Upgrading from Palm 515 to TX, I think

S

Saturn 5

New member
I think I am going to upgrade from my Palm 515 to a Palm TX. I have a couple questions before I upgrade that I hope y'all can answer for me.

1) How long does a battery charge last on the TX?
2) I have never gone online with a Palm. Does the TX just get email or can you do web browsing? If you can how fast is it?
3) Do you have to pay a monthly fee to someone to go online? What if you already have broadband from Cable for your home pc?
4) Can you put TV shows on a SD card and watch them on the TX?
5) Are there any of the palm companies making the software programs, that I am used to using on a Palm, to work in an iPod?
6) I have an iPod 80gb that I would love to be able to use that instead of buying a new palm. But I don't know of any programs like what I use in my palm for an iPod. Has anyone else switched over from Palm to iPod?

Thanks for anyone's help with my questions.
 
I'm far from an expert but having used and benefited from my new TX for last 3 months, I can at least give you my experience.

1) The battery charge lasts for days as long as I don't listen to music or go on the web. Web-surfing uses the battery up in an incredible time (less than an hour I think). Reading e-books does too since it's on continually. but a little more slowly. But if I just use calendar or standard agenda or data-base operations it let's me go for more than a week.

2) You can get email and browse the web, but on such a small screen it's more like an amusement device than a real tool. I prefer reading and answering email on my standard computer, but I know some people prefer the Palm approach to email. Websites have to be tailored to PDA format, and most aren't, which makes for difficult or usually impossible surfing.

3) No extra fee. If you've got open wireless broadband at home or office, upon prompting, the TX looks for the connection and gets it immediately.

4) Never tried TV shows. Did put a movie on the SD card but the format is so small -didn't get the full screen, that's it's just not worth it for me.

5) Can't answer Palm-iPod problems, don't have an iPod (and I'm still alive!)

Good luck for your choice.
 
The problem with switching from an Ipod to a Palm would be the music - you'd have to burn all of your music to a CD and then transfer it back into the PC via the Pocket Tunes or Windows Media Player and this is a huge hassle. It can be done but it is time consuming as the DRM for the iPod will not allow the music to be played directly to the Palm.

You can also look into Pocket Core Media Player for converting video's to a Palm format.

There are certain trade off's for consolidation of devices - features aren't always available etc. It can be handy however, after years of consolidated usage - I've decided and have used my MP3 players separately from the Palm devices. I also don't use a GPS with a Palm device.

I think that the iPhone concept will come around and might be the best deconslidated device but it doesn't do the phone properly........

I'm waiting on a Treo 750 and use a 8GB iPod as well as a Garmin Nuvi for GPS stuff....and I'm much happier during the process.
 
I record TV movies with my Mac computer and put them on my 4GB SD card and play them on my Palm TX. The movies completely fill the TX's screen and really look quite good. Actually my TX's screen held at normal viewing distance is almost exactly the same size as my 23 inch TV which sits across the room. My 2 hour TV movies make a 324 MB .divx movie file, thus you can put 12 full 2 hour movies on a 4GB SD card with some room to spare.

If you use the freeware app TCPMP on your TX them viewing TV movies, or any TV program on the TX, works very well.
 
Yes, I upgraded just a few days ago. I'm so new to the TX but I am glad I upgraded. I feel lost on some things like the wireless and bluetooth capabilities but that will come in time. I have been shocked as to how little is in the stores regarding palms anymore. I could only find the Palm at Office Max. I ordered car and travel adaptors for a really good price from Esomething. I don't remember right now. But I was hoping to find more forums with up-to-date user info on reviews for cases and programs. But I was very glad to come back here to see the response I received from my question. Sometimes I forget where I posted my questions. I wish all forums would send emails when someone would post a response.

I am looking for a case where I can put more than 2 sd card and also maybe a credit card.

I would love to figure out how to put the tv shows that I copy onto my dvr from my comcast cable onto an sd card to put in my TX. Is that possible?

Thanks for your help y;all
 
You can buy devices such as shown here:
http://www.shopbot.ca/p-12592-1296863.html
for $30 or so on eBay. I did and use it to connect my computer (Mac) to the video and audio output of my satellite TV receiver. They are made for PAL and NTSC video. NTSC is standard for the U.S. PAL is common in Europe.

There are lots of these video adapter devices and lots of software for them.

The software I use (USBVision by EchoFX) will record from the TV source for as long as you tell it to, then it will compress the file however you tell it to. I use it to make 2 hour movies into 322MB .divx files that play very well on the TX using a free app for the TX called TCPMP.
 
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