Farewell to Palm OS
Following Ed Colligan’s annoucement that the Palm Centro would be the last device to be released running Palm OS, the Hong Kong PDA User Group have thrown a farewell party for the venerable OS
Following Ed Colligan’s annoucement that the Palm Centro would be the last device to be released running Palm OS, the Hong Kong PDA User Group have thrown a farewell party for the venerable OS. They brought together a collection of most of the best Palm-powered handhelds, and in the process created a potted history of the PDA.
There were the good (Palm Tungsten T3, 2nd row centre); the bad (Fossil watch PDAs, right centre) and the ugly (the clear plastic Handspring Visor, centre). The collection also shows how much innovation there was in the Palm world just a few years ago. The original Handspring Treo pretty much invented the smartphone concept, while the Sony Clies, with their large hi-res screens, were the natural forebears to the iPhone.
There are two notable absences from this collection, from the quirkier end of the Palm spectrum. The Tapwave Zodiac, a fondly remembered but ill-judged attempt at a Palm-powered games console, and the Alphasmart Dana, a kind-of early Eee PC which, unbelievably, is still being sold today.
Link – HKPUG
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I like palm. Palm Vx is my first handhelp
I had the Tungsten T3 which was great. Before that I had a Handspring Visor Edge which was really thin even by today’s standards. Wish I held on to them now…
Alas, poor Palm. I have owned almost all of the Palms pictured. I still use my Zodiac II (a ground breaker, but under-rated machine) My everday phone is a Centro & I’m still happy using Palm OS. I guess I’m just old fashioned.
Palm is less successful today because they failed to understand what made their products attractive and some of their improvements were in fact disadvantages. Their OS was excellent in terms of ease of use, stability and efficiency in hardware requirements. No one has even pretended that Windows Mobile is better than PalmOS. I really liked the Vx because the stylus and cover could be inserted into either side (useful for left handed users) and the cover simply folded behind the device when in use. The cover of the Tungsten T3 however, was simply an obstruction whenever I needed to write or beam anything. The switch to non-volatile flash memory means that if I lose my device, the data will be at risk forever. I am not convinced Palm Inc. has the talent or resources to recover and I suspect their demise is a matter of time. I for one, will lament their passing.
I have used a Palm since the advent of the M130, progressed through a Tungsten E and now finally a TX. Having used a Windows Smart Phone for almost five years, I was happy to come away from the ‘dark side’ and go back to using my Palm and a Bluetooth equiped phone. Yes I have to carry two devices but at least I have two reliable devices rather than one that I seemed to have to continually reset all the time. I shall be sad to see the demise of Palm, which I also think is inevitable; they made software that you could use straight away; they made an operating system that helped you from the start rather than got in the way as Windows Mobile seems to want to do; hence the rush to try to bury it by various manufactures, touchflo and its ilk. Palm is dead, long live Palm.