[Ohenri]

As part of this program, I was given a call by this co. working for Palm Canada to seed this new PDA that I think thay may roll out soon - but I think that it's out in the US. Anyhow, I just got it delivered yesterday: Palm Zire 71 . The new addition in convergence. It has this digicam that takes 640x480 shots. Not the hottests, but they say that it's there for more of the spontaneous snapping. I'll post a shot soon. Also has an Media player (Real and MP3). Can also run some short videofiles as well... Comes with a SD card slot too..

Kinda slick on 1st look, But then again, I'm coming from the days of holding the IIIx. I still had the graphite colored case. Also, I'm of the Palm desktop 2.6.3 days - and I do recall some slight challenges with the units - esp when attchaching notes. But in this read me note they had - Palm was very clear in stating that they were working hard to make sure that the Mac OS HotSync experience was painless. Hmmm.... we'll see, I've not run v4.0 yet. I did call help desk about the upgrade that I was having probs with - and although I was prompted to select whether it was a Mac OS issue, the guy on the phone was not versed. Just pointed me to a doc that I had already read.

But in all, what are ehMac-ians saying? What PDA are u using and pls state pros/cons as you see'em. How is err-thing syncing? well?? I know that some of the hotter features on PDAs are sometimes not too accessible in Mac OS. 3rd party hacks have to be thown into the mix and all... Just looking for feedback really.

Holla!

 

[däycüs mäximüs]

i started playing with the zire 71 last weekend, and i have to say that this is a slick unit. the first zire (released around christmas) was the cheapo, bottom of the barrel model as far as palms were concerned, and it did kinda good.

with the 71s, you're getting a better screen and a pretty cool camera to boot. i find the 71's screen to be brighter than the tungsten t's screen, but at par with the recently introduced tungsten w (it's so cool too.. i was surfing with one yesterday).

palm has always supported macs. it's the sony clies that you have some stuff to worry about. apparently the clies sync, but you can't mount the memory stick.. you have to get a program called "missing sync" before you can utilize all the cool stuff that the clies have.

that's too bad, because there's this new clie, the tg50
that looks cool, but doesn't have osx support. boo on sony!

i'm in the market as well to get a new pda, and i think i'm going to go and wait for the uber-cool fossil palm and get that instead..

 

[VertiGoGo]

I use a Blackberry handheld...with the built-in phone.

 

[Strongblade]

My PDA is my iPod (5GB) and before anyone says "That's not a PDA!!!??!!" Think about this:

It holds all my contacts
It holds a calendar with events I placed on it
It holds my music
It has a clock
It has a game (Breakout)
It holds extra data (files)

It syncs up with my computer in each of these areas (contacts, calendar, clock, & music)

If I had enough room (I store too much on it to do this right now) I could even store a functioining OS with Apps that could BOOT MY MAC.

Now that is cool.

And there are even special extras, such as iPod Launcher, which can allow you to do all sorts of nifty things just by plugging it in!

 

[PosterBoy]

I have an old Handspring Visor Edge, but these days I am hot on the new Zire 71 which is a good buy for its price tag. I may also have the opportunity to pick up a Tungsten T when teh Tungsten C comes out later this month and the price of the T goes down again.

--PB

 

[mose]

I still use a IIIxe

Works for what I need ... schedules phone book and infra-red, docs. The connection with the Mac has always been problematic as in you have to know what you are doing to set it up... not quite plug and play as I would like. But it works eventually.

BUT!!!!

I was at a clients yesterday and he has a new COMPQ tablet PC..OH MY!!!!

He was and is a Mac cultist like moi, but this thing...whew!

It was a jaw dropping experience to play with it - with the exception that he had to have special drivers built for his Blackberry (the only negative) this unit made me think of what it will be like in the future...Buck Rogers anyone!

Write on it...turns hand written text to digital and sends as email automatically... from any program even the web.

Why did the Newton not develop into this!!!

Tablet

 

[SpanishJoe]

I have the old "crap" Palm Zire, which I bought a scant 3 months ago.

Pro: Looks nice, light, small, makes a nice organizer and guitar chordfinder. Graffiti recognition isn't that bad.

Con: Small memory, not backlit. Buttons are nonstandard. Palm III may be a better buy.

So there you go. It may be "garbage" compared to some of the other Palms out there, but if I lose it, I'm only out $150, and not $800.

-SJ.

 

[ghettobenz]

I have a palm Vx which is awesome - I use it mainly for storing appointments and reading the news (using Avantgo, which I highly recommend to everyone). I also use the Omniremote app from time to time, just to impress ppl Syncing was a problem with cradle-pc serial-mac serial-usb adapters and then into me lombard, but after a reinstall of OS 9 and some tweaking, I suddenly got it to sync via IR, which is cool. I have yet to try syncing with Jaguar which I just got.

But with my PC it works great right from the cradle.

I also have the portable keyboard which is ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL! I'm going to use it to take notes in class next year... Its just as good as any powerbook keyboard, and its so responsive ! If there are keyboards available for any of your PDA's and you do a lot of typing, GET ONE ! You will never regret it.

 

[hayesk]

mose, have you actually played with it. A coworker has a Dell PocketPC, and while it's flashy and cool looking at first, when you start to use it, you quickly realise, it's just crappy windows crammed into a smaller case. MS doesn't seem to understand handheld computing.

I was looking at the Palm Zire 71, but I want one without the camera. If Palm made that without a camera and sold if for $300 CDN, I'd buy it today. I don't want an m130 - the screen is only 160x160. As it stands right now, I'm looking at a colour Clie for $300.

 

[mose]

mose, have you actually played with it

YES AND I WOULD HAVE GONE BLIND...

 

[mose]

But seriously...

This is a full blown PC... wireless, ethernet, docking station, it works portrait or landscape and when you turn it it automatically switched. The only thing was if you attached the keyboard you have to shut it down and restart. But it works with a pen - like a wacom tablet but right on the screen. Nice interface and it was fast.

It had USB 2 a ton of other stuff and he had it running with a large monitor and it did video monitoring automatically...

say you are in a meeting you plug it into a projector or a large monitor - depending on the number of people in the room and use it as a white board - it captures everything you write on the screen and can send, store or print to all in the meeting.

On and on... I feel the same way I did when I say my first Mac.

yes it is windows.

Sorry for the diversion but I feel strongly about this

But today as most days (I counted em) 25% of the sites I went to were not Mac compatible. So I tried Virtual PC...nope still not totally compliant.

I see where Steve and Apple are going. But I am not that target group. I don't need, or want for that matter, a computer to be a central digital entertainment centre. I need it to be productive at work and if I am working - like I was today and the web - my main gig is the web - inaccessible...then that's that... as they say.

With the innovation, smarts and all the good stuff Apple showed for years how could this happen?

That little beauty (Best Croc Hunter impersonation) should have had an Apple logo on it. It didn't. Compaq was the PC I remember that was a damn door stop in the late 80's when I was doing video, talking to all sorts of machines - even mainframes - through Dataviz, composing midi (one album over the Internet), making art, photo manipulation and running rings around the PC world. Unfortunately now, this wonderful tool I have embraced for years is not communicating. I know it is the programmers fault. It is the absence of User Experience thinking. But no website is going to rejig just for a small number of Mac users.

Anyway ... sorry for the rant. I does bug me a great deal.

 

[ehMax]

Hey Mose, just curious... which web sites do you go to that are not Mac compatible? I've never really come across that, but am curious to know which are.

(No need to apologize for the rant... its good to get things off your chest once in a while)

???

My thought on the tablet PC's, handhelds... Never use them, never want to. The further away I can get from a pen, the better. Give me a keyboard and mouse/trackpad any day.

I think the PowerBook 12" or iBook 12" is the perfect compact portable computer. I can type extremely fast, it wakes from sleep almost instantaneous in OS X, it truly full featured etc... Apple could come out with something that makes me look at it in a different way. Sometimes they do that.. show me stuff I didn't even really know I wanted.

I tried the Newton MessapePad 2000, and various Palm devices. I have no use for them.. But that's just me.

 

[iGeeK]

Oh ye Palm holding heathens!


G/<, Newton Message Pad 110

 

[Kardnal]

I still have and use my Netwon 120

 

[Ohenri]

You know what... I did for a minute think about the iPod as a PDA - but I have yet to use it and see what I can/cannot do with it. I've not had a absolute need for all the apps that a PDA allows, but the odd one does come in handy.

All I do need are contacts, calendars, clock and a few others things. I don't play many games, so this Zire 71 is alot. The digicam is aiiight I guess. but the unit would be noticeably smaller w/o it.

Anyhow, we'll see as time passes on. The syncing has been a touch challenging - but I will see how things come together when I install on X. We'll see...

 

[(( p g ))]

I still have my Palm IIIxe but I seldom use since my iPod is usually all I need. Call me crazy, but I still think that the III design was the best thing that Palm ever did. Everything after it seemed like a solution looking for a problem...expensive, too.

As for the much bally-hoo'ed tablet PC, I suspect that they will have the shelf life and fate similar to the ColecoVision and other toys. It's a good idea that fails on execution. Witness the tag line for Compaq's model: "The simplicity of paper. The power of a PC." In truth, it should read: "Like paper, at $3800 per sheet."

 

[thirdeyevision]

I'm another Handspring Edge owner. I really like the thin form factor and aluminum[?]/metal housing. Being on my second grayscale PDA, I would like a colour display for the next one I move on to. I imagine I'll eventually switch to a Palm device - I'm not very pleased with Handspring's current offerings.

I'm not a heavy user. My usage is predominately only with the core app's, Date Book and Address. I find I reach for my Edge usually to look up a phone number or review any reminders of significant dates/appointments. I enjoy the little perks of reading offline with AvantGo and having a little digital photo album along with me - although a colour display would enhance the later a lot better. I've never been much of a gamer although I must admit DopeWars had me hooked for quite a few hours [excuse the pun]. Date Book has saved me by reminding me of many important dates almost forgotten like birthday's and anniversaries

That alone will keep me faithfull to owning a PDA

 

[ehMax]

Someday when Apple makes the iEverything... I'll bite.

Definition of the iEverything

A combination of:
- iPod (Music Tunes)
- iVideo Device (Display Video - Hook up to TV)
- Cell Phone (Video Converencing too)
- PDA (Contacts, Calendars etc)
- Digital Camera (Pictures on display - hook up to TV too)
- Digital Camcorder (Needed for video conferencing and and take small little movies)

And, it all fits in the pocket!

Sounds crazy, but in 10 years, who knows!

 

[mose]

Hey Mose, just curious... which web sites do you go to that are not Mac compatible? I've never really come across that, but am curious to know which are.

There are quite a few I have been faced with ...

CHUM FM for example has switched from Real Audio to something called WBC or WBS whatever

The Compaq site has a windows only .exe it installs - or tries

Spam Spam Arrest has an onlivne chat support that doesn't work

Webex

Accutel

two other asp's I use

etc etc etc

not fun

I was going to do the links here - but you get the idea and I am running late and have to go

best

mose

 

[Neil Yates]

I have a Dell Axim X5 Advanced (Pocket PC 2002, 400MHz PXA255 Intel CPU). Normally Windows-only, it works fine with a Belkin Bluetooth CF card with my PowerMac G4 and Belkin USB Bluetooth Dongle on OS X 10.2.5. I can file share to the Dell X5, but I primarily use it on my PC system.