Palm Fixes Camera/Battery Problem - Now How About Its Operating System?
Owners of the new, relatively-slinky and streamlined Palm Treo 680 (marketed in the U.S. by Cingular/AT&T) have had a problem. A software bug caused the phone’s camera circuitry to remain on, even after you finished using the camera. And that caused a big-time battery drain.
Palm is supplying owners with a downloadable fix. This camera update is really just a patch, not an update to the camera’s firmware. What that means is, if you have to do a hard reset (reboot) of the phone, you’ll need to reinstall the camera update.
Palm’s responsive attitude toward 680 owners is leading to some gripes, from owners of the Palm Treo 700p. The complaints include screen freezes, difficulties using Bluetooth devices, digital skips and stuttering. These 700p owners ask: We’ve been waiting months for Palm to address our complaints, how come the Model 680 owners get immediate attention?
This doesn’t even reach the bigger question looming out there for Palm and several gazillion users of wireless devices running on the Palm OS: When, if ever, will we have an update to Palm OS 5.4.9 (known as Garnet)? It’s been in limbo for three years now, and there’s no new version in sight. Palm-watchers wonder whether the OS, devices running on it and all the third-party software that’s been developed for it will be allowed to fade away.
That fear is magnified as Palm has introduced devices running on Windows Mobile instead of Palm’s own OS. The Treo 700w, 700wx and now Treo 750 seem to be taking the “high end” positions in Palm’s lineup, with the Palm OS 680 in an “entry level” position.
As Apple gets ready to jump into the wireless handset business in a big way, we’re guessing Palm is doing some serious soul-searching about the future of its Treo handhelds. A lot of sharpening will be needed to get Palm’s device line back on the cutting edge, where it had been for so long.
Palm, Treo 680, AT&T, Cingular Wireless, Apple, Palm OS 5.4.9
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