[berdinkerdickle]

So far, according to this:
http://discussion.treocentral.com/sh...d.php?t=175683
many aren't out in the cloud.

[TomD]

1. Will the cloud just be a central place for big brother to gather all my information at once?

Big Brother already has all your info. Not to worry (any more than you normally would).

[dbpaddler]

man, you all completely miss the point of touchstone. because you can orient the phone in landscape or portrait. geez. that's just lame.

How about it's completely universal. You can build touchstone into cars, boats, furniture and so on. They can be on airplanes and trains. In hotel rooms, at restaurants. It's just a flat surface that can be built into or placed anywhere. As more devices are made with it, no one will have to worry about carrying a charger or proprietary anything. Imagine if your laptop had it and you had a desk with a big touchstone plate in it. You could charge you laptop and your phone by just sitting them on your desk. They make those outlet strip charging stations with ac adapters filling up an outlet strip hidden in a box with cords coming out. Well make one with just a plate on top and one cord coming out the back. Now you can have your little valet station with drawers and such while charging your phone, media player, camera and whatever. Products don't have to be designed with adapter connections anymore, freeing up space for other things or nothing at all.

That's the real beauty of it.

[jhoff80]

man, you all completely miss the point of touchstone. because you can orient the phone in landscape or portrait. geez. that's just lame.

How about it's completely universal. You can build touchstone into cars, boats, furniture and so on. They can be on airplanes and trains. In hotel rooms, at restaurants. It's just a flat surface that can be built into or placed anywhere. As more devices are made with it, no one will have to worry about carrying a charger or proprietary anything. Imagine if your laptop had it and you had a desk with a big touchstone plate in it. You could charge you laptop and your phone by just sitting them on your desk. They make those outlet strip charging stations with ac adapters filling up an outlet strip hidden in a box with cords coming out. Well make one with just a plate on top and one cord coming out the back. Now you can have your little valet station with drawers and such while charging your phone, media player, camera and whatever. Products don't have to be designed with adapter connections anymore, freeing up space for other things or nothing at all.

That's the real beauty of it.

Two decades from now, when it actually is universal, then maybe that reason works. For now that's just idle speculation.

[dbpaddler]

That's a pessimist for you. You make it seem like the concept is brand new and Palm is doing something revolutionary when the electric toothbrush and shaver industry has been doing it for years. Also check out Splashpower. They've had the idea for awhile and have talked about retrofitting current electronics to charge via induction. So it's hardly idle speculation. Herman Miller desks will be built with induction pads on them. Check out ecoupled.com for some more info. Here's a good article to read as well. Here's some inductive charged xbox controllers.

The road to this tech being universal could be more like 3-5yrs away and far from 20. Get a clue.

Two decades from now, when it actually is universal, then maybe that reason works. For now that's just idle speculation.

[jakerome]

I think $100 for the Touchstone & Pre back will be the price. No way is it $30-- Palm charged more than that for plastic cradles.

[dbpaddler]

I wouldn't pay $100 for it. Unless it is more universal and keeps me from having to bring a charger at all, I don't see the point in paying a premium so my phone can look cool on a charger in different orientations. If they really want the technology to take off then price it reasonably so the masses will gobble it up. Who would really pay an extra $100 on top of just shelling out $200 for the phone just for induction charging?

[TurboTiger]

I like any idea that does away with cables like Touchstone. But I don't like the Cloud idea (too many personal items in Outlook and SplahsID). I sync to Outlook using BT (again love the no cable idea of it.

Good Luck

[pilot1000]

I started with the treo 300, got a 650, then a 700p. My wife had a 700 wx. So I actually have 3 chargers in the house. With it plugged in I can do what I want. Do do anything with the phone on a Touchstone you would have to leave it on the dock. And yes its not new technology at all, the normal cell phone cradels do the same thing. So If a third party accessory maker creates make a cradle that could charge the phone in any orientation, say like the swivel cradles that the iphones have then they have solved the problem right?

If you want to use it like your Treos in your house, then you don't need the Touchstone. Just plug it in like your Treos.

[doctoss]

I like any idea that does away with cables like Touchstone. But I don't like the Cloud idea (too many personal items in Outlook and SplahsID). I sync to Outlook using BT (again love the no cable idea of it.

Good Luck

I am already thinking of a way to have the touchstone as my car charger also.

[treony]

Not sure that's true. Yes, there are millions and millions using free email from Google, etc, but I'm not sure a very large percentage use those services calendars, contact lists, etc. I don't suppose you have any statistics to back up your statement.

I think this is more to my point. I keep my myspace separate from my yahoo, separate from my aim, separate from my personal contacts, and i just started facebook. So no will my contact list have everyone listed all together in one list of every contact from all these services together? Why can't I just go to the facebook card and get to it that way, he im when i'm ready to chat? I hope its not as combined because it just creates one large list of things. I don't think very many people use the calenders and contact lists as much, and those lists probably don't have phone numbers, just emails.

[treony]

Big Brother already has all your info. Not to worry (any more than you normally would).

Well what about hackers, like the problem T-mobile kept having with the sidekicks.

[treony]

If you want to use it like your Treos in your house, then you don't need the Touchstone. Just plug it in like your Treos.

So when would I need it though? It just seemed like wasted R&D. Maybe something non-Foleoish could have been invented. If that was a dashboard, car charger I would get the concept completey.

I'm not trying to wine your guys, if this thing doesn't take off and I have the phone I will feel like I wasted money. But something I just thought of is since it's sooooo IPhone like, an Apple takeover is more an option then ever.

[dbpaddler]

I made that point before too. I don't want the merging of church and state. The stuff on my palm are things I have for work and every day life. Things on yahoo, facebook and such are not, and I don't want the merged, synced, clouded or what not. I don't want them to be synergistic on my phone. I want to log in to one, use it, log out and forget about it. If someone on there is a contact that makes their way to my regular contacts db or on my calendar for some appointment, then I would put all their info in there anyway.

Going back to the beginning of smartphones, convergence is not always a good things. some things should stay separate.

I think this is more to my point. I keep my myspace separate from my yahoo, separate from my aim, separate from my personal contacts, and i just started facebook. So no will my contact list have everyone listed all together in one list of every contact from all these services together? Why can't I just go to the facebook card and get to it that way, he im when i'm ready to chat? I hope its not as combined because it just creates one large list of things. I don't think very many people use the calenders and contact lists as much, and those lists probably don't have phone numbers, just emails.

[treony]

I wouldn't pay $100 for it. Unless it is more universal and keeps me from having to bring a charger at all, I don't see the point in paying a premium so my phone can look cool on a charger in different orientations. If they really want the technology to take off then price it reasonably so the masses will gobble it up. Who would really pay an extra $100 on top of just shelling out $200 for the phone just for induction charging?

Its not even induction. The concept of induction infers that the charged body does not have to touch the non-charged body. The touchstone has to be touching the phone at the special contact points provided by the separate battery cover.

[dbpaddler]

I thought the magnets just held it in place since the charger is angled.

If you're right, And I don't think you are, then it's just stupid and a waste of money if it's not the same tech as I posted above. The whole point would be to be moving towards universal induction charging. I highly doubt they'd create something proprietary like that if it served no purpose beyond that charger.

[dbpaddler]

I thought the magnets just held it in place since the charger is angled.

If you're right, And I don't think you are, then it's just stupid and a waste of money if it's not the same tech as I posted above. The whole point would be to be moving towards universal induction charging. I highly doubt they'd create something proprietary like that if it served no purpose beyond that charger.

[detective]

The Touchstone serves as a charger, it also goes automatically to speakerphone when your Pre is resting on it and a call comes in. If you want to watch video, the angle is set for not futzing around.

[dbpaddler]

wow. You really are a bonehead actually. Pulling info out of your a** to make a point that isn't even true.

After further reading because I was pretty sure you had no clue what you were talking about, it turns out it is via induction, and I have a funny feeling that the only thing that stupid battery cover does is contain the magnets to hold the Pre in place in the orientation of your choice. If you propped up the charger so it was flat, you wouldn't need the magnets. If you put a little lip on the bottom, you wouldn't need the magnets. Personally I think they outsmarted themselves with the charger. Just put enough of a lip on the bottom edge to cradle the curve in portrait mode. You could even curve the lip to match the bottom curve of the Pre for portrait mode, and it could still be laid in landscape mode and just be cradled by the outer edges of the lip. Much simpler than magnets with no requirement to buy another cover. Heck, you could probably buy some flexible magnets and put them inside the original back cover and solve the problem and save yourself a few dollars. If they brilliantly designed it like the Centro, there will be a ton of space between the cover and the battery to do so.

I can see a third party making an induction cradle for half the price without needing magnets and extra covers depending on what Palm decides to charge which I'm sure will be a bit of a premium.

Also, the vehicle power adapter is a joke. It's just a 12v USB adapter shaped nicely. So no reason to buy the Palm one either when you can get them for about $5 anywhere and use the included microUSB cable or any other standard one or any microUSB car charger for that matter.

Its not even induction. The concept of induction infers that the charged body does not have to touch the non-charged body. The touchstone has to be touching the phone at the special contact points provided by the separate battery cover.

[shadygrey#WN]

Big Brother already has all your info. Not to worry (any more than you normally would).

Amen to that!