PalmAddicts

CNET: Does Palm risk losing loyalists?

An interesting read over at CNET about the handheld race. Palm's users are very loyal, so my opinion is that not much is at risk. But what about new users?

FREE Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

If you're a fan of audio books, and a fan of the classics, and a fan of FREE, don't miss this deal. Its over 9 hours of audio, reading the American classic from Mark Twain.

I now have bed time material for my 9 and 10 year-old kids for the next several weeks.

Alltel Offering Office Sync Mobile E-mail for Palm and Windows Mobile

This bit just in from Geekzone... American operator Alltel is launching Office Sync, a service that allows users to send and receive e-mail in real time from their Palm OS and Windows Mobile devices.

Office Sync also enables customers to view their calendars and contacts while on the go.

The service is initially available on the...

Distribution speed vs. hard drive space

The post below from murrayalex about HSDPA has fueled one of my theories about the future of handheld devices. Which is this: will we really need monster memory on board of these devices in the future? Let me explain.

The internet is getting bigger, better, faster and more reliable. The honeymoon is over for its marriage with cellular service. Without knowing the deets, I'd surmise that most cell phones issued these days are web-capable. Cell phones are getting smaller, better, faster and more reliable.

Enter the web 2.0 movement, which is a push to make the web friendly, accessible, and actually have a use beyond email, news and info gathering. You can store your photos online. Store your data online. Store your store online. The web is quickly becoming your hard drive. Its stability combined with increased data xfer speeds is making it faster than the local hard drives of the 90's.

Now, consider web services such as Avvenu (Oh, Avvenu, how my Mac yearns to use your services). You have your device + you have your broadband connection at home = you have the keys to your data no matter where you are. With HSDPA, you'll have your data just that much faster.

So, if I'm working on the future of handheld devices (and I'm not, trust me), and I'm looking at how we need to make these devices better, I'd be more inclined to bolster the radio devices (WiFi, Bluetooth) and spend less R&D on shoe-horning more hard drive space into these devices. The hard drive space would be handy, but if you've got a lot of space on your hard drive at home, or you have a web service that is housing all of your data, and you have a really fast connection, the on-board space is just... space.

The Future of Music... and Palm

"The Future of Music" is a book written about, well, the future of music. The authors, David Kusek and Gerd Leonhard begin by painting an imaginery picture of how we will interact with music in the year 2015. They, of course, are not predicting, rather trying to inspire as well as challenge us, the consumers, to push back on the (crooked) record industry. The first six chapters are available as a podcast.

Having listened now to the first six chapters I am for sure going to pick this one up. I believe it applies to Palm users because we all get the picture by now that pda's, mp3 players, cell phones and personal computing are all becoming one device, one experience, one industry. Jeff Hawkins alludes to a secret third business that he is already working on. Combine the message of "The Future of Music" with the hints from Jeff Hawkins about what Palm's up to behind the curtain. No, I'm not suggesting that Palm is up to the music business only. But let's face it, you justified your purchase of a Palm because "it can do all of that and play music!" With the internet as a distribution channel now, and Palm reaping 75% of its business from the cellular game, Palm has to have the future of music in mind.

And based on Palm's success, I'd trust the mysterious device that Jeff is dreaming up.

Palm steals its strategy

Here's an interesting article about Palm's strategy and rise to become a player in the mobile phone space. The article suggests that Palm has stolen its strategy from RIM's model.

With the advent of Treo's, Palm has entered a new playing field for sure. They can't play like they used to, relying on sales directly to end users. To be recognized as a heavy-weight, they've got to move units like the other, bigger players like RIM and Nokia. That means switching to a model that involves the carriers, i.e. Verizon, Sprint, etc.

Palm isn't stealing from RIM. Stealing just has a negative connotation, and it makes it seem as though Palm wouldn't be getting an "A" if it wasn't sitting next to RIM in class. When you are in a new league you gotta play by the new rules. Adapt or lose. Adaptation is stealing.

But that's just me reading into this article a bit much. Overall its a positive article and an interesting read.

Is Verizon throttling its EVDO bandwidth?

David Ciccone of Mobility Today posted a video podcast to demonstrate a problem(?) with Verizon's EVDO The video is a side-by-side comparison of a Verizon Treo 700w and a PPC-6700 using Sprint's EVDO service. David runs a 600kb speed test through both devices. The difference is not only noticeable, its painful. In fact, for the duration of the video, the Treo never does complete the 600kb test. He also tries a 200kb test to no avail.

This issue is new to me as I am not (yet) a Treo user. I do not know where David is peforming the test in comparison to Verizon's coverage, Sprint's coverage, towers, etc. But the reason he went through the trouble of performing this test on video is because he'd apparently been having this issue over a period of the last 3 weeks. There are a load of comments posted, too, with some skepticism.

Is he jumping to conclusions based on this test of one Treo device? You be the judge.

Monster Palm article

Palm's latest news release talks about the how Monster, the leading online career and recruitment service, uses Palm Treos for efficiency and effectivity.

Xplore M68 Smartphone Review at Palm Infocenter

Paddy Tan over at Palm Infocenter recently posted a review of the Xplore M68 Smartphone, for those of you in Asia and Europe.  I didn't see any mention of a US release.

This device gets an overall 4 of 5 stars from Paddy, but check the review for the details. 

I kinda have to scratch my head a bit as I wonder who would buy this device as opposed to a Treo 650, which are comparible in price if you are buying a contract from a cell provider.  The saving grace is that it comes loaded with some pretty primo software.  But still...

Microsoft, Palm create unlikely hit

Its old news, but Andy Kaiser from the Grand Rapids Press has posted a favorable article about the marriage between Palm and Microsoft and its offspring, the Treo 700w.