Lately, rumours had been popping up that Palm’s new Treo 670 would be running Windows Mobile 5 –however, no hard evidence confirming these rumours ever appeared. Until now. This is a major blow to PalmSource. More pictures here. Note that this does not mean the device will ship with Windows Mobile 5 –it just means it can run it.
Has hell frozen over? Seriously, this is one big kick in the teeth for PalmSource. Intentional?
No we have to put up with a Microsoft monopoly on our cellphones, PDAs, and game consoles! I liked it better when they forced us to use Windows on our PCs, and even that is becoming more restrictive and controlled.
Can’t they (M$) just die or something?
That was my first thought, at least. I’ve always found Windows Mobile/PocketPC/CE to be a bloated pig that performs and looks worse than Palm. I still do. Windows Mobile has some nice features (mainly Transcriber, which I as a former Newton owner find quite nice), but it feels like a computer. Whereas Palm OS feels like its own device, with each program launching instantly, maintaining a simple UI, and just doing what is needed. However, I then realized that if you’re getting a convergence/pda-phone device, perhaps you deserve to be stuck with Windows Mobile.
[/flame]
I run all sorts of PDAs and phones, and I have found Windows Mobile operating system to be pretty good. I sincerely prefer it over PalmOS 5 for many reasons: stability and looks are the first ones.
And I prefer Palm OS for the same reasons. I’ve never tried a Palm-based PDA-Phone, though, so maybe it has some issues that I’m unaware of. But I am happy to report that my Clie still hasn’t crashed yet, yet my iPaq (the new one with the big, beautiful screen) is borked beyond all possible repair, and my old iPaq still enjoys crashing regularly. C’est la vie.
Yeah I prefer Palm for the exact same reasons as well
Just bought a Tungsten E2, a few weeks ago, and works like a charm.
While you are certainly entitled to your opinion, you must understand that it isn’t a universal truth. I personally feel the reverse about the two systems. And this is a major blow to the diversity and freedom of choice in the marketplace. There are already plenty of windows PDA’s and phones, so while you gain nothing but the choice of another brand name, others lose entirely the choice of a platform.
Thats because you are a microsoft whore, Eugenia.
It is pretty clear now, they want to commit suicide, they are about to loose any credibility they had left.
The PDA OS that I liked best was the Newton OS, then it was sacked…
I also found Magic Cap interesting, specially for the non tech-savvy ones like my mother, it was also sacked.
I liked Psion and Epoc or Symbian, psion died.
I did not liked PalmOS but I thought it was a nice try and that I could even use one if I needed, it’s dying too…
I have an iPAQ running WM2003SE, althought the little machine hardware is nice, the OS sucks. Everything is wrong!!!
I have an eMate 300, a Datahover and a Newton MP2000, belive it or not, I still use them more than the iPAQ…
now if we just could have a good pda os…
So now that it really seems that mac os X and linux have a remote chance in balancing the pc-world, the same thing happens again, in pda/smartphoneland…
Will in a couple of years we be struggling to dual-boot our phones so we can have a choise, using ndispocketpcwrapper so we can access the hardware, and having discussions all day long if linux is ready for the pda? Deja vu…
Kids, are you all blind, or did you just conveniently ignore the last sentence in the blurb?
Note that this does not mean the device will ship with Windows Mobile 5 –it just means it can run it.
Give it a break, and remove your tin-foil hats.
Kids, are you all blind, or did you just conveniently ignore the last sentence in the blurb?
Note that this does not mean the device will ship with Windows Mobile 5 –it just means it can run it.
Give it a break, and remove your tin-foil hats.
Amazing, isn’t it?
Kind of like pointing to a Dell Axim PDA running Linux and saying Microsoft is about to be shoved out of the PDA market.
* MS still collected money for a license sold to Dell.
In the case of the Treo…
* Palm Source still collected money for a license sold to Palm; Microsoft didn’t get a cent.
Similar to Linux, Microsoft’s PDA software isn’t as hardware bound as it’s desktop software. (It can’t run everywhere like Linux, but it’s much less tied to specific hardware than XP.)
Having it possible to run on a Treo is no big deal. If Palm licences the software from Microsoft and drops Palm OS…that would be news, though it would make a Treo just another Microsoft PDA/phone.
At that point, if you are still considering a Treo you don’t consider Palm software to be a necessity…so why not look at the other non-Palm devices out there?
Palm doing this officially — not as a private hack which is what this is — would not make much sense.
Similar to Linux, Microsoft’s PDA software isn’t as hardware bound as it’s desktop software. (It can’t run everywhere like Linux, but it’s much less tied to specific hardware than XP.)
Oh, one more comment along those lines…
With Palm switching to a Linux kernel, the chance of seeing Palm OS run on any PDA/phone hardware will be much higher. Licensed or not.
Man. I really don’t want another monopoly for MS..
These “convergance” devices are awesome for phone companies because these are the icing on phone contracts. Camera phones should have been a fad novelty, but instead because the phone companies were giving these away with contracts people took ’em.
So, what’s so bad when all phones come with WM? First thing to get attacked will be ITunes and IpOd.. People would want their phone to be an MP3 player if they’re going to have to have a device on them. (Carrying a cell phone and a PDA would be annoying) Next, will be the mobile internet… More mobile websites (except OSNews of course!) would be designed for mobile IE. Lets not forget that Pocket Word files are proprietary. Let’s not forget how “great” it integrates with outlook, and what a pain it is with other mail clients.
Once everyone gets WM on a phone, we’re doomed!
Seems far off now.. But it may be impending if there isn’t more competition. WM and Palm had brand recognition, thus they are level players. While Symbian is awesome, it may not compete as well as palm could have do to the brand name.
The people who need a computer/phone instead of a pure/phone pretty much have to use Windows anyway as their desktop is 99% Windows. This 99% percentage is a bit higher than the usual 95%+ Windows percentage as this is a different segment vs. the 95% global desktop share.
There is no way Palm/PalmOne/PalmSource could ever compete with the company that has a monopoly on the desktop.
One might say P/P1/PS never put up much of a fight. And perhaps this was smart. Better to get what you can and then walk away from the game than waste all your resources fighting an unwinnable war.
Compared to the Treo 650, I find Windows on the XDA mini II such a bloated pig. Its slow, a phone should not keep me waiting, and it crashes alot, especially that stupid world clock program. My Bluetooth card was a pain in the ass to set up on the XDA, I had to keep retarting the phone to recognize the card. And it takes ages to boot, its like a freaking PC, not a phone. The menus and dialogs were not intuitive at all. There’s so much crap everywhere on the creen at one time the whole thing looks (excused the expression) pimped with bling bling, if you get what i mean.
PalmOS is much more suitable for a phone. Its light and quick. The interface is simple and practical, never overdone. The Treo 650 is a joy to use.
>> My Bluetooth card was a pain in the ass
No, it wasn’t. I meant wifi card. The built-in Bluetooth was a royal pain too in the XDA, compared to the PalmOS bluetooth setup utility.
Until is spelled with one ‘l’. If it was important enough to have it stand out by making it a link, it was important enough to run it through a spell checker.
I recently had the choice between developing for Palm or Pocket PC. I chose the latter for obvious reasons: the development environment (.net compact). The choices for mobile phones seem to be the same. Unless I’m mistaken, won’t the trend be moving toward developing for windows enabled phones?
Uhm, you guys do know, that it’s possible to install Windows Mobile on new Palm handhelds, right? The architecture is basically the same and it wouldn’t be too hard for an official Windows Mobile developer to throw something together. Looks like one such developer was having fun
(On another note, it’s possible to run a fullscreen video of Windows Mobile interface on a Palm.)
>Compared to the Treo 650, I find Windows on the XDA mini II such a >bloated pig
I agree, I went from XDA II Mini -> Treo 650 and I don’t regret it one bit. If Palm release a unit with WM installed, that will be the end of them as far as I am concerned. I’m not interested in another monopoly, so whoever else makes a device without WM will get my vote. Apple, please design a new PDA
Perhaps I should start training myself to like the strange asthetic design of a nokia smartphone…
WHEN WILL THEY OPEN SOURCE BEOS OH GOD MY HEAD
The proprietary Microseft Mobile system is the worst piece of shit I’ve ever seen since MS-DOS.
Whoever thinks that WM programming is easier than PalmOS is retarded. Whenever you want to do ANYTHING useful (eg. obtain a list of installed fonts) under .NET CF 1.0 (no, I’m not arrogant enough to expect people to install massive runtime libraries when there is precious space just because I want to be lazy) you will need to develop them as C++ DLLs under embedded visual tools and have the CF program make use of it.
For Palm, I use OrbForms from OrbWorks (www.orbworks.com) and it requires NO runtimes and is a breeze to develop for.
I’m sick of lazy programmers just reaching for the latest MS tool without any desire to really do PROGRAMMING or anything NEW.
If they switch I switch to anything with linux. never MS.
Agreed.
Bring back the Zaurus, I say. The C3000 line is sweet, and with Archos using the same OS and Qtopia too, the apps can only get more prolific. My SL5500 is still the best purchase I made this centuary, and thats including my BeBox 😉
A Zaurus phone would rock..
Hear Hear. I’m really holding out for a Linux based PDA / Phone. My only other stipulation is it needs to work with iSync in Mac OS X.
While I was hoping for Cobalt 6.1 I don’t really care if Palm decides to run Windows Mobile 5 on the next Treo as long as it provides the following:
64-128 mb RAM (32 mb is pathetic for a smartphone)
Wifi (or an SD slot that can support Wifi cards)
Bluetooth
EDGE
1.3-2.0 MP camera with LED flash
Same ergonimic form factor
If it does ship with window mobiles.. I wont upgrade from my 600.. I might to a 650 but never to a 670…
I HATE that OS
This cannot be real. It makes no sense for Palm to give up the one product advantage they have.
How the heck they gonna compete with Dell Axims, HPaqs and 1/2 a dozen other WM gray boxes out there?
This would be suicide.
Can you imagine where Apple would be now if rather than go the OSX route, they had decided to sell Windows PCs and Windows Media MP3 players.
Look at how much success SGI had selling an upscale Windows box. There ain’t no “upscale” in the Windows world. There’s cheap graybox makers and the DEAD.