My Highly Recommended list

It's not everyday that I post about another blog that I think that you should bookmark. However, I must say that two Palm sites stand out for their timeliness of reporting and their unabashed, unbiased reviews. In addition, I would like to recommend one technology site that is really at the forefront of the latest breaking tech news.

Sammy at PalmAddicts is just one of the greatest people you will ever have the chance to meet on the web. He created a site a few years ago, based on a "hobby." That site now has over 40,000 hits per day and has become a mainstay for all Palm enthusiasts. Sammy is extremely generous and offers the 24 hour blog as a way to stay in touch with his hobby. However, he has been known to throw open the curtains and let others write for his blog. Infact, he has published an invitation to have people sign up and write for the blog in order to make it one of the biggest blogs in the world. He is also having a meet-up in New York City in July. It was after seeing Sammy's site, PalmAddicts and another smaller blog (in addition to my early frustrations with the LD) that encouraged me to do this site. I owe a debt of gratitude and would like to say thanks to Sammy for writing a small article about my site on his blog last week. There was an avalanche of hits and a few nice words sent to me -- Thanks.

However, the gratitude that I have for PalmAddicts is not just because of the nice write up. It is genuine. I visit 3 or 4 blog sites almost religiously, mainly because of the content. But I also visit because of the quality of not only the writing, but the genuine appeal of the writers. I had the chance to meet with the owners of ENGADGET last year and I could not believe how nice Peter Rojas and Ryan Block were in person. They are a throwback to the late 90's but with a twist of reality. They embrace the future with a hint of self-deprecation that was lost in the hey day of that bygone era. At the meet-up they gave incredible advice to newbies and I'll never forget Ryan's request that if you have something to write/say, just do it and worry about the money later. By the way, Peter uses a Palm device and loves it.

A site that I have listed on the links has now grown to the Highly Recommended List status. It is LifeDriveForum.com I have found this site to be a fascinating one, appealing not only to my desire to have a discussion about the Lifedrive, but for the sheer level of interest brought about by many of the indendent writers on the forum. The discussion is intelligent and on a level that does not make one feel silly that you asked the question or wish that you could "talk to a grown-up." They have just begun a new forum on the potential for the Lifedrive2 and the rumors are really quite interesting.

So, if you get a chance, I strongly recommend the following websites for your consideration:


PalmAddicts


Lifedrive Forum


Engadget


* I have not received any reciprocal endorsement, financial or otherwise in reference to the above recommendations. These sites are listed as a result of my own research and my own opinions.

LDD.

Lifedrive: Lookout for the Google Calendar Palm API

As you may know Google Calendar is now out. There is a lot of potential for this program andit is obviously a beta product at the present time. A trip to PalmAddicts points to an article that may be the entry point to having this product sync with your Lifedrive or other Palm product.

Yahoo already has a wonderful calendar program, but input is somewhat cumbersome and appears to have a lot of commercials which slow down the process of entering simple things.

The Google calendar is clean and purports to be able to link dates right out of your email and other products to follow. We will be on the lookout for this program, because my sources are telling me that Google is releasing the API for Calendar. This is basically the engine. If you have ever used GoogleMaps then you will know the potential for this product.
I would expect a Palm support product very soon.

Link to the PalmAddict article: Syncing the Palm with Google Calendar

LIFEDRIVE: PREGWHEEL.

Pregwheel is a simple program written by a person calling himself Slade. Unfortunately, the website listed, Sladeandmegan .com appears to be a commercial trap. I am not certain whether there is a misspelling of the URL or if this is actually the site.

Anyway, I have had the opportunity to use quite a few OB programs in the past, but many are simply cumbersome. One particular program that I utilized a few years ago, before my Lifedrive days, promised to do just about everything: Store patient data, calculate dates, post reminders etc. Unfortunately the writer charged $19.99 for the honor and kept on updating the program almost every month. The data was not transferrable and I spent a lot of time reentering the data every time he found a glitch. I felt as if I was paying for a beta product.

Pregwheel is a program that has replaced the cumbersome wheel that I usually carry around (and lose :)). It is a freeware program and can be found on PDAMD.COM or www.healthypalmpilot.com. It doesn't do alot of fancy tricks and it is so deceptively simple that I thought that it would be worth a shout on my pages after having used this for a few years.

Essentially, this program does exactly as it states. It substitutes for a pregnancy wheel. You put in your LNMP and your reference date (ie. today) and it produces a host of information, including the date of probable ovulation, the estimated due date and of course the pregnancy status (ie. number of weeks pregnant).

However, where this program excels is in its simplicity. The program shows only 5 lines of data:

LNMP
Prob. Ovulation
Due Date
Preg Status
Ref. Date.

That's it!

But You get the added bonus of being able to enter all but the Pregnancy status as your initial point of entry. This is a God-Send when you have an ultrasound report giving a due date that is off by several weeks. You can even change the reference date to reflect how far along the patient was when the ultrasound was taken.

Given the days of Google, where simplicity and an uncluttered screen are the order of the day, I have found this program immensely helpful when someone walks into the office for the first time. It's easy to use Nagel's rule to calculate the due date, but attempting to figure out how far along the patient is without using a wheel is a little more complicated.

This program has been out for a very long time, but it still stands the test of time and works extraordinarily well on the LIFEDRIVE.

LDD.

Dalhousie Univ. in Halifax on Handhelds

I have just completed reading a wonderful article on handhelds in medicine. The University of Dalhousie, in Halifax, Canada published "suggestions" for their students to purchase a Handheld.

The article is heavily tilted toward Palm. My favorite quote from the article, which by the way is filled with recommendations for Medical Students, is this one:

"Don't go low-end. Although it's always a temptation to buy the lowest-priced unit, remember that this will likely become one of your most essential reference and organizational tools, and it will take a beating. Look for sturdy, "corporate" style units rather than flimsy consumer-grade ones."

Do I hear the chimes ringing for a Lifedrive? Or maybe a Tungsten, still a wonderful machine.

As always, click on the title to take you to Dalhousie University's website.


LDD.

Another wonderful article about Palms.

This one is from Canada and it details the physician addiction to Palm and basic hand computing. Yes, I think they get it! It is too true that not having a handheld will put you at risk on rounds, if you are still in Residency.

In private practice, I cannot live without my Palm. So much so that I have two!!!! In the next few weeks I am going to place a wonderful app that I wrote for Smartlistogo for pregnancy reminders. It has been a life saver, literally !!!!

Presently, I am trying to write a conduit for publishing handheld databases directly to a printer and directly to Access and Excel. It's already been done, but the output is usually a disaster, requiring time consuming formatting.

In addition, I am trying to find the time to write some stand-alone apps that will be available on the startup screen of the Palm and completely independent of Hotsyncing -- a chore that I completely abhor !!!!

Anyway, enjoy the little article from Canada. As always, click on the title.

LDD.

Congratulations Arsenal

Nothing to do with medicine, but just a short ditty to say well done lads!
A fantastic win over Juventus to go to the semi finals of the European
Cup for the first time in our history.

Now Thierry, Stay with us old chap, we need you.

LDD.

Future Articles....

I have owned my Lifedrive for approximately 8 months now and although I have mixed feelings about it, I cannot live without it. I am now using it more at work than ever before and I think that I have finally cornered the stability issues.

Over the next few weeks, I will be posting a few articles in regards to software and offering a few ideas that I have garnered over the past few months in regards to stability. Not all of this will be about medicine, although that is my primary objective. Some of the recommendations may surprise you and I am going to make a listing of what I believe are Must-Have programs that work well on the Lifedrive. These include my favorites epocrates and mobi office.

Coinciding with this, I will try to publish some of the long-awaited database apps that I have been promising for the past few weeks. Using two free websites, I will try to post these in conjunction with my upcoming articles.

So, look out for titles begining with LIFEDRIVE. I hope that these will be both informative and helpful. And if you have any Medical databases that you would like to donate to the cause, please let me know.

Thanks as always for your support.



LDD.

NEWS: ABC 7 Chicago on Lifesaving Devices

ABC 7 Chicago today posted a wonderful article and video titled, Lifesaving Devices. The main feature is another modified Handspring device used to monitor a man with congestive heart failure. The device, not unlike the one featured in one of my previous posts a few weeks ago, monitors the extracellular fluid levels (This would be something to ponder, how does it do this)? and automatically displays the correct amount of diuretic the patient should take.

The article and video go on to discuss how the PDA is making life a little easier for Physicians to obtain information. The video shows a Physician looking up information on a PDA (Medcalc) and giving BMI measurements, presumably to go over risk factors etc. Very nicely done. Nice article.

I think there is room for the Lifedrive (SKU: 1044NA ) somewhere in there :).

The video can be seen here:

Video

To view the article, press on the title of the story above, or you can go to this link:

ABC 7 Chicago

Is this the New 700p?

There are rumors that the 700 P, Palm's new addition to the Treo line could be released in April (I have to question why not on Palm's tenth birthday)?

It looks a little metallic, but I am encouraged by the fact that it will sport 128mb of onboard memory. With the advent of the 1,2 and 4 g SD cards, this is looking very attractive.

Now if they could just get a GSM version, life would be good.


LDD.

Ed Hardy on Palm for Linux or Is Palm falling back into the same pattern again...?

Ed Hardy over at Brighthand (Click on the title to take you there) remarks on the lackluster reception that Palm for Linux has received. He was able to talk to someone on the Palm Hardware side and did not hear of any support for Linux, but for the Palm OS. He surmised that they will support Palm OS Garnett (The current rendition) but may not support the Linux version.

Obviously, this is not a good sign. With the exception of speed, which must accompany any change incorporating a Linux based platform, Palm appears to be hell bent on staying with Garnett. Now let's face it, Garnett has poor multitasking power, crashes at the sight of integration with a web browser; hangs during some bluetooth connections and is power unconscious when using 802.11 b.

Additionally, Garnett is not capable of really dealing with NVFS (Nonvolatile file system) or Fat-32 systems very well. Plug Garnett into a Lifedrive and you get the weakpoint for the operating system magnified to 4 gigs. The 4 gigabyte of storage is held nearly useless when the memory is addressed by most software programs. You access the drive's data from within a program at your own risk. Storing files, ie. movies, documents etc is fine, but accessing them is not without playing Russian Roulette. You have to transfer the files to the internal memory, but can get away sometimes with transferring them to an SD card (ultra preferred) without crashing. It is not a hardware glitch, it's GARNETT! The present operating system is not used to having files change their position on a drive - in this case. It is used to an orderly distribution of files that it can read and expect to read with the memory locations staying static. This is the real problem with the Lifedrive and now the Tungsten X and the model preceding it. This was so problematic that the Documents-to-go program that came preinstalled on the Lifedrive had nothing but trouble attempting to access and save files. A solution taken from the Tungsten X had to be employed. However, this was not brought to the forefront by Palm.

These file issues can be best addressed by using a Linux platform. Apple has shown that moving to a Linux platform (OS X) was unbelievable for the desktop and since Palm appears to be moving in the same direction, I would think that this will hold true for the Palm. When one considers that Linux is an underlying operating system, the possibility of running PALM OS on top of Linux would appear to be a simpler task than reinventing the operating system from scratch. It would offer better compatibility and lead us into the next generation of products.

Without Multitasking, I find it difficult to understand how Palm plans to excel in the handheld phone arena without an operating system that can multitask. The main task of course for the Treo line would be to stay on-line and look up addresses, documents etc and possibly get on the phone. Picture this scenario:

The busy business person receives a call while in the car with their bluetooth enabled Treo. A document is needed in the office immediately for a presentation. The individual stays on the line, finds the document in Documents-to-go or my favorite Mobi Office and accesses either EVDO, GSM or other fast network access (while remaining on the phone via bluetooth) to send the 240k document. The document is received and the individual closes all connections.

This scenario requires a number of things:

1. A fast processor. Intel has been solving that problem. The Lifedrive is a good example.
2. Good battery life. ie. Low power consumption.
3. GOOD MULTITASKING ABILITY.
4. DUN.
5. An operating system compatible with 1-4.

We currently do not have this. Garnett will be slow and cumbersome if we were able to do the above at all. This is why Palm needs to move along and stop living in the past. I wholeheartedly agree with Ed on this point. The new "Q" from Motorola is about to change everything. It will be running Windows Mobile and the reviews are already quite strong from those who have used it. Palm can ill afford to sit around believing that Garnett will save it! I believe that Palm has gotten a little lucky on the Treo front. They have a device created by Handspring and have perfected it to the point that mainstream America has caught on. More importantly, business has caught on and are switching from RIM to use it. I believe that there may be some reluctance by Palm to rock the boat. Here they have a device that everyone has come to know and love. Unlike the consumer market where many would not mind the change, the business world prefers stability. However, stability at the expense of innovation, speed and convenience may not be in Palm's best interest.

As a Professional who depends upon Palm, I think that I may be one of those people to whom Palm is worried about rocking the boat. However, I must say that improvements need to be made and quickly, especially for those of us in the health profession. I have chosen to accept the Lifedrive as a stage 1 development, but if the same issues occur in Lifedrive 2, I will not be so polite. I would venture elsewhere, despite my reluctance to do so.

Palm has shown that they are capable of innovating. The original Palm Tungsten T was a dramatic machine. I have tears in my eyes thinking about the very first time I set my eyes on this machine. It was slick, small and powerful. This type of innovation can be done, but Palm needs to accept the challenge and stay ahead of the competition. I love this company and I want to see it succeed.


Emotionally and Unabashed,

LDD.

A few things.....

Thanks to those of you congratulating us on the potential site LIFEDRIVEDOC.GOOGLEPAGES.COM . Those of us involved are looking forward to the page. Now that I have some help, it should be a lot easier.

On to a few newsworthy events:

1. Palm has dropped the price of the PALM LIFEDRIVE to 399.00. It's the second drop in 4 months and many believe that this may represent the advent of a new line of products. However, there are a few who believe that the LIFEDRIVE may be phased out with a new product line being introduced into the Mobile Manager arena or just abandoned. I don't have any insight into this and I am a little worried that there have been no leaks or patent information circulating anywhere.

I am hopeful that we may see a new Lifedrive with all of the kinks of my present product worked out.

2. My contacts are telling me that ALPS may be only available for the TREO line of PALM products with some other form of OS for the other handhelds. However my source was unable to reveal whether the full run of products will be TREO and nothing but TREO. We remain confident that Palm will continue to support the Non-Treo line of products since not everyone is particularly interested in using the phone. But we are afraid that with the advent of the OQO coming out soon, probably on Cingular and the RIMM fiasco which provided a successful shift in thinking to PALM the pendulum may shift to TREO.

3. Palm's stock split !!!! I was totally stunned by the announcement a few weeks ago and can only think that this company has something up its sleeve. I know of few companies that trade under $50 announcing a stock split without having a lot of confidence that their future product line will be successful. So I have to acknowledge that PALM must know something that others don't.

4. What happened to our February Prediction? We dumped our hypester! The news that we received was totally bad. Perhaps there is a new Lifedrive coming out, but it certainly was not in February or even mid March. In the end, we just don't know and apologize for the earlier prediction. However the signals being sent out by PALM in regards to products ie. See our earlier blog post for detecting a turn around in the product line are still in effect as we see a drop in the price of the LIFEDRIVE.

We'll keep you posted.

LDD.

Website for apps is coming along.....

Just a quick update to all who have sent me messages about the apps site. It is coming along, albeit slowly. A few major changes ensued recently with the advent of Googlepages. This product has greatly simplified the programming of the web page. We began to use HTML and ran into java script errors. Not being programmers, we stalled. Now, uploading and other menial tasks have been made easy with Googlepages.

Call it a simple solution, Googlepages lacks all of the sophistication of say Geocities (Which isn't saying much), but it is fast and accurate. The pages show up as WYSIWYG. It still needs a little fine tuning because of its simplicity, but we should be ready to roll once we can figure out how to get a file download counter in place.

If anyone has any suggestions, we are all ears. By the way, LIFEDRIVEDOC will no longer be one person's little puppy to walk around the block. There will be help from others and all are intent on making this one of the best experiences on the web (okay, at least we have hopes and dreams)...

You can get a peak at the beta site (sorry, we can't give away all the goods for now) by looking at the cover site. LIFEDRIVEDOC.GOOGLEPAGES.COM

LDD.

Epocrates Survey Finds Medicare Part D Confusing

Medicare Part D has got to be one of the most confusing documents that I have ever had the displeasure of coming across. To spare the political rant, it would appear that our leaders took the short road to acquiesce to every single insurance and drug company around. Basically, the documents appear to give a little bit on one hand (ie. Premiums) in return for a large slice of pie on the other (ie. Increased payment for drugs) or vice versa.

A few drug companies have taken this opportunity to realize greater profits by rescinding some of their previous prescription help programs. For example, one company had a 30 day supply of a drug that usually costs $120/month (for cash paying customers) reduced to $15 per month for patients who did not have insurance and limited income. Once the Medicare program showed up, the company scratched the $15 program. A careful read into the reason showed that among the companies offering Medicare Part D, all but one had a higher copay than the $15 for the drug. The one exception had a higher monthly premium that had to be paid. Who wins? Well, not the patient and certainly not the Doctor.

I find myself spending more time going over these documents, so much so that by the time I finally understood the program, I could not explain it to septuagenarians or octagenarians in a reasonable amount of time without falling further behind. We have had to have people explain, sometimes at 15-30 minutes per visit what the plan is and how they can use it.

Epocrates, the comany that makes the self-named program used by myself and many other physicians and pharmacists took a survey to find out the opinions of those at the forefront of this radical change in our healthcare program.

The results, although not surprising to me show that there is considerable confusion among health care providers in recomending coverage for senior citizens:


94% of physicians still find the program confusing — most confusing areas are coverage gap and specific drug coverage
87% of pharmacists find the program confusing — most confusing area is dual eligible population
99% say that patients are confused, particularly about which plan is best for them
70% of physicians and 96% of pharmacists are spending at least 20% more time on administrative tasks
However, the situation is improving ...
57% believe that Medicare Part D will result in improved care
67% report that using Epocrates Part D formularies is helping them save 11 or more minutes per day


Epocrates.Com

http://www2.epocrates.com/company/news/newsletters/200603.html

One small criticism of the data presented however. There is no N value listed. I would like to know how many people took part in the survey. Perhaps this could be printed at a later date.

LDD.

Quick roundup of a few non released Non-Palm devices

I was perusing the web today and noticed a few interesting devices that may come in handy for the busy physician/provider:



The Unicom M Bridge Device.

According to Gizmodo, "The 3” x 5” x 0.75”, 6.5-ounce handheld device will wirelessly connect to the Internet, letting you download MP3s, exchange pictures, and access chat and e-mail without using a PC. You’re even able to crop and tweak pictures after you receive them from your digital camera and before you upload them to an online service. The MBridge will have two USB 2.0 ports, connect at 11Mbps using 802.11b and will be available in gray, red or black. No price was announced yet."



Microsoft Origami Project

Microsoft's top secret device to take on the Ipod and perhaps a host of other machines. Not much is known about the device, but it certainly looks interesting. I had a copy of the "unreleased" commercial floating around, which certainly looks very authentic. However I cannot share what the memory, cpu or other information will be on the device. It certainly looks interesting,
although a little on the large side.






Irex Iliad e-Reader.

This is a very pretty device with a very natural easy reading screen. Specs are an 8.1 inch screen with 1024x768 (160dpi), 400mhz Xscale processor (fast), 64MB ram and 224mb Rom. There is also what appears to be a nice interface match up, giving you several different ways to communicate -- CF, 802.11G WIFI, 10/100 Ethernet, SD/MMC and USB). This is a thing of beauty, although I am uncertain what the battery life will be and whether the size of the device would preclude me from making this a useful device on a daily basis. Certainly reading articles from an electronic device is a lot more interesting than the paper journals.

I think that we are in for a very innovative summer. I am very excited about these new products. Naturally, the handheld king, Palm will have to come up with something extraordinary to compete with these, but I think that they are more than capable of pulling another PALM TUNGSTEN innovation out of the hat and out of the blue. By the way, am I the only one noticing that the Unicom device looks a lot like a Lifedrive?

LDD.

Microsoft Origami Video Looks Interesting.

Microsoft has been rather quiet about this device. It looks very interesting. If it has a very good input system I think it would be worthy of a good look. First thoughts are that it is a little bigger than I would like, but the video is very impressive and I would love to know if Bluetooth is the method of transferring the photos from the telephone to the device. Origamedoc.com???

A Link to the website is listed below or as usual just click the title of the story:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=JqVszfrB_VI

NEWS: University of Virginia School of Medicine offers PDA Requirements

The University of Virginia School of Medicine offered a PDA guide to its medical students. A very interesting part of the recommendations was found near the end with their thoughts on other Palm Devices:

"The Lifedrive has a lot of reported bugs and is large and expensive."

How's that for objective?

While I agree that the Lifedrive is buggy, there are some things that decrease the "bugginess" of the device.

First of all, the software that is being downloaded should be in physical ram and not running from the disc drive. That gives you essentially 32mb of "real" memory to work with before you drift into the neverlands of the additional 32mb of virtual ram afforded by the disc and which imparts the ubiquitous slowdown seen by all devices eventually.

However where I find the Lifedrive to be superior is in the memory of the Lifedrive itself. Although buggy, if you use the drive and an accessory SD card, you will find that the storage is superior to almost any device out there. Additionally, running programs from an SD-ULTRA card is almost akin to running it from the native 32mb memory. That is to say, it is like having 1 gigabyte of ram to play with.

Nevertheless, kudos to UV for at least having the courage to actually provide Palm Pilots (I noticed the Windows CE and Mobile systems were not on the requirements list). They even provide a subsidy for the "required" device.

A further foot note to those in the Windows camp......, well perhaps, it would be better to let the UV-ites tell it themselves:

"How about Pocket PCs?

In the fall of 2005 we purchased and evaluated side by side the current models from Palm and Dell. (Dell is seen as offering the best Pocket PCs at the moment.) The features and functions are almost identical on the two platforms, as Microsoft and Palm have copied each other's successes. But we found several shortcomings in the Pocket PC:
They are generally more expensive for the same features compared to Palms.
The battery life is shorter.
They require rebooting more frequently than Palms.
They are larger than equivalent Palms.
They don't work well with Macintosh computers.
While the Pocket PC platform is getting closer in parity to Palms than they were in the past, there was no advantage that we could find in buying a Pocket PC, especially given the higher cost. As a result, we no longer recommend the purchase of Pocket PCs for medical students. If you have a Pocket PC, staff members may not be able to assist you in installing or troubleshooting applications."

I cannot believe the openness that this recommendation implies. It is refreshingly bold. The U pulls absolutely no punches in its recommendations and pans. We will be keeping a lookout for more open discussions such as this one.

Feel free to click on the title to take you to the University of Virginia's website.


LDD.

Small Pause.....

To those of you who have written to me asking about the apps for Mobisystems, HandBase and my all-time favorite, Smartlistogo, please be patient. I have been looking for a good place to host the files. Free is always preferrable, but we did look into a paid hosting service to increase file accuracy.

There is a test site that is not currently online but still in beta testing. Additionally, I will probably begin writing my own apps - as I have done - and getting others to add to the growing list, as I hope. Another possibility is to ask the program developers, Mobi/Hand/Dataviz to host the files and just point a link to them. I am particularly interested in seeing the number of downloads per application and I think that they may be better suited to do this.

As of today, I am looking at Google's new offering due to the fact that they are offering 100mb of free space. This is much greater than a few of the paid sites that I have been looking at. If Google allows HTTP or FTP downloading and file hosting, then I think that I will have no choice but to migrate there and save a few pennies in between.

Since the files will be predominantly free, I think that advertising from the page may pay whatever other bills may be accrued.

If anyone has any other ideas on this matter, please feel free to drop me a line.

Thanks.

LDD.

Schematics for ALP (Access Linux for Palm) Shown at Linuxdevices.com and a Question

Linuxdevices.com was gracious enough to publish the schematics of the newly announced ALP (codename for future software ?Palm 7.0). Very very interesting schematics.

Palm OS will remain as an emulation model, but the exciting thing is that Java will be built into the SYSTEM, thus allowing for 3rd party "native apps." Can you imagine replacing these apps from the applications module and using the User Space for other things?

The kernel looks solid - that is as solid as a schematic diagram can confess - and it would appear that they are taking into account a lot of 3rd party applications. Are you drooling yet?

However there are a few questions; one of which is very important:

Will ALP (Access Linux for Palm) serve as the new operating system for all Palm Devices or will it only serve the telephony market, such as the Treo line? (See the right lower side of the diagram where it mentions "GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS, Wifi, Bluetooth etc."

If it is only for mobile telephony, does that mean that we will have to put up with the experimental COBALT on the other devices?

Conversely and obviously more exciting is the true question:

Will all future products feature telephony and possibly VOIP and will older devices be upgradeable?

A whole weekend to ponder the news from Barcelona.


LDD.

ALP or GULP? A New Operating System Finally !!!!!

It won't come until next year, but Access annonounced this week that they are releasing SDK's for a new operating system based upon the Linux Operating System.

Only two words to respond to this one: ABOUT TIME !

This should be welcome news for high end Palm users. The idea is that the new system will have a smaller footprint than the current one, but upon reading a few specs this week, I am begining to wonder if this may be the case.

That the PalmOS portion of palm, which does not exist anymore since the purchase by Access, is changing to Linux, seems to bear a very interesting resemblance to Apple and its OS X ventures. Apple was very successful at this and since late last year I have begun to notice that Palm is going in the same direction. Similarities are getting more and more interesting. The Palm stock is going up - probably secondary to the Treo for the most part and the declaration of a stock split - symbolizing a bullish sentiment from the company itselfp; the announcement of new products to come and now the move to a new operating system that could put an end to the speculation of "when will Palm OS 5 come to an end?"

The worry about Palm is legitimate, leading to even one of the biggest shareholders of Palm to state that the company should sell itself (or seek strategic alternatives). My suggestion to him is to sell his Palm stock and join Carl Icahn over at Time Warner and raise a ruckus over there!

Palm is moving in the right direction FINALLY. Linux is the way to go! It is something that should have been done a long time ago instead of attempting to pull a Microsoft job of draining every last cent out of the OS 5 operating system (ie. Windows ME ). The present OS is not capable of dealing with the demands of the new hardware. Almost everyone wants true multitasking ability, something that the present OS does not offer. NVFS (the file system used by the new Palms - Lifedrive, Tungsten X, Treo 650) is a fantastic advancement for Palm. The nonvolatile nature ensures that your data remains intact even if the battery is cleared. However NVFS works with FAT-32, the disk system that runs on our PC's. The problem is that although this is fantastic for people like myself because I do not have to hotsync since I do not load a lot of new files, but spend most of my time backing up data files the ability to do this via my SD card is great. However the 3.6 g Lifedrive is not as nice. After using the filesystem to load files directly to the Lifedrive, it does not run programs directly without crashing routinely and becomes more unstable when it is used for anything other than media file storage.

This is where Linux will be a welcome alternative. Linux was made for multitasking. It is in every flavor - SUSE, REDHAT, etc. Additionally, the Linux filesystem is ENVIABLE. It is one of the most stable and with Open Source software it is constantly kept up to date. It has fantastic fileserving ability and ....did I say STABLE ! I have used it and it is fantastic.

Access plans to use a Browser type system for the GUI, something that may be akin to the Explorer motif used in Windows. However the beauty may be a little dampened by the fact that the current PALM OS programs "appropriately written" will run on an emulator atop the linux backdrop. The current Apple move to Intel is showing a little strain with this strategy, since they are using an emulator to convert their Motorola driven programs to Intel. This is an extra step that slows everything down. In terms of the Lifedrive this could become unbearable with its already slow disc access. With Linux it is my hope that even with the 4g Lifedrive, there will be a way to keep the entire operating system in memory and all vital files in memory without having to access the hard drive, thus ending the delay. Additionally, it is my hope that the Lifedrive will stop crashing with an operating system designed for both multitasking and file access -- which could mean running files from the Lifedrive itself and maintaining stability.

With Linux's incredible Open Source community, I believe that we could see the emergence of some of the GREATEST software products to ever come out of the Palm community. Graphic intensive GUI's and apps never before imagined. The ability to print directly without having to purchase separate printing programs, ie. built into the system; wifi, bluetooth and VOIP. Not to mention Google/Google Maps etc. The world of Java is finally here with this operating system. IBM's JavaMobile is a fantastic piece of software that really takes into account the handheld environment. It is prominently featured in the Access Linux package.

In short, the time has come for Palm to move on to the next level and I believe that Linux is the answer. There will be problems at first, there always is, but Access appears to be moving in the right direction to preserve the Palm OS (Incidental note is made of the fact that there are Windows emulators running on Linux already present on the PC. It would only lead to expectation that this could be done for Windows CE and Windows Mobile. In other words, you could possibly run two operating systems on your Palm in the future - just a thought ) !


http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/02/14/75368_HNaccesspalm_1.html

http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/14/palm-os-5-rip-access-linux-platform-alp-hello-beautiful/

http://www.palmsource.com/press/2006/021406_accesslinuxplatform.html

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/02/14/1374521.htm

http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_story.asp?ID=8388

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS4663700447.html



More to come.

LDD.

Palm finally getting the point !

I think that Palm is finally begining to get their act together, recognizing where their greatest level of support is coming from. Today, Palm announced that they will be joining with Microsoft to deliver health care solutions to the PALM 700W.

Although this says little for the Palm Operating system in the statement, a trip to the Palm Healthcare Solutions page tells a different story. A large listing of top notch software for the Palm Operating System with very nice links. Additionally, there are timely articles on the subject at hand, including electronic prescribing and special registration areas for special offers and events.

Yes, I finally think that Palm is begining to understand that the medical community has stuck with them through thick and thin and we are all looking forward to the emergence of great products.

An incidental note is made today that the company offered a 2:1 stock split with the price of the stock at around 36/share. A very bold move indeed and one that suggests that this company expects great things over the next 2-3 years.

http://www.palm.com/us/solutions/healthcare/ Or click on the title.

LDD.