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Palm IIIc, IIIxe Released
homerj79 writes, "Palm Computing announced today the release of their next generation Palm's, the IIIc and IIIxe. The IIIc sports 8MB of RAM, PalmOS 3.5 and a very cool 256-color TFT display. The Palm also has a built in rechargable battery that supposedly lasts for two weeks between charges. The IIIxe is much like the IIIx, but doubles the RAM to 8MB. Both also have a new casing on them, with a dark slate colored case rather than the gray of the past. "
If you look close at the two pictures: color and b/w you'll see that the color screen is quite a bit smaller (or it certainly appears to be to me - either that or the color palm is much bigger overall). That's got to suck readability-wise. I know it's quite comfortable reading a long text on my Palm V, but anything smaller would make it a real eye strain. Anyone got one yet who can give a review?
Matt. Want XML + Apache + Stylesheets? Get AxKit.
Palm also released some new accessories today, including the folding keyboard discussed here a while ago (made by Think Outside but sold under the Palm brand) and a digital camera attachment. They've also added an unlimited-use plan for the Palm VII.
I don't know about you, but I actually use my Handspring a lot while I'm outside and out & about. I also use it in a lot of highly-lit areas. In fact, I *love* my Handspring's new reflective screen (versus my old Palm III's murky screen), and that it's pretty much readable under the same conditions as a book.
Now... my laptop and the WinCE PDA my boss just took back to Best Buy both have active matrix screens. You can't see either of them in sunlight outside, bright overhead light inside, or anywhere where the ambient light is brighter than that of the screen.
That sucks. Because a PDA is meant for quick, always available use. Not at your desk, but Out There when you get your ideas and make your meetings.
And as far as I'm concerned, and active matrix screen hampers that.
OK, color Palm is cool. Perhaps; that's what they said about the colour game boy. Have you tried playing tetris in low light on a colour gb? It's damn difficult. I love my palm (so to speak), and I can't really imagine life improving because of colour. It's indispensible, but only for text and books. Game-boy-off-topic-aside: upon buying the aforementioned GB, the sales drone insisted that I needed a copy of Pokemon. The conversation went something like this: SD:Pokemon is only IR30. ME:I don't want pokemon. I want tetris. SD:But Pokemon is really popular. YOu can use it to play against other players. ME:I'm thirty fucking years old. How many ten-year-old pokemon players do you think I know. SD:BUt it's very good. ME:Look, I'm only buying this because I want something portable that I can play tetris on. I'm buying tetris, not the game boy. SD:But you can still play Pokemon. ME:Are you getting a commission? Or are you secretly working for Team Rocket? SD:What? ME:Never mind. Just give me tetris. SD:Okay. Are you sure you don't want pokemon as well?
I have a Handspring Visor with 8MB of memory and have had no problem filling this up. 2MB would be plenty for todo lists phone numbers etc. But is soon used up when you start putting books and reference materials on it.
I would want more memory much more than color. What does color give you? With more memory I can have more indormation in my pocket.
What made me buy one of these things is that it that they are more than an organizer they are a pocket sized computer.
I am however looking forward to the pocket sized, voice controlled linux box. (That is cheap enough that I can stick it in my pocket without having nightmares.)
Noel
RootPrompt.org -- Nothing but Unix
kayaking
I don't think you understand their reasoning.
256 colour is more than enough for what I believe their intentions are. Hell 16 colour would have sufficed in my situation.
I use a Palm to store data, keep notes, etc. The colour can be used to highlight, annotate or otherwise bring attention to parts of the information contained without requiring mucking up the display by adding underlines or making the text bigger. Just change the colour to red and your eye instantly goes towards it first.
Want 24-bit colour with alpha, 3D accelleration, 3D surround sound and enough balls to play MP3s? Get a laptop. This isn't meant to replace them. It's meant to be portable and useful.