It's not over - HP buys Palm

HP has announced an offer of $5.70 per share or $1.2 billion, for Palm Inc. Palm isn't going to say no, and there will be no review of competitive advantage because the two companies barely blip the radar in the handheld space, so it's pretty much a done deal.

I'm still trying to figure out what it all will mean, ultimately. For time being, however, it should be safe to say that Palm is not dead yet.

Is this how it ends?

The Globe and Mail ran a story on Palm Inc. looking for a buyer and, some five days later, there are no comments on it.
 

Not one.

Nobody cares.

Vultures are circling

The headlines are grim:

• Palm teeters

• Palm at a crossroads

• Palm Circles the bowl

Seems like a long time ago when the "newness" of the Pre ushered in a wave of hope that sent Palm's stock rocketing. But sales have been lacklustre, and what went up has surely come right back down.

And so, I mourn.

MyLocation now available on Palm OS GSM devices

Palm inc. continues to frustrate its remaining core users, but one of its strengths is its strong 3rd party developer community. This latest offering is extremely cool, but also telling of issues at Palm that must be more alienating than endearing.

While Palm Inc. says that a Google Maps location-finding feature is only available on "newer Palm phones", the developers at Razix are proud to present MyLocation, for use with Treo 650 and 680, and get this - it's free.

I won't get into a rant on how frustrating it is to be a Palm user these days. Right now I just want to enjoy the benefit of being in a community that will do as much as it can, no matter how little effort Palm Inc. puts into supporting us.

Enjoy!

Palm's Identity Crisis

Handheld electronics include several distinct though related devices: cellular phone, personal digital assitant (PDA) and the hybrid smartphone.

The convergence of a cellular phone and PDA makes sense, since they both share common data - the contacts. It's also easier to carry one device rather than two.

A robust operating system provides a platform to converge additional devices we may want to carry around - mp3 player, gps, etc... why carry a cell phone, a PDA, an mp3 player, a digital camera, and gps receiver in separate devices if we can do it all in one?