Palm back on the cutting edge

It’s been a sad few years watching the once pioneering Palm slip further behind its competitors. Fortunately the new Palm Pre was announced today and the name is the worst part of the product. Sporting the new webOS the device offers a good spec:

• The Latest TI Omap processor claiming ‘laptop-style power’
• 3.1-inch 320 x 480 multitouch display
• slide down qwerty keyboard
• EV-DO Rev. A and 802.11b/g WiFi
• GPS, Bluetooth with A2DP
• 8GB of built-in flash storage
• 3 megapixel camera with LED flash
• USB2 socket with mass storage profile
• 3.5mm headphone jack

The best part of the package is the apps. Written using existing standards such as CSS, HTML and XML palm claims anyone familiar with these can start writing apps straight away. Also impressive is the Synergy sync system which pulls together PIM info from a variety of sources such as Facebook, Google, and Outlook, then dishes it up with duplicates removed. Sounds great, the only question I have left is will it work with my Mac?

The only negative point is the ‘first half of 2009’ release date. With iPhone, Android and Palm now offering competitive smartphone platforms the next year should see some big improvements in features and usability.

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Palm to launch Nova, new Smartphone?

I’m rooting for the underdog big time on this one. Palm is expected to unveil it’s next generation Nova operating system at CES this week, along with a new smartphone to show off it’s moves. CrunchGear is saying the announcement will be on Thursday, and the new phone will offer a slide out qwerty keyboard and will probably be sourced by HTC. Engadged adds that the new device is described as ‘amazing’ by people who have seen it, and will come packed with apps to take advantage of its multimedia capabilities. Updated Palm PIM apps? Bring it on.

News for Wednesday 8th October

User replaceable batteries in EU devices
Is the EU trying to force manufacturers to offer user replaceable batteries? Read and see what this news could have on future gadgets.

Virgin says no to space porn
Virgin Galactic has turned down a million dollar offer to allow its spacecraft to be used for a porn movie.

Blackberry launches the Storm
The first touch screen Blackberry is coming soon to Vodafone UK

Samsung’s new smartphone revealed
Details of the new high end Series 60 device hit the web.

Android arrives with the T-Mobile G1

There’s a couple of big launches today, and the first is the T-Mobile G1. This is the debut device based on Google’s Android software platform, an open platform that aims to be offered by a range of manufacturers and networks. There are lots of positive comments about the device at the moment so I’m looking forward to having a try at some point. The main competition for the G1 appears to be the iPhone, in light of this there’s a lot of things about the phone that don’t make much sense.

• The applications the phone offers work best on a 3G network, and from the T-Mobile G1 site that’s not a huge amount of America. The UK has pretty patchy coverage outside of major cities so how well will a device that needs 3G work?
• The G1 will offer Amazon’s DRM free music store with 6 million songs, but it doesn’t have a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. You have to use an adaptor in the proprietary USB socket.
• The Phone misses a major opportunity to better the iPhone by not offering Video Recording, stereo bluetooth or a multi-touch screen.
• For a new device that’s competing with the iPhone, the G1 is just ugly. Apple have a knack of making their products look and feel good. The G1 looks like a 10 year old lump of plastic.
• T-Mobile are allowing 1Gb of data usage per billing cycle (I take it that’s a month) after which the data rate drops to 50Kbps. That’s unusable for a device that needs 3G to work well.

The ultimate test of the Android platform will be the sales figures. Despite the flaws of the iPhone 3G it’s still sold very well so this could be an interesting battle.

What’s so smart about smart phone’s?

My first smartphone was a Nokia 7650. Chunky, solid, poor keyboard and questionable styling, but this was the future. Lots of groundbreaking features that weren’t quite perfected but a big step forward. My dream of one device to rule them all was looking like a vague possibility. I became the department geek where I worked at the time, the only person with a camera on their phone. Believe it or not, I was in great demand. The department manager wouldn’t buy a digital camera and I had by far the easiest method of getting photo’s into a powerpoint presentation.

Unfortunately, it all seemed to go wrong after that.