Today, Palm released the long-awaited Palm Desktop for Vista .
Palm.com’s product page bills it as an integrated desktop, by which they mean that it support all versions of Palm OS since Palm OS 3.5. That’s nice of course, but that still does not explain why Palm has been creating so many variations with no or limited upgradeability for years. That was one of Palm’s dumbest moves ever.
It is nice to see Palm return to interoperability, but they do not deserve applause for it. They should not have messed up so royally in the first place, and the current version is not as integrated as users where hoping for.
The latest version allows installing HotSync separate from Palm Desktop. I guess that this little bit of extra flexibility will be appreciated by those who favour another PIM over Palm Desktop. Corporate Admins may also appreciate the support for Outlook 2007 synchronisation.
The Install Tool replaces Palm Quick Install. Just what the differences are, Palm does not make clear.
Palm Desktop is multilingual. Access claims to support English, but they actually support Amglish instead of – not in addition to – English. The continued lack of support for English is disappointing, as is Access’ less than open and honest communication about this. Other supported languages are Brazilian Portuguese, French, Italian, German, and Spanish.
Strangely, a few Palm Desk features are missing. It no longer supports VersaMail synchronisation over the cable and Palm Desktop will no longer display Birthday and Anniversary reminders for your contacts. Wireless synchronisation of VersaMail will continue to work and the reminders will continue to be shown in the Calendar on your Palm OS device.
Palm Desktop 6.2 is billed as compatible with most, not all, of Palm.com’s current products. It is compatible with the Palm Tungsten E2, Palm TX, the Palm Z22, the new Palm Centro and most of the Palm Treo line. It is compatible with the Palm Treo 680, Treo 700 and Treo 755p but not the Treo 600. And although it compatible with the Palm Tungsten E2, it is not compatible with the LifeDrive or the Tungsten T5. Anything not mentioned yet is not supported.
This is highly disappointing. Apart from the infamous digitiser drift, the Palm Tungsten T remains a fine organiser, and the Palm V remains one of the best designs ever. There is years of life in these devices left, and they should continue to be supported.
This release is essentially Vista-only. The one odd exception to that is that it is apparently okay to use with on Windows XP if you have a Palm Centro.
I wish anyone who is going to try that the best of luck. If it can run on Windows XP and it can support current devices, then why can’t it support current devices? And why is the Centro an exception to that? This makes no sense.
It may be good to have a Palm Desktop for Vista, despite’s Vista failure to wow. It is good to know there is a version of Palm Desktop that will work on Vista, but today’s users need solutions for Windows XP. Many home and corporate users will soon been using Windows XP and Vista, and would like Palm Desktop software that works on both.
The current version is for 32-bit variants of Windows only, the 64-bit variants are not supported. Windows Media Centre Edition is supported. That Windows 2000 is no longer supported is understandable. That Windows Server is not supported is perhaps appropriate, yet a bit strange; just why wouldn’t that work? That tablet PC editions of Windows are not supported needs some explanation too.
Those who were desperately waiting for a Vista release may be happy, and it is good that Palm provides this release, but I am hoping that it is merely a stopgap measure.
Palm needs to shape up and provide to a truly integrated Palm Desktop. One that supports all Palm devices, not just recent ones. One that support all models from all brands, not just their own. One that works on all major versions and variants of Windows.
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