Palm OS 6 (Cobalt) Shafts Mac OS X

gabid

Linky.



The sum of it: no more Palm Desktop from PalmSource. I chose Pocket PC over Palm last summer, so I'm no expert on what the full implications of this will be. It seems that Mark/Space will be making a conduit programme. Will iSync be able to fill in other gaps?

buonrotto

Great. So PDAs are essentially not supported on Macs at all. No official support of Pocket PCs, no official support of Palms, which leaves Mac users with? nothing. Nothing they can hold to anyone anyway. PDA's: use at your own risk (on Macs).



This I suspect also means that Palm source has punted rather than try and fixed their rather broken Palm Desktop that's currently running on OS X, especially Panther. That means no reliable Palm syncing when you have Fast User Switching enabled and a host of other failures that plague the Mac version right now



OK, now that Palm has dropped the ball, will Apple get in the game? Probably not, at least not as a PDA maker.

rok

Quote:

Originally posted by BuonRotto

This I suspect also means that Palm source has punted rather than try and fixed their rather broken Palm Desktop that's currently running on OS X, especially Panther.

someone wrote in to macfixit last week commenting on this. essentially they were told by palm (don't recall if it was a tech or sales rep or who...) that palm desktop would not be updated for panther or higher.



now correct me if i am wrong, but isn't palm desktop just the software-formerly-known-as-claris-organizer? if so, doesn't ical, address book et al. essentially replace that software already? i mean, desktop was REALLY starting to show signs of neglect, and so long as apple continues to make the conduit for isync to palm devices, what's so bad? (other than no "mac compatible" logo on the box)

outsider

No syncing with Entourage. And Entourage is the main Exchange client for the Mac. This sucks.



Hopefully someone makes a iSync/Entourage conduit.

digitaldave

Well, that seals it - no PDA for me . I've got the essentials on my iPod (contacts and calendar), so I won't worry too much.



Would it be possible for Apple to write the necessary code to sync from Contacts, iCal etc. directly to a Palm OS device? Why is Palm Desktop needed anyway?



Dave.

buonrotto

Quote:

Originally posted by rok

now correct me if i am wrong, but isn't palm desktop just the software-formerly-known-as-claris-organizer? if so, doesn't ical, address book et al. essentially replace that software already? i mean, desktop was REALLY starting to show signs of neglect, and so long as apple continues to make the conduit for isync to palm devices, what's so bad? (other than no "mac compatible" logo on the box)

You are right about that, it's a waste of their resources, and Apple's apps can and do replace Palm Desktop for the most part. It's the HotSync or lack thereof from Palm that I'm worried about. It means that there's no guarantees that your Palm will work at all on a Mac, no quid-pro-quo like a warranty for buying one since they won't support Macs at all. I'm just waiting for the axe to fall on that end of it.



Palm doesn't really care if no one else buys a Palm from the Mac community; it's not a big hit on their bottom line probably. But people will see that their Palm doesn't work with Macs, at least not without playing Russian roulette with third party products, and they will pass up buying a Mac. PDas are investments as much as any full computer.

kesh

Mark/Space is making a version of Missing Sync which will support PalmOS 4.x, 5.x and Cobalt devices. It's essentially replacing Palm Desktop, and they said that any current conduit will work without change through Missing Sync.



That said, it will likely be up to individual manufacturers to decide if they include MS with their new handhelds. I just hope I can upgrade my Missing Sync for Clie to the full version when it comes out.

aquatic

Palm has always sucked. Even Pocket PC is better. Why do people use Palm and why did they start? They're like the PC of PDAs. Apple is of course the best and I'd say Symbian was way ahead of them and still is. I want to see Symbian do more R and D.

ghost_user_name

I've always seen Palm as being the better device because it is small, compact, efficient, etc. PPC devices... I just could never get used to the interface. Palm has, however, evolved their platform like a dinosaur. The user interface has had no makeover since the original Pilot line in what, 1997, 1998? They only last year began to ship devices with an ARM processor.



Palm has a lot they need to accomplish, and I hate to say that Cobalt, without any UI changes, is a small upgrade at best. Sure, it provides multitasking... but to even take advantage of that, you need a UI overhaul.



Not providing HotSync support... personally, and maybe I am just being the optimist, I have been hoping for a while that Palm would stop developing HotSync for Mac. I would much rather see Apple develop that into iSync. No, it isn't Apple's job to do that, but they did create iSync, so they have a sort of responsibility to support all that they can with it.



I'd been looking forward to Cobalt for a while. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be delivering on expectations. Last time I tried PocketPC was about three years ago. I may have to take another look now \





But just think how much of a better world it would be had Apple managed to buy Palm...

torifile

Quote:

Originally posted by LoCash

I'd been looking forward to Cobalt for a while. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be delivering on expectations. Last time I tried PocketPC was about three years ago. I may have to take another look now \

Take the advice of someone who tried the PPC thing and failed: don't do it. I used both the Missing Sync and PocketMac 3 extensively and both did the job admirably, so synchronizing isn't a problem. (It's actually better on the Mac because ActiveSync is probably the worst piece of software ever written....) But the platform is absolutely horrid. I hated it. Take all the problems one has on a windows machine and add in the fact that it's a handheld so you've got no mouse, a small screen, etc and you'll begin to understand the problems with it.



Uninstalling programs almost never works. Backups are unreliable (I had a hard crash - who knows why - and my "backup" was completely useless). Things that we're used to just working like Wifi or BT setup is a nightmare and works sporadically. You can just tell that the software is made by MS. I'm back on a T3 after using an iPAQ 2215 for about 4 months. I'm not entirely satisfied with the T3 but I'm much more satisfied than I was on the PPC.

Quote:

But just think how much of a better world it would be had Apple managed to buy Palm...

We can all dream, can't we?

luigi

Screw Palm. The palm desktop software was never fully compatible with Panther on my system, and they have been ignoring the Mac platform for too long. I will not purchase a Palm in the future and rely on a 3rd party solution for something so fundamental as syncing.



After thinking about upgrading my pda to either a Tungsten, or a new Clie, I decided instead to just get a 20G iPod and use its basic calendar, contacts, and todo functions. While this solution is far from ideal, it works for now, and hopefully Apple will pick up the ball and update the iSync conduit to make the pda functions on the ipod more user friendly (especially todos).



For now I will continue to experiment with ipodit (still too buggy) and wait either for an iSync upgrade, or the newly rumored Apple pda.

gabid

Hmm...back spin from PalmSource: take a look at this.

ghost_user_name

I'm not really enamoured with the direction PalmSource is headed with their OS strategy anyway. Not really sure what to do, but I don't much care to switch to PPC, especially when I totally love my Sony Cli?NX60. Sony's own apps actually make the thing pleasant to use.



I'll be happy if HotSync support gets built into iSync somehow. I'd feel a lot better if Apple were working on that...