Palm Inc.
Palm Inc. unveils their second-generation wireless handheld, the i705. The major change from the VII is the “always-on” features (incoming email/instant-message notification; live instant messaging). The VII was strictly “pull”, which made it impossible for developers (or Palm) to build apps that could report live data or that could receive information without the user’s involvement. (Actually, that last little bit is also hampered by the strictly single-tasking PalmOS. A minor impediment.)
Another big improvement over the VII: form factor. It’s smaller and lighter than the VII, and doesn’t have the ugly fold-out antenna (although if you don’t mind the slightly poorer reception, you can remove the antenna on the VII and rotate it so that the internal switch thinks the antenna’s raised when it’s really not).
As expected, most Slashdot readers are underwhelmed.