Palm i705 Review
I want to tell you about a very rare PDA model - the Palm i705, and at the same time to be nostalgic about the past era. This is an alien from the beginning of the 2000s and one of the most pleasant in terms of the combination of parameters of the handheld of those times. Then you could get two weeks of active life from a pair of AAA batteries. Although a lithium battery is installed in this sample, it lives no less. Of the amenities there is a memory card on which you can upload books and install software without using bulky native software for synchronization and a rather big cradle
In general, this is the classic Palm of the PalmOS 4 era. In brief, about the history of the OS and the differences between the versions. 1.0 and 2.0 were in an era when Palm was called the Pilot. This is 1996-97 years.
They didn’t know how to use the IrDA protocol, the infrared port was only for sharing software and data from applications. In 3.0 added support for infrared and various communications through it. At the same time released a very successful line of Palm III.
It was the golden era of the platform, at the turn of the millennia - from 1998 to 2001. Then there was 4.0 with added support for memory cards and a new connector that knew how to USB. Some third-party manufacturers like Handspring and Handera were able to do it on the top three, but now the devices from Palm itself have arrived.
And a year later, Palm decided on a radical change in the hardware platform. This gave several times more processing power, but led to competition with WinMobile. After that, the office rattled for several years and vigorously went to the bottom. Still, somesort of intangible substance while lost.
')
The main feature of the classic PalmOS and devices on it was the extremely limited hardware resources. Motorola 68k processor family with a frequency of 16-33 MHz and memory, divided into RAM and RAM drives with a capacity of 128 KB for the first Pilots to 8-16 MB at sunset time. The firmware was stored in the ROM, sometimes rewritable. In some cases, it was possible to throw out unnecessary libraries from there and add your own. Data and programs installed in the memory could be reset when the power supply is low. On battery PDAs, there was a built-in ionistor, which held the memory for several tens of seconds when replacing the batteries (usually they were 2xAAA), the battery ones at a certain discharge simply ceased to turn on. but the memory kept. The backup on the card was through a third-party application. Why did it all work, and without brakes? There are several nuances here.
First, the system is single-tasking. In the background, only the drivers and the mp3 player of the sleepers worked. There were some ways to write a resident program, but I cannot tell you more in detail because I do not know. Of the side effects - no security from the bugs of programs. From single-tasking, the user suffered no more than from the use of Alt-Tab in Windows. Because a well-written program was able to instantly close, while maintaining the current result in a certain similarity of system cookies and just as instantly start with the restoration of all saved. True, this is from RAM. Starting with a flash drive some bulky reading room takes a few seconds to think about. The power button just extinguished the screen, some infrared-type interfaces, and put the processor into sleep mode. For the user and the program, the shutdown was generally not noticeable.
Secondly, execute-in-place is used in all fields. The chip is strictly embedder and not used on desktops. The program for the start should not be copied into the operative, but executed directly from the storage location. RAM goes only to store heaps and dynamic variables.
Thirdly, an interesting ramdrayv file system. FS is not hierarchical and is a database with application-data bindings. On the flash drive it is the same, but crossed with the usual FAT: database files are in directories named by program identifiers.
What else is on board?
Screen
He essentially did not change from beginning to end. 160x160 pixels, b / w. Here it seems 16 shades of gray, while the early palm trees easily managed with two. The physical size of the matrix, the background and the backlight were slightly varied. There were color options. The Sony Clie series proprietary chip was double-resolution screens, then the Retina. The programs all worked as they should, the fonts were rendered smooth, and some programs knew about this feature and used it for their own purposes. The top edge of the stylus peeps out. It is non-native, so I will not show. The coolest stylus of all that he had ever seen was Tungsten E: chiseled from brass, chrome-plated (albeit then it was peeled off from intensive use), with a built-in pin for resetting.
Below the screen is a graffiti area. It is covered with a touchscreen, but can not display anything. The button with the house closes the current program and displays the local Start menu, the menu displays the application menu, the star is set by the user. I have a dump of memory there, I do not remember why I put it. Magnifier searches for data on all memory and data of all programs. The thing is convenient, but only needed if you use a PDA as an organizer. Along the edges of the rectangle is a graffiti display of the clock, adjusting the contrast and calling the on-screen keyboard: alphabetic and numeric, respectively.
And now the most delicious. Graffiti. Handwriting input system. One of the first workable and commercially successful. Let me remind you that it works correctly in real time on which hardware it is clear. Since it was not possible to teach the computer to recognize human scribbles, it was possible to teach a person to write with computer. Personally, this system finally killed my handwriting. Recognition is quite on the level. On the left half of the field you need to write letters on the right digit. Some signs require writing on the border, I don’t remember after ages. In PalmOS 5, a little changed the outline of some characters and you can write them all over the screen.
Buttons
Standard palm pickup. 4 application buttons, two arrows, power. If you hold down the Power, the backlight will turn on. It is electroluminescent here. During the day it is almost invisible, at dusk the screen becomes just plain, in absolute darkness the screen is inverted and shows dim marsh-green letters on the same, but darker background. The photo is gray because the camera does not transmit. The color there is not like in old nokia, but more pale. Surprisingly comfortable. All buttons with hollows, so that you can press the stylus when the device is on the table. Behind the middle of the mink Reset. A simple reboot nails a hung program, data remains.
Ports
Again, everything is standard. On top of the window of the infrared port for the exchange of programs, data, connecting to a phone or computer for data transfer or synchronization. There was a bunch of programs that mimic the remote control. It was possible to knock out the telly from a few meters in a public place.
Bottom connector, which is usually used to synchronize with the computer on the wire. You push the button on the cradle, the program starts and everything synchronizes. The format of the connector has changed two times in all the time. You can also connect to it all sorts of upgrades such as a wired modem, GPS or keyboard. The modem is available by the way, but it has never been used. It is powered by individual batteries. There are thoughts to carefully remove all the stuffing from there and make an external battery or something else interesting.
Vibra and speaker.
Used to notify about calendar events in silent mode. In the usual - loudly beeping speaker. Strict monophony, there are no hints about music playback or voice transmission here.
Light-emitting diode
Lights up green when charging, red when a message is missed, flashes green when connected to its radio network.
The main feature is a radio module for connecting to the now extinct Palm.net service. This is a kind of analogue of WAP based on the Mobitex network, common in the USA 10 years ago. I do not smell voice communication, as far as I understood it is impossible to connect to the regular Internet: it does not support software, but I did not find gateways.
On the other hand, Palmach still surfed. There were browsers and email clients. Personally, I did not find this era, but it was. It was exactly. Connect via IR to the phone as a modem. GPRS was just coming into vogue then. Therefore, all the charms of mobile dial-up with constant and very expensive payment were available.
Why all this is necessary in 2012? I have such nostalgia. This device is used as a reader and alarm clock in the morning. Another powerful calculator EasyCalc is installed. Know how any interesting type of graphs, the numerical solution of equations, integration, work with matrices and the like
In general, this is the classic Palm of the PalmOS 4 era. In brief, about the history of the OS and the differences between the versions. 1.0 and 2.0 were in an era when Palm was called the Pilot. This is 1996-97 years.
They didn’t know how to use the IrDA protocol, the infrared port was only for sharing software and data from applications. In 3.0 added support for infrared and various communications through it. At the same time released a very successful line of Palm III.
It was the golden era of the platform, at the turn of the millennia - from 1998 to 2001. Then there was 4.0 with added support for memory cards and a new connector that knew how to USB. Some third-party manufacturers like Handspring and Handera were able to do it on the top three, but now the devices from Palm itself have arrived.
And a year later, Palm decided on a radical change in the hardware platform. This gave several times more processing power, but led to competition with WinMobile. After that, the office rattled for several years and vigorously went to the bottom. Still, some
')
The main feature of the classic PalmOS and devices on it was the extremely limited hardware resources. Motorola 68k processor family with a frequency of 16-33 MHz and memory, divided into RAM and RAM drives with a capacity of 128 KB for the first Pilots to 8-16 MB at sunset time. The firmware was stored in the ROM, sometimes rewritable. In some cases, it was possible to throw out unnecessary libraries from there and add your own. Data and programs installed in the memory could be reset when the power supply is low. On battery PDAs, there was a built-in ionistor, which held the memory for several tens of seconds when replacing the batteries (usually they were 2xAAA), the battery ones at a certain discharge simply ceased to turn on. but the memory kept. The backup on the card was through a third-party application. Why did it all work, and without brakes? There are several nuances here.
First, the system is single-tasking. In the background, only the drivers and the mp3 player of the sleepers worked. There were some ways to write a resident program, but I cannot tell you more in detail because I do not know. Of the side effects - no security from the bugs of programs. From single-tasking, the user suffered no more than from the use of Alt-Tab in Windows. Because a well-written program was able to instantly close, while maintaining the current result in a certain similarity of system cookies and just as instantly start with the restoration of all saved. True, this is from RAM. Starting with a flash drive some bulky reading room takes a few seconds to think about. The power button just extinguished the screen, some infrared-type interfaces, and put the processor into sleep mode. For the user and the program, the shutdown was generally not noticeable.
Secondly, execute-in-place is used in all fields. The chip is strictly embedder and not used on desktops. The program for the start should not be copied into the operative, but executed directly from the storage location. RAM goes only to store heaps and dynamic variables.
Thirdly, an interesting ramdrayv file system. FS is not hierarchical and is a database with application-data bindings. On the flash drive it is the same, but crossed with the usual FAT: database files are in directories named by program identifiers.
What else is on board?
Screen
He essentially did not change from beginning to end. 160x160 pixels, b / w. Here it seems 16 shades of gray, while the early palm trees easily managed with two. The physical size of the matrix, the background and the backlight were slightly varied. There were color options. The Sony Clie series proprietary chip was double-resolution screens, then the Retina. The programs all worked as they should, the fonts were rendered smooth, and some programs knew about this feature and used it for their own purposes. The top edge of the stylus peeps out. It is non-native, so I will not show. The coolest stylus of all that he had ever seen was Tungsten E: chiseled from brass, chrome-plated (albeit then it was peeled off from intensive use), with a built-in pin for resetting.
Below the screen is a graffiti area. It is covered with a touchscreen, but can not display anything. The button with the house closes the current program and displays the local Start menu, the menu displays the application menu, the star is set by the user. I have a dump of memory there, I do not remember why I put it. Magnifier searches for data on all memory and data of all programs. The thing is convenient, but only needed if you use a PDA as an organizer. Along the edges of the rectangle is a graffiti display of the clock, adjusting the contrast and calling the on-screen keyboard: alphabetic and numeric, respectively.
And now the most delicious. Graffiti. Handwriting input system. One of the first workable and commercially successful. Let me remind you that it works correctly in real time on which hardware it is clear. Since it was not possible to teach the computer to recognize human scribbles, it was possible to teach a person to write with computer. Personally, this system finally killed my handwriting. Recognition is quite on the level. On the left half of the field you need to write letters on the right digit. Some signs require writing on the border, I don’t remember after ages. In PalmOS 5, a little changed the outline of some characters and you can write them all over the screen.
Buttons
Standard palm pickup. 4 application buttons, two arrows, power. If you hold down the Power, the backlight will turn on. It is electroluminescent here. During the day it is almost invisible, at dusk the screen becomes just plain, in absolute darkness the screen is inverted and shows dim marsh-green letters on the same, but darker background. The photo is gray because the camera does not transmit. The color there is not like in old nokia, but more pale. Surprisingly comfortable. All buttons with hollows, so that you can press the stylus when the device is on the table. Behind the middle of the mink Reset. A simple reboot nails a hung program, data remains.
Ports
Again, everything is standard. On top of the window of the infrared port for the exchange of programs, data, connecting to a phone or computer for data transfer or synchronization. There was a bunch of programs that mimic the remote control. It was possible to knock out the telly from a few meters in a public place.
Bottom connector, which is usually used to synchronize with the computer on the wire. You push the button on the cradle, the program starts and everything synchronizes. The format of the connector has changed two times in all the time. You can also connect to it all sorts of upgrades such as a wired modem, GPS or keyboard. The modem is available by the way, but it has never been used. It is powered by individual batteries. There are thoughts to carefully remove all the stuffing from there and make an external battery or something else interesting.
Vibra and speaker.
Used to notify about calendar events in silent mode. In the usual - loudly beeping speaker. Strict monophony, there are no hints about music playback or voice transmission here.
Light-emitting diode
Lights up green when charging, red when a message is missed, flashes green when connected to its radio network.
The main feature is a radio module for connecting to the now extinct Palm.net service. This is a kind of analogue of WAP based on the Mobitex network, common in the USA 10 years ago. I do not smell voice communication, as far as I understood it is impossible to connect to the regular Internet: it does not support software, but I did not find gateways.
On the other hand, Palmach still surfed. There were browsers and email clients. Personally, I did not find this era, but it was. It was exactly. Connect via IR to the phone as a modem. GPRS was just coming into vogue then. Therefore, all the charms of mobile dial-up with constant and very expensive payment were available.
Why all this is necessary in 2012? I have such nostalgia. This device is used as a reader and alarm clock in the morning. Another powerful calculator EasyCalc is installed. Know how any interesting type of graphs, the numerical solution of equations, integration, work with matrices and the like
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/157421/
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