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Palm rises from the dead as a zombie brand, launches tiny smartphone
If you recall, Palm, creator of the Palm Pilot and WebOS, bombed out of the smartphone market and was purchased by HP. Palm died at HP after a short run of tablets and smartphones, and eventually Chinese smartphone company TCL snatched up the rights to the Palm brand in 2014, and things have been quiet since then. You might know TCL from running that other smartphone zombie brand, Blackberry.
Today, TCL's Palm presents itself as actual new company with new co-founders, a new logo, and an office in San Francisco. The company is launching the, uh, "Palm" phone (Do we call it the Palm Palm?) and it's taking the "Palm" name literally, with a device small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. The Palm Palm has a practically microscopic 3.3-inch display, and it measures just 96.6mm tall by 50.6mm wide, which is close to the size of a credit card. Palm is pitching the Palm as a "companion" device to your main smartphone, allowing you to leave your big phone behind and bring the Palm in a wallet, on a lanyard, or in any tiny pocket.
This tiny phone also comes with a really tiny spec sheet. You're getting a 3.3-inch 1280×720 display with a respectable 445ppi. This is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 SoC (that's eight Cortex A53 cores, usually at 1.4GHz) 3GB of RAM, and an 800mAh battery. There's 32GB of storage, a 12MP rear camera, 8MP front camera, IP68 dust and water resistance, USB-C, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and LTE.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 17 2018, @08:28AM (4 children)
i want one of those tiny zoolander phones
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday October 17 2018, @09:28AM (3 children)
It's interesting how incredibly tiny cell phones were once chic according to various movies, TV shows, and books. Mainly because they were preceded by ugly, clunky bricks and there was no need for a large display. Over a decade later (e.g. from Zoolander in 2001 to 2011), we got the phablet phenomenon. It took the death of Steve Jobs for Apple to hop on the trend. iPhone 5 was 4 inches and Steve Jobs was involved with the design. iPhone 6 and 6+ were 4.7 inches and 5.5 inches. Now flagship models are creeping up into deep >6 inch territory (Huawei Mate 20X lol) and Palm is a maverick for putting out a 3.3 inch phone.
Of course, tiny cell phones never fully disappeared. They became "dumb" phones. Cheap, convenient, fits into all pockets, minimal spying (ECHELON, but no spyware apps). How dumb!
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(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday October 17 2018, @02:03PM
I'd like a subcutaneous implant powered by the glucose in my bloodstream. Then nobody can ever tell me shut it off or confiscate it.
Bring on the full-body augmentation. I'm already a cyborg, so might as well go whole-hog.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday October 17 2018, @10:38PM (1 child)
There are some flaws in this Palm thingy though.
This is particularly scathing. [digitaltrends.com]
The key points:
Verizon only
It needs a "proper" phone to work.
Android is hard to use on a small screen.
It costs $350.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday October 17 2018, @10:47PM
That and the price are the worst parts. You could find plenty of people willing to remain locked in to a carrier and just junk the phone when they are done with it.
Maybe these will be given out free to Verizon customers.
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