My 330 is getting old.

Well, folks, my trusty 330 is in trouble. The back (black) housing piece is crumbling. Cracks are appearing all over. I have been gluing them with Ambroid ProWeld < http://www.ambroid.com/Ambroid.html > which is working so far, but, obviously, the end is near.

I have been trying to grab something for spare parts off eBay, but no luck yet.

By the way, the cracking is not necessarily the unit's fault - it has taken three trips to basketball gym floors (caused by basketballs) and one trip to the floor of a Blues club in Chicago caused by...well, maybe we shouldn't get into that.... So, I can't complain.

Not only that, but I don't really know what to replace it with. I'm thinking a Zodiac, but as I live in Canada, I have not seen one yet, and am a little afraid to lay out that much cash for something unseen. Mind you, I did that for the 330, but then again, it was just a IIIxe done right, not a whole new design.

That's all. Just had to lament, I guess.

Mike

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"Never ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity". --Richard Feynman

Hang in there Mike. I'm waiting too. My 330 is two years old and the graffiti area is just about played out - I get U's instead of spaces, C's instead of L's but I just can't give up on it. I'm hoping Palm will pull it's collective head out and come up with a 320x480 screen with OS5+. Forget the built in cameras just give us a bigger screen! I'm about to switch to PocketPC. Ok, I cracked in a moment of weakness but is 320x480 too much to ask?

Yeah, my HE seems to have acquired several idiosyncracies in the last few months, not to mention the crankiness sometimes associated with advanced age. Sometimes touchscreen goes screwy. Sometimes the battery drops by half in a couple of days. Mostly it's still its good old reliable self, but you just never know.

I think I'll wait till there's a T4 and then let the HE retire with dignity.

Seán

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If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there.

I guess the good news is that for the most part, all the bits work on mine. The screen has some darker "shadows" near a couple of corners which were not there when it was new, but other than that, there is nothing wrong.

The first crack was near the power button. Even though I could feel the button 'click', nothing happened. The most recent crack was near the hotsync connector. The hotsync button on the cradle stopped working. Repairing the cracks restored normal operation. I guess the back must hold everything in alignment.

Every once in a while, hotsyncing goes off. I have attributed this to backing up to two computers, one a Mac. The OS X hotsync, with iSync thrown into the mix, has reliability problems on other units as well, so I don't think it is Handera's fault.

As you suggest, I am hanging in. I wish Handera could have found a way to come out with the 440 (or maybe that would be a 480 , but that is obviously not going to happen. Apparently they did some work on the Zodiacs, though.

My other thought is to look at Sharp. A whole change of direction, but there is a lot of development work on the Sharp platform for the Mac because of the Linux<>Unix thing. Mostly I hope that I can keep this old girl running for a while longer, as it really does everything that I *need* - but it would be cool to surf the web on a Palm wirelessly. I just don't *need* to do that.

Mike

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"Never ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity". --Richard Feynman

My 330 screen is getting scratched. I was doing a lot of programming on the unit. I could not wait any longer and wanted a newer unit. I wanted something with 2 card slots. I had purchased a Zodiac1 for my son for Christmas. It is a really nice unit. Well, I finally broke down and purchased a Z2 for myself. I do not have any of the games on it, yet. It is a very good color unit replacement for my 330.

Bill McKelvey

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My 330 screen is getting scratched. I was doing a lot of programming on the unit. I could not wait any longer and wanted a newer unit. I wanted something with 2 card slots. I had purchased a Zodiac1 for my son for Christmas. It is a really nice unit. Well, I finally broke down and purchased a Z2 for myself. I do not have any of the games on it, yet. It is a very good color unit replacement for my 330.

Bill McKelvey
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Good to hear. Maybe when you have a little more experience (it sounds like this has just happened), you could give us a little mini reviewette on what you like and what you miss on the Handera.

Thanks, Bill

Mike

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"Never ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity". --Richard Feynman

My HE330 died a couple of weeks ago after I changed the batterys. (I use rechargable NIMH. Swap 'em about once a week. I pulled the batterys as usual and it just never woke back up.) I think it's probably the switching regulator as mentioned in another thread here. When I get a minute I'll change the part. If it wakes up, I can always use it for a software test bed.

I didn't try hard to find another HE330. My case had a couple of cracks, the power button was unreliable and the grafitti area had gotten unreliable. (Large doglegs in what were drawn as straight lines kinda plays hob with character recognition.) I figure a used machine will be of similar vintage and therefore will start to exhibit the same behavior soon.

So I took advantage of the deal Palm1 had on refurbished T3s. $100 bucks off and an extra cradle free. (They musta got a boatload of returns, between the USB lockup problem and the Fried SD card problem.) Recognizing that battery life on the T3 isn't what the HE330 would be, I invested in the AC charger as well so I could plug it in by bedside overnight, (eBooks before sleep, alarm in the morning), and start the day with a full charge. It charges much faster than the NIMH cells I used on the He330, so if I do run low during the day, a few minutes in the cradle will top it off.

All in all I like it a lot. I was a little leary of the slider, but with the write anywhere feature in OS5, I can use a lot of my applications without opening the slider and have the advantage of a smaller unit. It's started to grow on me. The screen is beautiful, readable indoors and out. Most of the applications that supported hi-res on the Handera have made the move to OS5 and work well in extended mode on the T3. (Mapopolis being the exception. In order to support hi-res on the T3 they want you to buy their premium product, which would require buying a whole new map library. I think not.) I havn't scratched the memory capacity yet. I havn't found an application for Bluetooth, so I have the radio off, but I have some ideas.

All in all, it went better than I expected.

GG

Howdy folks -
I have a 330 that's practically new. It was one of the very first available -- because I had waited to replace my Newton 2100 and thought I'd found the device.

But after a couple weeks of use, I found I simply wasn't using it as I'd thought. I put it back in the box and pretty much left it there.

I don't honestly know why I still have it. (Don't even ask me about the Newton 120, Newton 2100, and Dell Axim X5...)

I really goofed on the Axim X5 (bought last fall for a trip to Sweden, expecting to use TomTom mapping, then decided paper maps would work for the small amount of driving).... and not happy with PocketPC at all!

Long story... but I picked up a T3 a month ago, the TomTom SW and bluetooth GPS this week, and I've been really happy with it. I've used it more than any other PDA.

But I still have that 330 in the box that I should sell.

You folks seem like you'd have a good idea how much it would be worth. (I'm not joking about it sitting in the box.)

Ideas?

Cheers,
Tim
P.S. I don't see them often on eBay, but there is one currently at $102.... why do they never photo the unit turned ON to prove it still works??

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Howdy folks -
I have a 330 that's practically new. It was one of the very first available -- because I had waited to replace my Newton 2100 and thought I'd found the device.

But after a couple weeks of use, I found I simply wasn't using it as I'd thought. I put it back in the box and pretty much left it there.

I don't honestly know why I still have it. (Don't even ask me about the Newton 120, Newton 2100, and Dell Axim X5...)

I really goofed on the Axim X5 (bought last fall for a trip to Sweden, expecting to use TomTom mapping, then decided paper maps would work for the small amount of driving).... and not happy with PocketPC at all!

Long story... but I picked up a T3 a month ago, the TomTom SW and bluetooth GPS this week, and I've been really happy with it. I've used it more than any other PDA.

But I still have that 330 in the box that I should sell.

You folks seem like you'd have a good idea how much it would be worth. (I'm not joking about it sitting in the box.)

Ideas?

Cheers,
Tim
P.S. I don't see them often on eBay, but there is one currently at $102.... why do they never photo the unit turned ON to prove it still works??

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My HandEra just dies of a cracked screen, and I am not yet ready to trade in battery life for a color screen.
If any of you who have a different problem than a cracked digitizer (the glass face plate is OK) severe enough to have caused you to replace your Handera would be interested in selling it, I would be most happy to discuss price.

Strange, I wear the Handera in an old PalmPilot Professional belt case on my left side. A couple years ago I was in a motorcycle accident and went down on my left side. I ride an old BMW which has the cylinder heades sticking out on both sides and a trunk, so there was no real weight on my left side, but the case got scoured up from sliding along the road real good (as did my left arm) - but the HandEra worked perfectly afterwards.
Yesterday, I slid the unit a bit further back on my belt than usual so as to have room for my cell phone, and apparently the pressuer between me and the vehicle seat twisted the unit enopugh to crack the screen, and it wasn't even noticable enough so I felt it was poking me!

CAScot

I also wear my HE in a leather case on my left side. The very first time I got in my car and did up the seat belt I saw that the belt passed right over the case and decided to remove it before buckling up. I not always take it off when I get into the car. I'm glad I do as it appears that the belt can do damage. It's a great pitty though because I specifically got the clip-on case so that I'd always have my unit with me, rain or shine, but now with having to take it off every time I get in the car I tend to forget to put it back on when I get out, especially for quick stops, which somehow always seem to be the times you need it most.

Seems like you just can't win.

Ob

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Any device can have one more useful feature added.

HandEra Moderator at [url="http://www.PalmVenue.com/forum"]PalmVenue[/url]

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My HandEra just dies of a cracked screen, and I am not yet ready to trade in battery life for a color screen.
If any of you who have a different problem than a cracked digitizer (the glass face plate is OK) severe enough to have caused you to replace your Handera would be interested in selling it, I would be most happy to discuss price.
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I have a 330 with all pieces and parts, a spare (but cracked) back cover, the included flip cover for the screen (with a notch cut out for the voice recorder button), a Brando brand screen protector (installed), the Li-ion battery and charger, the battery bar and cover (for when you want to use regular batteries), two handera branded cradles, a landware floating point stylus, the original stylus, a palm folding keyboard, and a Rand-Mcnally Palm III GPS unit. I would be willing to entertain pricing on it. It has all been sitting on a shelf for about a year. I've charged it up a few times, but really just to play with the GPS.

Alex Johnson
<><

Alex

I'm very interested in what you have to offer. Please mail me an email address so we can correspond off the boards. You can contact me at Ou_Boet at Yahoo.com (Remove spaces and replace at with @)

OB

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Any device can have one more useful feature added.

HandEra Moderator at [url="http://www.PalmVenue.com/forum"]PalmVenue[/url]

OB,

I will email you tonight from my hotmail account.

Alex Johnson
<><

Email sent

Alex Johnson
<><