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Microsoft licenses dozens of patents from Access and Acacia, including some Palm inventions
Complete details on the deal are still a bit light, but it's just been revealed today that Microsoft has licensed a total of 74 patents from Acacia Research Corp. and Access Co. Ltd, some of which come from PalmSource, the software company spun off from Palm Inc. in 2003. While Microsoft itself isn't saying much on the matter beyond the usual formalities, Acacia CEO Paul Ryan says that the patents licensed by Microsoft are "foundational" in the smartphone market and, as The Wall Street Journal reports, they apparently include some of the very same patents that Acacia has sued other companies over, including Apple, RIM, Samsung and Motorola -- those specific patents concern things like email synchronization and "providing phone capabilities from personal computer devices." Guess that's one potential patent lawsuit you can mark off your list.
Symbol and Palm OS part ways
Where has the love gone? Symbol Technologies, a company that once enjoyed a very tight relationship with Palm and its platform, has officially announced that it will be dropping Palm OS from its lineup in January. For the record, there's no evidence to suggest Symbol's acquisition by Motorola played a role in the decision; rather, it was apparently based on shortages of required components, Windows Mobile's (arguably) superior feature set for the target demographic, and Symbol's understanding of Access' roadmap for the platform. The last two Palm-based products to roll off Symbol's assembly line will be the (Palm III-based!) SPT1550 and SPT1800 -- both of which have seen their heydays come and go. Get 'em while you can, folks.[Via The Inquirer]
PalmSource, RIP: 2003 - 2006
Yes, the name "PalmSource" is going away; of course, we all knew that PalmSource's days as a corporate identity were numbered when Japan's ACCESS scooped up the former Palm subsidiary last year, so let us concentrate not on the death of one logo, but on the birth of another. Simultaneous with the rebranding, ACCESS has retooled its corporate logo (pictured bottom), apparently "signifying the Company's evolution as a global corporation." Ultimately, be they PalmSource, ACCESS, Be, or anything else, all we really care about is seeing that Linux goodness find its way into some devices we can actually buy, so how about y'all spend less time on your branding initiatives and more time heads-down in the code, mkay?[Via Brighthand]
PalmSource and Access drop more info on their ALP OS
The recent months have been dark days indeed for the Palm OS, especially for its spiritual successor, codenamed Access Linux Platform (ALP). Palm is letting its license to the oft-delayed OS expire this December, and we haven't heard of too many device manufacturers stepping in its place. The good news is that Access-owned PalmSource hasn't been just sitting around a doing nothing, and they recently hosted a one day mini-conference at LinuxWorld to show off their wares so far. Apparently the core OS is fairly completed, and PalmSource is mainly working on the bundled applications that will ship with the OS. Classic Palm OS emulation is said to work perfectly well, even with the requirement by the OS to scale those 320 x 320 native applications to ALP's preferred QVGA touchscreen resolution. There were plenty of Haier N60 flip-phones on hand running the chosen res, along with a few prototypes with VGA screens and a keyboard -- a good sign of things to come. Unfortunately, the only pics allowed were of the developer tools running a virtualized version of ALP in Ubuntu -- a boon to developers, but no device-based eye candy for us. The biggest enhancement so far is multitasking afforded by the Linux base, though sexy features in the NetFront browser, new HotSync interoperability standards, and a newfound return to Palm OS looks of yore seem quite popular as well. In fact, with the OS's ability to be skinned with SVG graphics, Palm could conceivably make a branded version of the OS that would be quite familiar to old users, and dub it the Palm OS 6 we've always wanted. PalmSource says they're still on track to deliver the OS to licensees at the end of the year, with the first ALP products finally emerging next spring.[Via Brighthand
Palm's license to next-gen ALP to expire this December!
Trouble is a-brewing in Palm land. According to their most recent annual report, Palm is pulling out of a co-development agreement they had with PalmSource (now Access) in regards to the next-generation of Palm OS. They're obligated to pay through December 2, 2006, but they're stopping the multi-million dollar royalty payments after that due to a failure by PalmSource to meet certain promised milestones. Of course, milestones or no, a lack of royalties means a lack of a next-gen OS license to pep up our Treo. Palm states that they will keep producing new products based on the current version of the OS, and are "presently in negotiations with PalmSource to expand our development and distribution rights to the current version of the Palm OS." This would seem to imply that Palm wants to try their hand at their very own branch off of Palm OS 5, but if that were the case it would mean we're in for some more waiting -- the practice of which Palm users must be pretty good at by now.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Palm and Xerox finally settle Graffiti dispute
So we weren't even aware that this was an issue anymore, but apparently Xerox and Palm have still been battling over that "Unistrokes" handwriting recognition patent which caused us to waste several minutes of our lives learning a handful of new Graffiti 2 characters oh so long ago. Battling up until today, that is, because after nine years the two companies have finally come to a mutually-acceptable agreement, wherein Palm caves and pays Xerox $22.5 million. The deal does net Palm paid-up licenses on a total of three Xerox patents -- licenses that also apply to Access PalmSource and 3Com -- as well as a so-called seven-year "patent peace," in which the two sides agree to stop fussing and fighting about infringements pertaining to certain technologies. Does this agreement mean that we can expect to see the triumphant return of Graffiti 1 on future Palm PDAs? We're not sure, but frankly, now that we've moved on to packing QWERTY-equipped Treos, we don't really care.
