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Let’s review what is announced/rumored for this summer.
Palm’s Pre is due out in two days. Will it be enought to save Palm? Hell, Sprint could use the boost too.
Two days after that, the new iPhone firmware is release, and probably new iPhone hardware as well.
Later this month, Nokia’s N97 is due out
After that, Google will release another rev of Android and multiple Android phones will be hitting th streets.
Filed under: Android, Apple, cell phone tech, Gadget, iPhone, Smart Phone | Tagged: Android, Apple, cell phone, iPhone, Palm, Smart Phone | 1 Comment »
Apple has changed the rules for the Rev 2, 3G iPhone sales. Customers can buy “unlimited quantities” without the AT&T contract that subsides the price. This is the same tactic Apple used to clear out Rev 1 hardware before they announced the 3G iPhone.
The Apple Developers Conference, June 8-12, would be a good place announce a new rev of the iPhone hardware that will use the new firmware to the best advantage. Apple could use a new iPhone to offset the Palm Pre and new Android phones.
Filed under: Apple, iPhone, Smart Phone, tech rumors | Tagged: Android, Apple, cell phone, Google, iPhone, Palm, rumor, Smart Phone | 1 Comment »
The OS is called WebOS and is LINUX based. Applications will be written in CSS, HTML, and JavaScript. The SDK should be interesting when it comes out.
The new Palm Pre, due out in the first half of this year, has some really nice features. These include a Replaceable battery, and a MicroUSB connector for charging, with USB 2.0 support. This is on top of the standards, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, various sensors, a sharp screen.
The biggest stopping block to the Pre being a game changer is having it locked to the Sprint network. As soon as it becomes available on other networks, it could be a interesting challenge to the iPhone.
Filed under: cell phone tech, Palm, Smart Phone | Tagged: cell phone, OS, Palm, PDA, Smart Phone | Leave a comment »
Palm has announced their new smartphone, the Pre. It’s not out yet, but it does look interesting. Big color screen, a slide out physical keyboard, WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G, calendar/email synch, accelerometer, 3 Megapixil camera, 8 Gig RAM, USB connector and support for additional add on memory.
It looks like Palm is stepping up the plate in challenging the iPhone and phones using Google’s Android OS. It will be interesting to see how the OS holds up under actual use and the application support. Palm has a very deep application pool to draw from. How compatible this OS is with the API for the old OS will effect how much of that application pool the Pre can draw from.
Filed under: cell phone tech, Gadget, Palm, PDA | Tagged: cell phone, Palm, PDA, Smart Phone | 3 Comments »
Palm has been working on a new OS for the past four years, code named Nova. The rumor is that it will be released at the Consumer Electronics Show in early 2009.
A Palm executive makes an interesting observation in BusinessWeek, “The next 10 years is all about the transition from notebooks to mobile computing.”
Palm’s strategy is to not go over the business market (dominated by Blackberry devices) or the high end “strong mobile media experience” (where the iPhone rules), but the “fat middle of the market” of users who want a mobile Internet device/Phone, but don’t need/want to watch movies on a tiny screen.
It sounds like a good plan, except for one fly in the ointment. That is the same market space Google is going after with their Android OS.
Filed under: cell phone tech, Gadget, Google, Palm, Smart Phone | Tagged: Android, OS, Palm, Smart Phone | 4 Comments »
Palm, the PDA inovator, now considered a “smarphone” company, has received $100 Million investment. It’s from the venture-capital firm Elevation Partners.
Palm’s Centro smart phone has done well, but they need something to compete with the iPhone and the upcoming gPhones.
Filed under: Palm, PDA, Smart Phone | Tagged: Palm, PDA, Smart Phone | 1 Comment »
The Palm Treo Pro has been announced. Currently only with the overly complex WinCE decended Microsoft OS.
Filed under: cell phone tech, Palm, PDA, Smart Phone | Tagged: Palm, PDA, Treo | Leave a comment »
From a post on another blog originally made November 27, 2007.
Here is my geek punditry for the day. The Amazon Kindle etext reader is going to sell well. It will succeed for the same reason the iPod did. The iPod did not dominate the mp3 player market by creating a better mp3 player, they did it by greatly expanding the market through its iTunes service. People who had no idea of what an mp3 was or how to create/find them now had a way to purchase digital music easily and for less money than they paid for to get the music on CD.
The Kindle has Amazon shopping built in and thus a way to purchase etext at a reasonable cost. Amazon is attempting to follow the highly successful model Apple used, and it will probably work.
I’ve been doing the etext thing for years on my Palm based PDAs. There is an amazing amount of material available, including Edgar Rice Burroughs and H. Beam Piper, and a good chunk of the Baen Books catalog. I am, however, a lot more geeky than the general public. I was not part of the Apple model because I knew about mp3s and the problems with overly restrictive copy protection.
Apple’s “Kindle format” is an encrypted version of the Mobipocket format common on PDAs such a Palm OS based devices. It does support non-encrypted Mobipocket, as well as text files and a few other open formats.
The Kindle’s biggest competitor will be the iPhone, once decent reader format is available (and either iTunes supports loading it or there is some third party software you could use without having Apple brick your phone), but I think the Kindle will hold its own, for the reasons stated.
Filed under: etext, Gadget, PDA | Tagged: Amazon, Baen, ebook, Kindle, Mobipocket, Palm | 6 Comments »
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