Hey Missing Sync users, have you received this in the mail:

As a valued customer, we would like to offer you the latest version of The Missing Sync for Palm OS for only $19.95, regularly $39.95, through February 11, 2009.

Act now and get The Missing Sync for Palm OS, version 6.0.4, with new features including:

* Full support for Palm Centro
* Enhanced synchronization between Palm Memo and Mark/Space Notebook
* Call Log archiving
* SMS Log archiving
* Video syncing to and from your Treo or Centro

I sure did. Missing Sync is perhaps the bastion of sync tools for Macintosh with other mobile devices. The bigger barrier of entry is its price point, compared to other free apps like SyncMate. For a limited time, Missing Sync is offering a promo to upgrade your version to the next one.

As for this thing with paid upgrades … I guess people aren’t biting the fish. I don’t know about you, but I’m usually hesitant in upgrading software which I feel I really rightfully deserve a FREE UPGRADE.

Whoa. I just realized that it’s been a while since I tagged something under the category of “Palm.” With Palm’s competitive absence from the mobile scene for the past three years, Apple’s iPhone has rightfully taken the place of the world’s most easy to use smartphone OS. And behind them, Windows Mobile still retains its niche as being the “geekier” trade. But Palm’s comeback looks promising, amidst the apparent infringement into how the new Palm OS looks a lot like the iPhone’s. Can’t blame Apple. But yeah, I can’t blame Palm either.

The latter has long been wanting to reclaim its place - a place that’s been obviously occupied by Apple. And from the initial looks of the OS, we’re seeing something simply amazing. There are so many questions - availability within Q2, compatibility with legacy apps, pricing, a GSM version .. the list goes on. But as someone who’s followed Palm’s rise to the development of the Handspring, I must say that these guys might be doing something right, finally by simply sitting and watching what everyone else is doing.

2009 might be the year for Palm. But I honestly think that it is more like the year of the OS that adopts something close to an idea of “open apps” where developing one app for Palm OS 2 allows it to be compatible with Android, Windows Mobile, and Apple as well. It’s a far, far idea. But really, that’s what happened with Open Social.

With high expectations, Matias Duarte, the one famous for the Sidekick’s extremely friendly UI allegedly moves to Palm.

So it’s time to bring in the big guns. With Palm’s latest disappointment with the Foleo and the not-so-great worldwide response to the Centro, Palm plans to reinvent themselves once again starting with a revolutionary operating system. In retrospect, the Palm OS was the crown jewel in the early 2000’s because of its simplicity, common sensical approach to computing. It wasn’t a heavy developer nightmare to write for and the Palm devices were attractive to consumers. Today we have that same sort of thing - but in the form of Apple’s iPhone and soon, Google Android. To wow consumers, Palm really needs to think several miles outside the box.

Personally a move to wow audiences would be to go the other direction and reinvent the QWERTY thumb board to something we’ve never seen before.

[image from Newscom]

Yes, Palm OS Garnet will now work on your Nokia tablet, namely the N810, N800 and the N770. If you’re thinking that this is merely emulation software, you’re mistaken. Apparently, the move to position the Palm OS on other devices is actually a new strategy to revive the Palm operating system, as The Register reports:
Read more

The phone industry sure knows how to screw Apple around. With Nokia belting Apple for their “anti unlocking” regime, now its Palm’s turn to issue a $99.00 smartphone into the hands of fresh graduates who can’t afford a smartphone. Presenting the Palm Centro - it’s finally come. Available very soon on a 90 day exclusivity with Sprint, the Centro is basically a smaller and more hip Treo. Really interesting too - that this pegs the price of a VERY GOOD smartphone to about a hundred dollars.

Between the iPhone and the Palm Centro, I’m giving my vote to the latter for smartphone of the year.

Here are the specs:

Display
320×320 pixel Transflective color touchscreen, supports 16-bit color (up to 65K colors)
Radio
Dual-band CDMA2000 EvDO backward compatible with 1XRTT and IS95
Platform
Palm OS 5.4.9
Bluetooth® Wireless Technology
Version 1.2
Memory
64MB available user storage
Camera
1.3 megapixels with 2x digital zoom and video capture
Battery
Removable 1150mAh, lithium-ion, 3.5 hours talk time, up to 300 hours standby time
Expansion
microSD card (up to 4GB supported)
Connector
Multi-connector
Dimensions
4.22″ (L) x 2.11″ (W) x 0.73″ (D); 4.2 oz
Colors
Ruby and Onyx

The new Palm Centro looks like a hipper version of the Treo. With Palm losing market share in their business phones - and with consumer confidence dying with the announcement of the Foleo, Palm has decided to tap a new market - the youth.

The Centro is going to be offered at an insanely cheap subsidized tag price of $99.00. It features a full QWERTY keypad, touch screen. and the ol’ faithful Palm OS. So what’s Palm trying to do? With a total tag price of $600.00, they’re trying to bring back the duo device configuration which was very popular back in the early 2000’s. With $600.00 you get two devices instead of one iPhone — the new Centro and the Foleo.

Palm announced the Foleo just hours ago in a live webcast. The Foleo, taken from the business “folio” accessory we carry under our armpit is supposedly the future of mobile computing. It is meant to become an addendum to the Palm Treo smartphone, but will work as well with other Windows Mobile devices and other smartphones like the RIM Blackberry and the upcoming Apple iPhone.

The Foleo is the “future of mobile computing.” It looks like a friggin laptop that is lighter, smaller and has a 5 hour battery life. It supposedly pairs very well with any smartphone and acts like a databank or conduit if you wish to sit down and get some work done.

There are two types of “mobile computing” - the ones done while walking and the ones done in a sattelite office like a park bench or a coffee shop. As for the latter, getting engaged with work on a smartphone doesn’t feel right, and thus the Palm Foleo is there to change this. At roughly $499.00 you get a pseudo-laptop. If you already own a laptop, well, gee.
Read more

This makes perfect sense to me for the following reasons:

1. Palm has been developing on an open platform with Access and so has Motorola with their latest line of open sourced smartphones such as the Motorola Ming A1200.

2. Palm’s success has been mostly due to the Treo handheld, a platinum award winning phone. They’ve canned their other devices such as the Lifedrive in Asia. They need a refocus in terms of manufacturing strategy and it takes a fierce competitor like Motorola to give them back this break. Motorola has been rather fierce in several world markets with campaigns stretching out to the really creative.

3. Motorola makes sleek handhelds with crappy operating systems. And yet they still end up becoming a market leader in the consumer division. Think of the benefits if they are able to integrate the Palm OS on a KRZR-like device for instance? You will have a good mesh between style and function, something that Palm was known to capitalize on in the past but couldn’t do so now due to the many times they have refocused and rebranded.

So all’s well that ends well. I just have one request if the buyout pushes through. Please, don’t change Palm’s name again. Please?

What a fitting name for Palm’s next secret project. There have been a few predictions about what this device will have but its almost a no brainer that this device SHOULD be a smartphone as the PDA is dead - long live connectivity!

My guess is something along the lines of the following:

1. Simply an upgraded version of the Treo 680. Maybe more memory. Maybe WiFi. Maybe HSDPA compatibility. Based on Palm’s track record, I’m not surprised if it disappoints.

2. Something more grand, like how Nokia made the 700 Internet Tablet, bit this time upgraded for the times to have a phone of some sort. A device like this is truly a “back to basics” for Palm as they were the pioneers of personal portable computing. Oh wait. That was Apple’s Newton.

We’ll find out in June!

Here’s a “dark side” approach to the Palm platform. With the release of the antenna-less Treo 680, Palm has kept its new commitment to churn out similar devices with a Windows Mobile operating system. It’s sorta like how The Force always has the Dark and Light sides …

The Palm Treo 750v comes with similar features as the

Specs include:

• 240 x 240 screen
• 1.3 MP camera (no dual cameras for this one, although it has 3G capabilities)
• Bluetooth 1.2 and IrDA
• 128MB / 60 MB of nonvolatile flash memory with miniSD expansion options

Main selling points:

• Windows Mobile on with a Palm OS interface
• Aesthetically pleasing design without an antenna
• 3G / UMTS supported unlike the Treo 680

Apparently, you can also hack your way to getting an extra 0.5G into the Treo 750v by following these instructions. The Smart PDA points out that you can “upgrade” the 750v’s UMTS to HSPDA.