I LOVED my 3com Palm Pilot Professional & my Treo 600 after that. But ultimately moved onto Windows Mobile because all the media bits were clunky at best.

There was always this feeling that the Palm OS as it was on my Treo was never meant to do what it was being asked to do. Don’t get me wrong – it did a lot of things REALLY WELL. Threaded SMS and actually MAKING PHONE CALLS being two good examples.

But then exchange support, music syncing, video playback, web browsing…none of those things ever worked right – and don’t get me started on the Treo 600 SDIO Wifi card that never was…

Ultimately Palm OS was out-classed by Windows Mobile’s extensibility. It’s core was always a joy to use, but it wasn’t able to grow into this decade. Other mobile OSs were left to pick the good parts and build new solutions for the bad parts. There’s no doubt we wouldn’t be where we are today without the Palm OS – but I certainly don’t miss it one bit.

– First some Valentine-like intro:

My first device was a Treo 600. It really was the second one, but I never felt the Compaq iPaq 3660 really mine, I don’t know why.
At that time the Treo 600 was made by Handspring and it was still plagued by a beta firmware. I bought it the day the firmware was updated and reported as stable, spending €899, ouch!!
I had been looking for a converging device forever and that was, in my opinion the answer to my needs. Despite the lack of multitasking, the lack of BT and WiFi, and the VGA childish camera, it had potential. Even with its 160×160 pxl screen I enjoyed wathcing several DVDs on it, converted on my Mac to fit its screen and viewed on it using the free TCPMP.
The best had to come, and it was the Treo 650. This was adding BT, screen pixels and colors, and the Centro put this further, yetin a small and cheap package. Cheap means €99 last year, unlocked with no contract and tough, really tough (although not water resistent ).
Once selected the useful apps (Iambic Agendus over all, but also SplashID and PocketTunes) none couls be competung with it (and everyone waas and stoill is astionished by the cool and effective thing the Centro is able to do)

– Then, the Core:

The lack of multitasking has never been a problem for me and my Palm OS device: the app was remembering its status once closed and was able to restore it back once stated. Music players and even third party email programs (ChatterMail) were able to work in the background. Only annoying thing was the drop of data connection if a phone call started.

Someone could complain about web browsing (Interent, the Holy Grail!!!), but I still prefer my Web app on the Centro to that on the iPhone/iPod Touch, as its way to reflow content is working lovely for me, but maybe because I mostly look at Google Reader, with really few Flash enabled sites.
Those who may complain about YouTube and alike, I think are not aware of Kinoma Play, which allows you to open Flash contents outside the browser.

I hear you say I can’t use forever the same ol’ apps. Guys, in case of both the Treo 650 and the Centro we are talking about devices doing all of the above with a stagnant OS and a 312 MHz processor, so, guess where these two could go with some more commitment by its HW and OS producer?

While the Palm interface has been roughly the same since its birth, IMHO the biggest problem for Palm has been the unability (or lack of will) to support better specd hardware in its Palm OS.
GPS, Wi-Fi, better cameras, fast data connection, can be found in entry level devices and people buying something are more prone to look at spes, rather than ask them: “Will this work?”, “Will apps open promptly”, “Will I understand the UI?”, “Will I be able to set it up without the techno-geek- friend?”, because they, wrongly, suppose all the answers will be “Yes”.

I changed my Centro and have jumped on a WM6.x only because my Centro stopped workig (my fault), and I wasn’t able to find a new Palm OS device.

To end my blurb, if a device was produced today with the same sleek, easy, fast, affordable Palm OS interface and some HW jump I would buy it the day it hit the shelf!!!

I still use my Centro, just to let you know where I am coming from. My biggest complaint with the OS is the terrible web browsing. Its so slow and the program itself is terrible. I think Palm OS would still be out there today with WinMo if Palm had actually continued to update it. OMG!!! What a thought. Then you would have better internet….GPS….and all of the other goodies for today. Plus, they could have partnered with a company like HTC or Motorola to make devices with bigger screens and faster processors to support their upgrades.

As for apps, I have so many apps that I just love. I hate the thought of giving them up when I finally get a new phone. The OS is just so simple to use that the learning curve is close to zero. You can practically take it out of the box…play a bit…and you’re good.

Palm just made a HUGE mistake with being so slow and taking zero action for years.

You know, I never understood the folks that complained so loudly about Palm OS. I like. Music DOES play well with Pocket-Tunes. That’s my main mp3 player on my TX and now my Treo Pro.

The NVFS hardware implementation was not good, but I really do appreciate the much longer battery life I got out of it once the bugs were ironed out.

Oh well…………….

I still have a special spot in my heart for Palm. I had high hopes for webOS…and still do. Palm OS was missing the flexibility that kept Windows Mobile around for so long. I guess once everything started going web…the lack of a decent web browser also hurt Palm OS.