TamsPPC - the PocketPC Blog

Currently, the developers of the Linux distribution Kubuntu are asking their users which additional applications could be integrated into the next version of the distribution. People which have created an account on the Wiki page can write new propositions or add checkmarks to existing ones.

As I am looking for a solution which enables me to sync my Palm (and Pocket PC) with my Linux computer, I added “a good and reliable solution to synchronize data with Palm PDAs and Pocket PCs“. There are a few programs (KPilot, for instance, or SynCE for Pocket PCs), but none of them really worked here. One didn’t find my PDA, another one cleared all databases (!). Syncing my Pocket PC was even more difficult, I had to do much on a console (which I hate) and it never worked stable. And after a reboot, I could do the whole procedure again.

What I want is a synchronization solution which needs one little and easy configuration. After that, it should work stable and reliable. The next version of Kubuntu will be released next year. If there will be a better PDA support then, I will probably install it on my computer.

Do you want this, too? Or how do you sync your PDA with Linux? If you are also interested in this feature, you can write that onto the Wiki page, or, if you don’t want to register there, you can write a comment here.

Palm has changed the look of the underlying Microsoft operating system significantly in an attempt to make it easier to use(screenshots of WM6 for Smartphone are available in the ipaq 514 review). The images below are intended to give a quick ‘overview’ of the changes:

At first glance, one immediately sees that Palm has completely overhauled the main menu and phone screen of the Palm Treo 500v. The phone screen now is similar to the Treo 600’s - you can enter numbers of characters, ant the 500v analyzes its address book on the fly, presenting you the ‘best’ matches:

Hitting the home button should pop up a list of applications - on the Treo, it instead gives you a rather clumsy menu allowing you to access last-used applications, a few panels for settings like ring tones and bluetooth, and a variety of other stuff:

While this is great for light users, a heavy user will not be satisfied with the difficulty of reaching third party applications…BTW, getting back to the usual menus is not possible.

Here’s a small video demonstrating the ribbon interface in action:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-643186891885846593&hl=en

Once you wish to access one of the many options not provided in the ribbon interface, the standard, clumsy Windows Mobile smartphone UI with its insanely-long lists is right in front of you again(this time in widescreen, with the shortcut keys arranged in alphabetical order(!!!)) - Palm didn’t change anything here:

In the end, however, Palm’s changes and modifications are nothing except a drop of water on a very, very hot stone. WM Smartphone needs to be overhauled - and no matter of carrier/manufacturer investment(short of a complete OS rewrite) can fix that…

What do you think?