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palmOne Announces Tungsten T5

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the everyone-likes-little-computers-right dept.

btornado writes "palmOne has officially announced the Tungsten T5, which is due out in early November. It features 256 MB of flash memory, Palm OS Garnet 5.4 with a 320x480 display, and Bluetooth connectivity with support for the SDIO Wifi card. It is also the first device to support the Multi-connector, which allows you to trickle charge from the USB cable. You can also configure the T5 as a USB drive to transfer files."

10 of 200 comments (clear)

  1. Wifi Support by Metatron · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Support for a WiFi card ... why does it not have WiFi in it ?????

    1. Re:Wifi Support by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Think about how how much wifi has changed over the last 3 years, then 5 years, and for a stretch over the last 10 years. Wifi changes will occur in the future therefore, the component shouild be user upgradable instead of hard built in.

    2. Re:Wifi Support by jht · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, WiFi is probably more of a niche for a PDA than Bluetooth for the most part. WiFi support (probably just 802.11b) will only get you networking over a short distance wherever a network is available, and it sucks power rather quickly. Odds are, though, that you're more likely to use WiFi with your laptop.

      A PDA, OTOH, needs mainly to talk to it's "mothership" desktop, or to a cell phone, or some other "personal" device. Right up Bluetooth's alley. In fact, probably the best way to think of Bluetooth on a PDA is as an expansion port that just happens to be wireless.

      I use Bluetooth to sync my Palm and my PowerBook, to connect my cell phone to my Jabra headset, to iSync everything, to connect my iMac to peripherals, and in a pinch I use Bluetooth to get GPRS internet access with my cell phone from my PowerBook when I don't have any other form of access available. I also have used my cell phone with the Palm (a Tungsten T) the same way.

      And though I don't use it as much, I have a Dell laptop with Bluetooth, and the cordless phone at my office uses it both to talk to the base station and to sync with a PC.

      OTOH I have a Pocket PC as well (an iPaq 1935), and I use a Sandisk SDIO WiFi card with it. Very rarely. There's just not much I'd do with it that isn't better served by the laptop, and the SDIO card sucks power so quickly you can practically see the power meter drop.

      Mind you, I'm not dumping on WiFi. It's great, and useful, but it's just good for one thing - networking. In PDA's that's enough of a niche compared to what you can do with Bluetooth that I'd rather have Bluetooth in my PDA given a choice of only one.

      --
      -- Josh Turiel
      "2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
  2. Power consumption... by blueZ3 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    WiFi sucks power like crazy. It reduces battery life by over 70% if the SDIO WiFi card is any indication.

    And, as another poster mentioned, WiFi seems to change about once a year - and I'd rather buy a new $100 SDIO card than a new $400 PDA.

    --
    Interested in a Flash-based MAME front end? Visit mame.danzbb.com
  3. With these specs.... by ShatteredDream · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why didn't they just modify BeIA so that it could run on their hardware? BeIA, the stripped down internet appliance version of BeOS, could easily run on their hardware now. I had BeOS running in half that memory on a PII 450 and it was FAST. Whoever made the decision to buy Be's IP and not fully exploit it at Palm should be shot.

    --
    Click here or a puppy gets stomped!
  4. I'm confused by djupedal · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No Wi-Fi built-in... no microphone... no Cobalt...no sliding case - can support stereo speakers and portable file transfers, yet it is targetted at business users? RealPlayer required on it and your desktop machine (ouch).

    Why does it feel like PalmOne wants me to buy a product from another company to replace my m515?

    A review link... - And an accessory list link...

  5. Cheaper T3 by TonyZahn · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think the real news here is that the price of the T3 has dropped to $350 with the releaase of the T5.
    Another $50 and I'll be all over it...

    --
    - sig? who is this sig of which you speak?
  6. Re:Where is OS6? by MadChicken · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I agree with multitasking/threading in a LIMITED way, but certainly not a file system. That's the stupidest contrived need for a PDA I've ever heard of. For those of you with Winboxes, open up your "Program Files" folder. You really want something like that on your limited memory PDA? Yikes. I used an iPaq for a year, and file systems... what a waste (Ever heard of a program called WIMR? Don't need one on Palms). The database idea Palm had 'way back was well ahead of its time... the only thing that was missing was being able to install generic files on that "file system"; like MP3s or DOC files. Nice if/when desktops catch up to that (WinFS?)

    As for Multitasking, again, CE machines are a nightmare of "wanna be a desktop" os overkill. This is a sweet and smart way to do it, instead of "Start | Settings | Memory | Running Applications | End Program" or loading a program to make the close button actually close something.

    My iPaq is now sitting in the cradle, and has been for about 3 months, untouched, while I carry my Tungsten E upstairs and downstairs just in case I need it.

    OK! Ignition started, pour on the kerosene!

    --
    SYS 64738 NO CARRIER
  7. Nothing to see here. Move along.... by jbarr · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Really, this is really nothing more than a T3 that can't be "collapsed". It has some "extras" like more RAM, more Flash RAM, but everything else is just software addons that can be found for the T3 in one form or another.

    This certainly is not a revolutionary device, and the lack of WiFi is VERY disappointing. A colleague just bought one of the new HP ipaqs that has a FULL VGA screen and integrated WiFi, and it simply smokes anything Palm has put out. Yes, it was almost double the cost, but still, the T5 is a real disappontment.

    Now, if Sony would have released a UX-50 with either no camera or a removable camera (to comply with many business restrictions) it would be our device of choice...

    --
    My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
  8. What Happened to COLBALT?!? Palm OS 6 by lnewton64 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Palm source released Colbalt almost 10 months ago. I was expecting the T5 to have palm OS6, does anyone know what the scoop is?