Gryphon: Apple seems to have a thing for smudge-collection devices…my iPod went straight into a case and hasn’t come out, because it’s such a fingerprint magnet. As for phones doing more than phone calls…from my perspective it’s all about not having to carry around fifty devices. I got a Palm IIIc when it came out, and loved having contacts/calendar/email/etc. that synced with my desktop, but it became pretty clear that carrying that AND a phone was a nuisance…nevermind that AND a phone AND an iPod.

So if I can get one device to do multiple things, that’s a big plus. At a minimum I need contacts and calendar, and most non-smartphones don’t do this well (e.g. Motorola phones will refuse to sync calendar entries that have complex repeating patterns, or a variety of other situations). I use Outlook for work (against my will) so I always assumed WinMo would sync better than anything else. Well, it syncs well; it’s just got loads of other flaws. Since getting one I’ve gotten used to having things like Bluetooth syncing, WiFi, and so on.

The Palm IIIc was clunky and primitive by 2008 standards, but what it did it did very well. If a Palm phone could do so with modern features, I’d surely consider it.

But don’t go by me. I’m one of those luddite types who think expecting a phone to do anything other than phone calls is needless extravagance.

FYI, if you believe Engadget, <A HREF=”http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/25/the-second-gen-iphone-3g-gps-only-slightly-thicker/”?3G iPhone details are starting to leak…

This is also why there are no Palm OS phones with WiFi – the OS can’t handle having both a cellular connection and WiFi.

Palm OS can’t officially address more than 4GB. Larger SD cards may work, but support is iffy and not reliable.

Palm OS has no multi-tasking. You’re browsing the web and get a call? Answer the call and then you have to restart the browser from scratch. You’re running an SSH terminal and get an SMS message? If you respond to the message your SSH session is lost. Some vendors have come up with kludges to keep things like IMAP email programs connected in the background to monitor email, but that can make the phone unstable.

Palm OS itself has always been, well, I’ll say ‘quirky’ to be kind. My Treo will up and reboot itself periodically, sometimes in the middle of a call. It seems that the more applications you install, the less stable it becomes.

And the UI is getting a bit dated, it just doesn’t look as good as current phones – Palm OS hasn’t changed their UI since around 2000 when the first ‘hi-res’ devices hit and the icons got a refresh. (All early Palm OS devices were 160×160, hi-res is 320×320, hi-res+ is 320×480.)

The hardware is decent, but as other devices continue to add features – 3G, WiFi, stereo BlueTooth, more memory capacity, etc – the Palm OS devices look increasingly dated.

Look at the Centro – it has all the features of what was a ‘high end’ Palm OS smartphone just 2-3 years ago, for $99. Because that’s where advances in the market have pushed the value of the device. It is a very nice phone for $99, but it is hard to justify buying a 680 or 755p when the Centro has the same features. Palm OS remains frozen in time, and has been for over five years now.

Heh, and as I was writing this my Treo 680 lost its data connection and started spitting errors each time it tried to reconnect. Generally the only way for me to fix this is to power off the phone and turn it back on, or do a full reboot. Sometimes it’ll eventually recover on its own.

Are you listening Sling?? Do you want another $30 from me

AT&T has more or less hinted that they’ll allow most any GSM phone to connect to their network. Like you, I’ve been waiting for a smart phone that doesn’t…well, suck. I’ve been putting up with Windows Mobile and it’s just too clunky and buggy for me.

T-Mobile hasn’t given any details on the hardware, but I think once the first couple of Android phones hit, we’ll see a flood.