I feel like the only one who thinks this is kind of awesome. I want a small phone. As small as possible, that can still text and act as an LTE hotspot, with very basic browsing, and Spotify. I want that. The iPhone SE was perfect for me.
How about a smartphone brand that promises to never change the UI again after version 1.0? Users can move their buttons around or change their appearance, but their investment in muscle memory is sacred. Before javascript hit the internet everyone used (and frequently declined to update) native apps, and largely controlled their UI, but as a society we just gave that control to web designers. Many Vim and Emacs users never let go, but it used to be GUI users as well; I remember tech savvy mac using university professors with 1000 icons on their desktop that are all there for a reason. They didn't search; they just reached.
I love seeing new product ideas, but I'm baffled at how this one made it all the way to production.<p>Basic premise is.. "Hey, we're going to make our smartphone so undesirable that you won't want to use it except when you absolutely need it. However, we'll make sure it looks well-built so people know that you've made a deliberate lifestyle choice and that this isn't your primary phone."
Yay a small phone. Oh it's tied to only Verizon, and costs 350 dollars...<p><a href="https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/10/palm-rises-from-the-dead-as-a-zombie-brand-launches-tiny-smartphone/" rel="nofollow">https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/10/palm-rises-from-the-...</a>
This thing has to have a massively crappy battery life (in the real, real world)...<p>Seriously, 800mah?<p>The only reason that smartphones "work" is because they have big screens, while big screens obviously consume a lot of power and therefore require big batteries, there's more space for the battery inside as the PCB doesn't need to be big like the screen.
OMG, you can almost hear the giant props of the B-52 required to drop this bomb. As other commenters have pointed out, it can't decide if it wants to be an iPhone SE or an Apple Watch. It <i>could</i> succeed, but it is going to have to be cheeaaaap. Which it won't be, 'cuz you know, lifestyle.
This is a device with a unique approach to mobile user experience, but there are literally no photos of the UI on the site.<p>Maybe the idea is that it feels like a phone, so you pull it from your pocket thanks to extreme smartphone muscle memory. You find your hands have selected a black glass slab that says "PA LM" in the middle, which is quite uninteresting, So you put it away. Distraction crisis averted.<p>(Kidding obviously, but nothing on the site says otherwise! Honestly I wrote my first mobile app for the Palm V and I would love for this to be a killer rebirth of the Palm brand. Guess we'll have to wait and see though!)
Not <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm,_Inc." rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm,_Inc.</a>, maker of the Palm Pilot. :(
I was deeply disappointed to see this is not a return of the original Palm, in kind of perhaps a return to a ‘non-internet’ ‘traditional’ PDA or something.<p>Or...I don’t know. <i>Anything</i> remotely interesting. And yeah, someone else mentioned the payload of the header of the site, it’s no wonder it behaves so poorly on my iPhone SE.<p>If this does have anything to do with the makers of the original Palm, that’s a damn shame.<p>P.S. WebOS was freaking awesome. Even if it never had good hardware to back it up.
How many of these zombie branded products are there? Remember the vaporware Commodore PET phone?<p><a href="https://www.wired.com/2015/07/commodore-smartphone/" rel="nofollow">https://www.wired.com/2015/07/commodore-smartphone/</a><p><a href="https://pocketnow.com/commodore-smartphone-vaporware" rel="nofollow">https://pocketnow.com/commodore-smartphone-vaporware</a><p>And how many bonafide spiritual successor products exist? The Gemini PDA springs to mind.
I wonder how much they paid to acquire that Instagram @palm account (unless someone who works for them registered it early... Let alone the palm.com domain)
The idea was chased by the original palm with a phone called Veer. After the HP acquisition of Palm it was released as HP Veer and I really really liked the Pre and Veer. Too bad that stupid Leo Apotheker killed of the Phones before they even had a chance.
We've been here before with Palm; is there a reason we should try again or are they going to pull these devices from the market after a few weeks of selling them?<p>P.S. If it's cheap it's going to break a lot... you know palm the cheaper it is the worse it is
3.3" display. Hmmm a bit smaller than iPhone 4?<p>Being used to big phones like those Galaxy Note series (yes I use them a lot for taking notes and reading ebooks), I guess this won't be my main phone.<p>And too bad it's locked to Verizon, yes?
I live in Southeast Asia...
A phone with... a piece of string!<p>In all seriousness though, a reasonably-sized smartphone is a good idea, hopefully they don't ruin it somehow.