Centro Progress
===============
I have installed most of the stuff which I expect I will need on my new
Palm Centro. Still have to install a Geocaching application but the
rest should be here.
The good thing is that the Centro [1] synchronises easily with my
Fedora/ppc64le computer (the palm device port is the "usb:"). The bad
thing is that there is no way to sync it with older computers with
serial ports only, IT is also not possible to get calendar data from
Palm OS 3.x or 4.x device just by sending it (the OS 5 datebook uses
different format). All these thing are minor issues because I do not
plan to replace my Palm III (the TRGpro [2], actually) by the Centro.
The Centro has Bluetooth. So I have tried to connect it to the Nokia
N800 [2]. The N800 can use a Bluetooth-enabled phone to connect to the
Internet via GPRS (all Nokia Internet Tablets have the WiFi and the
Bluetooth chips but they have no GSM/GPRS). It can also browse phone
files via Bluetooth. The poor N800 refused to boot. It showed the Nokia
logo and then died. I tried to charge the battery for several hours but
the device always did the same. SO I thought that it is dead at all. So
I inserted the battery to the old Nokia 770 (the first of the Internet
Tablet models) and it did the same. So I found my last battery and
tried tu use it - and the 770 started to work normally.
Then I have tried to pair it with the Centro. It have worked but the
file transfer feature is not supported on the Centro. If I'm not
mistaken even my early 2000's Nokia feature phone supported it but the
Centro from 2008 does not... At least I can surf the WWW from a large
(4.7") screen instead of the tiny screen of the Centro. Of course, it
makes little difference these days.
Anyway, both the Centro and the N800 were released after the iPhone
have became a thing. Most probably both have reflected its existence in
some way. The N800 (which has a traditional resistive screen) got the
re-designed GUI which was partially finger-friendly (they made buttons
and other things much larger and made a full-screen virtual keyboard).
The Centro kept its more dense GUI and it is controllable or from the
keyboard or with a stylus. It seems (to me) to be better approach than
the Nokia's. It's also the reason why I still prefer the older Nokia
770 over the N800. The 770's GUI is uses the screen area in much better
way and thus it is easier to use (there is much less scrolling and so).
Back to the Centro: now I'm going to use it as my main (and only)
outdoor-free time phone. I will see if it will work...
References:
[1]
gopher://gopherpedia.com/0/Palm%20Centro
[2]
gopher://gopherpedia.com/0/Handera
[3]
gopher://gopherpedia.com/0/Nokia%20N800