Two conflicting views

Looking at the Palm Treo 700W I have to think — they’ve lost it. What was Palm thinking? For years they have represented simplicity and streamlined functionality. Palm devices were lightweight, easy to use and efficient.

So how well does the 700W come up using an operating system from Microsoft? Apparently not very well, according to David Pogue of the New York Times, who calls it a “Frankensteinian mishmash” and points out that you will, eventually, get an out of memory error (“Doesn’t anyone at Microsoft realize how silly it sounds to say, ‘Just a minute – I have to quit some programs on my phone’” quips David).

I just don’t get it. Simplicity wins, at least in my book — when will the kitchen sink syndrome die? I predict an age of enlightenment where everything is easy to use. I just hope I live long enough to experience it.

Now along that theme, Toshiba’s new Gigabeat just might have something to offer as a viable iPod contender. The interface looks reasonably easy to use and elegant; the device itself is certainly elegant (although I’m suspicious of that row of buttons down the side). It may prove to suffer from the kitchen sink syndrome (the FM radio tuner and fact it runs Windows is not promising). But they did get one thing right — turn the device sideways and you’ve got a pretty nice letterbox picture. Shame on Apple for missing the boat on that one.