Palm Tungsten Models Reviewed 211
Jason Weill writes "MSNBC has a slightly premature review of Palm's brand-new Tungsten models. These models, currently (as of 11:10 PM EST Sunday) unavailable on Palm's own web site, are the Tungsten T and Tungsten W. The Tungsten T includes a fold-out Graffiti area, new cross-key keypad, 144 MHz ARM processor, Palm OS 5, a 320x320 full-color screen, and 16 MB of on-board RAM. At $499, it's more expensive than most handhelds currently on the market. The Tungsten W replaces the Graffiti area with a thumb keyboard and includes GSM/GPRS phone capabilities. Unlike the Handspring Treo devices, the Tungsten W only works with a handset -- you can't put it up to your ear. The Tungsten W will cost $549, although most American service providers will subsidize at least part of the cost. These models will officially be unveiled Monday, October 28."
Quote from article ha! (Score:4, Insightful)
The industry then laughs, as their marketshare increase due do stupid palm decisions.
Users on the other hand are probably drooling because they are sleeping through palm's big announcement, having realized long ago, that palm has overpromised and underdelivered over and over.
Wow (Score:4, Insightful)
Too little too late... (Score:5, Insightful)
In short, there's no excuse for this device. Palm is dead in the water. For *LESS* than $499 I can get an 802.11b-equipped full color Toshiba E740 that will outrun, outgun, and outfeature any of Palm's new devices. Kiss your butts goodbye, Palm. This isn't 1997, this is almost 2003, and you just sat around on your market share. Watch Small-and-Flaccid(TM) eat the rest of your lunch now.
Holy crap (Score:0, Insightful)
Re:Don't even think about buying one. (Score:4, Insightful)
"Those Slashdot editors are right... If I had moderator points - bam!"
Your post is blatant flamebait. Cell phones are NOT PDAs for SEVERAL reasons:
Games and other applications are tightly controlled by the cell phone provider. While you may be able to find "cellphone Java" (the name of the Java variant they run escapes me) applications, good luck getting them to download to your phone. Cell phones ALREADY HAVE the worst of what we expect Palladium to be. If an app isn't signed and delivered (usually with a FEE) to your cell phone by your cell phone provider, you're not getting it on there. Another nice feature of some applications is that they expire or require you to be using Internet airtime minutes while they're running. Even if you want to download something as simple as images or ringtones to your phone, you're likely to be hit with a download fee and only able to download from your cell phone provider or a company that has an agreement with your provider.
Next comes the issue of getting data onto your phone... The screen is small and the entry interface (press each button over, and over, and over) is awful. You can't begin to compare it to the Palm or any other PDA at all.
Cell phones are designed to be a glorified phonebook and self-setting clock if you don't pay for service. The providers nickel and dime you for every feature you're used to getting for FREE with a PDA or portable PC device. If you want wireless communication - get a cell phone. If you want a personal digital assistant - get a Palm.
Sliding design (Score:5, Insightful)
Cellular carriers (Score:3, Insightful)
Begging your pardon? Isn't this a GSM phone? Do the US carriers lock users in even on GSM networks? What's the point of having GSM then if you can't use whatever phone you like on whatever network you want and roam freely?
We may be behind the US on a lot of things here in Europe, but at least we got that right. My cellular carrier doesn't care, and it's none of their business, what kind of phone I use and where I bought it.
Speaking of my phone, I own a Nokia 7650. Can't see replacing it for the new Palm anytime soon, the Nokia does the same job in a smaller package.
Re:That's some power (Score:5, Insightful)
probably because users are to cheap to buy the games when they are $30-50, that's an awful lot to spend on a handheld enterainment app.
No, it's because this amazing new horsepower isn't actually on the market for another few hours and the vast majority of PalmOS developers don't participate in "pre-release hardware" development (unlike the major game companies).
There are quite a few games that push the limits of the Dragonball and look damn nice, but even the top of the line 33mhz isn't close to a 144mhz ARM. Patience, Young Jedi, the wicked games will come soon enough, especially with the new 5-way and improved audio support.
DANGER WILL ROBINSON DANGER (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:How do they sell anything in Japan? (Score:5, Insightful)
Or maybe because they don't want to pay the cell phone company for downloading new applications to them.
Oh, wait, your phone can't use new applications? I'm sure that somebody thinks that the phone's built in games and utilities are worth a damn, but I'm sure not one.
A PDA is more than just an address book. The killer feature of my Palm is the desktop sync. That way, even if my PDA dies, ALL that important information is ready for me to download into a new device. No hassle, no incompatibilities...it just works.
Phones are great, when you want to call people. For doing anything else, they're a user interface nightmare.
Why 16mb?? (Score:4, Insightful)
WHY do even the newest PDA's on the market still come with 16mb of memory?? I mean seriously, when I can get a 128mb CF card for ~$50, you'd think that a $500 palm with multimedia capabilities might have a little more room to work with than a fscking 386!
Re:Form factor just isn't there yet. (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Too little too late... (Score:2, Insightful)
Although I disagree with this poster. The market has demonstrated over and over again that place low value on the bells and whistles of your typical pocket pc device.. preferring simple, long lasting PDA's.
I actually think the Cell Phone makers are doing this best. Particularly those utilizing symbian, Nokia has put together some really compelling devices that combine the best of the PDA with the best of the cell phone... its a solid solid combination.
no speaker? (Score:4, Insightful)
Handspring sure got it right when they decided to make the Treo a real phone. They make great phones without this headset nonsense.
overpriced! (Score:1, Insightful)
I can see someone spending $100 for a PDA, but why spend 5 times as much for about the same amount of functionality. That's what I did.
My recomendation: Buy a cheap PDA like a Palm m105 for $100 and buy a laptop (e.g., Dell Inspiron 4150 with 1.7 GHz P4 and 512 MB memory) for $1200 - $1300 and use that for the stuff the PDA can't handle.
Re:Too little too late... (Score:4, Insightful)
If I can't use my PDA for at least a week without batteries, fuhgeddaboutit. I don't need to watch movies on the damn thing...I need it to WORK FOR A LONG TIME.
If I can get long battery life and all that other crap, well and good. But I won't buy a device that needs to be in its cradle every night before I go to bed.
Re:Too little too late... (Score:5, Insightful)
I admit the Palms don't do multitasking but I must admit I'm stumped as to what you would need it for. Playing media while you work on a document I suppose.
But more to the point of your post, I use my Palm to replace all the paper in my life. It doesn't play movies on a tiny screen? Sad, but not really that relevant, is it?
I prefer my Palm as it is tiny, has a long battery life, and runs a nice clean and simple OS that does exactly what I want it to do.
Re:naive (Score:2, Insightful)
Diablo 2 is mostly big because of the cutscenes and very stupidly compressed graphics. You can make graphics intensive games even in 8MB, check just about any older console that still used cartidges (or a bit older arcade machines). Or games like original Tomb Raider (8-9MB).
Re:Too little too late... (Score:5, Insightful)
I've used Palms and WinCe devices (as well as various Newtons since teh MP100) since the original Palm Pilot and WinCE 1.0, and I've nevevr found WinCE (por PPC) devices to be far superior. Yes, they are more powerful than a Palm, but power never translated to usefulness.
The ability to play full-length color feature movies,
Excpet that it takes a large CF/SD card to store one, and don't count on the batteries lasting through an entire movie if you use the backlight. Battery life has been a really issue for me - I can't use my 565 a lot and get through a day.
MP3s,
Yes, although the Clie has done this for a while as well. In fact, my main use for my 565 is to play MP3's.
true wireless internet with a real web browser, document creation,PDF reading,
The web browser is nice - I use it with my CF modem in a pinch.
Document creation is one area where MS really dropped the ball - why go to yet another incompatable document format? I want to be able to edit a Word/Excel document on my PPC, pull the CF card, and plop it in my laptop - and be able to open the PPC file. Currently, that is a no go. Even worse, converetd files lose formating - a real pain for excel files. Not to mention the lack of a native ppt viewer.
And, no one has really got a Datebook5 clone for teh PPC, not to mention decent expense apps. (I 've tried Fusion, Traveller, AgendaToday, etc. and none match DBK5- Gulliver - iambics Expense program (I forget the name) for managing a schedule and expenses.)
chat, console emulators, and actual MULTITASKING has been available for over a year and a half now.
MAME and NES are the other main reasons I still have a PPC. If someone ports them to the Palm, I could dummp my Jornada once again.
the PPC has a lot of potential, but has too many near-misses to really be useful for me - someone who travela s alot and would really like a portable device to use when it's just too much troubel to pull out a laptop.
It's really too bad Apple dumped the Newton - one product where they, not Palm, could have created a market. I really liked my MP2000.
There ARE phones that sync ... (Score:2, Insightful)
I have an Ericsson T68m and a Mac with a bluetooth adapter, and I use iSync to sync them. It also syncs my work and home Macs, and my old Palm V, and my iPod, so that a change made on one of them is updated on them all.
The T68m can also beam appointments and business cards to Palms via infrared.
Maybe this is what you're looking for? Wait, you're saying you don't use a Mac? Oh, well
Re:Cellular carriers (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:How do they sell anything in Japan? (Score:2, Insightful)
Yes, I can. I even do it on Linux. http://www.gnokii.org [gnokii.org]