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Palm T|X and Z22 Reviewed
robf writes "The eagerly awaited Palm T|X and Z22 have been officially announced. Palminfocenter has reviews posted for both the Palm T|X and the Palm Z22." From the article: "The T|X and Z22 are the first new models to return to the Palm name, after the company reacquired the rights to the Palm name. Palm has decided to drop the Tungsten sub brand, in order to highlight the strong Palm name brand."
As a long time user and fan of Palm, (I kind of consider them the tivo of the hand held industry -- maybe not the very first there, but one of the ones that got a lot of things right ergonomically before they got steamrolled by the industry and their own inertia), the time and technology seems about right for me.
Looking at the features list it seems to fulfill much of what I've waited for (good memory, expandable vi SD, nice screen, improved and enhanced original apps).
But a question for any who really know: Will the user be able to use this wireless capability to move pictures and mp3s to the device? That would just about lock it for me, but it's not clear from the feature list and description that that is doable.
Also, are there any users out there who would vouch for today's screen quality? I would be upgrading from the Palm m5xx which has a color screen, but that screen is of less than great quality and is quite anemic. I've seen other newer devices with screens that scream -- is Palm doing the same?
Is the Z22 backlit? The blurb doesn't say.
I would have bought a Zire 21 ages ago for a cheap e-book reader, had it been backlit.
I guess my old Handspring Visor Deluxe will still be in use if it's not.
Palm actually has an agreement with PalmSource to use the Palm OS in their devices until 2008 (or something close to then). For whatever reason, they didn't see fit to use Cobalt initially, and now that PalmSource has been focusing on Palm-on-Linux middleware, they're probably waiting for that to come out. Apps that run on Cobalt will run on POL, but they'll need a recompile. No sense in making your customers undergo two major OS changes in two years. They're probably also playing it safe since the sale of PalmSource to Access.
In any case, Palm appears to finally be positioning themselves as a device manufacturer that does some value-added stuff to whichever OS they are using. There are rumors floating around that there is Symbian version of the Treo. They're OS strategy seems to be one that will get them the most marketshare in various markets (smartphones and PDAs in the US, smartphones in EU, smartphones in Asia). My hope is that the Palm OS or POL doesn't get lost in the shuffle. I've used Windows Mobile a lot and still find Garnett a more attractive solution for what I need done.
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If you ever have the need to go into any kind of secure facility, you'll want a pilot (and phone) without a built-in camera. It'd be a drag to go in for a meeting only to have them require you leave your tools in your car.
A camera on a handheld is handy to have, and I get enough use out of it on my phone to lift it just out of "toy feature" status, but I still don't see it's use as an integrated part of a professional tool like this.
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Yes, they did have an agreement to use Windows Mobile on Palms. But obviously not on all Palms. It would seem that their strategy (for now, at least) is to continue releasing both kinds of devices. They may have plans to ditch Palm OS in the future, but they haven't announced that, and really nobody outside Palm knows whether they are going to do that. (And it might even be the case that nobody inside Palm knows the answer to that question yet.)
Palm spun off operating system development into a separate company, PalmSource, some years back. Palm hasn't been developing a next-generation OS; instead, PalmSource has been working on that. PalmSource will probably continue to do so, but whether Palm will adopt the new version remains to be seen.
Does the T|X or the Z22 play at least two gigs of music or have instant messaging? Otherwise it is completely irrelevant to the buzz today.
But honestly, I was so jacked up a couple years ago when the Zire first came out. I had to have it. The Zire is/was affordable and met all of my needs at the time. Then I discovered I could have SMS messages sent to my cellular phone as a reminder for my appointments (free incoming messages on my plan). Likewise I was rarely ever away from home or work and needed to know someone's work or home address; so I kept all my contacts on my phone, and kept up with my appointments via SMS messages and effectively made my Zire obsolete.
I'm certain others will find a spectacular value in the T|X with all of its functions especially being able to edit word and excel files on their handheld and transmitting those files wirelessly. But I tend to save those kinds of functions to be done at work place. My time is just that, my time.
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This is like trying to revive NeXT or OS/2. They had the whole handheld market "in the bag" and messed up. It is time to move on...
You might like the Sony TJ-37: PalmOS, WiFi, and Camera. Here's a review.
I'm still leaning towards the Tungsten C for the built-in keyboard but a half-vga screen is kind of tempting too.
Really, I've always thought palms were the epitome of the cool-but-useless-gadget phenomenon. I thought the Lifedrive, at least, was getting on to the right track. Bluetooth and Wifi, a 4GB drive, an actual file browser and the ability to transfer files like it was a normal external hard drive... I might, in theory, be able to use something like that. A couple revisions and a new (stable) operating system, and I might actually buy one. The current model however, when I tried one out, the included web browser kept crashing and the connection to an otherwise stable Wifi access point kept dropping.
At this rate, I think we'll see an iPod with an input device and wireless networking before Palm gets their act together and makes a device worth carrying around.
I dunno, it doesn't look as if Palm is doing anything as good as the thirdparties used to...the Sony Clie SJ22 (same demographic as the Z22) had a 320*320 screen, which was Sony's default, even on their cheapest B+W models. Plus Palm is confused about form factors...crude sexual jokes aside, they focus solely on the thickness, as opposed to the side to side width. The Tungsten's weren't very good to hold, kind of cutting into your outstretched hand, but the SJ22 felt much better, thicker but not as wide. (Of course it limits the size of the screen, but still.)
Ah well. I just Ebay'd up that Samsung clamshell Palm/phone...Palm/Treo doesn't understand the beauty of clamshell design either.
I've been a Palm loyalist since 1997, but even to me it's clear the future ain't so bright for the brand and the nice little UI.
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I had one of the original Palm Pilots, and I've never understood why they lost the Pilot name. Most (non-techie) people I know still talk about "pilots" when they are referring to any PDA. Is it too generic or something?
I own a Tungsten T3, and Mac compatibility is pretty limited. Going through some of the features on the new models, I am curious why the Palm needs an SD card to play MP3 files if you're syncing it with a Mac? What kind of sense does that make? How come Windows can store files directly in the on-board flash memory and the Mac can't?
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but Palm still hasn't come up with a PDA to beat Sony's last Clie models. My Tj-37 is two years old and has WiFi, a camera, lots of expansion, a small form-factor and great battery life. And before anyone goes on to say that "a business PDA doesn't need a camera" let me say that I use the crappy camera in my Tj-37 all the time. Sure, it's not a 2MP wonder, but I do have it with me all the time.
If and when my Tj-37 dies, I'll likely replace it with a Clie TH-55. This thing has wifi, 320x480 and absolutely awesome 8+ hour battery life again in 2003. The EU version even had bluetooth. With the camera and small form-factor, Palm still hasn't come up with an equal to this device. Really, Palm 2005 is just now catching up to the Clie from two years ago.
It's a shame, when Sony pulled out of the market, Palm OS and the Palm platform just stagnated.
My last two Palms - a Tungsten and a Zire 72 - made high-pitched humming noises. So loud I could hear it while sitting down and reading an eBook or reviewing notes. The Zire 72 runs out of battery juice within 45 minutes if I have the Wi-Fi card running.
Add to that experience the poor syncing with my Mac OS X and frequent Palm Desktop crashes with Windows XP SP2, I started syncing my calendar, address book, and notes to my iPod.
To scribble quick notes down I use The PocketMod - an ingenious combination of paper, planner, and orgami. A single sheet of paper becomes a folded booklet with eight different pages. No batteries, it's paper so if I drop it I don't cringe, and I get a new one every week!
The Luddites were ahead of their time.
I've been using palms for years, but I've finally jumped ship. I've just replaced my tungsten E with a dell axim X51V. I wanted to stay with palm, but I needed a top-end unit with wifi and a high-res screen for effectively replacing my old department laptop when I'm out of the office.
the 51v is nearly 50% more expensive than this new T|X, but since work is paying, price wasn't really an object. The screen is 480x640; it has 802.11b and bluetooth 1.2 (though the bluetooth seems broken on windows mobile 5 for prety much anything except file transfer and activesync at the moment); a damn sight more software runs on windows mobile rather than palm os (stock PIM software is about the same; pocketplus and pocket breeze rock bigtime); double the storage (256MB vs 128); and a user-replacable battery, so I can buy up to 3300mAh if I'm going to be away from mains for a long time (stock is 1100mAh). The CF + sd slot looks to be really useful too, as I'll get myself a 4GB microdrive as well as several useful addin cards that go in the CF slot; and the processor runs up to 624Mhz. Average lifetime is about 4 hours solid use, and since it's non-volatile storage, it doesn't matter if the battery goes flat. Spanks the best palms available, including this new one easily.
If palm sold a top-end PDA with similar specs, I would have stayed. As it is, I think palm are going to struggle to hold onto anything other than the entry-level PDA and smartphone market. Even in the midrange, existing pocket pc's compare well with this brand new palm.
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No camera, but it does have an SD slot. So check out this.
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It's very hard to understand why a non-Linux PDA is of any interest to this crowd. My Nokia 770 came in last week.
What is Palm's strategy with regards to operating systems?
Slap together whatever can, put it in a cheap, fragile shell, add some new graphics so it looks new and snazzy, and send it to production.
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But... my Palm (the M505, soon to be the T|X) is always with me. On my Palm, I have, and use:
There are tons of other apps for the Palm, these are just the ones that I've found (so far) that are particularly useful to me. YMWDV.
What this all boils down to is that I am never without something interesting to do, a place to make, keep and use notes and lists, and share photos and ideas.
The T|X will add web browsing and email, a lot more memory, the ability to play back music and audiobooks, and basically the form factor won't change at all. The T|X is just about the size of my current M505.
I can turn on my Palm anywhere without aggravating anyone or looking for some desk space — in a meeting or a movie theatre, at my desk, in a car, on a train, bus or plane, in a restaurant, store or at a customer's job site (we do some consulting and fast note taking capability is always useful in that venue.)
Palm just about as fast as I can write "normal" text on paper. It's really a very good system, and I'm eager to see what the T|X's Graffiti II will be like.
Palms really aren't laptops, and vice-versa. I'd truly hate to be without a Palm or Palm-like device. I use it every day. I use a laptop very seldom by comparison. Mostly on trips when I'm going to be out of town for more than a day or two — at that point, things I need to do require a full blown computer. But I still take the Palm everywhere, and usually leave the laptop in the hotel room or the car. :-)
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