Comments on: Price Cuts for Palm VIIx and IIIc

Costco still has them - for $199.99

Palm really needs to put this lemon out of its (and our) misery. It's a terrible product. And that lovely low-res display will do more damage to your vision than staring at the sun. Every optometrist should give one to his/her patients, for return visits! =)

The above anonymous fool posted the following ramblings: "I don't think you know what you're talking about. The Palm IIIc screen is great indoors. It sucks outside, but how many people truly use their palms outside? Most of the time people are inside somewhere, home, work, shopping, car - all of it inside. The screen is brighter than any other color screen on the market."

First off, I owned a Palm IIIc two years ago, and while being very "illuminating", it was a $400 (at the time) retina killer. The low resolution yields a very noticeable black grid where there are gaps between pixels. This is a well know issue with all color PalmOS devices, with the exception of the Sony Clie models. At least Sony had the good sense to boost the screen resolution to a level more practical to the human eye.

Second, I want to thank you for proving your stupidity by making the following comment: "Most of the time people are inside somewhere, home, work, shopping, car - all of it inside. The screen is brighter than any other color screen on the market."

Oh my...where to begin. First of all, genius, if you are in your car...you are OUTDOORS. And if you understood anything about LCD display technologies, you would know that the Active Matrix display in your IIIc washes out, not only in sunlight, but in ANY very bright light, including the typical fluorescent lighting in your local mall or superstore. The only way you can see what is on your screen in any practical form, is to boost the brightness level to its maximum setting.

Are you the same idiot who claimed that Ed's pics of the i705 were fakes?

>the Active Matrix display in your IIIc washes out, not only in sunlight, but in ANY very bright light, including the typical fluorescent lighting in your local mall or superstore. The only way you can see what is on your screen in any practical form, is to boost the brightness level to its maximum setting.

No, the IIIc screen did not wash out in any very bright indoor light, unless it was a spotlight. It was perfectly viewable even under extra bright fluorescent lighting like my office, which is much brighter than mall and superstore lighting, and that was with the brightness at half. Brightness turned up to maximum setting? Not unless you wanted you wanted to signal an airplane at night or burn holes in your retinas, but that's why the brightness was adjustable. Outdoors?, now you're talkin' washout, in the car I used to shade the screen unless I cranked the brightness. Perhaps the poster mentioning the auto had severely tinted glass?

Still, I liked the IIIc while I had it, and only upgraded for expansion capabilities. Love having a 136Mb Palm, but miss the 16+ hours of battery life. Must agree that the newer displays are easier on the eyes... I don't get headaches anymore when reading ebooks.

I own and use a Palm IIIc every day. I bought one when the price dropped to $329. I don't have any complaints about the readability of the screen. It's a huge improvement over any monochrome Palm I've seen, though I'd rather have a front-lit refelective TFT display now, given their better readability in bright sunlight. I've considered upgrading to a to an M505 with the recent price-drops (before this one), but all the incompatible junk that I bought to go with the IIIc gave me pause (Palm Keyboard, SmartPad, GPS, separate serial interface and recharger). But when I think about it, I don't actually use any of that stuff, so I might as well put it all up for sale as a bargain package and be done with it.

But it's been a good product and I've enjoyed it. I particularly the black on white text of the color screen for reading fiction with the backlight turned all the way down in bed at night, with the room lights turned off.

-- Mike Scot

Yeah, my dad has a IIIc, and he doesn't report any problems with it. Plus, if you look at it a lot, you don't even *notice* the grid. I used to use it a lot before i got my Clie. And the Graffiti recognition is fine.

"Killed" isn't exactly the term I'd use. The IIIc is still for sale on the Palm Store. Yes, they have stopped making it but word was that happened months ago. They are also still selling the VIIx.

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News Editor

I was just shopping at CompUSA in NYC (5th Ave and 37th St) -- they have a working demo of both the i705 and the T615.

So I guess Palm dropped the ball on their product announcement?

Matt

Retail stores are usually shipped merchandise ahead of time in order to be sure they are on the shelves on the official release day. Apparently, lots of places either don't know or don't care that Palm doesn't want these up for sale until Monday. This sort of thing happens all the time when companies try to release a product on the same day it's announced.

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News Editor

They have the i705 in Huntsville, AL at COMPUSA! Went there earlier today and saw about 5 (or so) of them boxed and being placed behind the counter. I checked 'em out, interesting... But, I owned a Palm VII, then VIIx, I now have a VisorPrism with VisorPhone so I'm not interested in the i705. However, I did ask the price. It's $449 and Retailers have them now!!! I don't know what the whole on-line thing was all about, perhaps a publicity stunt?

That page even has a picture of the i705. It looks just like all the other photos.

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News Editor

Egad. The refurb is MORE than the new one. Sheesh. I can't type.

That gets me a 404 error. They must have pulled the page.

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News Editor

It worked for me just now... try it again.

lol, aren't we all. :D ;).
http://pdan.has.it