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Handhelds Hardware

New Palm Pictures? 234

New Palm writes "It looks like pictures of a new Palm os5 device codenamed 'Oslo' have hit the web. www.pocketpcthought.com had them up, but after a phonecall from Palm's Director of Global Information Security, pulled the pictures. A number of people are mirroring them. Looks semi-legit - but who knows, and who knows how long the images will stay up?
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New Palm Pictures?

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  • First "mirror" link is broken in the article...
  • Compelling design, but a) looks fake as hell (look at the bottom left corner of the top half of the device, just above the graffiti area), and b) I'd hope that the BeOS guys are capable of a better application browser than the same old one all the older Palm OS's use.
    • Yeah but look: they're using tabbed windows! :)

      Seriously I imagine right now the ex-Be engineers are working on system level stuff instead of GUI stuff. It will be interesting to see what they come up with.
    • I'm looking at the bottom left corner of the top half, and I don't see what you mean. Can you elaborate?

      • if you look at the top left corner of the palm unit, it looks super-imposed, and the blurring around the bottom half looks fake-ish too. It could be natural, but I side with the poster that it looks like photoshop lent a hand to this picture.
    • by brokeninside ( 34168 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @09:12AM (#3870570)
      AFAIK, the engineers from Be are working on v6 which is currently a nebulous "next generation" OS for Palm Computing.

      Palm OS v5 is essentially the Palm OS kernel hacked to run on ARM with a few kludges for a bit of functionality that Palm OS currently lacks to make it competitive.

      If these pix are real, they are far more likely to be of a unit running Palm OS v5 than v6 as v6 doesn't really exist yet except on whiteboards in the heads of the OS architects.

      I have two hopes for v6:

      1. Palm Computing doesn't pull an IBM (OS/2 PPC) or an Apple (Copland, the original MacOS 8).
      2. The Be invasion of the software division of Palm Computing proceeds a la the NeXT invasion of Apple.
      And I still think it a shame that Palm Computing decided that Linux (because of the GPL) was incompatible with their business model in relation to IP. It is also a shame that they didn't (apparently) look into one of the BSDs.

      Of course, the Be crowd was purchased at a fire sale price. I bet JLG is kicking himself in the head when the company he refused to sell to Apple for millions barely managed to get hundreds of thousands in liquidation.

    • If you are referring to the obvious break in the case design between the screen and graffiti area, It looks to me that they're designing the thumbpad as a slide down cover (ala Zaurus) to hide the graffiti area when not in use.

      • That, or posibly a clip-on thumboard module. My own speculation is that this may be their "communicator" device; it has a favorites icon like an i705 instead of the calculator icon you see on a non-wireless palm; the indicator light top right looks very like the i705 conneciton status light, and it's made of plastic, not metal, indicating it is unlikely to be the top-end device.
  • sucked dry (Score:4, Funny)

    by Alien54 ( 180860 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @07:59AM (#3870152) Journal
    Looks semi-legit - but who knows, and who knows how long the images will stay up?

    Probably until the Slash dot effect kicks in, and their monthly bandwith allowance is sucked dry like a raisin in the sun in Death Valley.

    Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

  • Better Mirror (Score:4, Informative)

    by kawaichan ( 527006 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @08:00AM (#3870159)
    Here is a better Mirror [rogers.com]

    About the device

    -Interesting way to make the device smaller
    -Still hard graffit?
    -320x320 screen
    • Re:Better Mirror (Score:1, Informative)

      by ABetterMan ( 579589 )
      Another mirror [wiretapped.us] here. :)
    • "-320x320 screen"

      Really? It looked like 160x160 to me... If Palm went 320^2 I'd be happier about that than the collapsing desing, though both are cool.

      Okay, closer look, you're right. it's 320x, but the photo previews are at half-dpi so it looks skanky. Still, that's just software.

      Finally a machine to replace me workhorse Palm V.
  • first (broken) link (Score:3, Informative)

    by Jucius Maximus ( 229128 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @08:00AM (#3870163) Journal
    The first mirror link, which as of now is broken, should be: http://home.earthlink.net/~ahecht/newpalm-large.jp g [earthlink.net]
  • picture mirror (Score:2, Informative)

    by dboyles ( 65512 )
    here [msstate.edu]

    Can you still be a karma whore even when you're at the cap?
    • Re:picture mirror (Score:1, Interesting)

      by inkfox ( 580440 )
      Can you still be a karma whore even when you're at the cap?
      Ah, but they hide the numbers now. The range may well have changed too.

      How do you know if you're at the cap?

  • Hrmmmm (Score:2, Funny)

    by maynard-lag ( 235813 )
    Isn't it interesting that the mirror link indicated in the slashdot article is to a site called davesipaq.com?

    It looks like they took that dial interface from the ipod and shrunk it and stuck it in the middle of the typical palm buttons.
  • Nah (Score:3, Insightful)

    by HomeGroove ( 527053 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @08:01AM (#3870173)
    Take a look at the mirror. It looks like p.shop hacking up to me. The corners on the right are too sharp. I know he put rendered some clouds behind the image (God knows why) but this thing just reeks of photoshop shenanigans.
    • Re:Nah (Score:3, Insightful)

      by gcshaw2nd ( 398708 )
      You people are ridiculous. Everything is touched up in photoshop. It's not a conspiracy anymore; it's just the way it is. Did I miss the competition to be the first person to claim every photo is a photoshop fake?

      And such as it is, I spend a lot of time photoshopping and those corners don't look "too sharp" to me. If anything, I'd say the glare along the right edge of the graffiti portion seems abnormally sharp, but it's in keeping with the quality of the photo.

  • Okay, so the new Palm slides apart giving more options to the bottom. Why no thumbboard? I love those!

    • Re:Keyboard (Score:4, Insightful)

      by rleyton ( 14248 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @08:19AM (#3870265) Homepage
      Moving parts are a Bad Thing(tm). They're always the first thing to go wrong, and the most expensive to replace.

      *Sigh*

      KISS [magicpub.com] is a sensible design methodology that I fear organiser manufacturers are forgetting.

      • Bad design (Score:4, Insightful)

        by totallygeek ( 263191 ) <sellis@totallygeek.com> on Friday July 12, 2002 @09:09AM (#3870551) Homepage

        Moving parts are a Bad Thing(tm). They're always the first thing to go wrong, and the most expensive to replace.

        You are right. While speaking about bad design, the worst is the CD jewel case. I mean, they come out with compact discs -- awesome, but make the hinges on the jewel cases the weakest two pieces of cheap plastic known to man!

  • Mirror (Score:2, Informative)

    by jwilhelm ( 238084 )
    Also mirrored here: http://www.jeffwilhelm.com/files/Palm.jpg [jeffwilhelm.com]
  • by inkfox ( 580440 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @08:02AM (#3870178) Homepage
    Aesthetically, that's a good way to make a small screen look even smaller. Cinching the sides like that draws a perceptual barrier between the screen and the writing area, making the thing look unusably small, even if the profile hasn't changed.

    This might swell well in Japan where smaller is seen as better, but it seems more likely to stay on the shelves in the US for average consumers.

  • by NiftyNews ( 537829 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @08:05AM (#3870186) Homepage
    I can picture the marketing meeting now...

    Drone 1: Alright, listen up. So I leak these pictures...
    Drone 2: Then we go out and tell everyone not to post them!
    Drone 1: Brilliant! Let's all go home early and drink expensive wine.

    • by Anonymous Coward
      Drone1: Lets stick `em on the net
      Drone2: No-one will notice - lets do a proper press release.
      Drone1: Cant be bothered. Look if we stick it on the net, then withdraw it, people will mirror it all over the net just to get back at `the man`.
      Drone2: No way..what, people with computer skills still trying to get back at their parents for not giving them every last thing they wanted while they were growing up, taking it out on the nearest authority figure? I dont believe it.
      Drone3: hey hey, come here guys, you wont believe what they`re talking about on SlashDot...
  • Q: "...who knows how long the images will stay up?"

    A: Not long, if there linked here.
    • Oh, no, I did it again =(

      Please disregard any spelling mistakes made by this author, as he is currently forced into using a junky keyboard on a really fast connection which doesn't give him time to hit "stop" before he notices the spelling mistake... =/
  • Yuk, what an ugly mofo. Does it slide in though? That would make the device a bit of cool, at least.
    • Of course it slides, that's the whole damn point, if it has the thickness of a Palm m505, then this thing would be one of the smallest PDA ever made.

      For those of you that are asking what are those BeOS engineers doing? You should able to see their work with the next release of PalmOS (PalmOS 6), it rumors to have new interface and better mutlimedia thingys
      • So we have to wait for OS 6? I thought OS 5 was supposed to have the Be stuff in it. We've been waiting for 5 too long to have to wait even longer until 6.
        • OS 5 is basically OS 4 with Arm support, no new interface (well, unless you consider new icons new interface)

          Other than that, it's a no show till OS6, which should include BeOS stuff.
  • This is a nice "Zaurus with graffiti"-esque look, but the screen is still the little tiny one found on all palms.

    Except one. The Sony Clie NR70/V [designtechnica.com] has a bigger screen, because instead of hiding the graffiti pad under some buttons, it's part of the screen. so, if you dont want graffiti pad, you get rid of it, and you've got more screen space. And with that integrated keyboard, you'll never need graffiti in the first place.
    • Don't forget the Handera [handera.com], a Palm compatible that has the virtual graffiti area since at least a year ago, as well as a few other tasty features. I can't understand why Palm doesn't copy this feature; it's so convenient, and it works as well as the silk screen approach.

      Still, the NR70/V looks pretty cool. ;-)
  • Great for games! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by John Harrison ( 223649 ) <(moc.liamg) (ta) (nosirrahnhoj)> on Friday July 12, 2002 @08:08AM (#3870214) Homepage Journal
    Finally a Palm with a button layout that can be useful for games! This has taken too long! If they had put a little bit of thought into this in the first place we never would have had to deal with non-intuitive control layouts for so many games.

    That alone might make be purchase one since my Handspring recently died.

    • buttons don't look that much different than they do on a Handspring, what are you seeing that I'm not? I think it would still put far too much strain on your thumbs and wrist to play games with it, since the buttons are positions too close to the lower edge.
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • But, since Palm's early adopters are techies and techies like to play games it makes sense that if a tiny change can make it easy to play games AS WELL AS do business they might as well do it.

        Palm's Comdex booth (which I saw at Comdex Canada this week) now sports 3 pictures of palm devices doing various tasks, and one of those 3 pictures is a game (mostly to show off the colour screen)
      • People play games on them anyhow. The market for handhelds is not exclusively business people. That is like saying the market for cell phones is business people so they shouldn't have games either.

        A pda is computing device that is fully capable of playing games. I doubt that they choose the button layout in order to handicap it. If it had been pointed out to them early they might have corrected it. I can certainly see the usefullness of a left and right buttons outside of games, can't you?

      • Re:Why doen' (Score:3, Interesting)

        by yog ( 19073 )
        Perhaps a rep as a game device would hurt Palm, but there are certainly good uses for that 4-way rocker switch beyond games. For example:

        Spreadsheets--at last, we have a way to navigate intuitively, up-down as well as left-right.

        Image display--obvious use is navigating and selecting thumbnails

        Options and Preferences--navigating tabs and operating various kinds of controls.

        Gosh I'm too tired to think this morning but probably there are hundreds of other potential applications. Overall this seems like a positive development that adheres more or less to the K.I.S.S. philosophy.
      • ...because only kids play games right? Odd that the availablilty of PC games hasn't relegated them to toys.
      • game-playing on PDAs (Score:3, Interesting)

        by GlenRaphael ( 8539 )
        Finally a Palm with a button layout that can be useful for games! This has taken too long!

        That's like someone bemoaning the fact that a GameBoy does not ship with good software for organizing business contacts.

        Ericsson actually funded a company in late 1999 around the idea of making a better Gameboy that was also a decent personal information management device. With great 3-d graphics, Bluetooth connectivity, a notepad, datebook, etcetera. The company was called Red Jade [ign.com], and I was the guy they hired to write the PIM functionality.

        Red Jade lost funding and died in the big crash of 2000, but it was a fun ride while it lasted.

      • The market for handhelds is business people, not kids who want to play video games. In fact, if Palm devices start to be used for video gaming, the business market may start to regard them as toys rather than useful technology for professionals.

        Even suits play games on their palms, though they're usually of the solitaire variety. Lots of people buy cellular phones over other cellular phones because they can play stupid games like worm/snake (I know, it's classic, but compare, work with me) let alone the kinds of games you can play on handhelds these days.

        I come for the service, but I Stay for the legroom; I come for the biz apps but I stay for the games.

  • by theolein ( 316044 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @08:10AM (#3870225) Journal
    This might of course just be one of those attempts to troll /., but that jog wheel in the lower portion of the device looks very much like Apple's iPod control wheel. Given that there have been many rumours of Apple/Palm cooperation and that Palm OS5 is supposed to have all sorts of new features, examples of which are improved QuickTime compatibility, and possibly inclusion of Apple's Ink handwriting technology, there could be some basis to these rumours. Apples' cracking down on rumour websites, as well as Palm offsetting risks to Apple entering the PDA market would be further grounds for interesting news next week at the MWNY.
    • Doesn't look like a Jog wheel to me. Looks more like a directional pad.
      • Directional wheel? (Score:3, Informative)

        by theolein ( 316044 )
        You mean like one of those things on a game console controler? In place of a mouse? Wouldn't that be a bit of overkill with a PDA having a stylus?
    • As far as I know, all of Sony's devices have had it, the Handera has it, and some of Handspring's models too, if I remember correctly.

      All before the iPod ever came out.

      So, I wouldn't read too much into it. The biggest impact Apple is probably having on Palm is through the ex-Apple ex-Be people working on the OS after PalmOS 5 (not sure if it's PalmOS 6 or 5.5).

      Jon Acheson
      • > As far as I know, all of Sony's devices have had it,
        Sony devices (such as my S300E) DO have a jog wheel, but it's nothing like the one in the picture. On the Sony devices, it's located in the top left side of the device (which a friend has pointed out makes it useless for left-handed people), whereas the one in the picture is in the centre of the lower panel (i.e. where most curent Palm devices have the up/down scroll buttons)
  • I assume that the slideshow screengrab was for significantly scaled down original images. I draw your attention to the curvature on the corners of the "Slideshow" button area - pretty smooth and well displayed. But compare to the images displayed within the slideshow itself, particularly the red garment worn in the bottom left image - strong pixellation.

    OK, it's conceivable that the original image was drawn out of Duplo bricks [farver.com], but if so, frankly, I've seen better ASCII art.

    Aegilops

  • by chabotc ( 22496 )
    It seems the ./ crew got so sick and tired of people trying to get 50 karma, they now changed it to a less quantifying system. (this is based on something i remeber reading a short time ago where a ./ member mentioned that giving karma a name and a value was the worst mistake they made with slashdot)

    My karma used to be 50, but when i now view my info page, it now shows 'excelent'.

    Very OT, i know, but i didnt find a reference to it yet, so i figured it was a interesting tid-bit to share
  • by g4dget ( 579145 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @08:18AM (#3870262)
    You can already run the emulator if you really care. But why would you? PalmOS 5 on ARM will run applications in interpreted 68k code; only the kernel will run in native ARM code (and maybe a few assembly routines you hand-code yourself). That means it will likely not run faster. It also doesn't look like there is going to be a lot of new functionality. Altogether, I don't see much reason to hold my breath for these devices. In terms of nifty hardware, the Sony's are hard too beat (although they are not the most reliable).
    • Actually, Palm OS 5 runs all of the OS calls in ARM mode, so 68K programs that run on OS 5 devices will be quite a bit faster. The only apps that run slower are ones that require a lot of calculation in the app itself, and even those were running at 70% of full speed going from a 33MHz 68K to a 75MHz ARM. Apps that used lots of OS calls were sped up from 3 to 10 times, according to presenters at PalmSource 2002.
      • Actually, Palm OS 5 runs all of the OS calls in ARM mode,

        That's what I said.

        so 68K programs that run on OS 5 devices will be quite a bit faster.

        That seems unlikely. Look at how much time applications on other platforms spend in the kernel: it's not much.

  • Most likely a fake (Score:3, Interesting)

    by niola ( 74324 ) <jon@niola.net> on Friday July 12, 2002 @08:21AM (#3870274) Homepage
    This device appears to be a fake - seems very contradictiva of what Palm has been saying.

    First off, they pretty much told everyone that new product releases would slow to a crawl for a bit. Two reasons for this. One is that they have a LOT of inventory they want to discount and move. Sitting on inventory is bad. The other reason is that PalmOS 5 just got out of beta and released to licensees on June 10th. Don't forget that PalmOS and Palm Hardware operate as seperate entities, therefore the hardware group gets treated just like any other licensee.

    I seriously doubt that Palm would release another device using the older OS as long as they are sitting on product.

    Just my $.02...

    --Jon
    • Okay so maybe they do have a significant amount of inventory that they need to move. The hardware group would be crazy not to still be enganged in R&D operations. Maybe this Palm is simply going to end up as a marketing prototype. Palm will get a market group together and see what their comments are on it. There are always products that companies engineer and do not release. It is very possible we might not see this one, but instead one similar to it.
  • palm envy (Score:2, Informative)

    by nege ( 263655 )
    Oh that looks schweet. I have always loved the 5 seris because they are so slick, not to mention thin. Unfortunatly, I cannot justify the pricetag considering you can get a great processor and motherboard for that price at motherboards.com [motherboards.com]. I can always dream though.

  • 1) The image is obviously doctored to some way since there is part of the name missing. You can see that it has been clone brushed over.

    2) Hard graffiti area?! Why is it that Palm is so far behind the curve?

    3) Please tell me that is a microphone at the top right so I can finally ditch my digital recorder.

    4) Finally, what the heck is up with that picture in the bottom left?

    • by browman ( 191604 )
      Hard writing area is good, because you don't f*ck up a bit of the screen you need to look at. Think about it, your PC keyboard has greasy pawprints all over it, your screen doesn't, that's the way it should be...

      My PocketPC is pretty well scratched up on the input area, so I've switched back to my old PalmIII which fared much better and got vastly more use. Might invest in a nicer one, but that hard area is a good idea... don't knock it...
      • I have to disagree. I've got a Handera 330 with the soft writing area and love it! For one I can minimize it when I don't need it(browsing, reading, gaming), and it echos my pen path so I can see what it thinks I just wrote. That definetly cleared up some confusion on why I can't write a space to save my life. I've had it for over a year now and have had no scratches at all on it and I use it quite a lot. I do have a keyboard for when I have to input a ton of stuff. Another thing I might suggest if your screen is scratching easily is to get a screen protector. I used one on my palm III and it worked great, but I haven't needed it on the Handera.
  • Mirror! (Score:3, Informative)

    by hisham ( 462042 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @08:27AM (#3870300) Homepage Journal
    Here's [hisham.cc] a mirror of the pic(s) if need be. Have fun.
  • Collapse (Score:4, Interesting)

    by sehryan ( 412731 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @08:28AM (#3870302)
    To me, it looks like the lower half will be able to slide up to cover the graphiti area. That would make it have a pretty high "whoa" factor, but honestly I don't think it would lend itself to being very productive.

    Not that I have ever been all that productive with graphiti.
  • Or do those two mirror linked images look slightly different? At the top where it says "Oslo" on the actual device, it looks like the first link (earthlink) has a small sticker or something blurred out near there, whereas the second link (davesipaq) does not have the sticker/blurred portion.
    If this is the same device, why is there this difference?
    • Re:Is it me? (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Dave, the fucker that he is, stole the image from the original site (Pocket PC Thoughts) and then edited out the watermarked image, used a clone brush on the spot where the serial number used to be, and put it on that gay blue background.

      The original image that was posted:

      http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/newpalm-l ar ge.jpg
  • Looks semi-legit - but who knows, and who knows how long the images will stay up?

    I just don't understand why I'm not allowed to put a picture to a web server? I'm not selling it, not violating their copyrights, i did not sign any NDA's and for the God's sake why some fu@#%ing so-called Director of Global Information Security can require me remove the picture from my web site?!
  • Glad to see that Palm is finally interested in designing less boring (albeit functional) hardware.
  • - The name (Oslo) is "photoshop edited", there is a strange area in front of the name, looks like they wanted to hide something.

    - There is a mic on the top/right side

    - The craddle is the same one used on the M505 model, isnt it?
  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 12, 2002 @08:59AM (#3870487)
    No one linked to the actual story here:

    http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic .p hp?t=2152

    The image looked "doctored" because it was - the serial number was blurred out, but that's it. Palm also threatened this guy and he took down the images...
  • I don't know, it looks kinda fake to me. There is a light glare on the screen that doesn't seem to translate over the case in the upper left corner. I'm no expert mind you but it doesn't look real to me.
  • No way. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Fished ( 574624 )
    First off, the picture has "www.davesipaq.com" on it. Somehow, I just can't see it coming out of palm with that.

    Second, this is obviously manipulated in photoshop by an amateur. The edges are too sharp between the handheld and the cloud background; on the other side, the screen is not retouched at all -- there is glare on it and what look like fingerprints. Ergoo... it is manipulated, but by an amateur.

  • by Diamon ( 13013 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @09:45AM (#3870767)
    If you look at the image here [rogers.com] you lose the photoshop tell tails on the edges. Also look at the flash reflechtion on the screen particularly at the top where you can see a fingerprint smudge. If it is a fake there's far more work in making it look real than was necessary.
  • Surfed to the link and now there are 'pictures removed' and a note that the Palm lawyers called them wanting the high-res pictures with the SN of the unit to find out who's beta unit it is, and how to sue them for it.

    So apparently it may be a real item, not a photochop.
  • I pulled the pic into a graphics editor and did a little magnification of the subject. I found a couple of interesting things.

    There are some square-ish artifacts around the obviously oval "Slide Show" button that should not be there if the icon was generated. The same square-ish artifacts exist around the inverted triangle icon in the upper right.

    Additionally, the right edge looks as if it was lifted from something else and dropped on there, or the overall dimensions were adjusted. At any rate it looks like somebody mucked with it.

    So... for (int i=0; i 1000; i++) printf ("fake");

    There's my opinion in one thousand words.
  • It's a fake (Score:2, Interesting)

    by cthlptlk ( 210435 )
    I can't remember where, but I've definitely seen those pictures--the little girl with face paint and the hats on the wall--long ago. My first instinct is that they're part of the Photoshop 3.0 tutorial materials.
    • The images started out as PCD files as part of a Kodak sample Photo-CD, IIRC. That CD was distributed to demonstrate the quality of the whole Photo-CD system.

      However, why do you think that using these images (in one form or another) on the screenshot makes the whole thing a fake?
  • Ah! I didn't know! (Score:2, Insightful)

    by kitzilla ( 266382 )
    I didn't know I wanted a pocket-based version of iPhoto in my life. What I THOUGHT I wanted was inexpensive wireless email, and an improved version of Graffiti that isn't so apres- 1995.

    Hmm. No obvious antenna, and that aure looks like a standard Graffiti pad.

    Thanks for straightening me out, Palm!
  • Ok, so as I was reading the comments I found various, "It's fake" and this that and the other thing. The one thing that threw me off is mention of a cloud background, I saw absolutely no clouds...

    Until I found the OTHER image.

    http://members.rogers.com/kawaichan/palm.jpg
    No cloud. Branding. SN Obscurity.

    http://hisham.cc/files/pics/palmaroo.jpg
    Clouds . REBranding. SN Obscurity redone.

    The second one done by daves ipaq is horribly manipulated. It's quite obvious he wanted credit for it, and so modified it to have his cloudy background, removed the other guys branding, and removed the others SN Obscurity. You can tell, because half of the "o" on Oslo is mangled.

    Dave, you suck, uninstall photoshop you fool.
    If you want to zoom in 400X to see if you can detect any l33t choppage to claim your right as mastar-detective, use the first one.
  • The picture/pda looks pretty good and the slide-out panel to expose the Grafiti area is a nice touch too. Did you notice the 4 small icons around the Grafiti area? To launch these apps: clock, backlight, numPad, and keyboard. I think they should add 6 small icons in the corners of the virtuals buttons just to the sides of the Grafiti area and let us assign apps to them.

    I like the rounded edges of this PDA and now that we can go left and right from the front panel instead of just up and down. And a Select button. :)

    If OS5 is really going to be multi-tasking then having OK and Cancel buttons like the Zaurus are a must for quick selection and exiting of data and apps.

    IMHO.

    LoB
  • by trainwrek ( 567874 ) on Friday July 12, 2002 @11:35AM (#3871495)
    I'm glad they are at least thinking about how to make the PDA less of a hassle to carry around. I think Oregon Scientific have the right idea with this one [weathertools.com]. Once you can carry a PDA w/o the obnoxious bulge in your pants they will finally be usable by normal people and not geeks. They need to basically disappear into your clothing to make them really useful.
  • Sharp released a brand new zaurus in Japan today ( or it was at least scheduled for today ). The main site is in Japenese and is here http://sl.ezaurus.com [ezaurus.com] Linux devices is also carrying the story at http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS3610510159.html [linuxdevices.com]

    This just breaks my heart. I submit a story on the hot new linux powered Xscale pda hitting the shelves and my story gets rejected. Later that same day I see a story on "feather-powered circuits". I kid you not :)

  • The first thing I asked myself was, "so what"?

    Even if these pictures are real, it's just the same old Palm OS, now with color and a new body.

    It's still yesterday's news in terms of the OS.
    It's not innovative enough.

    Palm is showing that they are resting on their laurels, and not driving the market forward.

  • PDABuzz has more info [pdabuzz.net] and a artist conceptual drawing [pdabuzz.com].

    It looks pretty cool in white.

GREAT MOMENTS IN HISTORY (#7): April 2, 1751 Issac Newton becomes discouraged when he falls up a flight of stairs.

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