Tungsten T5 Next Week?!!

Colin Dunstan · 09-28-2004, 07:37 AM

Straight from The Register:

Reliable sources familiar with the company's plans suggest that the new Tungsten's launch could come as early as next Monday. The new machine is expected to be dubbed the Tungsten T5, skipping past the T4 moniker to avoid offending buyers in nations for whom the number four is held to be bad karma.

Laurens · 09-29-2004, 05:04 AM

Check out this news item from 1src...

Alexander Turcic · 09-29-2004, 05:06 AM

Neat!

Laurens · 10-02-2004, 04:20 AM

From CNET: Updated Tungsten, Treo set for release

Quote:

PalmOne on Monday will release a handheld computer that holds on to data even when the battery runs down, as part of a revamp of its mobile-device line-up.

Colin Dunstan · 10-02-2004, 07:26 AM

Did you hear about the rumor that the T5 won't have WiFi? Maaaan, that would stink!

Laurens · 10-02-2004, 09:17 AM

I'm not surprised that it won't have WiFi. The rumoured specs were a little too good to be true.

Anyway, 256Mb RAM is not a bad thing at all. That amount of memory and the new OS6 will make a whole new class of applications possible. Technologies like voice-over-IP (Skype) are now within reach of PalmOS handhelds. You can't really do these kind of things under OS5.

hacker · 10-02-2004, 12:08 PM

The Tungsten T5 is actually going to be shipping with Garnet (OS5.4), not Cobalt (OS6), if you believe this 1src article. But if you believe this other article, it will run OS6.

Either way, its horribly ugly and looks thick in the two large pictures of it I have here. Its certainly a few millimeters thicker than my Tungsten T2 and my Tungsten T3 devices, by comparing them to the pictures.

If it doesn't contain wifi, then there is no point to upgrading. I've been told that that the reason SanDisk and other manufacturers of wifi SD cards have held off, is specifically because Palm wanted to release their new device with built-in wifi capabilities. If there were wifi SD cards available, there would be no compelling reason to upgrade to a T5 when it arrived. It makes perfect sense, and Palm has done it before in prior years.

The other bit that seems to suck about the T5, is that:

There are no native ARM applications to run on it, yet, and the development environment is horribly buggy and complicated to set up and get working. Witness the thousands of frustrated developers on the various Palm Development lists.
The "Universal Connector" is gone, replaced by the new "Athena" connector in the Tungsten T5 and Treo 650. This is just a rumor, but again, I wouldn't put it past Palm to screw users and developers of hardware peripherals, just like they did when the Vx and m505 series, where they insisted that they would retain compatibility... and didn't.
It will be significantly more battery hungry than previous devices. Unless they have a native APM API built into their core OS, its going to eat more battery. I've been saying for years that we need to have a single color LCD which can be turned into a B&W screen at will, to save battery life in low-battery conditions. Its completely possible with current hardware, but nobody seems to want to care.
Since it is a first release of OS6 (assuming the device actually ships with this OS), it is going to have lots of bugs. There will be a learning curve, and things will break and fail. It is inevitable.

Staying at N-1 for these devices has always kept me happy, and there is no compelling reason to have the latest and greatest OS on my device. The OS should be completely transparent, and the features that the OS contains, aren't compelling enough for me to want to upgrade. That, and the steep price of the Tungsten T5 are keeping myself, and hundreds of others, at bay.

Bob Russell · 10-02-2004, 01:49 PM

I'll venture a guess, myself, based on not much more than intuition...
* OS5
* No WiFi Built In
* A little bulky in size

After Hacker's post, though, I'm still hopeful for OS6. That would be exciting. But OS5 is okay because I get compatibility and stability. The newest technology can wait a year or so.

But I'm getting a T5 day one anyway, because I want to upgrade my Clie SJ33. I can't wait! Biggest choice for me will be what accessories to get. And believe it or not, I'm happy with the rumored specs. It will seem like I'm jumping into the future after my OS4 66MHz 16meg SJ33!

As long as it fits in my pocket and has decent battery life, I'm happy. I'll just upgrade again for built-in WiFi, OS6, etc. I've resigned myself to expecting PalmOne to be a year or so behind the PPC hardware curve, but it's worth it to me because I like PalmOS and it seems to make better use of the processor and memory.

But no one has answered one of the really major questions about this new T5 -- Does it come with Bejeweled???!!!!!!!

Brian · 10-02-2004, 07:47 PM

If the T|5 is released at a price point of $399, it should have Wifi built in IMO or PalmOne better offer one heck of a package deal for the Wifi SDIO card. If not, I fear more and more current PalmOne/PalmOS owners will be tempted by the WM2003/PPC side.

Brian

ignatz · 10-02-2004, 10:20 PM

Not to mention that if you have to have a wifi card in your SD slot, it will make one of the main functions of having wifi moot: namely grabbing files and dumping them into your storage card. Though 256 megs of RAM will offset this, you may wind up moving files twice to get them onto a card. Pretty dumb!

Alexander Turcic · 10-03-2004, 05:38 AM

If it really doesn't come with Cobalt (OS 6.1) installed, it would fit with what Morpheus said some days earlier... that Cobalt-based "smartphones" are not ready before beginning of next year. If not for smartphones, why should it be different for a PDA...

Laurens · 10-03-2004, 06:38 AM

Or maybe OS 6.0 is for PDA's while OS 6.1 contains enhancements for SmartPhones? Just speculating here.

Anyway, if the T5 does not have OS6, there's not much point in buying one, at least not for me. All will be revealed tomorrow.

ignatz · 10-03-2004, 08:42 AM

Or while we we're wildly speculating: maybe OS6 is still having the bugs worked out and will be released as an upgrade for the T5 by early next year...

Laurens · 10-03-2004, 09:01 AM

Or maybe the T5 runs under Windows Mobile 2005.

(Actually, PalmOne has not ruled out using Windows Mobile for its handhelds.)

Alexander Turcic · 10-03-2004, 10:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Laurens

Or maybe the T5 runs under Windows Mobile 2005.

(Actually, PalmOne has not ruled out using Windows Mobile for its handhelds.)

But what would that make them... one among many.

09-28-2004, 07:37 AM	#1
Colin Dunstan Is papyrophobic! Posts: 1,926 Karma: 1009999 Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: USA Device: Dell Axim	Tungsten T5 Next Week?!! Straight from The Register: Reliable sources familiar with the company's plans suggest that the new Tungsten's launch could come as early as next Monday. The new machine is expected to be dubbed the Tungsten T5, skipping past the T4 moniker to avoid offending buyers in nations for whom the number four is held to be bad karma.

10-02-2004, 12:08 PM	#7
hacker Technology Mercenary Posts: 617 Karma: 2561 Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: East Lyme, CT Device: Direct Neural Implant	The Tungsten T5 is actually going to be shipping with Garnet (OS5.4), not Cobalt (OS6), if you believe this 1src article. But if you believe this other article, it will run OS6. Either way, its horribly ugly and looks thick in the two large pictures of it I have here. Its certainly a few millimeters thicker than my Tungsten T2 and my Tungsten T3 devices, by comparing them to the pictures. If it doesn't contain wifi, then there is no point to upgrading. I've been told that that the reason SanDisk and other manufacturers of wifi SD cards have held off, is specifically because Palm wanted to release their new device with built-in wifi capabilities. If there were wifi SD cards available, there would be no compelling reason to upgrade to a T5 when it arrived. It makes perfect sense, and Palm has done it before in prior years. The other bit that seems to suck about the T5, is that: There are no native ARM applications to run on it, yet, and the development environment is horribly buggy and complicated to set up and get working. Witness the thousands of frustrated developers on the various Palm Development lists. The "Universal Connector" is gone, replaced by the new "Athena" connector in the Tungsten T5 and Treo 650. This is just a rumor, but again, I wouldn't put it past Palm to screw users and developers of hardware peripherals, just like they did when the Vx and m505 series, where they insisted that they would retain compatibility... and didn't. It will be significantly more battery hungry than previous devices. Unless they have a native APM API built into their core OS, its going to eat more battery. I've been saying for years that we need to have a single color LCD which can be turned into a B&W screen at will, to save battery life in low-battery conditions. Its completely possible with current hardware, but nobody seems to want to care. Since it is a first release of OS6 (assuming the device actually ships with this OS), it is going to have lots of bugs. There will be a learning curve, and things will break and fail. It is inevitable. Staying at N-1 for these devices has always kept me happy, and there is no compelling reason to have the latest and greatest OS on my device. The OS should be completely transparent, and the features that the OS contains, aren't compelling enough for me to want to upgrade. That, and the steep price of the Tungsten T5 are keeping myself, and hundreds of others, at bay.

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09-29-2004, 05:04 AM	#2
Laurens Jah Blessed Posts: 1,295 Karma: 1373 Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: The Netherlands Device: iPod Touch	Check out this news item from 1src...

09-29-2004, 05:06 AM	#3
Alexander Turcic Fully Converged Posts: 18,163 Karma: 14021202 Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Switzerland Device: Too many to count here.	Neat!

10-02-2004, 07:26 AM	#5
Colin Dunstan Is papyrophobic! Posts: 1,926 Karma: 1009999 Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: USA Device: Dell Axim	Did you hear about the rumor that the T5 won't have WiFi? Maaaan, that would stink!

10-02-2004, 09:17 AM	#6
Laurens Jah Blessed Posts: 1,295 Karma: 1373 Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: The Netherlands Device: iPod Touch	I'm not surprised that it won't have WiFi. The rumoured specs were a little too good to be true. Anyway, 256Mb RAM is not a bad thing at all. That amount of memory and the new OS6 will make a whole new class of applications possible. Technologies like voice-over-IP (Skype) are now within reach of PalmOS handhelds. You can't really do these kind of things under OS5.

10-02-2004, 01:49 PM	#8
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	I'll venture a guess, myself, based on not much more than intuition... * OS5 * No WiFi Built In * A little bulky in size After Hacker's post, though, I'm still hopeful for OS6. That would be exciting. But OS5 is okay because I get compatibility and stability. The newest technology can wait a year or so. But I'm getting a T5 day one anyway, because I want to upgrade my Clie SJ33. I can't wait! Biggest choice for me will be what accessories to get. And believe it or not, I'm happy with the rumored specs. It will seem like I'm jumping into the future after my OS4 66MHz 16meg SJ33! As long as it fits in my pocket and has decent battery life, I'm happy. I'll just upgrade again for built-in WiFi, OS6, etc. I've resigned myself to expecting PalmOne to be a year or so behind the PPC hardware curve, but it's worth it to me because I like PalmOS and it seems to make better use of the processor and memory. But no one has answered one of the really major questions about this new T5 -- Does it come with Bejeweled???!!!!!!!

10-02-2004, 07:47 PM	#9
Brian MobileRead Editor Posts: 447 Karma: 84 Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Massachusetts Device: Treo 700p, Zodiac2	If the T\|5 is released at a price point of $399, it should have Wifi built in IMO or PalmOne better offer one heck of a package deal for the Wifi SDIO card. If not, I fear more and more current PalmOne/PalmOS owners will be tempted by the WM2003/PPC side. Brian

10-02-2004, 10:20 PM	#10
ignatz mechanoholic Posts: 582 Karma: 1000217 Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Sarasota, FL Device: Nook STR/iPhone 4S/EVO 4G	Not to mention that if you have to have a wifi card in your SD slot, it will make one of the main functions of having wifi moot: namely grabbing files and dumping them into your storage card. Though 256 megs of RAM will offset this, you may wind up moving files twice to get them onto a card. Pretty dumb!

10-03-2004, 05:38 AM	#11
Alexander Turcic Fully Converged Posts: 18,163 Karma: 14021202 Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Switzerland Device: Too many to count here.	If it really doesn't come with Cobalt (OS 6.1) installed, it would fit with what Morpheus said some days earlier... that Cobalt-based "smartphones" are not ready before beginning of next year. If not for smartphones, why should it be different for a PDA...

10-03-2004, 06:38 AM	#12
Laurens Jah Blessed Posts: 1,295 Karma: 1373 Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: The Netherlands Device: iPod Touch	Or maybe OS 6.0 is for PDA's while OS 6.1 contains enhancements for SmartPhones? Just speculating here. Anyway, if the T5 does not have OS6, there's not much point in buying one, at least not for me. All will be revealed tomorrow.

10-03-2004, 08:42 AM	#13
ignatz mechanoholic Posts: 582 Karma: 1000217 Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Sarasota, FL Device: Nook STR/iPhone 4S/EVO 4G	Or while we we're wildly speculating: maybe OS6 is still having the bugs worked out and will be released as an upgrade for the T5 by early next year...

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10-03-2004, 09:01 AM	#14
Laurens Jah Blessed Posts: 1,295 Karma: 1373 Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: The Netherlands Device: iPod Touch	Or maybe the T5 runs under Windows Mobile 2005. (Actually, PalmOne has not ruled out using Windows Mobile for its handhelds.)