Comments on: Quickies: Palm Zire at Target, iSync, RhythmPro, Sena Cases & More

Dude, its 3.8 ounces. You gotta work out or something...

Just to put things into perspective

NR70V=7.0oz
T615=4.9oz
N760C=5.65oz

IIIc=6.8oz
m130=5.4oz
m515=4.8oz

I recently purchased a zire and I have to say I am very impressed with what all it can do , for being only 99$. At first I didnt expect much after looking at the specs , but it really is a great choice for a student/someone just getting into pda gear.

specs list::

16Mhz DragonBall Motorola RISC CPU

2MB Flash RAM

(is about 1.8/1.9 after you consider PALM OS 4.1 (addy book/calc/memo pad/graffiti/note pad/Expense/2 games/clock/Date book)

USB connector(supported under the usb-serial driver in linux) works in OS X/apple and windows fine
160x160 monochrose display
Full Range IR port

zire's capabilities::

full range of personal information management applications (calc/address book/expense/date book/memo pad/graffiti/note pad/)

palm's greatest strength , if this is what you are mainly looking for in a PDA , dont bother with the higher end models , the zire can do all the personal information management apps as well as add-on apps like wine guide/tv listings/graphing calculator but has limited memory and no color screen /expansion slot
(no modem , no 802.11b(wireless) , no expansion keyboard

universal remote/*( I use it for my dvd/tv/receiver/)
works great

graphing/scientific/financial calculator
it runs PowerOne perfectly
(really useful for college students , didnt have to buy a TI/hp graphing calculator for physics/math courses 150$)

drawbacks::

- 160x160 monochrome display
- Only 2MB memory , very nice for 99$ but it does limit expansion
- No backlight (very hard to use unless in a very well lit area , think gameboy) *you can add backlight just like on a gameboy for less than 20$)

-change of the palm button layout against traditional palm devices (this impacts all games/applications that dont take into consideration that the ZIRE is short 2 buttons on the bottom , but easily fixable with time and developer cooperation)

CONCLUSION::

For anyone who wants a low-end PDA , that does all of palm's classic personal information management should pick one up.

And for those who are looking for the additonal features , it has decent capabilities... very cool graphing calculator(saves 150$ , I mentioned this before but I really have to stress the zire' strengths and this is one of the best ) and games *most old games require the traditional palm button layout , but give them time , they'll fix it*

for open source/GPL apps , and more reviews , check out http://www.linux-fu.net/zire in coming weeks

fourm
free apps
reviews
0 ads/not commercial

An interesting discovery regarding spoofing dotMac is that it uses WebDAV with digest authentication. This means while protecting the password, it does not encrypt the data. I hope Apple plans on fixing that. Of course, I imagine the ipspoofing exploit will be closed sometime (via digital certificates) since that represents a security hole.

iSync is pretty neat. I've had some issues with my contacts reappearing when I renamed categories, but it syncs my iPod, Palm m505, and a friends Sony T68i (just for fun) easily. There is also a small (but documented) issue with repeatable events. It is a pity that the Palm sync doesn't offer the same "select only these calendars, or this address book" like the other two, especially since iCal is designed to hold so many calendars. The iSync conduit doesn't need iSync started up. Like the old PocketQuicken, it will start up iSync when you do a Palm sync.

Another note is that you should turn off your Address Book, Date Book and To Do conduits if using iSync. I imagine that goes for turning off Entourage if you use that.

Take care,

terry

--
terry chay http://org.qixo.com/tychay/m505dis/

http://www.qixo.com- Righteous Travel Deals in Record Time

san jose, ca, usa

I think Palm is going with ZirePro, Zire III, and Zire V, as well as a z100 series, (which has many commercial radio stations up in arms.)

The name thing is actually an excellent point, I wonder where Palm is going with all of this?

strider_mt2k@yahoo.com

http://www.linux-fu.net/zire
check in coming weeks for more info
completely non-commercial/Open source palm apps and fourm/mailing list

::java version of palm desktop

more detailed zire information

And then again, PPC reminds me of windows, cluttered, shaky, expensive, bloated.

I dunno, maybe Mac will rebadge Palms like IBM did, and sell them Macs, they need a catchy name;

The MiniMac?
The Applet?

=====================================
Ever notice how reliable windows is?

No, me neither.

======================================

Several Months Ago at Palm Headquarters;

"Hah! Those sony bastards think that they can beat us in stupid names. The Tungsten T is infinitely more ridiculous than "clie"....."

I would have preferred to see a $99CDN price tag (about $60USD).

Thomas

it holds over 150 contacts/2 weeks of appointments
2 weeks of tv listings , my graphing calculator for school with all the equations/worksheets in powerone,

my unversal remote software which controls my entire entertainment center , from my bose stero/digital cable/dvd player/vhs/250 cd changer

and about 10-15 games