> > --- Mike <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > You missed my point. In the Palm, those developers > > are required. On the > > PocketPC they are not required. > > > > > > Example: > > Memo - pathetic on the Palm; need 3rd party (much > > better app on the PocketPC) > > Spreadsheet - not available on Palm; need 3rd party > > (excel compatible > > included on PocketPC) > > Calculator (pathetic on the Palm); need 3rd party > > (quite useable one on > > PocketPC) > > Word Processor - not available on Palm; need 3rd > > party (word compatible on > > PocketPC) > > MP3 player - not available on Palm; need 3rd party > > (quite useful one is > > available on PocketPC) > >
Actually Mike, I feel you've missed the point a little, you have to think in terms of what Palm originally intended the machine to be used for, who it was meant to be used by and more importantly HOW it was meant to be used. Case in point - I've recently brought my wife an M105 for her Birthday (list price �75 GPB), - she is probably the most computer illerate person on the planet and so I was gobsmacked when she said she wanted one. Since then she has used it constantly, the address book is full of all her friends, our kids school friends, the local plumber / doctor / cinema / favorite resturant etc etc etc all nicely organised into categories - try doing that on your mobile. The address book is perfect for storing all the appointments and things she has to remember (birthdays, school holidays, doctors appointments etc etc), The todo list is useful for making lists of things to do (duh!) Christmas card lists, Christmas present lists, birthday invites (sent / crossed off when accepted) etc etc Granted neither of us feel that the notepad is overly useful for us - but the alarm feature makes it great for writing notes to self (so I'm sure someone finds it useful). Since she's been playing with it several of her friends have been putting them on their present lists as well - even an ex (�450+ GBP) IPAQ owner, who constantly moaned about the battery life, difficulty of use, dirt getting in behind the screen, etc etc (I wonder if Palm has a comission scheme 8-)) The memo application is perfect for writing little memo's (like it was designed for), If you regulary feel the need to write more than 4k's worth of notes then a PDA is probably NOT the device for you (you'll need a laptop - or an add on keyboard at the very least), What's pathetic about the calculator - it works (at least you don't get math errors on floating point calculations!), if you need to do a quick sum (calc the tip on a restuarant bill, or work out the area of a wall when standing in the wallpaper shop) then it's perfect, especially as the buttons are big enough to press without having to find the stylus if your in a real hurry. Again - if you regulary need to use a word processor, then you should really be using a laptop, or else you'll find you spend most of your time scrolling around trying to see what it was you just wrote, the same holds true for a spreadsheet - most of my sheets exceed the screen res of my windows box (1152x864) so god alone only knows what I would see on a 160x160 screen (or even 320x320). IMHO - Palm put a lot of thought into what people actually WANT from a small limited device and set about giving it to them (minus all the bloat - you try fitting a set of comparable PPC apps in 8 meg, let alone 1 meg (my old OS 2.0 Palm Pilot Professional is still working perfectly after five years of constant (ab)use). I think half the time people see these new gadgets and think "I must have one" with out thinking "what do I need it for" or "what can I do with it", as a replacement for the old paper filofax, the palm's reign supreme, as a replacement for a top of the range laptop or a desktop pc then they suck (but then unlike PPC they don't pretend otherwise!), When used to gather data "in the field" for later processing they can co-exist beautifully, and with their open architecture and the excellent support provided by Palm, well designed apps can extend their usefulness ad-infinitum. FWIW - I have installed some 3rd party software on our Palms. A bucketload of shareware / free games from palmgear.com - (mainly so I can get my gameboy back!) on my wifes, and CSpotRun and several classic Guttenberg ebooks on mine. I think that's enough for now 8-) Jon... -- For information on using the Palm Developer Forums, or to unsubscribe, please see http://www.palmos.com/dev/support/forums/
