[dividend]

Hi all!

I am just about to buy myself a palm m500 or m505 (is the extra money and extra weight really worth the colour screen?), but I thought, reading in these forums and elsewhere, that perhaps it is better to wait if you are running os X- why?

1. palm desktop is still only beta and hotsyncing seems to be sporadic
2. avantgo, documetns to go &c don't work in OS X
3. it does not sync with OS X mail.app.

If one buys a palm today, one is not really going to be able to use it fully, except as a electronic filofax. By the time these things are fixed, we will have new palm devices that work right out of the box nicely with OS X - or the current versions will be cheaper.

On another note, apple's vision of the digital lifestyle experienced best on the mac is NOT true with mac os x and electronic organisers - it must be one of the worst experiences.

[m_brand0]

First off, it all depends on what you want to use your PDA for. The Palm OS is perfect for organization but it isn't great with OS X. Install software from Franklin Covey and you have a great organizer..

Quite frankly, I am sick of seeing these Windows CE PDA's running rampant when there is no Apple equivalant. The worst part is, Apple would put out something far superiour to the iPaq or Jordana but it just isn't going to happen. I have a Palm V that is on the fritz and the last thing that I want to do is get another Palm.

Since there is no hope of a Apple PDA, I am going to buy the Sharp Zarus when it comes out..

[dividend]

I will use the palm for basic organising, but also for the stuff that needs avantgo and what documents to go do.

But I agree, I would also buy an Apple pda the moment there was
one.

Any clues on whether to buy the m500 or the m505?

[jsuplido]

I would go with the Sony Clié T615. It syncs with the Palm Desktop OS X beta.

No hope seeing an iWalk, iPad, or i-Anything... so I'm sticking with Sony for the long haul.

[jsuplido]

I would go with the Sony Clié T615. It syncs with the Palm Desktop OS X beta.

No hope seeing an iWalk, iPad, or i-Anything... so I'm sticking with Sony for the long haul.

[dividend]

thanx all,

i thought i had first firmly decided for the m505 because of colour. i thought that the extra cash was worth it for colour and the extra weight. but then i had a look at pocketpc and i am not that sure anymore. some have batterylife of up to 14 hours - what does this mean? 14 hours of continued use or 14 hours all toghether?

a palm works for up to 4 weeks, if you work with it 40 min a day, this boils down to 18 hours and is then not that much more than an iPaq. they are only slightly heavier and larger but have a lot more features. i am now thinking that this is favourably for the pocketPCs, althought they are a bit too expensive. the palm m505 oon the other hand is TOO expensive for what you get. Any thoughts?

[itai195]

It depends on the features you're interested in. Pocket PC's come with a lot more features out of the box but most of those can be done on a Palm too with additional third party software (much of which is available for free). Pretty much the only things a PPC can do nowadays that a Palm can't is A) better Windows connectivity (eg Terminal Serivces) -- as a Mac user I don't know why you'd care about that and B) playing movies. That said, playing movies on a handheld device is pretty much pointless in my opinion. It's a gimmick.

If you're hung up on color vs black and white, I'd say the extra money is definitely worth it. Palm's PIM apps don't much make use of color, but most third party applications and games do. Color also aids generally in the viewability of text. HOWEVER, between the m505 and m500, you'd need to do some testing of the two yourself to decide. The color screen on the m505 is not very bright -- I'm not going to harp on it because there are numerous reviews out on the internet talking about how terrible the m505's display is.

If battery life is your concern, I assure you the m505 will last MUCH longer than an iPaq. The more you make use of those "extra" features on your iPaq, the less battery life you'll get out of it. If you go with the m500, it should last you several weeks without a recharge, something an iPaq could never do.

There is a new Sony Clie T615C which, at the same price as the m505 and roughly the same physical size, has a MUCH better display (brighter, better contrast, and higher resolution), some additional features (universal remote control software, jog dial, an alarm clock / world clock program, and an ehanced speaker), and twice the memory (16MB). The only downside is the battery life, which is worse than the m505 and more iPaq-like. Though if you're considering the iPaq anyway I guess that's not so important to you...

And as for Palm Desktop for OS X..... yeah... ouch. Hopefully Palm and third party developers will start getting moving on this issue soon. All I really need are entourage, avantgo, and pocket quicken conduits and I'm happy. Until then, hotsyncing in classic still works. If you think Palm Desktop for OS X is a pain, I'm not sure how you can expect Pocket PC to be any better anyway.

[ 01-28-2002: Message edited by: itai195 ]

[dividend]

itai 195 - thanx for excellent tips!

1. battery-life. this is an important issue but I am not really sure what it really means. a palm can go for weeks without a recharge, that is, if I understand correctly, 4 weeks, 7 days a week at 40 minutes of use per day = 18 hours. Compare this to an iPaq or whatever which can get, say, 10 hours = about 2 weeks. 2 weeks without a charge is not bad, or have i got it totally wrong?

2. the word and excel-syncing that i am looking for costs extra + 20 - 60 dollars, but is probably worth it.

3. watching movies on a handheld? why, ok it is nice to see a kylie-video but that would take up at least 40-50 mbs. no point, as an mp3 player it is nice, but a 128 mb memory can hold about 30-40 songs so not that much - an iPod or anything else is better.

what brings the PocetPCs to a close match, is that you can do all of these things with only a small punishment in terms of size and weight (and battery). that is why i am considering the pocketpc instead. on the other hand, size and weight (or the lack thereof!) matters and an mp3-player with max 40 songs is not good enought, though nice.

i thought the sony was too expensive, but if it is the same price as m505 i will take that into consideration too.

of course, as a mac-user palm is probably better but at the moment i feel that being a mac-user tells you NOT to buy any of the stuff at the moment - no avantgo, desktop to go and so on. only an organiser, which is ok. i thougth there was a sync-programme for pocketpc, but that you had to pay extra cash for it (another disadvantage for mac-users, why does't MS want mac-people to buy pocketPCs?)

the thing is, the cost difference is not that great between high-end palm and low-end PPC, why not go for the low-end PPC?

I haven't yet tested the stuff (i owned a palm pilot pro once, so i guess the screen issue with m505 is irrelevant for me! ) i will as soon as the snow stops falling!

[seventray]

If you are even considering a PPC, go with the Sharp Zaurus. The consumer version should be released in the next month or so and it should be a superior machine to anything that is out there right now. It runs on Linux and has a version of handwriting recognition that will learn your own writing style, much like the Newton did. It should also be Mac compatible right out of the box - they are currently working on USB drivers for the ability to sync with the Mac. Even with the developer's version out right now, there are 100's of programs currently out and many more being developed. You can check out a good review of the developer's model here:
http://www.infosync.no/show.php?id=1292&page=1

[dividend]

ok all nice folks: thanx for all your advice!

I found a refurbished palm m500 for 223 dollars, which means I saved 105 dollars. For that I get the palm (refurbished: somebody forgot that he/she didn't have usb on his computer.... silly) and a slim wallet case.

I thought that 223 dollars is a very good price for that (incl. wallet) given that I get a usb-palm, smallest size and weight. Considering that, 166 dollars more for 30 g more and colour screen is not worth it.

PocketPCs seem to be good machines but having a portable already really downplays the point with these stronger machines. the palm is ment to replace a paperfilofax and as such is better suited, pocketpcs are somewhere in between a powerbook and a palm.

since i will use my palm for whatever a filofax is meant for and for taking down basic ideas/thoughts/notes when commuting/beeing at the library then the extra power of powerpc is not really necessary. otherwise i use my Ti which knocks-out any pocketpc before the game even started.
given the price, i got 105 dollars more for my savings for an iPod... which hopefuly by MWTY will be 299 only... (5 gigs is ok by me)

AND palm is NOT microsoft!

thanks everybody again, and hopefully somebody else will have use of this discussion. the linuxorganiser looked cool though....[/LIST]

[mikithecrackhead]

Here's a new PDA full of features and a high quality screen with a nice price. a whole new PDAthat will revolutionize the industry.

[namannik]

Originally posted by seventray:
<STRONG>If you are even considering a PPC, go with the Sharp Zaurus. The consumer version should be released in the next month or so and it should be a superior machine to anything that is out there right now. It runs on Linux and has a version of handwriting recognition that will learn your own writing style, much like the Newton did. It should also be Mac compatible right out of the box - they are currently working on USB drivers for the ability to sync with the Mac. Even with the developer's version out right now, there are 100's of programs currently out and many more being developed. You can check out a good review of the developer's model here:
http://www.infosync.no/show.php?id=1292&page=1</STRONG>

Wow! This is the first PDA I've seen that I want NOW! Palm never seemed very attractive, and I guess I want to stay away from Windows as much as possible.

I do have a couple of unanswered questions, if anybody has any more info.:
1) Can it access wireless networks, and if so, how?
2) Will it definitely work with a Mac?
3) How much will it cost?

[GK]

wait for the iWalk

[seventray]

namannik - Concerning your first question, Sharp has teamed with Aether to provide a single solution for wireless internet access. The Zaurus also has an SD and CF slot, so you can use 802.11 cards, modem cards, etc. So, yes, it can access wireless networks.

Concerning your second question, there is no native Mac support yet. As I said, I have been told that Sharp is currently working on this and all they have to complete is the USB drivers. Also, if Sharp doesn't complete this task, the Linux community will. There are many Mac users working with the Zaurus as developers.

Concerning your third question, it was stated at CES that the consumer version will be in the "mid-$500's." The developers model is currently available for $400 with 32 megs of RAM but the consumer version is going to have 64 megs along with any other hardware improvements Sharp includes as the developers make suggestions.

It truly is a superior PDA to anything else that is currently out, PPC or Palm.