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Palm Releases New Tungsten T2
securitas writes "Palm has released its latest PDA, the Tungsten T2. The T2 features a Texas Instruments 144MHz OMAP 1510 ARM processor, 32MB SDRAM (29.5 available), 320 x 320 transflective TFT display, wireless communications including Bluetooth, email client, SMS, and web browser, Palm OS v5.2.1, and MP3, video playback, and photo software. It will set you back $399. You can read more about the Palm Tungsten T2 and get tech specs (PDF) at the Palm site. Press release here. More at CNet, PC World, Infosync, the Register and the Inquirer. I'm not sure how many people will buy this product instead of waiting for its newly acquired Handspring Treo 600."
I don't see anything new here at all - they just bundled a bunch of things. When is there going to be some fresh innovation in the PDA world?
"As previously reported, the T2 comes with 32MB of memory"
How come those devices always are so cheap on internal memory? I mean, get a least 128 MB in the cheapest of MP3 players these days. So what's the problem?
...um...like...a sig...
I really miss the black and white, 33MHz palms. What a wonderful idea those were. I never used more than 512K of the ram on those things and the batteries would last me weeks on end. My Palm III and Visor Deluxe worked without flaw for years. Now they've got too many faetures and extras, except for the zire, which feels very cheap and breakable to me (not to mention the TINY screen). I thought the whole idea for the Palm was SIMPLICITY. I think they'd honestly make more money if they just refined those old models, made them smaller and added mini-USB ports for HID keyboards and connectivity. The'd be selling twice as many palms, and the stable platform would finally give corporate customers time to evaluate and migrate to the Palm (right now they can't because the meaning of 'Palm' keeps changing, hardware and software). Here's an idea, LET PocketPC take the speed/features crown, make really high-quality reliable and simple Palms that people can pick up and USE. I'll bet they could put the whole DragonBall palm logic and memory onto one or two chips now, it would be beautiful.
About half the people I know who have Palms have the old ones and they SWEAR by them. I know people who have PalmIIIs that bought a second one, new, just to replace their current one when it dies.
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
compact flash is also HUGE in physical size compared to MMC or SD.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
Of all the formats to moan about, try the sony memory stick on the clies. propriatary format, more expensive than SD/MMC last time I checked and about to become incompatable with itself with memory stick pro.
The advantages of SD are the size, protected content can be put on it hence Secure Digital and if you wanna moan about all protection is bad, use an MMC, slightly smaller cheaper in places, uses the same slot.
And the most important thing compatability. All new camcorders afaik except sony take SD cards and loads of stills take SD, plenty of mp3 players take MMCs, my old phone took an MMC.
And heres something insightful, google palm SDIO, theres an add on camera, a bluetooth card, a wifi card coming up, a video out for presentations. Nothing but memory?
Apparently listening to music via my bluetooth headset is not an option. I love using it for my mobile phone. When am I going to get to use it for my PDA?
If theres no WiFi, what good is a PDA? I want to be able to get online, for free.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
Because it's ultra reliable, the batteries last weeks, it does the key orgnisational tasks I require, it incldues an 8Meg Memory Stick for backing up (I only use 250k so far!), it's well made and most importantly, it doesn't pretend to be a multimedia machine. How complicated is it to download video to a Palm T2 and how much can you get in 32Meg? I will by a multimedia PDA when, like the iPod - it has a 30 gig hard drive. And built in 802.11g. Sony's new Clie 50 still lacks the RAM, but it accepts Memory Stick Pro, so one could watch hours of video! Now that is innovation!
O'WONDERWe're working on it.
What?
Palm bought Handspring to flesh out their core markets. Handspring had basically committed to being only a "convergence" pda company (the treo line had become their only moneymaker), and had spent a lot of time listening to both customers and providers.
The treo 600 is supposed to be the distillation of all this - hardware revisions were made to directly answer the requests of Sprint, et al. This is another thing - Handspring had very good relations with the providers - and a completely different set (Sprint, Cingular, Orange) than Palm (ATTW).
Notice that palm has never once tried to make an true phone/pda (the tungsten W only supports "handsfree" phone). My guess is, if anything, the tungsten W is short lived.
The tungsten C, on the other hand, with the fast processor, high res screen, keyboard, ram, and WLAN is another direction the market is going - notice all the PockPC models, the new Sony's, etc.
Handspring the brandname is probably quite short-lived. The treo line and the engineering behind it and in the future? A much better chance.