Older Palm vs newer Palm

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I bought a Palm 3xe abt 2 1/2 years ago when I first started with GTD. I stopped using my Palm abt 3 months after. I had broken the glass on my screen and was not comfortable using it. Could someone tell me if the new Palms have unbreakable screens? Are they any easier to use. Can anyone tell me which unit they would reccomend or should I still use my old Palm 3xe?? Any suggestions or info would be highly appreciated.

Bill W
 
New Palms

In my opinion there is no real improvment in Palms in the area of personal information management including GTD. The only real advantage of the new devices is colorful and very readable hi-rez screen. You don't need faster processor or huge memory for implementing GTD - it's needed for multimedia but I wonder if people really like to watch "Matrix Revolutions" on such small screens without good stereo sound. Faster processor consumes more power so the battery in the new Tungstens is sufficient for days (not weeks as in Palm V) of usage.
Regards,
TesTeq
 
All -

My first Palm was a m105. This was a (close-to) entry level model from a couple of years ago. 8 MB of memory, 2AAA batteries B&W screen, and that cool clock that could replace your watch with the push of one button.

The model as almost all plastic, case and screen. I carried it in a $15 molded rubber "Palm Glove" and despite being very careful, there were still the times when it dropped. No Problems.

Last X-Mas, I received as a gift a m515. Aluminum case, thinner design, twice the memory and COLOR. Plus it had a glass screen, and rechargeable battery.

My girlfriend saw the cool Palm Aluminum Hard Case, and I soon got that for "bullet-proof" protection (especially if I was wearing it in pocket over my heart - lol)

This summer - despite being very careful - I dropped the m515 in it's "indestructible" case.

The screen shattered.

Plastic + Rubber = Resiliency & Shock Absorbtion

Metal + Glass = Ripple Effect - no Shock Absorption.

Which ever Palm that you DO choose - please remember this and keep it in something that has a little "give" to it.

The other thing that I would be aware of, is that there seems to be a major shift between the Palm apps that run on the OLD processors and the Palm Apps designed for the "new & improved" ARM processors. Make sure that any of your old beloved apps will still run on your new machine. Some are still available (like the recently resurrected m500, or one of the Tungstens, I believe) that run on the older processors.

They have also changed Graffitti recently. The new "Graffitti-2" is actually "Jot" I believe.

8)
 
New Palms & Replacements

This is really a separate topic from my earlier post above; but one that I thought I should share with you all.

The m515 that I mentioned above I returned to Palm for "repair." They charged me $ for the "service" and informed me that they would not be returning my original unit to me, but a "factory reconditioned" one, that should be as "good as new."

The "factory reconditioned one" had a defective battery that would not hold a charge.

They replaced this with a second "factory reconditioned one" that had a funky screen that would slip into a "bar code mode" unexpectedly.

I was on my THIRD replacement, and that was running fine, until it developed a similar "battery" issue.

This has been escalated to Palm's "Head Office," and I have gotten part of my service fee back, although not the whole amount. I was also promised a brand new replacement, after my "pain & sufferring" with the whole experience.

I am now on my FOURTH replacement (in less than 3 months). This one was not the "new one" that I was promised, but has allegedly been inspected by a "senior level design engineer."

Keep your fingers crossed for me.

The moral of the story?

New Palm Products are great tools that out of the box can help you be more productive.

Factory Reconditioned Palm Products are not reliable, and their customer service in this area is just as unreliable (unreturned phone calls, "he-said/she-said" internal disputes, etc... and broken agreements). These will NOT help you be productive, but will stand in the way of that by tapping your valuable time & energy that could be spent "doing."

If your Palm ever breaks, and it is something that you can not repair with a Hard Reset - your best bet is to think of it like today's VCR's - disposable. Replace it just like you would a VCR, with a new one.

8)
 
Bill W:

I share your pain. I bought my first palm III with glass screen (I think) about four years ago and in a few months dropped it from my shirt pocket onto a hardwood floor while bending over to pick something up. Screen shattered. Paid $100 for a reconditioned replacement. Had it in my briefcase for protection. Went on a plane trip. Upon arrival, opened briefcase to find screen cracked. Decided that $100 every three months was too high a price to pay, so stopped using palm.

Fast forward to February 2003. Bought a Clie SJ30 with plastic screen as part of GTD implementation. A few weeks ago, found it on my kitchen table with its screen broken - not really sure how but think it fell from table onto floor and was put back onto table by someone. Called Sony to find that the screen repair would cost $150!
Bought a new clle sj22 for $149. Bought Staples' extended warranty for $20 because the salesman said that broken screens were covered. Let's hope I never have to find out.

All in all, I feel that these PDAs are too fragile for the real world, but I am not willing to give up the functionality (yet). I looked at a variety of cases, but, for me, the main attraction is being able to pop the PDA into my pocket and take it with me. I am not into belt-paks or carrying a case around with me in my hands.

I have considered a home-brew approach of applying foam tape in strategic spots around my clie but have not done this yet.

This shattered screen stuff is particulary irritating to me because for ten years I have carried a pocket-sized daytimer wallet and never had it break:). It has been submerged once, though, but I was able to separate and dry the pages. Anyway, I kept a photo-copy of the non-daily pages. What a high-tech backup!:)

I had a program to print out my contacts list in a format that fit the daytimer wallet, so I always had my address book handy.

Cost of day-timer wallet was about $50 and I bought a new one every two years, plus daily pages for about $50 per year. So far this year, in eight months I've spent $220 + $150=$370 on two Clie's.

One of the key reasons I stick with the Clie these days is that I can sync with outlook in a matter of seconds and take it all with me. In the day-timer model, I typically kept only the latest 30 days of calendar and daily notes and updated my address book only once per year (although I marked-up the book in pen). It was hard to find a way to keep my NA lists updated in and take them with me in my daytimer.

-Ken
 
Re: New Palms

TesTeq said:
In my opinion there is no real improvment in Palms in the area of personal information management including GTD. The only real advantage of the new devices is colorful and very readable hi-rez screen. You don't need faster processor or huge memory for implementing GTD...
Click to expand...

Not really on the topic of screens, but playing off TesTeq's comment:

Do the new processors speed apps up noticeably? I've stopped running Shadow (my one non-plain-vanilla app) b/c it's pretty slow on my old 33mhz processor. I really do like to have project plans with me. I'm in a fairly project-intensive environment (project as in the formal non-GTD definition), so I have sufficiently large project support needs that paper files aren't the portable solution. I'd like to add Shadow back into my tool kit, but only if it ran faster.

Can anyone comment on application speed on newer Palm processors?

TIA,
Bryan
 
Speed and Fragility: 2 comments

Speed: I have a Tungsten C with a 400 MHz processor. There are advantages to the roughly 10X boost over the old Motorola Dragonball processors. In Agendus, you can look up all records associated with a contact very quickly- this was impractical for regular use before. Life Balance updates run quickly. Programs like Beyond Contacts and KeySuite, which are slow on older machines, run well. So you are less limited by your tool, and more limited by you. Yes, I have tried all these software programs; no, they didn't actually help that much :).

Fragility: a 4- foot drop (where my palm is when I use it standing) onto a non-carpeted surface will break the screen. On the other hand, I have dropped palms several times in a Palm stiff leather case with no apparent damage. The metal cases I have seen do not seem well padded to me, but might make sense if you carry your Palm in a backpack or similar, where the screen might be broken by the other contents.

Mike
 
I highly appreciate all the replies to my question. Thank you.

I did not realize that screen breakage was that prevalent. Makes me wonder if the companies that make these PDA devices do not make a screen that would not break simply for the reason that they are making too much money from these breakages.

From the comments I have been getting, I think I may continue not using a Palm or any PDA device. The negatives seem to outweigh the positives at this point. I am currently just making notations of things I must do on a piece of paper in my pocket if I am on the go, and when I get back to my computer I just reenter the data.

Bill W
 
Re: Older Palm vs newer Palm

Unbreakable screens? Not that I'm aware of. As to which Palm I would recommend for GTD: the recently resurrected Palm m500. I got one of these last christmas, and it is the best Palm I've ever owned. I don't care about color, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or anything like that, and I mostly use the built in Palm apps. My concern was getting the thinnest & lightest Palm available so that I would be more inclined to carry it with me everywhere. AFAIK, the m500 is still the thinnest and lightest Palm handheld available.

In re Palm repair: I had a fairly good experience. For a couple of months I took my m500 with me to the gym, using it to track my workouts. The inevitable happened: I dropped a 5 lb weight plate directly on the m500. Totally destroyed the screen. I shipped it off to Palm and they returned it in a couple of days. After about a week, the screen started going completely black intermittently. I shipped it back to them, and they returned it again in a couple of days. That was 6 months ago, and it's been working fine ever since.
 
I agree!!!

The m500 Series Palms are some of the best ones that Palm ever designed. They had to "tweak" the color display issues a bit between the original m505 and successor m515; but those of us who got the m515 also got the first Palm with 16 MB of memory!

I am Very Happy with the design and functionality of this series! When one Palm Customer Service Rep promised me a new Palm, after the third replacement went belly-up, I specifically asked if I could get another m515 model. (They later broke that commitment, but...)

I believe GTD coach Jason also loves his 500 series Palm.

They're Great!

(fresh out of the box, that is....lol)

8)
 
Best Palm designs and screen protection

Yes,
The m500 Series Palms are some of the best ones that Palm ever designed.
Click to expand...
If they could only replace b&w screen with hi-rez color lcd from tungsten... What a beautiful dream... But no, they are trying to compete with Pocket PC so instead of elegant slim design you get another bulky PDA.
Concerning the screen protection my advice is to use rubber or leather cases - plastic or metal do not provide good protection.
Regards,
TesTeq
 
Bad luck?

I think the people who have the screen problems are the only ones posting. I've used/owned:
HP95lx, HP100lx, PalmPilot (original), PalmIIIxe, Sony 615c, Sony 665c
The only screen breakage I've experienced was on the HP95lx back in 1992 or so. HP repaired it for $100 and that was that. I always keep my Palm/Sonys in leather cases, have dropped them on hard surfaces and things and have never had any screens break (knock on wood). To not use a PDA because you might break the screen seems to me the same as not driving because you might have a car accident...

The newer screens and processors make a big difference. Not only speed be readability and useability. If you are the type of person who prefers writing on paper and is not concernced about the highly increased productivity due to better organization and search and retrieval tools that make the PDA's so useful, then by all means stick with a paper solution. For me, I could never go back to a paper system; I'd never be able to find anything (as I couldn't when I used paper systems; that's why I got away from them!)

Just my 2cents for whatever they're worth.
 
The T|E is pretty thin-- compare it to a m500 series Palm. IT's also fast, got a beautiful screen and is only $199.
 
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