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:

We recently portrayed Palm OS development as dead, only to be lambasted by StyleTap, creators of the Palm OS emulator for Windows Mobile. According to StyleTap their emulator isn’t just used for running legacy applications, but is enabling the development of new apps as well as improvements to old ones, by companies and programmers who like the platform.

StyleTap showed us a Symbian version of their emulator at the recent Symbian Show, apparently developed in response to customer demand, so it would seem that Palm OS is the platform that just won’t die. It must have hurt Symbian that every visitor to the show was scanned with a Palm-OS-based handheld; demonstrating just how pervasive the platform remains.

The download is actually free and can be found here.

Post from: Cellphone9

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.

Post from: Cellphone9

Performance-wise, the Dopod 838 can get along pretty well if you don’t forget to manage your memory well. Yes, it runs on an OMAP 850 processor which may seem a little underpowered at 195MHz. But upon startup or initialization things seems to settle well and the speed isn’t at all that bad. I’m so far happy with the battery life I’m getting which seems to get me about 2 days of usability even with BT on. The 1250mAh Li-ion battery seems to hold up well and with Wi-Fi on, a day’s work should be an easy chore for the 838.

The sliding keypad is slowly becoming a thing of the present and yes, it is indeed lovely. While Carlo was doing a short demo, he received an incoming phone call which perforated the air with a really really fricken loud speaker. It’s deafening.

[The Unwired]

Post from: Cellphone9

What do you get when you cross a Treo with a K750i?

Well, nothing still. But the closest match comes in a surprising little package. The M600i was recently announced by Sony Ericsson as the new candybar replacement for the P-series smartphones.

The Bluetooth functionality of the M600i in turn ties in with its media capabilities, which include the playback of MP3 and AAC formats as well as video at 30 FPS. Another highlight of the device is its dual function thumbboard, which – much like that of Palm’s Treo 700w – contains a numerical keypad with in its QWERTY layout, and is also enhanced by the presence of continuous spell checking and word completion. Other features related to input include a 3-way jog dial and handwriting recognition.

Another worthy addition to my list of would-have’s. I hate moving parts and this brick looks tough and elegant without becoming too much of a pocket sore.

[Infosync]

Post from: Cellphone9

It took a while for people to figure it out – much faster for most because the whole thing looked too unsound to be true.

Take a look at the specs:

Current features in the 800p will include 128MB RAM, a WiFi option, SD card, BT 2, EVDO of course, enhanced 320×320 screen, slimmer form factor and antenna, will use the same accessories as the 650, 3.2 MP camera.

But you know what? It takes just a little common sense to figure out how bogus this actually was. First clue was the presence of Bluetooth 2. I mean, why would you need such technology this early on? It’s not like you’re sending RAW images wirelessly…

A WiFi option AND EVDO? That’s sorta like having your cake and eating it too.

But the ultimate kicker? The 3.2MP camera. WTF! 2.0 megapixels isn’t even a staple yet early this year and the Treo, being an enterprise-positioned device will have NO USE for a 3 megapixel class camera.

Post from: Cellphone9

I had 2 minutes to play with it. First off, I noticed that the scroll wheel on the side was absent, contrary to how Blackberries are usually designed. Instead were a set of buttons which I assumed were to be used to scroll through the menu.

The E61 is a Blackberry and more. It can edit and view MS Office documents and is capable of WLAN. So this neat little package packs a lot in its innards with 75MB of useful storage space and removes the useless frivolities like a built-in camera. It’s got a miniSD slot for expansion options.

This might be the phone for me. My only qualm is the iffyness of the new ActiveSync conduit when it comes to synching data to my main computer.

Read here.

Post from: Cellphone9

The past several years has put Palm (well, the company formerly known as pa1mOne, formerly known as Palm) on a comfortable pedestal because they have successfully claimed the rights to the easiest GUI (graphical user interface, or the stuff you see on screen) to figure out.

Palm used to hire a ‘tap guy’ – his job was to make sure that you could access anything within three clicks. Although with the way things get reinvented everyday, sometimes it might take more than hiring a ‘tap guy’ to make sure that things stay simple. Sometimes, it might even be good to start from scratch.

Kent Probbernow had these things to say about the proposed Palm OS GUI:

It’s time to revitalize and reform Palm OS to bring it on par with modern mobile platforms. I won’t waste time or words on the fact that Palm OS development has lagged behind other competing platforms, we all know that Garnet is a relic. But I think PalmSource should take this opportunity to borrow a page from Apple’s playbook by starting over from the beginning. OSX still retains the classic Mac interface while building upon it with modern technologies like Quartz and Aqua. So to, I think, PalmSource should strive to achieve the same goal.

Palm has been sitting on its laurels for too long. The article is a really good read. I learned a thing or two about GUI design and its psychological effects on how people will make use of their gadgets.

Read the source

Post from: Cellphone9

Though similar to most combo communication devices out there, the W-Zero3’s appeal is an aesthetical one, borrowing a lot from the 80’s scientific calculator-esque design, but less bulky and more sleek.

Other features include 128 MB of built-in memory, a 1.3 megapixel camera, an Intel PXA270 416Mhz processor, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a miniSD card slot, and USB. It’ll run Windows Mobile 5.0 Japanese edition, and will have full POP3 and SMTP compatibility and will be bundled along with Windows Media Player 10.

So yes, 2006 will be the rise of the side-unfolding integrated keyboard design. If you’ll notice the square arrangement of the hardware buttons – this is great so your thumb won’t have to travel the extra inches.

Read the source

Post from: Cellphone9

If you were to ask me what PDA/phone I will be getting for 2006 (that’s assuming I get a big, fat bonus from my job) I’d narrow it down to the Treo 700w if and when it hits GSM or the HTC Wizard. The former feels more like a phone while the latter can be expanded to look like a mini workstation reminiscent of the Nokia communicators.

Read the review from GearLive

Post from: Cellphone9

They recently reviewed the memory upgrade option for the iPAQ hx4700 upping the internal SDRAM to 128MB which is actually just “enough” to run a few Windows Mobile applications all at the same time. Of course, there’s only one mainstream company that does this – Pocket PC Techs; upgrading memory since the megabyte was introduced. No, really, these guys are the saviors when it comes to disgruntled PDA owners that need more space to store porn important documents and applications.

“Be aware that no matter where a program is stored, it will be moved to RAM when it is time for it to actually run. That is where the SDRAM comes into play. The 64MB SDRAM is basically split in half. While one-half is available for loading programs, the other half is necessary for running the programs. Therefore, the fewer programs you can actually load in main memory, the faster the PDA will run and the more program-running memory will be available. Since there is only 64MB to begin with, it seems as if without even trying the memory will just dwindle. This makes me think that 128MB SDRAM would have been a wiser use of extra memory, rather than such a large File Store…”

Check it out here.

Post from: Cellphone9