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palmOne Releases Two New Zire Handhelds
wPageUp writes "palmOne today announced two new additions to their consumer Zire PDA line. According to PalmInfoCenter, the Zire 72 has a 1.2 MP digital camera, 32MB of ram and a 312MHz Intel processor for $299. On the low end side, the new Zire 31 is the first sub-$150 color handheld to include MP3 audio and a memory expansion slot."
Okay, these are very sweet systems, BUT this seem to cut off the air supply of some of the "Pro" versions. So are we going to see some new "Pro" hardware from PalmOne? When will be see a Palm OS Cobalt (PalmOS6) system?
I really like the look of the Zire 72, but the new 31's colour looks a bit "iffy" in the pictures (like the colour of old BluTack). Anyone seen one of these in real life?
How do these stack up against the latest phones?
Seriously, i have a nokia 6600, what can the Zire's do that the 6600 cant.
IMHO, phone miss at least one major feature: the ability to enter date fast and "almost intuitively". Seriously, writing a short message is rather a pain - taking notes with 10 keys? Please, no!
About god-damned time. MP3 audio and a memory expansion slot also? Great!
It seemed like for the longest time, colour MP3-capable handhelds cost in the $400-500 range and up. For that price, you might as well buy a used notebook or subnote. Finally, they're not trying to bend you over and screw you just to get a colour screen or audio abilities.
Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
If these new Palms are based on Intel ARM chips, does that mean that there is a possibility of getting linux running on them? Are there any attempts underway?
Agreed, how ever for taking notes i use the voice recorder and then add it in later via the bluetooth link and software on the PC. This is where phones like the P900 (and to a lesser extent the p800) work, although more expensive they have the same input type as the PDA, with stylus and touch screen.
However when i use SMS the use of predictive texting has about an 80% first time hit rate and in the hands of a average texter is not a disadvantage over a small qwerty keyboard, seriously, if you have not watched some of the kids today type on those keyboards its very fast, i think one Japanese girl hit something like 95wpm.
Kingdom of Loathing (www.kingdomofloathing.com) Addicted is me
Don;t be stupid, pick one and wait for it to show up in Palm's outlet store. At least then you are not paying the over inflated price.
where the answers are
I've seen all the newest smartphones pass by my desk, Nokia 6600, SonyEricsson P900, Siemens SX1 -- they are just not PDA's. They are phones, trying to do too much -- so you end up with a wierd hybrid of a phone, PDA, mp3player that doesn't do anything good and is not even usable as a phone anymore.
Screens on all these phones are no match for the new crispy Palm screens, and the sheer number of applications I can download for the Palm makes all the difference.
The fact she's known for that proves not everyone is able to achieve those rates ;)
Hmmm i cant type 95wpm on a qwerty keyboard with 100 % accuracy (talk to me on IRC to prove this one)
Can you do 95wpm on a sylus qwerty keyboard, i doubt it. I can type on my phone keys at a decent speed with PredTXT switched on. Its a handicap for some things but for a SLIGHT disadvantage at typeing speeds (only really use when entering peoples names and the like) the advantages that i get far outwiegh
it
Kingdom of Loathing (www.kingdomofloathing.com) Addicted is me
Recent industry reporting seems to indicate a big slump in the PDA market. The trend is toward devices that incorporate cell phone features.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
Looking around the offices in the past 5 years I'm seeing less and less people using Palm's and those that are have the old Vx's or 50x series. Almost everyone who has a PDA these days has a PocketPC. Even I moved from a Vx to an iPaq and probably won't go back.
If I did then it would be if
- Support of the fields that Outlook has is better than on a PocketPC. Sure I can install another application (KeySuite) but then I can't integrate that data with other applications.
- A decent today screen with plugins. I don't want something flexible that allows me to define what my today screen shows and the order that it shows it.
- Continious syncing. This is a big one for me. If I take my PDA out of the cradle then I want to know that it is up-to date at that very moment in time. This is especially important when I have someone else managing my diary so I don't necessarily know when I have to sync. I do not want to have to remember to press the "sync" button 5 minutes before I want to take the PDA to a meeting.
Palm kind of remind me of Apple, in the sense that they have only a few people making their hardware. Microsoft on the other hand has a large number of hardware manufacturers which means that they are pushing the specifications further and quicker than Palm are.Camera, Bluetooth, wireless networking - all came from the PocketPC first because there was competition from the hardware manufacturers to differentiate their product from others. With Palm, there isn't quite so much of a need and so I get the feeling they're playing catch up (even though their screen resolution is better than the PocketPC's - but still no virtual grafitti area)
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I have a 6600 and I prefer web-browsing on it (Opera is a tad buggy at times) and entering text.
Given that you have to enter text for contacts, diary and notes - that pretty much means I still prefer using the PDA for the PDA type things.
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I've been a big fan of Palm since around their 3 series (got a 3xe pretty close to when they came out). Back then, it did everything I wanted that I expected a handheld to be able to do--i.e. I never expected multimedia support or anything.
The most recent offerings, however, have been atrocious in my mind. To get Bluetooth, you had to go with a Tungsten 2 or 3, both of which have a slider design that's notorious for breaking the digitizer. The Tungsten T is almost as good, but doesn't feature any extra connectivity--i.e. no "Universal Connector" (the wired connection that most phones that connect to Palms use) and no bluetooth (and as yet, no bluetooth drivers for the SD cards that give you bluetooth). The Zire series is great for affordability, and they finally added bluetooth (yay!), but the damned camera...some people aren't allowed to take into work (and technically count as recording devices--MPAA says you can't take it into a movie theater).
I'm waiting for the day when Palm or some other company begins customizing handhelds much like Dell does for computers. Then I could get my wireless connectivity, no camera, customize the memory and processor (taking into consideration battery life) etc. Then I'll be truly happy. Until then, I think I'll go shopping for a good phone.