Posts tagged: PALM

Django Docs in Plucker format

Update: 2005-11-13: A lot has happened with Django in the past two weeks; here’s an updated Plucker version of the docs (337K) for the 74 people who downloaded the last one. To judge by the change in file sizes, Django is sixty-two percent more documented than before! Or somebody slipped one of Wilson’s desktop backgrounds in there. I’m just going to keep popping this post to the top when I have a new version, rather than allowing outdated stuff to sit around.
Update 2005-12-10: Posted a new version (375K). Someday I’ll make this a daily cronjob…
Update 2005-12-29: Updated again (398K).
Update 2006-11-16: Now (finally) a nightly cronjob – see the announcement post for more or just grab it now: http://dpaste.com/static/djangodocs.pdb

Original post, 2005-10-30: Along the lines of the Python Library Reference in Plucker format I posted in July, here’s the latest Django documentation (208KB). (Plucker is an offline reader for the Palm.) I know using a non-WiFi, non-cellphone PDA is terribly retro these days, but that’s the kind of old-world guy I am.

Palm TX

In the What-Were-They-Thinking Department, Palm chose yesterday as the day to release their new handheld, the Palm TX. You didn’t hear about it? Neither did anybody else, because we were all paying attention to some other product announcements happening at the same time. Too bad that Palm buried the launch like that, because I really want them to do well and it’s a very nice little device. Cheaper than previous high-end models ($299 – the Tungsten T debuted at $499), with built-in WiFi. For specs, see Palm.com.

What went wrong with Palm

For anyone who was ever enthusiastic about the Palm platform, the last few years have been challenging. In an article also commented on at Engadget and Slashdot, ZDNet columnist Michael Singer lays out his Five reasons for Palm’s slide. They are:

  • Palm executives were slow to see the convergence of cellular phones and personal digital assistants
  • Palm has had a hard time making its corporate customers happy
  • The separation of Palm’s hardware and software units failed to boost Palm’s prospects
  • Jeff Hawkins and Donna Dubinsky took their knack for innovation with them when they left in 1998 to start Handspring
  • Palm had a costly product-planning snafu that stalled its fast-growing sales

The loss of Hawkins and Dubinsky is the biggest in my view. It was the most diluting of many events that have diluted Palm and its image over the years, from the early naming gaffes (Pilot, PalmPilot, Palm Connected Organizer…) to the proliferation of too-similar models (III, IIIx, IIIe, IIIxe…) to the PalmOne/PalmSource split.

Palm/Mac sync woes

I have little to add to this but I’m sure glad it’s being said somewhere as visible as The Washington Post:

Either Palm should – finally! – update its Mac software so it talks directly to Address Book and iCal, instead of relying on the obsolete Palm Desktop for contacts and calendar management, or Apple should put some more effort into iSync so it doesn’t have this habit of dropping data on the floor at random times.