I bought a Tungsten C

[ExtremeSIMS]

I bought the new Tungsten C to try out. I am a Mac user, so anything that works without a lot of tweaking to get it to work on the Mac is well appreciated. I wanted a PDA with a keyboard and WiFi as a minimum; I prefer SD or CF to Memory Stick. The Tungsten C looked like an ideal fit.

The screen is bright and very sharp. Photos, web pages, and all the PIM stuff looks great on it. (I'll have a link to photos soon.) The keyboard was great - as a long time 2 way pager and a former Sharp Zaurus user, it was easy for me to crank out the WPMs. The stylus was well made - metal with a rubberized tip. Very nice.

With a PXA255, this thing screams. It's is noticeably faster than my Toshiba e740 with Worldmate, an app that exists on both Palm OS and Pocket PC. I know it's not an empirical test, but in the end, perception is reality, so there ya go.

However, it is heavy. After the Toshiba e740, which is not a supersvelte unit, the Tungsten feels like a brick. There is also no scroll wheel on the side, to which I have been accustomed since my Casiopeia days.

One thing I had forgotten about Palms - you can not have both work AND home addresses on the unit at the same time, unless you set up the contact in two categories. That's not good! The Tungsten C also does not have stereo sound. While I may very rarely listen to MP3s, I do plan on listening to Audible.com and MP3s on my next flight. This was the final deal breaker.

However, it is a nce unit. I would like to see Pocket PC take some of the following features:

1) Bright, high res screen
2) Fast performance!
3) Sync with Mac. (Why Microsoft dismisses this market is still beyond me.)

[ExtremeSIMS]

I bought the new Tungsten C to try out. I am a Mac user, so anything that works without a lot of tweaking to get it to work on the Mac is well appreciated. I wanted a PDA with a keyboard and WiFi as a minimum; I prefer SD or CF to Memory Stick. The Tungsten C looked like an ideal fit.

The screen is bright and very sharp. Photos, web pages, and all the PIM stuff looks great on it. (I'll have a link to photos soon.) The keyboard was great - as a long time 2 way pager and a former Sharp Zaurus user, it was easy for me to crank out the WPMs. The stylus was well made - metal with a rubberized tip. Very nice.

With a PXA255, this thing screams. It's is noticeably faster than my Toshiba e740 with Worldmate, an app that exists on both Palm OS and Pocket PC. I know it's not an empirical test, but in the end, perception is reality, so there ya go.

However, it is heavy. After the Toshiba e740, which is not a supersvelte unit, the Tungsten feels like a brick. There is also no scroll wheel on the side, to which I have been accustomed since my Casiopeia days.

One thing I had forgotten about Palms - you can not have both work AND home addresses on the unit at the same time, unless you set up the contact in two categories. That's not good! The Tungsten C also does not have stereo sound. While I may very rarely listen to MP3s, I do plan on listening to Audible.com and MP3s on my next flight. This was the final deal breaker.

However, it is a nce unit. I would like to see Pocket PC take some of the following features:

1) Bright, high res screen
2) Fast performance!
3) Sync with Mac. (Why Microsoft dismisses this market is still beyond me.)

[Hyperluminal]

Wait. You bought a T|C, and they haven't even announced it's existence yet? Then again, it's not the first time...

...I guess this is what you get when your company only uses Palm PDAs... :lol:

[ExtremeSIMS]

Originally Posted by Hyperluminal

Wait. You bought a T|C, and they haven't even announced it's existence yet? Then again, it's not the first time...

...I guess this is what you get when your company only uses Palm PDAs... :lol:

Yup, bought it and about to take it back to Circuit City right now.

[heov]

yah it's crazy. people already even have the Zire 71... which is an AWESOME device. It's got an awesome screen, about the size of a 1910, a built in camera, etc, for 299.

people have been getting these for almost a week now. Did palm forget to issue the press release :?:

[Janak Parekh]

Originally Posted by heov

people have been getting these for almost a week now. Did palm forget to issue the press release :?:

Weird! 8O I thought Patrick was making a joke.

As for these two units, they do seem like some of the first really compelling hardware designs from Palm in years. It's a good thing -- the Pocket PC platform actively needs competition. Let's hope the manufacturers are watching and working on responses for the next version of Pocket PC.

--janak

[ExtremeSIMS]

Originally Posted by Janak Parekh

Weird! 8O I thought Patrick was making a joke.

--janak

Pictures for all of you hosted on my site. They are about 240k @:

The Tungsten C box
Blurry Tungsten C
Back of the Tungsten C
Palm Browser (by NetFront with CNN Mobile loaded
Home
WiFi network selection
WiFi setup complete, with strength bar
The Tungsten C with CNN Mobile compared to Toshiba e740 with the same site.
The Tungsten C and Toshiba e740 displaying the same JPEG

I played with the Toshiba e755 in the store - man, that is one pretty screen. It would be nice if Pocket PC had higher resolutions.

[spursdude]

The design of the T|C is quite nice. But it looks like for browsing, the 320x240 screen is infintely better than a square screen (320x320?). But the screen looks very bright and richer than the e740...

Why did you return it?

[ExtremeSIMS]

Originally Posted by spursdude

The design of the T|C is quite nice. But it looks like for browsing, the 320x240 screen is infintely better than a square screen (320x320?). But the screen looks very bright and richer than the e740...

Why did you return it?

1) Investment in my Pocket PC. True, my wife would have gotten use out of it, so no loss, but still... You buy a new gadget, you gotta buy the new software, the new accessories, etc
2) It is heavier than my Pocket PC. The Toshiba is something I can take out of my Piel Frama case, slide into a slipper, and put in my back pocket.
3) No stereo sound. I almost never listen to anything on my PDA, but I am a geek, so I want to know I can listen to my music.

[Janak Parekh]

BTW, it's up on palm.com now.

Patrick, thanks for the pics. No stereo sound support!? Why do they always remove something? That's a killer for me. (Well, that and the Palm OS )

--janak

[ExtremeSIMS]

Originally Posted by Janak Parekh

BTW, it's up on palm.com now.

Patrick, thanks for the pics. No stereo sound support!? Why do they always remove something? That's a killer for me. (Well, that and the Palm OS )

--janak

Palm OS 5 is not too bad. A lot more robust than their previous offerings. I compare it to pre-Mac OS X and now. :lol:

Nice thing about Palm is how easily it syncs with Macs. Pocketmac works, but it's painful. Microsoft really, really ought to work on this. Heck, ActiveSync stinks on Windows machines. SyncML! SyncML!