How could they get something so simple so wrong?
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From: flarosa on 17 Jan 2008 21:11 I was excited to hear that Palm finally released a software update for the unlocked version of the Treo 680. I bought one of these when they first came out in 2006, at a cost of $400, and I have been disappointed that Palm chose to release updates for the AT&T customers first while neglecting its early adopters for more than a year. However, my excitement has fast turned to frustration. I downloaded and ran Palm's installer as instructed. I was a bit concerned that they said it could take 30 minutes to do the upgrade, and that they would backup and restore my whole phone in the process, but I figured they must have tested this quite a bit, right? So I run the thing and the first thing it says is, "resetting the device before starting update". I look over at my phone, and it is indeed resetting. I think, this is a weird way to start an update, but whatever. 20 seconds goes by and the updater says "Device connection failed". The phone is still booting. I figure maybe it's a fluke, so I try it again, and again, and again. Same thing. How ridiculous is this? The program resets my phone, then complains that my phone isn't there? What does it expect? Do they not know how long a Treo takes to reset? Tech support told me I should perform a hard reset of my phone and erase all my data to fix the problem. I mean, what a bunch of fuckups these people are. They sell you a powerful computer, with a bunch of memory and all kinds of add-on apps you can install, and then the thing is so fragile you have to erase it to upgrade the operating system? It would be one thing if I thought that the Palm Desktop was actually backing up everything on my phone, but I have been told repeatedly that it isn't and I need special extra-cost software if I want to be safe. So there's no way I'm going to just randomly erase my whole phone. I told that tech support guy to forget it, that I had already figured out how to "upgrade" my phone on my own - I'm trading it in for an iPhone as soon as I can. Say what you want about Apple and iPhone, but at least they release regular updates to their software, and they don't tell you to "erase all data" whenever something happens that their minimum-wage support guy can't figure out. Frank
From: Zombie Elvis on 18 Jan 2008 00:37
On Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:06:01 -0500, Li RM <li_rm35m4419(a)unicomp.com> wrote: >So they seem to have to outsource their code development for the Palm >Desktop - apparently to a company called ACCESS: > >http://www.access-company.com/home.html > >How fucked up is it when you not only have to outsource support but >now writing the code that allows your device to work? I'm not going to go out of my way to defend Palm here but it's worth pointing out that ACCESS, not Palm, is the company which actually owns the PalmOS. A few years ago when there were several companies which used the PalmOS (Palm, Handspring, Sony, HandEra, and others) Palm actually split into two different companies (PalmOne for hardware and PalmSource for software) to try to foster this new "Palm Economy" by assuring its licensees that it wouldn't take unfair advantage of because it owned the PalmOS. Long story short, the Palm Economy didn't last and Palm licensees began dropping the PalmOS after Cobalt, PalmSource's next generation PalmOS was rejected by every licensee including PalmOne. PalmSource started over with a Linux-based version and developed strong ties with Chinese developers. This attracted the attention of ACCESS, a Japanese mobile software company which bought PalmSource. A lot of Palm's problems today can be traced to this saga. It was a huge mess but Palm is actually in better shape now than they were around 2000 when all of this crazy maneuvering happened. -- "This is a revolution dammit! We're going to have to offend somebody." -- John Adams in "1776" Roberto Castillo robertocastillo(a)ameritech.net http://zombie-gulch.myminicity.com/ |