[Rusty J]

One thing I haven't seen mentioned (I might have missed it, though) is that the Pre is the first Palm/Handspring smartphone since 2003's Treo 300 to have moving components, and the first Palm device with moving components at all since the slide-out Tungsten T3 was discontinued in 2005*.

Given how badly Sprint was bitten by replacement costs due to the 300's fragile flip-cover, they must have been extremely impressed by the Pre's mechanical reliability to take it on!



(*I'm referring here to flip/slider devices with electronic or electrical components on either side of the hinge or slider joint.)

[meyerweb]

I think it's also the first Palm device ever that doesn't appear to have an IR port!

[bhtooefr]

Nope, it's not - the Pilot 1000, Pilot 5000, PalmPilot Personal, and PalmPilot Professional didn't have IR.

[pilot1000]

Pilot 1000 and Pilot 5000 were US Robotics devices. Palm didn't become a company per se until after 3com took over the devices.

[bhtooefr]

Palm Computing actually was an independent company before they got bought by USR (IIRC, they were looking for someone to put the Pilot into production, and USR bought them out and put it into production for them.)

They only released three things when they were independent before USR bought them out, though - the firmware and some of the hardware design for the Casio Zoomer (and derivatives,) some sync software for the Zoomer (I want to say it was even called Palm Desktop,) and Graffiti for a few GEOS-based PDAs, including the Zoomer.

[meyerweb]

Nope, it's not - the Pilot 1000, Pilot 5000, PalmPilot Personal, and PalmPilot Professional didn't have IR.

OK, how about the first Palm product in a L-O-O-N-G time without an IR port?

[jhoff80]

OK, how about the first Palm product in a L-O-O-N-G time without an IR port?

Who cares. Everything has Bluetooth now and you can just as easily beam via Bluetooth on a Palm device to any other device as you can beam via IR. Actually easier, because you don't have to line up the devices.

[Tom LaPrise]

But you don't have to "pair" devices to IR-beam between them.

[cgk]

But you don't have to "pair" devices to IR-beam between them.

As far as I can see you don't have to pair most modern phones for bluetooth file transfer either. When I do it, I select my friend's phone, hit sent and then he accepts - that's the start and end of it - no pairing needed.

[bhtooefr]

But you only have to pair them once, so if there's two devices you want to beam between often...

(I wish my Wrist PDA supported bluetooth instead of IR...)

[Rusty J]

And you can use IR-connected full-size keyboards on airplanes, but not bluetooth keyboards.
It'll be a moot point when they start allowing WiFi onboard, though.

[Padre]

While it's a small segment of the Palm userbase, Realtors relied heavily on these smartphones because their IR port integrated well with the current MLS lockbox designs for access to houses. Let's hope IR isn't dead in the upcoming devices, or the MLS lockbox companies jump on bluetooth

[Rusty J]

While it's a small segment of the Palm userbase, Realtors relied heavily on these smartphones because their IR port integrated well with the current MLS lockbox designs for access to houses. Let's hope IR isn't dead in the upcoming devices, or the MLS lockbox companies jump on bluetooth

Or someone could come out with a bluetooth-to-IR adapter (pair it with the phone, then anything sent to it by bluetooth gets sent out over IR). It should be easy to put it into a pen-light form factor, or even on a key chain. The vendor of the MLS lockboxes could make a bundle on them...

[joysbox]

well here in northern VA, we realtors have already started moving to a new lock box that uses key card entry... still will miss the easy beaming.

[cgk]

One of the reasons I keep coming back to this board is because I keep finding out about technology usage that's entirely alien to me and the society I live in.

So how does this IR lockbox work? You point and it opens?

[B-model#CB]

intresting about the use of moving parts for the first time in a long time.

I would have exepected and executive at the company to see this as a risk,. But, like eveything we have seen from plam latley, it;s out w/ the old in w/ the new.

There was a recent article on CNN anout how inventors and entrepernours (sp) need to have short memories. Maye they are apllying that in the Plam design faciities

[B-model#CB]

One of the reasons I keep coming back to this board is because I keep finding out about technology usage that's entirely alien to me and the society I live in.

So how does this IR lockbox work? You point and it opens?

yeah - and what the hell is Lockbox?

[cgk]

yeah - and what the hell is Lockbox?

looking on the web, it's something that US estate agents (or whatever they call them there) use to get keys for a property - the owner leaves a set in a box and the estate agent can open the box with IR.

Is that right guys?

[Padre]

looking on the web, it's something that US estate agents (or whatever they call them there) use to get keys for a property - the owner leaves a set in a box and the estate agent can open the box with IR.

Is that right guys?

Right on the money!!! Owner allows agent to hang a lockbox on front door that stores keys. Lockbox has no buttons, so Realtors use Treos and other IR equipped devices with a 3rd party MLS software to use as their personal key to the lockbox. Open the ekey software on my Treo, input my passcode, point at box on door, and storage compartment with keys pop out after successful validation. Very easy.

[jhoff80]

Yeah, that usage makes much more sense. I thought when realtors kept complaining about no IR it was because they were beaming property info or something to each other, but now I get it.