New OSes, applications from PalmSource

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	New OSes, applications from PalmSource	By Larry Garfield, Tuesday 28 September 2004

PalmSource has been busy lately, and has now announced updates to both of its OS lines as well as a new web browser and OTA installer.

At its European Developer Conference, PalmSource has announced a number of new products including updates to both its Cobalt and Garnet operating system product lines.

PalmSource's next generation OS, named Palm OS Cobalt and formerly known as "Palm OS 6", has received a series of updates as part of Palm OS Cobalt 6.1. The updates consist mostly of folding licensee enhancements back into the core OS. These includes improved telephony support including new GSM and GPRS APIs to make life easier for licensees. The new OS also adds standard support for NAND ROM through an automatic backup and restore feature to help prevent data loss when the battery runs down. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi support have also been more tightly integrated into the base OS, including support for Bluetooth 1.2. 5-way navigation support has now been standardized, no doubt based on the design used by palmOne for the past two years.

Several of the core applications have been updated as well to give a more modern look and feel and support the 5-way navigator, while screen support now scales from low-res to VGA displays in both portrait and landscape mode. Chinese support has also been improved. Ironically, to date no handhelds have shipped using the original 6.0 version of Cobalt, announced early this year.

The company has also updated its "Garnet" OS, the new name for Palm OS 5 now that PalmSource is targeting it specifically at smartphones and communicators. Many of the updates are the same as for Cobalt, such as tighter Bluetooth integration standard in the OS to make life easier for device manufacturers, while others include support BlackBerry e-mail, improved Java support for downloadable games, and plugins for Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, and other wireless technologies. Many of the changes, such as the improved Java support, are clearly intended to appeal to carriers who want to leverage their existing infrastructure and libraries. PalmSource claims that 11 smartphones will soon be supporting Garnet, but did not say which.

To support the increased emphasis on wireless technology, PalmSource has also debuted a new PalmSource Installer that supports over-the-air (OTA) installation. Aimed at developers and network operators, the PalmSource allows developers to create single-file install packages that can be transfered wirelessly or via a PC, allowing one-touch software download and install functionality. It installs onto a user's handheld on first use, and from then on allows users to easily install remote applications, even automatically detecting OS version, screen size, and memory requirements for programs that have multiple versions for different devices.

Finally, PalmSource has also announced a new version of the PalmSource Web Browser. Web Browser 3.0 is based on Access NetFront, as are its predecessors, and is designed to optimize web pages for smartphones and handhelds quickly. It also allows mobile operators and licensees to setup default home pages and book marks for branding. With support for HTML, XHTML, and WAP 2.0 and SSL or TLS for security, Web Browser 3.0, more importantly, includes hooks for developers to integrate it into their own applications or vice-versa, and also allows for over-the-air download of applications. It can operate with or without a proxy.