What’s in store for us in 2009?
Most would know by now it is crunch time for Palm. The date to watch out for is January 8. This is when the Palm “New-ness” will be revealed to us at last. The highly anticipated Linux-based Nova devices will probably debut or be demoed on this date during the invitation-only event Palm is holding at the Las Vegas CES 2009 show.
My guess is Palm will take the opportunity to show off a slew of Nova devices – new smartphones and tablets/MIDs – which will take Palm forward and differentiate them from their competitors. Will the new Palm be still the same old Palm? Some think they might, but I hope they pull it off. Right now there isn’t quite the perfect PDA phone for me. perhaps there will never be one, but what I would like is a device with all the following features:
1) A large screen and a great browser like the iPhone with all the accelerometer goodness
2) An excellent organiser with integrated features like Palm’s PIM + Agendus
3) Supporting all the known wireless protocols – 3G/HSDPA, Wifi, Wimax
4) Decent battery life
5) A real keyboard. Now I realise that a combination of a real keyboard and large screen would probably require moving parts but I hope for a vertical slider (slide-up) design like this
or perhaps a flip phone design
6) Good quality camera – at least 3MP
The Edelweiss comes close but it runs on ALP and we know very little about this PDA phone which is designed by an Israeli company. The thing is, backwards compatibility with tons of Palm applications would give Palm and their Nova devices a good start. Having an online App store like Apple’s (yet without the rigid rules which Apple enforces) would be a boon for developers. I think that online “syncing and backing up data” with a Palm “cloud computing” service or 3rd party ones like Google’s would be increasingly important in the future. I am aware that Palm shut down their beta online backup service but perhaps they have something new in store for us?
Right now I am on vacation. I have with me my Palm Centro which I use as my main phone, organiser and run my key applications – Agendus, SplashID, Daynotez, Handbase, Medcalc, Uptodate & Lexidrugs. For mobile Internet access (and a secondary phone) I now use a Wm Palm Treo Pro. The faster 3G speeds are noticeable and when this is tethered to my Asus EeePC it makes mobile surfing a joy. Having said that, a WM device is still not quite the perfect PDA phone for me as I find it sluggish compared with my Centro and the PIM/Organiser is not as good. It’s the better mobile Internet connectivity which makes me carry on using the Treo Pro. Now if a Nova smartphone comes along which blows WM away, then I am all for it!
It’s a 10 (or 11 depending on where you are) day countdown now till January 8. On behalf of all the Palm fans out there, I hope that Palm pulls it off and that you would make our wishes for 2009 come true. Keep on battling Palm! If you guys need any cheering, here’s a video with 40 inspiring speeches compressed into 2 minutes for you 
I wish you all Happy Hols and a Happy New Year!!
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About the author, Alan: Alan Teh is a Malaysian Physician who specialises in Hematology-Oncology & Stem cell Transplantation. He has been using Palm PDAs since 1997 and is absolutely reliant on them. His current PDA is a Palm Pre and is a strong advocate of the webOS platform, Palm's latest operating system. Caught the blogging bug in 2004 and has been addicted ever since… |
I am a doctor and just bought a bb storm. it is great with the push email, but I miss the treo 755p. Is there ANY way this picture of a sliding treo is a possibility? This looks great.
The BB is a great email device but sadly lacking in medical applications compared with the Palm or WM platform. No one knows what the Nova phone designs will be as Palm’s really keeping things under wrap this time and there are no leaks. We’ll know soon enough come January 8.
I think my 30 day trial ends Jan 9th. Boy that is close.
8/9 more days to go ! Just finished my new year call.. (my 2nd in a yr) Busted my treo 680s ‘belt clip on case’ now gotta put this brick into my pocket, the space key is getting loose too ! Will get something new by then (if there’s anything worthy to buy).
Let hope Palm or Apple (Macworld in 5th Jan) would have a product that would fill their current product’s deficiencies and we can have something close to the perfect smartphone !
Took my storm back today, and went back to 755p. The storm was a good device and I did not have any problems with it, but it just did not excite me. The new nova os excites me and I want to be eligible for an upgrade when it come out.