Palm-Mac

Treo 800w out and about...good timing Palm

Hmmm...now let me think, hmm...was yesterday a good day to launch your new eagerly awaited flagship model? I wonder, I can't be sure on this but I seem to recall reading somewhere that somebody else was launching some new 3g version of some other sort of phone. Perhaps I'm wrong on that...ah well.

Yep, kudos to Palm for being brave enough (or stupid enough) to stick out the 800w or perhaps it was at Sprint's insistence on the same day as the 3g iPhone. Couldn't it have happened a week earlier of perhaps 2 weeks later, just to get some attention on the poor wee thing? (pics courtesy of treocentral). It's all been very low key for a company that, let's face it, needs some decent marketing exposure. Especially if they have a winning product which the 800w could well be.

And in true Palm cock-up fashion let's make it only available on the ONE network for a period of time. In fact, let's make it available to only a small percentage of the world's population, limit the market-place for it whilst there is probably a greater amount of folk who would buy it elsewhere if it was available now. A rather odd marketing strategy from Palm continues unabated with another relative exclusive. It may well be out on another US carrier quickly, I don't know.

Why does Ed think this is a good business move, after all, do you see HTC doing the same thing. Do they launch a new product, like the Touch Diamond, and only make it available on the one carrier in Europe for 3 months? Errrrr...nope. It's more or less available everywhere in Europe within a few weeks and look how successful HTC have become because of that sort of strategy and then look at how Palm, in comparison, are floundering with their odd and unique approach.

Thing is, the 800w does look nice and the initial impressions from those who now have it in the US are more favourable than were posted a month or two back when the leaked shots came out, particularly in relation to the materials and form factor.

PocketNow review of Toshiba G810

Toshiba have come back into the smartphone market with rather mixed results. The G500 from last year was very chunky but cheap and had some "issues" whilst the G900 looked fantastic on paper but suffered from some early "issues"...can you see a theme there?

These two mixed bags might have put off most manufacturers but Toshiba have persevered. They recently launched the successor to the bulky G900 which is an oddity in itself, the rather underwhelming and under-specced G710 and now the G810 is out.

PocketNow have done a comprehensive review of this device and again it turns out to be a mixed bag with some great plus points and some not quite so great points including poor battery life. You have to wonder how much longer Toshiba will last in this competitive market if they don't raise the quality of their stuff.

Bill Gates leaves Microsoft - Business - Macworld UK

Bill Gates leaves Microsoft - Business - Macworld UK.

Cheerio...

HTC Diamond...Shaun get seduced by the fluff

It had to happen...Mr McGill is reviewing the HTC Diamond this week and is positively drooling over the appearance and Touch Flo interface (until he starts using it that is)....according to him it makes the iPhone interface feel a little "outdated". Perhaps it does but that doesn't necessarily mean it is any better than the iPhone interface, a little more fancy dan perhaps but will that be enough? Initial impressions seem to suggest there are one or two memory issues...on a windows mobile device? Surely not.

I must say, I have watched a few videos of people using the HTC Diamond and what strikes me so far is that they seem to have to keep stabbing at the screen or make repeated gestures to get things moving. I wonder if it works as well in operation as the Apple version? I'll never know personally as I'll never be buying a Diamond, there's something a bit cheesy about it with that horrible 80's style diamond theme going on. Why on earth did they think it would be a good/cool idea to include a naffy-diamond shaped charger....it's the sort of phone Jackie Collins would have used in "Dynasty" had they been around then.

There is a lot to lust and admire about the Diamond but it is not for me anymore.

Screen

Let’s start with a standout feature of the Diamond, and that is the screen. Not only does it work well in all weather conditions, including bright sunlight, but the VGA has been implemented to perfection even though the screen is dimensionally smaller than you would normally see for VGA. I have read reviews saying that the screen is not visible in bright sunlight, but mine is certainly OK- it is close to the way the Clie TH55 handled brightness and is good enough for emails etc. It is not quite up to the level of the iPhone in sunlight, but it looks crisper in all other conditions and images and video are displayed in all of their glory.

HP iPaq 900 almost out...a treo 800 you can buy sooner?

This was first announced a while back and disappeared for a while but has just recently resurfaced. It looks like the Moto Q9h and this is heightened by an almost identical looking keyboard. That would not be the worse thing in the world bearing in mind that the keyboard on the Moto, in my opinion, is the best on ANY smartphone I have used.

The specs look quite similar to the forthcoming treo 800 except the camera sounds a lot better and it is a bit more slab slided sounding being 64mm wide and 114 high, in fact those size specs make it sound even more like the Moto Q9h. They may steal a march then on palm treo sales by offering a similar device for sale considerably earlier.

Microsoft tries to steal iPhone 2.0 thunder

Microsoft tries to steal iPhone 2.0 thunder.

Thanks to Charles for sending me this interesting link. Their new vice-president of mobile devices said, amongst other things, the following:

"We're proud that we've been able to work with you to deliver more than 40 different phones that run at 3G speeds, at prices that meet a range of customer needs -- something not all smartphones can claim."

Lees then goes on to cite the breadth of phones using the company's software, not sounding in the least bit desperate or panicky. Thing is, they miss the point....they have 50 different handset makers making goodness knows how many different phones and they are patting each other on the back because they have managed to outsell ONE phone from ONE manufacturer!!

Plus to put out such a boastful release a day or two before the iPhone comes out and not knowing the oppositions possibly improved specs (GPS seems likely) may turn out to be foolhardy but then again, coming from Microsoft it would not be entirely unexpected.

"To our 50 handset makers building phones with our software, thank you. With your help, we give Windows Mobile customers nearly 150 different phone choices -- from phones with full keyboards to brilliant touch screens to convenient flip phones -- with rich email, picture and music experiences. You've delivered Windows Mobile phones with features like GPS, 3+ megapixel cameras, and voice activation -- features that other operating systems have been slow to deliver".

Ballmer sees the end of print media in ten years - Engadget

Ballmer sees the end of print media in ten years - Engadget.

Another insight from Lurch, the sweaty armpit-ed man in the know. It's odd, for a guy who seems to know what is happening just around the corner in terms of trends he couldn't foresee the popularity of the iphone or the need to completely revamp windows mobile about 18 months ago in order to keep competing nor could he foresee how unpopular Vista would become. Mind you, he also confesses to not having a clue what Google is up to...err, how about muscling in on your business and laying down the foundations to reduce your market share without you realising it? Everyone else can see it.

Anyway, 10 years is a long time and it is entirely possible he may be correct, not because he is the great soothsayer but rather it would be an entirely logical progression for digital media. Here's my prediction...in 10 years time cars will be greener, use less petrol and be less environmentaly unfriendly. Nah, honest, it will happen.

Treo 850??

Some more leaked pics and again from BGR...this guy must either have something going on with Palm or has a seriously good inside contact. This looks okay to me, quite small form factor and is that a flush screen, if so jolly good, yet the natives, judging by the comments , are not wholly impressed...I'm not sure what they expect from what may well be a low cost Palm entry into the win mob world a la Centro. It does obviously sport the Centro keyboard which is not the greatest on device keyboard and that gives you an idea of the small size of the device.

Of course it is yet another windows mobile device and thus it is hard to get too excited about it. But...and it is a big but...if Palm can leak out pics of devices that are 2/3 months down the line will we see some palm o/s leaks towards the end of this year/start of next year to keep us palm fanboys happy or is there just nothing at all concrete they have to show us?

"Ahh Wednesdays. Is the first half of the week over or is the second half of the week beginning? Optimist or pessimist, here at BGR we’re doing our part to make today as painless as possible. How about we start out with an exclusive dose of some live shots of the Palm Treo 850! Truth be told, this puppy is pretty smooth looking! Details are still coming in but we can tell you it’s sporting a 400 MHz processor and 100 MB of RAM. Hit the jump for a nice comparison pic with the BlackBerry 8800"

More treo 800w, treo 680 "lives" and those DataViz chancers

Check out some more 800w shots originally, I think, on that BGR site and then hoot with laughter at the wacky japes those winmob pranksters play. You might well find it semi-funny although personally I could see the "joke" coming before it had even started which sort of spoiled it a bit for me anyway (no offence Charles)..or perhaps that is just my maternal protectiveness for the 800w kicking in again? I don't understand all the negative stuff around the possible 800w form factor...fact is the treo form factor just works so why tinker with it? As long as it is thinner that will do me.

No-one seems to mind how big a device is these days, length and width wise yet the moment something comes out that is not 6mm or less thick it gets hoots of derision. It can be a width fatty like the Moto Q9 or a tall boy like the Samsung i780 and nobody says nowt because they are thin. Odd that. Personally I would rather have a device that is say, 110x60x17 than something that is 116x62x12 as for me, it will sit better in the hand.

I headed on over to PDAMill, like a rubber necker at a crash site, to pick off some palm game freebies now that they have made them all available for nowt. See, there is something good about all that "palm is dead" stuff....lots of lurvely free games for me hearties...ooohhhh arrrrrrrrr Capt'n.

Very oddly, I have been using the treo 680 the last few days. I'm not sure why as it is slow er than the Centro and has a truly dismal camera but the screen is bigger, the keyboard is good and that makes it very useful. However, numerous random resets soon put paid to that spell of retro silliness. I had been using version 10 of DocstoGo as it came with the Centro but despite using the same Hotsync ID on both the 680 and Centro, I could not get this version to work on the 680. It must be tied to the Centro. I then tried to find the version that came with the 680, version 8 but had no joy so tried to download it again from the Dataviz website. The chancers wanted $4.95 for the privilege so I abandoned that and went back to the Centro which is quicker all round. I could have upgraded to version 10 but that would cost $29.99 which must qualify as "most ludicrous upgrade software" price yet. I just refuse to pay so much for a nominal-ish sort of upgrade.

Still, doesn't that just sum up the comprises you have to make when picking a smartphone. I prefer the smaller form factor and speediness of the Centro, not to mention the almost tolerable camera, yet I prefer the keyboard and bigger screen of the 680 yet never the twain shall meet. I shall keep on using the Centro until the apps that I need are available for the iPhone, which is no hardship as I really like the wee chap.

CSM and more iPhone baiting...bring it on

I love Coolsmartphone.com, it is one of my favourite sites for probably all the wrong reasons. They have this real anti-iPhone thing going on which never fails to make me laugh and this post here just sums it up perfectly...you have got to read all the posts to get the real flavour. It starts off with a few pro iPhone comments. Why, I'm not sure as the site is such a bastion of win mob fanboyism it strikes me as odd why iPhone lovers would be reading it in the first place and then the pro win mob guys sort of reclaim their territory.

Then, this obviously geeky win mob guy comes ("hardylane") in and lets rip with his anti-iPhone tirade...

'Same old iPhone fanboys.
 
Same old Apple rubbish... everything on THEIR terms, on THEIR network, and under THEIR control.
 
Big Brother is alive and well'

That's a bit unfair, he obviously doesn't (conveniently or oddly) recall the day when Microsoft were being hit with a million anti-competitiveness lawsuits on a near weekly basis... and then things really warm up...my comments are in italics...

"PocketPC phones are for people who want a "Pocket PC"... not an "entertainment device" (ie, about 12% of smartphone users)

The good thing is that our PPCs also do all the entertainment stuff! (true, just rather badly in comparison unfortunately)

I'd like to see an iPhone be a Satnav.(just wait a few more weeks and your dream will come true).. or help tune my guitar (gosh, how handy that would be!)... or remote desktop into another computer... the list of things the iPhone will never do is endless (until mid-June at least)....

"32Gb" (if that's true) will be used for iTunes (does anyone know what he means by this?). I don't use that"

He obviously cannot be aware that the launch of a myriad of top quality 3rd party apps is just around the corner for the iPhone platform or he is and in typical win mob fashion chooses to bury his head in the sand, hoping that the big bad apple iPhone will just go away. Well it most certainly will not young man. Who knows, he might even be able then to not only tune his guitar but also calibrate his toaster, if needed, via an iPhone.

Why can't these guys just come out and say..."well, the iPhone is great for video, browsing and music but its lack of other stuff I need means I will probably never buy one and it's just not for me"...if they did, I would have a lot more respect for them and then you could just say "fair enough". How refreshing would that be to read yet it seems beyond the majority of them to muster even the faintest of praise or grudging gratitude for the improvements that the iPhone is  helping bring to win mob phones.