*scottstuff*

Wi-Fi Networing News got its hands on the Nokia 770 and just posted a write-up. The short version: “agonizingly slow”

A bit more detail:

There was plenty of discussion … about the slowness. It’s hard to get past that aspect because it made the whole experience so not pleasant. In addition to slow response time, downloading Web pages was also quite slow. The 770 comes with built-in Wi-Fi so should have been fast but it was a lot like using 3G on a cell phone or PDA.

Hopefully they’ll be able to fix that in software before the launch. If that fails, the only choices are adding more RAM (which adds cost and reduces battery life) or scrapping everything and starting over with a faster CPU. I’d really like to see this little thing succeed, even though I don’t know what I’d ever use it for.

According to a number of sources, Nokia has just announced a new tablet-like wireless internet device, the Nokia 770. No one really seems to know what to do with it–it’s slightly larger then a PDA with a 4.13 inch 800x480 LCD, 802.11 and Bluetooth, 64 MB of RAM, 128 MB of flash, and an RS-MMC socket. Nokia’s positioning it as a cheaper, more portable alternative to the laptop, and equipping it with a web browser and email software. There have been a number of products with similar aims in the past, but none of them have been able to achieve any amount of success.

The 770 will probably fail, too. It does have a could things going for it, though–it’s a relatively open platform (it supposedly runs Debian Linux), and the software for the device is open-source. The hardware is surprisingly capable for the cost–at $350, this is cheaper then any PocketPC with a VGA screen. It’s a bit limited on the storage front, with room for only a single RS-MMC card (up to 512 MB), but that’s not really all that bad.

Personally, I wouldn’t mind something like this, but I’d be tempted to use it as a portable video player, and I doubt that the 770’s 200-ish MHz OMAP chip has enough oomph to play back video at any reasonable resolution and frame rate.

I’m not really sure what Nokia has up their sleeves here. On one hand, the hardware looks pretty good. Unfortunately, the software is brand new and doesn’t seem to include any PDA-type features–it’s focused entirely on web browsing (using a scaled-down Opera), email, and RSS reading. If Nokia can keep the platform alive for a year or two, it might gain enough support to be interesting, but as it stands I don’t see how it’ll have much of a chance in the market.

Update: Martin at Telepocalypse sees the 770 rather differently, and is very positive on it. Om Malik agrees.

As earlier rumors suggested, Palm’s newest handheld is going to have a 4 GB hard drive. The rumor mills have given two different names for the product–“Tugsten X” and “LifeDrive.” According to CNet, it looks like Amazon has let the cat out of the bag, listing the PalmOne LifeDrive for $499.

Amazon doesn’t list a lot of details, but the name is really the only thing that was up for debate–most of the rumors list the 4 GB drive, Bluetooth, WiFi, and PalmOS 5.x. Most rumors say 64 MB of RAM, although 32 MB is a possibility.

Here’s one of Amazon’s pictures:

People seem to think that PalmOne is going to market this as something other then a normal PDA/handheld; that implies that the software bundle will be a bit different then normal, but I haven’t seen any details. If you look at the image, notice that the 4 “application” buttons are different then earlier models–it looks like Home/Files/Pictures/Star (?), rather then Calendar/Contacts/To-Do/Memo.

Personally, I think it’s cool, but I just can’t get excited about Grifitti devices anymore. I’m still looking for a new handheld to replace my increasingly decrepit Clie, but I doubt that this will do it for me. Now, if they could add a keyboard and a 2-ish MP camera, all for about the same price, I’d consider it. As things stand, my pockets are just too full, and I don’t see what this adds to my life.

Okay, so yesterday’s rumor has been thoroughly scoffed at, so it’s time for a new rumor. Today’s buzz suggests that Palm has a whole new product family under development to complement today’s Zire, Tungsten, and Treo families. The only details floating around are:

• 4 GB of internal storage
• WiFi
• Bigger then Tungsten T5
• New sub-brand (not “Tungsten”)

Since 4 gigs of flash costs about the same as a whole Palm, this rumor suggests that Palm is using a 4 GB 1” hard drive, like the model in the iPod mini. This wouldn’t be the first PDA with a hard drive–Sharp’s had one for months–but it would be the first one on sale outside of Japan.

So, if it’s not a Tungsten, then what is it, and what market are they aiming towards? Gaming? Media player? Portable web browser? Laptop replacement? Knowing Palm, they’ll probably screw it up beyond belief, but one can always hope.

(via Gizmodo) PalmAddict claims that PalmOne is going to release a new model in late April. The T6 specs provided look more like a wishlist then an actual list of features that Palm would build into one of their devices:

• OS 6 (with scalable fonts)
• Bluetooth
• Wavelan
• 1 GB Flash
• 3 Megapixel Cam
• New connector (ethernet included)
• VGA resolution 640 x 480
• Graffiti 2 plus (with voice commands)
• Interface to iTunes (Apple iPod)
• The device is maximum 200 grams
• Automatic software update over internet
• Compatibility mode for pocket Windows is built in
• Initial price is around $400
• Launch date approx end of April

I’d love to see this, but I just can’t see it happening. In particular, I don’t see them putting out a new connector–the just changed it with the T5/Treo 650, and it’d be crazy to do it again. Also, who wants wired Ethernet to their PDA? Wireless, sure, but I’ve never heard anyone ask for a PDA with wired networking. I’m assuming that “wavelan” means some form of WiFi; hopefully Palm has finally seen the light on this front and will stop releasing high-end models that are put to shame by low-end PocketPCs.

The funny thing is that I was wondering yesterday when Palm was going to release their next handheld. They’ve traditionally done Spring/Fall releases, but they’ve been falling down lately. Since they’re clearly in danger of becoming irrelevant, the release of a model with even half of the features listed here could go a long ways towards regaining their mindshare. Now a Treo with half of these features would have me jumping up and down. Pity that VGA Treos with WiFi probably won’t show up until 2007 or so.

So, I’ve been thinking about the new Mac mini. I could definitely use a couple new computers at home, and I’d be happiest with new Macs. They’d fit in well with my Powerbook and our dying old iMac. The Mac mini is certainly cheaper then older models, but the pricing is kind of deceptive. Yeah, you can get a model for $499, but by the time you bump the hard drive up to 80 MB, add a DVD burner, and add a reasonable amount of (third-party) memory, it’s pushing $1,000 all of a sudden. More specifically:

• Mac mini, 1.43 GHz/80 GB model: $599
• upgrade to Superdrive: $100
• add keyboard: $29 (Apple total: $728)
• 1 GB of Mac mini RAM from Crucial: $226.99

I’m sure I could get the memory for a few bucks less elsewhere, but I’ve had good luck with Crucial in the past, and I’d rather not monkey around with the RAM if I can avoid it. The initial rumors were that the Mac mini’s RAM wasn’t user-upgradeable; now it looks like it’s just sort of not recommended. It doesn’t require any special tools at the very least.

So, for $1,000, I can have a Mac with around 3x the CPU power of my aging PowerBook, enough RAM to do a bit of photo editing now and then, and a bit of disk space. I’d reuse the 22” CRT sitting on my desk at home and a Logitech optical mouse that I already own.

The problem is that I can’t afford a new Mac and a new Treo 650. Fortunately, no one seems eager to sell me a GSM Treo 650 any time soon, but sooner or later, Cingular is going to announce pricing, and I’m going to have to decide what I’m going to do about it. If they’d been shipping it 3 months ago, I probably would have ordered right off the bat, but its lack of memory and WiFi makes it look less enticing every month.

Oh, well–I should really wait until taxes are done this year before ordering any new hardware anyway.

A lot of people were amazed that PalmOne could introduce the Treo 650 without any sort of WiFi ability at all. Since most of the companies building Windows-based competitors are including WiFi now, it seemed only reasonable that Palm would follow their lead. Instead, they introduced the Treo 650 with only a vague promise that they might support SDIO WiFi cards eventually. Since they made the same basic promise with the original Treo 600, and nothing ever came of it, a lot of people assumed that the 650 would be a WiFi-free zone.

That doesn’t actually appear to be the case, however. First, someone hacked Palm’s own SD WiFi card drivers to work (sort of) on the Treo 650. There were two major problems with that, however. First, it screwed up the phone’s ability to do IP via the cellular network. Second, even once that gets fixed, it leaves you without a flash card in your Treo. Since the Treo needs all the storage it can get, this doesn’t strike me as a workable long-term solution.

At CES, Enfora introduced a second solution, in the form of a WiFi “sled” for the Treo 600 and 650. Similar in concept to their earlier models for Palm devices, it’s basically a clip-on brick that provides extra battery power and WiFi via the docking connector at the bottom of the phone. At $150, the price isn’t too bad, but it’s probably too bulky for everyday use.

For truly compromiseless WiFi, Treo users will probably have to wait for next year’s model. I’d love to have a handheld with WiFi so I could get fast, free connectivity at home and at work, but Palm doesn’t seem particularly eager to address that need.

X-Gadget has a Treo 600 vs 650 comparison review up. Summary:

• The sound quality is slightly worse on the 650, but still better then most phones.
• The screen is vastly better.
• The camera is much better.
• The CPU is a lot faster.
• The software is slightly improved.

The reviewer didn’t mention low memory issues or spend more then a few minutes playing with Bluetooth. All in all, his take seems to be that the hardware is good, but PalmOS is getting long in the tooth and needs updated.

If you’ve been living under a rock, then you might not have noticed that PalmSource has announced that they’re going to be building a version of the Palm operating system that runs on top of Linux. It’s not completely clear what this means–are they replacing the kernel in PalmOS 6 with Linux, or is this a parallel project, intended to fit into new niches? PalmSource released an open letter to the Linux community that provides a few details:

• Existing 68k-based Palm apps will work fine.
• Apps based on the new Cobalt API will need to be recompiled.
• ARM-based apps for PalmOS 5 aren’t mentioned, it’s probably safe to assume that most of them will break.
• They’re going to enhance the Linux kernel as needed and contribute their changes back to the community.
• It’ll be possible to run Linux apps underneath their UI, but if you want a user interface, you’ll need to use their API. In other words, it’ll be possible to run things like Apache and MySQL on PalmOS for Linux, but not X applications.
• Their licensing model for PalmOS itself isn’t changing–they’re still licensing the whole package to hardware manufacturers and expecting them to port it to their hardware. Presumably, this will become easier when using Linux, because it comes with more drivers and Linux driver programming is a easier skill to hire then PalmOS driver programming.

Of course, that glosses over most of the important issues. Particularly, is any vendor actually going to ship this? Ever? PalmOS 6 (“Cobalt”) was released to manufacturers at the end of 2003, and not only is there no PalmOS 6 hardware available, there aren’t even any rumors of any on the horizon. It’s unclear if PalmOne will ever ship a PalmOS 6 device. It’s entirely possible that the only PalmOS 6 hardware to ship in 2005 will be from afleet of small asian contract manufacturers building for local markets, although Samsung may have something up their sleeves.

Given the glacial rate of PalmOS 6’s adoption, PalmSource will probably be best off focusing all of their attention onto PalmOS for Linux and calling it PalmOS 7, because there’s no way they can carry three software lines–PalmOS 5, PalmOS 6, and PalmOS for Linux. Since current PalmOS 6 applications won’t be binary-compatible with PalmOS for Linux, there’s no way they can call it PalmOS 6.2 and pretend that it’s an extension of the current 6.x line. If they’re going to push a Linux product at all, then they need to push it hard, and they can’t push two “next generation” products that are mutually incompatible.

Which brings up the big question: when will it be ready? After reading their press releases, I don’t thing they’ve been working on this for very long. They certainly aren’t ready to ship anything, and I’d be surprised if they actually have much more then a proof-of-concept port in-house. On the other hand, they have a solid, well-known base to work from, so it’s not like they have to fight with alpha-grade build tools, flaky OSes, and all of the other moving targets that they presumably had to deal with when building PalmOS 6. Porting the current PalmOS to run on top of the Linux framebuffer device shouldn’t be very hard. Adding support for Linux’s network stack might be interesting–as I recall, PalmOS 5’s TCP stack was entirely located in user space, so it the API might not be very close to the traditional BSD socket API, but I don’t really know. Porting 68k apps will be easy; they already have an emulator that runs on Linux and has for years. Adapting it to the new framework shouldn’t require a whole lot of work.

Unfortunately, the one thing that will probably be hardest is the thing that makes PalmOS so unique–it’s filesystem, or rather the lack of one. Traditionally, PalmOS applications don’t really have the notion of saving or multitasking–everything lived in RAM, and switching between programs didn’t involve a whole lot of extra effort. Applications kept their data organized into databases, not files, and they edited the databases directly, without any sort of “save” step. This meant that switching between apps is fast and gives a good user experience for simple applications, but it hasn’t scaled well because it doesn’t provide an easy way to manage block-based storage, like external flash cards or internal hard drives. Instead, PalmOS has had to add an whole extra API for accessing filesystem-based devices, and this has left us in a state where some applications won’t run off of flash cards, and many applications are unable to access data saved on flash cards.

With a virtual-memory based OS like Linux, it’s possible to fake a lot of this with mmap, but that isn’t ideal when you’re dealing with flash cards–it’s easy to wear out most flash cards today by sending them thousands of small writes, and that’s what I’d expect to see when changing a mmaped database. Also, what happens when a flash card is ejected while an application has a file mapped? Linux is never happy when removable devices go away, but causing applications to crash just because the card was removed is seriously user-unfriendly. If mmap won’t work, the big alternative is to copy things to RAM transparently and then copy them back out when done, but that will push the memory requirements up, which will push up costs and limit battery life.

Given all of this, I’d be surprised to see a PalmOS for Linux device before mid-2006, and that’s a long ways away. It’s not clear that the Palm world can wait for another year and a half, falling further and further behind the networking and multitasking abilities of their PocketPC-based competitors. Given that, PalmSource must be feeling a lot of pressure from their licensees to switch to Linux, or they wouldn’t have made this announcement at all.

According to Designtechnica, SanDisk has announced a 2 GB SD card. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first 2 GB SD card on the market. It’s supposed to ship next month for a list price of $200.

The largest SD cards currently shipping are 1 GB models, and their prices have been in a freefall lately, dropping from $150 a few months ago to as low as $50 after rebates.

Sandisk also announced 4 GB Memory Stick PRO and 1 GB Memory Stick Duo cards for $800 and $205, respectively.