Anyone use both Palm and PPC devices?

[bigkingfun]

I have an opportunity to pick up a Palm m505 really cheap but I'm a pretty dedicated PPC user. It's been a long time since I made the switch from Palm to PPC and I haven't really kept up with the Palm since.

I'm wondering if there is anyone here who has uses both a Palm and a PPC and if you can give me any particular reasons I might want one of each. I can do everything I want with the PPC, but I'm wondering if there is something worth considering on the Palm that I'm not aware of.

[Vincent M Ferrari]

I was using both for awhile (namely a Tungsten T and an Audiovox Maestro). Finally, for numerous reasons, I gave up on the Tungsten and moved over the PPC. I traded in my TT for a Toshiba 330 and haven't been disappointed since.

I had the M505, and it was nice, but unless you have some real serious need for it, hold on to your money. In the long run, you probably won't use it much if you already have a PPC you're comfortable with.

Just my two cents :wink:

[taxus]

Same here. I switched to PPC last July, but I still have a Palm IIIxe (provided by my employer). The Palm has been sitting unused ever since.

Even if I had a color Palm like the m505, I don't see what I could do with it that I can't with my PocketPC. One reason that made me switch is the very advantage of the PalmOS: its simplicity.

Well it's too simple, it was made to be an organizer, not a pocket computer. Therefore it's very limited on the file storage aspect (there really is no file explorer; the apps themselves have to provide their own file management facilities).

A PocketPC has more screen space than the m505 (240x320 vs 160x160 and the m505 screen is really dark), generally more memory, can play music and video (Palm m505 can't), has a faster microprocessor...

The microprocessor is the other reason I switched. It's just not fast enough for tasks like ebook reading (my main use of a PDA). My favorite ebook readers (Mobipocket, Palm Reader and iSilo) are rather slow when reading big ebooks (750KB+).

Granted, the m505 has a 33MHz DragonBall where my IIIxe has a 16MHz, but still, displaying big documents won't be as fast as on a 200MHz+ PocketPC.

I've been reading ebooks for 5 years, and I just got sick and tired of the lack of real evolution in processor speed. (They may have TI ARM processors now, but these Palms will be running in emulation mode as long as the apps are not ARM-optimized.) In 6-7 years, the Palm went from 8MHz to 33MHz (before moving to the ARM platform; only Sony ever used the 66MHz DragonBall). Not an impressive "achievement"; yet understandable, considering that the Palm is a "connected organizer", not a pocket computer.

Keep your money for another memory card. ;)

The one thing I liked better on Palm: the Palm III series thick stylus. I really hate my too thin PocketPC stylus. That's about it.

[bigkingfun]

Thanks for the feedback. It's pretty much confirmed what I already thought. I was thinking I would use both if there was something particularly compelling on Palm only, but I didn't really expect there would be.

[PantheraLeo2k3]

Actually, there are a few video players for Palm OS. gMovie from Generic Media comes with Sony devices, and Kinoma is seperate (but comes with the Sony sj33 and sj22[i think]) Kinoma WILL run on an m505, but the sound will be junk. I have read that it gets 57 fps on the m515 and ~485 fps on the Tungsten T

[bobkatt]

As far as I'm concerned, Palm units are still not multimedia devices like the PocketPC's.

Want, music, video and great sounding games then stay with the PocketPC. If you're into productivity only and used to hording lots of programs then stay with the Palm.

Lots of productivity apps on the cheap for the Palm and these do not require colour or sound to be useful.

bobkatt

[Bosco]

As far as I'm concerned, Palm units are still not multimedia devices like the PocketPC's.

Want, music, video and great sounding games then stay with the PocketPC. If you're into productivity only and used to hording lots of programs then stay with the Palm.

Wha? Have you ever seen the Sony NX70v? CD quality music, 320x480 widescreen FPS-through-the-roof video, and a full audio speaker for games with a 200 MHz processor and separate DSP.

I think you guys should start giving Palm OS more of a chance to be a multimedia device. Pick one up at the store and see if you can somehow get some music or video on there. It really is great, and dare I say... better than PPC's?

[bobkatt]

Well I guess you missed the beta/VHS battle decades ago?

Where is beta now? VHS is still around. :-)

Sony's are not Palm's in a sense that Sony's are a special case and not all PAlm units have multimedia as a standard feature.
It's really Sony that gives their CLIE's multimedia and not the Palm OS or Palm in general
Multimedia is standard on all PocketPC's.
Also all new releases of PocketPC's have the same version of the OS.

Why does some Palm OS systems have V5 and some have V4 of the Palm OS? What's up with that????
That's the real difference.

[Steven Cedrone]

Wha? Have you ever seen the Sony NX70v? CD quality music, 320x480 widescreen FPS-through-the-roof video, and a full audio speaker for games with a 200 MHz processor and separate DSP.

This has nothing to do with the initial question. He was talking about an m505!!! No one was talking about Sony devices (the only Palm device that can do anything even remotely comparable to a Pocket PC). Please don't feel you have to defend Palm every time someone posts something negative about them...Sheesh... :roll:

Steve

[Janak Parekh]

It really is great, and dare I say... better than PPC's?
Apart from the distinction between Palm and Sony, the answer is a definitive "no!" until > 128MB Memory Sticks are available. Every time I was tempted by a NX, I realized how heavily I use my Pocket PC for music. 128MB doesn't cut it. Oh, and there's no Ogg player for Sony units.

--janak

[qmrq]

A bit off topic, but beta was a superior format in my opinion. :P

[dh]

It really is great, and dare I say... better than PPC's?
Apart from the distinction between Palm and Sony, the answer is a definitive "no!" until > 128MB Memory Sticks are available. Every time I was tempted by a NX, I realized how heavily I use my Pocket PC for music. 128MB doesn't cut it. Oh, and there's no Ogg player for Sony units.

--janak

I went through the same temptation and was close to buying an NX. Problem is that a multimedia device is not much use if it can't store a reasonable number of multimedia files.

With it's neat form factor and great screen, the NX does have a lot going for it. However for storing movies and music, my Axim with 1GB CF card is hard to beat! Divx movies and Ogg music files play great in PocketMVP.

Now if the NX ran PPC2003, had a proper driver for the CF slot and SD instead of Memory Stick it would be a different matter.

[rberry88]

I have a Sony Clie NX70V and a HP5455. I use the Clie for mainly work (contacts) and that is about it since I got my PPC. I do agree that the Clie does have some good points but those, IMHO, are greatly overshadowed by the PPC's strength in numbers. I can happily say that I have no desire to depart from my PPC, while on the other hand I have been monitoring the Clie very closely for any "inconsistencies" ( I have a PSP that might need to be used to get the new Toshiba PPC).

rberry :mrgreen:

[BarryB]

I own both a Palm and an iPaq. After trying to use my iPaq for a while, it now sits unused on my desk while I continue to use my Palm on a daily basis.

I should mention, in fairness, that I am in the market for a new PPC, that overcomes some of the things I perceive as problems in the iPaq and PPC 2002/Activesync.

[Unreal32]

I should mention, in fairness, that I am in the market for a new PPC, that overcomes some of the things I perceive as problems in the iPaq and PPC 2002/Activesync.

Like what? None of the "new" PPC devices solve any of the real issues with PPC2002 or Activesync, since the latest ones all run PPC 2002. I think we're all in the market, once PPC 2003 or whatever is next comes out!

[BarryB]

I should mention, in fairness, that I am in the market for a new PPC, that overcomes some of the things I perceive as problems in the iPaq and PPC 2002/Activesync.

Like what? None of the "new" PPC devices solve any of the real issues with PPC2002 or Activesync, since the latest ones all run PPC 2002. I think we're all in the market, once PPC 2003 or whatever is next comes out!

Yeah, I'm not holding my breath with regards to the activesync problems. The state of activesync is one of the major reasons I don't use the iPaq as my portable brain.

But I find the iPaq too bulky with the CF expansion sleeve. But I want CF storage as well as SD, so the H1910 is out.

I'm in no hurry, though, and will wait and see what else comes down the road, say, around December.

[BTS]

I am certainly in the market for a new PDA. I seriously gave those Sony machines a look (they are gorgeous). My concern with them is that because they are running a modified version of the Palm OS there have been some inconsitencies as to what programs will run on them. That is unacceptable for me.

My PPC 2000, on the other hand, just keeps humming along faithfully running any program that I need to run. Shortage of programs for it? Not anymore! Also the ease of use when putting a program onto a storage card is great. With my Handera 330 I have to run PIDirect in order to have programs run off the card. Not worth the hassle.

[droppedd]

the answer is a definitive "no!" until > 128MB Memory Sticks are available.
The new clies (and the NX70 with a firmware update) support Memory Stick Pro format, which has capacities up to a gigabyte. So it's not a definitive "no" anymore. Plus some clies now have CompactFlash slots - quite nifty.

However, you pay through the nose for the clie. And Memory Stick Pro media is ridiculously expensive. I'm getting my HP 2210 for $267; even if you add in the cost of a CF or SD Flycam, a 256 MB SD card, and a thumb keyboard, that's still cheaper than any of the new Clies.

Palm OS itself is not what power users need, although it's fine for my mother on her Visor Deluxe :roll:. Part of the reason Clies are so expensive is because you're paying for Sony's engineers essentially re-writing the Palm OS for each new device or OS version. If they were smart, they'd switch to PPC now that it's a nice and robust OS (not as buggy as it was a few years back); but as you can see with their dogged insistence on the Memory Stick format, Sony doesn't like changes that may alienate past buyers, even if it's better for down the road.

This gets pretty sad - Palm OS doesn't even have any built-in DPad support, leaving it to proprietary APIs for each device to make users and programmers lives miserable. Ah well.[/quote]