Comments on: Rumor: More on the Palm m515 and m130

What it looks like to me is the images graphic artists put together to be shown on Palm's site. None of these are actual photos of handhelds; they are all composite shots with the screens taken from something like POSE. This is because it's almost impossible to get a good photo of a handheld's screen. I know; I've tried and failed many times.

Of course, someone not working for Palm could have done the same thing. But PDAGeek's source has come through in the past with info that has turned out to be correct.

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News Editor

The image definately has some jpg artifacting, but that only means it was compressed too far. As for the screen not looking totally right, there's *no way* to get an accurate picture of the actual display because it's just not possible.

By the way, why don't you tell me a used T615c is $300?

There are no legitimate color handhelds that are $299 and yet provides standard expansion capabilities, including Sd & UC. This price is okay for first time users who demand a color screen, and suited for those who owned a m10x series who want to upgrade right now.

By the way, you could buy the rumored m130 less than $300. That's for sure, if there is really a m130 coming.

Do you research before you speak out. Don't tell me there is a special somewhere that the Prism with some springboard device is on special for $300.

No nO NO, you are wrong, that's not the case for a used T615c, It's the price for a USED M505/M515.

So only SD is a standard memory expansion capability and CF is not ?

Europeans / Asians typically do not even get to pay the US MSRP, so you cannot even bring this into the equation now as it has absolutely nothing to do with it.

Would a Prism/Springboard make me happy ? No way. Neither would the M130 for that matter...

But fact remains that, against what you said, their is a product out there within the $300 range with standard expansion capabilities, whether you like it or not. Some people may prefer the Prism others will prefer the M130 and yet others will prefer neither (like me).

You could also win a Handspring Prism for free also. The chance is very slim though, whether you like it or not.

Yes, it is legitimate for anyone to get a Handspring Prism for $1 plus S/H on ebay. That's against what your said. The Prism is in the range of $10 for a color handheld. Does that makes your statement stupid?

I believe that it is in your best interest to know that an updated version of the m505 is coming out in the next few months. This might cause you to hold off buying an m505. Palm won't be happy about that but you will and so will all the users like you.

Palm has a website with only the information Palm wants you to know. It's www.Palm.com We aren't a mouthpiece for Palm. We're trying to look out for you.

In the long run, I think this will help Palm and the rest. If you bought an m505 today not knowing about the new model and the m515 came out in 6 weeks or so, you'd probably be pretty mad. At Palm. Angry customers aren't what any company wants.

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News Editor

Well done , Ed , we all support you and appreciate your effort ! Good job !!

But anyways, that is good to see because it proves that Palm handhelds and PIC are more popular. Palm-bashers just cannot stand that.

Actually, I have been holding on to dollars accumulated over the holidays (in lieu of receiving gifts--to my wife's dismay!) for the precise purpose of purchasing the next, best handheld to appear. I'm tired of waiting. On the other hand, I don't want to miss something that's only days from introduction (although I suppose if carried too far, no one would buy anything; technology is always improving, changing.

The question is, if one can hardly wait any longer to make that PDA purchase, what's available NOW and might there be anything else available SOON that would be worth waiting just a bit longer for?

I currently own a Vx. I've been looking closely at reviews of the 615 and visited a Best Buy to actually handle one. I've also had my eyes open, for months, on that Linux-based Zaurus SL5500, which is yet to be released to nondevelopers. Having had the V and now the Vx, however, I'm used to that form factor. My feeling is that if I can't carry my PDA with me ALL THE TIME, it's not the right PDA for me. The Vx is perfect size-wise. I think the Zaurus would be too big to carry without a belt clip, but man, what specs it has!!!!

The 615 would be perfect in size, but I have a Nikon 950 digital camera which doesn't take Sony's proprietary Memory Sticks. So I'd prefer something using different storage media than Sony's. But that won't keep me away from the 615. A HandEra 330-type set-up with a color screen and smaller form factor (asking a lot, I know) would be ideal: virtual Graffiti area, high res, dual memory slots, hopefully 16 megs--AER YOU READING THIS HANDERA???????? I've read
some rumors about some new LCD technology you're associated with, HandEera, but like with Palm's 515, my patience has almost run out. Almost.

Since I'm an Apple customer, even more perfect (I guess that's impossible) would have been if Apple would have actually introduced their own mini-Newton-like PDA, rumored but then proved false. THAT was a disappointment.

What else is there? If Acer would come out with a color version with better-than-a-Palm 505 screen readability (yes, it's subjective), I'd probably go for that.(Have you seen pictures of the monochrome Acer? Most intriguing.)

I "said" all that to say this: Instead of going out to buy the Sony 615 model, I'm going to force myself to hold off just a bit longer to see if the m515 is actually released "soon." If not: Sony T615c: I'll be on on my way!

And that's why, Ed, I'm, glad you placed that "rumor" on your site. Believe me, it is MOST useful to know, to consider, to hope.

If leaked information was the concern for Palm, they should have ways of dealing with that themselves.

But anyway, keep up the good work . . . :D

Take cars, people buy the outgoing model knowing it will be another year older almost immediately. Why? It is cheaper by thousands of dollars. Make sense.

Guess what I have an M505, I had the memory doubled to 16MB (don't tell me about warranty), so far no issues. Besides given the failure rate of M505's outh there I am the lucky 1% with none. Brighter screen and 16MB of memory. I will wait for OS5, better screen (maybe not Palm) and more memory than 16MB (again maybe not Palm). But I like inside info on the Palm market, that's why I read PIC. It is a must read site period.

You don't like, go hand out with SONY, and when they drop you unit and the support for it go have fun.

One last comment, the only really stupid thing Palm does (besides their Tech Support) is keep making the older units instead of moving people up the product line. I don't mean don't support the product, they should, but stop making the IIIc and move people to the new ones.

Is this worth spending another $400 if you already own a M505 ? IMHO no.
Will there be a lot of people buying this M515 ? Absolutely yes.

Companies want support. They may not get it from Sony, They may have already invested in peripherals for the M50x series and stick to Palm to enable their users to utilise these peripherals.

There are many compelling reasons for many people to buy the Palm instead of the Sony, whether Sony Lovers/Palm haters like it or not. (OK Sony lovers, this is the time where you start the obligatory bashing...)

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And don't get me started on the m505 screen. *I* can always use another stylus, what can you do about the screen?

- Disillusioned Palm owner

On the other hand, this is a Palm news item -- isn't there room for all of us to be happy about this? I use Sony, but if Palm isn't strong then neither is the Clie.

Here's a prediction: The m130 will be a runaway hit. And that's a very good thing.

So you mean "M100's case + M505's screen" !!? Oh,that sucks If they do so.

Let me also state that my thoughts are pure speculations inspired by sugar. The main point is... what is the part we are not seeing? what drives palm to do what it does? Everyone is screaming for them to innovate, but they only seem to renovate. My question is why do they do what they do? I only offer a wacked out solution. =)

Boy, the trolls are thick today, aren't they? :) By your reasoning, last year's cars are 'crap' because the current models only offer minor improvements over them.

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Larry the Tomato

That's flat out not true. Since SONY changed the serial connector, there are almost
no accessories for the T series. How about pen/stylus that fits in the stylus
slot? No.

Some of the assertions above (the ones prior to my parenthetical remarks) strike me as just plain erroneous. But that's just my view.

Peace,

bradleyboy

The trouble with that statement is that no one but HandEra knows how many they've sold. IDC referred to retail sales. That's not how HandEra has sold the bulk of their two models.

With the other companies you can still determine their total sales, including the web sales, and other direct to customer avenues because they're public companies and the shareholders demand to know the numbers. HandEra, unlike Sony, Palm, and HandSpring is not a public company, and thus beholden to no one. So neither you nor IDC can postulate with any credibility how many units they have or have not sold since 1999.

Everyone assumes they can accurately state the percentage of the PDA market that the PalmOS holds, but in the mean time, HandEra and Symbol is selling bulk orders hand over fist to enterprise and medical purchasers, as well as direct phone and web sales, that nobody's counting.

However if there are any factors that are not technology related (color, form factor, stylus...etc) then go with your heart and buy Palm.

Isn't this really simple?

I have recommended the Clie to purchasers, but I'm kind of put off by some of the posts here. It's to the point where if the Sony was exactly what I needed, I would still look for an alternative device just to avoid association with the group.

I know that these posters are in a minority, number-wise, and that a lot of Sony users are courteous and professional... but sometimes it's had to tell because the ones that are not, seem to be the most vocal.

The largest software giant on earth has been trying to kill anything running Palm OS, and they have not been able to succeed. However, they must gain some satisfaction from watching us throw rock at each other.

Formfactor ?
- Palm 515 without a case wins. With a case, Handera!
Customer Support / Service ?
- Handera. Very responsive. Palm is close though.
Company Issue PDA/Corporate Purchases/standardisation?
- Handera on all three.
Different Buttons ?
- Handera! Very good!
Available Accesories ?
- Handera! Any Palm III accessory!
non-Memory Stick device ?
- Handera. Twice! (SD/CF)
Stylus ?
- Handera? Same as Palm III.
Nevertheless good enough colors (for enough people)?
- Sony. Now if Handera had color...
People just don't know there is a Sony PDA ?
- I don't buy this. Just walk into a BestBuy, then claim you don't know about Sony.

Just have to throw another POV into the mess!

Have fun!
-- Paul (Anxiously awaiting a color Handera to replace my HE330.)

You hit the nail right on the head. The m505 has been out since last spring and OS 5 handhelds won't be out until this fall. 18 months is too long to go without refreshing your flagship model. But Palm's not going to redesign it from the ground up. There a huge paradigm shift coming with OS 5. The idea is to tide the users over until then.

p.s. Oh my God, I can't believe I used "paradigm shift" in a sentence. I've been talking to the marketing types too much. Someone please kill me!

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Larry

Oh, yeah. Nothing. Typical.

Doug - Proud Visor Prism owner.

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Paul C.

Noctrop_d@yahoo.com

much better thant he m130

Really? only $250. Why is it so cheap? I may just have to buy today.

- David

but.. why is it so cheap? because the N610C is discountinued and replaced with the new T-615.. that's why.

***

Been there. Done it.
You're a good person for doing it.

I bought the original Palm and upgraded right through the Palm Vx. So, you late comers don't even try to critique me. While YOU people were using day planners and pieces of 3M sticky notes, I had the original Palm. So sue me.

I joined the dark side because Palm wasn't innovating, I love my Jornada 568. I have a 256 MB Compact Flash card I bought for $68 !!! Yeah, try that with an SD card. Oh, I forgot. The manufacturers and OEMers only announced a 256 MB card but it isn't even sold. I love the color and clear type. I read plenty of ebooks and will never go back to b&w. Also, the storage capabilities are fantastic. I now have an all-in-one device which I can use to listen to audio books (audible.com), read ebooks (I have Lord of the Rings, Silmarillion, Peloponnesian Wars, Moby Dick, Stephen King books), listen to MP3s (no, I don't listen to music, I listen to Old Time Radio [otr] and listen to the SHADOW and other classics), and play Gameboy/Gameboy Color games at full speed, color, and sound.

And before you people run your mouth off, I still have my Palm Vx and use it every now and then. I wish the best to Palm and company, but I'm not impressed. Not impressed at all by what I'm seeing.

I only wish the M130 had dual slots, 320 by 320, and 16 meg. Sound would be a nicer plus, but that set of features in the Palm M100 size would really get me to part with some real money.

Hope they don't keep me waiting until this Fall. By then I could probably get a PPC2002 model for that $300 and keep my PPC software.

OK, Plam does have VERY VERY GOOD STYLUS !! It costs you $400 bucks !! BTW, SD sucks,it's expensive and rare , MS ,on the contrary,is cheap and definitely will be the standard.

Just imagine hotsyncing without using a cradle, or printing to a printer without hooking into any cables or standing directly in front of it for infrared, or being online through your bluetooth enabled cell phone which sits comfortably in your briefcase, or going up to a vending machine or payphone and paying with your pda, and on and on.

The possibilities with bluetooth are literally endless.......

Why would MS ever be a standard? it's just a way for sony to get in the memory-based media market! and you have to pay sony to make the media it self, and to make devices that use it. and so what if SD is rare? cant the m series devices use MMC cards? those are pretty common, i see em @ wal-mart, sam goody, sears, almost everywhere. and MS is pretty expensive, too. supposedly it's slower than SD too, but i dont know anything about that.

I have to disagree with the reading comment, I have over 40 books and 5 reference sets, and I did not like the text on the Clie.

Agree on the hi res, it does look good for photos, but that's based on your preferences: The Clie will be brighter with more detail, but the Palm will have more accurate colors.

Different Palm devices have different form factors. Therefore, even if the connector is the same, because the varying size and shape of Palm devices means that not all peripherals will connect with all them.

Instead of calling you a stupid moron like you are calling us in here, I'm going to try and keep this response on a higher level and not call you the idiotic, brick carrying, peabrain of a man that you probably are.

: a lure or a line with its lure and hook used in trolling

Main Entry: 1troll
Pronunciation: 'trOl
Function: verb
Etymology: Middle English
Date: 15th century
transitive senses

1 : to cause to move round and round : ROLL

2 a : to sing the parts of (as a round or catch) in succession b : to sing loudly c : to celebrate in song

3 a : to fish for by trolling b : to fish by trolling in c : to pull through the water in trolling
intransitive senses

1 : to move around : RAMBLE

2 : to fish by trailing a lure or baited hook from a moving boat

3 : to sing or play in a jovial manner

4 : to speak rapidly

Main Entry: 3troll
Function: noun
Etymology: Norwegian troll & Danish trold, from Old Norse troll giant, demon; probably akin to Middle High German trolle lout
Date: 1616

: a dwarf or giant in Scandinavian folklore inhabiting caves or hill

RAMBLE:
Main Entry: 1ram·ble
Pronunciation: 'ram-b&l
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): ram·bled; ram·bling /-b(&-)li[ng]/
Etymology: perhaps from Middle English romblen, frequentative of romen to roam
Date: 1620
intransitive senses

1 a : to move aimlessly from place to place b : to explore idly

2 : to talk or write in a desultory or long-winded wandering fashion

3 : to grow or extend irregularly

No wonder he knows the definition of troll very well.

...Give me a break...

You people are a bunch of freaks and have too much time on your hands posting extensive etymologies and definitions.

And that definition I concocted took all of 15 seconds.

People are too demanding. They want a DREAM-PDA right now. They want NSXs' performance in Accords' prices with Civics' fuel economy.

You pay a Acura TL Type S price.

What do you get? A Ford Excursion's battery life (oh, I mean fuel economy) with only Accord's performance.

Better live with it. It is called a mobile device. Hey, the charger is mobile too.

It's not a dream to expect ni-res. If Sony can do it - so can Palm.

It's not a dream to expect Voice Notes. Handera did it (not well - but still).

Stop cutting Palm so much slack - they deserve to go to the wall - not apologists

***

Buddy, try that and I will send my boyz to your house for some re-edu-ma-cation.

Bottomline: Palm's just too slow to innovate.

No. Palm developed VFS and Sony licenced it from them.

Still remember they compared WinXP and Mac OS X and
gave OS X the nod?
Then they restated it and said it was tie.

A company like Anderson?

Palm developed VFS but didn't have anything to use it with. Their models with SD slots were still being made. But Sony was ready with their Memory Sticks so Sony put VFS out first. But Palm wrote it.

The resolution of the screen is not the only consideration. Brightness and contrast are also very important. For example, take a look at the T415 screen - it is not very good, despite the high resolution. Nor does the 320x320 improve the so-so colours of the T615 screen. So, on the whole, it is not possible to judge overall screen quality just by reference to the screen resolution figures.

All other things being equal, since the 320x320 screen tends to compromise text quality, many people would probably be better off without it.

The great thing is that the diversity in the market allows a consumer to choose a product with a 320x320 screen if, for some reason, he must have it.

FONT FIX ! FONT FIX ! FONT FIX ! man !!

http://homepage2.nifty.com/hackerdudesan/thinfont/index.html

Hey, have you read the Cnet article before expressing this rant? Her name is there. All I can say is RTFArticle!

Of course you're not comparing Palm with Sony as a company right? Palm is a grain of salt in the ocean compared to Sony.

any card is an expansion card,

Backup card = card + backup software
game card = card + game software
e-book card = card + e-books
whatever card = card + whatever software.

YOU CAN USE ONE SINGLE CARD FOR ALL FUNCTION ABOVE!!

Why Palm wants people to buy different cards for different purpose? I despite Palm. Inc for doing that!!

Just buy a 32MB or 64MB card, use 3rd party backup software, I dont know how much Palm will sell theie so-called "16MB Backup Card" but I SINCERELY believe you can get a 32MB or larger blank card at the same price.

Get a grip pal and stop being a mincer and a loser!

And dont ask the responsible and sensible people on here to help you with your deceitful agendas please!

GH DAVALL