Palm's ROM Follies

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Over at TreoCentral I've left the lion's share of reporting in the capable hands of Jennifer Chappell. My duties there have mostly been relegated to the TreoCast and to story after story after story after story after story after story about Palm's seeming inability to release a simple ROM patch for their PalmOS Treo 700p. It's really depressing, actually, even more depressing because Palm recently announced they're not going to be releasing the Linux Version of the PalmOS until next year. So much for somebody other than Apple pushing Microsoft to innovate the WM platform.

On the Windows Mobile side of Palm's world, things are going a little better. They've released an update for the the memory-aenemic 700w and the ready-for-prime-time 700wx. The update equalizes the two devices (except for the memory issue) and adds A2DP and improved DUN. What it doesn't add is Windows Mobile 6.

Speaking of not getting Windows Mobile 6, there's still no sign of the promised WM6 update for the Treo 750, despite the fact that there have been sporadic units running WM6 for a long time.

Look, Palm, I love you guys from the bottom of my heart, I'm even willing to believe that your Foleo will be at least half as successful as you seem to think. But being a Palm fan has been a lot like being a Vikings fan for a few years now: We believe in the team, every year it looks like they're going to get it together, most years they do much better than the naysayers give them credit for, but in the end -- no Superbowl.

The biggest deal is the addition of A2DP, though that couldn't have been that hard since people have been hacking it onto the 700wx for awhile now. TreoCentral forum member hannip posted a download for Sprint 700w/wx users back in February and made lots of Treo owners very happy.

Read: treocentral.com >> Stories >> Software >> Palm Releases Verizon Treo 700w/wx Updater 1.22

So where are the updates for those of us schlepping around on another provider's network? What about the Sprint users (they come to mind because there's more of them than us lowly Alltel users)? Hopefully Palm has something in the works for us too.

Posted by Jimmy (Imported Comment) | July 13, 2007 11:05 AM

Well said! It looks like they're focusing so much on the Foleo development at the expense of everything else. Let's face it, they weren't planning to provide an update for the 700p but mistakenly decided to do so due to the uproar at their own corporate blog. I'm not sure how things will turn out if the Foleo isn't as successful as they'd hope and then, again, it's 5 years later and they're stuck wondering what to do.

After waiting for years for a true upgrade for the aging 650 (no, the 680 and 700p and even the 755p do not count), I'm wondering if they will come up with one.

http://palmdiscovery.net

Posted by May C (Imported Comment) | July 13, 2007 11:23 AM

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