Palm and Nova CES launch rumors

In Monday's IT Blogwatch, Richi Jennings watches bloggers watch Palm get ready to launch its "amazing" new phone at CES. Not to mention a hack that tweets when the washing machine's finished...

Previously in IT Blogwatch: Bono's VCs pilot Palm

John Biggs has a deep throat:

We have information from a trusted source that the latest Palm smartphone running the Nova operating system will be launched Thursday. The new phone will have a full QWERTY keyboard that will slide down under a portrait-oriented touchscreen.
...
The new operating system is described as “amazing” and there will be a full software bazaar on launch ... The phone is described as “iPhone-like” and will probably be sourced by HTC like the Palm Pro. The official Palm announcement should happen this Thursday at CES.

Michael Santo has his own source:

My own information comes from an informant who has an "in" with Palm employees and usually sees the devices before just about anyone else does. His information jives with the above, but he also states that they've added some clever little features, like making the "swipe" required to unlock the phone (as on the iPhone) more ambidextrous.

One unanswered question is compatibility of the new OS with the existing PalmOS applications. That would be a major advantage ... Past indications were that the next-gen PalmOS would include this compatibility, but that was a long time ago, and Palm has made several course corrections since then.

Tricia Duryee squints:

There’s some minor details leaking out early. They are pretty vague, and who knows if they are spot on.
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[But] it better be pretty “amazing” because ... doubts are [being] raised as to whether it is too late for Palm to release something new, given products aren’t expected to hit store shelves until mid-2009.

Anthony Ha keeps a straight face:

The company is struggling, having reported a loss of $506.2 million for the second quarter of this fiscal year, and a 13 percent drop in smartphone sales ... [but] presumably Elevation Partners was impressed by what it saw, since it just invested another $100 million in the company.

Jason Wilk mixes his metaphors:

CEO, Ed Colligan, who’s watched Palm’s stock price fall off Mt.Everest this year, is putting all his chips in on this new operating system. He says they have been working incredibly hard on the new technology and it is already getting “amazing” reviews from those who have been able to play around with it.

Personally, I feel that standardization is not going to be the kicker to push any of the phone manufacturers over the top. The golden days of the OEM’s were when the decks were fully controlled by them and the carriers (i.e $$$)..

Your humble Blogwatcher gazes into his crystal balls:

Here are our predictions for 2009 ... Nova, Palm’s new smartphone platform, will finally be ready after several years of delays and false starts. Elevation Partners’ $100 million investment will give the company enough air cover to get Nova-powered devices into the market.

Unfortunately, the competition has moved on, so the devices won’t have mass appeal. But there will at least be a niche market of hard-core Palm lovers who buy the devices.

But Chris Leckness hopes there's more to it than that:

If this device really does have an iPhone like user experience, coupled with a dynamic new OS, slide out keyboard and Palm’s rep in the enterprise community, this phone could replace the new crop of Nokia and HTC products as the business smartphone of choice. Personally I could live in a mobile world where Palm and WinMo take on RIM for the business users, leaving Apple to feast on the consumer market
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I have to assume that Palm will throw every possible feature and the kitchen sink into this phone as it is clearly intended to showcase Nova as a worthy descendant of the Palm legacy, not a bit old fashioned and shopworn. Now is not the time for a G1 style incremental release, with many features pushed back to make sure the device itself was launched on schedule.

And finally...

• Washing Machine Hack

Buffer overflow:

• Philosophy of information: Charles Ess: Digital Media Ethics
• Craig Borysowich: Refined Communications Network Design Sample
• Rafe Needleman: Twitter phishing scam may be spreading
• 9 to 5 Mac: Apple 17-inch MacBook Pro to go Unibody, sans removable battery (Silver-Zinc replacement?)
• Owen Thomas: Failanthropy: Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales Almost Out of a Job

Other Computerworld bloggers:

• Don Tennant: The racism disconnect
• Richi Jennings: GWAVACon: BrainShare alternative for Novell collaboration community
• Seth Weintraub: Apple to pioneer use of Silver-Zinc battery technology?
• Michael Horowitz: Hard disk passwords offer great security for free

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Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/adviser/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 23 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You can follow him on Twitter, pretend to be Richi's friend on Facebook, or just use boring old email: blogwatch@richi.co.uk.

Previously in IT Blogwatch:

• No database + no backup = no business: ex-employee blamed
• IE's market share is tanking
• Gaza: "Though torn in two, we can be one"