2Q18 worldwide smartphone sales stagnating
According to IDC, 342 million smartphones were shipped worldwide in 2Q18, down from 348 million 2Q17. In terms of marketshare, Samsung led with 71.5 million, then Huawei with 54.2 million, Apple with 41.3 million, then Xiaomi (31.9 million) and Oppo (29.4million). This was the first quarter since the iPhone that Apple wasn't #1 or #2. [See IDC press release] -- Posted Wednesday, August 1, 2018 by chb

TCI to relaunch Palm as Silicon Valley company
Chinese electronics giant TCL announced that it has purchased the Palm trademark from HP and intends to relaunch Palm in the form of a US-based subsidiary. What that means, exactly, is unclear. TCL has smartphone expertise (they sell Alcatel OneTouch phones), but many of Palm's patents and technologies are now either gone or rest with different companies. Simply reusing the name of a once great brand doesn't necessarily guarantee success, but the prospect of a new Palm is at least intriguing. -- Posted Wednesday, January 7, 2015 by chb

Great article on the demise of Palm and the webOS
theverge.com ran a terrific, detailed story entitled "Pre to postmortem: the inside story of the death of Palm and webOS." Definitely worth reading! [See here] -- Posted Wednesday, June 6, 2012 by chb

Aceeca shipping RFID handheld evaluation units
In Aceeca's latest newsletter, the New Zealand-based company says that RFID continues to gain momentum as RFID improves and prices decrease, with some tags now available for less than 10 cents. As a result, Aceeca is now shipping evaluation units of their first IP67-sealed Windows CE OR Palm OS Garnet based handheld. -- Posted Friday, January 13, 2012 by chb

Added: full lineup of Janam rugged handhelds
Janam is a new York-based provider of an interesting lineup of rugged handheld computers that all aim to supply tried-and-true functionality in handy, durable packages and employing mature technology, both on the hardware and the software side. On the Windows side of things, Janam offers the Windows CE-based XM60+ and Windows Mobile-based XM66 (see here), and the XG100 with a gun-style handle that includes the unit's battery (see here). For those who seek to continue using Palm OS-based applications, Janam has the XP20 (160 x 160 mono) and XP30 (240 x 320 color) using the Palm 5.4.9 Garnet OS (see here). -- Posted Thursday, December 29, 2011 by chb

Aceeca to retire Palm-based handheld, switch to multi-OS version
Aceeca reports that after a production life of almost ten years the MEZ1000, essentially a ruggedized implementation of the original Palm, is nearing end-of-life. This means Aceeca will phase in their new MEZ1500 which replaces the MEZ1000. The MEZ1500 offers both Garnet and WinCE operating systems, with various Linux options along with Android coming in future months. -- Posted Tuesday, October 25, 2011 by chb

Lessons learned from the HP TouchPad
I was supposed to write a review of the HP TouchPad, but like so many others this morning, I am writing its epitaph. HP's decision on August 18, 2011 to cease production of the TouchPad as well as other WebOS devices leaves WebOS in limbo, though HP may try to recoup some of its investment by selling WebOS to another company. Regardless of if WebOS continues to exist to not, the HP TouchPad offered some lessons that Microsoft and Android developers, including Google, should heed. Failure is always a teaching moment, but rather than focus on what HP did wrong, I will share my thoughts on what they did right that others can learn from. [... more] -- Posted Friday, August 19, 2011 by chb

HP kills webOS devices, including TouchPad
HP will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones. HP said "the devices have not met internal milestones and financial targets. HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward." So sorry, Palm. You deserved better. [See HP report] -- Posted Thursday, August 18, 2011 by chb

comScore: Android widens lead, RIM drops to third
comScore has reported key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending May 2011. The 3-month moving average of the 77 million US smartphone subscribers showed Anrdoid in the lead with 38.1% (up 5.1 from three months ago), Apple second with 26.6% (up 1.4), RIM dropping to third with 24.7% (down 4.2), Microsoft 5th with 5.8% (down 1.9), and Palm 2.4% (down 0.4). -- Posted Wednesday, July 6, 2011 by chb

Aceeca issues Garnet OS-based PDA32 update
Aceeca reports that they completed work to offer WiFi and Bluetooth options for their semi-rugged Palm OS/Garnett PDA32 handheld, and also released 64-bit Windows USB drivers for Palm OS/Garnett devices (good news for Palm users who still have legacy Palm devices that they want to make use of). Aceeca now anticipates shipping limited quantities of wireless PDA32 units in late June 2011. [See Aceeca newsletter] -- Posted Monday, May 16, 2011 by chb

Semi-rugged handheld keeps Garnet OS alive...
In response to customer requests for a compact Garnet OS handheld (previously known as the Palm OS), Aceeca announced the availability of the PDA32. Featuring battery capacity at more than twice the average consumer device, the PDA32 is targeted at commercial customers requiring a handheld that can last all day, is semi-rugged and is low cost with guaranteed long-term availability. The Samsung S3C2440-powered PDA32 has a 3.2-inch 320 x 480 pixel touch screen, costs just US$179, and Aceeca offers custom colors and branding. [See Aceeca release] -- Posted Monday, April 11, 2011 by chb

HP announces webOS-powered TouchPad
As expected, Hewlett Packard announced the TouchPad, a tablet that is virtually identical in design, size and weight to the Apple iPad, but runs webOS, which Palm pioneered on its Pre and Pixi smartphones. Powered by a 1.2GHz Qualcomm "Snapdragon" processor and offering either 32 or 64GB of memory, WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G WWAN, and a 1.3mp camera, the TouchPad will be available in the summer of 2011. HP did not release information on battery life, price or carriers. [See description and specs of the HP TouchPad] -- Posted Thursday, February 10, 2011 by chb

Palm still has high hopes for WebOS
According to a report on PCWorld.com, Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein admitted at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco (November 15-17, 2010) that the company had lost some momentum after it was acquired by HP. However, Palm -- which is now part of HP's Personal Systems group but still resides in its Sunnyvale home and was actually infused with a couple hundred HP staffers -- is optimistic about WebOS which will appear in several upcoming devices. -- Posted Monday, November 22, 2010 by chb

Port to WebOS, get a million
The Palm PDK Hot Apps Program offers developers $1 million in cash or HP Products for applications developed using the Palm webOS Plug-in Development Kit (PDK), and rewards developers of the most-installed free and highest-revenue paid applications. The count begins July 15, 2010 and will last until September 30, 2010. [See PDK Hot Apps Program] -- Posted Thursday, August 5, 2010 by chb

Graffiti now available for free on Android!
Talk about adding insult to injury. Access Co, the folks who bought PalmSource way back when, but never really did anything with it, are now offering the original Graffiti as a free download from the Android app store. -- Posted Saturday, July 17, 2010 by chb

Palm Pre+ and Pixi+ free on new HP Wireless Central site
Now that Hewlett Packard's acquisition of Palm is final, HP wasted no time in pushing WebOS-based Palm phones on its new HP Wireless Central site. Better yet, you can get a Palm Pre Plus or a Palm Pixi Plus for free (after instant discount) with a new 2-year AT&T, Verizon or Sprint account. Given the high monthly phone bills for two years, of course, means the term "free" is a bit misleading, but it still shows that HP is determined to move inventory. -- Posted Tuesday, July 6, 2010 by chb

HP completes Palm acquisition
On July 1st, 2010, Hewlett Packard completed its aquisition of Palm Inc., at a price of US$5.70 per share. HP says the acquisition gives it "significant headway into one of technology’s fastest-growth segments with Palm’s innovative webOS platform and family of smartphones, plus a rich portfolio of intellectual property" that will "enhance HP’s ability to participate more aggressively in the highly profitable, $100 billion smartphone and connected mobile device markets." HP stated that the WebOS will be used to deliver also "other mobility products" including "future slate PCs and netbooks." [See HP press release on Palm acquisition] -- Posted Friday, July 2, 2010 by chb

Opinions on HP's acquisition of Palm
Now that Palm's been sold to HP, everyone has an opinion on the company, how things developed, and how it'll all play out. PCWorld presented A Brief History of Palm, InformationWeek an Analysis Of HP-Palm Acquisition, and many others weighed in as well, generally with much better pieces than the often clueless hype on tablets and their history. -- Posted Monday, May 3, 2010 by chb

End of an era: HP buys Palm
Three weeks after Pen Computing conjectured, "Here's an idea, though: what about using Palm's WebOS as the basis for HP's upcoming iPad competitor? It'll never fly with Windows 7 on it, but with Palm's WebOS....?", HP announced it will acquire Palm for US$1.2 billion. Now this sounds like good news for Palm, but then again, HP is also the company that squandered away the iPAQ brand when it bought Compaq. It seems unlikely that even HP will be able to make much of a dent in the smartphone market with Palm phones, but, again, possibly using webOS for small iPad competitor tablets, that's a different story altogether. -- Posted Wednesday, April 28, 2010 by chb

Things look dire for Palm
It's pretty much clear that Palm is now desperately looking for a buyer. But the financial community seems to have doubts that they'll find one. Palm's primary problem is that they're just too small. The WebOS may be find and good, but it's clearly falling between the cracks against the iPhone and Android. Sprint isn't doing Palm any favors either (they never even replied to our requests for review units of the Pre and Pixi). We'd still love to see a webpad with the WebOS on it, but that may never come to pass. -- Posted Monday, April 19, 2010 by chb

Palm buyout rumors getting stronger
With Apple's announcement of multitasking in the next version of the iPhone/iPad OS, already-struggling Palm lost perhaps its last compelling market advantage. As a result, there are acquisition rumors galore, with cnet offering an interesting look at who might be interested in buying Palm (see cnet's Who would benefit most by buying Palm?). Frankly, it's not entirely clear who might benefit from Palm's valiant efforts that simply lack market traction. Here's an idea, though: what about using Palm's WebOS as the basis for HP's upcoming iPad competitor? It'll never fly with Windows 7 on it, but with Palm's WebOS....? -- Posted Friday, April 9, 2010 by chb

Palm Pre and Pixi now available from AT&T as well
Palm announced that the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus phones will be available on the AT&T 3G network for $149.99 and $49.99, respectively, with a two-year service agreement and after a $100 mail-in rebate. -- Posted Tuesday, March 23, 2010 by chb

PCMag: Dear Palm, Please Get It Together
After Palm announced decent financials but a fairly dismal sales picture, things just don't look so good for the former high flyer. The word on the Pre and WebOS is all good, but developers and customers aren't biting in large enough numbers. Lance Ulanoff at PCMag offers some commentary in his Dear Palm, Please Get It Together -- Posted Friday, March 19, 2010 by chb

Palm announces webOS Plug-in Development Kit beta
Palm announced that a public beta version of the Palm webOS Plug-in Development Kit (PDK) is now available at the Palm Developer Center. -- Posted Tuesday, March 9, 2010 by chb

Smartphone market share 2009
According to Gartner, the 2009 smartphone sales unit market was as follows (2008 percentage in parentheses): Symbian 46.9% (54.2%), RIM 19.9% (16.6%), iPhone 14.4% (8.2%), Windows Mobile 8.7% (11.8%), Linux 4.7% (7.6%), Android 3.9% (0.5%), Palm WebOS 0.7% (NA). -- Posted Friday, March 5, 2010 by chb

Does Palm suffer from a lack of image?
Are Palm's lackluster sales the result of not having an image? After all, "Image is everything," as tennis great Andre Agassi once said in a canon commercial (he later said he had never agreed to the campaign). Well, PC World is outlining how Palm is missing out on the image thing by analyzing what the competition is doing in the image department. [See PC World's image analysis] -- Posted Monday, March 1, 2010 by chb

Palm: Slower than expected adoption of Pre and Pixi
Palm says it expects revenues for the third quarter of fiscal year 2010 to be $285-310 million and that revenues for the quarter and full year are impacted by slower than expected consumer adoption of the company's products that has resulted in lower than expected order volumes from carriers and the deferral of orders to future periods. Palm expects fiscal year 2010 revenues to be well below its previously forecasted range of $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion. -- Posted Thursday, February 25, 2010 by chb

Treo gone, last of the old Palms
Palm is down to two models now, the Palm Pre Plus and the Palm Pixi Plus. No more Treos, and that means that the Palm OS as well as Windows Mobile-based Palms are now gone for good. -- Posted Tuesday, January 26, 2010 by chb

Palm webOS developer program open
The Palm webOS developer program is open to any developer to sign up and start developing and distributing applications for webOS devices. Palm showcased its developer program and tools at 2010 CES, and announced a $1 million developer Hot Apps bonus program for the rapidly growing Palm webOS developer community. -- Posted Tuesday, January 12, 2010 by chb

Palm WebOS 1.3.5 released
Palm/Sprint have released WebOS 1.3.5. For a description, and list of prior releases, check here. -- Posted Tuesday, January 5, 2010 by chb

Palm: No more WinMo devices
It never really made sense, Palm making Windows Mobile devices, and it's over now. Palm announced it will no longer develop WinMo-based smartphones. Instead, the company will concentrate on its webOS platform. -- Posted Wednesday, September 30, 2009 by chb

ACCESS NetFront deployment now over 800 million worldwide
ACCESS CO., LTD., which owns the old "Garnet" Palm OS, announced that worldwide deployments of its NetFront products, notably its NetFront Browser for mobile handsets and Internet-enabled devices, surpassed 800 million at the end of July 2009. -- Posted Thursday, September 10, 2009 by chb

Half-price Palm Pre offer yanked by Sprint
According to FierceWireless, an offer that would have given new Sprint customers a $100 service credit if they switched their line to a Palm Pre and signed a two-year contract has been withdrawn by Sprint as it was based on an "internal communications issue." -- Posted Thursday, September 10, 2009 by chb

Palm Pixi -- a smaller, thumbtype New Palm
Anyone without a two-year contract take note: on the eve of Apple's latest announcements, Palm announced the Palm Pixi, a follow-up on the Palm Pre, only smaller yet (a tiny bit smaller than the iPhone at 2.2 x 4.4 x .43, 3.5 ounces) and a bit cheaper (irrelevant; the cost is in the Sprint telco contract) when it arrives "for the holidays." No WiFi, smaller 2.63-inch 320 x 400 pixel screen, lower-res (2mp) camera, Bluetooth, GPS, 8GB of storage. The Pixi seems a handsome iPhone clone with a thumbtype keyboard for those who miss the Treo and like the Pre's webOS. See the Pixi at Palm. -- Posted Wednesday, September 9, 2009 by chb

Palm webOS 1.1 released - iTunes sync back on
Palm released the webOS 1.1 update with support for Exchange ActiveSync (EAS), including remote wipe, PIN/password requirements, inactivity timeout, improved certificate handling, and more. Version 1.1 also includes goodies such as emoticons in the messaging app, the ability to set “person reminders” in the contacts app, and also re-enables Palm media sync. -- Posted Friday, July 24, 2009 by chb

Apple dumps (Pre) cuckoo
In its latest iTunes update, version 8.2.1, Apple ditched the ability of the Palm Pre to use iTunes for syncing by pretending to be Apple hardware. One could argue iTunes should be open, and one can argue that it was uncool of Palm to use someone else's popular software for its product. Apple, not surprisingly, was of the latter opinion and cryptically remarked that the latest update addressed an issue with verification of Apple devices. -- Posted Thursday, July 16, 2009 by chb

Mark/Space releases The Missing Sync for Palm Pre, for Mac
Mark/Space, creator of award-winning desktop and handheld synchronization software, announced availability of Release 1.0 of The Missing Sync for Palm Pre, for Mac. Synchronize contacts, calendars, music, ringtones, photos and more between a Mac and the new Palm Pre phone. And, a Windows Vista and Windows XP version is in development. -- Posted Thursday, July 9, 2009 by chb

InfoWorld Deathmatch: Palm Pre vs iPhone
InfoWorld did a "deathmatch" between the Palm Pre and the Apple iPhone. There is good discussion of each platform's features, and the final result is close. [See InfoWorld's Deathmatch: Palm Pre versus iPhone -- Posted Monday, July 6, 2009 by chb

Palm Pre sales brisk, may top a million for its initial quarter
According to Charter Equity Research analyst Ed Snyder, Palm Pre sales in June 2009 were over 300,000, on top of about 70,000 in May. Palm is making about 15,000 a day, and total shipments to Sprint for the first quarter of the unit may top a million. Anyone betting on Palm has made a lot of money since the beginning of the year when Palm was practically a penny stock. It's now at US$16.50. -- Posted Wednesday, July 1, 2009 by chb

Palm and Windows Mobile and how the iPhone really changed everything
We've covered mobile computing since 1993, and so with all the hoopla over the much anticipated release of the Palm Pre in early June of 2009, here are some thoughts about the ever-changing fortunes of the mobile platforms in our industry [... more] -- Posted Friday, June 12, 2009 by chb

Palm's Ed Colligan steps down after 16 years of leadership
It seems like only yesterday that Ed Colligan showed us the prototype of a new handheld at the A&R Partners offices and asked us what we thought of it. That handheld, the original Palm Pilot, went on to become the foundation of one of the great success stories in mobile computing. As its leader, Ed guided Palm through good times and bad, and now he's passing on the torch of a rejuvenated Palm to Jon Rubinstein. Thanks for all you did, Ed. -- Posted Wednesday, June 10, 2009 by chb

Infoworld: 5 reasons why the Pre won't prevail
Infoworld ran an article entitled, "Five reasons the Palm Pre won't prevail." The reasons suggested are a) that Palm is now essentially just a startup with the old Palm name, b) most others already have multitasking, c) Palm today doesn't have much experience with developers, d) the keyboard is a drag, and e) Palm doesn't have the necessary financing. Someone also published an article listing five reasons why the Pre will kick butt. We'll see. -- Posted Wednesday, June 3, 2009 by chb

Palm Pre to be available June 6
Sprint announced pricing and nationwide availability for the Palm Pre phone, offered exclusively from Sprint. Palm Pre will be available nationwide on June 6 in Sprint stores, Best Buy, Radio Shack, select Wal-Mart stores and online at Sprint.com for $199.99 with a two-year service agreement and after a $100 mail-in rebate. It should be interesting to finally see the long-awaited Pre, but we could have done without an annoying mail-in "rebate" and all the talk of "shortages." -- Posted Thursday, May 21, 2009 by chb

Palm extends webOS Early Access Program for developers
Palm said it is expanding its early access program for the Palm Mojo Software Development Kit (SDK), and discussed the company's plans for integrating Palm-branded cloud services into the new platform. Cloud services are software resources provided over the Internet. Palm also today announced an application from MotionApps that will allow legacy Palm OS applications to run on webOS devices. -- Posted Wednesday, April 1, 2009 by chb

5 Reasons Why Dell Should Buy Palm
The Motley Fool presents "5 Reasons Why Dell Should Buy Palm" and goes, "Some buyout rumors sound so logical that only pride, ignorance, and incompetence could get in their way." [Check it out] -- Posted Wednesday, April 1, 2009 by chb

Palm and Sprint hold Webinar on the Palm Pre
Palm and Sprint presented a one-hour webinar on the upcoming Palm Pre with its always connected WebOS, 320x480 display, 3mp camera, slide-out keyboard and inductive charging. Palm's Matt Crowley did a demo, but no update on pricing and product release, which is still "first half of 2009." The Palm OS is ended, but Palm will continue developing WinMo devices. The webinar was a bit of a Sprint infomercial and light on Palm info, and our question whether Palm founder Jeff Hawkins was involved in the Pre went unanswered. -- Posted Thursday, March 12, 2009 by chb

Treo Pro available with Sprint March 15
Palm announced the upcoming availability of the sleek Windows Mobile 6.1-based Palm Treo Pro smartphone for the Sprint Mobile Broadband Network on March 15. Treo Pro will be available through all Sprint retail channels for $199.99 with most two-year subscriber agreements. It also will be available through the Palm Store and Palm's B2B sales organization. -- Posted Friday, March 6, 2009 by chb

Palm OS officially dead
According to a CNET report on Palm CEO Ed Colligan's investor presentation, the Palm OS is dead and there will be no more Palm OS devices. From now on, Palm will concentrate on WebOS phones such as the upcoming Pre and also on its Windows Mobile-based phones. -- Posted Wednesday, February 11, 2009 by chb

No more PDAS, Treos only
When I checked Palm's webpage this morning, the PDAs were gone. Only three Treos are now listed. Definitely the end of an era. PalmPilot, Palm III, Palm V, Palm VII, m100, m500, Tungsten, Zire, LifeDrive... it shouldn't have ended this way.

-- Posted Wednesday, January 7, 2009 by chb

The sad state of the PDA
Here's what Palm CEO Ed Colligan said about its PDAs at the company's December financial results call: "We will push those out into the marketplace as long as there is sufficient demand … we're not developing new ones, so there's an inevitable end, but I think that right now we're playing it out.... We're going to continue to sell them as long as there is demand for those products." -- That is a very sad ending to what was once the mighty Palm economy, and certainly not what any of the expert prognosticators expected just a few years ago. -- Posted Monday, December 22, 2008 by chb

Palm gets another US$100 million equity investment
Palm announced that Elevation Partners has agreed to make an additional $100 million equity investment in Palm. Under a definitive agreement reached today, Elevation will increase its investment in Palm by acquiring newly issued Series C preferred stock that is convertible into Palm common stock at a price of $3.25 per share, a 31% premium to the closing price of Palm common stock on Dec. 19, 2008. -- Posted Monday, December 22, 2008 by chb

Palm reports sobering financials, hints at new platform
Palm reported total revenue of $191.6 for the second quarter of fiscal 2009, which ended Nov. 28, 2008. Smartphone sell-through for the quarter was 599,000 units, down 13% year over year. Smartphone revenue was $171.0 million, down 39% from the year-ago period. “We’re working through an undeniably difficult period,” said Ed Colligan, Palm president and CEO, “but near-term challenges shouldn’t overshadow the fact that we are on track to deliver a breakthrough new platform and products that will bring a truly differentiated smartphone experience to our customers and reestablish Palm as a leading innovator in the mobile industry.”
-- Posted Thursday, December 18, 2008 by chb

Treo 80w cradle/battery
When Dr. Tim reviewed the Palm 800w a few months ago, he lamented the lack of accessories and the new, non-standard connector. More recently he reviewed several handheld screen control applications as an alternative to cradles, which no longer seem to come in the box as in the days of old. Well, Palm now has a nice cradle available for the 800w, and it’s nice to have a cradle again. [See report on the Treo 80w cradle/battery] -- Posted Wednesday, December 17, 2008 by chb

Unlocked Palm Treo Pro now available in the US
Palm announced that the unlocked Treo Pro smartphone is now available in the United States. The Windows Mobile-based Treo Pro is unlocked, giving end users the flexibility to simply insert their existing active SIM card and immediately start using their Treo Pro anywhere there is GSM coverage, without a new contract. Worldwide travelers using the Treo Pro can cut costs on international roaming charges by popping in a local country SIM card wherever they go. -- Posted Friday, September 26, 2008 by chb

iambic's Health & Diet Manager now on Palm OS
iambic, Inc., a leading provider of innovative productivity-enhancing software, announced the availability of Health & Diet Manager on the Palm OS platform. Now owners of the Palm Centro smartphone and Palm OS-based Treo have access to a convenient way to proactively manage their wellness and nutritional needs. -- Posted Thursday, September 18, 2008 by chb

Handango names iambic Palm OS developer of the year
iambic announced that Handango, the world's leading provider of smartphone content, has named iambic "Developer of the Year" for Palm OS. The award was bestowed during Handango's eighth annual partner summit, the "Handango Future Forum," which took place last week in San Francisco. iambic's portfolio of Palm OS products includes Agendus, a fully-integrated, personal information manager (PIM) that has been optimized for Centro/Treo smartphones, YourCall, a comprehensive, multi-faceted solution for Centro/Treo call management, that provides a selection of actions that can be taken before, during and after a call, and Vehicle Manager, for proactively tracking and managing car-related vitals (gas fill-ups, services performed, etc.). -- Posted Wednesday, September 17, 2008 by chb

Treo software roundup
The folks at TreoCentral.com issued their latest Treo software roundup, both new and updated, both Palm OS and WinMo. Go check it out! -- Posted Friday, September 12, 2008 by chb

Palm introduces unlocked WinMo 6.1-based Treo Pro
Palm introduced the unlocked Treo Pro, a smartphone for businesses that seek to simplify their IT infrastructures and reduce costs. With its streamlined design and Palm shortcuts layered on top of Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, the Treo Pro, powered by a 400MHz Qualcomm MSM7201 processor, supports HSDPA/UMTS/EDGE/GPRS/GSM and includes Wi-Fi and GPS capabilities, a 320 x 320 transflective touchscreen, a 2mp camera, and a microSDHC slot. See description and specs of the Palm Treo Pro. -- Posted Thursday, August 21, 2008 by chb

The mighty Palms
Remember when Palm ruled the mobile world? Peruse Pen Computing's historic reviews of over 60 Palm devices from Palm, Sony, Handspring, TRG, Symbol, Kyocera, AlpaSmart and Samsung. -- Posted Tuesday, July 29, 2008 by chb

Palm: Two million Centros sold
Palm said it has sold its two-millionth Centro smartphone, confirming the $99 product's growing momentum with traditional mobile phone users who want to move up to a phone that offers more functionality. Palm is now offering Centro in more than 25 countries in North America, South America, Europe and Asia Pacific. [See what the Centro is all about. -- Posted Tuesday, July 29, 2008 by chb

Full review: Palm Treo 800w
It has been quite some time since Palm has come to the table with a new Windows Mobile Professional device: enter the Treo 800W, WM 6.1. At first glance it doesn’t appear all that different than its predecessor, the Treo 750W. But there are some subtle and not so subtle differences. Read Tim Hillebraand's comprehensive review of the Palm Treo 800w.
-- Posted Monday, July 28, 2008 by chb

Palm releases handy Windows Mobile-based Treo 800w
Palm introduced the Treo 800w, a Windows Mobile 6.1-based smartphone for the Sprint network. The new Treo measures 4.4x2.2x0.7 inches and weighs five ounces. It has a small 2.5-inch 320 x 320 pixel display, integrated GPS, a thumb-type keyboard, a 2-megapixel camera that can do video and a microSD card slot. The 800w is larger than the Centro, but smaller and handier than the old Treo 700. [Read description of the Palm Treo 800w] -- Posted Wednesday, July 16, 2008 by chb

Palm reports fiscal 2008 financials
Palm was a US$1.3 billion company in fiscal 2008, but suffered a US$111 million loss. Among the good news was that Palm had a sell-through of almost a million smartphones in the 4th quarter of fiscal 2008, up 29% from Q4 2007. "We continue to invest in Palm's future and remain focused on building long-term value," said Ed Colligan, president and chief executive officer for Palm, Inc. "Centro is a tremendous hit, we are gaining market share, and we believe with this momentum, and the launch of new Windows Mobile products, we will turn the corner and return to revenue and margin growth." -- Posted Thursday, June 26, 2008 by chb

CellSpin launches Palm OS Mobile Blogging App
CellSpin Soft announced it is adding support for Palm OS to its mobile blogging software that provides a free, secure, intelligent, one-click GUI-based mobile application for capturing images, audio, video and text, and publishing them to one or many of a user's favorite blogging, social networking, photo sharing and auction sites simultaneously. Sites include MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Pownce, Blogger, YouTube, Picasa, Flickr, Live Journal, Live Spaces and eBay, with more to come. -- Posted Tuesday, June 24, 2008 by chb

Palm Centro: A million sold
Palm has sold its one-millionth Palm Centro smartphone, demonstrating the $99 product's mass appeal. Compared to other Palm smartphones, the small and elegant Centro reaches almost double the number of women, more than double the number of customers under age 35, and nearly three times as many customers with a household income of less than $75,000. -- Posted Monday, March 31, 2008 by chb

Palm reports Q3 FY08 results
Palm reported that total revenue in the third quarter of fiscal year 2008, ended Feb. 29, was $312.1 million. Driven by strong demand for the Palm Centro, smartphone sell-through for the quarter reached a company record high, totaling 833,000 units, up 13 percent year over year. Smartphone revenue was $275.4 million. [see Palm Reports Q3 FY08 Results] -- Posted Thursday, March 20, 2008 by chb

ActiveCaptain Mobile for Palm OS
ActiveCaptain Mobile is the first fully integrated boat navigation system for Palm OS. It's like TomTom for your boat! Users can display real nautical charts, plan and navigate routes, and overlay points of interest from the ActiveCaptain website. It's three applications in one -- a chart archive, a portable chartplotter, and an electronic guidebook. With thousands of NOAA charts provided free of charge and always available, it makes your Palm smartphone a critical part of being on the water. [See ActiveCaptain Mobile for Palm OS release] -- Posted Tuesday, March 18, 2008 by chb

Palm's free Windows Mobile 6 upgrade for the Treo 750
Available since December of 2007, Palm's free Windows Mobile 6 update for the Treo 750 is certainly a good thing, and we want to take this opportunity to congratulate Palm and to express my appreciation for being among the few manufacturers to offer a WM6 upgrade. [Read about Palm's free Windows Mobile 6 upgrade for the Treo 750] -- Posted Friday, February 8, 2008 by chb

Resco releases Resco Suite for Palm OS
Resco announced a new product combining together all its best-selling applications - Resco Suite for Palm OS. Resco Suite consists of five essential applications - Explorer, Viewer, Backup, IDGuard and Neeews - and added bonus - Resco Sudoku. A 14-day trial can be found at http://www.resco.net/palm/suite/. The
cost is $59.95 USD. -- Posted Monday, January 28, 2008 by chb

Palm closes retail stores, settles Treo 600/650 suit
The news just isn't getting any better for Palm, the undisputed King of the handheld gadgets Hill just a few years ago. Palm announced it will close its eight standalone retail Palm stores and 26 stores in airports. In addition, Palm announced $75 and $50 rebates towards new Palm devices for owners of Treo 600s and 650s that were replaced or repaired at least twice. -- Posted Friday, January 25, 2008 by chb

Windows Mobile 6 update and unlocked Treo 750 available for U.S. customers
Palm announced that an update to Windows Mobile 6 is available as a free download for AT&T Palm Treo 750 smartphone users in the US. The free upgrade brings increased functionality, enhanced user interface and strengthened security and performance to the Treo 750, as well as facilitates HSDPA capability for faster data-download speeds on 3G/UMTS/HSDPA networks. Palm also announced that an unlocked version of the Treo 750 is available with Windows Mobile 6 out of the box, allowing an even broader customer base to immediately enjoy the improved features of the Windows Mobile 6 operating system.
-- Posted Tuesday, December 4, 2007 by chb

Garnet OS apps to run on Nokia Internet Tablets
ACCESS announced that it will make available a beta version of a Garnet VM software for Nokia N770, N800 and N810 Internet Tablets. Garnet VM will make it possible for users of the Nokia N770, N800 and N810 to enjoy thousands of off-the-shelf Garnet OS (formerly Palm OS)-based applications immediately available to enhance their productivity, connectivity and play. Garnet VM is expected to be available by the end of the year free of charge as a download from the ACCESS website. [See info on Garnet apps on Nokia] -- Posted Tuesday, November 13, 2007 by chb

Palm introduces the Centro, its smallest smartphone yet
Palm and Sprint introduced the Palm Centro smart device, aimed at individuals and traditional mobile phone users looking for more in a phone and perhaps a better way to manage their professional and social lives. The Palm OS Centro, available for just $99.99 (with the usual service plan requirements), has voice, text, IM, email, web, contact and calendar capabilities, a full-color touch screen and full thumb-type keyboard, and it comes in onyx black or ruby red. The Centro comes with 64MB of RAM, a microSD slot that can handle 4GB cards, a razor-sharp 320 x 320 pixel display and Bluetooth. [Read our description and commentary on the Palm Centro] -- Posted Thursday, September 27, 2007 by chb

Palm Treo 500V - not what we expected
Yes, it is a long awaited Windows Mobile 6 device, but it is a Windows Mobile Standard product. That means in the old terminology that it is a Smartphone. That means it is not a Pocket PC and does not have a touch screen�how sad. A second disappointment is that it has been released in Europe before the U.S., but I suppose that is the Palm pattern now as we recall the 700s and 750 releases abroad instead of in their own country. Why? Read [first impressions of the Treo 500v] -- Posted Thursday, September 13, 2007 by chb

Palm dumps Foleo
Jeff Hawkins' latest brainchild is dead before it even hit the street. Today Palm CEO Ed Colligan announced they'd pull the plug on the Foleo so because it'd become clear to him "that the right path for Palm is to offer a single, consistent user experience around this new platform design and a single focus for our platform development efforts." That statement also seems to affect Palm's offering of Windows Mobile devices, and to that Colligan said, "We will, of course, continue to deliver products in partnership with Microsoft on the Windows Mobile platform, but from our internal platform development perspective, we will focus on only one." So there. [Read Ed Colligan's blog terminating Foleo] -- Posted Tuesday, September 4, 2007 by chb

Six Apart blogging software to support Foleo
Six Apart, the world's leading independent blogging software and services company, is working with Palm to give Palm Foleo mobile companion customers access to Six Apart's wide range of blogging services, including Vox, LiveJournal, TypePad and Movable Type. With these services available on the Foleo, users can keep blog and journal entries up to date and stay current with their communities while on the go. -- Posted Thursday, July 26, 2007 by chb

TealPoint Software to support Foleo
TealPoint Software -- a leader in mobile software solutions -- will offer Foleo customers a full suite of new security, entertainment and productivity applications, including TealSafe, TealPaint, TealDiet, SudokuAddict and ShortCircuit, with more applications to follow. See the Software for Foleo page on TealPoint's website. -- Posted Monday, July 23, 2007 by chb

Palm sales remain flat
Palm reported that its revenue for the full fiscal year 2007, which ended June 1, 2007, was $1.56 billion, down a percent from the $1.58 billion reported in fiscal year 2006. Smartphone sell-through for the full year reached a company record high totaling 2.7 million units, up 34% year over year. Smartphone revenue from the Treos was $1.25 billion, up 15 percent from the prior year. So it's virtually all Treos now, and hardly any Palm PDAs anymore. While a billion and a half still constitutes a nice-size company, it pales against Nokia ($53 billion), Microsoft ($50 billion) or Apple which has quietly grown into a $22 billion company and has all the buzz with the iPhone. Let's hope the Foleo has a big impact! -- Posted Friday, June 29, 2007 by chb

iambic Unveils the Next Generation of Agendus for Palm OS
iambic, Inc., a leading provider of productivity enhancement software for PDAs and smartphones with a long , storied history in mobile\ application software, announced the release of Agendus for Palm OS Professional Edition, Version 12, a robust, new version of its award-winning, fully integrated, personal information manager (PIM) optimized for Treo smartphones. -- Posted Thursday, June 21, 2007 by chb

Funky Palm "recapitalization" deal
We've become used to odd refinancing and buyout schemes, and Palm certainly is no stranger to them, having first been bought by US Robotics, the 3Com, then the depature of Hawkins et al to form Handspring (which at times had a market cap of over a billion), the return of Handspring, the sale of PalmSource, and so on. The latest is funkier yet. The deal with private-equity firm Elevation Partners is supposedly "a recapitalization plan that will position Palm to lead the next phase of the smartphone and mobile-computing markets." The rationale is explained as "Under the planned recapitalization, shareholders will receive a $9 per share cash distribution. Elevation will invest $325 million in Palm, and the company will utilize these proceeds along with existing cash and $400 million of new debt to finance the cash distribution." Essentially, Elevation is buying 25% of Palm -- which has just over 100 million shares outstanding -- but giving shareholders $9 per share as just a payoff means the $325 million Elevation is investing plus $400 million from a debt offering and some of Palm's remaining cash will all be given away. So Palm will end up with more debt. With Palm stock actually up after the announcement, stockholders aren't hurting. So they get $9 per share for nothing, but it's as short-sighed and unnecessary a handout as the infamous Bush tax payback of a few years ago. Nice, but really unnecessary and a needless hit on the budget. Our take: Elevation guys.... there was no need to make any payoff. Palm needed the money, not more debt! Let's hope the new guys you installed on Palm's board were better ideas. -- Posted Thursday, June 7, 2007 by chb

Jeff Hawkins unveils Foleo, a Linux-based smartphone companion
None other than Jeff Hawkins himself introduced what the pen computing pioneer, inventor of Graffiti, inventor of the Palm Pilot, founder of Handspring and creator of the Treo considers one of the most important mobile computing products ever -- the Palm Foleo. What is the Palm Foleo? The Foleo is not a laptop replacement. It's a mobile companion for all those people who do a lot of wireless email. So instead of squinting at a tiny smartphone screen and then struggling to do real work on a tiny thumbtype keyboard, the Foleo has a neat 10-inch display with 1024 x 600 resolution and a full-size keyboard though it measures just 10.6 x 6.7 inches and is less than an inch thick. You can sync with Treos and other smartphones, browse the web via WiFi, Bluetooth, or the phone and there will likely soon be tons of apps. It'll cost US$499 and should be available this summer. [Read our first impressions of the palm Foleo] -- Posted Thursday, May 31, 2007 by chb

Palm introduces Treo 755p for Sprint
Palm introduced the Treo 755p, a Palm OS-based Treo that uses the sleeker design first seen on last year's Treo 680, and adds Microsoft Direct Push Technology email support and a built-in Google Maps for mobile app. The Dual-band CDMA2000/EvDO-based Treo 755p runs on the Spring network, measures 4.4 x 2.3 x 0.84 inches and weighs 5.65 ounces. It has a 1.3 megapixel digital camera, 128MB of memory, 60 of which available to users, and a mini-SD card slot. [Read detailed description of the Treo 755p] -- Posted Thursday, May 10, 2007 by chb

Palm's future
News.com reports on Palm's analyst day in New York. Palm pointed at the growing smartphone market, projected to be $36 billion in 2009, and is counting on that segment of the market with its Treos. Nothing was mentioned of the rumors that Palm is seeking a buyer. Our take: Yes, the smartphone market is growing. But compared to the billion-plus cellphones, they're still just a drop in the bucket. And that drop is largely dominated by heavies like Nokia and Motorola, and generally by Symbian and Microsoft-based products. Worse, Palm has lost its once famous mojo and even ease-of-use whereas Microsoft keeps moving forward. Come on Ed! We know you can do it!!! -- Posted Wednesday, April 11, 2007 by chb

Treo 750 to get WinMo 6.0
Palm announced that an update to the Windows Mobile 6 Professional operating system will be available for Treo 750 smartphone customers around the world. [see full release] -- Posted Tuesday, March 27, 2007 by chb

PDAMill merges into Nav N Go, discontinues Palm development
PDAMill has merged with Nav N Go and changed its name to Nav N Go Game Studios. The company also announced that they are discontinuing all of products for the Palm OS platform. They did this because some of their Palm OS products worked on a device by device basis and because of recent developments with the Palm OS platform itself. Nav N Go was originally known for GPS solutions, including the much praised iGO My Way GPS navigation product, but quickly expanded beyond expectations and continues to grow. Emphasis will now be on Windows Mobile, BREW, J2ME (mobile Java), and Symbian devices. -- Posted Monday, March 5, 2007 by chb

Palm brings Microsoft Push Technology to more Treos
Palm announced the availability of a Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync Update for Palm OS devices for the Palm Treo 680 and 700p smartphones. The update enhances VersaMail by adding Microsoft's Direct Push Technology, allowing users connected to Microsoft Exchange Server fast, automatic wireless updates of email, calendar and contact information. In addition, Exchange ActiveSync Update for Palm OS complements Palm's Windows Mobile based Treo 700w, Treo 700wx, and the recently announced Treo 750 smartphones. [see full release] -- Posted Thursday, January 25, 2007 by chb

Palm OS now Garnet OS
Acess showed the new ACCESS Powered logo and announced it is renaming the Palm OS to Garnet OS. The new ACCESS Powered logo replaces the Palm Powered logo and is now used with products from both ACCESS and PalmSource, which is now known as ACCESS Systems Americas, Inc. As part of the grand renaming process, along with its previously announced agreement with Palm to sell PalmSource's rights in the Palm Trademark Holding Company to Palm, ACCESS is renaming all products that originally had Palm-based names. At the 2007 3GSM World Congress, ACCESS will showcase the ACCESS Linux Platform, NetFront Browser, and the NetFront Mobile Client Suite. -- Posted Thursday, January 25, 2007 by chb

Stanley Access Tech uses Treos with custom apps
Technicians at Stanley Access Technologies are using Treos to install, calibrate and repair automated doors at hospitals, airports, hotels and restaurants. Initial adjustments are now performed quickly and electronically with a customized application that sets parameters for such things as door speed and force. "I think we're just getting started," said Jeff Bonas, technical support specialist for Stanley Access Technologies. "Now that Treo smartphones are in our technicians' hands and they are experiencing what is possible, the next step is adding such things as onsite billing and inventory control, as well as GPS to reduce time spent looking for job sites." The company uses Treo smartphones for access to phone, contacts, calendar, email, camera, Documents To Go, RepliGo and two additional customized applications developed in-house with an independent developer. -- Posted Tuesday, January 16, 2007 by chb

SlingPlayer Mobile for Treo: TiVo on a Palm
Sling Media, a digital lifestyle products company, and Palm announced SlingPlayer Mobile for Palm OS, making it possible to watch television on the 3G-enabled Treo 700p smartphone (the Treo 700w, the Treo 700wx and the recently announced Treo 750 also supported). SlingPlayer Mobile is a software client that lets you watch and control a home TV from a wireless smartphone, providing the entire home TV experience. In addition, SlingPlayer Mobile can control a DVR, such as a TiVo, to record and shows that have been previously recorded, and pause and rewind live TV. The Slingbox redirects, or "placeshifts," a single live TV stream from a cable box, satellite receiver or DVR to the viewer's PC -- located anywhere in the home or anywhere in the world, via the Internet. SlingPlayer Mobile for Palm OS will be available in Q1 '07 as a public beta download from Sling Media's website, www.slingmedia.com. -- Posted Monday, January 8, 2007 by chb

Palm buys permanent Palm OS Garnet license
Palm has signed an agreement with ACCESS Systems Americas, Inc., formerly known as PalmSource, to license the source code for Palm OS Garnet which is used in several Treos and all Palm handhelds. Palm gets a perpetual license to use and innovate on the Palm OS Garnet code base and plans to ensure that Garnett applications will operate with little or no modification in future Palm products. Palm will pay ACCESS a lump sum of $44 million that eliminates continuing royalties over the coming years. [see full release] -- Posted Thursday, December 7, 2006 by chb

Free clinical decision support download
Thomson, a provider of clinical and management decision support solutions to healthcare professionals, today announced the launch of Thomson Clinical Xpert for PDAs. A powerful new medical reference and decision-support tool, Thomson Clinical Xpert puts authoritative drug, disease and laboratory information instantly into the hands of physicians and other prescribers, nurses, pharmacists, and clinical trainees, helping them to make important decisions at the point of care, and reducing the chances of medical errors. Thomson Clinical Xpert is a free application, and can be downloaded at www.thomsonclinicalxpert.com. -- Posted Monday, December 4, 2006 by chb

Certification delays mess up Palm's sales, earnings
Palm expects Q2 2007 revenue to be between $390 and $395 million, compared to earlier estimates of $430 to $450 million. The revenue shortfall is due primarily to a delay in completing the certification process for a product that the company had previously expected to ship within the quarter. Earnings per diluted share are expected to be somewhat lower as well. "Smartphone sell-through across our existing products is strong, reflecting solid business fundamentals in the face of significant competitive pressure," said Ed Colligan, Palm president and chief executive officer. "However, our Q2 FY07 revenue will be constrained by a delay in certification of a key product. We now expect to start shipping the Treo 750 for the U.S. market early in Q3 FY07. Our Treo 750v launch in Europe is doing quite well, and we expect international revenue for Q2 FY07 to be strong." In other words, Palm is now facing the pesky impact of governmental certification processes that not only provide persistent leaks, but also endless delays. -- Posted Monday, November 27, 2006 by chb

Treo 680 available from Cingular, or preorder unlocked version
Palm and Cingular Wireless announced availability of the sleek Treo 680 with its new look, good range of features and affordable price. The quad-band world phone and Palm OS-based 680 is geared towards both consumers and business customers. Available by Friday, Nov 24, the 680 costs as little as $199.99 (depending on service) and operates on Cingular's nationwide EDGE network. Palm also announced the preorder availability of Palm's unlocked Treo 680 from Palm's website at www.palm.com/Treo680. The Palm online store and Palm U.S. retail stores will exclusively sell the unlocked GSM/GPRS/EDGE quad-band world phone in four new colors – crimson, copper, arctic and graphite – for $399. -- Posted Wednesday, November 22, 2006 by chb

Sherwin-Williams deploys 2,000 Treos
Fortune 500 Sherwin-Williams deployed Treos to its entire sales force in the US, Caribbean and Canada. Using more than 2,000 Treos as wireless tools, sales reps gain immediate access to company resources that improve customer service, centralize information, and enhance business operations. Combining Palm's open-platform system with a customized application built in-house, employees use Treo smartphones as their mobile office, managing email and phone calls while at customer locations. Collaborating with AppForge, Sherwin-Williams created the customized Palm OS application that allows its sales force to record daily sales calls, calendar updates and customer contact information immediately after visiting with a customer, regardless of whether they have cell coverage. The data then automatically synchronizes with the corporate network once it returns to cellular coverage. Employees also can use the application to view sales-call history prior to calling a customer. -- Posted Wednesday, November 15, 2006 by chb

Treo featured in "A Good Year"
Palm announced the Palm Treo smartphone is featured as the technology star in the upcoming Twentieth Century Fox film "A Good Year," starring Russell Crowe, directed by Ridley Scott. The Treo smartphone makes its presence known with its signature ring tone and unique messaging and multimedia capabilities that compelled filmmakers to choose it over a separate cell phone, laptop and digital camera. The film premieres nationwide on Nov. 10. "The Palm Treo smartphone was chosen for its good looks and more. It brings deep communications capabilities, a passion for multimedia and a wide range of applications that would allow 'Max' to do everything from manage his business to choose a great wine," said John Hartnett, senior VP, global markets at Palm. -- Posted Friday, November 10, 2006 by chb

Palm responds to unwarranted lawsuit over dubious patents
Palm issued the following statement in response to a patent-infringement lawsuit filed against it by patent-holding company NTP Inc.: "The NTP lawsuit claims that certain Palm products infringe seven NTP patents. All seven of the patents asserted are being re-examined by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) and have been rejected by the re-examiners as invalid. Palm also noted that the NTP patents disclose a pager-based email service that has nothing in common with the mobile-computing devices invented by Palm. Palm has been in occasional contact with NTP concerning a license to these patents. When Palm last communicated with NTP many months ago, however, each of the patents already was the subject of re-examination proceedings by the PTO. Palm is disappointed that, after many months of silence and repeated rejections of NTP's claims by the PTO, NTP has chosen to sue on patents of doubtful validity. Palm respects legitimate intellectual property rights, but will defend itself vigorously against the attempted misuse of the patent and judicial systems to extract monetary value for rights to patents that may ultimately have no value at all."

-- Posted Monday, November 6, 2006 by chb

Palm announces sleek Treo 680 "world phone"
Palm announced the Palm Treo 680 smartphone, a GSM/GPRS/EDGE quad-band world phone that is smaller and sleeker than prior Treos (4.4 x 2.3 x 0.8, weighing 5.5 ounces) and comes in a variety of colors (Graphite, Crimson, Arctic, and Copper). The 680 runs Palm OS 5.4.9 on a 312MHz PXA270 processor, has a 320x320 screen, includes 64MB of user-available storage, nearly three times the memory of the original Treo 650 smartphone. Customers can add up to 2GB of storage with expansion cards. There is enhanced email and messaging; SMS, MMS and the Blazer browser have been improved; there is enhanced multimedial the 680 can be used as a wireless modem via Bluetooth 1.2. The Treo 680 also can be used as an MP3 player and has an integrated 640 x 480 digital camera, camcorder and video player. [see Palm's Treo 680 page] -- Posted Thursday, October 12, 2006 by chb

PalmSource changes name to ACCESS
In addition to unveiling a new logo today at the annual ACCESS Day in Tokyo, ACCESS announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, PalmSource, Inc., is in the process of changing its company name to ACCESS. The ACCESS press release says "Together, ACCESS and PalmSource are committed to developing products and platforms designed to optimize the capabilities of mobile phones and devices. The first product to leverage the collective technologies and expertise of ACCESS and PalmSource is the ACCESS Linux Platform (ALP), announced in February 2006." Check the new ACCESS website. -- Posted Thursday, October 12, 2006 by chb

FileFind v1.0 for Palm OS released
In the last few years, Palm handhelds got bigger and bigger memory cards. However, the Palm OS’s search facility never developed beyond RAM search – searching files in RAM works well, but finding a file on the memory card is next to impossible. Tamoggemon FileFind allows you to search for files on your memory card easily – just like Windows Find does on your desktop box. Search for files by size, content, name and attributes – you enter what you need, and FileFind does the rest. Tamoggemon FileFind is available right now from www.palmfilefind.com. A 14-day trial is available, the program costs 7.49$. -- Posted Thursday, October 5, 2006 by chb

New BMJ Clinical Evidence for Palm and Pocket PC
Unbound Medicine, specializing in knowledge management solutions and mobile information resources for healthcare, and the BMJ Publishing Group, a medical publisher, announced the release of an upgraded BMJ Clinical Evidence for mobile devices. This all-new version makes the full content of the BMJ Clinical Evidence database easy to access using Palms or Pocket PCs from any location, including the patient's bedside. Monthly updates are delivered to subscribers when they synchronize their devices. [see product page] -- Posted Wednesday, October 4, 2006 by chb

BusinessWeek launches free wap-based mobile edition
In response to the growing demand for sophisticated and relevant content for mobile devices such as smartphones, PDAs and other handheld computers, BusinessWeek is launching a new portable-electronic content delivery product, BusinessWeek Mobile Edition. Starting today, all of the high-quality content readers have come to expect from BusinessWeek will now be available free of charge at www.businessweek.mobi. -- Posted Monday, September 25, 2006 by chb

Palm profits down but revenues up
Palm posted a lower quarterly profit as the company spent more money to fend off rivals and sales in retail stores. Yet the results exceeded ever fickle Wall Street's forecasts, and Palm stock rose 6% after the company said it approved a $250 million stock buyback. Palm had said first-quarter Treo sales were lower than expected, and net income fell to $16.5 million, or 16 cents per share, in the period ended September 1. This was down from $18.2 million, or 18 cents a share, a year ago. Revenue rose 4% to $355.8 million during the quarter, in which the company announced a relationship with Vodafone Group, Europe's largest carrier, and shipped the Treo700wx to Sprint in the United States. -- Posted Monday, September 25, 2006 by chb

Palm launches Palm Developer Network (PDN)
Palm unveiled the Palm Developer Network (PDN), the first formal developer program to include both Palm OS and Microsoft Windows Mobile Pocket PC developers. The new program provides focused technical, business and marketing support, and replaces Palm's prior developer program, PluggedIn. New services include a support library to answer developer questions, and a "Designed For Palm Products” compatibility test and logo program to help validate that the mobile solutions are compatible with Palm devices. -- Posted Wednesday, September 13, 2006 by chb

iambic releases Agendus for Palm OS Premier Edition
iambic, Inc., a leading provider of productivity enhancement software for handheld computers, announced the release of Agendus for Palm OS Premier Edition, a breakthrough solution for managing personal information and communications from Treo or other Palm OS-based handheld device. Agendus for Palm OS Premier Edition consists of Agendus Professional, iambic's award-winning, fully integrated, personal information manager, Agendus Mail SSL Edition, a secure way to access and respond to your email and SMS messages from wherever you are, and the new Agendus Attendees Module, an intelligent and efficient way to leverage the Over-the-Air (OTA) capabilities of Treo smartphones to get meetings scheduled. -- Posted Wednesday, September 6, 2006 by chb

Treo 700wx for Sprint debuts
Palm announced the availability of the Treo 700wx smartphone running Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Phone Edition, adding another Palm EvDO product to Sprint's product offerings and marking the availability of Sprint's first Windows Mobile Treo smartphone on the Sprint Power Vision. The 700wx joins the initial 700w that used the Verizon Wireless phone service. Our take: It totally bites that hardware platforms increasingly have to conform to proprietary phone company services and offerings. All this means is that the device makers are losing the war to the phone companies that increasingly dictate what consumers can and cannot do with their devices, and at what price for each additional "service." -- Posted Wednesday, September 6, 2006 by chb

BlackBeryy push email on Treo 650
Cingular, Palm, and RIM announced availability of BlackBerry Connect for the Treo 650, enabling users to benefit from many popular features of the unique "push”-based BlackBerry architecture via BlackBerry Enterprise Server software that tightly integrates with Microsoft Exchange and IBM Lotus Domino, offering secure, push-based wireless access to email and other corporate data. BlackBerry Connect for the Treo 650 supports "Push” email to the Treo 650's inbox, wireless calendar synchronization, attachment viewing of Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and PDF documents, Remote Address Lookup, as well as centralized device management. BlackBerry Connect on the Treo 650 requires a BlackBerry Connect rate plan from Cingular. [see Palm product page] -- Posted Wednesday, August 30, 2006 by chb

Can Linux save the Palm OS?
News.com today ran an interesting feature/interview with Access's chief technology officer, quizzing him on his views of what seems destined to become the next OS platform for Palm devices. [read News.com interview] Our take: This, of course, is a huge question. Palm got started with a minimalist OS to run devices conceived by one of the foremost mobile technology minds of our time, Jeff Hawkins. Hawkins' interests changed, and the Palm meandered off into a different direction and now seems headed for what really is a very sophisticated OS platform. This approach sure worked for Apple, but then again, Apple has been a niche player for a very long time whereas Palm once dominated. -- Posted Tuesday, August 29, 2006 by chb

Palm Trepo GPS Navigator with Tom Tom
Good news for Treo smartphone user. Palm introduced the new Palm GPS Navigator Smartphone Edition featuring the latest TomTom NAVIGATOR software for Palm Treo 650, 700w and 700p smartphones. The new software package includes the most up to date TeleAtlas maps with coverage of all of the United States and Canada, a SiRF Star III powered GPS receiver with Bluetooth technology for easy pairing with the Treo. The system uses the latest Tele Atlas maps covering the United States and Canada, including millions of points of interest to help find fuel, restaurants, parks, airports and more. Automatic route recalculation puts you back on track if you take a wrong turn. Friendly user interface and touch screen operation make navigation simple and fast.[see Palm offer] -- Posted Thursday, August 24, 2006 by chb

Socket SD Scan Card adds scanning to PDAs
Socket Communications announced that Mosaic Sales Solutions, the largest field sales and marketing company in
North America, is recognizing significant cost savings, greater inventory recording and tracking accuracy through the use of a portable data collection solution featuring the Socket SD Scan Card 3E. The Secure Digital Scan Card (SDSC) 3E is a Series 3 Entry Level scanner that adds affordable bar code scanning to inexpensive Pocket PC or Palm OS devices. Based on miniature Linear CMOS Imaging technology from Symbol, the SDSC 3E scans all popular linear bar code symbologies and uses only 57mA of power during scanning to maximize battery life. SocketScan keyboard emulation software sends decoded data to any Windows or Palm application as virtual keystrokes. -- Posted Tuesday, August 22, 2006 by chb

Access and PalmSource high on ALP
ACCESS CO., LTD., and its wholly owned subsidiary PalmSource, Inc., marked the start of the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo by highlighting the momentum continuing to build around the ACCESS Linux Platform (ALP). ACCESS and PalmSource are developing ALP to provide the industry with the first truly integrated, complete commercial grade mobile Linux platform. Visit ACCESS and PalmSource this week at LinuxWorld Conference & Expo in booth 502. [see full release] -- Posted Monday, August 14, 2006 by chb

ACCESS and PalmSource announce ACCESS Developer Network
ACCESS CO., LTD., and its wholly owned subsidiary, PalmSource, today announced the ACCESS Developer Network, a new online resource designed to accelerate the creation, distribution and usage of mobile Linux applications for devices based on the ACCESS Linux Platform (ALP). The goal of the ACCESS Developer Network is to help Linux application developers "go mobile" and provide companies seeking to tap into the rapidly growing worldwide mobile Linux applications market with exclusive access to in-depth technical information and enhanced business development support. The projected growth in this market is expected to spur the expansion of the mobile Linux ecosystem by attracting new developers interested in creating applications for Linux-based mobile devices, including those based on ALP. [see full release] -- Posted Monday, August 14, 2006 by chb

Palm and Yelp debut rich local content on Treos
Palm and Yelp, Inc. announced the release of Yelp Mobile, which has been optimized for Palm Treo smartphones. The co-branded mobile website will provide Treo smartphone users with easy access to information that enhances their mobile-computing experience.(1) Mirroring the local search website, Yelp Mobile, which comprises hundreds of thousands of reviews, is presented in a small digestible format that enables users to easily read what the local community is saying about a specific business. The cooperative project represents Yelp's first dedicated mobile effort and is available on all web-enabled phones. -- Posted Wednesday, August 9, 2006 by chb

Palm, Vodafone and Microsoft work on next-gen Treo for Europe
Pal announced it has forged a new relationship with Vodafone targeted at expanding the adoption of wireless push email in Europe. The Treo smartphone that will result from this collaboration will represent an industry first by operating on Vodafone's 3G/UMTS network and delivering the hallmark Palm experience on top of the Microsoft Windows Mobile OS. The new Treo smartphone will be available first to Vodafone customers in multiple European countries, including the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy and Netherlands, before the end of the calendar year. -- Posted Thursday, July 13, 2006 by chb

iambic releases TinySheet spreadsheet
iambic announced the release of TinySheet for Palm OS Version 5, a stand-alone, full-featured spreadsheet program for Palm OS handhelds and smartphones that delivers Excel-like functionality. There are 113 spreadsheet functions and TinySheet comes with the spreadsheet charts and graphing charting capabilities of TinyChart; there is SD Memory Cards, high resolution and extended portrait/landscape modes on Treos, Tungsten, TX, and Lifedrive; Agendus Mail and TinySheet interaction, and more. [see full info] -- Posted Thursday, July 13, 2006 by chb

Biotronik uses Good Mobile Messaging
Good Technology announced BIOTRONIK, a leading worldwide medical device manufacturer and Cingular Wireless customer, has deployed Good Mobile Messaging for IBM Lotus Domino after a successful three-month beta program. The initial rollout will include Good Mobile Messaging running on Windows Mobile handhelds including the Cingular 2125 Smartphone, Cingular 8125 Pocket PC, as well as Cingular-enabled Palm OS-based Treo smartphones. -- Posted Monday, June 26, 2006 by chb

HopStop.com site for PDAs and other mobile devices
HopStop.com, the most-used site for subway and bus directions in the United States, today announced the launch of HopStop PDA. Consumers can now access HopStop's services from their PDA and other web-enabled devices. Visitors who visit HopStop.com from their Blackberry, Treo or other similar devices and will automatically be taken to a version of HopStop made for small screens. -- Posted Monday, June 26, 2006 by chb

Agendus for Palm OS Version 11
iambic, Inc., a provider of productivity enhancement software for handheld computers (PDAs and smartphones), today announced the release of Agendus for Palm OS Version 11, a powerfully, intuitive new version of its award-winning, fully-integrated, personal information manager for Palm OS handhelds and smartphones. This latest version of Agendus has been optimized to handle the dynamics of your everyday life, and provide a level of proactive personal assistance that so far has only been available from a "real-life" assistant, not a Treo smartphone or PDA. Agendus for Palm OS Professional Edition, Version 11 can be downloaded and purchased from www.iambic.com for $39.95. For information on upgrade options, visit http://www.iambic.com/upgrade/ -- Posted Wednesday, June 21, 2006 by chb

AppForge now supports Treo 700p
AppForge announced the addition of the recently launched Palm Treo 700p smartphone to the roster of devices supported by its award-winning Crossfire mobile application platform. -- Posted Wednesday, June 21, 2006 by chb

Amtrak launches mobile website and reservations.
Amtrak customers may now check train status or make or change a reservation from anywhere using a PDA with web access. Powered by LIFT Mobile, a server-based technology developed by UsableNet, Amtrak Mobile allows mobile device users to easily view up-to-date train status information and obtain wireless access to key functions available on http://www.Amtrak.com using the system's mouse-less navigation feature. This interface for mobile devices is available to BlackBerry, Treo, and Pocket PC users as well as through most cell phones. [view Amtrak mobile site] -- Posted Tuesday, June 6, 2006 by chb

ProMedica adopts mobile PatientKeeper applications
ProMedica Health System, the largest health care provider in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan, today announced that it has adopted PatientKeeper as its physician information system. Physicians use the PatientKeeper Mobile Clinical Results application to access their patients' medical records and the PatientKeeper Charge Capture application to accurately record the services they provide. PatientKeeper can support any tablet or PC running a Web browser as well as Palm OS and Windows Mobile devices. -- Posted Tuesday, May 23, 2006 by chb

Palm Treo 700p now available online
The recently announced Palm OS-based Palm Treo 700p smartphone is available online today and will be available in Verizon Wireless Communication Stores on June 1. The Treo 700p smartphone includes hardware and software innovations centered around usability, connectivity, multimedia and compatibility, designed to take advantage of the fast EV-DO data speeds of Verizon Wireless' BroadbandAccess service. With the 128MB Treo 700p, Verizon Wireless customers can also enjoy fast EV-DO speeds on their laptop computers with BroadbandAccess Connect, which turns the 700p into a wireless modem. Watch for a full Pen Computing review of the Treo 700p shortly. -- Posted Tuesday, May 23, 2006 by chb

Good snatches large account from RIM
Good Technology, a provider of industry standards-based enterprise handheld computing software and service, today announced that Thomson has replaced its BlackBerry system with over a thousand GoodLink-enabled Palm OS based Treo 650 smartphones, and Pocket PC devices. The company is running GoodLink on carriers Sprint and T-Mobile in the United States, and Orange in Europe. Our take: This may be just the beginning of a lot of switching over from RIM after RIM showed a willingness to settle with patent infringement attempts, which practically invites further lawsuits, plus a general move towards more industry standard solutions.
-- Posted Thursday, May 11, 2006 by chb

Conventional PDAs continue to drop
According to eChannelLine, a new IDC report says that the worldwide market for conventional handhelds continues to drop. It's now down to 1.5 million units the first quarter of 2006, and that despite integration of WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, VGA screens, etc. The biggest problem is that many of those features are available in the booming smartphone market. Palm is still on top with conventional handhelds, following a good reception of the Tungsten E2 and the Z22 last year. However, Palm's Treo smartphone business is now larger than its PDA business. HP, though sputtering, continues to hold the #2 spot. Dell is at #3, but the x30/x50 lines are pretty much end-of-life. The 4 and 5 spots are held by Acer and Mio. Mio is also the only top five vendor with a hefty sales increase. -- Posted Monday, May 8, 2006 by chb

Orb and Kinoma to bring live TV to Treo 650
Orb Networks will collaborate with Kinoma to let Treo 650 users on any mobile network enjoy all their home and Internet television, music, and videos anywhere. Right from the Treo 650's native Blazer web browser, users will be able to select home or Internet TV, music, or video content of any media format to stream to the Kinoma player. The free Orb application installed on the user's Windows XP PC transcodes the original content's media format when necessary and provides a stream at the appropriate bitrate for the user's mobile data connection. -- Posted Tuesday, April 25, 2006 by chb

Nokia soars -- It's good to make phones
Nokia reported Q1 2006 net sales of 9.5 billion Euros (about US$12 billion), and a stunning 40% year on year device volume growth that drove a 29% net sales growth. Nokia also reported estimates of industry quarterly device volume of 215 million units, up 27% compared to the same period last year. Nokia's share for the quarter was 75.1 million units, up 40% from last year. That made for a first quarter device market share of 35%, up 3%. Nokia's net sales in the US almost doubled year on year. Our take: At that rate, we're talking an annual pace of over 800 million phones, and more and more have some sorts (or extensive) smarts. Soon, many will be able to receive digital TV and act as GPS devices. It should be very interesting to see what share of phones will eventually include full PDA functionalities, how successful those devices will be, and what the prevalent form factor will be. -- Posted Thursday, April 20, 2006 by chb

Alltel launches Office Sync
Alltel, owner of America's largest wireless network, is launching Office Sync, which allows users to send/receive email in real time and also view calendars and contacts from their Palm and Windows Mobile devices. Office Sync is initially available on the Treo 650 and the UTStarcom PPC-6700. There are two versions of Office Sync. The Personal Edition delivers email, calendars and contacts from a personal desktop to a smart device. For larger businesses, the Enterprise Server Edition integrates Office Sync with a corporate server operating behind a secure firewall to deliver the information to customers' devices. Both editions are available from Alltel for $39.99 per month, including unlimited data. -- Posted Tuesday, April 18, 2006 by chb

Treo 700 used for two-way interaction at World HEalth Care COngress
At the World Health Care Congress, Palm and VisionTree Software announced they are collaborating for the first implementation of the Palm Treo 700w smartphone running the VisionTree Conference Platform. More than 200 VIP attendees will use Treo 700w as tools to wirelessly collect, analyze and report data while at the conference, which runs April 17-19. The Treos will allow the healthcare leaders to obtain input on strategic initiatives presented at the conference. Panelists will gain feedback from the audience through custom surveys and free-text input, and collaborate in real time while gathering relevant data. The data collected will then be available to present to the audience in graphs and charts for analysis and discussion. -- Posted Monday, April 17, 2006 by chb

Handbook on Injectable Drugs, 13th Edition on Palm OS
Skyscape announced the release of the US$49 “Handbook on Injectable Drugs, 13th Edition” formatted specially for PDAs and smartphones. It is a dynamic mobile tool that makes it easy for physicians to check compatibility of drugs so they can quickly take clinical action. Over 2,400 reference citations reveal the evidence base for each decision. No other drug reference examines drug stability and compatibility in such extensive detail. The reference is published by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, and joins Skyscape’s portfolio of more than 300 trusted references in over 35 medical specialties.
For Palm OS 3.5 or higher. -- Posted Monday, April 10, 2006 by chb

Skype Mobile VoIP and IM to Palm TREO
EQO Communications, a developer of presence-enabled calling and instant messaging solutions and services, today announced immediate availability of EQO Mobile for Skype(TM) on the Palm TREO 650. -- Posted Thursday, April 6, 2006 by chb

Microsoft Direct Push Technology for Palm Treo 700w
Palm announced a software update for the Treo 700w smartphone from Verizon Wireless that will enable the Windows Mobile Messaging and Security Feature Pack, which includes Direct Push Technology. The free update, which is expected to be available later this month, gives Treo 700w smartphone users fast, automatic wireless updates of their email, calendar items, contacts and tasks, allowing IT managers to deliver this information directly from Exchange Server 2003 SP2 without incurring additional third-party infrastructure costs. -- Posted Thursday, April 6, 2006 by chb

ActiveShopper Mobile Edition
For those handheld and smartphone users who absolutely cannot wait to find the best deals on something, the Shelron Group has now released version 1.0 of ActiveShopper Mobile Edition. The mobile edition is available to the public through cell phones and PDAs at http://mobile.activeshopper.com. As shown, the Mobile Edition includes a search field to get comparative shopping information from ActiveShopper's US or UK comparative shopping databases. Product info is then condensed to fit the relatively small screen size of most cell phones and PDAs, yet it still contains the product's full name, the number of online merchants who sell it, and the lowest available online price. -- Posted Tuesday, March 28, 2006 by chb

Palm reports higher revenue and market share
Palm reported revenue of $388.5 million in its third quarter of fiscal year 2006, ended March 3, up 36 percent from the year-ago period. During the third quarter of fiscal year 2006, Palm shipped a total of 564,000 Treo smartphones. Treo sell-through was up 102 percent from the year-ago period, reflecting strong demand for the Treo 650 and Treo 700w. Palm's share of the U.S. converged smartphone/PDA market was 30 percent, up from 22 percent a year ago, and Palm's unit shipments grew by 111 percent compared to the overall market growth of 56 percent, according to Canalys. -- Posted Friday, March 24, 2006 by chb

Palm Pilot's 10th Anniversary
Monday, March 27, 2006 marks the 10th anniversary of the introduction of the original Palm Pilot. The little 5-ounce PDA, brainchild of Jeff Hawkins, was created on the conviction that the future of personal computing was mobile computing. A lot happened in the past ten years, and it wasn't always smooth sailing, but Palm built incrementally on that vision and this eventually led to the Treo, another Hawkins brainchild, and probably the most highly acclaimed smartphones in the industry. As the industry changes, Palm is now morphing from being the PDA leader to more timely and more capable products, currently culminating in the Treo smartphones. Palm still draws new customers and a new demographic with its PDAs that range from $99 entry-level organizers to multimedia-rich PDAs with integrated Bluetooth and WiFi, such as the T5 and the LifeDrive (which still hold four of the five retail top spots) -- all part of mobile computing. -- Posted Tuesday, March 21, 2006 by chb

FoxHollow uses Treos, GoodLink for sales force
Palm announced that medical device manufacturer FoxHollow Technologies has deployed more than 330 Treos running GoodLink from Good Technology to help its mobile sales force, senior management and other employees maintain contact with physicians and colleagues while in the field. FoxHollow makes an FDA-cleared medical device called the SilverHawk Plaque Excision System. With healthcare professionals constantly on the go, FoxHollow staff needed a product that would allow them to easily adapt to professionals' schedules. The Treo can provide information to doctors at the point of care and they can even use their smartphones combined with an SD Card to show video demonstrations of the SilverHawk at work, eliminating the need to use a laptop. -- Posted Tuesday, March 14, 2006 by chb

We review early Treo 700w software
We've lived with the Treo 700w for a couple of months now, and it's a terrific device! We also tested some of the first software formatted for the Treo 700w and bring you our impressions on ALK's CoPilot Live v.6, Developer One's Code Wallet Pro 2005, NewsBreal v.1 by Ilium Software, and Handmark's Pocket Express. [see our reviews] -- Posted Tuesday, March 14, 2006 by chb

AppForge Crossfire 6 supports Treo 600/650/700
AppForge announced the latest version of mobile application platform, Crossfire 6.0. With the new rev, Visual Studio developers can easily create comprehensive on-device mobile applications for millions of Palm Treo mobile devices in the market today. There is support for the entire Palm Treo smartphone product family, including the Windows Mobile Palm Treo 700w and Palm-powered Treo 600 and 650 devices. Promotional pricing through the end of March is US$495. {See Appforge release -- Posted Wednesday, March 8, 2006 by chb

Palm statement on the RIM settlement
Palm's statement on the RIM settlement: "We have long believed that a settlement between these parties would be the eventual outcome. We have remained focused on competing in the market by delivering choice to our customers based upon open, standards-based products that win in the marketplace. Palm's partnerships with Good Technology and Microsoft are attracting a growing number of customers. In the United States, we are gaining share of the smartphone market faster than any other supplier, including RIM. We think our momentum will continue as more and more companies understand and deploy our solutions." -- Posted Monday, March 6, 2006 by chb

Transverse Networks CallConnect now compatible with Treo
Traverse Networks, an innovator of mobility solutions for enterprise voice systems, announced that its CallConnect with Visual Voicemail software is now compatible with Palm-based Treo handheld mobile devices. Treo compatibility includes models 600 and 650 from three wireless carriers, Cingular, Sprint/Nextel and Verizon. -- Posted Monday, March 6, 2006 by chb

NoviiRemote now on Palm Z22 and Treo 700w
NoviiMedia, software developer for handhelds and smartphones, has announced that their NoviiRemote Deluxe for Palm and NoviiRemote Deluxe for PPC software is now compatible with the recently released Palm Z22 and Treo 700w, respectively. This new technology allows the PDA user to get control over their home entertainment system by means of NoviiRemote applications. -- Posted Tuesday, February 28, 2006 by chb

Plug-n-Play RFID reader for Palms
Sirit Inc. a provider of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, unveiled the Sirit Plug-n-Play product line - a cost-effective family of SDIO and USB based multi-protocol 'plug and play' products, supporting a wide range of RFID applications. Using SDIO and USB, and integrated readers and antennas, these RFID products can easily be used with a broad range of devices including smartphones, PDAs, handhelds, point-of-sale terminals and laptop PCs, thus enabling very low cost RFID readers and writers. -- Posted Monday, February 27, 2006 by chb

Docs can pick meds covered by health plans on their Palm
Fingertip Formulary announces the launch of Fingertip Formulary Mobile, a real-time wireless solution that provides physicians and other healthcare providers with comprehensive formulary data, including Medicare Part D plans, at the point of care. With a few keystrokes, physicians can now get formulary data at the time they need it using any BlackBerry, Pocket PC, or Palm wireless PDA. Traditionally, physicians have had no simple way to determine which drugs are covered under any of the 10 to 20 health plans in each of their practices. -- Posted Tuesday, February 21, 2006 by chb

Good Mobile Defense
Good Technology announced Good Mobile Defense that brings enterprise class security to Palm OS handhelds, including third party applications, external storage cards, and handheld features such as WiFi and Bluetooth. With Good Mobile Defense, the level of enterprise security previously only available for GoodLink and GoodAccess is now available to protect the entire handheld. Good Mobile Defense provides advanced password management, application lockdown, feature control, advanced encryption management, and data erase after excessive failed password and authentication attempts. Good Mobile Defense is available as an extension to GoodLink and GoodAccess for Palm OS handhelds. -- Posted Thursday, February 16, 2006 by chb

Treo Smartphone of choice for businesses
Palm and Frost & Sullivan today released results of a smartphone end-user survey declaring that the Palm Treo smartphone is the smartphone of choice for businesses. According to the report, mobile professionals are choosing Treo smartphones for the platform's abundant business-ready applications, high degree of flexibility, choice of operating systems, and power and convenience. In addition, Frost & Sullivan assessed the return on investment (ROI) of Treo smartphones used in a range of businesses and conservatively determined the average payback period to be less than two months. The results also reported that sales and field agents experienced productivity gains that equaled $11,125 in average savings per agent each year. [View Frost & Sullivan report as pdf] -- Posted Wednesday, February 15, 2006 by chb

Houston, we have a new Palm OS, or do we?
PalmSource and its owner ACCESS Co. announced what they consider the "latest evolution" of the Palm OS at Barcelona's 3GSM World Congress. It's called the ACCESS Linux Platform, or ALP, and is designed to be an integrated, open and flexible Linux-based platform for smartphones and mobile devices. What that means is that the long-awaited Palm OS 6, codenamed Cobalt, will never happen, and Palm OS 5, "Garnet", is gone, at least from ACCESS's plans. That's really not unlike Apple, whose own planned replacement for the legacy original Mac OS was years in the making, just to then be replaced by the totally different OS X when Steve Jobs rode back into power. Anyway, ALP's major components are a standard Linux kernel (version 2.6.12 and higher), the GIMP ToolKit for cool graphics, GSTreamer for multi-threaded media networking, and SQLite, a database for embedded devices. Incorporated also are, surprise, the ACCESS NetFront browser, and a variety of PalmSource messaging, telephony and mobile application components. The ACCESS/PalmSource ALP release includes endorsements and industry support from the likes of NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Samsung, TI, etc., but, interestingly, not from Palm. Our take: This should be interesting. The ACCESS move to Linux was expected. Such a move worked well for Apple, sort of, but with ALP-powered devices not expected until 2007, and with the platform's Japanese origins, it's anyone's guess where Palm itself will place its chips. They may well decide to milk Palm OS 5.4 and then completely switch to Windows Mobile. And with Symbian going very strong and Microsoft's Smartphone gathering steam, it may take Nokia or Sony-Ericsson support to give ALP a chance. -- Posted Tuesday, February 14, 2006 by chb

Houston, we have a new Palm OS, or do we?
PalmSource and its owner ACCESS Co. announced what they consider the "latest evolution" of the Palm OS at Barcelona's 3GSM World Congress. It's called the ACCESS Linux Platform, or ALP, and is designed to be an integrtaed, open and flexible Linux-based platform for smartphones and mobile devices. What that means is that the long-awaited Palm OS 6, codenamed Cobalt, will never happen, and Palm OS 5, "Garnet", is gone, at least from ACCESS's plans. That's really not unlike Apple, whose own planned replacement for the legacy original Mac OS was years in the making, just to then be replaced by the totally different OS X when Steve Jobs rode back into power. Anyway, ALP's major components are a standard Linux kernel (version 2.6.12 and higher), the GIMP ToolKit for cool graphics, GSTreamer for multi-threaded media networking, and SQLite, a database for embedded devices. Incorporated also are, surprise, the ACCESS NetFront browser, and a variety of PalmSource messaging, telephony and mobile application components. The ACCESS/PalmSource ALP release includes endorsements and industry support from the likes of NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Samsung, TI, etc., but, interestingly, not from Palm. Our take: This should be interesting. The ACCESS move to Linux was expected. Such a move worked well for Apple, sort of, but with ALP-powered devices not expected until 2007, and with the platform's Japanese origins, it's anyone's guess where Palm itself will place its chips. They may well decide to milk Palm OS 5.4 and then completely switch to Windows Mobile. And with Symbian going very strong and Microsoft's Smartphone gathering steam, it may take Nokia or Sony-Ericsson support to give ALP a chance. -- Posted Tuesday, February 14, 2006 by chb

Palm certifies MV900 BT speakerphone for Treo 650/700
The palm-sized MV900 turns the Treo 700w and Treo 650 into portable, powerful speakerphones. The MV900’s voice command dialing and voice caller ID, allows mobile professionals and commuters to talk truly hands-free and enjoy loud, clear phone conversations while driving on noisy highways with its 120dB speaker volume and small array microphones (2 SAMs), and high performance echo elimination technology. In addition to Bluetooth connectivity, the MV900 is also a plug-and-play USB speakerphone, facilitating high quality VoIP calls on Treo smartphones or laptops using Internet telephony applications such as Skype, Google Talk, Yahoo IM, and DialPad. -- Posted Friday, February 10, 2006 by chb

Major shareholder urges Palm to sell
According to Reuters, Mark Nelson, a top shareholder of Palm and also founder and former CEO of Ovid Technologies, has sent a letter to Palm's board urging it to explore a sale of the company. Nelson, who owns about 7 percent of Palm, feels the company is near the peak of its growth and should "begin exploring strategic alternatives, including a sale of the company, while Palm is in the ascendant." Nelson feels that Palm faces stiff competition from larger and better leveraged companies, and has made little progress with its international business. Despite this, Nelson argues that Palm would be a desirable acquisition to the likes of RIM, HP, or Dell. Our take: RIM has its hands full with the pending lawsuit, HP is too large and diverse to care much about one small aspect of its business, and Dell sells PCs and nothing else. We hope Palm tries to establish itself as king of the hill in true smartphones all by itself. -- Posted Saturday, February 4, 2006 by chb

Rugged Palm device for automotive diagnostics
Shade Tree Software announced the ProDiag HD automotive diagnostic test tool designed with the professional mechanic in mind. It comes with an industrial RDA (Rugged Digital Assistant) running the Palm operating system. This IP67-compliant, hand-held device, based on the Aceeca Meazura, is waterproof and dustproof to stand up to the most demanding shop environments. ProDiag HD can communicate with vehicles using all the physical interfaces in use today: K-Line, J1850 (using Pulse Width Modulation or Variable Pulse Width) and even CAN (Controller Area Network) bus. It comes with an OBD-II software module that can be used for power-train diagnostics on any 1996 or newer vehicle. The OBD-II module implements the full ISO-15031.5 specification and contains the complete ISO-15031.6 list of trouble code descriptions. A VAG (Volkswagen Automotive Group) diagnostic module designed specifically for VWs, Audis and other members of the VW family is also available. -- Posted Thursday, February 2, 2006 by chb

Palm shows GoodLink on Treo at LegalTech
With those who rely on push-email quaking in their boots over the embarrassing, greed-driven legal squabblings over who owns what patent rights, Palm, is showcasing Good Technology's GoodLink email solution on the Sprint PCS Vision Palm Treo 650 to more than 9,000 legal professionals at LegalTech, Jan. 30-Feb. 1, at the Hilton New York in midtown Manhattan. A fly in the ointment is that Visto is now accusing Good Technology of infringing on Visto patents for sending data wirelessly over a network and seeks a permanent injunction against the GoodLink software that runs Good's system, just as NTP is trying to get a huge settlment from RIM or else have RIM's wireless service shut down. [see Visto lawsuit news] -- Posted Wednesday, February 1, 2006 by chb

FileMaker Mobile 8 released
FileMaker, Inc. announced the availability of FileMaker Mobile 8, a companion to FileMaker Pro 8 designed specifically for Palm OS and Pocket PC handheld devices. The new FileMaker Mobile 8 goes beyond synchronizing with local desktop databases only. For the first time, it allows users to synchronize handhelds with databases on FileMaker Server 8 and FileMaker Server 8 Advanced. FileMaker Mobile 8 runs on the Palm Treo 650 and many other Palm and Windows Mobile compatible handheld devices, allowing individuals and mobile workgroups to extend the productivity of FileMaker solutions from the office to their handheld device. FileMaker Mobile 8 supports a range of applications as simple as lists to more complex solutions such as inventory records, customer information, student records, work orders, research notes, or help-desk records. [FileMaker Mobile 8 specs] -- Posted Tuesday, January 24, 2006 by chb

Mobile disease and treatment reference software
San Mateo, Calif.-based Epocrates Inc., a provider of mobile and desktop clinical applications, announced the launch of the Epocrates SxDx disease diagnosis and treatment reference and symptom assessment tool. The application, developed in collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital's Laboratory of Computer Science, provides intelligent decision support to clinicians throughout the diagnosis process. Developed for Palm and Windows Mobile devices, the new product allows healthcare professionals to enter patient symptoms and findings to generate a clinically useful diagnosis index to the Epocrates disease reference. -- Posted Tuesday, January 10, 2006 by chb

The significance of the Palm Treo 700w
A couple of years ago, even the thought of a Palm running Windows CE (now Windows Mobile) would have been preposterous. A year ago, while Palm was already busily working with Microsoft and Verizon, each such rumor was still quickly squelched. Yet, it happened and now we have the first Palm product running Windows Mobile in the Treo 700w. What will it mean? Will Palm simply shrivel into insignificance now that it no longer controls its own operating system and may find it impossible to compete with inexpensive Taiwanese and Chinese hardware OEMs? Or will the company prosper because, for the first time, Microsoft has a hardware OEM that concentrates 100% on handhelds (as compared to the likes of HP, Dell, Casio, NEC, etc., to whom CE devices were always a tiny part of thi oeverall business). We've had a Treo 700w in our hands for a while now and will soon report, in detail, on its pros and cons. Based on our preliminary observations, the WinMo Treo may well greatly increase the overall Treo market. -- Posted Tuesday, January 10, 2006 by chb

Handmark supports Palm Treo 700w
Handmark and Gemstar-TV Guide International announced that TV Guide Mobile, a dynamic television listings and content service, is available for the new Palm Treo 700w smartphone from Verizon Wireless. Through a yearly or monthly subscription, TV Guide Mobile provides consumers with the content and personalized tools they need to get the most out of the world of television. Handmark also announced that its Award-Winning Pocket Express wireless information bundle and ZAGAT TO GO, the mobile version of Zagat Survey's hugely popular restaurant and entertainment guides are now available for the Treo 700w. -- Posted Thursday, January 5, 2006 by chb

WiFi MobiTV comes to Palm
MobiTV, Inc., leader in television and digital radio services for mobile devices, announced the launch and availability of WiFi enabled MobiTV Service for the Palm T|X handheld. With the bandwidth available through most WiFi networks, MobiTV delivers broadcast quality television at 24 frames per second and offer more than a dozen channels including ABC News Now, Bloomberg, C-SPAN, Comedy Time, ESPN 3GTV, Fashion TV, Fox News, Fox Sports, MAXX Sports, NanoTV, The Weather Channel and ToonWorld TV, with more channels to be added over time. Subscribers will be able to connect to MobiTV over home and corporate WiFi networks as well as the over 30,000 WiFi hotspots available in the US. -- Posted Wednesday, January 4, 2006 by chb

Garmin releases entry-level Palm GPS device
Garmin introduced the iQue 3000, a newly-styled, entry-level Palm Powered PDA that offers fully integrated GPS technology and expands Garmin's iQue Palm OS PDA product line, which currently includes the iQue 3200 and iQue 3600. The more compact 3000 measures 2.8 x 4.7 x 0.7 inches, weighs 5.2 ounces, has a 320 x 320 display, a 200MHz ARM9 CPU, a microSD slot qith a 128MB card included, and it costs US$399. Users can download detailed street information from the installation DVD that comes with the package and includes nearly six million points of interest, such as restaurants, hotels, transportation hubs, and banks. Map data is provided by NAVTEQ. -- Posted Tuesday, January 3, 2006 by chb

Palm reports increased growth, good earnings
Palm reported revenues of US$445 million for Q2 2006, up 18% from Q2 2005. Net income was a stellar US$261 million, but that included "a partial reversal of a deferred tax asset valuation allowance." Without that, it was $24.4 million, comparable to Q2 last year, and very good. According to CEO Ed Colligan, Palm shipped a million Treos in the first half of fiscal 2006, almost as many as during all of 2005. Considering that Palm will soon release the Windows Mobile-based Treo 700w and will annnounce another three smartphones in 2006, there's significant reason for optimism. -- Posted Wednesday, December 21, 2005 by chb

NY Times interviews Palm CEO Colligan
In an extended interview with the New York Times, Palm CEO Ed Colligan talks about the recent RIM turmoil, Palm's decision to team up with Microsoft ("When we first kind of signed the deal or whatever it blew our minds a little bit as you say."), and the general future of Palm and the handheld market. [read Colligan interview]

-- Posted Thursday, December 15, 2005 by chb

TV Guide Mobile
Gemstar-TV Guide International, Inc. , a provider of television information and guidance, and mobile media specialist Handmark announced the availability of TV Guide Mobile(TM, a dynamic new television listings and content service designed for Palms, Treos and Windows Mobile Pocket PCs and Smartphones. Through a yearly or monthly subscription, TV Guide Mobile provides consumers with the content and personalized tools they need to get the most out of the world of television. [see Handmark's TV Guide page.] -- Posted Wednesday, December 7, 2005 by chb

Visual Voicemail now on Palm Treo
Mobile workers know the tedious voicemail routine: Call voicemail, enter PIN, wade through menus to sequentially to one message after the other. Skip, save, delete, repeat. Visual Voicemail from Traverse Networks changes all that, delivering voicemail to mobile devices within an email-like inbox. Visual Voicemail is available as a stand alone solution or as a fully integrated component of CallConnect that provides complete control of a corporate office phone from mobile devices including Palm Treos, RIM Blackberries and Symbian based smartphones. Very clever. -- Posted Monday, November 28, 2005 by chb

Treo 650 now on Alltel network
Alltel, owner and operator of the nation's largest wireless network, and Palm announced the Palm Treo 650 smartphone will be available through Alltel retail stores starting tomorrow. The handset will cost $399.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a two-year service agreement. -- Posted Tuesday, November 22, 2005 by chb

PalmSource acquisition final
Japan's Access and its US branch announced it has completed the acquisition of PalmSource which is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Access and no longer traded as a separate company. Each share of PalmSource has been converted into the right to receive US$18.50 in cash. Up to now, almost 40 million devices using the Palm OS have been sold. According to CNET's news.com Palm CEO Ed Colligan had told Computer Business Review in October that he probably would not have separated PalmSource from Palm had he been in charge at the time. It also reported that Motorola had launched a failed US$17.25 per share bid for PalmSource. -- Posted Wednesday, November 16, 2005 by chb

Colligan reassures Palm developers
In a letter sent to Palm developers, Palm CEO Ed Colligan reassured Palm OS developers that Palm won't stop using the Palm OS for some time to come, and also why branching out to Windows Mobile made sense. [see Colligan's letter] -- Posted Thursday, November 10, 2005 by chb

Palm opens five new retail stores
Palm, Inc. announced the three-year anniversary of their retails stores with the opening of five new Palm Retail Stores in California where customers can "test drive" Palm's products and get expert support from Palm's friendly staff. These stores incorporate the new Palm brand, an accessories wall where customers can choose Palm accessories and games, and a computer area where sales staff show customers how to sync their devices to their computers and answer questions about applications. New locations include: Valley Fair Westfield Shopping Town (San Jose), San Francisco International Airport, Terminal 1, San Francisco International Airport, Terminal 3, Palm's company headquarters in Sunnyvale, and The Grove Shopping Center (Los Angeles). -- Posted Tuesday, November 8, 2005 by chb

New rev of Zagat To Go
PDA software and mobile media specialist Handmark announced the availability of the new 4.0 version of ZAGAT TO GO, the mobile version of Zagat Survey's hugely popular restaurant and entertainment guides, for Palm handhelds, Treo smartphones and Windows Mobile Pocket PCs. In addition to its comprehensive ratings guides, ZAGAT TO GO now offers many new features including wireless content updates, detailed street-level maps, and turn-by-turn driving directions to the user's desired destination. [see full Handmark release or Zagat's ToGo page.] -- Posted Monday, November 7, 2005 by chb

PDA sales UP! No, DOWN! No, UP! No, DOWN!
Mobilemag.com: "Gartner predicts PDA sales to sky rocket this year -- According to a report by Gartner, the shipment of PDAs in Q3, 2005 has registered a staggering growth of nearly 21 percent over the corresponding period last year. The total shipment figure in the given period stood at a commendable 3.45 million units. On the basis of this trend, Gartner has projected a record sale of nearly 15 million units of PDAs this year which will far exceed the best ever PDA shipments figure of 13.2 million units registered in 2001."

Betanews.com: "PDA Sales Continue to Decline -- Handheld devices continued to fall out of favor with consumers, according to a report released by market research firm IDC. In the third quarter of 2005, handheld sales fell 8.8 percent compared with last quarter, and 16.9 percent year over year. Even with the declines, device manufacturers are continuing to release new products, many featuring some type of wireless connectivity. While IDC expects an uptick in sales sequentially from quarter to quarter, sales will likely miss last year's numbers." -- Posted Monday, November 7, 2005 by chb

Forbes reports on Palm's situation and product launches
In a recent Market Scan feature, Forbes reports that accoridng to Palm, its PDA products have lower average gross margins than its smartphones which have the average selling price. Palm PDAs, however, can still be profitable. Smartphones were almost two thirds of Palm's revenue for the quarter ending August 2005. The Verizon Windows Treo with an EVDO radio (EVDO is a high-speed network protocol used for wireless data communications) will sell at the $700 level, an EVDO replacement if the Treo 650 will ship by next May via Verizon and maybe Nextel. Less expensive Treos in the $200 range are also expected. -- Posted Saturday, November 5, 2005 by chb

Missing Sync for Palm OS
mark/space announced that its Missing Sync for Palm OS now supports the new Sync Services technology in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, with Address Book and iCal data synchronization greatly improved. Now calendar categories, multiple addresses, Birthdays, IM addresses and other fields are synchronized. There's synchronization for iTunes playlists and iPhoto albums, and photos taken with camera-enabled devices can be sent right to iPhoto. The utility costs US$39.95, with upgrade discounts for users of earlier versions. -- Posted Friday, November 4, 2005 by chb

PHT Corp uses Palms to collect medical data
Palm, Inc. announced that PHT Corporation, one of its leading clinical trials customers, is using 1,500 Palm Treo 650 smartphones to collect and wirelessly transmit self-reported data from subjects using PHT's customized LogPad application in clinical trials across the globe. PHT plans to roll out the initial set of smartphones over a six-month period for use during a series of clinical trials. PHT has deployed more than 20,000 Palm handhelds in the past two years and is at the forefront of smartphone use in clinical research. More than 70 biopharmaceutical and medical device companies, including 13 of the top 15 drug-development firms in the world, use PHT's market-leading electronic patient reported outcome (ePRO) solutions in more than 180 clinical studies worldwide. -- Posted Tuesday, October 25, 2005 by chb

PalmSource among first to join Mobile Linux initiative
The Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), a global consortium dedicated to accelerating the adoption of Linux, announced the formation of a new working group, the Mobile Linux Initiative (MLI), focused on accelerating the adoption of Linux in the rapidly-growing mobile market. MLI participants will work on operating system technical challenges, foster development of applications for Linux-based mobile devices, deliver requirements definition documents and use cases, and host complementary open source projects that support the initiative. MontaVista Software, Motorola, PalmSource, Trolltech, and Wind River are among the first members to participate in MLI. [see Mobile Linux Initiative] -- Posted Monday, October 17, 2005 by chb

Palm launches US$99 Z22
In a one-two punch, Palm not only launched the intriguing new TX, but also the handsomely styled $99 Z22. The new lossleader runs Palm OS 5.4 on a 200MHZ ARM-based processor, has 32MB of memory with 24MB available to users, a 160x160 touchscreen, a Mini USB connector, and measures 2.7 x 4.1 x 0.6 inches. It weighs almost nothing: 3.4 ounces. Compared to the prior lossleader, the US$129 Zire 31, the new model has twice the memory, runs the newest version of the Palm OS, but doesn't play music. Palm advertises it as a "Small wonder. Your planner, journal, sticky notes, and calendar all in one little place." [see Palm product page] -- Posted Wednesday, October 12, 2005 by chb

Palm releases new Palm TX
Palm announced the new Palm TX handheld that features integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless technologies, a large, high-resolution 320x480 color screen; and all the power needed to efficiently access and manage information conveniently on the road away from the desktop. The TX runs Palm OS "Garnet" 5.4, has 128MB of memory with 100MB accessible to users, a 312MHz PXA processor, a SFIO slot, a standard 3.5mm stsreo headphone jack, and a multiconnector. It measures 3.1 x 4.8 x 0.6 inches and weighs 5.25 ounces. The Palm TX will have an estimated street price of $299. Compared to the T5 whose overall design it shares, the TX adds WiFi and costs $50 less, but has a somewhat slower processor and half the memory. [see Palm TX page] -- Posted Wednesday, October 12, 2005 by chb

MobiTV expands service to Wi-Fi with the Palm TX
MobiTV announced today that it will be expanding the MobiTV Service to WiFi devices and networks. The first such offering will be launched for the Palm TX handheld later this year, in time for the Holiday buying season. With the bandwidth available through most WiFi networks, MobiTV will deliver broadcast quality television at 24 frames per second. At launch, the service will include approximately 10 channels offering a mix of news, weather, sports, and entertainment programming. The MobiTV WiFi version is similar to the MobiTV offering for Palm Treo 650 smartphones with a simple, TV-like interface including a graphical channel guide. Channel navigation and volume control is possible through both the familiar 5-way native Palm navigation and on-screen tapping. The Palm TX handheld from Palm, Inc., announced today, features integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth(R) wireless technologies(1); a large, high-resolution 320x480 color screen; and all the power needed to efficiently access and manage information conveniently on the road away from the desktop. The Palm TX handheld will have an estimated street price of $299. -- Posted Wednesday, October 12, 2005 by chb

What's the future of Palm?
No one really knows, but Information Week ran an article with some pretty good speculations. [click for article] -- Posted Wednesday, October 5, 2005 by chb

THEY DID IT!!!! WinMobile on Treo
After months' of denying it, the once unthinkable happened: "Palm, Microsoft and Verizon Wireless have just announced a partnership to bring Windows Mobile to the Treo smartphone. The new smartphone provides customers with more options and will be available beginning early next year." [Read full press release]
-- Posted Tuesday, September 27, 2005 by chb

Access to become a challenge to smartphone supremacy?
Will Access' purchase of PalmSource upset the platform hierarchy in the smartphone market? According to an analysis posted at ovum it might. "It is not hard to imagine a future Access proposition built on the foundations of the Palm OS user interface and application environment with Linux at its heart," argues Tony Cripps. We agree. After all, that's the recipe Apple took with OS X. Place a superior user interface on top of an industrial strength OS, and you have the best of both worlds. However, it's one thing to use that recipe for desktops and notebooks, and another for handhelds or smartphones. Access has considerable options and resources now to take a crack at conquering the smartphone market, and Nokia, Symbia and Microsoft should probably follow developments very closely. -- Posted Friday, September 16, 2005 by chb

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