I have been playing with the new Opera Mini 4.1 Beta on my Palm T/X. It’s a vast improvement over the Version 3 release and produces less crashing than did the version 4.0 release. It is an interesting ‘display’ of web formating attempting to emulate the iPhone/iPod Safari display. Where unreadable lines might be displayed, there are simple lines drawn. This forming a framework where a sliding window floats around a mock mouse cursor. Using the five way control you can ‘mouse’ over areas of the web layout and ‘click’ and zoom into the selected area of the screen. This is very effective for small scale screens, and could, when they get all the bugs out (it is a Beta) mitigate the advantage Safari currently enjoys. It’s worth a try if you like or need a mobile browser. It’s written in Java, and requires a JVM, in the case of the Palm, if it’s not already installed, you have to lie, cheat and steal to find a copy of WebSphere to operate it. Look Here if you need one.
Palm
Apple control of iPhone applications
I think there is a good reason for Apple wanting to control the applications being created and distributed on iPhone and iPod touch systems. Rubbish! In the last week or so, since I have been using my Palm T/X I have been singularly impressed with good applications, and shocked at the pure Rubbish applications that are available to load into my Palm. Mind you, and remember, that many of these applications are legacy from the Palm’s transition from the Motorola Dragonball processors to ARM/XScale CPU’s. And hence face a hardware hurtle that Apple MAY not have to face. Should Apple transition the current ARM iPhone/iPod’s to Intel, they too will face similar troubles. But returning to the control issue, there would be a bit of control over the quality of application development and a maintenance to well defined API that could mitigate future issues. So Apple can maintain a high level ‘feel good’ factor of the iPhone/iPod experience by requiring quality software development. and I believe that the current ‘jailbreaking’ of the platforms will diminish as more and more applications get deployed.
On a separate note, as I mentioned prior, I am impressed with the broad swath, and functionality of the Palm, and also saddened that Palm has, for all intents and purposes abandoned a platform that was so ahead of it’s time.
And this is from my Palm Vagablog software
This is a test post from my new Palm T/X. Using the Vagablog application on the Palm.
Test From my new Palm T/X
This is a test post from my new Palm T/X.
Web Apps and customer vs carrier benifits
I have been in the market for a PDA replacement, and all the conversations I’ve seen, point to the Web Applications being the solution and replacement to client side development on such things as the iPhone/iPod Touch. This harkens back to the the early days of Web when Netscape was being put forth as the new web operating system. The issue then, and in many ways still is, bandwidth. The thin client on the browser required all code from the application to be loaded before the application could activate and the user become productive. This issue still continues in the mobile internet, currently most users using webapps experience delays in application behavior. And this brings up a new concern.
Mobile Web applications are benefiting wireless carriers (who profit from the addition bandwidth use of their users) more than the consumer. In some cases there are ‘unlimited’ data plans with carriers, but mostly there is a cap on bandwidth usage, with hefty overcharge fees applied.
It only makes sense to promote web applications if you are a carrier, or a lazy programmer. This is part of my reasoning for having a PDA, local offline applications. Particularly in Ireland where WiFi or other networks have been slow to deploy and 3G networks are very expensive. Low bandwidth Client-Server applications are the only really customer centric, consumer friendly application development path.
Web Apps are not the best path to my pocketbook.
PDA’s VS Smartphones
Someone ask me why I’m looking for a PDA instead of the Smart Phone, and while I’ve considered a iPhone, or Palm Centro, the issue is still this.
* Both are using obsolete wireless technology.
* neither can perform PDA duties while the phone is active.
With a PDA, and bluetooth, when the mobile phone technology advances, substituting the phone, upgrades the PDA. And the PDA can operate independent while the phone is in use. Anyone familiar with the evolution of modem technology will understand this, updating the modem to improve communication speed was a common infrastructure issue. As now the speed at which a device can display a block of data, most PDA’s are readily able to perform faster, as they are generally waiting on data.
BTW: Here in Ireland we still depend on dialup Modems.
Screen real-estate, PDA’s vs iPod Touch/iPhone
I’m amused, I’ve been evaluating a PDA/iPod replacement and have been impressed with the ‘full screen’ presentation ability of the Safari web browser on the iPhone/ iPod Touch devices. For many years many popular websites have produced reduced displays that are more or less tailored to PDA’s and cellphones which have small screens. This is great for PDA’s and mobile phone users, but requires an extra effort on the part of the website builder, an effort that many sites choose to forgo.
So it is with much amusement that during this research I find that there are great efforts being rendered to redirect mobile Safari browsers to a reduced screen real-estate copy of any given website an iPhone friendly page if you will. This is, in a some measure, a vindication of the previous efforts of website creators to provide Palm PDA’s, WinCE, Symbian browsers with a Practical web interface to their sites.
This, more or less, mitigates the one great Mobile Safari advantage on the iPod Touch/ iPhone. You don’t need Zoom and shrink on a smaller screen. You don’t need to download, and render full sized graphics. You don’t need 3G bandwidth. And in one step, renders the browsers, on all the other mobile Phones and PDA’s, equal.
iPhone/iPod Touch Monopoly
I have been in the market for an upgrade to my iPod and the question of a replacement has been this, should I upgrade my old Palm Vx to a Palm T/X or my first generation iPod (5GB). The candidates have been the Nokia N770 / N800 / N810 series, the iPod Touch and the Palm T/X. I have by this time determined that the Nokia systems, while the most versatile are not completely integrated systems, more hacker devices than finished products. So the choices are down to the Palm T/X, which is getting very long in the tooth, running an aging operating system, or the iPod touch with a revolutionary OS/GUI but no third party applications.
The requirements are relatively simple, WiFi, bluetooth, applications like email, browsing communicating. MultiMedia. And any other things would be optional like eBooks. I have a medium sized iTunes collection, and plenty of Palm apps.
Currently if the rumor that Apple will approve and distribute apps and limit access to iPod/iPhone internals is true, this will be a deal breaker. No iPod Touch!
I have no intention of buying a totally locked in device. If for no other reason than it’s bad monopolistic practice. It will limit what the developers will be able to develop, and turn away some of the most innovative designs. This would be the most stupid thing Apple could do. A proverbial shooting one’s own foot off. It would cripple any development that might be applied, it would make the Palm the only choice.
I’ll wait until Apple announces on Thursday, but this rumor smells too true, so I’ll start pricing Palm T/X’s.
UPDATE: I looks like Apple has screwed it’s self Here! So my Decision to but an unlocked Obsolete Palm T/X is vindicated yet again!