Palm Confirms m130 Does Not Have 16-Bit Screen (Updated)

True, but my m130 was $120 less than the t665c. I'll put up with the screen for a 30% savings. Don't tell me about the t616C, I'd have to buy a new Stowaway for another $100.

yeah u got what u pay for...

I'm not sure which is worse; that they didn't know or that they did know and still claimed 16-bit. Either way it's pretty bad.

You can look at it from any point of view - however you massage it, what turns out at the end of the day is, that from the Palm CEO - headed by the incredible idiotic Benhamuchi downwards the whole Palm management ist totally incompetent.
They do not know their customers, dealers nor there markets - they would not get a job as dishwasher if there would not be the madhouse Palm taking everybody, provided he is a proven stupid or a former (for incompetence) sacked Apple emploee.
Who wonders the stock of a active company fell fron over 100 bucks to 70 cent?
Thats not the failing economy - thats pure reality carved in stock value.

Palm, you are such great disappointment to have only 'discover' it only now.

What are you guys doing at work? having 8hours continuously running tea break?

Of course they didn't know. They just lied. Palm is the cheapest handheld manufacturer out there, and you have to be literally insane to buy one at this point. Why should you pay for a Palm when you can get a Sony handheld with the more features and higher quality compenents for the same price? Pathetic, just pathetic. The only good thing Palm has done recently is their i705, but who wants bulky, monochrome palm, which if almost featureless, but has a wireless internet connection which costs as much as a cell phone plan? Once again, pathetic.

A lack of communication between the engineering and marketing groups may explain the error but it does not excuse it. This is really egregious. And Palm certainly let this error persist for a long time. Why didn't anyone in the company who knew the truth (e.g., the people responsible for the screen) alert the company to this earlier? Or worse, what if they did alert the company but Palm decided not to do anything in the hope that the public would never find out?

Someone got promoted because he run the company so well.

Be honest. Those M130 customers are very lucky persons
comparing to Palm shareholders.

And someone said here Money talks. Not in
NAZ.

> Of course they didn't know. They just lied. Palm is the cheapest handheld manufacturer
> out there, and you have to be literally insane to buy one at this point.

Oh come on, HP released the Jornada 420 in March in 1999 and no one figured out its 16-bit screen was really 12-bit until June 2000. That's 15 months!! HP even released two more models, the 430 and 540 with the exact same flaw and no one figured it out.

This isn't a glaring error. You can't pick up a handheld and say, "That's 12-bit but that one over there is 16-bit."

It was kind of sloppy but not a sign of criminal malfeasance. There were no lawsuits against HP.

HP didn't do any of the things you said in the first six hours after the word got out that the Jornada's were flawed. Give Palm a chance to react. If they haven't done anything to redress this problem in a few days, what you say might have some legitimacy.

We've all be spoiled by the Internet Age. We want everything to happen instantaneously. That's why we stand next to our microwaves complaining that heating our lunch up takes a whole MINUTE. But decisions involving large amounts of money aren't made in 30 minutes or less.

It could be all the m130's can be easily fixed. If that's true, maybe Palm will ask everyone to send in their m130 for repair. Maybe they will offer to replace all the m130s with ones that are 16-bit. Maybe it is a software bug and a simple patch will fix it. I'm just pointing out that refunds aren't the only answer. I would rather Palm make the best decision than it make a quick one.

I've been reading the comments on here, and I'm seeing stuff from accurate statements to total absurdity.

The truth of the matter is this - Palm lied. They lied on their packaging, they lied on their advertising, and in doing so, they mislead the consumer.

Now, I realize that not too many people would utilize all 65k colors. I don't use all the colors in my palm m515, yet I fully expect it to have 65k colors because they advertised it as having 65k colors.

Palm's already in a precarious financial position already...they cannot afford to fight this one. Either they give 100% purchase credit to the consumers (like HP did), or they lose in court.

Side Note - Palm has changed their m130 web page to reflect "thousands of colors" rather than 65k colors.

I don't anticipate ever actually USING the airbags in my vehicle.

However, they sure as h*ll better work if I get in a head on collision.

It was advertised and listed as a feature & benefit on my vehicle, and it d*mn well better be there when I need it.

Don't fool yourselves into thinking this is a "minor" offense just because you may never USE all of the available colors.

Whether the mistake was deliberate, or the product of a beureaucratic miscommunication, the bottom line is that THE END RESULT ***could have been avoided*** cheaply and effectively.

Therefore, the offense was deliberate, regardless of whether the original "miscommunication" (as I'm calling it) was not.

The design of this unit, and even its packaging happened WAAAAY before the re-org, and we all know Palm was full of Suck back then, and possibly still are.

FIN.

Didn't everyone say when the M130 came out, that it's screen looked great, even better than the M515. If so, why cry....

I returned my HP after their admission of 12bit color and their offer for a full refund. I was impressed with their cooperation and promptness in issuing the refund. It will be interesting to see what Palm will do.

Nope, we pay by the feature.

32 bit > 16 bit > 12 bit > monochrome.

Each one has an attached value and a target demographic.

What that value is, in terms of a refund, is ultimately up to Palm to figure out now. If I were them I would err on the high side. Their best bet is to follow HP's example, IMO.

Yawn. How's that Memory Stick fitting in your NR70, or that OS 4 upgrade for your N710C?

Yawn, hows that ultra low 160x160 resolution display, no sound and having to reset your Palm? I don't want to get into a flame war with some moron, but clearly Sony's offerings are clearly better.

I've gone through an Apple Newton, HP Jornada 420, Handspring Visor, Palm m500 and NR70v. (In that order).

I rate them in this order (based on my satisfaction with them at time of purchase):

NR70V,
Handspring Visor,
Apple Newton,
HP Jornada,
Palm m500.

Yep, the Palm m500 was lousy, it had frequent static problems, meaning it had to be reset. I went through 2 bluetooth cards because, unlike the Sony Memory Sticks, they are flimsy things and break easily unless removed when not in use, and the screen is very difficult to read in 'normal' light (e.g. anything other than bright sunlight or darkness).

I ditched it after about 3 months. The easy avaliblity of the BlueTooth memory stick was the only reason I got it in the first place, and as it's _really_ not worth it.

I am back to zapping stuff via IR until I can get a BT MS. It's a hassle, but it's no where near as much a hassle as having to do complelte battery drains every month on an m500 because of the static problems (which 'don't exist', lest we forget).

I think you are confused. The 505 had the static problem, not the 500. I was only interested in the unused 505 for hardware testing and parts, and also because I can fix the usb problem in two minutes if the warranty is expired.

It's nice that you have the nr70v, which is a great device, but remember a few things while looking down your nose: Not everyone's life revolves around watching two minute video clips. Not everyone wants to carry around one of the biggest pda's on earth. Not everyone wants to keep thinking about if they will make it to their next recharge. If battery life was equivalent to sex life, most Sony devices would be patients at impotency clinics.

>I think you are confused.
>The 505 had the static problem, not the 500.

Nope - the m500 very definately did have exactly the same static problem as the m505 (even Palm have confirmed this).