You lost me at "EDGE (no 3G)."

who cares.... palm is done with....

@JustinD:

Exactly what I was gonna say: WHO GIVES A FLYIN' FCUK!!

Palm is over and done with at this point, AFAIC. Stick a fork in them already.

I mean...come on! iPhone or a Fisher-Price lookin' Palm Centro...which would one YOU choose?

@winexprt: Really? I would go with the centro. For some reason I really like this phone. And no matter how nice the iPhone is, the lack of QWERTY keypad is a deal breaker. I'll never own a phone without one.

Palm is like HD-DVD. Who really would buy their stuff?
Window mobile phones are better for organizing.
Iphones are better for just looking
Blackberries are better for emailing.
Palms.... are just palms.

I really liked my various Palm OS devices. I only have two left: a palm m100 and a handspring visor deluxe (my first one)

I've been using Palm devices for years. I was among the first people "certified" to sell Windows Mobile (back when it was called Windows CE) and I still wouldn't touch it for my own PDA.

I've never felt the need to get a smartphone before, but I'd be strongly tempted by the Centro if Verizon offered it.

people who pay $60+ monthly for a data plan without evdo speeds are fools

@warkrismagic:

I hear ya. It's just the whole Palm experience just seems so tired & dated to me now, and this is someone who was a tried & true PalmOS nut (via Sony CLIE's) for YEARS. Check my posts over at 1src.com and you'll see what I mean.

Yes the Palm OS is simple. And yes that was actually plus for many years. But not now. I view it's rustic simplicity now as a negative. That stubborn lack of change & innovation on Palm's part is really starting to show (in an anachronistic sort of way).

In a sad kind of way I view the iPhone OS as what the PalmOS could've/should've naturally evolved into. Instead palm choose a path of arrested development for its OS, and now they're clearly on the brink of extinction.

What a pity...

the UI is the same as it's been since.... well since they came out. All they did was add color. At least Sony made the OS a little nicer, my Clie UX50 had a nice looking fake 3d menu system. As an OS I always thought Palm was stronger than Windows Mobile. Both ultimately failed until smartphones came around. Now both are getting their asses kicked by RIM and Apple. I'll certainly miss Palm when they are not around but the iPhone has officially taken its place for my organizing needs.

@Hypenotist:
I have EDGE data on my iphone and it only costs $19.99 a month. I don't know where you get $60 from.

what's wrong with just getting a phone with just a simple numerical pad and a screen that shows the numbers and the occasional text?

/KRZR owner. camera sucks. couldn't find a phone w/o a camera. the world is a mean mean place.

Palm is the best cell phone ever, and they will reinvent themselves and survive a 1000 years. All you cynics can go like the hiney of a dead rhino and then stroke yourselves to sleep.

What the hell's gone wrong with the minds of so many Gizmodons? Let's hear some positivity or I'll kill you all.

@uptonogood:
The problem you have is that you fail to understand that the world has moved past the label "phone" just like computers are no longer only for "computing". What you said is similar to saying that you want a computer with nothing but a simple keypad for numbers and 8 led lights to display a byte at a time in binary.

If you're in North America then you might have missed it a little bit, but it'll get there too eventually: the world of computing is going mobile. Over the next couple of years you'll see plenty of devices that you'll have a hard time defining whether they are "computers" or "phones". Take a look at the HTC Shift as one example, or the Nokia N810 as another. People want to have all the power of a computer, but in their pocket. Why? Because they realize that a lot of the time when they need computers they aren't actually at home or at work by the computer! That's why the device formerly known as "mobile phone" is becoming so important. At the same time gaming is moving off the PC and watching movies from Bit Torrent is more important than running Word and Excel on your PC. That means that devices like an iPhone are actually in many ways much more suitable "computers" that the devices you currently think of as computers.

A lot of the things on a modern mobile phone don't make sense when you measure them against the values and use-cases of 1990. E.g. one could safely say that mobile phone cameras still suck compared to "actual" cameras. Yet people love them and use them! Why? Because the old usage of snapping a photo, waiting a week to have it developed, putting a print in an album and showing it to friends a year later at a party.. well, that's just not a very interesting use case compared to what people do now: snap a photo and instantly share it with a number of friends, regardless of where those friends are. For example: you're on vacation in Thailand and want to send a personal post-card to your friends and family. It doesn't matter if the quality is not perfect for this use case!

Computers have already evolved from room-sized gizmos to mainframes, desktops and more recently laptops. This isn't the end of the line. Computers will get small still and more personal still. The devices you call "phones" will be part of the DNA in what your kids will call "computer". Another part will be devices like UMPC's, tablet-PC's, the Asus EEE's and Sony Vaio UX-50's of the world. When Apple comes out with their UMPC/tablet that people won't be able to categorize in their heads as either as a computer nor an iPhone, people in North America are going to start to believe and understand this too... Personally I'm surprised the iPhone didn't already make people get it.

The price listed for the Palm Centro on AT&T is a bit deceiving. The base price is listed as $349.99. That comes with an online discount of $150, which brings the price down to $199.99. It then comes with a $100 "promotional card", which is NOT A REBATE!. This promotional card can NOT be redeemed for cash, and has a 4 month window in which you MUST use. So this phone is actually $199, not $99 as reported. AT&T is, however, offering this phone online for a "No Commitment" price of $249, which is generous of them. So you can purchase this for that amount without extending your contract. I should also point out that when you buy this phone, you are ALSO required to purchase a PDA data plan, which is separate from your voice plan, and starts off at about $35/month. So in essence, you must have a minimun bill of $74.99.

I went from a Palm + Cell phone (separately) to just a Windows Smartphone a few years ago. I like the Outlook Synchronization and some of the advanced features from Windows Mobile, but I'm not a big fan of it. It's buggy, it's a resource hog, it's slow, and the UI is crap. I think my Palm OS crashed on me just once in the 5+ years I used it, and it was probably because I was fiddling with third party programs. Yes, I'm still using a Treo 750, but if it suddenly died, I'd seriously look at the Centro as a replacement (anybody know if the browser is any good?)

Oh, Windows Media Player Mobile = full of suck. Navigating through your library is an exercise in futility.

IE Mobile = also full of suck. Lynx is probably a better browser (anybody remember Lynx?)
Pictures = also suck.

With the iPhone setting the new bar in user interface, there's no excuse for Windows Mobile apps still sucking big donkey testicles. The only reason I'm not on a data plan is because the browser on my phone is almost unusable, and no, I haven't been able to get Opera to work properly.

What the hell is that gigantic toilet hole on the bottom? Is that where all the piss comes out?

I'll tell you what - the iPhone OS is no more capable than the Palm OS. It is prettier, but not more functional or capable. Now when Apple releases the 3G, it will up the ante, but as it is now, I'd say Palm OS is even MORE functional. There are ample 3rd party applications that make Palm OS products a good buy. One of the major problems with Palm is only that it feels old and stale.

My point? Palm (the handset manufacturer) isn't dead. It is still a very salvageable entity, as it really is a great alternative to Windows Mobile, which is the bane of my smartphone existence.

@Samifumi:

I'm not so sure about that; if you're talking about capabilities, the iPhone OS seems to be capable of more advanced applications than the current Palm OS (which isn't exactly a fair comparison, of course, given how long it's been since the Palm OS was even still in active development). In terms of capabilities, the Palm OS isn't really more capable than the iPhone OS, Android, Windows Mobile or Symbian.

Certainly people have done a lot with third party apps, and the Palm OS still has one of the most impressive third party app libraries - and I'll even acknowledge that some third party devs have managed to do some pretty impressive stuff to really stretch the limits of what the Palm OS is capable of (such as Google's Maps for Palm OS).

People are mixing "OS" and "UI" and general phone capabilities again.

In terms of OS (=operating system), the PalmOS is complete rubbish compared to Symbian, OS X in iPhone and Windows Mobile. Google's Android in turn is based on the Linux OS. While it's shocking to many, Windows Mobile is actually a very nice operating system (remember, we're talking OS - not UI now) and in terms of pure capabilities Symbian, OS X, Windows Mobile and Linux are quite similar. To give a desktop OS comparison, PalmOS is on the level of MS-DOS with extremely limited heap memory, multi tasking, file system, etc.

In terms of UI, it's clear to anyone who is honest that the iPhone is the clear #1. But others will catch up soon - just give it 6 to 12 months. Of course Apple is not standing still either. UI and OS are not the same thing however and should not be confused. Some examples: the Tapwave Zodiac device used Palm OS, yet had a different UI from e.g. Palm Treo devices. Even for OS X that is in the iPhone, it's obviousy a different UI from on Mac computers, despite that it's the same OS.

The important reasons why UI is separate from OS is that you can upgrade one without the other. For example Microsoft could introduce a new and sexier animated 3D UI while all existing applications would continue to work with it. UI controls like buttons, scrollbars etc. would just look new and improved. Think Windows 2000 => XP => Vista. So while Windows Mobile looks like crap today, that doesn't mean that it will do so in a few months. The same is true for S60 too, which sits on top of the Symbian OS.

And finally phone capabilities like 3G, Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS etc. have absolutely nothing to do with either the OS or UI. I don't understand why people keep confusing all these three all the time on Gizmodo. They are very, very different things.

This phone sucks. Won't sync to shite. Hates Exchange. Touch screen is nice, but if it won't sync to the PC or to Exchange, it's useless.

i loved my palm IIIx. it was a real workhorse. when the digitizer finally gave out, i replaced it with an m515. after that piece of shit i will never buy another palm product.

Plam OS is (was) a pretty sweet smartphone OS. I eBay'd my Windows Mobile device within hours of laying hands on my new Treo.
The problem is, that was over 3 years ago. Palm has done almost nothing in the mean time. So that's where we are now. My next smartphone will be a Android/Linux device or an iPhone or Blackberry or Symbian. It's a shame, really.
What they should have done is come out with a Linux smartphone similar to the iPhone and let you run Palm apps at full speed for compatibility.
Thank you Palm, for killing a decent mobile platform. I'm not happy to see you go for my sake, but for your sake, I'm happy to see you choking to death on next gen device/3G fumes. See you bastards in hell.

@buzzwizard:

Yeah... the whole "OMG the iPhone is the suxxors because it won't...." thing is getting old. I don't use exchange, don't own a PC, so it certainly doesn't suck for me. It is the same mentality of "OMG BOD! Windows sucks, if you don't use linux you are a fool!!11!!" Please understand that different users needs vary, and it is nice to have a whole host of devices to choose from.

Why don't you try rephrasing your rant? Something like...

"The iPhone's touch screen and UI are nice, but is is severely lacking in some areas. For example, it doesn't integrate into an exchange based e-mail and scheduling setup very well. Do to this limitation, it is not useful to me and many other users of exchange."

See, wasn't that nicer? Doesn't it make you feel better?

/sarcasm off

I've been a long-time Palm fan having used their products over time starting with their classic Palm III, m100, m105, m130, V, Vx, m500, m505,m515, Zire, and Zire 71.

The Centro is terrible in comparison to what they've done. The UI has stayed the same for the past 5+ years. The screen isn't very responsive. Everything is so convoluted and messy.

Bout time Palm redid their product line. For the casual users, the Centro is a great device ... as a phone. As a multi-tasking unit, not so.

Palm continues to operate as if it was stuck in a different dimension.

How hard would it be for cell phone company's to produce a phone similar to the sidekick(non pda plan keyboard equipped phone). That's all I want! A phone with a keyboard that I don't have to pay extra to use! All phone with a keyboard that AT&T offers requires you to subscribe to some PDA/RIM service! WHY!?

@winexprt: Well think about this. Would you rather pay 400 for an iphone or 100 for a palm centro.
Palm is done but that doesnt take away their name.
Treo's have been poppinq up a lot. I have a lot of friends who have recently bought treo's.
And when the palm centro was going to come out a lot of people actually got enthusiastic.
IDK i dont like palm personally but i say give them a chance.
And idk why go with edge when they have a pretty good 3G network.
Sprint does it and sprint's 3G speeds are faster than AT&T's if im not mistaken. And that means that it doesnt have the same battery life.
Smart move and stupid move.
Business people dont use the internet as much. only to check stocks, and sync with servers. EDGE is good for that 3G is good for everyday people wanting to check their myspace, flickr, photobucket, etc.
3G benefits business people but im not a multi-millionare (yet atleast) and i'd like to have 3G speeds. AT&T doesnt understand that.
no point in going after regular everyday people when they dont give them what they want.

I actually recently bought a Centro. So far I've had no problems with it. It syncs fine, phone capabilities are fine, pretty good browser, good apps, basically all around a pretty decent smartphone IMO. Yes, it's not as fancy as the iPhone, but it's also 300 bucks cheaper.

As an added note, maybe I'm delusional or something, but I've had a windows mobile smartphone, and it was buggy as hell. It was always doing something crazy on me.

The centro is a good phone, even though it may be lacking compared to some out there, but there's only so much that I want to do on a small device. If I want to do some real productivity, I get on my computer. My phone is for communication.