Know this is Tungsten Area, but . . . .

[manchester_unitedblue]

Oddly enough, Palm's store shows the TE for $199. Still. I have MemoryJack running on mine (flawlessly so far), keeping my "backup backup" alive with minimal battery drain.

Man, I wish MemoryJack worked on the Zodiac... what a perfect device for it, if not for the &$#@ DRM!

[Mary Ann B]

Following on from Moose Man's comments about the convergence of the PDA and mobile phone, is it really inevitable and is it desireable? I used to think so but I have my doubts now. What about the following?

1 Currently if my mobile phone develops a fault and has to be sent away for repair I still have my pda and visa versa.

2 When, mid conversation, I want to look up an address in my now converged device what do I do? My pda will be clamped to my ear? As things stand I can continue to use my T5 mid conversation.

3 There are times when I don't want to carry my valuable pda around with me, such as when I'm going out for a few beers with the guys from the office, but I do want my mobile phone with me.

I think this whole issue needs a lot more thought.

Long live the pda!

[Londyn]

I agree completely, NickGB. Completely. Well said. For security reasons alone I don't want convergence. I can use the phone while information on the T3 is locked/encrypted/safe. I can also have frequently called numbers on the phone, so that the number is fewer than the gobs aI have on the T3, and Voice recognition dial doesn't get confused between "3 different Bobs." I can also give the phone to someone and take a leak without worrying "stuff" is being looked up or stolen. I certainly don't want a "dumb terminal" relaying information to and from a "Yahoo database," and subject to every hacker on Earth. Do you think Lockheed, Raytheon, WalMart, Walgreens do??? Or they all expected to react to the fear and pay extra for private "closed networks?" What if JUST ONE of their execs keeps his stuff "outside the security net" and gets it stolen? It HAPPENED to a good friend of mine's own company - some idiot let the cat out of the bag and private information ws disseminated. It hurt them. A lot. Christ, MS (and I'm a Gates defender - he's done a hell of a lot) can't make a BROWSER keep up with security leaks.

There's also the simple extra protection against hardware LOSS - if stuff's in two places it's safer against theft and breakage. I don't like the ergonomics of holding a PDA to me ear, either. I want the Bluetooth earpiece on the phone and I'll decide if the PDA stays in a brief case, my dresser or my hip (where it usually is). It's odd that Verizon, the company that DISABLED bluetooth on a Motorola v710 BT phone to anything OTHER than Motorola, will now profess to have more "connectivity" using a Treo (that's windows based and won't do what I need). Now the phone and PDA talk to each other, because they're the same unit - but I've lost the PDA program ability/conformity with the apps that ALREADY do everything for me.

It's the same "things are gonna be great" techno-yawn-yarn that we heard when Windows 95 came out and was going to change the world, and then the thinkpad, and then BT phones, and WiFi - where are we? Did we see all the benefits? And how much did they cost us - if they worked?

Windows multi tasking is brought up in the link below - multi tasking WHAT? apps that don't do what you need them to?

SOMEONE is going to make an advantage out of this - I've never seen Palm "lay down," and for all we know . . . they haven't. Remember the Newton? I don't see that happening again here although it's painfully reminiscent, and there's always the "other deal" we didn't hear about. If you've ever been a Palm fan or think you might be - NOW is the time to rally and make yourself heard. I'm sure going to with every contact within my "networking capability," I guess moving at the speed of Paul. Moose is seldom wrong - I hope to God this is a first, 'cause I'm not using the "latest and greatest" that costs me more & does less. I don't care about initial unit cost - that's how they get you on printer cartridges - the printer's free, for heaven's sake. You either spend 75% of the purchase price again on new ink, or buy another printer.

I firmly believe that users won't be taken in by this and it will either flop or change. But the "Palm community" better speak up, developers and users alike. Don't fall for this Corporate Crap "interface, get on board and run it up the flagpole" banner waving over a bunch of hooey. It's NOTHING. It's NO BENEFIT. It's FLUFF. It won't DO. It's counter productive.

Here's a few more details from the dark day massacre:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050927/...palm_microsoft

[shorrtiee :)]

I could be wrong but let's look at something: current Treo is priced with a plan for less than a T5 (albeit PTL wouldn't agree but next to the LD, the T5 is the flagship PDA). The Treo is smaller and it does more things while still basically using all of the popular Palm Apps.

Ok, there are a few people out there that don't want converged as noted for the reasons by PTL and NickGB: keyword few. You can't support a market with a "few". So what you may end up with is a cheap a** cellphone and a cheap PDA. The Z22 that's rumored for about $100 may be all that you'll be able to get in time.

These are just my rantings not gospel and I could very well be wrong but look at the trending.....Treo's have taken over the market. And with a Windows based one coming......I leave it to your imaginations.

BTW: I give it 5 years so it's not going to happen overnight.

[maria_giuashvili]

Personally, I would agree with PTL and NickGB. I don't think that, alone, convergence is the heaven...security is an important issue.
Treo 650 is a nice intrument, but it's heavy, does not have the PDA functions and utilities I do use, and that instead my T3 has and I use. NAd I don't think that cheap alone would support convergence: Treo is not cheap, MM talked about its price with a plan, but I thinks that, because for PDA you don't need any plan, we should compare the raw price. Roughly the same, actually here in Mexico Treo 650 is much more expensive than LD or T5.
Personally, I'd prefer an all in one machine that is 70% PDA and 30% phone. Where my 30% could be partially covered by VOIP, once more wireless points will become available. In this way, I would be able to carry only my VOIP enabled Palm most time...

[Little K]

http://informationweek.com/story/sho...leID=171200703

Information week article on the events. Also (1 link back, informationweek dot com proper) has the press conference you can play. At the bottom of this article there is this:

[md.pierce]

I don't undersand the following: according to this guy, who's the stupid? the businessmen, because will pay more for less, or us (the consumer which, if we can choose, will kepp using palm OS?

[Harriet The Spy]

Welcome to Corporate America, Luigi!

"Oooh, the Administrator's here! Quick! Somebody go get the very very expensive machine that goes . . . . "P I N G " !!!" (That's a line from Monty Python's "Meaning of Life").

Ha ha ha ha ha . . . too funny, Brother!