Buy a Palm TX, Get a Free Z22 Handheld

You know... there are so many ways they could turn the TX into something better. Even just updating all of the software in flash to recent/last versions and releasing it as T|X mark 2 would probably sell a bunch.

Or... hey... why not put Cobalt on some and auction them off on ebay?

Maybe there's an aftermarket opportunity here in disguise... could Access or someone else offer OS upgrades for existing/abandoned Palm PDA users?

I see this as simply a move to blow out all of the remaining inventory...remember, Palm had a LOT of inventory in limbo after the sudden closing their retail stores. Add to that the of Office Depot and Circuit City as Palm PDA retail partners over the past year + the closure of nearly all of CompUSA's stores...that's a lot of unsold Z22's, E2's and TX's somewhere in the channel that needs to be unloaded somehow, somewhere. I bet that the final Palm PDAs rolled off the line months ago and they're just going through the remaining inventory now.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here & predict that by May or June Palm will go ahead and put their defining product line out of its misery, quietly EOLing the remaining three models. Basically, the PDA lineup is the next victim after the Fooleo of the aggressive belt-tigthening and wagon circling of Rubinstein & co.

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Verizon Treo 700P-->Verizon 755p

I definitely believe todays news signals the end of Palm PDA's and like someone said by mid summer they will be a thing of the past. At that point I hope Palm as a company dies a quick yet painful death.

Now what company out there will pick up where Palm dropped the ball? Apple? Sony? or ???????. Actually I guess Apple is realizing by almost accident that there is a market for this. They did their best to avoid a PDA but guess what, that is what the iPod Touch is becoming. Sure it's not quite there yet but it's definitely on it's way.

PDA's Past and Present:
Palm TX (Number 2)
Palm - IIIxe, Vx, M500, M505, Tungsten T, TX
Handspring - Edge, Platinum, Deluxe
Sony - SJ22, UX50
Casio-EM500
Apple - MP110, MP2000, MP2100

it is quite possible they are getting ready to release something.

P.S. Paul Loeffler are you there? I didn't mean to run you off. When I see a mole sticking his head out, I tend to whack it. It is a bad habit and I'll try to be nicer.

To get a Centro at "$99" requires a TWO-YEAR service commitment with Sprint. And assuming a SERO plan, that's 24 months x $30 (at minimum). And AT&T's $99 Centro has even more expensive calling plans and requires a $100 mail-in-rebate that may very likely never materialize.

So a truly legitimate comparison would instead be Palm's entry-level PDA ($99 Z22) vs. Palm's most affordable unlocked Treo purchased without a data plan or new service contract ($350 Centro or 680, whichever one is cheaper nowdays). So, 3.5x more AT LEAST for the Centro.

Now, going back to the standalone PDA market....there will always be a certain market for an unconnected handheld for students, soccer moms, Mike Cane types etc. The key is offering enough compelling features at a retail price that leads to impulse purchases. I think something about the size of the Z22 or the Zire 31 but with the specs of the E2 would be an ideal $100 device. And a refreshed TX2 (802.11g, integrated microphone, charge LED, better screen, higher capacity battery, SDHC compatibility) would be the perfect $200 device.

Palm could really address the entirety of the remaining PDA market with a $100 PDA (students/budget users) and a $200 PDA (Media types/PDA die-hards/business users).

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Verizon Treo 700P-->Verizon 755p

I wish I could believe that Palm was still the kind of company that might do that.

"All opinions posted are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled."

Mike Cane types

Don't you lump me in with Mike Cane... That would be considered fighting words. Just because I'd rather have two devices with two separate long lasting batteries(ok I'm delusional) doesn't make me like Mike Cane. I long for the days of old where I charged my Palm V (and later the Visor Edge) once a month and my cell phone once a week.

Besides, most applications that I use would be ideal on a larger screen. That and wi-fi is why I upgraded to the TX. Some upgrade that was. Build quality is under par compared to my older PDAs. Features I didn't realize that I relied on were removed and they went to that damn Graffiti 2. The Centro is several steps backwards in my opinion (egotistical if you want to label it that). The only way that I'd go with a converged device is if they listened to all the complaints about SSS and went with a large screen with a slide out keyboard and fixed a majority of the shortcomings that have been posted on this site over and over again. Of course, that assumes that the carriers come out with reasonable data plans. Most places where I need to look something up have free wi-fi anyway.

No offense/offence intended! That was just an attempt to inject a touch of humor into today's gloomy proceedings!

Trust me, as a daily user of my TX as a web-browser/E-book reader at home, I long for a 320x480 Treo! But I gave up hope of ever seeing one of those LONG ago! I can live without wi-fi if I have EVDO (strong coverage around here) but SSS & cramped keyboards that are growing smaller with each generation are just silly in 2008!

It's just that I am not around a wi-fi hotspot at any point during an average workday, so the TX is unfortunately rendered useless for me. And since Palm disabled BT DUN connectivity with CDMA phones on their last batch of PDAs, that's no longer an option for me. So I'm stuck with a Treo with an overpriced data plan for use during the day and a TX for "after hours" enjoyment. If anything pushes me to the dark side (WinMob) it'll likely be something along the lines of the new SE Xperia X1.

I agree that other than the major addition of EVDO/EDGE connectivity along with the small niceties of a standard voice recorder, removable battery, charge/alert LED, and larger heap/cache memory, the Treo/Centro are inferior to the T3/T5/TX in several ways:

A TX trumps the smartphones with a larger, higher-resolution screen, 128mb of RAM, wi-fi, a 3.5mm stereo headphone jack and a superb stylus. The T5 brings a 416mhz CPU to the table and an internal flash drive. The T3 comes with blazing fast performance, a fantastic retractable stylus, metal body, and a usable Graffiti 1 hack. Believe it or not, my original (Nov '06) TX is still going strong and has not exhibited any of the build quality woes of my T|T5, fortunately.

P.S. The best setup I ever had was a T|T3 connected online via BT to a smallish flip phone (circa 2004-2005). The T3 died and I "upgraded" to a T5 and then to a TX. Again, I only ended up with the Treo because Palm pulled every sneaky trick possible (no CDMA BT connectivity, never updated their PhoneLink software to support newer GSM phones) to FORCE their users to downgrade to under-spec'd, high-margin smartphones.

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Verizon Treo 700P-->Verizon 755p

No offense/offence intended! That was just an attempt to inject a touch of humor into today's gloomy proceedings!

None taken... I was also trying to lighten the mood... Maybe even set off a Mike Cane tirade.

I bought my TX a few months before you and by Christmas, the speaker died.. Not that I used the speaker that much. Having already cussed out the people at the Palm online store support, I was in no mood to talk to anyone there. Also the material used for the screen and rest of the PDA seem cheap. The digitizer started having a few issues since last summer. Then not to mention the buggy software stack. To top it all off my TX is not flashable, so no chance of getting bugfixes for blazer, etc.

Wow, it's hard to believe that it's been 2.5 years since Palm's "newest" PDAs were released.

Are all TX's realy not flashable? Or are EFIGS units just not flashable? I realy never bothered to look too much into this...

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Verizon Treo 700P-->Verizon 755p

Are all TX's realy not flashable? Or are EFIGS units just not flashable?

Sorry I'm brain dead right now... what is EFIGS?

Anyway I found out about unflashable ROMs in the TX recently at http://tamspalm.tamoggemon.com/2008/02/01/nurom-say-goodbye-to-your-tx-rom-clutter/

I downloaded Dmitry's ROM checker and found out that the TX I bought two years ago (wow can't believe it's been that long) was one of the unflashable ones.

what is EFIGS?

Oh stop it. I can see the value of a converged device when done properly: So far only the iPhone fits that bill.

You forget that I have a LifeDrive. Bluetooth and WiFi.

So let's see: The BT sporadically loses the link to my keyboard.

Using WiFi is a grief with Blazer and the two other browsers I tried (yes, one was one of those Operas).

See, the thing with being *connected* is that the connections must *work* and have *good software* too.

I can't see using the Net with a SSS Treo or SSSS (Smaller Small Square Screened) Centro. I'd sooner spend a day at Gitmo.

Now, let's say the Centro's QWERTY board was attached to a big, bright, lovely 320x480 LCD. I wouldn't complain ONE BIT. But increasingly SSSs and shrinking keyboards without the usual Treo "smile" are just impossible.

It's like Palm is doing everything in their power to decrease the efficiency of their users. First we had the trend of increased power consumption coupled with dimishing battery capacities (think from the Palm V to the m505) that was sort of accepted due to the addition of color screens. Then we lost Graffiti 1 in favor of Graffiti 2 and NO ONE liked that. Then in '04 or so Palm began to jettison features (charge LED, vibrating alarm, voice recorder) to save $. Now in the past 12-18 months we've seen screen & keyboard sizes start to shrink....and continue to shrink...and shrink. That combines with the removal of certain backlit keys & buttons, the loss of the reset button and the ring/vibrate switch on the Treo 500. And let's not forget memory card slots that are harder to access and memory cards that are more fragile and less compatible...wow. Where, pray tell, aside form the legacy PIM apps, is the remaining "zen"?

P.S. The LifeDrive's wi-fi implementation is worse than the FIVE year old Tungsten T|C. And its Bluetooth is less stable than any of the old Tungsten series models! I really think that even with the CF card mod, the LifeDrive's hardware is so inherently terrible that it drags down FrankenGarnet to a new level of mediocrity. In all fairness, the TX's wi-fi is MUCh more stable than the LD's.

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Verizon Treo 700P-->Verizon 755p

The LifeDrive's wi-fi implementation is worse than the FIVE year old Tungsten T|C. And its Bluetooth is less stable than any of the old Tungsten series models! I really think that even with the CF card mod, the LifeDrive's hardware is so inherently terrible that it drags down FrankenGarnet to a new level of mediocrity. In all fairness, the TX's wi-fi is MUCh more stable than the LD's.

Seriously, Palm should (have) give(n) *TWO* free TXs and all their money back to everyone who purchased a lifedrive.

USR Palm Pilot 1000 --> Palm Pilot Professional --> TRG SuperPilot --> Palm IIIc --> Palm V --> Palm M505 --> Palm M515 --> Tungsten T|2 --> Treo 600 --> LifeDrive --> iPhone

Wait.... did I just use "upgrade" and "newer model Treo" in the same sentence?