Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Texan in Calgary for a while
Posts: 1361

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

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James Hromadka
Old Friend

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Maplewood, NJ USA
Posts: 48

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

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Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Central Valley, CA
Posts: 17

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?

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Texan in Calgary for a while
Posts: 1361

Re: OS 3.5H

quote:

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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?

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James Hromadka
Old Friend

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: MI
Posts: 13

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.

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- OZ

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Modesto, CA USA
Posts: 599

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+.

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

Registered: Jun 2000
Location:
Posts: 594

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

Registered: Jan 2000
Location: Twin Cities, MN
Posts: 1683

quote:

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

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Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Greenwood, IN
Posts: 125

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.

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BertBert
Mark 12:28-31

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: bright side of the moon.
Posts: 996

quote:

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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

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1. Support of colour (ok not very useful) but 16 bit grayscale...i KNOW i've seen people on this board wanting this.

2. We have it in Datebk+ but it's basically Datebk3 which sells for how much? $20

3. Interesting 'upgrade' but i know there's a hack out there for approx. $5 that improves the alarms screen.

4. A feature that MANY have complained about (this one made me jealous...) definately worth the upgrade.

5. Neat upgrade that i'm sure many will smile at least once when using...

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)

7. SELECTHACK $5 Got it! Love IT!

8. Again, a colour thing that we can't relate ....

9. Huh? not sure what this means....

10. Huh again? can somebody elaborate?

So for a fee of <$20 you're getting at LEAST a scaled down Datebook3 (essentially Datebk+) and 2 hacks worth $5 each. Plus some other 'neat' stuff....

I don't think there's a problem with the charge.

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Stealth-Mod.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Texan in Calgary for a while
Posts: 1361

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.

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James Hromadka
Old Friend

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Metro Station, Hollywood and Highland
Posts: 1018

quote:

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Originally posted by Hoser_in_USA [quote]

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

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Registered: Nov 1999
Location: bright side of the moon.
Posts: 996

quote:

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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.

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

Stealth-Mod.

Registered: Jan 2000
Location: Twin Cities, MN
Posts: 1683

quote:

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

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location:
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quote:

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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.

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location:
Posts: 1

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.