The Official Palm Blog

Sharing photos from your Palm Centro or Treo

How many times have you taken a great picture on your smartphone that was never seen by anyone but you? Most people don’t realize how easy it is to share mobile photos online, but there are a number of ways to do it, such as uploading pictures directly to online photo sharing sites like Flickr. Just use your Palm smartphone’s Internet connection to go to Flickr’s mobile webpage (http://m.flickr.com/), and either create an account or use your existing account to upload photos, descriptions and tags very easily.

Palm Centro and Treo smartphones can also help you share photos through:

• MMS - send pictures and videos along with text to your mobile contacts 
• Email - send pictures by attaching to messages using the email clients on your device 
• Bluetooth - share pictures with other Bluetooth-enabled devices 
• Memory cards - Palm smartphones support memory cards up to 4GB
  

-Paul Loeffler

Topical ringtones for your smartphone

Looking for a fresh, new and extremely topical ringtone for your Palm Centro or Treo smartphone this campaign season?

Slate is offering bi-partison, multi-platform political ringtones for the politically minded, and it’s making them very easy to get. Either send a text from your mobile phone to Slate's text shortcode to get the free download (specifics included in the below article), or click on the app from the web browser on your smartphone, and, voila, you have a new ringtone in the voice of your favorite candidate in seconds. I just did it with my Palm Centro, and it took about 45 seconds all told (but I’m not going to tell you which one I downloaded...that’d be TMI).

- Paul Loeffler

http://www.slate.com/id/2189303/

It's 3 A.M. What's Your Ring Tone?New from Slate: The Hillary laugh and more political sound bites for your phone.

Updated Thursday, May 8, 2008, at 7:07 AM ET
Illustration by Robert Neubecker. Click image to expand.

Already got a dozen Barack Obama headbands? Worn out your "Hot for Hillary" T-shirt? It's time for a new campaign accessory: Slate's political ring tones. Get one of these clips, and you'll hear John McCain say, "My friends," every time you get a call. Or if you're in a less friendly mood, you can switch to the "Shame on you, Barack Obama!" ring tone.

To get a ring tone, send a text message with one of the order codes listed below to the number 98999. For the Hillary laugh, for example, text SLATE LAUGH to the number 98999. We'll send the ring tone to your phone as a text message that includes a downloadable link. For more detailed instructions, click here. Or if you just want to listen to the clips on your computer, click one of the embedded players below or use the "Download MP3" links to save to your hard drive.

Slate's political ring tones are free of charge, though standard text-messaging rates may apply. Please see our terms and conditions for more details.

Ring tones are available only for AT&T, Cellular One, T-Mobile, and Sprint. (Downloading by Verizon customers is currently unsupported.) In order to download ring tones, you must have text-messaging and data-download services enabled on your mobile phone. If you're not certain whether your phone is SMS-enabled or Internet-enabled, please check with your wireless carrier. Unfortunately, there's too much variation among phones to describe the download and installation process for each handset. Please don't blame us if you can't get your ring tone to work—blame the wireless carriers for failing to come up with a simple, common procedure to do this sort of thing. Good luck, because we think the payoff is worth the minor hassle.

The Hillary laugh.
Order code: SLATE LAUGH
...........Download MP3 (107KB)

John McCain calls a young questioner a "little jerk."
Order code: SLATE JERK
...........Download MP3 (58KB)

Barack Obama shouts, "Yes we can!"
Order code: SLATE YES
...........Download now (54KB)

Hillary Clinton says, "Shame on you, Barack Obama!"
Order code: SLATE SHAME
...........Download MP3 (69KB)

The John McCain "my friends" compilation.
Order code: SLATE FRIEND

A Good Read on Patent Reform

Palm has a long track record of innovation, going back to our start-up days in 1992. Many of our innovations are reflected in our robust patent portfolio, but the work of the innovator doesn’t stop with a clever idea. Innovation at Palm has been just as important to all of the development, manufacturing, marketing and sales work necessary to bring our products to our customers. We look to the patent system to protect our clever ideas, but also to help those ideas reach users, create jobs and build our economy. As an active member of the Coalition for Patent Fairness, we were pleased to see the New York Times offer a balanced, accurate and easy-to-understand article on the benefits of patent reform for all sectors of the economy. If you care about innovation–one of Silicon Valley’s greatest assets–see below for a relatively brief, yet informative read.

Mary E. Doyle - Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/30/business/30patent.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Patent Law Battle a Boon to Lobbyists
By ROBERT PEAR
Published: April 30, 2008

WASHINGTON — A fight has erupted in Congress over the question of whether drug makers and other companies should be allowed to keep patents they obtained by misrepresentation or cheating.

Jon W. Dudas of the Commerce Department said patent applications were inadequate.

The issue has emerged as a contentious point in legislation to overhaul patent laws. In several cases, the courts have voided patents after finding that companies intentionally misled the Patent and Trademark Office.

The legislation, affecting a wide swath of the American economy, has been a boon to lobbyists. In 15 months, two dueling business coalitions have spent $4.3 million lobbying on the legislation, which calls for the biggest changes in United States patent law in more than 50 years. Companies from almost every major industry have joined the battle.

Patents can protect an invention for up to 20 years. But federal judges can void patents after finding that companies engaged in “inequitable conduct,” meaning that they misrepresented or concealed information with an intent to deceive the patent office. In such cases, judges can declare the patents unenforceable.

Robert A. Armitage, a senior vice president and general counsel of Eli Lilly & Company, said, “This is like imposing the death penalty for relatively minor acts of misconduct.”

Brand-name drug companies are urging Congress to eliminate the penalty — or to curtail it as proposed under a bill passed by the House.

Debra S. Barrett, a vice president of the American unit of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, the world’s largest maker of generic drugs, said the changes sought by brand-name drug companies “would make it easier for them to cheat and get away with it, easier for them to defend their patents and more difficult for us to get generic products onto the market in a timely way.”

Consumer groups like AARP share that concern. They want to speed access to generic medicines, which can cost 30 percent to 80 percent less than the equivalent brand-name drugs.

The House has approved a comprehensive patent bill that would make it harder to prove inequitable conduct. Senators are haggling over a companion bill, approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee, and hope to take it to the floor this summer.

In the last 15 years, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which handles patent cases, has affirmed findings of inequitable conduct in at least 40 cases, including 14 that involved pharmaceutical or health care products. Similar findings have been issued by federal district judges in an unknown number of cases that were not appealed.

Courts have found that drug makers knowingly submitted false statements to the patent office, inaccurately described experiments and concealed information that contradicted their claims.

In one case, the appeals court said that Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals improperly failed to disclose that it had not performed an experiment described in its application for a patent related to synthetic human growth hormone. In another case, the court said Pharmacia had used an “inaccurate and misleading” affidavit in obtaining a patent for a glaucoma medication.

Brand-name drug companies say that generic drug makers routinely attack their patents by accusing them of inequitable conduct when they are blameless or guilty of no more than honest mistakes.

The aggressive use of such accusations has become “a plague on the patent system,” the Biotechnology Industry Organization, a trade group, told Congress.

Harry F. Manbeck Jr., who was commissioner of patents and trademarks under the first President Bush, said the existing penalty was a powerful deterrent to misconduct.

“Patents can be very valuable,” Mr. Manbeck said. “There are strong incentives to want to get them. Cheating occurs from time to time. The inequitable conduct doctrine says that if you cheated to get a patent, you should not be able to enforce it.”

Under federal regulations, people applying for a patent have a duty to deal with the patent office in “candor, good faith and honesty.” They are supposed to disclose if their invention was previously known or used by others, offered for sale or described in a publication. In that case, it may not be innovative enough to warrant a patent.

In reviewing an application, patent examiners can search the relevant literature, but may not find all the pertinent information, so they depend on applicants to be forthright.

“If Congress eliminated or reduced the penalty for inequitable conduct, applicants would no longer have a reason to disclose all the information they are aware of,” said Robert D. Budens, president of the Patent Office Professional Association, which represents 5,500 examiners.

Mr. Armitage, the Lilly executive, said: “The doctrine of inequitable conduct is used so aggressively in litigation that it has unintended consequences. Applicants give the Patent and Trademark Office too much information, to avoid allegations that they concealed anything, and they refuse to explain the information, to avoid later allegations that they engaged in some form of misrepresentation.”

James C. Greenwood, president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, said, “The poor patent examiner gets a dump truck full of information that he has to pore over without any assistance from the applicant.”

The number of patent applications — 467,243 in 2007 — has nearly doubled in the last 10 years and has more than tripled since 1987.

Jon W. Dudas, the under secretary of commerce for intellectual property, said: “We are getting more and more unpatentable ideas, worse and worse quality applications. Historically, in the last 40 years, the allowance rate — the percentage of applications ultimately approved — hovered around 62 percent to 72 percent. It went up to 72 percent in 2000, but dropped to 43 percent in the first quarter of this year.”

A major impetus for the patent legislation is the desire of technology companies to limit the damage awards and legal costs they sometimes face when they are accused of infringing patents. Companies like Cisco and Palm say the disputes drain resources that could be better spent on research and innovation.

Many of these companies have banded together in the Coalition for Patent Fairness, which in the last 15 months has spent $2.5 million for a small army of lobbyists including Mark W. Isakowitz, a Republican, and Steven A. Elmendorf, a longtime Democratic strategist.

A rival group, the Coalition for 21st Century Patent Reform, consists of about 50 companies that zealously guard their intellectual property and are more likely to file suit to protect their patents. It includes pharmaceutical and biotech companies like Genzyme, Lilly, Merck and Pfizer. This coalition has paid $1.8 million to lobbyists, much of it to the law firm of Akin Gump.

Palm customer stories - how people use their Palm smartphones

We regularly receive stories from customers describing how they are using their Palm smartphones, and there's no shortage of unique anecdotes and extensive ways they use their devices.

Here are a couple Palm user stories. We'll share more in the future - you never know the ideas you'll get on how to use your Palm smartphone, intended or otherwise.

-Dawn D., Web Communications Manager

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"I've owned over 6 different Palm devices over the past 10 years and my current one, the Palm Centro might just be the best I've ever had! I use it for everything - it's my checkbook register, my timesheet keeper on my job, my game system, my gps, my skype voip phone to call my friend in the Philippines for free, my internet source, my scorekeeper for Duke beating UNC in basketball, my 2 way text messenger, my digital camera, my calculator, my email station, my flash drive storage device, my word and excel workbook, my television, my blood pressure monitor, my newspaper, my ebook reader, my voice recorder, my mp3 music player, and oh yeah, it's my phone! I also sell them at Best Buy so not only do I recommend them to customers but I can show them from first hand knowledge. It honestly is quite possibly the best phone they ever made and hands down better than the Apple iPhone and it's pocket sized! :)."

-Stephen of North Carolina

"While driving through the Sahara desert one night, from Naoukchott to Natabou we had a flat tire. We were in the middle of desert on a narrow stretch of highway that has no road lights. So there we sat on the side of a narrow stripe of pavement in the heart of the Sahara with a flat tire and no flash light. Well, the bright screen on the Centro provided all the light we needed to change the tire. I doubt if that use was ever envisioned when the Centro was concieved, but it surely worked well as a flashlight."

-Karl of Louisiana

Palm OS today - thoughts from PC World

PC World posted an article today taking a well-balanced and comprehensive look at the Palm OS in today's landscape. Calling the Palm Centro one of the best values in smartphones today, PC World says, "Palm's smart phones still offer a mix of features, software, ease of use and affordability."

Check it out!

-Paul Loeffler

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Is the Palm OS Dying? Should You Care?

Some believe Palm OS smart phones are a dying breed--but there are good reasons not to count them out yet.

James A. Martin

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Recently, I was talking to an executive at a smart phone software developer. The company had recently released new versions of its software for RIM BlackBerys, Windows Mobile Smartphones, and other devices--but not for Palm OS smart phones. I asked why.

"It's a dying platform," she replied, matter-of-factly.

Her reaction wasn't surprising, given Palm's long, slow slide from top PDA maker to third-tier smart phone vendor. There's been uncertainty about the Palm OS's future for years. Palm Treos running Windows Mobile became available in January 2006. And Palm has been developing a new, as-of-this-writing-unreleased Linux-based OS for what feels like an eternity.

Still, the software executive's comment aroused mixed feelings.

I've been a Palm loyalist since 1997, when I became hooked on the Palm V. Currently, I use a Treo 755p. I've always found the Palm OS to be easy-to-use and efficient. Palm devices are reliable and sturdy; I've rarely encountered problems with the five I've owned.

And yet.

My Treo has been looking extremely dowdy of late, compared to the Apple iPhone, AT&T Tilt, LG Electronics Voyager, and other slick smart phones. Neither the Palm OS nor devices running it have evolved noticeably in years.

In short, I've got a strong urge to stray from my Treo. I have no doubt many of you have felt similar urges--and even acted upon them.

What You Get

Does that mean it's time to ditch our Palm devices? Not necessarily. Here are four reasons why Palm OS smart phones are still worth owning.

1. The Treo Touch Screen Isn't Too 'Touchy.' The iPhone/iPod Touch screen is gorgeous, bright, and big, by smart phone standards. But it can be a bit too "touchy." For instance, on my iPod Touch I've often clicked accidentally on an e-mail and opened it when I was simply trying to scroll through the list of messages. The more I use the iPod Touch for e-mail, the less it happens, but still, it's annoying. The iPhone/iPod Touch screen also makes it a bit too easy to accidentally click a link on a Web page. I've rarely had these problems with the Treo's touch screen.

By the way, current BlackBerrys don't have touch screens, though there have been rumors that a touch-screen BlackBerry is on the way.

2. Palms Come Fully Loaded. Palm smart phones ship with tons of useful software preinstalled, including Dataviz's Documents To Go (for editing and viewing Microsoft Office files), Voice Memo, Camcorder, Camera, Memos, Tasks, e-mail, instant messaging, text messaging, Web browsing, Calendar, Contacts, and software for playing multimedia files.

Windows Mobile devices offer a similar variety of included software, but I find the Palm OS versions easier to use.

The iPhone currently lacks a camcorder, voice memo, document editing, and other capabilities. BlackBerrys don't include document editing software, though a few third-party options are available, and enterprise models don't have built-in camera or camcorder functions.

3. There are Beaucoup Third-Party Applications. More than 30,000 third-party Palm OS applications are available, according to Palm. It will take the upstart iPhone a while to beat that. Admittedly, some Palm OS apps are junk. But you're bound to find goodies by cruising through sites like PCW Downloads or Handango.

4. The Keyboards Are Actually Usable. My Treo 755p's keyboard keys are nicely spaced, for a smart phone. They're firm but not too stiff, and I rarely hit the wrong key. The Palm Centro's keys are smaller and closer together, however, and aren't as easy to type on as the Treo 755p.

By comparison, I find the iPhone/iPod Touch software-only keyboard frustrating to use. Others I've talked to have expressed wildly diverging iPhone keyboard experiences. One friend says he's able to easily touch type on his iPhone's keyboard using two thumbs. Another says that because of its keyboard, he uses his iPhone primarily for viewing and rarely for input.

What You Don't Get

That said, Treos and Centros lack some features other smart phones offer.

1. Built-in Wi-Fi. Current Palm models lack built-in Wi-Fi, though Palm CEO Ed Colligan said last year it would be added to future Palm devices.

2. Built-in GPS. Given how clueless GPS-based driving directions can be, I don't see this as a terrible loss. Also, Google Maps came preinstalled on my Treo, and it has often served me in a pinch.

3. A Pleasurable Web Browsing Experience. Surfing the Web on my Treo is painful, even using Sprint's fast EVDO network. If a meaningful mobile Web experience is crucial, your best smart phone choice currently is the iPhone.

4. Style and a Large Screen. I'd love to see a sleek new Palm OS handset that combines a large touch screen with the usual sturdy Palm keyboard.

Boiling It All Down

In my opinion, Palm's smart phones still offer a strong mix of features, software, ease of use, and affordability.

People looking to buy their first smart phone or to replace their aging Treo or Windows Mobile Smartphone, might consider the Palm Centro. At $99 (with a two-year AT&T or Sprint contract), it's one of the best values in smart phones today. We gave the phone a PCW rating of 82 (very good).

If it's excitement you crave, however, a Palm smart phone is definitely not for you.

Landline, mobile phone or both?

In the early 90s, it would have been surprising to think that someday a majority of people would use mobile phones as their one and only telephone. But a recent study from Harris Interactive shows that it's starting to happen. In fact, one in seven adults use only a cell phone. This trend is increasing across all age groups, not just in the younger population who grew up using mobile phones.

But there are still a number of reasons people still use landlines, including the annoying fact that mobile phones are more likely to drop calls indoors. Another Harris study shows that 27% of mobile phone users would get rid of their landline and use only their mobile phone if they could get better reception indoors.

A technology that has recently been adopted and considered by cell phone carriers is femtocells, which act like signal boosters for your mobile phone so you can get stronger reception in your home. Sprint and Verizon Wireless have gone as far as offering incentive calling plans to encourage customers to use them. Treonauts and TreoCentral have more insight on some of the advantages and disadvantages of femtocells.

Are you using femtocells? Do they work for you?

-Paul Loeffler

Your Palm Centro - how to get more out of it

As the Palm Centro smartphone's popularity continues to increase, we're seeing sites like TreoCentral host user-education series on topics such as managing personal contacts and customizing Preference settings. The accessibility of this information is valuable to everyone, whether they're newcomers to Palm smartphones or have been using them for years.

For example, a smartphone newbie may want to learn how to assign pictures to their Contacts so that a photo will pop up with incoming calls (covered in part 3), while veteran users may want to better understand Dial Up Networking (covered in part 7). Chances are, there's something out there for everyone.

Below are links to previous topics TreoCentral has discussed. Feel free to share your own tips and links to other useful articles - we'll be sure to do more of the same.

-Paul Loeffler

• The shopping experience - accessories
• What is so hot about HotSync
• Music in your pocket
• Making your phone your own - Preferences

Emergency Alerts via SMS

What a great safety program that puts our easy text messaging features to use for public emergencies! The new Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) is a nationwide program adopted by the Federal Communications Commission that will generate SMS messages to users' phones in the event of an emergency. Three types of emergencies will be relayed to the public: a disaster (such as a terrorist attack), immanent or ongoing threats (like earthquakes) or child abductions (a.k.a. Amber Alerts).

It's not mandatory for carriers to adopt the program - AT&T, Sprint and Verizon Wireless have announced their willingness to participate, and users can opt out of receiving emergency messages. I don't know about you, but when it's available, I'm opting in!

More information is available here.

Greg A., CPP - Director, Global Safety and Security