Pandora As A Pda

[todd]

, I guess the killer app needed for me to ditch the clie will be the alarm feature. This was the main focus of the thread.

I know the Pandora will have different ways of going dormant and wondered if any of these could be exploited.

Re: alarms, I believe the Pandora was designed to remain on 24/7: that's the reason for the large battery. Assuming you have access to power for charging once a day or so, alarms should be EASY with an always-on device. cron, plugins for music players, etc. I just kinda wish it had a vibrating alarm built in -- maybe someone will make a bluetooth alarm (like a bracelet I saw once).

Another option for PIM software is the KDE suite: KOrganizer looks fairly interesting and, more importantly, standards-based. Anything based on vCard/iCal/whatever should be easy to sync up -- maybe with the help of a small script some of the more talented dev's around here could whip up in ten minutes.

I've mentioned it before but can't resist: I would *love* to see a heavily-hacked version of TiddlyWiki pressed into service as a cross-platform PIM.

I agree about the Palm software being fairly nice. I don't know if it was all that integrated: 3rd party software enabled one to use the calendar and To-Do list simultaneously. Its strength lay in its simplicity and its speed. Its biggest limitation, for me, was the small screen. And the painful process it would take to get it sync'ing again so I can use specialized tools to get/put text in the notepad! The years-old model sitting next to my keyboard has been mostly reduced to a music player these days. I would like to use the Pandora primarily as a super-PIM. A truly good PIM app (or suite) would be a tremendous contribution to the free software world. Good = fast, standards-based, extensible... (cue emacs zealots! )

 

[AireTamStorm]

. With those closed parts it's tricky to replace some of the stuff with 3party versions and still get it integrated in the status parts of the UI. But that's not us.

Well, in this case, the Pandora behaves much more like a Linux desktop than the Nokia tablets.

could outbeat us, going for weeks and weeks on a couple of AA batteries. We'll have no problem competing with later PDAs though - they only last for a week and a half or so, at the best of times. I charge my PDA at least as often as I charge my Nokia.

I don't think battery life is a concern, really, so we're in agreement.

are used to. If you just need something at the level of slightly better than what comes in simple phones, then GPE and the like will do. If you come from the other direction, then no.

There are desktop-oriented suites aimed at this. We're running on X11, after all. These can be done on the Pandora itself, or via one of several online applications available from Google and other providers. I expect most non-CPU architecture specific things to compile with little to no issue.

. Pandora has a much faster CPU and should be quite a bit better here. The way to handle the 'instant on' problem on Nokia tablets is of course to just start a bunch of apps and just switch between them, this'll work even better on the Pandora with 256MB RAM.
Here's where I start disagreeing. WinCE has not had the filesystem in RAM since WinMo 2003. The switch in WinMo 2005 to NAND felt extremely crippling in terms of speed. When run, programs could not be closed with the default UI. They had to be task-manager killed, or killed with a special toolbar. "X" just sent the Window to the background. This lead to the handheld absolutely requiring a reboot after extended use. Programs should run, do their job then quit when done and get out of memory. Be it on handhelds or normal workstations. Before now, applications were left in memory to solve a technical hurdle that has already been much better addressed by advanced in flash memory technology. I believe the Pandora with Linux on flash will behave itself much better than a PDA running WinMo with a RAM filesystem.

. But when there are other issues with the alarm system it'll simply not be used much.

But getting good calendar/contacts/todo/etc.etc. with good integration seems to be tricky. Or there would've been something top quality out there already. Which isn't the case, which is why I still carry a PDA along with my Nokia tablet.
Internet-based or desktop based applications are already available for Linux. And if we think the OMAP does not have standby / resume, being an embedded CPU platform, we're sadly mistaken : ). Question is, whether our Kernel has the ACPI interfaces for it or not.

 

[Tor]

The problem with desktop-based PIM applications is that they're made for desktops - which don't have small 800x480 screens. They really look cramped on the Nokia tablets and will look equally cramped on the Pandora. That's why I prefer looking at PIM suites developed specifically for small screen real estate.

 

[lingenfr]

Agreed. My preference is a PDA version of the desktop PIM. Preferably same app, PDA UI. Kind of the same idea as the mobile versions of websites.

 

[mindlord]

Ruh? Posted to wrong thread? Uhm, okay. I hadn't been in this thread for several hours. Nevermind.

 

[ORFJackal]

But getting good calendar/contacts/todo/etc.etc. with good integration seems to be tricky. Or there would've been something top quality out there already. Which isn't the case, which is why I <i>still</i> carry a PDA along with my Nokia tablet.

It's the same with me. The calendar on my Palm TX is just about as good as they get (with only minor annoyances). Palm's address book, tasks, notes etc. are nothing special, but they do their job. The calendar is the most important thing to me.

UI design is my specialty, so I could design a good PIM application (at least: calendar + address book + tasks) for Pandora, if I have enough time and motivation for it. I probably would not have time to implement it, but I could provide the UI/functional specs, in case someone else is willing to implement it.

But for now I'll stay with my Palm, as it has one killer app that I use (a Chinese dictionary) and I wouldn't like to carry any more devices with me than is necessary.

 

[ebrioloco]

But getting good calendar/contacts/todo/etc.etc. with good integration seems to be tricky. Or there would've been something top quality out there already. Which isn't the case, which is why I <i>still</i> carry a PDA along with my Nokia tablet.

It's the same with me. The calendar on my Palm TX is just about as good as they get (with only minor annoyances). Palm's address book, tasks, notes etc. are nothing special, but they do their job. The calendar is the most important thing to me.

UI design is my specialty, so I could design a good PIM application (at least: calendar + address book + tasks) for Pandora, if I have enough time and motivation for it. I probably would not have time to implement it, but I could provide the UI/functional specs, in case someone else is willing to implement it.

But for now I'll stay with my Palm, as it has one killer app that I use (a Chinese dictionary) and I wouldn't like to carry any more devices with me than is necessary.

I support you and i want to be your betatester!!!!!!
I don't want to buy/carry a PDA and a Pandora