If you're tired of looking at the turn of the century operating systems on your Palm Treo, you're not alone. It's been years since Palm (once the industry leader) has managed to push out a major update to its antiquated mobile operating system. And now there are two companies working on replacements for Palm Garnet.
We haven't heard much from Palm Inc on the company's next operating system. But Access, the company Palm had selected to write the next OS before deciding to do it in house appears to be ready to roll with ALP or the Access Linux Platform. The only problem is that the company doesn't seem to have any major phone makers/wireless carriers signed up yet.
Ed Hardy at Brighthand got a good look at the new ALP operating system. Basically, it's a full fledged mobile Linux OS with a compatibility layer that lets you run older Palm applications. There's also a Java machine, which means that you can install PalmOS, ALP, or Java applications on the phone. They all show up in the launcher menu and you'll never really know what's happening under the hood. Applications will just pop up when you hit their icons, the way it was always meant to be.
ALP also supports true multitasking, so you can run programs in the background while using other apps in the foreground. Little icons will show up in the task bar showing you which programs are open and letting you easily switch from one to another. Overall, ALP doesn't look seem particularly revolutionary when compared to Symbian or Windows Mobile devices. But it makes Garnet look like a bit of a dinosaur. Not that that's a difficult thing to do.
Zoho's latest accomplishment is a full-featured online database application. Zoho DB lets you create, edit, and share databases. You can organize your data as if it were a spreadsheet, but run queries like you would with a database. There's supports for queries in pretty much any SQL format.
You can create a variety of charts and reports, and you can even embed your database in a web page. If you really want to see what it Zoho DB can do, check out the promotional video after the jump.
Remember how Palm was supposed to be releasing its super-cool new operating system based on Linux this year? And then remember how Palm went and pushed the release date back to 2008?
Apparently now they're pushing it way way back -- to the end of 2008. That's right, Palm's next generation operating system will be more than a year late, according to Palm CEO Ed Colligan.
The new Linux-based operating system is being developed by Access, who is writing a Palm compatibility layer into a totally new OS. That will let users run existing Palm applications as well as new programs designed for the OS.
Palm and Access (the company that acquired PalmSource) are working on Linux-based operating systems that will run on Palm hardware and support PalmOS applications. But considering how quickly Palm is losing market share to Windows Mobile (you can even buy a Palm Treo with the Windows Mobile operating system), maybe they should think about scrapping the compatibility layer altogether and just pushing out a modern OS for Palm devices as soon as possible.
Update: Thanks to our readers for pointing out that Palm is working on a new OS independently of Access.
If you are a regular user of Microsoft Office, and the Box.net storage platform, you are going to love this new feature that makes storing and accessing your docs online an easy alternative to Google's Docs and Spreadsheets.
The Box.net team has just completed work on an Office On Demand feature for Word users that enables an easy way to save Word, Powerpoint, Excel and Access files directly into Box.net storage accounts.
The application is only available for Windows XP and Vista users. It adds a "Save to Box.net" button to the application toolbar, that when clicked, instantly uploads the file. This new feature is great if you are constantly switching between multiple computers, no more flash keys or manual uploading required.
The company formerly known as PalmSource (now ACCESS), showed off version 1.0 of its new ACCESS Linux Platform (ALP) operating system at this week's 3GSM event in Barcelona. ACCESS has also begun distributing the product development kit to licensees, meaning that mobile phones running the new OS are one step closer to a reality.
While ALP is a Linux-based OS, representing a complete break from earlier versions of PalmOS, users will be able to run Palm software via a compatibility layer known as ALP ACCESS Garnet VM. This means you can upgrade to a newer device without fear of losing access to the thousands of free and commercial programs available for PalmOS.
In addition, ALP includes native applications such as phone, contact, calender, memo, email, web browser, SMS, music, video, photo, camera, and office document software.
ALP will run on smartphones with a Marvell PX3xx processor or Texas OMAP processors.
Access has released a technical preview of NetFront 3.4. NetFront has long been considered one of the best alternatives to Pocket Internet Explorer for Windows Mobile users. It offers tabbed browsing, faster page loading times, and a plethora of other features.
But when Opera entered the Windows Mobile market, with its zippy interfacing and blazing fast page rendering, I kind of forgot about NetFront.
Well, NetFront's back, and this time they've got Ajax support. That means support for all sorts of Web 2.0 goodies without having to view stripped down versions of web pages. I'd tell you more, but unfortunately my Windows Mobile 2003SE device isn't supported. This program is Windows Mobile 5.0 only.
The preview is free, but it only lasts through January 31st, and has a bunch of limitations. For example, you can only open two tabs at a time, you can only store 10 bookmarks, and ActiveX and JV-Lite2 are not supported. Odds are there will either be another free preview or a full version available for order come February 1st.
Google's darling Gmail has just launched a new feature they're slowly rolling out to users: POP checking of other accounts. If you're one of the lucky few, under the Accounts tab in Gmail's settings, you can now add up to 5 other accounts (if they have POP3 access enabled) for Gmail to pull email from.
Of course, you've always been able to forward email from most other accounts to Gmail, but the significance here is that by enabling Gmail to check your other accounts, it can grab virtually all the mail you've ever received in those accounts (if you haven't taken it all off the server with a desktop client, that is - not just the messages *after* you turned on forwarding.
While this is certainly a great new feature, I must again echo the requests of many by asking: why on earth Google hasn't joined the rest of us in the 21st century by adding IMAP access? Considering the plethora of devices consumers are using (desktops, public terminals, phones and PDAs) and the multiple ways they have already offered for accessing Gmail (web, WAP, mobile client, etc.). Is IMAP that much more difficult or expensive to implement? I realize their intention is to keep you doing email the Gmail way - labels, web ads and all - but I still say its time to grant usable access to those who need the power of desktop software and tools for their emailing needs.
If you downloaded the Microsoft 2007 Office system Beta 2 Technical Refresh (pardon me while I eat a bunch of jello, saying that just hurt my mouth) you may have noticed that all the Office splash screens and icons are now more slick looking and different. They area partially-rounded box shape, as seen in the pic here, and I think it adds a little something to the look and feel of Office. Of course this isn't by any means a big new feature, but I am always interested in little UI tweaks that draw the user a bit more toward a product based on the look, which the new icons in Office does.
Several months ago I recommended to a group that we use Yahoo! Groups to set up a mail list and group communication site. A few in the group rolled their eyes and with a great deal of emotion said something to the effect of, "That means you have to set up a Yahoo! ID and then tolerate all the xxxx that comes with it." I was stunned. The "what" that comes with it? I've had and used the same Y! ID since the late 1990's and haven't had any stuff to put up with.
People have several different IDs to access their accounts at gmail, digg, technorati, webshots, bloglines, goowy, etc. Isn't there value to having one ID that accomplishes all that (Y! Mail, Y! Photos or flickr, MyYahoo!, MyWeb, etc.)
There are those who don't or won't bother to change their marketing settings (which you use to opt in/out out of third-party offers and Yahoo! communications). I would guess those folks see "unsolicited" email that they weren't expecting nor want.
What are the reasons that keep you from getting a Yahoo! ID?
Orbitz is cranking out a new mobile access service called OrbitzTLC Mobile Access this Wednesday. The new service will allow for travelers to see their itineraries on their mobile devices. The new service will also allow travelers to check the status of their flights and look for last minute hotel deals.
This looks like a great new service offering from Orbitz, making it as simple as pie for consumers and allowing for excited repeat users of the Orbitz travel site.
Notice how we don't talk
much about Palm apps around here? I used to be the biggest Palm fan out there. That was before the dark days of lousy
hardware, bloated OS updates, and bugs from here to the 10th planet. Riddle me how Sony was able to get Flash on their
PalmOS devices years ago, but Palm's own still don't have it? Explain why the OS has to be stuck at 5.x.x.x.x ad
infinitum? Oh well, they lost me about a year ago (that LifeDrive is too little, too late, and
it doesn't even work properly), but I still am intrigued by this latest development... PalmSource and Access are teaming up to create a Mobile
Linux Ecosystem. Actually it's called the Access Linux Platform. Essentially it's the move to Linux PalmSource has been
talking about for a while, only now we're beginning to see what shape it will take. Cutting through the marketing
jabber, I see several open source items are making it into this new platform, including GTK and GStreamer. It also
appears the existing PalmSource PIM apps will make the cross over. SQLite will get into the mix, but Palm's browser may
take a back seat to the ACCESS NetFront browser. I'm a little worried about that one, since Palm's browser worked pretty
well. Interesting times, but we shall see if this is the herald of a new age in Palm's OS, or the last nail in the
coffin.
If you're tired of looking at the turn of the century operating systems on your Palm Treo, you're not alone. It's been years since Palm (once the industry leader) has managed to push out a major update to its antiquated mobile operating system. And now there are two companies working on replacements for Palm Garnet.
Notice how we don't talk
much about Palm apps around here? I used to be the biggest Palm fan out there. That was before the dark days of lousy
hardware, bloated OS updates, and bugs from here to the 10th planet. Riddle me how Sony was able to get Flash on their
PalmOS devices years ago, but Palm's own still don't have it? Explain why the OS has to be stuck at 5.x.x.x.x ad
infinitum? Oh well, they lost me about a year ago (that 
