[kwlug disc.] linux on zune

[Andrew Kohlsmith]

On Thursday 14 December 2006 6:27 pm, Unsolicited at gto.net wrote:
> Have LifeDrive. Wish I'd never bought it. Don't want two devices.

Me neither, but I have to say the screen on the TX is something I really, 
really like.  (The Nokia 770 would be better, but I digress.)  Built in BT 
and Wifi is a big plus too.  Lifedrive doesn't really get me anything I 
really want.  If Palm's built-in networking allowed it to connect to CDMA 
phones (I'm a Telus customer) I'd be happy with a crappy tiny cell phone with 
a good radio and BT, and use the TX for everything else.

In fact, I tried that, until I discovered that you can't click-to-dial due to 
the CDMA/GSM differences, you can't send and receive SMS messages for the 
same reason, and you can't get DUN through the phone for -- you guessed it -- 
the same reason.

I'm not sure why Palm crippled the connectivity this way, as it doesn't seem 
to help them nor the CDMA carriers they've partnered with.  As I said though, 
with a little time I can work around this.

> (Given the time I bought it, about a year ago, wish I'd bought the TX. The
> hard drive really slows things down, and sometimes it treats it as a memory
> card, sometimes it don't. The inconsistency can drive you nuts. Software
> that is memory card aware just gets on with its day. I'm rather unimpressed
> with Palm - but I expect that's mostly because currently their products are
> somewhere between the high regard they use to be held in, and wherever
> they'll ultimately be if they're still around. Company shuffling and trying
> to refigure out who they want to be has not served them well.)

Yes, I too am a little disillusioned with Palm; they were *the* name, but then 
they started to suck rather mightily.  The move to NVFS really buggered them 
up, and when they crippled the 650 the way they did I just shook my head.

> If I were to buy today, I'd buy a Treo 650. Maybe a 700p. Even though I've
> no experience with them - it can't be any worse.

700P.  Avoid the 650, as it has several rather big bugs that just do not seem 
to be important to Palm.  The 700P is about the same in terms of hardware, 
but more usable memory and some of the stability fixes I've heard about would 
be worth it.

of course, a CDMA 680 would be even better, but that won't happen.  A *full* 
BT stack... nice idea, but won't happen.  And Wifi on the Palm versions of 
the Treos?  Nope.  Not without some hacking, anyway.

I'm not ready to jump ship to WM5-based devices.  However I am working on the 
linux-on-Palm stuff with OpenEmbedded, and I'm running with the crew who have 
been hacking away on the 650 to get the radios working under Linux.

> Mind you, the baby Mac laptop looks _really_ appealing. But don't have the
> time to go in yet another completely different direction, at the moment.
> http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0926IN
>G FS10075463&catid=22156

Interesting; I just bought a new T60 or 61 (can't remember) with the 
wide-viewing-angle SXGA+ IPS screen for $1800.  Same processor and all that.  
Wifey bought herself a Toshiba widescreen laptop and the thing's FAR too big 
for me to work on (and I'm a big guy)...  I love my T30, which is why I 
insisted on another Thinkpad.

-A.