The written musings of a long-time Apple //e and Macintosh tech nerd. Opinions are my own.
Palm has posted a new article on their company blog called “In the Queue – Windows Mobile 6 for AT&T Treo 750 Smartphones”.
In the blog post, Palm indicated that the inside sales team has started taking orders from corporate customers who want the 750 running Windows Mobile 6 Professional and that an update for current AT&T/Cingular Treo 750 customers “is just around the corner.”
The folks at GearDiary.com continue to remind us of the canceled Palm Foleo by posting more screen shots of the Foleo’s applications and operating system.
I know that many of the readers of this site are true Foleo Fanatics and that seems to also be true of the folks over at Gear Diary. Looking at the photos, specifically the first screen shot of the web browser showing the Gear Diary website, you will see the article titled “Do You Tweet?”. I wanted to know how old this photo was, so I searched the site for the article, and I was surprised to see that the article “Do You Tweet?” was posted just a few days ago on November 14, 2007. Either these guys are really good at predicting the future or they have access to pre-production Foleo.
And that leave me wondering, just where are they getting their fantastic toys?
The Palm Foleo Interface via GearDiary.com…
[Thanks to my anonymous tipster who sent this in…]
Earlier today DataViz, the leading provider of mobile Office compatibility solutions, announced the availability of Documents To Go Premium Edition version 10.002 for Palm OS. The latest version of Documents To Go is the first and only Palm OS office suite to provide complete support for the new Microsoft Office 2007 file formats.
“For active smartphone and handheld users, there is nothing more frustrating than receiving a file, such as an Office 2007 document, they can’t open,” said Danny Tu product manager, DataViz, Inc. “The latest Documents To Go release enables our customers to effortlessly work with their important Word, Excel and PowerPoint Office 2007 files such as sales forecasts, business contracts and more without the worry of having an incompatible solution.”
For more information about Documents To Go 10, visit the DataViz website.
Brighthand Editor-in-Chief, Ed Hardy, has posted an very interesting article called “Palm and Handhelds: The Writing Is on the Wall.” Mr. Hardy writes:
“A few months ago, I wrote an editorial asking for peoples’ thoughts on what the next traditional handheld from Palm, Inc. ought to look like.
At that time, I promised to write a followup editorial compiling everyone’s suggestions. I never did this, and I want to explain why: I am now convinced that Palm will never release another traditional handheld. Ever.”
While I have been a user and supporter of Palm’s handhelds for many years, I do agree with Mr. Hardy’s assessment. Palm has been very careful to communicate to their customer base that handhelds were becoming less and less of their business based on sales figures.
Palm is running a 4-day sale on the unlocked GSM Treo 680 from now until Sunday, November 25, 2007. The graphite Treo 680 can be purchased directly from the Palm online webstore for $379. (The Treo 680 without a service plan is typically $449.)
The unlocked Treo 680 can operate on any GSM wireless carrier that offers voice and or data services. (You will need an existing SIM card or obtain one when you sign up for service.)
For more information, including the technical specifications for the Treo 680, please visit the Palm website.
Earlier today, Astraware, in partnership with PalmStorm, released Plantastic for Palm OS and Windows Mobile handhelds and smartphones. Astraware has also bundled three of their most popular games, Suduko, Boardgames, and Solitaire, into a family friendly game collection called Astraware Classic Collection.
Astraware writes:
Plantastic! is a fun combination of puzzle and strategy game where you create bouquets from groups of brightly coloured flowers to clear them fromthe play board and reach each level’s bloom target! Each game mode has a different planting pattern and blooms can only be placed near the player’s last bloom within the pattern shown. Blooms drop into the queue and you must plant them in the garden before the queue fills up.
Plantastic! begins as a simple fun game, but add the challenge of more complex flower arrangements, and a range of different bloom colours as you progress, and the challenge increases. Avoid the mushrooms that block your path, and stop Mr Mole from stealing your blooms by tapping him on the head, but make sure you don’t run out of time or flowers! Flower powerups like the super trowel and joker flowers will offer assistance to boost your points total.
And continues with Classic Collection by writing:
Following many customer requests, the Astraware Classic Collection brings together 3 family-friendly favorites featuring an award-winning Sudoku game, 8 classic boardgames, and 12 of the best-known card games, all in one super value pack for a very special price.
The Astraware Classic Collection includes Astraware Sudoku, Astraware Boardgames, and Astraware Solitaire and is available for Palm OS(R), and Windows Mobile(R) smartphones and PDAs. The collection is priced $39.95 – a saving of one third off the price of all 3 games bought separately and special pricing is also available to customers who already own one of the games.
Download Astraware Plantastic…
Download Astraware Classic Collection…
Mark/Space has posted a new beta of The Missing Sync for Palm OS. Chief among the updates in the beta release is full compatibility with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.
The Missing Sync for Palm OS 6.0.2 b4 is available as a free download from the Mark/Space website. Since this is a pre-release build of the Missing Sync, you should take the time to back up your personal data before installing the latest update. Feedback should be left in the Mark/Space forums as there is no other support options for the beta software.
I’m glad to see the new beta of The Missing Sync out so soon. Mark/Space is expecting to have a final release of The Missing Sync out 90-days after the October 26 release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.
A TreoCentral forum member, “ashblades,” is claiming to be a Sprint employee and states that Palm and Sprint will be launching a pink Centro on February 8 just in time for Valentines Day. You can read the entire TreoCentral thread here.
I’ve been wondering aloud with some of the other 1SRC’ers about why Palm isn’t offering their smartphones in more rainbow flavors. With Palm’s new found emphasis on the consumer market using the Centro as the vehicle to reach more feature phone users, it would seem that more color choices is a logical thing to offer.
Palm has offered the Treo 680 in several colors prior to the Cingular acquisition by AT&T. The copper Treo seemed to be the first color to sell out with customers clamoring to snatch up second-hand units on eBay once the primary channel dried up. Palm has seemed to have an on again-off again attitude toward colored devices. In the mid-90’s Palm released a teal colored Palm Vx and a clear cased Palm IIIxe. Handspring’s (now a part of Palm) Visor Deluxe line also came in a rainbow assortment of colors. (I did get an orange Visor). And there have been a few other limited and special edition Palm or Handspring devices since then.
While it is impossible to know if the poster at TreoCentral is credible at this time there is a prescient for a pink Centro late this coming winter.
It has been a little over two weeks since Apple released Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, the latest major release to the Unix-based Macintosh operating system. In that time I have been able to do some testing of Leopard with my Palm TX handheld.
Getting Started
Prior to upgrading to Mac OS X 10.5 I was running Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger (v. 10.4.10) and Palm Desktop 4.2.1 Rev D. My Mac OS X user account is also an administrator level account. The Leopard upgrade installer ran smoothly and I was done upgrading my Intel MacBook in about 45 minutes.
Running Palm Desktop Post Upgrade
My day-to-day PIM is Palm Desktop because I use Mac OS X and Windows XP daily. After upgrading to Leopard I was able to launch and use Palm Desktop 4.2.1 without any trouble. When I attempted my first HotSync however, I was greeted by the all too familiar Conduit Manager error, “Volume is locked.” To get past this error, I used Apple’s Disk Utility, which can be found in the Utilities folder in any Mac OS X installation. Using Disk Utilities Repair Disk Permissions command will reset the file and folder permissions on the conduits and unlock the files. While not required, I always like to reboot the Mac after running the permission repair. Once that task was finished, I was able to HotSync my Palm TX to my MacBook using the provided Palm HotSync cable.
Using Apple iCal and Address Book
Apple provides the iSync conduit for transferring your data between the Mac’s iCal and Address Book applications to your PDA handhelds and Treo smartphones. In previous versions of iSync, Palm has built in a connector for Palm’s HotSync Manager allowing you to share data between Apple’s applications and your Palm OS device. According to the latest information from Apple, the iSync application that comes bundled with Leopard is still compatible with the older Palm Tungsten and Zire handhelds. Owners of newer devices, like the Treo 680, will need to use Mark/Space The Missing Sync for Palm OS rather than iSync.
I know that Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and earlier iSync customers aren’t going to be too excited about having to purchase another software package when they upgrade. It is just one more hidden cost that needs to be paid when upgrading computer operating systems. (Microsoft Windows customers have this problem also.) I have used The Missing Sync for Palm OS and can tell you that I think it is a good application and it is worth the money. (You can also use The Missing Sync to completely replace the Palm Desktop application if you really don’t like it.) Customers who use Microsoft Office: Mac Edition will also be able to use The Missing Sync to exchange PIM information with Entourage v.X and 2004.
While we are talking about The Missing Sync for Palm OS, I should note that Mark/Space has posted a notice on their website that the current version of the software, version 6.0.1, does have some compatibility issues with Mac OS X Leopard. Mark/Space expects to have an update in place to add Leopard support with-in 90 days of the October 26 launch by Apple. Mark/Space has already begun working on the updates according to their website. Mark/Space is also planning on making the update free to customers running the current version of The Missing Sync. (Customers still running older versions will need to purchase an upgrade.)
In Conclusion
Palm Desktop and the HotSync Manger for Mac OS X has always been a love/hate relationship with Mac owners. The software has been required to work with their Palm OS devices, yet the actual desktop application is in need of a complete rewrite. Further complicating the matter is that Palm is completely tied up with rewiring the next version of Palm OS to effectively deal with a desktop application rewrite. Apple appears to be content with focusing iSync on moving data between the Mac and their iPhone and iPod entertainment devices. It looks like Mark/Space is going to swooping in with The Missing Sync to provide the middleware to keep all of our devices and data in sync.
Palm Desktop 4.2.1 Rev D page…
Apple iSync site…
Mark/Space Leopard FAQ…
My fellow Brighthand moderator, Holvoetn, has received a Treo 500v review unit and has written up his first impressions of the latest Treo smartphone.
“Palm’s latest device is the Treo 500v, a Windows Mobile smartphone that is being launched on the Vodafone network all over Europe and some other places in the world, too.
After a small logistical hiccup that lasted 4 weeks, this device arrived in my hands a couple days ago. I received the white version (the 500v also comes in black).
A New OS
As a die-hard Palm OS übergeek, I was very interested to see how I would handle a Windows Mobile 6 Standard device. Let me tell you I am very pleased, even impressed.
For the very first time I was able to experience 100% keyboard and/or 5-way nav navigation. Sure enough, some settings are not in the places I expect them to be, but that’s because I haven’t played around enough yet.”