Do i need a palm or something else?

K

Kunmui

New member
Hi everyone,

I'm a newbie as you can tell. I need some advice so i don't go out and buy something that won't do what i want.

I have 2 mobile phones, 1 laptop (home) 1 desktop (office), 2 diaries/agenda (personal, business), megapixel cameras in my mobiles etc. etc.

And i'm sick of trying to keep up with all this and making sure i got the right thing with me at the right time. I just want something that will do all (i will only keep my personal mobile ph. seperate) and give me room to grow so i dont have to change it in the future. Whatever i get must work in harmony with my laptop and desktop (emails, documents exchange etc.).

What do i need? A palm, ipaq, pda, handheld, smartphone, an island with lots of hot chicks in it Please help i would like to buy sthg as soon as possible. Oh and please tell me specific model etc. as i have no idea about these products

Cheers,
 
Hattori,

I don't know how familiar you are with these devices, so I'll assume you aren't and may offer more information than you are asking for. Here, goes...

Well if you really want to do it all, maybe a Palm Trio 650? This gives you one phone, and a camera and a diary. You can sync with both the PC and Laptop. Read more about it here

IMHO, I would rather have a separate cell, palm, and camera. Usually when I am out with the camera, I don't have my PDA, or need it, and I don't take my PDA everywhere I go either (your mileage may vary). And since I got my T|X , I rarely use my laptop anymore.

I don't know what your requirements are for a camera, but I find cameras are somewhat limited when built into phones and PDAs. I am more into photography and therefore I want to edit, crop and print nice pictures, so I'm willing to make that sacrifice. But if you just want a quick snapshot, built-in cameras do OK, but you generally can't enlarge them very much.

God bless you for having the patience to have two cell phones, I begrudgingly carry mine only because my wife any I have constantly changing schedules due to our line of work and have to closely coordinate the kids needs. When I retire, the first thing I plan to do is trade the cell phone in on a nice deep sea fishing reel :D (but I'm keeping the wife ;) ).

I keep both my work and personal schedules on my Palm, is does get crowded with entries, but I have gotten used to it for adding calender entries and managing my contacts . It beats the heck out of paper calendars and books (Day-Timers, etc.). And syncing between the work and home PC is painless. This actually updates all 3 machines (PC, Desktop, Palm) to have the same Schedule and Contact list. "Notes" in the Palm are "Notes" in Outlook and "To-Do's" in the Palm are "Tasks" in Outlook and they are sync?d as well.

I usually do my calendar, notes, contacts, etc. entries on my PC and sync it to the PDA. I find it easier to do because the PC keyboard is quicker (although Graffiti is easy to learn and use when you are mobile) and I can cut and paste needed info into schedule entries or separate notes which I then sync to the Palm. When I don't need the notes anymore, I simply delete them in the machine I'm using and when I sync, they get removed from the other machines, as I sync with each one. As one small example, my son has weekly tennis lessons, team practice and tournaments. When the coach releases the schedule, I simply cut/paste the email into the notes section of the team info in Outlook and sync it to the Palm. Nice and easy, and I got it everywhere. I can also Beam this to my wife's Palm so she has it.

The Trio only has 32MB memory built in (about 23-24MB usable) so you will definitely need an additional SD/MMC memory card if you choose to go this route, especially if your Outlook calendar and contact list is pretty big like I expect it would be for your situation.

Finally, you can use VersaMail in the Trio to read your mail. I only read my personal email account and not my company mail (at least not yet. When I leave work, I leave work, reduces stress ;) ). I don't know how many email accounts you can set up in VersaMail, maybe someone else can chime in with some information on that. Also, I set the Palm up to leave a copy of the email on the server and delete the files I don?t want or need from the Palm. I also set the option to remove them from the mail server when I delete them in the Palm. This reduces the amount of time I spend updating Outlook on my PC and the amount of memory I use on the Palm.

Hope this helps, good luck with your decision. Let us know what you finally choose and why.


Cheers,
John
 
John says it very well. I'll add just a bit.

There are two trains of thought - Treo or Smartphone (Windows based).

Treo +'s - You can sync native Word and Excel documents to it without any additional software purchase. You can buy additional software that's proven and can do just about anything you want. And right out of the box - it will sync to Outlook.

Windows Based Smartphones: Believe it or not - can't sync native Word or Excel documents to it. You can use a version called Pocket Word or Pocket Excel but these documents can't be opened by any PC running WinXP. Software versions are very different and not all developers have created software for this latest Windows Platform called Windows Mobile 5.0.

And here is a caveat for the Treo - Microsoft caved in an had Palm help them with a device that has yet to come out the Treo 700W but will be released on the Verizon network - probably around the end of January but possibly sooner.

If Microsoft's has recognized that it lost at least several battles and turning to Palm for assitance in designing a smartphone.....that's the best advertisement that Palm every got.

I'd suggest a converged device of phone and PDA regardless of which way you go....it's easier to carry one device with all of your data on it.
 
Guys, first of all thanks a lot for taking time to answer my question in detail and i'm already starting to get a better pic. As i have to leave work now i'll just quickly add (and continue tomorrow) that a camera is not really needed as i have a seperate digital camera and my personal phone is a sony ericsson k750i.

Cheers,
 
Ok I'll list the important bits so i don't bore you with my lifestory :D

- The new device i'm planning to buy doesn't need to have a camera since i have a mobile ph with cam and a regular digicam.
- I should be able to use it as a mobile phone (for business). Even though it annoys me most of the time, i prefer to have seperate numbers for business and private, mainly because private time is private.
- Since i also have 2 computers i would like to eliminate the one in my house.
- New technologies are introduced each year i don't want something that's going to be too slow (speed) and too small (memory) to soon. That's why i normally pay a little extra and buy the best i can afford so it lasts longer.
- From what i read in your posts, smartphone is a NO, Trio 650 is also a NO (dont want the camera). The microsoft/palm thing sounds interesting, it's already december so i can wait till january and organise my life the old way.
- I am a rider and also planning to buy an ipod but if any of these devices will also handle that job, i'd be happy. By the way how long palms and ipaqs last if i also use their mobile phone function?

I know "You can't have your cake and eat it too" i'm just trying to purchase the best compromise.

Thanks for your generous replies.

Cheers,
 
If you plan on keeping your phone and aren't looking at that as a option then obviously the Treo series is out.

Speed - Palm's and Pocket PC devices are similar in speed and RAM. Pocket PC devices show more RAM then Palm devices in just about every instance but the PPC device also require a ton more overhead to run so they are on a level playing field.

MP3's can be played on either device. Syncing to iTunes requires extra software for both platforms. MP3's can be synced to either device without too much problem but must go to an SD card or Compact Flash card (only on some Pocket PC's).

Ok - I'm going back to the Treo. You say you don't want because of the camera. Here is a scenario for you - your out "riding" (I assume motorcycles) and you have only the one device with you. You are involved in an accident and it would be really handy to have a phone, camera and a notepad with yout. The treo fits the bill. You can call for assistance, you can take notes to get the insurance info, and you can take a picture (quickly I might add) if the guy rabbits on you so that you've got the liscense plate.

Granted this is a worst case scenario and I'm assuming that the Treo would survive the accident to function as such but......

The camera in most phones won't ever replace a good camera.....but it can be handy when you don't have one to take that photo for the odd moment and immediately email it to a friend.
 
I definitely want the phone function, i just don't want/need the camera. And like many have said everything in one packages provide average quality of everything. So i'm after sthg that'll work in harmony with my work comp, and use as an agenda/diary/email and a mobile phone (with long standby). Doesn't have to have a camera, mp3 player etc. functions.

Oh and i know i'm asking too much but is there sthg with no keyboard and bigger screen instead and preferably an inbuilt antenna.

I found this but i don't know if it's any good. I tend to steer away from unknown brands.

http://www.casper.com.tr/pageStructure.aspx?intPageStructureNo=1&sintLanguageID=0&bytContentType=2&intPageNo=94&strHitCountParam=2|1|0|11|817
 
Are there any major problems with not being able to sync native MSoffice software? Because after some research and recommendation i'm seriously considering a E-TEN M600 (http://www.mobiletechreview.com/E-TEN_M600.htm). I think sthg like this is what i need. The Trio has a smaller screen because of the keypad which i don't think i'll ever use. The pen that comes with pdas looks more easy to use. Also HP pocket pc + ph (6300series) looks quite appealing except the antenna.
 
The E-TEN does look interesting but here are a couple of more thoughts for you:

1. One handed operation of the device as a phone? I don't think any keyboardless device will handle that well. So now you are driving down the road and want to dial a number phone number then.....now you've got two hands not paying attention.

2. Screen size is important (no comments from the peanut gallery) but also is screen resolution. Double check that on both devices the Treo is 320 X 320. I don't see the speck for the Ten.

Regarding never using a keyboard - I also thought so and have stated in the past that my ideal device would be a Treo with a 320 X 480 screen and no keyboard but I'm not so sure now.

With the right software and enough use - I'm much faster typing then Graffiti'n.

Check out the other reviews as well from those guys - they do a great job overall.

But the PPC and Smartphone devices - you can see documents but they can't been emailed to someone for full viewing based upon compatibility issues.

DTG for the Palm will allow you to see the native document with formatting for Word and Excel and now with PDF ...there are trade offs with the Windows platform. But they do sell so it's your call.
 
1- Good point there. However all devices come with a answer/reject button. But yeah i can't dial a random number while driving.

2- Compatibility is important because i wish to make my life simple. By no means i wish to become a techno-whiz after the purchase of a new gadget. I don't want to spend time looking for softwares, upgrades, drivers, etc.

3- I would like to be able to write word documents, emails etc. anytime i can and send/receive automatically when i hook the device onto my work computer.

4- I have wireless broadband at home and soon in my company which means it'll be even more convenient to use this new device that i buy.

p.s. great forum, "knowlegde is multiplied when shared" is the attitude here.

Cheers,
 
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