It’s almost midnight here in Manila, Philippines, and by the time we wake up tomorrow morning, the World Wide Web would probably be full of reports and comments on the new operating system that Palm is expected to announce at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

Earlier reports from CrunchGear and other blogs say a new “iPhone-like” device running on the new OS called Nova will also be announced at the event. “The new phone will have a full QWERTY keyboard that will slide down under a portrait-oriented touchscreen,” the report says, adding that it could also play media and would of course have Palm’s calendar, email, and contact function.

I love my Palm Centro –  I got one while I training in Singapore for my new job with Yahoo! Philippines — but I wish it had WiFi capability and a better camera. It looks like “Palm’s newness” would satisfy such desires.

Mobileburn says the Palm Nova phone could also feature a high-resolution camera, which, along with Wi-Fi, is on the top of my wishlist for new features.  Hopefully, the new Palm phone would also be able to run old Palm programs and databases.

I’m one of those loyal Palm fans who would really be happy to see it on the top again with its long-overdue OS upgrade. I believe Matthew Miller of ZDNet is correct in saying there are “a ton of people that want to see Palm succeed.”

Palm is, after all, the brand that brought us the wonderful little handheld computer called PalmPilot, which eventually evolved into what I call an all-in-one device: a cellphone, personal digital assistant, alarm clock, portable MP3 and video player, digital camera, ebook reader and ‘game and watch’ rolled into one. And with the new OS, I hope Palm would resurrect Foleo.

With tomorrow’s announcement, I hope Palm could prove that it is, as I’d been insisting, “not a dying platform.” It’s Palm’s time to shine again.

Related Posts

• Palm is not a “dying platform”
• Palm webOS and Palm Pre
• Palm webOS SDK now public
• Palm Pre available in the US on June 6
• Palm EOS — post-Pre phone?
• My Palm Centro
• What they said about Palm Pre

The Washington Post on April 30 posted PC World contributing editor James A. Martin’s piece “Is the Palm OS Dying? Should You Care?“, which discussed the pros and cons of Palm devices against other smartphones. (Here is another version of the article published at the Australian PC World and reposted at the Palm blog).

Martin said he was not surprised when, in a conversation with an executive at a smart phone software developer, he learned that the latter’s company no longer released new versions of its software for Palm OS, which the executive described as “a dying platform.”

A Palm loyalist for more than a decade, Martin also sees the “uncertainty about the Palm OS’s future.” But while he described Palm OS as “easy-to-use and efficient” and Palm devices as “reliable and sturdy” he also feels his Palm Treo 755p is lagging in features as compared to other phones.

Martin, however, wrote that it doesn’t mean it’s time to ditch our Palm devices. He cited four reasons “why Palm OS smart phones are still worth owning”.

• Palm’s touchscreen are not too “touchy”. He’s never had problems of accidental clicking in Treo’s touch screen.
• Palm smart phones come with tons of useful software that are easier to use than the Windows mobile versions.
• More than 30,000 third-party Palm OS applications are available, according to Palm.
• His Treo 755p’s keyboard keys are nicely spaced, for a smart phone.

While acknowledging that Treos and Centros “lack some features other smart phones offer,” Martin added that “Palm’s smart phones still offer a strong mix of features, software, ease of use, and affordability.” He also recommended the Palm Centro for first time smart phone users or those who wish to replace their old Treo or Windows Mobile devices.

The very first comment I got on this blog was “Read my lips: “Palm is dead”. I thanked the visitor and told him: “What may be dead for you is very much alive for others.”

While fellow techies may rave about their new smartphone’s GPS, Wifi or 5 megapixel cameras — which my Treo lacks — I won’t trade my Treo for these newer phones. I still maintain that my Palm Treo 650 is my cellphone, personal digital assistant, alarm clock, portable MP3 and video player, digital camera, ebook reader and ‘game and watch’ in one device. I would only upgrade to Treo 680 or Palm Centro.

With the sale of the millionth Centro and its successive launches all over the world, more and more people are discovering and rediscovering the reliability and versatility of Palm OS and Palm devices. In its March statistics, mobile advertising firm Admob reported that Palm ranks third in the share of their worldwide traffic from smartphones. Palm got a measly 6%, but Apple, manufacturer of the much-hyped iPhone, is even behind with only 4%.

Palm OS may be on the decline, but I don’t believe it’s a dying platform. As I told Adrian, Palm devices are too useful to be “on the way out.”

Related Posts

• It’s Palm’s time to shine again
• My Palm Centro
• Palm says it has sold more than two million Centros
• Palm Centro now in black onyx and glacier white
• Will Palm apps run on Windows Mobile, Symbian and iPhone?
• A colorful Palm Centro TV commercial
• Treo 650 vs Treo 680

Brand-new Palm Treo 650s are now available for only P14,995 at ElectroWorld at Greenbelt 1 in Makati City. The 56% discount (from P33,900) is due to the store’s clearance sale that runs from February 1 to 10.

Related Posts

• It’s Palm’s time to shine again
• Palm is not a “dying platform”
• Palm catches attention, inspires conversations
• Treo 650 vs Treo 680
• Google Maps for Palm Treo
• Paano maglagay ng MP3 ringtones sa Palm Treo
• Wireless syncing

Google Maps offers maps–of course– as well as real-time traffic details in over 30 major US metropolitan areas and detailed route with step-by-step directions on how to reach a certain location

I thought Google Maps only renders maps and data for locations in the United States. Since I’m in the Philippines and I have no need for US maps, I did not bother downloading it.

But earlier this week, I got excited upon learning from the Fire Eye’d Boy that Google Maps also renders Philippine locations and displays some major roads. Last night, I downloaded and installed it on my Treo 650.

The first location that I saw on Google Maps on my Treo was San Francisco. I showed it to Mhay and she thought it’s San Francisco Del Monte, an area in Quezon City. We later learned it’s actually the city in California where many Filipinos live.

I zoomed out the map and dragged it until it showed other states and countries. When I reached the Philippines, I zoomed in on Marinduque, my province. The map showed only the national road and the names of the six towns. Higher in the map were the southern Luzon provinces and cities. I zoomed in on Quezon City, and it indeed displayed the major roads like EDSA, Quezon Ave, Aurora, and E. Rodriquez.

At present, Google Maps can only be a substitute to the generic Philippine map we generally see in bookstores. It can tell us on which part of the province a certain town can be found and show how the national highways pass through these towns. It also shows the cities and municipalities and some of the bigger roads in the metro. but it cannot help us yet in locating specific establishments or knowing which streets are congested.

Hopefully, these useful functionalities will be available soon.

Related Posts

• It’s Palm’s time to shine again
• Palm is not a “dying platform”
• 56% off on new Treo 650s at ElectroWorld
• Paano maglagay ng MP3 ringtones sa Palm Treo
• Intro

Buti na lang at sa kaka-google ay natagpuan ko ang MiniTones ni Nicolas Pabion. Libre lang ito. Kapag na-install mo ang MiniTones sa Treo mo, hahanapin nito ang MP3 files sa phone mo at puwede mong piliin ang gusto mong idagdag sa ringtones mo.

Mada-download ang MiniTones sa MyTreo.net. Eto pa ang karagdaang info mula pa rin sa MyTreo.net: “[MiniTones] also features a file splitter so you can use a section of a song instead of the whole song. A drawback to this is that it copies the file to main memory and can be a memory hog. Usage of the files does not require the app to be installed.”

Related Posts

• It’s Palm’s time to shine again
• Palm is not a “dying platform”
• 56% off on new Treo 650s at ElectroWorld
• Google Maps for Palm Treo
• Intro

I started using a Palm –my girlfriend’s m130–in early 2003. Later that year, I bought my first Palm handheld–a Palm m100, which I eventually sold to a friend because I bought another friend’s m505. I later upgraded to a Palm m515.

Just last month, I bought a secondhand Treo 650. I’ve been playing with it for the past few weeks, installing and uninstalling programs while discovering more things that the Treo could do.

In this blog, I’ll be sharing with you my Palm Treo experience.

By the way, my favorite programs — other than Bewejeled, of course — are eReader, funSMS and AvantGo.

Related Posts

• It’s Palm’s time to shine again
• Palm is not a “dying platform”
• 56% off on new Treo 650s at ElectroWorld
• Google Maps for Palm Treo
• Paano maglagay ng MP3 ringtones sa Palm Treo