Re: How good it is

Jeff,

I totally agree with your comments re Palm, and I would add that WinMobile appears to be stagnant as well. I was shocked a couple of months ago when I took a look at the WinMobile devices on the HP site and discovered that HP has done nothing to step up to either the incredible user interface challenge or the price challenge of the iPod Touch. As far as I could see, its handhelds haven't changed in a year, while everything around them, expecially buyer expetations, has.

What Palm needs to do to compete in the new market is:

1. Reinvigorate its third-party application developer base by returning to its old policies of threating that community as a partner in development and an important part of its technology (unlike Apple, with its iron clad control over everything that goes into its environment, which has always been its attitude).
2. Upgrade its user interface to compete with the look-and-feel of the iPhone.Touch.
3. Port its technology to a Linux base and solidify it so that it will run existing well-behaved Palm apps plus Linux apps. And fix those stupid bugs and limitations that have plagued it, in some cases since the the first Palm Pilot.
4. Expand its hardware range. Yes many users like the thumbboard and don't mind the tiny screen. But no one is going to publish a major report on that screen or read a book on it. It needs to bring out a new "pure" PDA to compete with the iPod Touch as well as a "big screen" smartphone with a virtual keyboard (I'vebeen using Fitaly happily for years). 

I still hope that you will do an update of your Windows desktop software. I have tried your chief competition, SplashNotes, and at least on my Vista platform it has several problems that have driven me back to Shadow. I would be glad to provide my wish list as a user if you want, but the big thing for me would be to have the same outline formats that you have on the Palm moved into the Windows version. I also do miss the icons in the Windows version, but that is more an aesthetic rather than a practical issue.

All the best.

 Bert Latamore
Freelance Editorial Consultant



----- Original Message ----
From: Jeff Mitchell <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2008 11:02:25 AM
Subject: Re: [shadow-discuss] How good it is


On Wed, 15 Oct 2008, barry anderson wrote:

# I have found Shadow to be very useful, but, as has been discussed here 
# several times, the desktop program badly needs updating.  And there 
# seems to be no indication that this will occur any time soon.

Essentially, the Palm and WinMobile markets have died .. the 
reasons could be any number of things of which I've written many essays.. 
Palm's sitting on their laurels, customer apathy, application 
oversaturation, device's never changing, the needs of consumer changing, 
etc and so on; aside of all that though.. with my time being very well 
controlled nowadays, for my work time I generally put it towards where 
it'll likely turn a buck, or is really nifty. Sadly, but I suppose these 
are pragmatic times.

(And its a weird time .. I do worry RIM is the next Pal, as 
they've been sitting on their rears a lot of years. Still, new things like 
iPhone/iTouch and the Google Android platforms are very different than 
previous platforms, so it keeps us devs busy and humming and hawwing..)

At this point my Palm OS application hosting and support costs 
are encrouching on application returns.

Never fear there though - even if its 100% dead on sales, I'll 
still keep supporting the app and keep the site up for years to come :) 
Its probably one of my favourite projects ever. If I didn't have a baby 
eating u pso much time I'd still be pumping out daily updates :)

Anyway, I fully hope Palm resurrects themselves with Nova or 
even the OS fires up with the ALP route.. but things have been grim for 
Palm OS and WinMob of late. If any opportunity shows its face.. I'm there. 
Or even if it gets nifty and fun again, I'm there. (But they've managed to 
smash the fun out of these platforms.. making every device vary from the 
others, with all new bugs in every release, making us have to test the 
heck out of thing son every new devic without any warning, and to code 
piles upon pile sof changes for every device. Its not supposed to be like 
that, and in this kmarket we devs are not lining up to buy every new 
device like we used to. I don't have a Centro to test on, and n oplans on 
getting one.. but there was a time where I had the new Sonys, the 
Alphasmart, the Palms, the TRG Pros, the Handsprings. . etc.) Theres a lot 
of hurdles nowadays, whic his just unpleasant.

So my time right now is in a few other crazy projects (which I 
don't go on about here, as this is a Shadow forum and I'm not one to pitch 
and sell things to existing customers.. I try to have more class than the 
average online developer :)

Now, the _desktop_ is another story; it is something that can grow 
on even if the handheld must stagnate; I have always said and designe dit 
as a separate app with a separate life -- ie: a handheld generally does 
not need to print, and a desktop application absolutely must; they are 
different by nature, and I built the thing so that it need not depend on 
the handheld.

So as I move towards iWhatever and Android platforms, that desktop 
code will go with, probably; whenever I can wrap up some of the crazy 
projects I'm working on now (mostly handheld gaming of all things, since 
games are easier to test the waters with.. very closed UIs and don't need 
to grow over time since you define the boundaries.. productivity apps grow 
boundaries as customer needs change and grow) I'll hopefully turn back to 
Shadow for Palm for some fixes and small growth, while designign Shadow 
for the new platforms out there. And the desktop will grow with those.

So I am hoping that even if the Palm side is stagnating somewhat 
(wish it were otherwise too, my friends, I truly wish Palm had kept its 
momentum up .. those were great times a few years ago, eh?), the desktop 
side for Palm will still grow; hypothetically. . if I start on a desktop 
side for iPhone or whatever RIM device etc, I hope that many features 
added to the desktop for them, and UI improvements and redesigns, will 
also apply to Palm users too, for the desktop.

But we shall see.

Its been a weird last two years as I cut down a lot on my many 
contract works and commitments, to be a good dad. I don't regret it for a 
second, but on the other hand.. I'm a super mega focused guy who likes ot 
produce a lot,m and that side of me is still in shock.. its not in my 
nature to slow down my workload :) 

I'm ramping up again, but being careful.. I want to see my 
daughter every waking moment, its just that little girl doesn't sleep 
either, so shes awake a lot ;)

jeff

--
If everyone would put barbecue sauce on their food, there would be no war.
    

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