Transition to Android: A PalmOS Addict's Story

I was a Palm Treo 700P user for several years. I made the jump to smart phones with trepidation because I didn't want to give up my huge screen and Graffiti text input method. I was using a Sony Clie TH55 prior to the Treo and didn't know how I could handle the switch. The Sony had WiFi, a full color touch screen and Palm's capable OS with a Sony overlay. (My PDA History)

The transition was not nearly as rough as I had expected. I had long been a fan of scroll wheels on the Clie PDA's and the thought of a 5D directional pad was a huge turn off. The transition was made easier because the TH55 was meant to be ambidextrous and placed the scroll wheel in the center of the back of the machine instead of the traditional right-hand side. Minutes after using the Treo 700P, I became a huge 5D pad fan, much like my affection for the Thinkpad's TrackPoint.

The Treo 700P was perfect for one-handed operation. The applications available in 2006 were amazing for their time (still are). It took me almost a full year to tease out the magic streaming podcast capabilities of Kinoma player. I paid $30 for the ability to watch YouTube and hadn't thought to explore more of the program's capability. I became addicted to NPR hourly news and TED Talks.

I also picked up a Slingbox and Slingplayer mobile. I have a DVR at home and the Slingplayer was great to catch live news on the go or the occasional South Park in bed.

Documents to Go was a solid app that allowed you to view and create Microsoft documents on the phone. I could not understand why people flocked to WinMo devices with their sub-par document handling capabilities. You would assume the maker of the native PC based software could make a better mobile experience, but you know what they say about people who make assumptions...

Easy Sync allowed me to sync my work email calendar with my phone. Hopefully, you are not saddled with the Lotus relic at your workplace, but if you are, Easy Sync would have made the early 2000's much easier on you.

I was also able to continue using Graffiti with Graffiti Anywhere. Although not nearly the seamless experience it was on the PDA's, it was serviceable enough on the Treo that I used it about 50% of the time vs. the hard keyboard.

My Search

When Palm announced the Pre with WebOS at CES last year, I thought my ship had come in. Here was the company I had been devoted to since the late '90's and they finally got off their ass and made a new OS. I was at Best Buy the day the Pre was released. I wasn't put off by the iPhone superfan negative reviews that preceded launch day. I played with the phone for about 20 minutes and found it to be very visually appealing, but also very slow and limited. I kept the faith for a couple months before I started to seriously pursue the Android platform.

Streaming

I needed something that could wire-less-ly access podcasts with one program like Android. This alone eliminated the iPhone from my consideration list. Sure there were NPR and other ad hoc streaming apps, but I wanted a clearing house for all my podcast needs. Android seemed to be lacking this capability and Google stepped up and wrote a no-frills app, Google Listen, to fill the void.

Keyboards

Although the Treo had a physical keyboard, I do not find myself married to the idea of that keyboard. I decided the Blackberry Storm may be the device for me. Blackberry seemed to be putting some amount of muscle behind its application library and didn't seem to be as anal as Apple was about letting users use the full capability of their phones.

I was at Verizon the day the Storm was released. I was intrigued by the click screen, but after 5 or so minutes of using the garbage OS, I went away disgusted.

Directional Pads

Few phones on the market today seem to have a 5D pad. One-handed operation has been sacrificed to ensure a sexy form factor. Palm never made any claim to having an attractive phone. The Treo line screamed, I am a nerd who really likes technology.

True, the HTC Hero and Google Nexus One both have trackballs, but the Hero's is useless and I assume the Nexus One to be similar as it is also made by HTC. I spent another 20 minutes with the HTC Hero on the day Sprint released it. I was in love with the Android 1.5 OS and Sense UI. Unfortunately, the virtual keyboard was garbage and ruined the experience for me. I needed a physical keyboard, even though I loved the idea of the iPhone's lack of a keyboard since day 1. It was just like my old TH55 with a cell phone.

Cutting to the Chase- Samsung Moment

I waited as long as humanly possible to update my beloved Treo 700P. When I read the announcement that Sprint would also carry the Samsung Moment, I knew it would be my next phone. It seemed perfect for me, Android OS, physical keyboard, and optical mouse, the next best thing to a 5D pad. I read the mixed reviews of the device and headed for the Sprint store. They were completely sold out, but there was a customer upgrading from his bricked Treo to the Samsung that let me take a look. I spent no more than a minute checking it out before I headed home to order it off the web through my Employee Discount website. Check your employer for discounts on cell plans. My company has discounts with all providers, ATT, Sprint, Verizon and T Mobile.

Diving In

I exported my contact data from the Palm and uploaded it to my Gmail account. (This is my only hesitation about the phone. Google has such a lock on my personal information at this point. Hell, I am blogging this on a Blogger account.) The contacts merged fairly easily with my email and the phone was connected to my Google calendar as well.

Google Listen

This was the first app I downloaded. It is free and does a good job of hunting for podcasts and managing your favorites as subscriptions. I have mild complaints about how it seems to lag finding the latest podcast and it sometimes starts into the cast and starts over after a short period. I just downloaded an update tonight that I hope will improve these issues. Even so, it is a livable, free, replacement for Kinoma Player. I had no complaints about Kinoma, but technology is always improving...

Slingbox UPDATE 1.10.1

Sling seems to have no interest in Android OS. I have sold my Slingbox. I would love to have this with my phone, but by the time Sling gets on the Android train, Hulu and others may have made cable TV irrelevant. Tell Sling that you want an Android app now!

Documents to Go

This was the first and so far only pay app I have downloaded. I love it. Very similar experience to Palm OS, but no sync with your computer. We live in the cloud now :(

Evernote

I got this after Docs to Go and it may be a viable free alternative with some additional juicy features. I LOVE how the app will OCR text on photos and make it searchable. I use it to snap pics of wines I like.

Companion Link

I am demoing this pay app for two weeks. It has worked fine for me, although I have seen some nasty reviews. If you aren't saddled to Lotus Notes, there must be many, cleaner solutions to sync your work and Google calendars.

Astro

This task manager / backup utility is great, and free!

Locale

This is an amazing app. Can't believe they don't charge for it. Allows you to set phone settings for different locations, times, WiFi networks, etc. Change your wallpaper at work to your company logo to let your boss know you are a team player!

WolframAlpha.com, Hello, Internet, We've been waiting for you...

Wolframalpha.com stormed onto the scene May 15th offer a plethora of data accessible by simple query. Were Google searches the web for information, Wolframalpha searches databases to provide you with succinct information on a variety of tops ranging from historical weather to calculus. It will even help with crossword puzzles!


WRA, I have taken the liberty to apply the obligatory acronym, comes in a day and age when the new-ness of the internet has worn off. People have stopped exploring, stopped "Surfing" and have likely become comfortable with a handful of sites they use every day. Google for search, Google News for current events, Gmail for email and Facebook or Twitter for social networking.

Getting back to basics and realizing there is an un-manageable amount of data out there in cyberspace that has to be tracked down discretely where its content owner/provider has posted it has really taken the fun out of exploring. The time it takes to peruse Wikipedia and scan an article for a few bits of pertinent information may not seem like a lot, but it is all essentially wasted time.

Yahoo Pipes has allowed the common user to build pipes with little knowledge of the workings of the internet to distill live information into RSS Feeds. These feeds are read by readers such as Google Reader. This gets streams of information in one area, but the user is still tasked with distilling the information down to data.

WRA is the tool, the brute force, that is the next step of the internet. Forget about Web 2.0 where stoners were supposed to revolutionize the net by commenting on the taco stand down the street. WFA is a useful, shift in the way we interact with the web and begin to treat it like a gigantic lookup table of all digitally indexed information.

Is WRA a threat to Google? Those who claim it is are missing the point. Using a point to access and calculate reams of data does not compete with the ability to search stories and context. WRA has created a niche and hopefully will start the ball rolling on the next iteration of the web.

At this point, I have only played with WRA a couple hours and watched their 13 minute "quick" introduction. I am anxious to learn their method of accessing data, do they host it or point to existing databases? What db standards are they using and how easily can they point to new data sources? What vetting process goes into testing the data before it goes into production?

Google Streetview Keeps the Comedy Rolling

First there was the Mercedes crash, then the dumpy house, now there are multiple car crashes and now this kid falling off his bike. Streetview is Hillarious!