WorldCAD Access

My newest tablet is frozen in time

HP TouchPad Running WebOS HP is a big company that tries lots of things and is really successful in a few, like sales of printers and ink cartridges and computers. One of its failures was an attempt to counter the Android/iOS duopoly with its 2011 purchase of what was left of the company who made PalmOS. HP renamed it WebOS, launched a tablet called the TouchPad (see figure at left, sourced from TechFever), and then shut down the entire project after just six months of poor sales and poor reviews. I knew there was trouble when an HP vp was... Read more →

Fixing old hardware: Palm TX Touchscreen

I love my Palm PDA, but last year I felt I had to give up. First the touch screen on one Palm TX lost some of its touchiness, especially in the crucial top 1/3 of the screen. I bought a reconditioned model off eBay for half-price, and after some time its screen also began to become problematic. My initial solution was to purchase a 64GB iPod Touch, but after some months I began to resent the immature level of its PIM software, even when purchased from third-parties. I find it difficult to understand why the aging Palm is faster at... Read more →

Now that I Own an iTouch, I Want Android To Succeed

This morning I read of the remarkable success of the iPod Touch, selling perhaps half as many devices as the iPhone. But that does not surprise me, for the iTouch lacks competition. The last similar device -- the Palm TX -- was abandoned by Palm several years ago. There is no other miniature non-cell-phone computing device on the market. I used four models of Palm handheld computer (the original Pilot, Plam III, Sony Clie, and Palm TX) over 13 years. The touch screen began to go on the TX, I bought a second one from eBay, and now its screen... Read more →

The News Depends on Who's Reporting

Competing reports on Palm's Q4 earnings report... From fan site PalmInfoCenter, only positive news in the RSS synopsis in Palm Reports Q4 and FY 2008 Results: Palm, Inc. today reported that total revenue in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2008, ended May 30, was $296.2 million. Smartphone sell-through for the quarter reached a record high, totaling 968,000 units, up 29 percent year over year. "We continue to invest in Palm's future and remain focused on building long-term value," said Ed Colligan, president and chief executive officer for Palm, Inc. "Centro is a tremendous hit, we are gaining market share,... Read more →

How to Watch Google VideoOn Your PalmPilot

Google Video has a new button that lets you download its videos for "iPods and Sony PS game computers." Well, only slightly misleading. The downloadable videos are in MP4 format, at 320x240 resolution. Ugly for today's 21" widescreen monitors employed by desktop computers, but just right for handheld devices -- like my Palm TX. Here's what you need to watch full-length movies on a Palm: 1. Get a high capacity SD memory card for storing the movies on the Palm. I use the cheapest 2GB card from SanDisk, which are as little as $30 now. 2. Get a copy of... Read more →

Palm OS: Fixing Digitizer Drift

My just-over-1-year-old Palm TX (ie, just out of warranty) began the giving me the pain of digitizer drift. That's where you need to pick below buttons and other points for them to activate. Using the Preferences | Touchscreen calibration tool just makes things worse, because using it seems to force the misaligned digitizer to get worse. I did some reading on the Internet, and found it is a fairly common problem, although not one that has affected me for ten years and through five PalmOS devices -- until now. I tried a few different ways of touching the Touchscreen calibration... Read more →

T|X vs iPhone

A couple of Apple's new iPhone specs caught my eye, because they compare with Palm's T|X: Resolution 480x320 -- same for both products Horizontal and vertical display -- same for both, but auto rotate for iPhone. Screen Size 3.5" (diagonal) for the iPhone. 3.9" (diag) for the T|X. Max RAM 8GB for iPhone 2GB for T|X Read more →

My 10th PalmPilot Anniversary

It was ten years ago today I bought the first of five PalmPilots: 1996: US Robotics Pilot 1000 I bought the Palm 1000 following three experiences: - I desperately needed a way to keep track of appointments and contacts. I had tried all sorts of systems, and none worked for me. - For Christmas, my youngest daughter got a 2KB, girl-oriented day-timer-style pocket computer ($15), and as I played with it, I realized this could be the key. - Palm spent big on an ad in Fortune magazine, with a full-size cardboard Pilot you could remove form the page to... Read more →