Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Palm Desktop 6.2: Moving Backwards

If you're not a Palm user, you can skip this post. I'm going to vent. If you do use a Palm, or if you're a software developer of any sort, read on.

Here is a rule, a law, a commandment: Updated versions of software, any software, should never possess fewer capabilities than the older versions. To do so is a version of intellectual and programming laziness that is unforgivable. Period.

I try to keep my software up-to-date. Consequently, I installed Palm Desktop 6.2.2 by Access on one of my computers today. Tomorrow, I will uninstall it. Color-coding for calendar categories is a basic feature. Gone. What idiot thought that would be okay? Birthdays from Contacts appearing automatically in the Calendar? Gone. And I'm not alone in lamenting this. Here's a sampling from the Palm Support Forum (and keep in mind this software has been out about a week, I think):

Why don't you include the color coding for calendar with this? Don't ruin the good thing, please.
Version 6.2.2 "Palm Desktop by ACCESS" is so drastically different than former versions of Palm Desktop, including the beta, that I am shocked. The product has de-evloved. I was hoping the device would start to take on features of the desktop. Instead the classic palm interface appears like a blurry monotone blue. I can't sort contacts by first name. Much more. Very disappointed. Even as a long time Palm user (10 years from Palm III) the iPhone is starting to look very appealing. Hope you are planning to fix it and that current release was a necessary evil.
why did you get rid of birthdays? one of the best calendar features.... b/c of that, I'm staying away.
How hard can this be? Someone should be fired. Period.