[vjp2.at@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] on Friday 30 December 2005 23:37
> I look at all the handheld clutter. But at the same time I can't
> see one size fitting all. Some folks have big hands, others small
> one. Some want keyboards, others stylus, others voice recognition.
> What we need is a universal handheld bus. The outside that keeps all
> the gadgets together can vary, the inside stuff, PDA, cellular,
> remote, calculator, mp3, radio, camera, can all fit the user's
> needs. But ther's no way one manufacturer can combine everything the
> way one person wants them. C'mon someone's got to have designed
> something like this by now? no? I know, we have a hard enough time
> getting power adaptors that match. That's the "Japanese way of doing
> business" we adopted in the mid80s when we abandoned the old USA
> backwards compatible requirements.
As regards connectivity, Palm moved to USB with the introduction of the
Tungsten 5 if I recall correctly. They have broken Universal Bus compati-
bility, thus deterring any upgrades that makes long-accumulated peripher-
als useless.
The USB (maybe USB2 yet to come) move was probably a strategic move.
Whether it's to do with Linux kernel handling of USB ports, I don't know.
In the long run, it appears as if more and more vendors see the value of
interoperability (Open Source software particularly) and hardware stan-
dardisation.
Roy
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