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Failure to Adapt Could Doom Palm

Monday, September 18th, 2006 at 8:06 AM Category: Meryl's Notes Blog 2 comments

Failure to adapt could doom Palm is right on target. I found a great calendar app to use on several PTA web sites I manage. Trumba.com lets you import events into Yahoo! Calendar, Outlook, MSN Hotmail Calendar, MSN Alert, Apple iCal, and Google Calendar.

Trumba also offers options for downloading events by email, iCalendar (.vcs), text messaging, RSS, forwarding, and downloading. Not one option would make it possible to get it on my PalmOS-based device. Just the old-fashioned way — email it to myself and copy and paste the stuff into the Palm Desktop. The download is a .ics file. Palm’s calendar can only import .vcs and its own format.

I could switch the Palm to work with Outlook — tried that for a little while and went back to the Palm Desktop.

Almost every calendar app I’ve seen supports iCal. Tried to track down a program to convert .vcs-type files into Palm files, but no success. Palm2ical is for Apple’s iCal, not iCalendar’s vcs. There were a couple of other possibilities, but nothing concrete.

I’d like to get a PalmOS-based device that keeps me connected to the Internet so I can use instant messaging. Treo is the only option and it’s not keeping up with the eJoneses. Carrying a Sidekick II and a PalmOS device gets old. Based on feedback from the market, it sounds like the Sidekick has the best keyboard. So ideally, I’d like to see a Treo-like device with a more usable keyboard and the ability to import iCalendar and other standards.

I have a Windows Mobile device I use for writing articles and still prefer PalmOS. But when I run into a brick wall trying to use something like Trumba, it makes me wonder if it’s worth sticking with PalmOS when it can’t be integrated with other applications using common standards.

Things aren’t looking good. Palm didn’t renew its agreement with PalmSource (Access) for future releases of PalmOS. Furthermore, the company doesn’t plan to pay royalties after its contract ends on December 2, 2006 because PalmOne didn’t deliver on promises.

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2 comments

Posted by Jim on September 26th, 2006, 12:14 PM
Have you tried Missing Sync?
http://www.markspace.com/missingsync_palmos.php

It syncs palm to ical both ways.
Posted by Meryl / @merylkevans on September 26th, 2006, 12:17 PM
Jim, thanks for the Missing Sync reference. It’s for Mac users only. I’m on Windows.

On another note, finally installed the Windows Mobile device and reinstalled CompanionLink, which copies Palm data into Outlook and updates the Windows Mobile device. I exported Outlook’s data and imported it into Google with ease.