Palm has announced an invitation-only press event to be held at CES 2009 to unveil something new. I didn’t receive an invite, but I don’t feel bad, despite being a HUGE fan of Palm since Day 1 (I have a working Palm Pilot 500). I have a feeling in my gut that Palm might be on the verge of a real, viable, tangible comeback. I’m not the only one, either. Engadget got an invite, as did PalmInfoCenter.

While nothing specific is known about what Palm will be doing behind closed doors, my own personal speculation and the educated speculation from PIC strongly indicate that they will be introducing a radically updated version of their OS. I’m going to put my two cents in and state that I believe that they will also show either a working prototype or a near-term pre-release version of brand new hardware to support the new platform.

As is always the case, we just have to wait and see. I will say, however, (and this is directly at Palm) you’ve disappointed me in the past. Please, please, please, don’t do it again.

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There are two primary points involved here. One, Apple has added complete Exchange connectivity to the iPhone 2.0 software, making it able to automatically connect to the single most used email server software in the world. They did so by making it work with ActiveSync, so that it meshes with the same technology Microsoft’s own Windows Mobile (and older Pocket PCs) use to syncronize data between desktop and email access provider. Two, people are tired of the phones they have so far been offered, what with their difficult to use and inconsistent interfaces, small displays, pointless PIM applications, and unreliable performance. More and more people have realized that the so-called “free” phones they’ve been offered are just shills for their service providers.

Apple and the iPhone have already made major strides in changing that by directly affecting the product design methodologies of other handset makers, just not always in the right direction. It seems that everyone has latched onto the idea that the iPhone’s sole aspect of success is its touchscreen. What LG and HTC and the others making touchscreen handsets now don’t get is that the touch part is only one small element of everything that makes the iPhone great. Its the best iPod ever made, its a portable media player, its an internet access system which fits nicely in your pocket, its a real PIM, its a messaging center, and, if you didn’t know, its a phone.

Some handset makers have taken notice, notably Nokia and RIM. Sure, they both already had a clear idea about how the mobile handset should also be a PIM and, at least in the case of Nokia, about how the handset could be a media tool, but form factors have long been hideous. Take most Blackberrys until the Pearl, which wasn’t a very good phone until the Curve came out, and Nokia’s Communicator series which is simply monstrous. Now RIM has introduced the very slick and aptly named Bold and Nokia is about to introduce the extremely sexy and functional E71. Neither of these are touchscreen devices, which is smart, because neither of these devices would work well as a touchscreen without a major overhaul.

What Apple has done is force the other makers to focus on their strengths and to address their shortcomings, and I’m sure Apple is aware of this. Its very likely that what Apple has done is knowingly caused the market to re-evaluate itself and its expectations, creating what it hopes will be a market-wide halo effect, driving even more customers to Apple. This, of course, will never be confirmed by Apple since they never confirm anything until they have officially announced it, and they only officially announce products, not strategies. It could also backfire on them. Apple is not the only source of innovation, and that’s not their only Achille’s Heel.

While I can’t claim to share the views of everyone, I do believe that there are some innovative offerings in the technology and mobile world which Apple did not have a hand in. As regular readers of me will know, I’m an IT guy a heart, and Apple has been stuck in IT Kindergarten while companies like HP and Dell have already graduated from college and gotten their Master degrees. Apple also lost its edge in the education market. Apple has never been able to shake the concept that their computers are more expensive, even though they aren’t. Most consumers who have not experienced Apple simply can’t wrap their minds around the idea that equivalent Windows-based systems cost the same, and in some cases more.

In innovation spaces, Google has made enormous strides in online technology. Who knows, maybe Apple’s new MobileMe, the replacement for .Mac, will be its answer to Microsoft’s Outlook and Google’s Gmail, all in one tidy package. Then again, at US$99 a year, its not been as huge a draw as Apple has hoped it would be, though now that they’ve added complete Windows compatibility, that may change. Despite Apple’s early hand in the PDA race, Palm was the most influencial contributor from which came Handspring, the inventor of the Treo, the handset which changed the smartphone industry forever. Oh, and no matter how you slice it, the iPod was not Apple’s idea. They just did it the best.

What Apple has done, however, is create the iPhone Era, which will start soon after July 11th. Be ready for it, for we will all reap the benefits, whether we buy an iPhone or another phone which was made better because of the iPhone’s influence and market impact. Just keep in mind, you don’t need to buy crap just because others are willing to settle.

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Why do I have this job? I cannot tell a lie, but I do what I do because I love gadgets and small gear and I enjoy having such stuff around me. I started in 2001 with PDA Handyman and migrated to the new name in 2007. In the seven years I’ve been online and expressing myself I’ve reviewed at least 200 products. No, not one of those reviews has ever involved gutting a fish, scooping poop, or scraping barnacles, but on occasion I get some really thick and noxious mud slung at me.

I’ve not seen as much mud slinging as I have with the Nokia N95 8GB review I wrote up a few months ago. Its one of the largest, single hit generators on the site since I published it and it has drawn some comments. All of the comments have been negative and many have stated that I should move into another field of interest. I have to admit that I’m a little surprised that, over a phone review, I’m called stupid and its even suggested that my father should have avoided taking part in my conception.

Harsh, to say the least.

I’m not exactly sure what drives such passion about a phone, though I think its more likely about the Symbian OS which is used almost exclusively on Nokia handsets. Its not unlikely that the intense love for Psion PDA devices which are no longer marketed has spilled over onto Symbian devices. Symbian OS is, after all, a direct descendant of EPOC32, the OS used on such legendary mobile computers as the Psion Series 5. There is still a rabid user community, and Symbian keeps that alive.

In case you weren’t aware, there’s also still a thriving Apple Newton user community, though its quite a bit smaller and I don’t hear people calling the iPhone Apple’s new Newton. In the past I’ve written bits Newtons, about my personal collection, and about the people involved, and not once did I ever get insulted. I won’t speculate about the differences between the Symbian and Newton user communities, as such observations would be useless. Maybe, however, there’s strength in numbers?

We have ample historical evidence to suggest that large numbers do have a tendency to try and push their ideals and values on others. That makes my job seem as if I am a solitary mole attempting to move an entire mountain. I’m also painfully aware that The Dojo is not one of the top sites for mobile device news and reviews. Engadget and Gizmodo fight tooth and nail for that distinction, so much so that it even garnered a feature story in a recent Wired magazine.

Okay, they don’t actually review anything. They both adopted the Slashdot model and re-spun it to fit for gadget frenzied 20-30 somethings. Neither site escapes being targeted for their presumptive biases, though. Commentors clamor loudly about both site’s unnatural love of Apple and its products. I myself, don’t shy away from making clear statements about my affinity for Apple and my disdain for master copycatter, Microsoft. I even make a comparison of the Nokia N95 8GB to Apple’s iPhone and note that I don’t see the Nokia as a smartphone.

My reasoning is simple. All phones have calendar and addressbook functions and the vast majority of them are capable of receiving and sending email and text messages. Most these days can even take pictures and videos, have Bluetooth built in, and have some kind of media playback capabilities. You don’t consider Motorola’s RAZR to be a smartphone, do you? Smartphones are Palm Treos, Windows Mobile, RIM Blackberry, and iPhone devices. Most of them have touchscreens and incorporate the extended functionality seen mostly in PDAs.

All of these devices also have some form of a full keyboard and do not require multi-tap or T9 to enter data. This is primarily why I don’t consider devices like Motorola’s Q to be a smartphone. Sure, it has a keyboard, but so does the LG Rumor and I seriously doubt anyone considers that a smartphone. There is an extended functionality afforded to users when you have a touchscreen and a keyboard, the mobile version of a keyboard and mouse on the desktop.

As such, the Palm OS, Windows Mobile (the non-smartphone version), the iPhone, and the upcoming touchscreen version of the Blackberry UI offer a great deal more functionality and developers are free to be more creative. I’d be amazed if any developer thought there was a market for a Word or Excel compatible editor for the Nokia N95 8GB. There is a PDF reader, though. Reader.

Of course, this discourse will likely draw fire, as well. Some people will take Microsoft’s definition of smartphone as writ. Microsoft calls its non-touchscreen version of Windows Mobile its Smartphone Edition. This is a pretty common ploy for Microsoft since the term Smartphone had been in generic use long before Microsoft decided to jump into the pool. As far back as the early days when Qualcomm’s pdQ hit the scene in 1997. Funny story: Qualcomm actually referred to it as a “palm-sized phone”! Really? What phone isn’t? HA!

All that detail, I’ve found, generally causes readers eyes to glaze over, which is why one of the guiding principles of PDA Handyman/MoboDojo has always been that less is more. Get to the point. Don’t tread water when you can simply climb on shore. I hate reading 500+ word stories which are simply re-hashes of press releases, which often contain far too much verbiage as it is, when everything important can be boiled down to 100 words, tops. There is a conflict here, though, in reviewing products.

You can’t just say “It sucks” or “Its sublime” and get away with it. A reviewer needs to impart his opinion to the reader so that the person seeking information about a new product feels that they have a personal, human connection to the product through the reviewer. This is inherently complex and riddled with issues, since each and every person has an opinion about everything and they can easily differ from person to person. I’m sure it would be very easy to locate reviews of Nokia’s N95 8GB which position it as the most brilliant product ever.

I can’t fault these reviewers. They have their own opinion and I respect that. I don’t agree, but I respect it. Its one of the primary reasons why I don’t use movie reviews to determine if I’m going to see a movie. I’ve seen plenty of films which I enjoyed but were critically panned. No, I don’t consider those movies to be art, but if I enjoyed it, who cares about the little plot holes, bad acting, or continuity errors (ahem… Star Wars: Episodes 1-3). I still very much enjoy the battle and action scenes for their vibrancy and attention to detail.

I can easily imagine watching a movie on the Nokia N95 8GB, as well. Its screen is as vibrant and detailed as Luke Skywalker free-falling onto the assassins hovercar in Episode 2. Then again, its slideout standard phone keypad is as cramped as Hayden Christensen’s acting in the same movie.
So, just like the movie reviewers I ignore when selecting a film to view, I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who ignore my product reviews. To the contrary, I’m sure there are people out there who appreciate my reviews. I just wish more of them would note that on occasion.

Am I asking for validation. Sure. I’m human, just like anyone else. Of course, I also still welcome the dissenting opinions, but would like to ask that you leave my father out of it. He’s not the gadget hound I am and wouldn’t really appreciate the value or quality of such a corollary.

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The HP iPAQ 110 Classic is one of those devices. Its not a phone, but it might as well be. In fact, it runs Windows Mobile 6, which behaves just like the Professional versions of the same OS for mobile phones. The only things lacking are the phone-specific functions. On the other hand, it does feature both Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and 802.11b\g wireless capabilities, both of which can work at the same time. I, however, digress. I should be performing a formal review, so let that begin.

The Outside

Usually I’ll wait to start working with a new device once its charged, then I dive right in. However, in the case of the 110c, I was interested to see WinMo6, so I fired it up when I plugged it in. No harm, no foul. Since I’m describing hardware right now, I’ll refrain from OS observations. Suffice it to say, the 110c is a standard PDA format device. It has a screen on the front, there are some buttons along the bottom of the screen, and there are holes and buttons elsewhere on the device.

The display itself is a 240×320 QVGA type with 16-bit color and a touchscreen interface. In today’s hi-res display climate, the 110′s screen looks a bit pixelated, but the speed of the 624MHz CPU processes video very well, so its not terrible with video. The color is very good and the brightness is excellent. Small text sizes are also very readable, though Microsoft needs to offer more controls over how text is displayed, and it would be nice if someone (anyone?!) were to pay attention to left handed people again*

On the right side (screen facing) are the Power and Voice Recorder buttons with an inset reset button between. There is a headphone jack on the top right. The buttons work, but are maybe a tad soft. It won’t turn on, though, unless you press the power buton. The stylus is badly placed on the back of the unit next to the headphone jack and lacking sufficient notching to make it easy to locate and retrieve by touch. I’m much happier with corner mounted silos.

The case overall is two materials. The front is a smooth, smoky dark silver, shined to appear like metal. The back is a curved matte black expanse which feels slightly rubbery to the touch. I rather like it as it makes the device feel more secure in the hand, though it does scuff very easily. I LOVE the original iPAQ’s from Compaq, but they were so amazingly cool that they were slippery. The “sticky-ish” backing instills confidence. This is good, too, since the device is very, very light, even with the battery loaded.

The battery itself is user replaceable, but that’s not all. This device is USB rechargable. So much so, that you can plug it into a Kensington portable battery pack and recharge it in an hour. The interesting part is that there is a power control panel which controls whether, via USB, you charge over time or quickly. I’m sure it has something to do with quality of charge.

The Inside

It may be sufficient enough for me to say this: If you want to know what Windows Mobile 6 looks like, just use a Windows Mobile Smartphone. I have a Palm Treo 700wx and the interface, while slightly different, works almost identically. This isn’t necessarily a benefit for a PDA since people don’t use PDAs the same way they use mobile phones.

One of the issues I had with the new unified interface is the functions which, at least on a mobile phone, are performed using the contextual buttons. You know, the buttons just under the screen on your phone which do what the label on the screen says. They do that on the 111 as well, but there are no physical buttons, so you have to touch the screen to activate numerous functions or step through configuration wizards.

Otherwise, its a standard WinMo device with all of the expected applications like Office, Media Player 10, Internet Exploder, and the various tools that come part and parcel. HP decided to toss in a bunch of other stuff, too. One of the nice inclusions is a copy of ClearVue PDF. They also have a pair of utilities, two of which are Today Screen plugins. One controls wireless, both 802.11 and Bluetooth, and the other gives you quick information about the rest of the device, including a backlight control.

The Wrap Up

The PDA of 2000 is dead. The idea that you can get around without a mobile phone, a digital camera, and some kind of wireless connection to the internet is also dead. Products like the iPhone prove that. The PDA is 2008, however, is alive and is, in some small way, still a player in the overall market. HP’s iPAQ 110 Classic proves that, and its clear they now know that scads and scads of models do not sell devices. You can get yours for a mere US$299, though you may want to take a look at the more expensive iPAQ 210 Enterprise just in case.

*Not since the days of the Apple Newton MessagePad and early days of Palm were there UI elements designed to be swapped for left-handed people. You have no idea how much better a user experience can be by simply placing the scrollbar on the left side of the screen.

[Editor's Note: We made a running typo in the story which transposed the "110" for a "111". Please note that this review is of the iPAQ 110 Classic. There are no other review elements which need to be changed to correct this problem. Thanks! -Ed.]

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I speak, as indicated in the title of this review, the Palm Centro, which is currently an exclusive offering from Sprint. To see the Centro is to love it. Its small, sleek, nicely proportioned, and… well, that’s where it sort of ends. Maybe a few years ago in 2003 I would have been egged on to see the recent growth in the venerable Palm OS, but by this time the changed-in-name-only Access Powered “Garnet OS” has stagnated and festered. Sure, Sprint has managed to eek our some cool abilities, and the hardware certainly does run the beasty quite swiftly, but its just old.

So, I face a quandary. I love the hardware and yet, when faced with a 10 year old user interface paradigm which has changed little, I’m not sure how to evaluate it. Of course, its my job, so here I go. I love it and I hate what Palm has become. Since nobody is ever satisfied with reviews as simple as that, I will endeavor to explain. I love what Palm has done with the handset. They’ve always been good with hardware and it shows here. They have not only devised hardware which supports what Treo users expect, but have also started to integrate more than simple color into their fashion ideals.

The Hardware

The initial Centro from Sprint comes in metallic black (Onyx) or metallic red (Ruby), and Palm is now offering Pink. The Centro is a candybar-style handset, but more like the Treo 680′s antenna-less design. Essentially, everything that is on a Treo 700p is on a Centro, just smaller. There are, however, a few things about the hardware I don’t like. First, is the flimsy stylus. Palm’s been about 50/50 on the plastic (teh suck) stylii and the metal (woot) stylii, but on the hot little Centro, they opted for possibly the worst plastic stylus ever.

Second, since I’m a technology pundit, I don’t read the manual (of course, that’s a Mac users trait, as well) and it took me a while to identify the port for the microSD card slot, and even longer to get it open. Shame on Palm for making it so hard to open. If you face the display towards you, its on the right side just under the black IR rectangle. What kills me is that someone designed a bevel into one edge, but they didn’t then design a slot on the outside where you can stick the odd fingernail. Feh!

Third, though this is true of just about all mobile handsets, the D-pad sucks for games. I’m sorry, but there’s no such thing, as of yet, as a good mobile phone game. Sure, all touchscreen games still rock on the Centro if, and only if, you use another stylus (a sharpened stick would be better!), but using a mobile should be about doing things with one hand. Of course, that brings me to my chief complaint about Palm OS “Garnet”.

All About Ancient Operating Systems You Wanted To Know (But Were Afraid To Ask)

Here’s a ridiculously quick, useless historical recap. Jeff carried around some wood, then 3Com made the Palm, at which point the Palm OS came into being. A load of coders developed for it, but it didn’t grow. Palm spun off, then spun itself off, then bought its name back from itself, then sold its OS to Access. Access promised a Linux version, then renamed the old version Garnet, also know as Palm OS 5.4.

Just like the original Palm OS 10 years ago, Garnet runs one application at a time. You don’t quit Palm apps, you just switch to another one. Even the Application Launcher is an application. Of course, over the years Palm has devised methods of running multiple tasks at the same time, but the general concept of the user interface has never changed. This is where we are at with the Centro. Despite its advanced design and popularity, the Palm OS has never really grown up, even though everyone and their dog has been asking for it forever.

This isn’t to say that they Palm OS isn’t any good. In fact, its rather amazing that the ethics and concepts behind the design have been able to hold on for so long and still feel functional. This is sort of like if Apple had decided to retain the OS9 desktop appearance but added most of the capabilities of Mac OS X into the backend. You’d get something more capable and powerful, but it would still look like 1999. Besides, even on a 320×320 display, the Palm OS interface looks somewhat cramped. Its no surprise that the display on the Centro is smaller than the one on the Treo line, either.

Here comes one of those bumps in the road, though. When it comes to software for mobile devices, there’s little which can compete with Palm. Even in Microsoft Office compatible programs, Palm is the winner, hands down. On a side note, I do find it odd that, in all this time, Microsoft has been either unable or unwilling to improve its only mobile Office applications. Regardless, Palm users have always enjoyed much greater file format compatibility and feature support, and that will hopefully continue no matter what platform is actually running the Palm software.

In that light, Palm and Sprint have gotten together and spiffed out the common application set that generally gets shipped with Palm Powered devices. The big thing now is actual Sprint TV support. The new Palm client is based on Frauhofer and Kinoma codecs, and it works well, but its not as slick as the version Sprint makes for its other handsets. It looks quite good on my MOTO RAZR V3m, for instance. Sprint also includes Palm versions of the Sprint Store and Sprint Mail, and is working on a version of the Sprint Music Store for the Palm. Finally, Sprint has improved the Palm’s ability to bill your account when making software and add-on purchases.

What’s It All Mean, Tyler?

I can’t really sum this up all into one neat little package. On the one hand, Palm is not innovating and growing like they should be, and that’s left the Palm OS hanging out there longer than it should have. On the other hand, the hardware and software support is pretty hard to beat. Its also hard to beat the idea of a real Smartphone for a mere US$99. Of course, that’s after all of the Sprint and Palm Inc. incentives added on to make the price attractive, but hey, why complain!

Now, tie this in with the likelyhood of a 3G iPhone sometime this year and I’d have to say that, unless you don’t want an iPhone, I can’t suggest the Palm Centro. Sales have been too strong for too long and Palm is resting on its laurels, which really aren’t there in the first place. Palm needs to be pushed into the pool to fend for itself again. Its not that I don’t want Palm to succeed. I do! I just don’t want to them to lose, either, and with the way things are going, that’s the direction they’re headed in.

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