In 2003: PalmSource delivers OS6 Golden Master to Licensees.

Although as far as I'm aware this never actually made it into any production devices. It was a shame, too little and too late really to get the Palm ecosystem back on target. It had lost too much ground by then.

Have any Bhajis Loops instruments, or looking for some to use?

Well you find lots in the Palmorama Bhajis Loops instrument site and if you want to contribute (and you'd be very welcome) just contact me using the form in the about page, I'd be very happy to hear from you.

In 2000: VisorPhone ships

Why not take a look in the Palmorama library

All you need to do is click above where it says library, or click here. There's lots of good stuff in there, and I'm doing my best to continue to add to it on a regular basis.

In 2000: Samsung OS license announced (to make PalmOS smartphone)

Strange to think about this now given where Samsung are.

In 2004: PalmSource announces PalmOS to run on Linux

It was a strange thing really, and not something that I could understand from a business perspective at all.

But everything is still there!

Windows Mobile devices had non-volatile memory, which, if you think about devices today, seems obvious, but back then it really wasn't. Many of Palm's devices up to OS5 didn't have non-volatile memory, so if you let the batteries go flat you had to restore from a back up!

That battery really is flat!

So the Treo lives again

For a while there I wasn't sure it was going to power up at all, but it has!

And another 'last thought' on Windows Mobile

Another thing came to me that I wanted to mention. Whilst Palm OS got used in the Handspring devices, you never had the same kind of modular hardware appear for Windows Mobile, which I think was a missed trick really, and a shame.

I think that could have been very cool indeed.

A last thought on Windows Mobile ...

Ok, perhaps not quite a complete last thought, but one more thing that occurred to me after yesterday's WM fest. One of the things that WM was obviously very good at was integrating with Microsoft's Office suite, at least the versions back in the days when WM was around.

That was of course something that it really had over Palm OS. Palm never had that deep integration that WM could achieve much easier, and that was of course why it was simpler to utilise in enterprise environments.

Some of my favourite Windows Mobile user interfaces: 10

Ok. That's probably all for now on interfaces. I think I've made my point.

Some of my favourite Windows Mobile user interfaces: 9

Some of my favourite Windows Mobile user interfaces: 8

Some of my favourite Windows Mobile user interfaces: 7

Some of my favourite Windows Mobile user interfaces: 6

Some of my favourite Windows Mobile user interfaces: 5

Some of my favourite Windows Mobile user interfaces: 4

Some of my favourite Windows Mobile user interfaces: 3

Some of my favourite Windows Mobile user interfaces: 2

Some of my favourite Windows Mobile user interfaces: 1

Having said that I liked the user interface design in Windows Mobile I thought I'd post a few of my favourite examples of it.

Building 'apps' on Windows Mobile

A bit like iziBasic and ViziBasic on the Palm OS, Basic4ppc was good although to make a full 'app' you needed to use the desktop too.

An operating system needs windows

One of the other things I really liked about Windows Mobile was the use of windows in the user interface. I know it was a little thing, but I just liked it.

Windows Mobile and a more personal user interface

One thing I always liked about Windows Mobile was how you could adapt the user interface to suit you. Some of the customisation was built in to the OS and other elements had to be supported by 3rd party apps. Either way, it made for a more personal experience and I think that's something that's lacking in modern interfaces.

Windows Mobile and the desktop

Of course, like all PDAs back in the day, there was a strong connection with the desktop. Windows Mobile devices were very good at talking to Windows on the desktop as you can see here.

And the Axim again

Just a nice photo of it that I thought I'd add as we're talking about Windows Mobile today.

My old Axim

This has been my primary Windows Mobile device for a long time now. It replaced an HP Jornada 568 which was in fact my very first WM device. The Axim has been brilliant and has always served my purposes very well indeed.

This was a more common feature of Windows Mobile

This device wasn't a laptop, it was a way to use your Windows Mobile device on a bigger screen and with a keyboard. A great idea, and one that shows that the Windows Mobile OS was far more targeted at the business user.

Actually, a few thoughts on Windows Mobile ...

It is in fact one of those areas that I don't think I've properly done justice here, at least not for a long time now, and that is almost certainly in need of rectifying.

It was of course, one of the more popular mobile operating systems back in the day, and, because it was Microsoft, it was more heavily adopted in the corporate / enterprise world than Palm was.

Most of the stuff I've covered on Windows Mobile has been creative stuff, but of course you could do loads more with it. It was very functional indeed. So perhaps it's about time to take a few moments to look at it in more depth, and also look at some of the devices that used this OS.

Once again I've pulled this out to have a look at it ...

 

I've got it into my head that it could be the ideal PDA for me (again). This is mostly due to the fact that I can't remember why it didn't work out so well last time around!

So, it's a phone, for your phone?

It's taken me a while to decide whether or not to talk about this, but I think it is worth saying. This is a terrible idea. It's a phone for people who don't want to take their existing, slightly larger phone, out with them. That's it. That is Palm's big new idea.

Well that is truly pathetic in my opinion.

I had hoped that the brand could stand for something a little better than this, but apparently not. It is a competitor for smartwatches, and not even in a good way. This is a proposition that says "Don't just own one phone when you can own two". Why? It makes no sense at all!

If I'm wrong and it's a great success, then fine, but I wouldn't be surprised if this dies out pretty quick.

The shame of it is that it's a missed opportunity for the brand.

Never mind!

There's even Palm stuff on Pinterest

If you're a pinterest user you can find the Palmorama pinterest board here. I add stuff to it occasionally, so it's worth checking every once in a while to see if there's anything new.

In 1998: Palm VII announced (first integrated wireless data device)

I never had one of these but I always wanted one. It was pretty amazing and even revolutionary back in 1998.

In 2000: Kyocera QCP-6035 Smartphone announced

I don't know too much about this device or the manufacturer for that matter but it was another in the long line of third party devices to use the Palm OS, much in the same way as Google has allowed manufacturers to use Android.

Here's something I found: www.frankwillems.com

www.frankwillems.com
www.frankwillems.com Palm Pilot IIIxe IttyMIDI File Player The Palm Pilot IIIxe with IttyMIDI , acts as a MIDI file player. MIDI songs created on the PC are…

Read the original here

Here's something I found: Graham's REX 6000 Notes

Graham's REX 6000 Notes
I have been experimenting with programming for the REX 6000 .Anyone interested in this should definitely check out the Rex Extras site. Cygwin I am using the…

Read the original here

Here's something I found: Any PalmOS Application Websites left? [Archive] - Vintage Computer Forum

Any PalmOS Application Websites left? [Archive] - Vintage Computer Forum
Vintage Computer Forum > Genres > Handhelds/Portables > Any PalmOS Application Websites left? PDA View Full Version : Any PalmOS Application Websites left?…

Read the original here

Here's something I found: Pure Data for PDA's

Pure Data for PDA's
Supported Hardware PDa should generally run on all Linux based devices. Due to differences between the specific platforms it is most of the time difficult to…

Read the original here

In 2002: Fossil Palm OS License announced (to make wristwatch PDA)

The Fossil watches never really took off in my view. They were simply too big for most wrists and didn't really do what you wanted them to do. They weren't user friendly and for the most part were targeted at the hard core PDA user who wanted another little screen on their wrist. The second iteration of the Fossil was a lot better and in many ways they were the precursor for the smart watches that we have today.

In 2000: Palm Mobile Internet Kit begins shipping

Connectivity for Palm devices was something that people had started talking about for a long time and before this the only thing you could do was read your email on the device and reply then sync and send the reply from your desktop. The mobile internet kit changed a lot.

#trgpro #pda controls #anushri and #bC16 and #modular #synth

via IFTTT

#trgpro #pda running baby hedgehog controlling #anushri #bc16

via IFTTT

I'd almost forgotten DGOS

DGOS was almost a whole alternative OS for Palm. It stopped, largely because Palm did, but it was really interesting. There wasn't ever a downloadable file, but it is now possibly something to do with the DIY Palm device I posted about a few days ago (link).

As you can see, there wasn't much to actually 'see', but it was taking shape, and a shame that it didn't move forward, but understandable.

Alternative operating system? Well, sort of

I've been meaning to talk about this one for a long time now. It's something that I never got around to trying out when it first arrived. I'm talking about Teal OS, although it isn't called Teal OS now, it's SoftOS, and it's still available!

I've just downloaded it to have a look and see what it's like. I'll post some pictures of it soon.

Is it still viable to use a Palm OS device in 2018? ... Drawing

My all time favourite drawing app has to be  NinerPaint. It was (is) such a versatile drawing, and also animation package.

Now, I'm no artist, that's for sure, but even I could make something reasonable (I know it's very subjective) with NinerPaint. See below ...

Ok, you may or may not agree with whether this is good or not, and you might not even think it's a good example of what can be done.

The GIF below has a few examples too.

Is it still viable to use a Palm OS device in 2018? ... Office

There were quite a few choices in terms of office suites for Palm OS, and, as in so many areas for Palm devices, as the OS and the hardware improved, the choices and their functionality got better.

My personal favourite was Documents2Go.

Docs2Go could handle Word, Excel and even powerpoint. It was impressive stuff. There were alternatives of course, but really this is the best option in my opinion.

Of course, you couldn't sync wirelessly, or use a cloud service for document storage, that really was the future when we were using Palm OS devices.

Is it still viable to use a Palm OS device in 2018? ... Contact management

Another standard built in app was the Palm OS contacts app. Again it was perfectly functional, and, like many of the built in apps there were quite a number of 3rd party apps that would extend functionality.

If you needed something more powerful like contact management or CRM type capabilities you were probably slightly spoiled for choice!

Is it still viable to use a Palm OS device in 2018? ... Tasks and task management

Task management on Palm was again, simple, yet completely functional. In fact, I'd probably say that this was slightly more functional than what I use today on an iOS device.

You could set a priority, a category, due date and of course details. So, what more do you need?

Is it still viable to use a Palm OS device in 2018? ... Simple notes

Notes, memos, whatever you want to call them, we all use them. Having a store for them is essential in any mobile device, and the original Palm OS had this too.

Even the earliest devices had a simple notes application in the built in selection. Of course it was just text but then that was fine and probably all that was needed or indeed useful.

As the operating system evolved it became more functional.

So I think that whilst you might have a few limitations in using the Palm OS notes you could probably get by reasonably ok.

Is it still viable to use a Palm OS device in 2018? ... Calendar and DualDate

As a little addendum to the calendar post I should say that there was an add on to Calendar on the Palm OS built in app called DualDate. This was actually an amazingly useful add on. It allowed you to hold two quite separate calendars on a single device.

So if you and your partner wanted to both hold a copy of each other's diaries, you could. All you had to do was to beam them over infrared to each other. That's it!

I've not seen anything similar on modern devices.

Take a look in the Palmorama store ... (well, if you want Palm OS stuff anyway)

Have a look in the store for all your Palm OS needs! You can just click above to get to the store. The store has lots of mainly 2nd hand stuff from eBay, but often there's some quite good stuff available, so it is worth a look occasionally. You never know, you might grab a bargain.

Is it still viable to use a Palm OS device in 2018? ... Using Calendar

Actually, if you're ok with an offline calendar then you could still probably get on just fine with the Palm OS calendar. It wasn't bad. It still isn't. It can be quite useful.

You could of course sync it with Outlook, or, if you can remember it, Lotus Organiser!

The built in calendar did evolve over time and with different versions of the operating system, and became quite useful.

Verdict: Probably you could use this now and still find it perfectly functional.

Is it still viable to use a Palm OS device in 2018?

I thought I'd have a look at some of the things that you need a portable device for and whether you could go back to using a Palm OS PDA to do what you need to in 2018.

It won't be a massive series, it'll look at some key areas and briefly give my view on whether the Palm OS could make it against today's modern devices.

It should be fun!

Another Palm OS app download resource

I thought I'd post a link to this site for Palm OS downloads. It's called PalmDB. There isn't a massive amount there right now, but I'm hoping that there will be.

The DIY future of Palm OS?

This is really interesting, and really exciting too. The thought of a DIY Palm OS device could be really cool. If you want to find out a bit more check this reddit thread.

I'll be keeping an eye on this now, you can be sure of that.

One that got away: BeatPlus

Just revisiting the topic from the other day about Handspring Springboards. This is one of the modules that is incredibly rare. I actually owned one briefly, but that's a whole other story.

This was a great springboard. A whole little sound module that could slot into your handspring. Sheer genius.

I was thinking about it just today and thought I'd share it with you.

Let's talk about Rex: What's next?

One thing about the Rex is that it never seemed to find a home particularly for what it was trying to do or be. That was a shame. I think it had a lot of potential to be something great.

The idea of a credit card sized device still appeals to me, and I think it could be used in so many ways. Probably paired to another device, but used to keep track of your wallet. Be a second screen perhaps. There's a whole host of possibilities that could make this kind of device useful again.

Maybe someone will do just that.

Let's talk about Rex: One more device that's of a similar size

Of course the Arduboy above isn't from the same time at all, but has a very similar form to the Rex. Smaller screen and big buttons, but an interesting comparison.

Let's talk about Rex: And that case idea evolved

The insert to the cassette case was 3D printed to hold the Rex. It wasn't a bad idea, but once I'd got it there I wasn't sure how useful it would be anyway.