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Handhelds Hardware

palmOne Announces Tungsten T5 200

Posted by CmdrTaco 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."
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palmOne Announces Tungsten T5 More

palmOne Announces Tungsten T5

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  • New features? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 04, 2004 @08:44AM (#10427537)
    Charge from the USB connector?

    Oh my, that's what a two yeard old Zire does!

    • Re:New features? (Score:3, Informative)

      by Tomahawk ( 1343 ) *
      So do my Tungsten-T and my m515 - but you have to use a Belkin USB cable to do it. The Palm cable doesn't charge from the USB port.

      T.
      • So do my Tungsten-T and my m515 - but you have to use a Belkin USB cable to do it. The Palm cable doesn't charge from the USB port.

        Odd, I must be imagining that my T3 has been charging from my Palm USB cable for over a year (I've never unpacked the cradle).

        • Re:New features? (Score:3, Informative)

          by Mr. No Skills ( 591753 )
          It does, but it doesn't charge while the device is on. I believe the USB doesn't deliver enough juice to run the device and charge the batteries, but if the device is off it will charge the batteries. Perhaps the T5 uses less juice to run?

          I think when plugged in the car (12V adapter) it will run and charge.

          I was puzzled by this comment also.
          • It does, but it doesn't charge while the device is on. I believe the USB doesn't deliver enough juice to run the device and charge the batteries, but if the device is off it will charge the batteries.

            Mine does charge on USB, even when the device is on, but admittedly the charge rate isn't all that good. Perhaps they have tweaked this for the T5, as charging off of the USB port seems popular these days (for example, it's one of the highlighted features of the recent iPods). So I guess it's not a new feat

    • Re:New features? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by shellbeach ( 610559 ) on Monday October 04, 2004 @09:10AM (#10427758)
      Charge from the USB connector?
      Oh my, that's what a two yeard old Zire does!

      And my Tungsten E. What's interesting to me is that in design this looks a lot more like an upgrade of the Tungsten E than the T3: no sliding thingy, the buttons and finish (oh no! you'd think Palm'd learn from their mistakes!) and form appear identical to the TE, and there's no voice recorder, the speaker's on the back, etc, etc.

      So I'm guessing that the T5 uses the same connector as the Zires and the TE. Which has always seemed a great idea to me (I love that the hotsync cable is just a mini-USB cable and I can charge from it), but will piss-off those who like their universal connector products ...

      • Re:New features? (Score:3, Informative)

        by Sancho ( 17056 )
        The T2/T3 had a very nasty hardware design (bug|feature). A large enough number of forum posts came across detailing the fact that after opening/closing the slider, the digitizer would be way, way off (meaning that taps would be offset). Recalibration every time this happened was the only solution other than sending the unit back and hoping for one that didn't have this problem. After the T2, I assumed they would find some way to correct the problem on the T3. Nope, it has the same issue.

        In that regard

  • Wifi Support (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Metatron ( 21064 ) on Monday October 04, 2004 @08:45AM (#10427541)
    Support for a WiFi card ... why does it not have WiFi in it ?????

    • Re:Wifi Support (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      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.
      • Or.. OR! You could get wifi support built into this one, and when it DOES change, you can go buy a new SDIO card for the new standard.

        Now there's a concept, eh?
      • The Palm device also should be upgradable. So why not have a build-in WiFi and upgrade both at the same time? Besides, most changes to WiFi over the years have been speed-related, and the little handheld device just can't use datastream wider than a good old 11Mbps 802.11B can provide. Unless you stream pr0n, that is.

    • Power consumption... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by blueZ3 ( 744446 ) on Monday October 04, 2004 @08:50AM (#10427595) Homepage
      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.

      • Re:Power consumption... (Score:3, Insightful)

        by DrXym ( 126579 )
        WiFi might suck power like crazy, but it's an important feature these days. And to not have smacks of enormous oversite. Extraordinarily stupid in fact. At least it has bluetooth, but IMHO wi-fi is just as important and it strikes me as odd that they wouldn't include both.

        And I'm not some Pocket PC fanatic dissing Palm. I loved my Palm Vx, but it was the lack of wi-fi that made me choose an iPaq (although that sucks for other reasons). Being able to turn on a PDA and sync up or browse from anywhere is a v

    • Re:Wifi Support (Score:3, Interesting)

      by jayhawk88 ( 160512 )
      Because Palm has this mad-on for Bluetooth for some reason. They've only had one model (Tungsten C) that has had built-in 802.11.

      • Re:Wifi Support (Score:5, Insightful)

        by jht ( 5006 ) on Monday October 04, 2004 @10:31AM (#10428745) Homepage Journal
        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.

  • USB Drive? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by el_benito ( 586634 ) on Monday October 04, 2004 @08:45AM (#10427547) Homepage
    Okay, I know that I can navigate to my iPaq's memory (or CF & SD cards) via explorer, but how easily can you access the Palm's memory? Is there any installation necessary on the local computer before you can access this? I'm going to bet that this is more of a marketing ploy than anything. Attach the latest buzz word and hope people snatch it up.

    • Re:USB Drive? (Score:5, Informative)

      by wizrd_nml ( 661928 ) on Monday October 04, 2004 @08:48AM (#10427572) Homepage
      From the Brighthand Preview [brighthand.com]:

      What's most unique about the Tungsten T5 is it can be plugged into the USB port on almost any computer and the 160 MB segment of memory will appear on the computer as a removable drive. The Palm Desktop software doesn't have to be installed on the computer. What's more, if an SD card is inserted into the T5, it will also appear as a removable drive.

    • Re:USB Drive? (Score:3, Informative)

      by Zugot ( 17501 ) *

      Use your handheld as a USB drive.2 When you're away from your own desktop, just turn on Drive Mode, plug the Tungsten T5 handheld into another computer and access your work.

      and


      With the new File Transfer application, you can actually drag-and-drop files and folders from your desktop to your handheld and back again. It couldn't be easier to transfer the files you need from home or your office and access them on the go.

    • Re:USB Drive? (Score:3, Informative)

      by paxil ( 99137 )
      I use card export [softick.com] on my original Tungsten T and it works great. Don't need to install anything on the windows computer and the palms card shows up as a drive in explorer.

  • Where is OS6? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by cgenman ( 325138 ) on Monday October 04, 2004 @08:46AM (#10427551) Homepage
    I remember distinctly that palm OS5 was supposed to be a stopgap measure between the classic OS4 and the modern, BeOS based OS6... Essentially OS5 was OS4 with some badly needed modifications to make it run on faster hardware. And now that we're up to 5.4, the patches keep rolling in and in, as they add more ram and expand the featureset ever towards what OS 6 is supposed to contain, which is supposed to be in parallel development.

    When are we getting the real Palm OS 6, with such badly needed features as multiprocessing and a file system?

    • Here it is...

      http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04 /0 9/29/215205&tid=100&tid=215&tid=190&ti d=8

      Not available on Palm devices themselves, yet. Maybe there will be an upgrade available soon.

      T.
    • When are we getting the real Palm OS 6, with such badly needed features as multiprocessing and a file system?

      Well, dare I ask who badly needs them? Not me. I don't like much this attitude: "look Windows has it! Copy it! Quick!". Really - what real use is there for threads on PDA? As for FS (in internal memory - there is FS support for SD cards of course)... Well, it could've been not bad to be able to put plain text ebooks (EG) into main memory, but really - running a converter to some PDB format or putti

      • Well, what they probably really meant was multitasking (does OS 5 offer that? It's been a long time since I've used a Palm device, since 4). I've been using a Zaurus for a couple of years now and it wouldn't be nearly as useful to me if I couldn't have three-four apps open and running at once.

        I can see a filesystem being useful too., but again, that may be my bias towards the Zaurus talking.

      • Re:Where is OS6? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by MadChicken ( 36468 ) on Monday October 04, 2004 @09:15AM (#10427801) Homepage Journal
        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 [writingonyourpalm.net] 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!
        • The database thing wasn't thought up by Palm, even remotely. The Newton had that whole database-as-filesystem before the Palm existed.

          Palm suck though, since they have no multitasking. It is the biggest thing that makes my Clie NX70V just an organizer and crappy camera always with me, rather than a computer I can fit in my pocket.

          I use a program like WIMR on my Palm, never did on PocketPC though. I use JackFlash, FileZ, CLIE Files and Super Utility. I seem to need them all to get full coverage for what sh

      • Re:Where is OS6? (Score:3, Insightful)

        by BenjyD ( 316700 )
        PalmOS needs some serious updating. The problem at present is that it doesn't provide many more facilities for applications than it did in the v3ish era.
        Because of this, every app has to implement functionality itself. Want a hierachical directory structure? An onscreen keyboard that works without a text control focused? A Save/Load dialog? A decent clipboard? A high performance 2D library?

        The answer is always the same - "implement it yourself"

        PalmOS 6 looks like it might solve some of these problems, bu

  • As always, underwhelming (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 04, 2004 @08:47AM (#10427558)
    Palm's announcements are always underwhelming.

    The $400 sounds okay, until you realize it does not include built-in WiFi. The screen is half VGA.

    And it doesn't have the new version of the PalmOS. Instead we get 5.4, which as far as I'm concerned, the entire 4.x and 5.x OS's have been disappointments. The IP stack in the 5.x OS is what I'd consider unstable and unusable. Imagine that when networked apps crash, they actually crash inside the IP stack, not the application.

    Don't get me started on the lack of multitasking.

    Very disappointing.
    • Given the size of the screen, Half VGA is good.

      Much better than the Quarter VGA that was until recently the standard for PocketPC devices.

      Which in turn was a mile ahead of the old 1/12th VGA original PalmOS screen. Now *that* wasn't adequate, although a lot of the apps were designed carefully and the devices were worthwhile.

      As for PalmOS 6 ... I hope it will be shipping in devices soon. I've seen screenshots and it looks rather good.

    • Re:As always, underwhelming (Score:4, Informative)

      by ceeam ( 39911 ) on Monday October 04, 2004 @09:09AM (#10427753)
      Probably not, when you have a weighted checklist and put "It does what I need" on top. As for other people - there's always Microsoft.

      As for half VGA.. Do you realize that it has the same DPI as 15" panel capable of 1600x1200. Sure, you usually look at it at closer distance, but it's very, very crisp. Doubling its DPI would be an overkill.

      • First of all, nobody is talking about doubling the existing DPI (dots per inch). Moving from 1/2 VGA to VGA is an increase in DPI of sqrt(2) not 2.

        Secondly, you said it yourself, you usually look a lot closer (from my rough estimate right now), about twice as close. I agree, 15" 1600x1200 (i.e., 133 DPI) looks pretty good from a 20" laptop viewing distance. Therefore 266 DPI is about what we need for a PDA viewing at 10". VGA has this DPI at a 3" diagonal which is pretty small, (the T5 has a 3.8" scree
    • Help me understand: why do people want multitasking on their PDAs? I have a PocketPC and yeah, it has multitasking, but find it usually pisses me off more than it helps (ie by default, clicking the close "X" just minimizes and leaves everything in RAM)

      The *one* thing I could think of is playing mp3s in the background.

      Other than that, as long as apps maintain a reasonable level of state when exiting, what more do you really need?

      I'm actually strongly thinking of ditching my PPC2003 device for a T3. I pl
    • kind of sad that is not a player inthe Palm market any more. They offered good alternatives to the models offered by Palm themselves.

      When I look at the new Tungsten I don't find a superior to the TH55 from Sony despite the 256 Meg built in RAM.

      Palm: Please give me a TH55 without the f***ing Memory Stick and an SD-card slot instead. Would be everything I need.

      Bye egghat.

  • Rotate screen (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Lurker McLurker ( 730170 ) <allthecoolnameshavegone@gmail. c o m> on Monday October 04, 2004 @08:48AM (#10427568)
    Forget the arguments about processors, wireless connectivity and other technical issues, it's little things like this that make me want to buy a device.
    Simple but useful features, that's what makes a product stand out

  • Zap! (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Although the connector may be new, the charging feature is not. Palm's Tungsten E is also capable of trickle charging from its USB cable.

  • What, you can't trickle-charge now? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Fencepost ( 107992 ) * on Monday October 04, 2004 @08:50AM (#10427594) Journal
    That's a heck of a surprise to me since I did just that on a recent trip.

  • T4 (Score:2)

    by AndyElf ( 23331 )
    There were massive rumors that (then called) a T4 (looks like palmOne decided on odd numbering of production models: T3, T5...) would have 2 SD slots -- this ould have allowed to use SD and SDIO cards at the same time (in particular, the just-released WiFi card). Does not look like this is what happened....

    This baby has got quite some storage, that is true -- this might compensate for the missing dual-slot option...

    Another rumor was that the next Tx were to use 6.x PalmOS, not the 5.x -- I guess another
  • Docs To Go in ROM is very nice, VersaMail too, Realplayer, though... that's a prime candidate for replacement if someone really uses their Palm for music...

    USB drive mode - very nice, and about time. Nice that http://www.softick.com/ [softick.com] took care of that a long time ago for everyone else...

    And I think the Tungsten E will do trickle charging from the USB cable... I'm not positive about that, I don't tend to leave mine lying around, tethered to a computer.
  • Well, for sure my modest T|E does it too. And so does - if I understand correctly - Zire 72.


    Oh, while talking about it: I read that the LiPol batteries have lifetimes measured mostly by number of charging cycles. Does trickle-charging count? Oh is it "healthier" to run the things until they start complaining and then fully charge them using charger? Not a 100% silly question (probably) since these Palms all have not normally replaceable battery.

  • With these specs.... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ShatteredDream ( 636520 ) on Monday October 04, 2004 @08:57AM (#10427651) Homepage
    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.

  • I'm confused (Score:4, Insightful)

    by djupedal ( 584558 ) on Monday October 04, 2004 @08:58AM (#10427652)
    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... [brighthand.com] - And an accessory list link... [brighthand.com]

    • Re:I'm confused (Score:3, Insightful)

      by jayhawk88 ( 160512 )
      ...can support stereo speakers and portable file transfers, yet it is targetted at business users?

      This has been Palms biggest problem in recent years I think. They can't seem to decide if they're making Palms for business customers, or consumers, or both.

      Sony has (had) this great thing going making shit-hot Palms with all the latest features for bleeding-edge Palm junkies, while their lower models had all the cool new features (for their price range) for Joe Consumer. Palm has this "5x-m500" reputati

    • Re:I'm confused (Score:2, Informative)

      by ceeam ( 39911 )
      No Wi-Fi built-in...

      Not everyone wants it

      no microphone...

      Really? :-(

      no Cobalt...

      OTOH - far less Gremlins ;)

      no sliding case

      Yahooo!!! Finally!

      can support stereo speakers and portable file transfers, yet it is targetted at business users?

      Sure, no business user cares about files ;)

      RealPlayer required on it and your desktop machine (ouch).

      Actually, no.

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

      Grass is always greener... Same can be sa

    • No Wi-Fi built-in... no microphone... no Cobalt...no sliding case

      I don't care about the wi-fi thing if there's a working card for it. I don't care about the lack of microphone, I have a MD recorder. I don't care about Cobalt, I'd rather have the thing work with my Mac and my Linux boxes.

      And the lack of a sliding case is a huge plus. The stupid sliding design is the single thing that has kept me away from the Tungsten series so far.

  • Cheaper T3 (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TonyZahn ( 534930 ) on Monday October 04, 2004 @08:58AM (#10427661) Homepage
    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...

  • This article links only to the company's product page. This article is nothing but an advertisement. It has been deemed a slashvertisement [wikipedia.org].

  • Development (Score:3, Insightful)

    by BenjyD ( 316700 ) on Monday October 04, 2004 @09:05AM (#10427722)
    What I would really like to see from Palm is a decent C++ API for their OS. Being stuck with a C API is so annoying for C++ development.
    In a C++ API you could just derive a subclass of a control and overload the parts you want to, just as KDE does with Qt.

    • Re:Development (Score:2, Informative)

      by AndroidCat ( 229562 )
      Only if their linker is good at striping out unused code. Modern OO languages tend to pull in everything at link time resulting in huge apps--which is still a problem on PDAs. (For the want of a nail, the kingdom was linked.)
    • Um, unless they rewrote the GUI to be C++ that wouldn't give you any more capability than writing your own thin C++ wrapper around the API. And it wouldn't be any faster or anything, either.
      • That was kind of what I meant.
        • Then you'll have to wait for Palm OS 6, with the BeOS code, like everyone else. I wish they'd stop farting around with OS 5 and get the new OS out.

          Personally, I would be happier if C++ had never caught on, but BeOS is a C++ based OS with a C++ based GUI, so it's likely OS 6 will have a more C++ oriented GUI.
    • I'm just hoping and praying that with OS 6 they clean up the horrible accreted apology for an operating system that is OS 5. But chances are PalmOS 6 will just be the same mess as before with even more extra functions and layer after layer of backwards compatiblity functions and even more horribly it will be both little endian with big endian for the legacy functions and so on. Yeuch! Asking for a C++ API is like asking for sugar coating on a turd.
      • Take a look at Object Library for Palm OS [pollib.com] (POL). Its been available for a while and hopefully will be ported to PalmOS 6. I don't think a lot of work would be required to do this since the API for v.6 is same as previous versions with addition of some new ones. Codewarrior already includes POL in the package. On the side note, the new Palm OS Development Suite (PODS) from PalmSource is based on Eclipse and the new 1.1 release of PODS is awesome.

        - Jalil Vaidya

  • Nothing to see here. Move along.... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by jbarr ( 2233 ) on Monday October 04, 2004 @09:21AM (#10427855) Homepage
    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...
    • Well, there are people like me who hate the sliding design T series.

      The problem with the UX-50 is the eye-strainingly small screen. If they'd fix that it would, indeed, be perfect.
  • Charge from the USB connector? Tick.
    Use as a USB mass storage device? Tick.

    So where the the use USB devices (like keyboards etc) - any device with a Linux driver in fact, and the 640x480 screen? Then they will finally have caught up with the Zaurus.

    Even the Qtopia PIM apps are starting to catch up now, so why should I chose one of these things at all?
    • Heh. The Zaurus is still very disapointing in a lot of ways, though mostly software. The C-series is very nice, although the lack of wifi or bluetooth for such an expensive PDA is a big disapointment. Heck, even a built-in camera might appease me.

      Though Linux and CE PDAs have a big heads up on any Palm OS device, even with the new OS 6: multitasking. The POS6 definition of multitasking- having a few threads, no concurrent apps- is sad, and it's what makes my Palm PDA just an organizer and crappy camer

  • It's still better than PPC (Score:5, Interesting)

    by a_nonamiss ( 743253 ) on Monday October 04, 2004 @09:26AM (#10427932)
    Lord... The PalmOne crowd will never be happy... Frankly, I an kinda tired of reading people bashing P1 for this unit. Sure, it's not revolutionary, but it's an improvement, especially on battery life. I don't really think the T3 needed a whole lot of improvement, (again, battery life) and I don't think this was intended to "unseat" the T3. I'm in the (seeming) minority of people who don't need WiFi, don't want WiFi and frankly could care less if P1 ever makes a WiFi radio on their devices. I get along just fine with Bluetooth and my Motorola v710. I can browse the Internet, get my email, and do everything I want Internet-wise. I've never been sitting in an airport or coffee-house and said "Damn... if I only had WiFi! Now I'm ruined!"

    I'm willing to admit that Dell devices still may have higher tech specs, but honestly, until they can run PalmOS, I'm not the slightest bit interested. PPC sucks. It's not stable, it's a resource hog. It has more moving parts, and having supported both PPC and POS, can say without hesitation that in my opinion, POS is still far superior.

    In conclusion to my rant, I'm not going to say "Way to go PalmOne!" They made some mistakes. (Plastic case? Oops!) On the other hand, I don't think this is a miserable failure. It's an evolutionary device that is slightly better than the T3. I think that everyone's expectations were simply too high, and mostly unreasonable. If P1 had come out with a device with WiFi, people would complain about battery life. If it had a voice recorder, people would complain that it turned the device on in their pockets. I don't think that Palm could have satisfied people after having such a long break since their last release. And to those of you wondering, I don't work for Palm. Let's just hope that the long-term reliability of this unit is an improvement, because that's where P1 could go horribly wrong. My T3 had far too many hardware problems, and if the T5 exhibits the same problems, then P1 could really be in trouble.
    • It's not stable, it's a resource hog. It has more moving parts, and having supported both PPC and POS, can say without hesitation that in my opinion, POS is still far superior.

      And that's just it- in your opinion. In my opinion, the Newton OS is still far superior to any other option out there, past or present. But, that being dead, the next best thing is Pocket PC. It has a number of things wrong with it, and I'd still rather use a vanilla WinCE.NET 4.2 machine over a PocketPC one, but unlike POS, it ge

  • Enough to get it? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by aussie_a ( 778472 ) on Monday October 04, 2004 @09:26AM (#10427933) Journal
    The differences are between this and Tungsten T3: * better file transfer * flash memory * favourites view * 102 more MB * USB device only 2 of those features would cause me to even consider upgrading from my Tungsten E, and I'd be more inclined to just get a USB stick. Are PDAs so good that no "wow" features exist for them? Cause they're all looking much the same to me (except for features such as built-in cameras, but that isn't so much PDAs getting advanced features as people trying to converge technologies).

  • Bigger != better (Score:4, Interesting)

    by srussell ( 39342 ) on Monday October 04, 2004 @09:41AM (#10428121) Homepage Journal
    The last really good Palm was the Palm V. If I wanted to carry a brick around, I'd buy a Zaurus and get a real computer.

    Palm has forgotten the mantra of the original developers that made the Palm III such a success -- keep it small. The Tungsten T is just barely carryable, and the newer versions just keep getting bigger. Personally, I'd rather see Palm spend their energy reducing the size of the T series than increasing the features.

    • This looks the have the exact same form fact as the Tungsten E I carry every day in my wallet (well, I use an old Palm III leather case as my wallet...). It is far from large. It isn't quite as thin as a Palm V, but it isn't very large though. Definitely smaller than most competing PocketPC devices (then again, they aren't MEANT to be as small...).
    • Palm has forgotten the mantra of the original developers that made the Palm III such a success

      Yes. The majority of Palms are still being used as PIM tools. Those users don't need cameras, WiFi or MP3 playing capability.

      It's a shame Handspring was bought out by PalmOne. I would've liked a replacement for my Treo 90. One that was roughly the same size, perhaps with a nicer screen or better battery life. Instead, the closest replacement is a bloated US$400 Tungsten C.
    • I agree, that's what has made Palm successful to this date, but they're losing it. They had smaller, efficient, longer running and easier to use devices that just worked. Now they're more complex and bigger although still efficient and stable.

      I'd love something like my old 505 with Wifi and some multitasking ability but I don't want to see it any bigger than my 505 was. That thing was great.

    • Re:Bigger != better (Score:3, Informative)

      by gobbo ( 567674 )
      The last really good Palm was the Palm V.

      I guess you're right in the sense of form factor, but until they came out with the Vx (or IBM's rebranded C3), the V was too short on storage to run stuff like eReader and a collection of reference docs--unless that's all you wanted it for. I still use my (8MB) Vx... just wish I could set it up for wifi, surfing on a modem is so... 90's!

    • I believe the Tungsten E is of similar size and style to the Palm Vx (which was my favorite as well). Then again, the m500/505 series was basically a beefed up Palm V as well, and they were quite nice (except for poor battery life).
  • Let me be blunt, unless I get a working Wi-Fi card for my T2, that T2 will be my last Palm device.

    I'm really pissed that my only option for wireless turned out to be buying a more expensive Palm, or bluetooth.

    You ever try to set up a ZOOM bluetooth device on your PC so you could sync and surf on your Palm?

    I returned the damn Zoom product. The configuration wasn't even documented, and they didn't even have drivers on their website, so when I took the device to work, I had to wait until the next day to se
    • I got my tungsten C for free as a warranty replacement at best buy... I like it but won't buy another unless...

      They provide support for more regular file formats without haveing to deal with the database crap. Is it just me or is opening a jpeg on it overcomplicated?

      The Wifi on it is great though, as is having the thumb-board. I like that, but there's still other issues.

      You've got this efficient OS, and a CPU that's overkill for the Palm OS, and yet multitasking is practically nonexistant. I don't need
  • I've developed for the Palm and have a bunch. But I've lost everything on my palm at least 3 times, when the batteries went dead, and losing my memos really, really sucked. I have a 64MB memory stick but there was no easy way to back up the Memo pad, that is you would have to search through zillions of files manually, and then decide whether to overwrite the older copy on your stick (did I back up after the last crash or before it). It was great having a vaio laptop with integral memory stick port, very e

  • Zodiac Rules (Score:4, Informative)

    by computechnica ( 171054 ) <PCGURU@noSpaM.COMPUTECHNICA.com> on Monday October 04, 2004 @11:07AM (#10429178) Homepage Journal
    The Tapwave Zodiac [tapwave.com] is superior. It has a much nicer form factor, can use 2 SD cards at the same time, Nice loud stereo speakers, a real 3d GPU, and good battery life. It also has several good EMUs for just about every cartridge console system. made.:

    http://www.palmsource.com/interests/emulators/
    http://www.palmemu.com/
    http://www.kalemsoft.com/
    http://www.codejedi.com/

  • What Happened to COLBALT?!? Palm OS 6 (Score:3, Insightful)

    by lnewton64 ( 818946 ) on Monday October 04, 2004 @11:36AM (#10429479)
    Palm source released Colbalt almost 10 months ago. I was expecting the T5 to have palm OS6, does anyone know what the scoop is?
  • I'm tired of having to choose between the latest T and Treo from Palm to get the features promised for both. If the Treo 650 ("Ace") slated for delivery this quarter can't drive an SDIO WiFi card, or doesn't come with integrated Bluetooth, Palm will have failed to operate as a serious company. Their engineers seem able to roll out the tech, so I'm guessing their marketdroids, as usual, need execution.
  • Now only if they can add biometric security to the PDAs. None of the Palm OS based PDAs have fingerprint scanners like a couple of IPaqs do. Fingerprint authentication on IPaq has proven to be very useful to some. It would be a great value addition to Palm PDAs.

    Just my $0.02 ;-)

    - Jalil Vaidya

  • End of UC? Bad (Score:3, Insightful)

    by steveha ( 103154 ) on Monday October 04, 2004 @03:06PM (#10431979) Homepage
    PalmOne just abandoned the Universal Connector. This is mind-bogglingly stupid.

    Every time they change their connector, they kill all the accessories that work with that connector. I don't know why any third-party companies would ever make accessories for PalmOne PDA ever again.

    If I bought a T5, I wouldn't be able to use my folding keyboard with it, my modem, or my rechargeable battery pack. I guess I could buy new ones, but no thank you, since the ones I have work so well.

    I suppose they are doing this because the new connector costs them less money. The Universal Connector has both USB and a serial port, and a whole bunch of little pins. If I were in a good mood, I might say that a manufacturing company does need to keep an eye on their cost of goods.

    But Palm has changed their connector so many times now! The third-party accessory makers were unhappy when Palm adopted it, but Palm promised this was the last connector change, honest. Last for three years, I guess.

    And what kind of crack are they smoking... stereo out through the connector? Oh, I guess they weren't trying to keep an eye on costs after all. An iPod has stereo out through the connector, and that's valuable because you can have hours of music on one. A Palm PDA can play music, and that's valuable because you have it with you wherever you go, and you don't need to carry both a PDA and a music player. But how valuable is it to have a PDA that can play a couple of hours of music while it is in its cradle? How hard is it to plug speakers into the stereo headphones jack, anyway?

    steveha

    • Re:End of UC? Bad (Score:3, Informative)

      by Mike Buddha ( 10734 )
      The Universal Connector has both USB and a serial port, and a whole bunch of little pins. ...And a lousy connection. The Palm UC was hardly the end all be all of connectors. It was a crappy interface, because it failed on the one primary function that connectors MUST succeed: connection.

      Trying to use a cable attached to the UC was/is an annoying task. The damn thing jsut doesn't stay connected. I say good bye and good riddance.

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