Limitations in Current Breed of Palm Handhelds?

JabrTheHut asks: "Having been a Palm user for over two years now, I've upgraded to a Tungsten T3. While the features I'm used to using have not changed, I have become increasingly frustrated by what I see as a lack of progress. It doesn't seem to want to deal with text files (there is no import feature for the Palm Desktop notepad or memo pad, for example). Also there seems to be no way to copy arbitrary files to the Palm - all files must be "owned" by an application. With a 256MB SD card I expected to use it to copy files between work and home. Has anyone else noticed these or other shortcomings and have figured out ways around them?"

Palm OS

[Dorsai65]

I have a Tungsten/E, up from a Palm IIIe that I had for years. The only workarounds I've ever been able to come up with have been to do the old cut/paste for plain text, and to find an app that I can set to 'own' arbitrary files.

That recent flap about Palm using the FAT for SD suggests they're trying to do something, but they obviously still need to work on it.

Yes, it does pretty much suck. If Palm doesn't get their thumb out, I'm going to have to start looking for something else. If somebody comes up with a way to burn Linux to the flash, I'd be real happy!

This pretty much defines Palm

[michaelas]

I have been a palm user since the Palm III. They definitely defined the palm top and made it popular (with some help from the Newton, et al).

Now with Sony ditching their palm based products, we see how truly uninnovative Palm is. Sony had some of the best designs, including swivel displays, camera's, keyboards, WiFi, etc. Palm pretty much had the same old design, sometimes adding a feature here or there. After all, there is a palm that has a camera, but only that one unit. Some could play MP3's, but the business ones didn't have stereo sound. Retarded.

Unless palm can innovate, and quickly, the exodus will only continue. With Handspring and Sony gone it's pretty much up to them, and I don't see it happening. Even the owners of Handspring left Palm because they didn't like the direction it was going.

And now we have the Treo, thanks to them. Palm gets a hold of it and can't even put WiFi in it. Is that too much to ask? But to their credit it is probably the most feature rich Palm available.

For my next PDA I am seriously looking at a Dell. Cheap, and just about every feature you could want. VGA display, WiFi, Bluetooth, Compact Flash, etc. And these features are all in the same unit. What could I possibly buy from Palm that has all that? ...Michael...

Re:Working with Palm files

[pherthyl]

>>Can I be so bold to suggest that this lack of innovation might be due to the lack fo significant competition for Palm?

Ever heard of PocketPC?

Multiple Calendars, OSXNewtonPod

[bburdette]

I'd really like to see multiple calendars on the palm. Right now all categories of events have to reside in the same calendar, I'd like to be able to have just family stuff (like birthdays) on one calendar, have a business calendar, and then a personal calendar, and then all of the above. Currently the palm is fine for my needs, but that's because I only use the basics these days. It is true that there has been little innovation from Palm in the past 5 years. Just little details here or there, nothing really revolutionary. I expected something big from them when they bought the BeOS, but it looks like that was simply filed away for use by no one. Too bad! This wouldn't really bother me much except that I like Palm and I'd like to see them succeed. The truth is that eventually palmtops will be as capable as desktops, and palmtop makers will need to be ready for that reality. From this standpoint microsoft has a huge advantage over Palm in the future, since Palm has no desktop capable platform. Palm's only hope here is that they seem to have (or had in the past) an ease-of-use advantage, and a simplicity and reliability that microsoft has traditionally lacked. What palm really needs is a powerful work-of-art trendy eye candy OS that is be strong enough to be used as a full on work/game platform as well as a palmtop OS. Maybe its time for apple to take the stage here again? OSXNewtonPod anyone?

Re:Working with Palm files

[twalk]

"Actually, the Pocket PC is now the dominant PDA OS on the market."

Unfortunately, those numbers came from Gartner, which has an extremely well know MS bias. So in order to get the results they wanted, they left out the 1M+ treos that were sold. (While at the same time including RIM...)

jPilot

[Davoid]

I have been using jPilot for about 5-6 years now with my Palm Vx http://www.jpilot.org/ [jpilot.org]

I can import/export plain text files as text, CSV, or DAT/MPA. No need to copy-paste. This works for the Memopad app in Palm OS. It also works for the Addressbook, Datebook, and TodoList. I can not say enough good things about jPilot... reliable, simple, fast, gets the job done. It is such a good application I would use it as a PIM even if I didn't have the Palm OS device. One can also get plugins for gnu-keyring and email... and a few others I never use.

Only one caveat... jPilot only runs on Linux/Unix. Once the files are imported to the Palm the regualr Windows and Mac OS Palm Desktop apps read them just fine.

I really don't see the problem of the original question. Palm OS does a limited set of things and it does them well. It is basically a way of carrying around a bunch of conveniently searchable and editable databases. I have not found the need for the newer or more featureful apps that are available on Pocket PCs. I also own a Sharp Zaurus 5000 and an HP iPaq. Neither of which comes close to the reliability and utility of my nice little Palm Vx. From my experience all the fancier devices try to squish desktop apps into a palm sized device... none of them do it well.

YMMV

Re:Microsoft Windows is the problem, not the devic

[hacker]

"How does any of what you just said make up for Linux's shortcomings such as its non-ease of use and lack of common applications?"

You're absolutely right. Talk to your vendor, and have them begin porting their applications to Linux.

This isn't our problem to solve. Thanks for pointing it out.

Palm dying

[klubar]

I was a big fan of the Palm and really didn't want to go the Pocket PC route. I purchased a Tungsten E and was disappointed with it. The biggest problem was that you couldn't connect a GPS to its nonfunctioning USB port and no built-in bluetooth. I looked at upgrading to the Tugsten T5 and was disappointed at no built-in wifi and a rather high price. The Dell Axim v50x came out about the same time. Built-in bluetooth, wifi, choice of SD and CF. In the vga model (v50x) it's available for just over $400. Surprising decent software and nice design. Too bad it runs pocketPC but it's really not such a bad choice. The palm seems to have lost their edge and it's hard to recommend them any more. The darkside is taking over...and damn it with a better product.

Why did you get the T3?

[jwr]

You want the T5. That one has an internal drive that is accessible from your pc. I think it would solve most of your problems.

The failings of PalmOS

[TellarHK]

I picked up a Tapwave Zodiac [tapwave.com] last year, and was really looking forward to getting back into a Palm device two major OS revisions newer than my old Palm IIIc (which was eventually traded for a Newton 2100) but boy, was I surprised by how little had really changed. Sure, the resolution was higher, the expandabiltiy was there at last (Two SD card slots), it was designed for "gaming" with an actual 8M ATI video chip in it, 320x480, the works and then some. The only things it lacked were WiFi and a camera... ...and a decent fucking OS. Sure, my Zodiac can run in 320x480 - but the actual PalmOS dialogs all run in 320x320 at best, popping up the graffiti area even when not needed. If I use the toolbar to remove the graffiti area, it just puts black space on the sides of the dialog. And speaking of the toolbar, it's just so wonderful that Palm made every manufacturer come up with thier own way of doing more than 320x320 resolution. Apps to modify the toolbar on the Tungsten T2 or Clie series Palms, do fuck-all on the Zodiac. Well, I take that back - they're great for crashing it. You can't skin the graffiti area or toolbar, you -still- can't change your icons from the ones included with the device and applications, and multitasking? Nope, that'll be in PalmOS 6.

The Zodiac is great hardware. It feels right. Well made, sturdy. Quality stuff. But the OS it got saddled with makes me feel like I'm running the PDA equivalent of Mac OS 9. It'll be great for people that require OS 9 apps, but there's a lot more out there. Palm stayed still without INNOVATING for way, way too long.

Blackberry is inovating where Palm is stagnating?

[gregmckone]

Forgive me if this is slightly off topic as I boast about blackberries vs palms, but I think the idea of avoiding "information dead-ends" is significant enough to be of value to some slashdot readers.

For me the usefulness of a tool is connected to how well it allows me to do tasks I already want to do. On my Blackberry I will look up a person's contact information on the internet using the browser, then I'll click on their phone number and my blackberry is calling them. Or In our organization of 20,000 people if I don't know exactly who I'm looking for I do a search against our exchange server and get the closest matches, then I can choose the right one and send an email. My email is always synchronized (no plugging into a cradle etc...) After I use a number or an email, I have the option of adding that contact into my address book.

I can't play solitare on my Blackberry. It isn't a computer, but when it comes to email, the web, phoning, and otherwise connecting those communicating tasks the Blackberry doesn't present many "dead-ends" for information. My palm m125 on the other hand is nothing but a dead end for information.

Much like the Internet or Unix, it's not about one killer feature, but rather the integration and connection of simpler features that allow us to work with tools in a way that is powerful scalable and ultimately useful to us without re-inventing how we do our work (graffiti?)

Thanks
Greg.