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