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 scheduled to speak about WebOS at a Linux conference I was attending, but then the topic was changed last-minute to something else.

WebOS was sold to LG, who now uses it in some of their smartTVs. There is, of course, the open source version of WebOS at http://www.openwebosproject.org, sponsored by LG; the last post, however, on the user forum was made more than a year ago.

A sad story for those of us who survived the 1990s with our beloved Palm Pilots -- beloved because those diminutive devices did things that today's hyper-marketed Android and iOS devices still can't.

When HP sold off the remaining inventory of TouchPads for $99, I ordered one through a local big box store, but the order was never confirmed. Earlier this year, I searched eBay and found one that was never unopened. When it arrived at my home, I was so in awe of the last ever "PalmOS" portable device that I left the box unopened for months. 

I finally opened it for my birthday. The packaging is very nicely done by HP, the sort of thing they normally reserve for their high-end laptops. The tablet is standard by today's design norms: 10" screen, power and volume buttons, microUSB, and a physical home button. 

It is unusual in a few areas. The USB charger is round, like a cylinder, and the USB cable featured a large chrome dot to indicate how it should be plugged into the tablet. The table is heavy, the heaviest I've ever held. 

When it came to start the TouchPad, it asked me for the language I prefer and then attempted to contact HP's severs to set up the account and complete the startup. And this is where I say, "The tablet is frozen in time." HP no longer operates the servers, and from the name of the operating system ("WebOS") this was to be a cloud-connected device. HP named the first release of Web0s "v3.0", perhaps as a tip of the hat to PalmOS.

Fortunately, the wizkids on the intertubes developed a workaround that involves a fair amount of work to fool the device into starting without contacting HP's servers. See http://forums.webosnation.com/hp-touchpad/317164-activation-bypass-touchpad.html. It worked, and I can now examine the contents of the abandoned device.

WebOS introduced to the UX world the concept of cards, which has since been adopted by Google in its Web pages and in Android. Press the Home button to see a carousel of cards showing the current state of every running app. (See figure below, sourced from Daily Tech.) Then flick through them to get to the app you want. Press the Home button a second time to access the launcher, which lists all the apps available on the tablet. Apps are written in Enyo, now an HMTL5 framework for all devices (see http://enyojs.com).

In some ways, the tablet is modern, despite being five years old. It has bluetooth and Wifi, it can connect to services like Dropbox and Exchange. Other specs are definitely 2011-ish:

• 1024×768 resolution
• 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera
• dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon
• 32GB operating RAM, 29GB available

But otherwise it frozen: no software can be updated, nor can the OS be updated by HP. The online backup system is, naturally, non-functional. Well, there is an exception. Clever users have been able to install Android, and so keep the deice functional. I won't, as I want a record of this unique device; it is w-a-y too old and heavy to replace the lithe Android tablets I use today.

In the end, I was disappointed by the TouchPad. It is almost too heavy to hold, its reliance on HP servers an Achilles Heel (even if WebOS had broken through to success), and I actually did not care for the WebOS interface. (A better one is Blackberry's OS interface.)

 

 

 

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 accessing datebook and contact info than the Touch. Indeed, I find it faster to use Google Contacts on my desktop than Contacts on the Touch. In particular, Apple's search capabilities are shockingly incapable.

And so it was a happy coincidence that I came across replacement touch screens for the Palm TX for just $35 on eBay. I ordered two.

If you have replaced a hard drive in a desktop computer, then you can replace the touchscreen on a Palm. It's that easy. The basic steps are:

1. Remove four screws. (A small flat-bladed screwdriver handles the torx screws.)

2. Pry apart the case (takes some effort, but you won't break anything.)

3. Unplug the connector between the tiny motherboard and the screen (the connector is located at the side of the motherboard.)

4. Remove the screen -- it pops off its adhesive attachments.

5. Put the new screen in-place and attach the connector.

6. Pop the plastic shell together. Here is the only tricky part: the top of the Palm has a two pieces, a cover and the on-off switch. These need a bit of maneuvering to get into place correctly.

7. Press the power button and recalibrate the touch screen.

8. If it is working, then put back the screws.

Everything went well with the first Palm TX whose screen I replaced. But something went wrong with the second one, and it no longer works -- even after I put back the original screen.

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 is going as well. I was torn between another TX (another$200) or something else.

Since more iPhone applications are emerging, I decided on the iTouch in order to move into the next generation of user experience. (At $800, I can't afford an unlocked iPhone.) I regret that the camera is missing, and that the iTouch makes poor WiFi connections.

Most of all, however, I miss the elegance of the Palm:

• I have to wait for apps to load on the iTouch; there is no waiting with a Palm.

• The iTouch's interfaces for contacts and datebook are dreadful in comparison.

• Being locked into the iTunes store and software chafes at me*.

• And what's with the one-way synchronization? I miss Palm's elegance in this area.

• I can't create my own folders for storing music the way I like; iTunes puts some songs of a playlist on the iTouch correctly, some incorrectly.

Now that I have had a few weeks experience with the iTouch, I wouldn't buy one again. When friends are looking for a new music player, I recommend Sony's MP3 players.

My son's girlfriend is getting a new cell phone soon, and might be settling on one that runs Android. I look forward to examining it.

In the meantime, I figured out how to get 5,400 days worth of datebook entries and 400 contacts from the Palm TX to the iTouch. What I find really exciting is that the data is stored by Google, making it easy for me to abandon the iTouch for an Android device when the time is right. After all, data trumps apps.

See also How Google Android Could Give Apple A Run For Its Money by Tim McLaughlin.

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*) Particularly galling is that software companies cannot sent me their iPhone/iTouch software for review. Instead, they send me iTunes gift cards to access the software at no charge from the iTunes store. This creates two problems:

1. I cannot use the gift cards, because they apply only to the US iTunes store; I live in Canada.
2. Software companies end up paying Apple 30% for me to test the "free" software.

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, and we believe with this momentum, and the launch of new Windows Mobile products, we will turn the corner and return to revenue and margin growth."

From dour Silicon Alley Insider, only negative news in Palm Stinks Up Q4; No Big Deal:

Palm's Q4 was even worse than analysts' low expectations, and shares will probably drop Friday morning. (They're down 7.8% after hours, to $6.03, after losing another 4.4% during Thursday trading.)

But it doesn't really matter! Why not? Because Palm's long-term prospects are completely tied to top-secret phones running the top-secret, Linux-based mobile operating system it's working on -- which won't go on sale until next year.

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 Core media player software. It's around $20-$30 (sometimes on sale), and is needed because it has the codecs for playing back MP4 (MPEG-4) videos. Install on your Palm. (The free version, TCPMP, doesn't support MP4.)

3. Go to Google Video, and download the movies you want. I find that Mystery Science Theater 3000 movies tend to be about 1.25 hours long, which generates an MP4 file that's about 250-300MB. That means we can fit about eight hours of movies on an 2GB SD card.

4. I use a card reader to copy the MP4 files from my computer to the SD card. (I created a folder called VIDEO on the SD card.)

5. Start the Core player, select the movie file, and enjoy full-screen viewing on the Palm's 4" screen!

What's great about this new Google Video feature is no conversion! You just download and copy over. Unlike, say, my Samsung digital camera that also plays back videos -- the catch being that I have to use dreadful software provided by Samsung that takes forever to convert the movie to Samsung's proprietary format.

The only pain is that sometimes the download is unpredictable. When I downloaded five episodes of MST3, only two downloaded smoothly; the other three kept stalling.

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 tool, and finally found one that works. Instead of picking the center of the three bull's-eye targets, I found that it works better to drawn a circle around each target.

In each target, I moved the stylus in a circle around the smallest red circle. The PalmTX was happy, told me I passed the test, and the touchscreen is now correctly aligned.

On second thought, it appears it was not the circle movement that worked, but touching the targets too high. Touch the target points higher than their centers. You may have to try a few times to see just exactly how high to touch.

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

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 hold.
- Oh, and the Palm 1000 was on sale following Christmas.

Shortly after buying it, I experienced the amazement of discovering all kinds of software that could be added to the device, some of which I use to this day.

1999: 3COM Palm III

I bought the Palm III after the Pilot 1000 froze up for days. Naturally, after I bought the new one, the old one began working again.

2001: Sony Clie 760
2003: Sony Clie 760

The Sony Clie 760 was such a finely-crafted device that I bought a second one, after the first one became unrepairably damaged. I continue to use it to this day. It pretty much set the standard that's still in place today: high-resolution color screen, MP3 player, memory slot. The only thing missing is WiFi.

(2004: HP iPaq)

I briefly owned an HP iPaq, given to me at a conference, later given away to a friend who'd lost his (he subsequently lost this one, too). HP made a marvelous piece of hardware, but it was hobbled by the Windows-based operating system and applications software. The software was so hard to use that I ended up using the iPaq for streaming radio broadcasts over the Internet.

2006: Palm T|X

Earlier this year, I treated myself to the T|X with its big 480x320 screen, 2GB memory expansion, WiFi and Bluetooth, etc. It has its disappointments: no status LEDs, no scroll wheel (as on the Clie), and the bundled portable keyboard is dreadful. But it's fast, the WiFi is beautifully integrated with software, and the big, bright screen makes browsing the Internet plausible (no need for any Origami device).

And it has 1,024x more internal memory than the first Palm 1000.