palmOne Announces Tungsten T5 200
btornado writes "palmOne has officially announced the Tungsten T5, which is due out in early November. It features 256 MB of flash memory, Palm OS Garnet 5.4 with a 320x480 display, and Bluetooth connectivity with support for the SDIO Wifi card. It is also the first device to support the Multi-connector, which allows you to trickle charge from the USB cable. You can also configure the T5 as a USB drive to transfer files."
New features? (Score:5, Informative)
Oh my, that's what a two yeard old Zire does!
Re:New features? (Score:3, Informative)
T.
Re:New features? (Score:2)
Odd, I must be imagining that my T3 has been charging from my Palm USB cable for over a year (I've never unpacked the cradle).
Re:New features? (Score:3, Informative)
I think when plugged in the car (12V adapter) it will run and charge.
I was puzzled by this comment also.
Re:New features? (Score:2)
Mine does charge on USB, even when the device is on, but admittedly the charge rate isn't all that good. Perhaps they have tweaked this for the T5, as charging off of the USB port seems popular these days (for example, it's one of the highlighted features of the recent iPods). So I guess it's not a new feat
Re:New features? (Score:4, Interesting)
Oh my, that's what a two yeard old Zire does!
And my Tungsten E. What's interesting to me is that in design this looks a lot more like an upgrade of the Tungsten E than the T3: no sliding thingy, the buttons and finish (oh no! you'd think Palm'd learn from their mistakes!) and form appear identical to the TE, and there's no voice recorder, the speaker's on the back, etc, etc.
So I'm guessing that the T5 uses the same connector as the Zires and the TE. Which has always seemed a great idea to me (I love that the hotsync cable is just a mini-USB cable and I can charge from it), but will piss-off those who like their universal connector products
Re:New features? (Score:3, Informative)
In that regard
Wifi Support (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Wifi Support (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Wifi Support (Score:2)
Now there's a concept, eh?
Re:Wifi Support (Score:2)
Re:Wifi Support (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah but people don't ship cars without tires. Throw a WiFi card in there and make it user upgradeable. But don't ship it with an empty slot. That sucks.
Re:Wifi Support (Score:3, Interesting)
-Jesse
Don't ship a car WITH car cover (Score:2)
A lot of people have bluetooth phones now and that is a FAR more preferable way to get network connectivity, as the connection will go where I do and the battery will last MUCH longer.
Power consumption... (Score:5, Insightful)
And, as another poster mentioned, WiFi seems to change about once a year - and I'd rather buy a new $100 SDIO card than a new $400 PDA.
Re:Power consumption... (Score:3, Insightful)
And I'm not some Pocket PC fanatic dissing Palm. I loved my Palm Vx, but it was the lack of wi-fi that made me choose an iPaq (although that sucks for other reasons). Being able to turn on a PDA and sync up or browse from anywhere is a v
Re:Wifi Support (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Wifi Support (Score:5, Insightful)
A PDA, OTOH, needs mainly to talk to it's "mothership" desktop, or to a cell phone, or some other "personal" device. Right up Bluetooth's alley. In fact, probably the best way to think of Bluetooth on a PDA is as an expansion port that just happens to be wireless.
I use Bluetooth to sync my Palm and my PowerBook, to connect my cell phone to my Jabra headset, to iSync everything, to connect my iMac to peripherals, and in a pinch I use Bluetooth to get GPRS internet access with my cell phone from my PowerBook when I don't have any other form of access available. I also have used my cell phone with the Palm (a Tungsten T) the same way.
And though I don't use it as much, I have a Dell laptop with Bluetooth, and the cordless phone at my office uses it both to talk to the base station and to sync with a PC.
OTOH I have a Pocket PC as well (an iPaq 1935), and I use a Sandisk SDIO WiFi card with it. Very rarely. There's just not much I'd do with it that isn't better served by the laptop, and the SDIO card sucks power so quickly you can practically see the power meter drop.
Mind you, I'm not dumping on WiFi. It's great, and useful, but it's just good for one thing - networking. In PDA's that's enough of a niche compared to what you can do with Bluetooth that I'd rather have Bluetooth in my PDA given a choice of only one.
Re:Wifi Support (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm very pleased with my TH-55, which has Bluetooth AND WiFi, both of which I use, bluetooth + my T610 on the road, WiFi @ the office.
Oh, and the TH-55 has a voice recorder too, can't believe PalmOne left that one out of the T5.
Too bad Sony stopped selling Clié's in US/europe.
USB Drive? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:USB Drive? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:USB Drive? (Score:2)
Re:USB Drive? (Score:3, Informative)
Use your handheld as a USB drive.2 When you're away from your own desktop, just turn on Drive Mode, plug the Tungsten T5 handheld into another computer and access your work.
and
With the new File Transfer application, you can actually drag-and-drop files and folders from your desktop to your handheld and back again. It couldn't be easier to transfer the files you need from home or your office and access them on the go.
Re:USB Drive? (Score:3, Informative)
Where is OS6? (Score:4, Interesting)
When are we getting the real Palm OS 6, with such badly needed features as multiprocessing and a file system?
Re:Where is OS6? (Score:2)
http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=0
Not available on Palm devices themselves, yet. Maybe there will be an upgrade available soon.
T.
Re:Where is OS6? (Score:3)
Re:Where is OS6? (Score:2)
Well, dare I ask who badly needs them? Not me. I don't like much this attitude: "look Windows has it! Copy it! Quick!". Really - what real use is there for threads on PDA? As for FS (in internal memory - there is FS support for SD cards of course)... Well, it could've been not bad to be able to put plain text ebooks (EG) into main memory, but really - running a converter to some PDB format or putti
Re:Where is OS6? (Score:2)
I can see a filesystem being useful too., but again, that may be my bias towards the Zaurus talking.
Re:Where is OS6? (Score:5, Insightful)
As for Multitasking, again, CE machines are a nightmare of "wanna be a desktop" os overkill. This [writingonyourpalm.net] is a sweet and smart way to do it, instead of "Start | Settings | Memory | Running Applications | End Program" or loading a program to make the close button actually close something.
My iPaq is now sitting in the cradle, and has been for about 3 months, untouched, while I carry my Tungsten E upstairs and downstairs just in case I need it.
OK! Ignition started, pour on the kerosene!
Re:Where is OS6? (Score:2)
Palm suck though, since they have no multitasking. It is the biggest thing that makes my Clie NX70V just an organizer and crappy camera always with me, rather than a computer I can fit in my pocket.
I use a program like WIMR on my Palm, never did on PocketPC though. I use JackFlash, FileZ, CLIE Files and Super Utility. I seem to need them all to get full coverage for what sh
Re:Where is OS6? (Score:3, Insightful)
I was talking about OS 6, which has a form of multiprocessing, though a limited one. But Palm OS 4 and 5 has had some multiprocessing as well, although it didn't come from PalmSource that way. Sony added it, both in Palm OS 4 and 5 for their own Clie line. Specifically, they added the functionality of having *one* background thread, in addition to the regular single process. They added this for
Re:Where is OS6? (Score:3, Insightful)
Because of this, every app has to implement functionality itself. Want a hierachical directory structure? An onscreen keyboard that works without a text control focused? A Save/Load dialog? A decent clipboard? A high performance 2D library?
The answer is always the same - "implement it yourself"
PalmOS 6 looks like it might solve some of these problems, bu
Re:Where is OS6? (Score:5, Funny)
No, don't. Just imagine running your mp3 player in the background while you actually do something else on the device - then go read up on the difference between multiprocessing and multiprocessor and be elightened.
Sheesh. I guess IHBT.
Re:Where is OS6? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Where is OS6? (Score:3, Informative)
I probably should have said 'proper multitasking'.
The Palms can do that at the moment, but not very well. You can run an MP3 application, and leave it running in the background while you run something else. But that's about as far as it goes.
Don't know if you really need a fully preemptive OS on the Palm, though. Like, if you really need a lot of power, bring a laptop with you. The Sony Clie ones are not really all that
Re:Where is OS6? (Score:2)
The ultra-slim/light paperback sized portables you're thinking of are their Viao line. As soon as I can afford one of them, they certainly look neat to tote around with you (and decent battery life it appears).
Re:Where is OS6? (Score:2)
Really nice little laptops. Expensive, though, IIRC.
T.
Re:Where is OS6? (Score:2)
For non palm users out there, one of the main critics in regard to Palm OS is the inability to run multiple programs simultaneously (as it can be done in PocketPC).
As always, underwhelming (Score:5, Interesting)
The $400 sounds okay, until you realize it does not include built-in WiFi. The screen is half VGA.
And it doesn't have the new version of the PalmOS. Instead we get 5.4, which as far as I'm concerned, the entire 4.x and 5.x OS's have been disappointments. The IP stack in the 5.x OS is what I'd consider unstable and unusable. Imagine that when networked apps crash, they actually crash inside the IP stack, not the application.
Don't get me started on the lack of multitasking.
Very disappointing.
Re:As always, underwhelming (Score:2, Interesting)
Much better than the Quarter VGA that was until recently the standard for PocketPC devices.
Which in turn was a mile ahead of the old 1/12th VGA original PalmOS screen. Now *that* wasn't adequate, although a lot of the apps were designed carefully and the devices were worthwhile.
As for PalmOS 6
Re:As always, underwhelming (Score:4, Informative)
As for half VGA.. Do you realize that it has the same DPI as 15" panel capable of 1600x1200. Sure, you usually look at it at closer distance, but it's very, very crisp. Doubling its DPI would be an overkill.
Re:As always, underwhelming (Score:3, Insightful)
Secondly, you said it yourself, you usually look a lot closer (from my rough estimate right now), about twice as close. I agree, 15" 1600x1200 (i.e., 133 DPI) looks pretty good from a 20" laptop viewing distance. Therefore 266 DPI is about what we need for a PDA viewing at 10". VGA has this DPI at a 3" diagonal which is pretty small, (the T5 has a 3.8" scree
Re:As always, underwhelming (Score:2)
The *one* thing I could think of is playing mp3s in the background.
Other than that, as long as apps maintain a reasonable level of state when exiting, what more do you really need?
I'm actually strongly thinking of ditching my PPC2003 device for a T3. I pl
Sony Clié TH 55 is still the best Palm PDA (Score:2)
When I look at the new Tungsten I don't find a superior to the TH55 from Sony despite the 256 Meg built in RAM.
Palm: Please give me a TH55 without the f***ing Memory Stick and an SD-card slot instead. Would be everything I need.
Bye egghat.
Rotate screen (Score:5, Interesting)
Simple but useful features, that's what makes a product stand out
Zap! (Score:2, Insightful)
What, you can't trickle-charge now? (Score:3, Interesting)
T4 (Score:2)
This baby has got quite some storage, that is true -- this might compensate for the missing dual-slot option...
Another rumor was that the next Tx were to use 6.x PalmOS, not the 5.x -- I guess another
Re:T4 (Score:2, Informative)
Good things (Score:2)
USB drive mode - very nice, and about time. Nice that http://www.softick.com/ [softick.com] took care of that a long time ago for everyone else...
And I think the Tungsten E will do trickle charging from the USB cable... I'm not positive about that, I don't tend to leave mine lying around, tethered to a computer.
Re:Good things (Score:2)
Re:Good things (Score:2)
Re:Good things (Score:2)
I actually set up a folder action script to back up my card when I mount it to the desktop in OS X. Sweet.
Man, I have to be a good boy now and go register that awesome program. My demo is running out soon I think.
3 words (Score:2)
First to charge from USB? Nah! (Score:2)
Oh, while talking about it: I read that the LiPol batteries have lifetimes measured mostly by number of charging cycles. Does trickle-charging count? Oh is it "healthier" to run the things until they start complaining and then fully charge them using charger? Not a 100% silly question (probably) since these Palms all have not normally replaceable battery.
With these specs.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:With these specs.... (Score:2)
Re:With these specs.... (Score:2)
I'm confused (Score:4, Insightful)
Why does it feel like PalmOne wants me to buy a product from another company to replace my m515?
A review link... [brighthand.com] - And an accessory list link... [brighthand.com]
Re:I'm confused (Score:3, Insightful)
This has been Palms biggest problem in recent years I think. They can't seem to decide if they're making Palms for business customers, or consumers, or both.
Sony has (had) this great thing going making shit-hot Palms with all the latest features for bleeding-edge Palm junkies, while their lower models had all the cool new features (for their price range) for Joe Consumer. Palm has this "5x-m500" reputati
Re:I'm confused (Score:2, Informative)
Not everyone wants it
no microphone...
Really? :-(
no Cobalt...
OTOH - far less Gremlins ;)
no sliding case
Yahooo!!! Finally!
can support stereo speakers and portable file transfers, yet it is targetted at business users?
Sure, no business user cares about files ;)
RealPlayer required on it and your desktop machine (ouch).
Actually, no.
Why does it feel like PalmOne wants me to buy a product from another company to replace my m515?
Grass is always greener... Same can be sa
Palm MP3 howto (Score:2)
I didn't steal my UIN ;)
Real sucks...
As for palm on PC - no arguing whatsoever. Palm app OTOH - is okish.
No RealPlayer on your desktop machine...no RealPlayer on the T5... no songs on the T5. No choice. No sale.
All wrong: (a) It is possible to have Real on Palm and not on PC, just put needed PRC's to hotsync queue, namely:
RealLib.prc
RealMP3Codec.prc
RealMP3FF.prc
Re alOne.prc
RealOne_enUS.prc
(b) To put MP3 files to card you can use a card reader (probably the way to go). Or y
Finally! (Score:2)
I don't care about the wi-fi thing if there's a working card for it. I don't care about the lack of microphone, I have a MD recorder. I don't care about Cobalt, I'd rather have the thing work with my Mac and my Linux boxes.
And the lack of a sliding case is a huge plus. The stupid sliding design is the single thing that has kept me away from the Tungsten series so far.
Cheaper T3 (Score:5, Insightful)
Another $50 and I'll be all over it...
slashvertisement (Score:2, Funny)
Development (Score:3, Insightful)
In a C++ API you could just derive a subclass of a control and overload the parts you want to, just as KDE does with Qt.
Re:Development (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Development (Score:2)
Re:Development (Score:2)
Re:Development (Score:2)
Personally, I would be happier if C++ had never caught on, but BeOS is a C++ based OS with a C++ based GUI, so it's likely OS 6 will have a more C++ oriented GUI.
C++ API? How about any decent API? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:C++ API? How about any decent API? (Score:2)
- Jalil Vaidya
Nothing to see here. Move along.... (Score:4, Insightful)
This certainly is not a revolutionary device, and the lack of WiFi is VERY disappointing. A colleague just bought one of the new HP ipaqs that has a FULL VGA screen and integrated WiFi, and it simply smokes anything Palm has put out. Yes, it was almost double the cost, but still, the T5 is a real disappontment.
Now, if Sony would have released a UX-50 with either no camera or a removable camera (to comply with many business restrictions) it would be our device of choice...
PEG-UX50 (Score:2)
The problem with the UX-50 is the eye-strainingly small screen. If they'd fix that it would, indeed, be perfect.
Yawn (Score:2)
Use as a USB mass storage device? Tick.
So where the the use USB devices (like keyboards etc) - any device with a Linux driver in fact, and the 640x480 screen? Then they will finally have caught up with the Zaurus.
Even the Qtopia PIM apps are starting to catch up now, so why should I chose one of these things at all?
Re:Yawn (Score:2)
Though Linux and CE PDAs have a big heads up on any Palm OS device, even with the new OS 6: multitasking. The POS6 definition of multitasking- having a few threads, no concurrent apps- is sad, and it's what makes my Palm PDA just an organizer and crappy camer
It's still better than PPC (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm willing to admit that Dell devices still may have higher tech specs, but honestly, until they can run PalmOS, I'm not the slightest bit interested. PPC sucks. It's not stable, it's a resource hog. It has more moving parts, and having supported both PPC and POS, can say without hesitation that in my opinion, POS is still far superior.
In conclusion to my rant, I'm not going to say "Way to go PalmOne!" They made some mistakes. (Plastic case? Oops!) On the other hand, I don't think this is a miserable failure. It's an evolutionary device that is slightly better than the T3. I think that everyone's expectations were simply too high, and mostly unreasonable. If P1 had come out with a device with WiFi, people would complain about battery life. If it had a voice recorder, people would complain that it turned the device on in their pockets. I don't think that Palm could have satisfied people after having such a long break since their last release. And to those of you wondering, I don't work for Palm. Let's just hope that the long-term reliability of this unit is an improvement, because that's where P1 could go horribly wrong. My T3 had far too many hardware problems, and if the T5 exhibits the same problems, then P1 could really be in trouble.
Re:It's still better than PPC (Score:3, Insightful)
And that's just it- in your opinion. In my opinion, the Newton OS is still far superior to any other option out there, past or present. But, that being dead, the next best thing is Pocket PC. It has a number of things wrong with it, and I'd still rather use a vanilla WinCE.NET 4.2 machine over a PocketPC one, but unlike POS, it ge
Enough to get it? (Score:3, Interesting)
Bigger != better (Score:4, Interesting)
Palm has forgotten the mantra of the original developers that made the Palm III such a success -- keep it small. The Tungsten T is just barely carryable, and the newer versions just keep getting bigger. Personally, I'd rather see Palm spend their energy reducing the size of the T series than increasing the features.
Re:Bigger != better (Score:2)
Re:Bigger != better (Score:2)
Yes. The majority of Palms are still being used as PIM tools. Those users don't need cameras, WiFi or MP3 playing capability.
It's a shame Handspring was bought out by PalmOne. I would've liked a replacement for my Treo 90. One that was roughly the same size, perhaps with a nicer screen or better battery life. Instead, the closest replacement is a bloated US$400 Tungsten C.
Re:Bigger != better (Score:2)
I'd love something like my old 505 with Wifi and some multitasking ability but I don't want to see it any bigger than my 505 was. That thing was great.
Re:Bigger != better (Score:3, Informative)
I guess you're right in the sense of form factor, but until they came out with the Vx (or IBM's rebranded C3), the V was too short on storage to run stuff like eReader and a collection of reference docs--unless that's all you wanted it for. I still use my (8MB) Vx... just wish I could set it up for wifi, surfing on a modem is so... 90's!
Re:Bigger != better (Score:2)
Why I've bought my last Palm (Score:2)
I'm really pissed that my only option for wireless turned out to be buying a more expensive Palm, or bluetooth.
You ever try to set up a ZOOM bluetooth device on your PC so you could sync and surf on your Palm?
I returned the damn Zoom product. The configuration wasn't even documented, and they didn't even have drivers on their website, so when I took the device to work, I had to wait until the next day to se
Re:Why I've bought my last Palm (Score:2)
They provide support for more regular file formats without haveing to deal with the database crap. Is it just me or is opening a jpeg on it overcomplicated?
The Wifi on it is great though, as is having the thumb-board. I like that, but there's still other issues.
You've got this efficient OS, and a CPU that's overkill for the Palm OS, and yet multitasking is practically nonexistant. I don't need
But is it still volatile memory? (Score:2)
Zodiac Rules (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.palmsource.com/interests/emulators/
http://www.palmemu.com/
http://www.kalemsoft.com/
http://www.codejedi.com/
What Happened to COLBALT?!? Palm OS 6 (Score:3, Insightful)
Tops of the Line (Score:2)
Add Biometric Security (Score:2)
Just my $0.02
- Jalil Vaidya
End of UC? Bad (Score:3, Insightful)
Every time they change their connector, they kill all the accessories that work with that connector. I don't know why any third-party companies would ever make accessories for PalmOne PDA ever again.
If I bought a T5, I wouldn't be able to use my folding keyboard with it, my modem, or my rechargeable battery pack. I guess I could buy new ones, but no thank you, since the ones I have work so well.
I suppose they are doing this because the new connector costs them less money. The Universal Connector has both USB and a serial port, and a whole bunch of little pins. If I were in a good mood, I might say that a manufacturing company does need to keep an eye on their cost of goods.
But Palm has changed their connector so many times now! The third-party accessory makers were unhappy when Palm adopted it, but Palm promised this was the last connector change, honest. Last for three years, I guess.
And what kind of crack are they smoking... stereo out through the connector? Oh, I guess they weren't trying to keep an eye on costs after all. An iPod has stereo out through the connector, and that's valuable because you can have hours of music on one. A Palm PDA can play music, and that's valuable because you have it with you wherever you go, and you don't need to carry both a PDA and a music player. But how valuable is it to have a PDA that can play a couple of hours of music while it is in its cradle? How hard is it to plug speakers into the stereo headphones jack, anyway?
steveha
Re:End of UC? Bad (Score:3, Informative)
Trying to use a cable attached to the UC was/is an annoying task. The damn thing jsut doesn't stay connected. I say good bye and good riddance.
while officially dropping Mac support...not really (Score:4, Informative)
The address book works with vcards and will still sync bluetooth.
The unit itself can now just be mounted like a hard drive on the Mac desktop - so you just drag whatever straight into an appropriate place.
Besides the palmone spec page says - full mac support
Re:while officially dropping Mac support...not rea (Score:2)
We [pilot-link.org] still support more platforms, Palm devices, and other things than Palm themselves supports. Sure, we can't afford to go out and buy every new device the day they're released, but we catch up fast.
We're already significantly faster (20% to 60% in most cases) than Palm's own implementation on OSX and Linux and Unix (three platforms they don't support at all!).
Contrary to what Palm states, they do not support Mac/OSX at all. Mark/Space (endorse
Re:Treo vs T5 (Score:2)
Some people don't want the phone integrated (I picked T3 over Treo when I purchased last). Work pays for the phone, the T3 is mine.
No knock against the Treo's - I think they're nice devices and they do seem to do everything the Tungstens do, just a different form factor.
Oh, and I still "Grafitti". I don't think Treo's do that, do they?
Re:Treo vs T5 (Score:3, Informative)
All in all, I'd skip the convergence thing for a better phone and a better, smaller PDA.
Plus, I miss graffitti. The keyboard's OK, but cramped for my (large) hands.
Re:Win one for yourself in the wxPalmOS challenge! (Score:2)