Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Conversation >

Palm Pilots

ONLY NICE THINGS

22:07 / 16.11.03

I'm becoming a little tired of my current Palm Pilot, largely I suspect because I have mislaid its keyboard and as such it is significantly less useful, but also because it is getting old, the screen is getting a bit desensitized, it's a bit hard to read and so on. So, I've been thinking of upgrading. But to what?

My old one is a Handspring Visor Deluxe, the most irritating thing about which is without a doubt the use of AA batteries instead of a rechargeable Li-ion battery (meaning data keeps getting lost as I change the batteries, and that I can't just plug it in and recharge it through the cradle...) and TBH if the Zire had a bit more memory I'd probably just get one of those - can you load Docuemnts to Go onto it, does anyone know? However, I think it might be worth goign a bit further - does anyone have recommendations? I'm used to Palm Os, but have never tried PPC - is it any good? Probably thinkign of a consumer rather than business PDA - so, £1-400 rather than £4-700. Mainly I need it for PIM and creating documents I can easily move into Word, but I'm interersted in exploring other applications as well...shiny things are nice, essentially, but I never use more than about 10% of the capability of any device I ever buy, because too busy to learn how..

So, what are you guys using? What do you recommend? And should I jsut buy Documents to go for my current one and stop whining?

22:16 / 16.11.03

I have a Tungsten T which I understand you can get for 150 quid second hand in London these days. (The current one is the T3, which is considerably nicer, but more expensive.)

It's got 16 meg internal memory and you can put SD cards in it, so basically no real memory limit. It will play MP3s. I got a piece of software called Wordsmith for it, which lets you edit and save lengthy RTF documents, which are Word-compatible, including fonts, formatting, all that stuff. This was something like $30.

There are lots of great things you can do with it in terms of games and utilities and so on - Palm OS 5 - but one of my favourite aspects is that it feels like a *proper* gadget. It's made of metal and has a really satisfying heft to it. These things are important. Plus it has Bluetooth so I can get email and browse the web through my phone, if I'm inclined to waste money that way.

ONLY NICE THINGS

22:48 / 16.11.03

The T3 does look lovely, and has that coolio pull-out section and portrait/landscape switch button, but £150-£200 is probably more my price point. The T3 or T2 are both on my possibles list, as is the Toshiba e350 ... nice, no-frills numbers. The gadget factor is good, though....

05:58 / 17.11.03

have a look at the Tungsten E - it just came out recently and is pretty high spec for the price. I bought one, to replace a Handspring Visor, and really like it. It cost £179 from Micro Anvika on Tottenham Court Road.

06:01 / 17.11.03

On the mildly downside, they've saved money by using a USB connector instead of a cradle (you power it using a separate charger - lasts me about five days to a week). But that's not such a big deal when you're used to it. And it doesn't come with a cover.

06:06 / 17.11.03

Well, ok, it comes with a flimsy little cover thing that's not worth using.
I should shut up and get to work.

06:24 / 17.11.03

I have a Tungsten T and I'm very happy with it. I've just invested in one of Palm's combination stylus/ballpoint pen/torch/laser pointers too, 'cos I'm a sucker for toys.

ONLY NICE THINGS

20:38 / 17.11.03

Ooh! Yes, the Tungsten E does like quite fab, and got a really good write-up in a comparison. However, I think I might go for a PPC, if only for variety's sake - also, if I am leaving behind my lovely folding keyboard, I could do with some more ways of entering text onscreen than Grafitti - I quite like the PPC handwriting recognition software thing

The same mag that recommended the Tungsten E said of the Toshiba e350 that it would be tempting if it had PPC 2003, not 2002, and was a bit cheaper, and since I can get it for £200 with PPC 2003, I think that might be the way forward. But evil Microsoft....

02:51 / 18.11.03

What you want is an Axim. I have an Axim X5 (older than the X3) and it's been great for everything. All your questions will be answered on Aximsite.com.

08:06 / 18.11.03

Eeeeevil Microsoft. And won't you have to re-enter all your data, or is there a way to transfer it to PPC?

12:48 / 18.11.03

You should be able to sync the Palm with a third party app like Outlook rather than the Palm Desktop, then sync that app with the new pocket PC.

But it would still be evil. Unless it's running Linux.

12:57 / 18.11.03

Well ... I don't know. Can you sync all the notes pages and what-not to Outlook? Maybe you can. Don't do it Haus, stay in the world of Palm.

ONLY NICE THINGS

19:22 / 18.11.03

Bwahahahahahah! Too late! I do feel bad about the Microsoft thang, especially as I don't even *use* Outlook, but it *is* awfy shiny. And has a voice recorder and MP3 playback, which is good, and there's a hilarious Grafitti rip-off (the manual is great - "imitates the programs on some other organisers" - you claimjumping fucks) while I get the hang of the handwriting recognition software. It may be a while before I have the heart to get rid of my old one, though...

20:15 / 18.11.03

You big sell out. But glad you got something good - I'll be interested to hear what you thnk of the OS compared to Palm.