I Would Like Some Opinions

[Cresho]

palm lifedrive

i was beating my head around and i came to the conclussion that i hate palm so much, even if they stuck linux behind its product, i still would not buy one.

I would like to see some opinions here or expiriences of the devices from palm and why some of you came over to the zaurus bandwagon.

i hear next year , they will add linux to the mix.

[omro]

I had a palm Zire, and the "it just works" way of it kept me happy for a long time, but the lack of a keyboard and a decent spreadsheet or word processor or pdf reader just eventually drove me insane.

I think the biggest factor for me was the lack of a keyboard though.

I was going to buy an OQO, but the Zaurus C1000 was a third of the price.

[Cresho]

hey omro!

Are you the one asking about changing the theme?  I have 3 on the way as soon as my c-1000 arrives. I have the umicons, cool.monkey, and also a mac style one. You're right about the darn keyboard for the palm stuff.  I just hate everything that comes with it- software is ...well BLah!!!  Also, it's all proprietary software. When can you replace those darn batteries when it dies and you need a freakin pc to install the software?  now that totally blows the boat into the deep blue depths of the sea.

[omro]

are you the one asking about changing the theme?

Wasn't me, but a mac style these sounds very cool, does it run on the sharp rom?

i thought that software already came with word, spreadsheet and the other good stuff? when i fiddle with it at the store, it just plain sucks and doesnt grab my attention. HOw incompatable is with word or spreadsheet. or do you need to purchase one?

As I recall some Palms come with a word proc and spread sheet, but not all. The ones that come for "free" are very basic, no better than the Hancom apps for the sharp. There are others out there, but at a cost.

I liked the idea of a device which just worked, some of my frustration with the Zaurus as a device that doesn't always just work is evident in other posts. However, the palm reminded me of a kodac digital camera I once had, so much was done for you that you couldn't actually do everything you wanted. And the palm is like that, it's pretty much limited by itself. I've always loved the Zaurus for the sheer scale and potential it has. Unfortunately thanks to no big name/big budget support this is all it remains, potential.

I use my C1000 with it's keyboard everyday. My Palm was used maybe a few times a week. Purely because the method of input was so tedious that I didn't want to use it that often and I found that I didn't want to put information into it.

Palm does sync a hell of a lot better than the Z though.

[Curious Aardvark]

Probably my third or fourth organiser was a palm (3 early hps - the 95lx still has the best keyboard ever put on a pocket computer and undoubtably the clearest screen without backlighting). It was a 100mx (I think, cheapo black and white job) Easy to use an absolutely brilliant backgammon program. Amazing battery life - had to stop using it when it stopped working. lasted about 8 months I guess. Then bought a zaurus 5500 just before my second 95lx stopped reading my pc-card. Nothing wrong with the 5500 took a hammering for about 18 months and is now relegated to emergency back-up pda then I just had to have a better keyboard and ended up with my amazing 860. I still miss my 95lx, but you can't have everything and the poorer keyboard on the 860 is more than made up for by all it's other advantages.
Now if only there were some kind of autoroute program that would run on a z.

On the whole I think palms are let down by their limited memory - I still haven't seen one with more than 16mb. And when you consider what you can do with a decent pocket pc based bit of kit or a zaurus - palm are now very much stuck in a niche which seems to be growing increasingly smaller.

[omro]

best keyboard I ever had on a PDA was a Psion 5, used to love that device, was brilliant.

[bam]

T3 owner and tweaker, Palm in the last year or so has literally quit innovating thier product, no major improvements in the OS or anything for that matter, they are still stuck in half-vga land and around the 64mb ram barrier, with the exception of zodiac...they are thinking hardware innovation. The lifedrive is a lame attempt at capturing the marketshares they have lost to micro$oft, I am not impressed with it at all, good try but you lost a loyal user. Now Sony used to show some innovation, but the american lazy ass market(cant read the manuals) returned so many Sony PDA's that they just simply sell them in Japan only now, if you have seen the new Sony PDA's they are pretty nice, but again stuck in half vga land and not bumping up the memory/cpu speed/ separate video processor. So only one choice left right.......Zaurus!

[Antikx]

I've been a Tungsten C owner for a couple years, and I use it like most people use a laptop.
I think it's still the best Palm out there.
I almost bought a 5500 when I bought my T|C but I was having problems getting a hold of one so I bought the T|C.

Pro's:
-It's has an integrated keyboard that works really well.
-It has integrated wifi that performs better than most laptops I've put it up against.
-Great battery life (1500 mAh batt)
   5+ hours of heavy browsing on a full charge
   two full length movies on a full charge
-comes with Documents to Go which is a lot better than Palm's memo app (It's kind of like Windows Wordpad regarding its functionality)
-The OS (Palm OS 5) is solid
-The sylus is metal and a good size.

Con's:
-still pretty expensive in most places
-no light on keys so using it in the dark is tough
-proprietary 2.5 mm jack (some Nokia headphones work)

I'm moving to the Zaurus because:
-vga screen
-better keyboard
-Linux (I really enjoy linux)
-I would like to program and help develop for the zaurus platform
-I like to tinker, and Palm doesn't let you tinker very easily
-I'm hoping the light from the screen on the clamshell Zaurus's will make it easier to use in the dark.
-I want the Zaurus to be my home PC, work PC and my PDA. NO MORE SYNCING!  

Integrated Wifi and VGA are my only beefs with the Z, but no pda is perfect for everyone, so I'm willing to make it work the best I can for me.

[Antikx]

Current Palm specs:

T|5
-320x480 screen
-416Mhz Arm
-1300 mAh batt
-256MB RAM
-Bluetooth

Lifedrive
-320x480 screen
-416Mhz XScale
-1600 mAh batt
-64MB RAM and 4Gig HDD
-Wifi and Bluetooth

[lpetroni]

are you the one asking about changing the theme?

I use my C1000 with it's keyboard everyday. My Palm was used maybe a few times a week. Purely because the method of input was so tedious that I didn't want to use it that often and I found that I didn't want to put information into it.
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Is it possible to port the handwriting recocgnition system used in the Newton to the Zaurus?

As a ex-Newton 2100 user the thing that I really miss is this!  
With the Newton it was just a matter of wrinting using anywhere in the screen and bingo everything was translated right! (for me a 95% of good recognition and I write in portuguese with accented words and my handwritting is really awful).

For all other aspects I feel the Z is far more potent that the Newton.

[jomo]

Different Strokes for different folks, as they say.  Had a Palm (Sony Clie NX-60).  Loved the Clie, but hated the battery life.  I LOVE graffiti.  Hate thumb-boards.  (I actually know how to really type, and thumb-boards just make me develop bad habits.)  Bought a Zaurus because the Clie's battery life was... inadequate.  The more I came to use it, the more the battery life became an issue.  Bought a Zaurus.  LOVED the battery life.  Like the 'free' software.  Thought the Zaurus was buggy as heck.  (Free software, after all.)  Bought the TKC apps (Calendar, ToDo, addressbook, mp3player, video-player, and  zip).  This eliminated the whole 'free' part of the equation, but I was still happy.  Battery life was great.  I got some stable apps that worked more or less all the time if I didn't beat on the Z too much.  Then, my Z (SL-C860) just quit working.  I baby my devices.  (No dropping, case or not.  No banging them into things.)  Sent it back to the vendor.  (Dynamism.)  They were able to boot it without a problem.  They say there's nothing wrong with it.  Now, of course, I don't trust it.  Bought a Palm Life-Drive.  I have graffiti again.  I have all the battery life I had with the Zaurus.  The OS and apps are stable, and I don't have to pay for the basic applications (PIM-Suite).  From a contrarian view-point, Palm has it's issues, but the Life Drive was cheaper than a Zaurus, has just as much storage as the SL-C3000, has built-in WiFi and Bluetooth (if that's a must-have for you), and 'just works'.  The manufacturer's state-side, so I don't have to deal with any intermediaries if it breaks.  My return to Palm has made me happy.  I still bounce in here from time to time.  I still think the Z is a great little gadget for the experimenters, and I have some crazy hopes that it might turn into an honest alternative to Palm/Pocket PC.  Unfortunately, a lot of the guys who are really driving development are driving it only in directions that suit them.  That's ok.  They're doing it for free, and they do a heck of a lot more than Sharp EVER did.  (God Bless you OpenZaurus/Opie/GPE and Cacko guys.)  But not everybody is a Linux admin who is comfortable working in a shell, and not everybody likes thumb-keyboards.  (Hate them, personally.)  It would be nice to see some effort go in directions that broaden the user base.  Unfortunately, I have a million other things to do, as I'm sure a lot of us here do, so I can't do it myself.  So, for now, I'll lurk and hope.

[ev1l]

i came to the conclussion that i hate palm so much, even if they stuck linux behind its product, i still would not buy one.

Why? Zealotry won't fix anything.

best keyboard I ever had on a PDA was a Psion 5, used to love that device, was brilliant.

Haha, same here. I'd love to see Maemo running on a Series5 type of device.

things!

The enter key's not getting any love, here.

IMHO Palms are very nicely integrated devices, but this comes at the cost of fuck-roundability, which is fine with devices like the Treo 650 because it does so many things already, but not standard PDA's.
The platform is also very much closed, so that sucks.

[rrnwexec]

Is it possible to port the handwriting recocgnition system used in the Newton to the Zaurus?

As a ex-Newton 2100 user the thing that I really miss is this! 

Apple licensed the Newton HWR from Paragon. Following their trail, this is the URL that we should all hit to begin our lobby to port to the Z.

http://linux-software.penreader.com/index.html

For those of you who have owned and used Newtons, you'll understand why this is important. Let's hope we can influence these folks. The notion that this exists for PocketPC and not the Z is an embarassment.

[brashley46]

palm lifedrive

i was beating my head around and i came to the conclussion that i hate palm so much, even if they stuck linux behind its product, i still would not buy one.

I would like to see some opinions here or expiriences of the devices from palm and why some of you came over to the zaurus bandwagon.

i hear next year , they will add linux to the mix.
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My first handheld was a Franklin eBookman. Nifty, but obsolete when I bought it three years ago.
The second, one year ago, was a treo90. Nice colour screen, some nifty apps available, no speakers, no mp3 player, too much proprietary software ... but I did find the free acrobat reader for Palm that some of you can't seem to locate. Also obsolete when I bought it. Thumbboard was nice.
Now I've got the 5500. I'm in love. Most of the apps and versatility of the later Palm devices at half the price, plus the ability to flash the OS to something approximating my needs as an sf reader/fan photographer ... I love being able to switch the CF card out of my camera into the Z and do a rudimentary edit on my  pictures. Mind you I'd like to figure out how to move the .jpegs from the CF card to the SD card so as to pop it back into the camera for more!

[Cresho]

palm lifedrive

i was beating my head around and i came to the conclussion that i hate palm so much, even if they stuck linux behind its product, i still would not buy one.

I would like to see some opinions here or expiriences of the devices from palm and why some of you came over to the zaurus bandwagon.

i hear next year , they will add linux to the mix.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=85573\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

My first handheld was a Franklin eBookman. Nifty, but obsolete when I bought it three years ago.
The second, one year ago, was a treo90. Nice colour screen, some nifty apps available, no speakers, no mp3 player, too much proprietary software ... but I did find the free acrobat reader for Palm that some of you can't seem to locate. Also obsolete when I bought it. Thumbboard was nice.
Now I've got the 5500. I'm in love. Most of the apps and versatility of the later Palm devices at half the price, plus the ability to flash the OS to something approximating my needs as an sf reader/fan photographer ... I love being able to switch the CF card out of my camera into the Z and do a rudimentary edit on my  pictures. Mind you I'd like to figure out how to move the .jpegs from the CF card to the SD card so as to pop it back into the camera for more!
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My GOD child!

your in for a surprise if you decide to go with the c1000

visual Q- is an image editor and full fledged mind you.

i use thekompany.com gallery-the best viewer for your money.  there are others but none of them give you information about the picture itself like lighting, apature, pixle, the high tech stuff

and on my c1000.  i have a fujifilm 3200 camera with a xd card which i adapt to a cf xd card adaptor which goes into my zaurus unit and i transfer files into a sd card 1gb.  i do my picture editing with visual q and i use thekompany gallery since it displays pictures much nicer than the rest.

i recommend it.  buy gallery and explorer from thekompany.com.  then visual q...you might need to find out if its available for the sl5500.  i never found one myself. i did use the hancompicture editor but the updated sharprom disabled its usefullness.