
With the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show (January) and Mobile World Congress (February) just around the corner, it is anyone guess as to whether this is just one of the many prototype devices that gets built and never makes it to market or a vendor’s next big device.
What has gotten attentive web heads, myself included, all worked up, is the stylistic design of the device. The jelly looking keys of this device just screams “Palm”. Whether or not this is a Palm prototype device remains to be seen. If we stay focused on the keyboard for just a few minutes. If you zoom in on the keyboard, you can sort of make out the keys. Consider this: how often do keyboard formats differ from model to model? I don’t think this is a RIM BlackBerry, nor is it Motorola, a Samsung, or HTC Touch.
What do you think this device might be? Is this a new Palm prototype device? Will it run Palm OS II/Nova? Or is this just another pipe dream that has been discarded in the wake of the iPhone and BlackBerry Storm? Let us know in the comments.
[Via pocketables.com…]
Thanks to the anonymous tipster who sent this in.
The latest 1SRC Podcast has gone up for your listening pleasure. On this week’s show, I cover:
I just read over at BlackBerryCool.com that RIM has relaunched their mobile BlackBerry web portal. The site is only accessible from the BlackBerry’s web browser, unlike Palm’s mobile portal that is accessible from the mobile or the desktop.
“I’ve just received word that RIM has completed a fairly significant relaunch of mobile.blackberry.com, their all-in-one web portal for BlackBerry users. The new mobile.blackberry.com features a much more user-friendly design, requiring fewer clicks to get where you want to go, as well as faster load times.”
Screen shots available here…
[Via BlackBerryCool.com…]
Earlier today, Palm posted their preliminary second quarter earnings results for fiscal year 2009 (Q2FY09). When the dust settles on Q2, Palm is expecting quarterly revenues along the lines of $190-$195 million. This represents a decline from last quarter’s results of $366.9 million that was reported on September 18, 2008. Palm sites the “reduced demand for maturing smartphone and handheld products” and the “difficult economic environment” as the reasons for the decline.
“We are seeing unprecedented dynamics in the global markets as economic uncertainty hampers demand for consumer products,” said Ed Colligan, Palm’s president and chief executive officer. “In order to ensure Palm’s long-term success during these uncertain times, we’re taking several steps to significantly reduce our cost structure. These measures will help us navigate this difficult period while launching our next-generation products as planned.”
Today’s report also details several efforts that Palm has implemented in attempt to keep operating expenses down; including:
Palm will present their final Q2FY09 numbers during a quarterly earnings results conference call which is scheduled for December 18, 2008 to be held at 1:30pm PT/4:30pm ET. Details for the conference call can be found on Palm’s Investor Relations website.
Analysis
As you will recall, Palm is some 18+ months into a corporate transformation that the company hopes will make it a relevant player in the mobile computing space again. To aid in the transformation, Palm has partnered with private equity firm Elevation Partners.
The current global economic conditions aside, Palm appears to be dealing with issues around delays in the release of their next Windows Mobile-powered smartphone(s), which is rumored to be a CDMA version of the GSM Treo Pro, released earlier this year without a carrier partner, for Sprint and/or Verizon. I have not read any credible rumors that suggest Palm is working to release an AT&T branded edition of the Treo Pro before the end of the year.
Palm is also still working to complete the development of their next generation operating system, Palm OS II/Nova. According to company executives, Palm is on track to complete the core of Palm OS II/Nova by the end of this year and expects to have devices shipping to customers by the middle of 2009.
Palm’s stock was down -$0.51 to end the day at $1.88.
I finally got around to upgrading DataViz Documents To Go 3.0 Premium on my Palm Treo 750 smartphone. The Documents To Go 3.0032 is a minor upgrade that was released back on September 23, 2008. The update addresses the following issues:
The complete Document To Go for Windows Mobile Professional version history can be found in the DataViz knowledge base.
During the upgrade, I did run into some trouble. At about 98% done, the following error message popped up:
Edition Not Found
\Windows\gb-nrv-s.dat
Error setting up the registry. Please reinstall to try and fix the problem.
DataViz’s solution for the error can also be found in the DataViz knowlege base. I checked that I had enough space on my Treo by going to the Memory control panel and taking a look at the Storage Free value. The upgrade should have worked. To get around this problem, I ended up uninstalling Documents To Go 3.0031 and eReader (which I never really used on my Windows Mobile Treo anyway), soft reset my Palm, and then re-ran the Documents To Go installer. To do this, I used the Windows Mobile Device Center in Windows Vista and pointed to:
Programs and Services > More… > Add/Remove Programs