Sadly, it's not so: if you read their website carefully, you'll find that the USB port doesn't actually carry data in either direction. It's just for attaching usb-powered devices (ie: a lamp) to the clock.

I wrote American Innovations and asked, and they say that an mp3 model is coming, but probably not until this time next year.

So close to perfect. Why on earth they don't put an ipod dock into this thing is beyond me.

The end of 2008?

Um, no. Stick a fork in Palm, they're done.

Eric: although it's true that neither Palm nor Access have managed to ship (or have someone else ship) a phone based on their next-gen OSes, Access appears to be much further along in the process than Palm is. There's an SDK for ALP in limited release, and Access has documentation for it on their website. Palm, in contrast, has so far only said that "PalmOS II" will ship sometime in 2008, and if there's any documentation about the system yet it's only been given out under NDA.

Interesting. If a US carrier actually ships an Access Linux Platform device, this could finally be an escape route to the many, many users currently standing on the decks of the sinking ship PalmOS...

Posty McPostspredictably makes a post here.

Wow, I haven't seen a desktop with a builtin keyboard nook since the Amiga 1000. Brings a tear to my eye, it does...

Palm's ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory never ceases to amaze me. They've been working on a next-gen OS for how many years now?! First they buy the remains of Be in 2001 in order to develop Cobalt. Then they spin off the OS division into a seperate company. Then they decide to ignore Cobalt. Then they decide that maybe spinning off PalmSource wasn't such a hot idea (you think?), and try to buy them back...only to get outbid by Access. Access spends the next 2 years developing a linux-based, Garnet-compatible smartphone OS from the ground up, and Palm decides at the 11th hour to not use it and develop their own instead. So now it's nearing the end of 2007, and Palm has nothing, zip, nada to show for six years of effort to replace Garnet, and their best estimate of when "PalmOS II" will be available is in early 2008. Meanwhile, the one actual no-argument star in their engineering department has been spending the last two years working on...a subnotebook.

Palm's shareholders should be demanding the heads of the entire executive team and board of directors on pikes.

Nothing we've seen so far about ALP suggests that it's any great shakes... but unlike "PalmOS II" or whatever Palm is calling their homegrown linux Garnet replacement, at least it exists. If any US-based carrier ships an ALP-based phone in 2007, I'll drop my Treo for it in a heartbeat.

...not that that's going to happen. Sigh.

David: yes. I don't mean it as an insult. The 360 doesn't have many games for the same reason the PS/3 doesn't: it hasn't been around that long, and A-list games are difficult and time-consuming to make.

If I buy a 360 today, what are the games that I must have, right now? Gears of War, that's a gimme. Dead Rising, ditto. Ghost Recon, okay, but we're already getting heavy on the FPSes. Rockstart Table Tennis? Maybe. Guitar Hero? Only if I don't already have the PS2 version. Forza Motorspot? Limited appeal there, but okay. The Darkness? Virtua Tennis 3? Boy, we're off in the weeds right quick here...

Gamespot has a grand total of 6 games with a 9.0 rating or higher for the 360. Four of them are FPSen. The games just aren't there yet. The situation with the PS3 is even worse. Meanwhile, the PS2, which can be had brand new for about $100, has over 60 games with a 9.0 or higher, many of which can be had for under $15 now.

The 360 and the PS3 will get there, no doubt. Halo 3, GTA4, MGS4... they're all coming, as are price cuts for the hardware. But why should I -- or you, or anyone else -- reach into my pocket to subsidize Sony and Microsoft's R&D expenses right now?