Palm pre community is pathetic

[PvilleComp]

The Handspring Treo

I forgot that Handspring was the original Treo.

I’m getting a misty eyed… I still have mine in a box in the basement… I might dust it off to see if it still works tonight.

 

[DougFNJ]

Oh wow I never saw the retract on that statement. Guess it shows that correction don't often make the front page lol. Good to hear though I supposed choice for the consumer is always a great thing. The Treo was an awesome device back then, I remember people being like, "I can check my calendar right here on my phone and let you know." If they only knew what was coming.

Yeah the W7 tablet has hit the scrap table and a lot, well a few, people are mad about it. Honestly I don't think a W7 tablet would take off right now. It's kind of the same story of how people started pushing their own mp3 players after the iPod caught on, and while they sold they didn't sell like the iPods.

Well hopefully HP, since they are in the phone market with Palm now, will take WebOS and do something with it. Hopefully Blackberry will do the same. Because the people in the lead after all still need people pushing them in the back so they take the next leap. So with those innovations that got the ball rolling 10 years ago resulted in what we have now, really makes you think about the next 10 years? Maybe I'll finally have the holographic version of video chat! Dang the technology market is exciting, this is a good time to be alive!

Yeah, I had been a bit disappointed by the original statement when they said that, and was a bit happy when they elaborated....basically they bought Palm more for the OS to create a tablet market, but WebOS would still absolutely be utilized in the phone market. If they do the tablet right, they could be strong competition against the iPad. I personally love my iPad and look forward to multi-tasking on it with IOS

I couldn't agree more though, innovation is good, competition is REALLY good. It keeps companies on the toes and make them more innovative....

The Handspring Treo

I forgot that Handspring was the original Treo.

I?m getting a misty eyed? I still have mine in a box in the basement? I might dust it off to see if it still works tonight.

Yes sir heh heh I know what you mean, I remember the first ones, you had a choice between the keyboard or the touchscreen, and then they apandoned the touchscreen because people werent buying it. They revolutionaized the industry with the first PALM Treo though.

 

[PvilleComp]

OK so it must be cell phone nostalgia day or something... This is on Giz today

YouTube - Retro Commercial - Radio Shack Cell Phones - 1990

 

[PvilleComp]

OK, Palm/Handspring flashback time. \ontopic Palm

Can't believe I still have the holster too. Damm this thing is HUGE.

I have to take a pic with this next to the DInc w/ the 3500 battery when it gets here.

All the bits and pieces I still have. (I did not realize how long Tiger Woods has been on the PGA. I think this must have been his first game or two.)

 

[davidnc]

, That's the oldest cell phone I saw .I guess there wasn't a belt clip for those models , LOL , I found even an older link off the link you posted above.1986 radio shack cell phone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HY219WBCLA&feature=watch_response

 

[nmyeti]

Well hopefully HP, since they are in the phone market with Palm now, will take WebOS and do something with it.

As someone that is close to all of this I can say that HP is planning to do a whole lot with WebOS. The idea of always connected devices (some of them phones) using an OS that is designed to be web connected from the ground up is something that they bet an awful lot of money on. Some of those devices will naturally be phones, so WebOS isn't going away in the smartphone market anytime soon.

 

[Qazme]

As someone that is close to all of this I can say that HP is planning to do a whole lot with WebOS. The idea of always connected devices (some of them phones) using an OS that is designed to be web connected from the ground up is something that they bet an awful lot of money on. Some of those devices will naturally be phones, so WebOS isn't going away in the smartphone market anytime soon.

Well in reality what devices do you have that aren't always connected now? My phone is now, so are my computers, in fact most of the electronic devices I have now are connected to a network of some sort somewhere. As long as they have service anyways.

But I do understand what you mean, windows for instance has never been web centric but they are slowly building it in over time. But looking at the phone market, Android is cloud based. It's always connected and ready to roll, I feel that the IOS setup is too, WebOS basically gets it's name from it. I can go on, but I think they are in for quite a time. PALM sold out to HP for a reason, they didn't have the drive, capital, or marketing power that a larger company has and they were going to lose the company. So it's going to be an up hill fight 110% for them right now.

Going to be watching closely, because HP has a history of failed projects and some of them fall into the always connected internet based services. In the same realm money wise, their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) services for Bluesky networks which they failed to deliver and ended up costing them ~$400M and laying off 9000 employees because of it. But that's business, most major businesses have lots of failures before they get a gang buster device, but when you are popping ~$400M failures it's time to be cautious.

If you read that article it actually talks about them spending $500-$700M to get into cloud computing. So they are betting the bank this pays off....whew, that's a lot of money.

 

[DougFNJ]

The thing that's funny about Palm is their history runs in patterns and circles. They began as a startup. They had great ideas and needed revenue to fund their developments, they were bought by US Robotics. US Robotics was bought by 3Com, Palm wanted their independence, broke off and became PalmOne. Then they split the company into hardware and software, followed by the infamous falling out with the original founders who started Handspring which eventually joined back with Palm. <deeeeep breath>

The Handspring/Palm move was probably the best thing Palm could had done at that time as it made room for the Treo to rule the market for it's short period. Problem was as mentioned is the OS got stale. I remember years ago Palm kept pushing that they were looking to build a groundbreaking OS to "revolutionize" the market. Interestingly, WebOS capabilities were what they had dreamed up at that time, and instead of something new and exciting....they gave us Garnet which ultimately put them in the spot they sat in. They unfortunately waited too long, Android and iPhone had established themselves pretty well already and hardware was getting better and better.

WebOS is a great concept, the multitasking with the card system was such a great idea. You rarely see bad reviews about it. But the hardware to run it is awful. They should had licensed the OS out like Palm originally did, Sony used to put out some killer devices with that OS, I wonder what they could had done with WebOS, we'll never know.

HP could absolutely have a little goldmine on their hands if they treat it right. If they could develop devices that could run WebOS right like Incredible, EVO, and Droid X are handling Android they will be in the game. Give us devices like Droid Eris and the Pixi (what's WITH that name?) that have great form factors but cannot efficiently run the OS like it should and you might as well pack it in. So much potential......

 

[Qazme]

HP could absolutely have a little goldmine on their hands if they treat it right. If they could develop devices that could run WebOS right like Incredible, EVO, and Droid X are handling Android they will be in the game. Give us devices like Droid Eris and the Pixi (what's WITH that name?) that have great form factors but cannot efficiently run the OS like it should and you might as well pack it in. So much potential......

At this point in the game I agree they could be sitting on a gold mine if they act quickly. If HP waits and hold development for years before they push something out they will always be behind. It would be interesting if they would, do like you suggested, and get with Palm's current engineers and make the OS that much better then pair it up with HP's engineers and place it on some killer hardware.

My question is have they already missed the boat due to Palm's lack of hardware perfection? I know BB is starting to look quite a bit dated, but we may be in for a change in the speed of the market with iPhone only releasing once a year, and Google talking about only releasing milestones once a year after the end of this year. With that coming about the only thing that would be speeding the phone market up would be hardware innovations which the Android manufacturers are obviously not lacking or afraid of. Man this could get interesting over the next few years.

 

[DougFNJ]

At this point in the game I agree they could be sitting on a gold mine if they act quickly. If HP waits and hold development for years before they push something out they will always be behind. It would be interesting if they would, do like you suggested, and get with Palm's current engineers and make the OS that much better then pair it up with HP's engineers and place it on some killer hardware.

My question is have they already missed the boat due to Palm's lack of hardware perfection? I know BB is starting to look quite a bit dated, but we may be in for a change in the speed of the market with iPhone only releasing once a year, and Google talking about only releasing milestones once a year after the end of this year. With that coming about the only thing that would be speeding the phone market up would be hardware innovations which the Android manufacturers are obviously not lacking or afraid of. Man this could get interesting over the next few years.

The interesting thing is the OS just needs some tweaks, they have done a great job on the software side, they just need to develop the hardware to handle it better and freshen it up to give consumers something new after 2 years already...if they could put 3 devices out there...a touchscreen only, a better Pre, and a faster Pixi (with another name) then market it better, that will put them on the board again. If they keep coming up with names like Pixi and putting out the Mom commercials, that well will dry up fast.

Android's foundation is good to go if you thing about it. Give us some periodic updates and some new capabilities here and there and we'll be happy.

I was just thinking about where Blackberry has gotten smarter. As conservative and slow as they can be to put out major OS updates they do cater to 2 consumers....touch screen and physical keyboard. This new slider device will add to that.....but heck, they aren't going away anytime soon, I think this OS4 they are releasing will keep a lot of their base customers at bay, and may pick up some new ones, but their primary market will always be corporate, and I think they are quite content with that. The Consumer market has been a nice cherry on top for them.

By the way, has anyone else been getting a chuckle out of the revolutionary new iPhone 4? Jobs bragged so hard about the dramatically re-engineered antenna, and how reception problems are a thing of the past....a couple weeks later they tell you how to properly hold your phone....or you could fix the problem by purchasing their case LOL

You are so right though, if you are open minded to different platforms, it is an exciting time to be an enthusiast.

 

[Qazme]

Yeah if it wasn't for corporations and government BB would have been gone a long time ago. They really haven't offered anything ground breaking for the consumer market in god knows how long. I will take a full hardware and OS refresh on BB to make it interesting to anyone but the most email centric. Now if all I wanted was my email and wanted it there pretty much instantly and also needed the capability to totally lock down phones I was handing out then I would still be on BB.

 

[nmyeti]

But I do understand what you mean, windows for instance has never been web centric but they are slowly building it in over time. But looking at the phone market, Android is cloud based. It's always connected and ready to roll, I feel that the IOS setup is too, WebOS basically gets it's name from it. I can go on, but I think they are in for quite a time. PALM sold out to HP for a reason, they didn't have the drive, capital, or marketing power that a larger company has and they were going to lose the company. So it's going to be an up hill fight 110% for them right now.

We've (speaking as a part of HP, but not for HP) bought a lot of companies lately because we are in a financial position to collect IP even during an economic downturn.

With that said, I'm pretty sure our senior leadership, especially in the PSG space have a pretty good clue what they have in WebOS and I expect to see some pretty exciting hardware running it soon.

I'm a low enough worker bee that I don't really know what's coming down the pipe on the hardware side, but I think everyone knows that you are eventually going to have a lot of choices for WebOS devices.

 

[mcll]

Yeah I agree, some of the people there are pathetic as hell. I like WebOS but man those people are delusional

 

[Droid800]

At this point in the game I agree they could be sitting on a gold mine if they act quickly. If HP waits and hold development for years before they push something out they will always be behind. It would be interesting if they would, do like you suggested, and get with Palm's current engineers and make the OS that much better then pair it up with HP's engineers and place it on some killer hardware.

My question is have they already missed the boat due to Palm's lack of hardware perfection? I know BB is starting to look quite a bit dated, but we may be in for a change in the speed of the market with iPhone only releasing once a year, and Google talking about only releasing milestones once a year after the end of this year. With that coming about the only thing that would be speeding the phone market up would be hardware innovations which the Android manufacturers are obviously not lacking or afraid of. Man this could get interesting over the next few years.

The good thing is that HP wouldn't have bought Palm unless they knew exactly what they were going to do with it and what they needed to fix. HP has deep pockets, so I'd imagine they have fast-tracked hardware updates and made necessary changes to fix the problems with Palm hardware.

 

[PvilleComp]

HP bought Palm because they were more afraid of someone else having the IP then them. I like HP but I work around too many of their mistakes on a daily basis to believe they are omnipotent. Do I think a Slate with webOS will sell better then a Win7 slate? Nope. The beauty of the Win7 Salte was that you can connect little things like printers and shared drives to it. You can’t do that with Andriod, iOS or webOS (unless there have been some radical changes in webOS that I’m not aware of). I was really looking forward to a simple slate that would do everything I needed through the course of a day.

My understanding is that the problem really laid with Win7’s ability to be a true touch OS, and not HP’s ability to build the hardware, but none the less I was disappointed.

I have heard the HP is working on a way to make their printers work with Andriod, iOS and webOS, I would assume BB and WinMo would be in the mix as well.

 

[Qazme]

HP bought Palm because they were more afraid of someone else having the IP then them. I like HP but I work around too many of their mistakes on a daily basis to believe they are omnipotent. Do I think a Slate with webOS will sell better then a Win7 slate? Nope. The beauty of the Win7 Salte was that you can connect little things like printers and shared drives to it. You can?t do that with Andriod, iOS or webOS (unless there have been some radical changes in webOS that I?m not aware of). I was really looking forward to a simple slate that would do everything I needed through the course of a day.

My understanding is that the problem really laid with Win7?s ability to be a true touch OS, and not HP?s ability to build the hardware, but none the less I was disappointed.

I have heard the HP is working on a way to make their printers work with Andriod, iOS and webOS, I would assume BB and WinMo would be in the mix as well.

Yeah they jumped on the Palm IP's which is what I originally said, and agree with you on here. HP is far from perfect, working in the IT world I replace/repair or junk HP stuff almost daily. They have, in the past, had really great hardware but in recent years, maybe due to outsourcing or something to that nature, they have had a rather large decline in product quality. Namely in their servers and laptops which is what I deal with the most. And that's another reason why Dell has taken over along side IBM in the server and business markets.

I hope that HP understands they don't have a winner here, merely a really nice head start as there is a lot of things that need to change with Palm, namely there hardware, the software performs nice but is missing some functionality. So like it has already been said, I hope they take this in the right way and try to innovate the product not merely ride the name of Palm or HP.

 

[PvilleComp]

OK so after digging around in the box it turns out that the Handspring I had is not a Treo but a Visor. I still have the manuals! I?m trying to remember but was the Visor pre Treo or post?

 

[PvilleComp]

Yeah they jumped on the Palm IP's which is what I originally said, and agree with you on here. HP is far from perfect, working in the IT world I replace/repair or junk HP stuff almost daily. They have, in the past, had really great hardware but in recent years, maybe due to outsourcing or something to that nature, they have had a rather large decline in product quality. Namely in their servers and laptops which is what I deal with the most. And that's another reason why Dell has taken over along side IBM in the server and business markets.

No electronics manufacturer is perfect be it HP, Dell, HTC, Moto or the Dreaded Fruit. But it?s funny when folks come into the shop and exclaim that ?Dell is the Best!? and then they see Dell after Dell after Dell after Dell on the bench for repairs. I just chuckle. (I don?t sell Dell but I love to repair them!

Truth is the all make great machines and they all make crap. The market demands crap. What are you going to do?

 

[tony bag o donuts]

Visor came out when th V and Vx series were palm. Way before the treo as the guys who made the handspring originally were the designers of the palm pilot.

 

[Qazme]

No electronics manufacturer is perfect be it HP, Dell, HTC, Moto or the Dreaded Fruit. But it?s funny when folks come into the shop and exclaim that ?Dell is the Best!? and then they see Dell after Dell after Dell after Dell on the bench for repairs. I just chuckle. (I don?t sell Dell but I love to repair them!

Truth is the all make great machines and they all make crap. The market demands crap. What are you going to do?

I'm going to repair them all! Another reason you may have more Dells is because there is more out there! Not because they are crappier computers, they all build garbage, which is why I build my own servers and pcs for clients. When it comes to laptops the IBM/Lenovo lines have always done me right, but Dell isn't far behind them(had some bad MB issues a few years ago). HP has done nothing but give me heartaches in the desktop and mobile spaces. Everything from dieing screens on the laptops, bad motherboards, power supplies, I can go on. And then give you are hard time about it. So I don't do any business with them now, and I don't recommend them to anyone else.

But you are right the consumers keep wanting lower and lower prices, and in return they get lower prices due to lower quality. It's all about who can undercut who. It's hard to tell people that just because a custom machine is going to cost a little more, it's going to be so much better. Especially to people who don't think about upgrading etc in a few years, meanwhile that Dell/HP/Etc you can't do much with. How about those stupid one-off front panel and power connectors some of them used to have...I've re-wired so many of those to accept after market motherboards it's pathetic. Damn market lol.