The Syncing Apple An Exploration of Technology and Devices

I did it again: Hello Sprint

After leaving Sprint earlier this year for a BlackBerry Nextel, I had to give up the hate and go back. You see, I just couldn't resist the new Treo 650. I've had it now for a few days and I love it. It does many things much better than the BB, but some it could improve no. Still no sign of the BlackBerry Connect for Palm. I'll post more thoughts on the Treo 650 later, but so far it's everything it claims, and the two big problems most trumpeted about on the 'net (the memory issues and audio quality) aren't affecting me at all.

At least as consolation for having to go back to Sprint, I got the phone at the new subscriber cost, which saved me $150. One good thing is that the Treo gets consistent and strong coverage inside my house in West Philly, which is surprising, since both T-Mobile and Nextel are bad (random drops) in the center rooms (my house is long and thin-- it's a twin) of my house. Verizon's reception has been the best, but they may not have the 650 till mid 2005.

PDA Cases

I wanted a hard case for my T|C. The form-fitted Aluminum cases were nice I thought, but a bit pricey at 30-40 bucks. So I ordered a case from Bagasta on ebay for $15. It came quickly, it was new, and it's great so far. It seems silly to pay those inflated prices for something like this. He seems to have Aluminum cases for a variety of PDAs.

BlackBerry Connect & Cobalt

So there was some noise the other day about PalmSource, RIM and the new BlackBerry Connect. Numerous sites all talked about the announcement... no one had much to add to it. It looks like we are even closer to having this available. And it looks like it will be released as packages for older Palms to use. It would be great if I were able to use this on my T|C, but I'm really waiting for it to be integrated into PalmOS itself, and available on a smart phone, like the Treo 650. It requires the use of BES 4.x, and so I'm looking to see how you go about upgrading the BES server here from 3 to 4. Perhaps it will have to wait for Palm OS 6.2. Speaking of which, PalmSource needs to stop announcing all these releases of Palm OS6 and instead work on getting something out to people who own ARM powered devices. Why can't we use 6 today on the Tungsten's?

What's in A Name

PalmSource is also getting a little confusing with the path they are taking. Are they really going to keep Palm OS 5 around while they release 6? Remember, Cobalt = OS 6 and Garnet = OS 5. If they keep Garnet around for cheap devices after the real launch of Cobalt then they are making a mistake. Its too confusing. Especially when you get into the application area. It sounds an awful lot like the whole Apple Coca /Carbon stew.

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In the Hopper

I've got some showdowns of Palm Software brewing....

First is blogging with the Palm: mo:blog vs vagablog vs Azure.

Then secure IMAP with the Palm: SnapperMail vs VersaMail vs Agendus Mail

These will be here soon.

I Did It Again

After selling my Clie UX50 and being Palm-less for about a month, I was getting frustrated. PocketPC just can't do what I need, given my increased usage of my Macintosh (My G5 is now my primary workstation). After not having my SplashID synced properly again with my Mac (I have SID for both Mac and Win, and it syncs from Win to PocketPC, but I have to manually dump and load from Mac to Win) I knew I needed a palm. But this time I wanted something I could really use for a while. The TG50 didn't do it, the UX50 was worse... what to get? Mmmm, I want keyboard, wifi, Palm OS5.... I know it's getting a bit old, but I got the T|C and I'm very happy. This really looks to be a winner, and I'm not just saying that cause I just got it. It's a tad bigger than you think it would be, but that turns out to make it very comfortable to hold (for my hands). And the BlackBerry like keyboard is great- much better compared to the UX50 [Gadgeteer Review] and the TG50. The wifi is nice and fast, and let me say: the CPU is insanely faster than the UX50. I can't believe how fast is it. And having 64 mb of ram is also amazing: I can dump everything I can think of and still have only used 16 megs... Perhaps that is because over the years I've been forced to work within a 16 mb limit with palms. This thing is still the best PDA out there. Did I mention that the wifi is blazingly fast as compared to the wifi on the UX50?

I'm in the middle of looking at the best IMAP mail application for it, I'll put a review up here soon.

Gadgeteer Review of the T|C

X11 on the Zaurus

So Kathrin, RC2 of the 1.1 pdaXrom was released today over at pdaXrom.org of course.. That means that if you have one of those Sharp Zaurus that run Linux, you can get rid of the Qtopia stuff and go to real X11 based linux. Real as in Firefox. Which it runs pretty snappy. I picked one up (again, from the Philly Craigslist) and I've been have fun getting it outfitted to do something useful. I can have too many gadgets, so one had to go. I sold my Clie UX50 on Ebay today. I got a decent price for it, considering that Sony had exited the Palm PDA market all together. The 750 is a real nice machine, the keyboard is the nicest I've used on a palm sized device, and having both the CF and SD is essential, as I can have wireless and some extra storage space. Most everything that's happening with these is over here at the Zaurus User Group Forums. Of course, having double the ram is nicer in the 760, but this will do for now.