Comments on: HandEra 330 Review

-Start with a HandEra 330
-Change the screen to 320x400 or 420 or something, so that it can use pixel doubling instead of emulation, although emulation works cool
-Give it a m505 type reflective screen. I know a lot of people don't like this, but the HandEra would have unacceptably short battery life otherwise if you're using CF, SD, and the serial port

I still like the 330 a lot, and once again Ed, great review.

Peace Out
Alan

Sure color is nice, but at $449-$500-plus dollars! The HandEra is quite less expensive.

The FlashRAM makes no sense with having two slots for storage! Why use internal Flash with two types of storage? This makes no sense.

The H330 will be sold in Office Depot, I understand, which gives it the kind of push and visibility the TRGPro never had (yet deserved).

I think it will sell very well.

I can't believe they didn't at least use a plain black case. This thing looks like it was designed by a pocket
protector-wearing dorky engineer.

HandEra simply couldn't ignore a good portion of their potential market. This is especially true when considering that USB doesn't add any additional capabilities over a serial connection besides speed of HotSyncing.

Also, adding USB would have required them to redesign the serial port, which would have removed one of the 330's most useful features: its backwards hardware compatibility. The device can use all clip-on peripherals designed for its predecessor, the TRGpro and the Palm III series. For companies that have already invested in large amounts of expensive equipment, like wireless modems, this can be a major selling point. This can also be a selling point for consumers who would like to keep their investment in III series peripherals and were irritated by Palm's abandonment of the Palm III form factor.

Notice that a large number of other comments here are about whether the H330 will work with this or that III series peripheral.

Maybe someday they'll move to USB, but only when it gets more firmly entrenched into corporate America.

---
News Editor
Palm Infocenter

So it looks like the 330 can speak USB (after a fashion).

Chris Jones

--GrouchoMarx

Cheers,
Halfmoon

PS: [my 2 cts worth]

Personally, I love the HE's frankenstein approach, and the sound feature does 10x more me than color!

All you people talking about color and sexy cases must be MAC users. Get over it!

And all you people complaining about size, have you looked at one of those dumb Visor's?? Talk about big and UGLY! Not to mention a proprietary (insert "expensive") Springboard.... Give me a break!

Since reading this comment, I've actually tried and this person is completely correct, there is some incompatibility that makes taking pictures impossible. I've since removed any reference from the article and I apologize for my slackness. Thanks to the original poster for not raking me across the coals as I deserved.

I've also sent an e-mail about this to my contact at Kodak. When I hear back from her, I'll let you know.

---
News Editor
Palm Infocenter

I just tried it myself on my 330 and PalmPix, and the picture came through fine.

--GrouchoMarx

While I'd prefer a separate design...realistically speaking I am just happy to have a jog dial at all! :)

I'm a Palm OS developer with an application that makes very heavy use of color. I thought the same thing until I was loaned a 330 at a trade show last week to demo my software.

I was astounded. At least in my app, the sharpness of the display more than compensates for the loss of visual information conveyed through color. I will be very soon making the necessary tweaks to use the entire screen, and am really looking forward to the end result. With the fine-resolution display and the memory flexibility it's a good probability that the HandEra 330 will be replacing or at least joining the Palm IIIc as the recommended platform for the app.

--GrouchoMarx

But let's compare apples to apples instead of your apples to...I don't know, mangoes?...example. Television is VIDEO--moving pictures. PDAs are not inherently designed to show this. They can be adapted to do so, but it's not their [B]main[/B] function. PalmOS devices are really not designed to show video, although as they develop further, this capability is enhanced. As a result, comparing a color TV to a B&W yields a greater difference than comparing a color PDA to a B&W. Don't get me wrong, color's a great feature on a PDA, but it's not as big a deal as it is on a TV.

Now, it's obvious from your posts that you prefer color and would only consider a HandEra 330 if it contains color. That's your prerogative, but please spare us the idiotic "Go Home" messages and inane predictions.

I still have to find a good use for color. I am generally too busy to play games and monochrome works just fine.

I have a jampacked pc at home if I want to do stuff with color.

Making pictures with a PDA+add-on? No thanks, I will stick to a high-res camera.

Color datebook ? Never saw the need for that

Just face it, not everyone needs color devices.

This color issue is similar to questions related to the Sony Clie, wherein people question the memory stick being proprietory and "we would never buy this". There will be a market for the Clie. Not for everyone, I agree. Same as for the Handera.

If you don't like monochrome devices, why do you even bother reading the review/articles related to monochrome devices? You also don't walk into an electronics store and look at the B&W TV's right ?

To each their own...

Autometic

With the TV, over time color became more popular (naturally), so developers worked harder to make color screens that were clear enough and cheap enough warrent purchasing. That, and pictures in color were just "better"- easier to see, more acurate to real life, etc.

However, color for a PDA is a different story. Color adds weight, shorter battery life, and is more expensive. Sometimes the screens are even harder to read in certain low-light conditions. These drawbacks are obvious to people when weighing their decision. They have to choose between color and what I've mentioned. Most likely, if the drawbacks didn't exist- people would say "hey, why not?" and go with color, just like they do with TVs and monitors.

Color will definately come, and people will want it. But for right now, too many factors weigh against color for the masses to go out and buy them.

If you try hard enough, you may even earn some $$ selling your housing.

--GrouchoMarx

zhangy
zsnow@371.net

Hmmm... Let's see... The new PalmOS devices released this year were: the Palm m105, the Visor Edge, the Sony PEG-N700C, the Palm m500, the Palm m505, and the HandEra 330. That's four B&W devices and two color devices. :P

The Palm m10x and cheapest Handspring devices will sell more than all of the above devices combined. They are all B&W.

The only monochrome PDAs that will still be selling by the end of the year will be el cheapo models like the Palm m100 and m105.

I heard about some people who pre-ordered from online stores getting them already but if you haven't ordered one yet at all, I think you're stuck with waiting until the full release.

I've come this -><- close to getting an M505 or color Clie instead, but I keep telling myself to hold off because the CF, high res, and virtal graffiti are things that I really want. In the meantime, I have to deal with my scratched Visor, which doesn't like my graffiti input anymore.

So for now, my III titanium case sits empty, my III floating point stylus has no home, and I hope my Cirque keyboard doesn't arrive before my 330!

First off, it would be impractical to have a B&W monitor with a desktop - they just aren't commonly sold that way. You would have to go out of your way to find and purchase a B&W monitor.

Secondly, on a desktop PC you are running off wall current, so you don't have a power consumption issue with color. If you will recall, the first laptop PCs weren't available in color, either.

Thirdly, as has been already expounded above in this discussion, you are comparing apples and oranges. The uses for a handheld are still much more narrowly focused than those for a desktop PC, and frankly, color just doesn't matter in a handheld for most of us.

Does that mean that those of us "willing to live without color" are *against* color? No! It mostly means we're against spending a lot of money on something that doesn't fulfill our needs, or does so poorly at this point.

If and when color PDAs hit the same price point as B&W with the same kind of battery life while having the features and compatibility we want, we'll happily purchase color PDAs. But until then, we're not going to spend more money for less features so we can win some kind of first adopter geek award.

We have the current Handera330 in test and he is performing excellent - a ideal Palm alternative for the business channel indeed.

A roundet product which shines on all corners - the screen is very nice - colour is not a mayour concern at the commercial user. Its more a combination of price and really important add ons which work intuitive and crashfree - all this we found in the handera - a complimentary 3rd party item to the 500 series.

Good that the Palm world remains so diversified - and not "Mao like"

Boris

www.palmtop.at