Monday, March 1, 2004
Dig Into Palm OS 6
Posted by Ed Hansberry in "THE COMPETITION" @ 08:00 PM
http://www.palmos.com/dev/dl/dl_tools/dl_simulator/index.html
If you are willing to register as a developer, you can download the Palm OS 6 emulator. One of the comments I've heard is OS 6 still doesn't have true multitasking. On a Pocket PC, you can open a contact, start filling in the form, then switch to another app and switch back to the contact form to continue entry. This is especially useful if that other app contains the contact info you are getting, like an email.
According to this PalmInfoCenter comment from hotpaw4, who was at the Palm Dev Conference, clarifies this. Unless the app is specifically written to save the app state, it won't allow you to switch back and forth.
I'm sorry guys, but that isn't multitasking. Say what you want about the Pocket PC, I can take a 5 year old ARM application that was written for the Jornada 820 and ignoring the messed up UI that was designed for a 640X480 HPC Pro screen, it will still work (assuming it isn't looking for specific HPC APIs) on a modern Pocket PC and multitask just fine. I've done it on a 2002 device with the old HPC Terminal Server client before Microsoft released a downloadable client for the 2002 upgraded devices. This whole deal of a background thread that will allow email to still download but you have to relaunch the email UI (thus closing whatever you are in now) is going to be... sigh. I give up. Palm has been on this road that they have the ultimate paradigm and for some reason, they are incapable of either admitting that multitasking in today's connected society is a necessity or incapable of developing a true multitasking OS without starting from ground zero and discarding their old application base. Before anyone jumps on me for ranting, look at the market share numbers. Pocket PC and Windows Mobile is a much larger share of the market today than they were then the iPAQ 3600 was originally released in 2000. That means someone else is losing share.
It has also been reported that OS 6 still doesn't allow you to assign more than one category to a record :roll:, and those of you with a Tungsten T3 may be a bit disappointed with the PIM apps. They are more advanced than OS5 but not quite as advanced as the T3 customizations PalmOne did.
I've also seen comments about the very slow startup of the OS. Be realistic though. You should never to performance tests on an emulator. I've got to believe that OS6 devices will be at least as fast as OS5 devices.
Anyway, I thought some of you would be very interested in playing with this.
Oh yeah. Dave Beauvais sent me this link advertising a PDA, which will probably be gone in a few days. Notice that device in the lower right corner? It has a picture on the screen. That must be what the Zire wants to be when it grows up. An iPAQ. :lol:
If you are willing to register as a developer, you can download the Palm OS 6 emulator. One of the comments I've heard is OS 6 still doesn't have true multitasking. On a Pocket PC, you can open a contact, start filling in the form, then switch to another app and switch back to the contact form to continue entry. This is especially useful if that other app contains the contact info you are getting, like an email.
According to this PalmInfoCenter comment from hotpaw4, who was at the Palm Dev Conference, clarifies this. Unless the app is specifically written to save the app state, it won't allow you to switch back and forth.
I'm sorry guys, but that isn't multitasking. Say what you want about the Pocket PC, I can take a 5 year old ARM application that was written for the Jornada 820 and ignoring the messed up UI that was designed for a 640X480 HPC Pro screen, it will still work (assuming it isn't looking for specific HPC APIs) on a modern Pocket PC and multitask just fine. I've done it on a 2002 device with the old HPC Terminal Server client before Microsoft released a downloadable client for the 2002 upgraded devices. This whole deal of a background thread that will allow email to still download but you have to relaunch the email UI (thus closing whatever you are in now) is going to be... sigh. I give up. Palm has been on this road that they have the ultimate paradigm and for some reason, they are incapable of either admitting that multitasking in today's connected society is a necessity or incapable of developing a true multitasking OS without starting from ground zero and discarding their old application base. Before anyone jumps on me for ranting, look at the market share numbers. Pocket PC and Windows Mobile is a much larger share of the market today than they were then the iPAQ 3600 was originally released in 2000. That means someone else is losing share.
It has also been reported that OS 6 still doesn't allow you to assign more than one category to a record :roll:, and those of you with a Tungsten T3 may be a bit disappointed with the PIM apps. They are more advanced than OS5 but not quite as advanced as the T3 customizations PalmOne did.
I've also seen comments about the very slow startup of the OS. Be realistic though. You should never to performance tests on an emulator. I've got to believe that OS6 devices will be at least as fast as OS5 devices.
Anyway, I thought some of you would be very interested in playing with this.
Oh yeah. Dave Beauvais sent me this link advertising a PDA, which will probably be gone in a few days. Notice that device in the lower right corner? It has a picture on the screen. That must be what the Zire wants to be when it grows up. An iPAQ. :lol:
