How do you like your T? I'm thinking about a T or W to replace my M500. I'm so hooked on the small size of the 500 that I really don't want anything much larger.

If others here will forgive the digression...

I like it very much indeed, though it cost more than it should. I have read some posts where others described some problems with theirs, but I have had none with mine at all, other than some balky 3rd-party software that wasn't ready for PalmOS 5.

This is my fourth Palm, and I had a Newton before that, but my last was a 3xe- I use the Palm desktop software constantly, and have all the most important information in my life in my Palm, but I didn't buy one of the 5 series. I'm very used to Graffiti, so I didn't consider the W.

This screen is a revelation- aside from impressive contrast (both indoors and out) and very nice color, it's the first that is entirely comfortable to read on- as in, novels and reference books. I have a 256mb SD card in mine, so there's room for... well, literally hundreds of books, if that's all that I used the card for (try THAT with an Altoids tin). 512mb cards are available, with 1gb coming soon. They're about the size of a postage stamp, thinner than the proverbial dime. I also carry the entire contents of websites, static ones with iSilo and dynamic ones get refreshed daily with Avantgo.

There are other less expensive models from Sony that give it a run for the money, but the "killer app" that clinched it for me was the voice recorder on the T. I once had one of those Landware lids for the Palm 3 series that has a digital voice recorder, and I found it immensely useful (once you actually get used to using it), especially for notes while driving, even recording information off the radio- but it eventually died.

Just so there's some direct relevance for this forum- I also have "Tube" software on it, that is a subway map, expanded now to the surface so that it also incorporates a (full color) map of the city, with the capability of locating streets, etc, and coordinating the above-ground map with the subway. Quite useful for the urban survival kit.

The fact that the Tungsten also takes the place of my aging MP3 player (so I use it as a "walkman") also takes a little of the sting out of the price. The built-in sketchpad thing is very useful for taking quick notes I don't have time to fool with graffiti, and sketches get synced with the desktop, so they can be printed or e-mailed. The rest of it- the color games, movie clips, etc. are nice to have but mostly novelty.

In short, I still think it's too expensive, but for me it's a crucial piece of equipment that gets constant use, and I wouldn't want to give it up.

...continuing the geek digression... (many of us are Palm users - but you knew that)

Well, you have a Palm V now - basically a T is just a little thicker than my m500 (the subtitle on the T is "m550"). While there are lots of nifty features on the Sony line, they are way too bulky for my tastes and I refuse to use their proprietory memory stick (can we say "Betamax"?). Already have a small investment in SD/MMC cards anyway.

While I'm drooking over the T, I have two small concerns and one head-scratcher:

1) Battery life on my m500 is easily 3 weeks between charges vs perhaps 1 week to 10 days of similar use with the T (color vs mono, I supose). When my m500 was new I got nervous around the one week point but since then the battery has conditioned to the present state. Now that there is a moble charger for the m series (12Vdc nominal input) some of my concerns may be muted.

2) That sliding cover for the Grafitti area - will it hold up? No one knows the answer to that yet.

And the head scratcher is WHY didn't they make an integrated flip-cover like the m500 has? I carry my m500 in my shirt pocket 99% of the time because I use it constantly and that's the quickest and slimest "case" to use that provides a little protection to the screen and buttons that any PDA has available.

If Palm comes out with a greyscale 320x320 version of the M500 with BT built-in (instead of an SDIO card) and a long-range IR port it would be about perfect for what I want. I've beat the crapola out of my m500 - I am so hard on watches that I quit wearing one - and I want to send it off to Palm for an overhaul (new screen, mainly). But it will drive my guys crazy if they can't punch things into my calendar and my secretary will slit her throat rather than try to keep track of me, so I'm probably going to buy a new m5xx before I send mine off and then give the m500 to eldest when it comes back (he uses a IIIxe and would love my m500). So I'm debating over another m500 or a T and it's a difficult decision. I could get 2 each m500s for what a T costs...

Anyway, thanks much for your feedback on the T.

Regards,

Tom

As I said, there really wasn't much agonizing for me- the voice recorder makes it worth a lot more, for my lifestyle. I also share your feelings about Sony- they can't seem to NOT try to impose their own proprietary standards. Is anyone really buying minidisc players?

By the way, one little-published quirk is that the voice recorder will record to a card, and the hotsync moves voice memos to the desktop where they can be played back (as well as on the T, of course), but it won't do both, yet. If you record to the card, the memos are not copied to the desktop... if you care. Might be a file-size issue.

The battery life might be a concern- it is certainly shorter for the color screen (hopefully that's going to change in the next couple of years). Folks on the forums are reporting 4-5 hours of continuous use with the backlight on... much longer (even in real measurement- the cells "recover") for intermittent use, of course. YMMV, it just depends on how you use it. Books, games, and playing music tend to be a drain, of course.

So far, it hasn't been a problem for my lifestyle- I just have a cradle at my home office and one at work, and I use them both. Except for one time, it's never gone below three-quarters charge. However, I'm leaving town shortly for a week, so we'll see how it does on the road. I expect I'll be using it less, but I'm also carrying the following equipment:

http://www.boxwave.com/ (minSync)

and the USB version of:
http://www.seidioonline.com/store/viewitem.asp?idproduct=509&idcategory=599

With these two items and the software CD, I can hotsync to any computer with a USB port, recharge off of a USB port, recharge off of AC or a car lighter. You can see the second website has a 9v battery emergency charger, but since I have a lot of AAA cells in storage, I bought a charger that uses those instead. That gives me 4 possible options for recharging on the road.

I understand that the Palm will preserve data for at least a week AFTER it shuts down for lack of recharging... if the worst happens, I have software automatically backing up the entire contents of the T to the SD card every night, so, even away from all my computers I always have a recent backup of all my data.

The sliding cover seems sturdy enough. Palm says they did some ridiculous testing- I think it was 100,000 cycles. I open mine several times a day, and can detect no difference from when it was new. If you were to drop it, of course, it might be different. Some folks using 3rd-party software manage to use the thing without ever opening it except to reset- I haven't tried to go that way.

I have mixed feelings about integrated flip covers. Since I carry mine in a belt case that has a screen protector anyway, it wouldn't benefit me much. The last one I had was on the Newton, which was impressively sturdy but a perishing nuisance. If your case means that you don't need it, it's always in the way. I much prefer to be able to pull the T one-handed and have it ready to go.


The price is high, but as I said, if you consider it a replacement for a Palm, a digital recorder, and a portable MP3 player, it's not so bad. I won't even consider the possible cost of a dedicated e-book reader, since I think they're as ridiculous as dedicated word processors were.

***Just for the record (so I can justify continuing OT): A PDA (specifically a Palm OS device) is so darned valuable for EDC that anyone whose life brings them into the power grid once a week or more often REALLY ought to seriously consider getting even a low-end inexpensive one and using it. I resisted getting one for a long time (heck, my brother was an upper management guy at Palm, and even survived the 3Com take-over - you think I had pressure to get one? Yeah!). When I finally got one and started using it - well, inside of a month I was totally hooked - I shoulda got one years earlier.***

This was a timely OT discussion for me, as I followed thru with my intent to get a replacement yesterday. First impressions of my T can be boiled down to "This was a no-brainer after all..." It is so much more useable in poor light - heck, in the dark. (the m500 was fine in the dark but frustrating in dingy unlit buildings, predawn, twilight, etc). I dunno if it will replace my micro-cassette recorder, but I don't carry that EDC so it's kinda new territory for me in that regard. The hi-res screen instantly spoiled me - you're right; ease of reading ebooks shot up dramatically. This is a better field PDA than the m500, hands down.

I have cradles at home and work also (T uses same cradle as m500) - the most durable data I have is on the Palm for that reason. Got a serial port cradle stowed away somewhere - artifact from older OS at work and I figure it can't hurt to hang onto it. I use the PPK when I'm on a trip although I may have to pass it on to Collegeboy and get another one. No sleeve/case for the T yet as I did not like any of the ones on the shelf and I am resisting putting it on my belt - my PDA has always been in my shirt pocket or in a more robust case in a cargo pocket on outings. I probably should get an Otterbox for it and stow it in my pack on outings. The aluminum case looks like it might be OK for my EDC but I need to handle one to be certain.

The IS folks use me as a crash test dummy for new stuff so I'm going to ask them pick up a Bluetooth gizmo for me at work - for printing distribution copies of field notes, if nothing else, although I'll fiddle with it. We just started a new cell phone contract as well, so I'm going to ask them to replace my new phone with a BT phone.

I'm not going to move several hacks to the T because I so rarely use them but one really saved me a ton of work: Tealmover. The m500 won't synch (my fault) and I procrastinated doing something about it until my folks started getting really cranky - so I had way too much stuff changed/added to try to manually beam over. Tealmover beamed over everything I needed without a fuss and no errors - phew! THAT hack was worth many times what it cost just for that alone. Now I can hammer the m500 and if it loses everything and/or I can't fix the synch <shrug> Palm can fix it and I'm not out of touch with all my current data. There's a synch parable in that situation somewhere...

I use JackFlash on the m500 but don't think I'll move it - I keep so much stuff on SD cards that system RAM is not an issue anyway. It's awesome and robust for PDAs with flashable ROM and no expansion memory.

I bow to your superior geekness - I've not used a PDA nearly as long as you. Your thoughts on screen protectors, please? I tried a couple and decided I could put up with wear and tear/minor scratches but not the feel of the run-of-the-mill screen protectors. The Graffiti area of the m500 is erm, well-used, as in "matte finish" - not that it affects anything. I've read mixed reviews on the hard screen protectors and am interested in your personal observations.

Apologies to everyone else for staying OT...

Tom - aka "T" to my close friends (see, the clue as to which replacment PDA to purchase really was in plain view all along...)

The business casual look can preclude the use of belt pouches. I'd much rather have a leather kit that would fit nicely into a sport coat's breast pocket.

Can you post an image of the Mission Wallet when it's geared up with your stuff?