(Credit:
Crave Asia)
Knowing that I still use a Palm Treo 650 (yes, people who review phones don't necessarily have fancy ones), a colleague alerted me to the fact that PDAmill Game Studios has made all its Palm OS games free. The company stopped making games for this platform since February 2007 but still has a reasonable stable of applications for Windows Mobile. Some of these games are quite good and may be worth a download for those still using a Palm OS device.
TreoCentral reported on this and noted a few other developers giving away their previously for-sale software. These include games from Ellams Software and SkinUI from PalmPowerups.
It just goes to show how far Palm OS has fallen. The third-party software community for this platform used to be one of the most vibrant, but thanks to lack of improvement in the OS and its devices, most current mobile applications now run on Windows Mobile or regular mobile phones. For those still on Palm OS, get these free apps while they are still being hosted by their developers.
(Source: Crave Asia)
Centro: verified Sling-compatible
(Credit: Sling Media)Add the new Palm Centro to the list of smartphones that can stream live TV from the Slingbox family of placeshifting devices. Sling today confirmed what was widely assumed: the Palm OS version of the SlingPlayer Mobile software is fully compatible with Sprint's new bargain smartphone. (The current version of the software may warn Centro users that they're about to install it on a noncompatible device, but that minor glitch should be corrected in the next build, says Sling spokesman Dave Zatz.)
Confirmation of Centro compatibility is hardly a big surprise, given that the SlingPlayer runs on Palm's previous two 3G smartphones, the Treo 700p and 755p. (Some users have reported success--albeit decidedly jerky video--on the non-3G Treo 650 and 680 models.) But the bigger news is that the price of entry for streaming live TV to your phone is getting lower than ever: the Slingbox AV is widely available for $130 (often discounted to $100), and the Centro retails for just $100 with contract. Toss in the $30 for the Palm SlingPlayer software, and you've got complete access to your TV programming wherever you are for under $260. To me, that's a far better deal in the long run than paying the $10-25 monthly fees for Sprint's Sprint TV service--which, unlike Sling, offers fewer channels and no access to your home DVR.
At Palm's analyst and investor conference in New York Tuesday, CEO Ed Colligan announced the company is investing in a new Linux-based platform for its line of Treo smart phones.
Ed Colligan
Colligan said the Linux platform "will build a new foundation for Palm" and give the company, users and developers more flexibility.
The platform has been in development for "a number of years," he said, but emphasized repeatedly that Palm is still committed to the Palm OS and will continue to ship products based on that platform.
Those were the only details provided.
Access purchased PalmSource, developer of the Palm OS in 2005, and last year licensed Palm OS back to Palm. Access then rebranded its version of the platform as Garnet OS and is developing its own Linux version of the platform.
Palm OS will now be known as Garnet OS, Access announced Thursday. Garnet was originally the code name used by PalmSource for Palm OS 5.4, the most current version of the software.
(Credit:
Access Co.)
The renaming is part of a process begun in October 2006, when Access announced that its subsidiary, PalmSource, the developer of Palm OS, would also take the name Access.
Access is removing all vestiges of Palm from its products as part of a previous agreement to sell PalmSource's rights in the Palm Trademark Holding Company to Palm, according to a statement.
(Credit:
Sling Media)
Sling Media is makin' the rounds: first Windows Mobile, then Symbian. Now Palm OS users can sling--or placeshift--their own channels to their smart phone.
This is good news for Slingbox owners who also have a Treo 700p, which utilizes Verizon's EV-DO network. Treo 680 users will be able to sling their TV as well, but Sling cautions that the EDGE network it runs on is not an ideal connection.
But that's not all: SlingPlayer will also be pre-loaded onto all HP laptops in 2007 as part of the QuickPlay feature, which plays music, movies, and now TV, without having to fully boot-up the laptop, according to Sling.
And Sling will make its software Vista-compatible beginning when the new OS debuts at the end of January. The optimized SlingPlayer software will allow customers with more than one Slingbox to play multiple video streams on the same desktop.
OK, that sounded like a lot of info about Sling Media ... but there's still more. Stay tuned.
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