VisorCentral.com (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/index.php)
- Article Comments (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/forumdisplay.php?forumid=17)
-- Palm charging for OS 3.5 update (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=8073)

Palm is charging $<20 for its update to OS 3.5 for users. Is it worth it? (see news item)

__________________
James Hromadka
Old Friend

The Reason

I read a while ago that this was a term of the split off from 3COM. I guess it makes sence in certain cases. Thanks
-Mike

__________________
Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
-Ferris Beuler

OS 3.5H

Does anyone think that Handspring ought to provide a way to upgrade to 3.5H when it is available? Maybe, for a small fee, we could send them our Visor and they could do the upgrade and then return it. What do you think?

I'd pay $20 for it. What would you pay?

Re: OS 3.5H

quote:

---

Originally posted by Newboy
Does anyone think that Handspring ought to provide a way to upgrade to 3.5H when it is available? Maybe, for a small fee, we could send them our Visor and they could do the upgrade and then return it. What do you think?

I'd pay $20 for it. What would you pay?

---

__________________
James Hromadka
Old Friend

Heck most of those updates are 'free'

If you combine EVPlugbase with some free (easy-to-use) hacks, you can get the better majority of those 'fixes' for the Visor anyway. It's not like an OS upgrade is going to give you color, or much else along the lines of an enhanced OS.

__________________
- OZ

James,

My guess is the Palm will initially price this high and then maybe back down. I can't blame them because Microsoft has set a precendent with their OS. Shouldn't Win98 be free if a person had purchased Win 95 or more importantly shouldn't WinME be free if a person had purchased Win98?

I personally will probably upgrade for less than $20 bucks. Palm is looking at this as additional capital income and when it was just Palm units then it wasn't a problem but now that there are Handspring, TRG's and Sony's units out there it kinda makes sense....they liscensed 3.1 to Handspring and to allow all of the Handspring users a free upgrade to 3.5 which was developed by Palm and not by Handspring kinda justifies it in my mind.

Hey, look at it this way. Windows CE users have had to purchase new machines on each one of the major upgrades in software on the part of Microsoft to really be able to take advantage of the new OS. $20 is alot cheaper than $300+.

__________________
Moose Man
I may be from the LEFT coast but that's not the correct political view in my mind!

I think it's an iffy $20, w/not many enhancements. I know Palm can probably use the income, though. They will probably never sell another IIIc now that Sony's color model is on the scene.
Me, I'm waiting for HS's color Visor (I'm a big fan, Jeff, but if I were you, I'D MAKE IT HS' TOP PRIORITY RIGHT NOW), and assume any such OS update will be in that unit.
I've had a good 6mo. use of my HSVD now, and did not expect it to last forever. I'm sure if a color model comes out in a few (BY CHRISTMAS, JEFF -- THAT'D BE THE SMART MOVE, IS MY GUESS), I'll still be able to get good bucks at auction for my mono model from someone interested in PDAs, but not yet willing to put up the bucks for a color model.
My $20. anyway.
Oh, uh - $.02, I mean

quote:

---

Shouldn't Win98 be free if a person had purchased Win 95

---

__________________
We're all naked if you turn us inside out.
-David Byrne

Personally, I look at the list of enhancements and I can't really see anything that justifies any upgrade at all (for me, at least). Maybe I don't understand the enhancements, but they all seem minor. The only thing that looks important is the ability to have a split screen with To-Do list and appointments.... but that's why I have DateBk4. Maybe others find the other stuff useful, but I don't see anything critical there.

I was actually pretty worried that I'd drop $250 on a Visor only to have the OS be obsolete within a few months with no hope of a flash upgrade. Looks like I'm OK for now.

__________________
BertBert
Mark 12:28-31

quote:

---

1. The Graphics System supports for 1, 2, 4, and 8 bit color and grayscale.

2. The Datebook's new Agenda view combines a view of a day's appointments with the day's ToDo tasks

3. The Alarm dialog now has larger buttons, as well as a "Snooze" button

4. When beaming an entire category, the receiver's dialog allows selection of the destination category in which to place the items

5. The Title, Company, City, State and Country fields in the Address book support auto-completion of the input text

6. Tapping the title tab of an application shows the menu bar

7. Double-tapping on a word in a field selects it; triple-tapping selects the line

8. Color picker to let users choose a RGB value, or entry from the active color palette

9. Slider controls

10. Graphic buttons

---

__________________
Ever feel like the train left while you were busy reading the paper?

Stealth-Mod.

And the Visor already comes with #s 2 & 3. You can specify in DB+ to view you todos on the same page. And I have always thought that tapping on the top should bring up the menu.

Slider controls are like the contrast slider for the Visor, so now apps could use that as well.

__________________
James Hromadka
Old Friend

quote:

---

Originally posted by Hoser_in_USA [quote]

6. Tapping the title tab of an application shows the menu bar

---

quote:

---

6. Another 'neat' upgrade that i don't think is required...what's so hard about tapping the silkscreen menu button? (or is the silkscreen going to not be on the next Palm...hmmm....RUMOUR!) (i also believe there is a hack that enables this as well)

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Gameboy70
[QUOTEIt's one of the essential hacks. You'll wonder why Palm left this feature out of the OS to begin with.

---

__________________
Ever feel like the train left while you were busy reading the paper?

Stealth-Mod.

quote:

---

again i ask, 'What's so difficult about tapping the menu silkscreen button?'

---

__________________
We're all naked if you turn us inside out.
-David Byrne

quote:

---

Originally posted by RSGMOOSE
James,

....they liscensed 3.1 to Handspring and to allow all of the Handspring users a free upgrade to 3.5 which was developed by Palm and not by Handspring kinda justifies it in my mind.

---

The problem is one of perception

The problem that Palm is facing is that they are trying to move from a hardware company that happens to make its own OS to a softare company that happens to sell a hardware line to compete with its licencees.

Palm made the strategic decision to licence the softare and at that point they forced themselves to stop giving away their bread and butter. They no longer make money off every piece of hardware out there, and as a result are trying to increase their revenue base.

I think that they will have to be careful though, they have started to sell non-upgradable units (the IIIe and the MP100) and they have to realize that there will be a good number of users in the next little while that won't be able to upgrade. If applications begin to rely upon new API calls then there will be a lot of people (including us Visor folks) that won't be able to use some of the software.