An Interesting Couple of Weeks

It's been approximately 4 months since the Palm Foleo was announced and it has been cancelled.  Wow.  Didn't see that coming!  Not that I disagree (see prior postings here).  I think it is good news for a couple of reasons: First, the device was just "not ready" for being released: underpowered and un-refie.  Second, I am thinking that Palm sees that it is time to fight for their business.  And that can only good since other companies are really stepping up to the plate in adding value to their product lines (Nokia, Apple, and others).  Anyway, for the reasons outlined on the Palm Blog, this is the first REALLY smart move Palm has done in a long time.  I'm wishing them luck.

Apples to Oranges

The new iPods are out!  Why do I care?  Well, the iPod Touch is being said to be "Apple's Return into the Handheld Market."  The Apple iPod Touch is an awesome looking device with a large table screen, 8 to 16 GIGS of memory/storage, WiFi, and slick software.  These are features that Palm really should have had in the last few years.  But a traditional PDA it's not.  It's a closed system (no 3rd party software other than web apps).  It has virtually no offline capability other than playing music, writing some simple notes, or entering an appointment into the calendar.  If anything this is a handheld/smartphone hybrid: Some offline, some online.  But hey, it DOES play music!

HP's Good News

It's a good sign that HP has brought to market five new PDAs!  Considering that they were withdrawing from the market a few months ago.  Like Dell, HP had thought the market to be in a no-recovery death spiral.  What changed their minds?  Dunno, but it's nice to see their renewed faith showing. 

On the support forum, Discuss This Article.

:) 

Jeff Hawkins' Palm 'Foleo' and, oh, Free Programs!

The mysterious Jeff Hawkins product was finally announced, see Hands-On The Foleo, and much to the dismay of users, this Treo Companion seems to offer very little for a high price-tag ($499 after rebate for a phone add-on?).  Both users and analysts have received the Foleo with a lackluster response as expectations were very high from the hype and time it took to be brought to market.  As a new mobile category, as Mr. Hawkins refers to it, the apparent notebook computer seems to miss the boat.  Surprisingly, the announcement did have some positive effects: Sub-notebook offerings suddenly seem to be making the news and some of them are really interesting products.  Who knows?  Maybe this product may kick-start significant interest and price-drops in sub-laptops and UMPCs.  Regardless, I am reserving judgment until the Foleo ships and I can examine one at Sprint or Verizon.

On the PDAT software note, I have updated the XDF-EDIT program to make it easier to move around large number of fields.  Also, the shareware program PDAT/db is now freeware!  This has always been a good seller, and I thank everyone who supported it, but at this point, it needs to be set free!  Both programs are available on the Dev Tools page.

On the support forum, Discuss This Article.

:) 

New "Hawkins" Project Details Near Announcement

According to the Palm InfoCenter site, the mysterious Jeff Hawkins "3rd Product" is nearing an official announcement, or at least some official and less mysterious comments!  This product has been in the rumor mill since August 2005. Personally, I'm hoping for the best and fearing... well, the timing.  In short, the strongest rumors indicate a larger "tablet" PDA (smaller than UMPC) running Palm Linux OS with cellular capabilities.  Of course, who really knows at this point since there has been very few detail leaks and no manufacturer photo leaks as there often tends to be.

I'm really hoping that Palm can step up to the plate and deliver a truly revolutionary product with features that Jeff Hawkin has been researching in his private "brain" company.  If it's just another "internet surfing" or "tablet treo" device it will be doomed to failure.  We (or perhaps just "I", LOL) need some inspiration in this industry and I hope he can deliver it.  It will be a tough sell, regardless.  The current trend of SmartPhones being delivered by RIM, Microsoft, and Nokia are not to be underestimated.  Pure PDA sales have been in decline for 13 quarters straight!  And while the Treo line is still selling, RIM, Microsoft, and Nokia have not been sittings still and the pressure is really on.  Here's crossing my fingers for you, Palm!

On another note, it was time for domain renewals and PDAToolbox.org is good for another year!  So, as I've stated elsewhere, and unlike AppForge, we're not leaving the scene anytime soon!

On the support forum, Discuss This Article.

:) 

PDA Toolbox Professional Orders

Just a quick note...

As of today, Paul Anderson will be handling the sales for PDA Toolbox Professional Upgrades and Orders.  While he is "getting up to speed", allow a bit more time for orders to be processed.  I am still handling all other orders.  Feel free to contact Paul Anderson or Rick Sands regarding sales questions (or any questions).

On the support forum, Discuss This Article.

:) 

Some Changes For Me

After nearly four years of me doing the freelance programmer thing full-time, I have had to take a full-time position.  So I am now currently working programming Visual Basic 6 and .NET applications for a small software company.  I really miss the control of my own destiny, but really enjoy getting a salaried check! :)  But of course this has major implications to my software offerings and the time I can spend on them not to mention my time on the forums. While I'm getting up to speed at working full-time again, my evenings don't seem conducive to programming so the week-ends are it (about 1/2 day each).  

Before you panic, my goal is for PDA Toolbox not to go away until the last Palm is sold.  I am continuing to work on it as time permits.  But right now, my main thing is to gracefully finish up work for my existing clients on the weekends.  So new PDAT programming is going really slow.  Once my clients are finished up, then I can resume PDAT in a faster fashion.

In the meantime, I'd like to make available the source code to the Advanced Utility Lib, PIM Lib, VFS Lib, Common Dialogs, and Resource Editor Lib to any good forum members who know C programming.  This may allow for enhancements or fixes to proceed without me holding it up.  So if you are interested in taking a stab at this, please email me at my SandsUSA.com address.  

In addition, I am releasing the Runtime Resource Editor Library as freeware.  For everyone who as supported it via registration, I sincerely thank you.  And please, as a freeware library, all support will be entirely through the forums.

And finally, there still has been a large increase of spammers visiting the forum and posting inappropriate ads.  Paul Anderson has helped in tightening up the forum registrations to prevent bots from applying.  He has a few other ideas also.  Anything to keep these creeps out, right?

On the support forum, Discuss This Article.

:) 

Happy New Year 2007!

First, the PDA Toolbox Team wishes everyone a great new year!  May your sales pleasantly surprise you!

We are currently in the early stages of PDA Toolbox 6.5 Service Pack 2.  At this time, it is mostly bug fixes.  There are plans for some enhancements, but tightening up the code is #1.  Feel free to send me any problems (with an actual sample) or feature requests.  

And finally, there has been a large increase of spammers visiting the forum and posting inappropriate ads.  If you see any off-topic sales pitches, please notify myself or one of the forum moderators so we can remove the offending spam as soon as possible.