A list of requirements to "Upgrade" SmartPhones

The PalmOS is officially dead as per Palm.

So with that, I would like to request of the industry to provide the following features at launch in my next SmartPhone so as not to take a step backwards.

I'll start with the list of features my current old, but still fully functional Treo680 has included or for free add-on:

• Picture, Video and Audio Capture (iPhone lacks)
• QWERTY Keyboard
• Copy and Paste (iPhone lacks)
• Ability to enter mon/wed/fri repeating type events (iPhone lacks)
• Chinese Character input (Does the Pre/iPhone have this?)
• Desktop Component (Pre lacks)
• Ability to store all my historical calendar items
• Two Button Presses to any application (iPhone and WiMo lack)
• Tasks and Notes with Categories, Priorities and Reminders (iPhone and WiMo lack)
• Read and Write Office Documents (iPhone lacks)
• Full screen landscape and portrait playback of non-re-encoded avi movies
• Imaging-like disaster recovery software for total system restore while on the road
• Audio Controls while the display is locked

And some features that are available via additional software that should be available at launch:

• Bi-Directional Call and Voice recording
• BlueTooth or WiFi Remote Control of MediaCenter/FrontRow/other software
• Keystroke Macro Program (Shortcut5 on PalmOS)
• Speaking Chinese Dictionary with Stroke Order drawing and FlashCards
• BlueTooth HID, A2DP and BTFTP profiles
• Nintendo Emulator (need some )

Those are all features that I have now.

So, if it's going to actually be an "upgrade", I would expect that some things should not be just break-evens, so I am going to request the following in my next piece of hardware so as not to move backwards:

• WiFi
• Skype Client
• Front-mounted Camera for Skype
• GPS
• Flash Player
• Background Processes
• The ability to swap batteries while still on (My Treo650 had this but the 680 lost it)

If the industry is going to kill an Operating System I am hoping at least it would provide some equal and preferably greater alternatives.

Pre i18n Support

A question we have not seen publicly raised yet is the Palm Pre's support for Internationalization (i18n) in respect to the display and entry of non-english language.

Whom has information about the ability of the Palm Pre to support the International audience?

Here's what's going with the C SDK for Pre

So, I still haven't seen any Palm staff openly talking about the lack of a C SDK from for the Pre.

And NormSoft and Tealpoint don't know about it, much less developers like Pleco?
Woah... Not likely.

My guess?

Palm is working hard on a virtualization layer in the SDK that helps historically PalmOS-coded apps behave like they are native Pre applications.

The Foleo lacked PalmOS compatibility, it was one of their launch concerns rumors, they saw this and needed to deal with it.
There is no released C SDK for Vince Lee and Tim Norman to use yet, what are they supposed to do, start porting to JavaScript?  Seriously?

Can you imagine trying to write a speaking, character-stroke-drawing application in JavaScript?

Also, how do people protect their code?
Compiled JavaScript bytecode?  Come on...
I'm sure PopCap Games would be glad to hear about that.

This is why there is no Palm Desktop

Do you want to know why there is no Palm Desktop Software for the Pre?

Because they think you don't need it anymore and Palm is tired of "Sync" challenges.

What do you think the percentage of support calls at Palm were related to:
Device OS issues or Syncing related issues?
If I had to guess, a majority were related to "syncing" problems.

Here's why Palm thinks you don't need it anymore:
Windows users have Outlook as the desktop component, that is what the majority will use on Windows no matter what phone.

Apple users have Address Book and iCal and that is what the majority will use no matter what phone.

Linux, well Linux has 10 different ways for 10 different people.

They already have 'syncing' solutions. (Linux, not so sure on the maturity)

Palm hopes in this round to let 3rd party developers or the major desktop OS vendors deal with syncing and  let Open Standards and OS-Centric features solve the issues.

Mitch Allen, where's the beef?

So, Mitch Allen has recently been announcing himself in the public on how proud he is of the Pre and the technology it presents.

I can't say that I disagree wholly.
The Pre is a beautiful device, even with some visible sidesteps like not having removable storage options and no C programming toolkit.

But here's the real question Mitch.
Where's the PIM?
This is what made Palm, and companies like TealPoint, so cool.
They had really rich task/notes and calendaring functionalities.
You could USE THEM, with out buying a pile of other software, to get things done.

I had hoped that the new future direction of Palm software would be bringing in a day of more enhanced existing tools that made working in the Palm environment.

For example, what would have been astonishingly cool (and a step forward vs backward) were for notes and tasks to get expanded.

Who would think that would be even necessary to mention.

Maybe notes could have gotten rich attachments ala RTF/RTFD perhaps.
Embed a photo, or url, or a bulleted list in your notes.

Maybe tasks could have gotten hierarchical and some dependencies to make it more project-related.
Tasks could be grouped together, in oh... I don't know an "outline" style?

Maybe tags could have been employed instead of categories for notes and tasks and calendar items.

Has anyone looked at the notes app in the demos?
Could that have been any more simplistic looking?
Maybe I'm alone and these features are not necessary on the handheld, but man I feel like the SmartPhone industry is not steadily moving forward anymore.

And I really had high hopes Palm would lead the way to more powerful applications, but the Pre looks like another 'media device' that will have some possible light business function.

If there are limitations in entering repeating events in the calendar like the iPhone, I am going to go postal.

I think I'll start working on that open letter to Mitch I started last week.

The Foleo: Version I, II and ?

My estimate of what is going on with Palm, related to the Foleo hardware is that:

It wasn't ready for shipment due to missing software features and they rushed it to compete with netbooks.

That caused it to suck miserably since it was missing several key features like personal information managment, IM, video playback and guess what else PalmOS compatibility.
PalmOS software compatibility... on a Palm device.  Wow.
And no PIM?  Come on Palm, this is what got you IN the market.

That combined with the estimate that they had 18 months of capital left before going bottom up.

The Palm software brand was already getting stink all over it when they split hardware and software and WiMo was making it's way into the Palm's world in the Treo hardware line.

They needed to repackage all their goodness under a new name/brand/flavor before they really did get into a rut they couldn't get out of.

When their software straightens out, read WebOS with a C toolkit and when/if it makes sense to put it back on the Foleo they will do so.


So, sit back and wait for Palm to get WebOS right, and for the netbook craze to mellow and you might just see a Foleo-esque device from Palm that had more than what you wanted before.