New Palm Handhelds

[billbuckner]

Two new palm handhelds have been relased.
Zire 31: Basically a Zire with color. $150. Looks like an okay, but incredibally ugly device.
http://www.palmone.com/us/products/handhelds/zire31/photos/images/01.jpg
Zire 72: The Zire 71 in a newer case, without the slider, and a newer Palm OS, and Bluetooth. At $300, it's a typically priced bluetooth device.

My opinion? The 31 looks like a winner. As for the 72, I'm not very optimistic. Even with bluetooth, people will still go for the 71, at a much lower cost. People that the 72 is geard for are't likely to have BT devices.

[arnage2]

the 72 has a nice screen and 1.3mp camera, 312mhz, 32mb, and bt at a low price.

the 31 has a bad palmiii screen and an unfortunate design, but mp3, color, sd and 200mhz for $150!

[jnajera]

POCKETPCTHOUGHTS not PALMTHOUGHTS. :evil:

[arnage2]

diversity. on palm sites, they talk about new ppcs sometimes.
i like both. :)

palm(pilot) was the first successfull pda. ppc followed.

[Trimac20]

This IS the Off-Topic section after all. Palms...before I didn't know anything about handhelds and was almost about to get a Palm, but now know I see my potential folly :-(. The Zire 31 actually looks better than the old mono-Zire, while the 72 is catered more for those who want Bluetooth but can't afford a PPC. Just a sidenote, I don't see why Palm devices (lower-end models) need to have that permanent graffiti/input area. I mean, why can't they have a virtual input area like PPCs? It can't be more more expensive to implement, and it takes up so much screen space.

[Fishie]

Trimac, its a ZEN thing.

[Jon Westfall]

POCKETPCTHOUGHTS not PALMTHOUGHTS. :evil:

Now really, are you so anti-palm that evil :evil: thoughts and hatred come to mind even at the mention of 2 (fairly non-threatening) new devices are launched ;)

Don't think I'll be trading in my i-mates for a zire 72 anytime soon, although I'm curious what BT profiles it supports.

[freitasm]

It supports LAP (LAN Access PPP), OBEX File Transfer, DUN Client (dial-up), SPP (Serial port), OBEX PIM (for items beaming).

I had a look on these devices last week, but was under NDA. The Zire 72 is ok with Bluetooth and the screen is nice.

Both too Zen for my taste...

[billbuckner]

POCKETPCTHOUGHTS not PALMTHOUGHTS. :evil:

I don't hate Palms, I hate Palm users. And Palmsource.

[Kati Compton]

Enough hate postings. ;) Let's just talk about the devices.

[drop]

So this is what the new OS looks like? I would think Palm would get rid of the "writing area" by now. Taking up major screen space.

I like to read about competing products here. U.S. couldn't make it to the moon without the Russian. Competition makes wonderful things happen to users :wink: .

[Fishie]

I might get one, sold my TungstenE wich was a backup device so I might buy a new Palm soon.
Its been a while since I last had a Clie but the new batch of Clie´s dont appeal to me and the one that does(TH55) is woefully inadequate with Sony´s stupid Handheld engine processor.

[mangochutneyman]

. Just a sidenote, I don't see why Palm devices (lower-end models) need to have that permanent graffiti/input area. I mean, why can't they have a virtual input area like PPCs? It can't be more more expensive to implement, and it takes up so much screen space.

It mainly a battery saving feature. For example, high rez+ T3 sucks lot more just than the T2. Also, even though PalmOS supports 160x240 rez screenies (lenovo had some of these), they would be very odd..plus no software support... IMO, yes the CTNS is old tech but it's cheap and the Z31 is afterall a cheap pda right? Plus I think Palm1 probably got a good deal on these screens for the Treos as well since they use the same display. Overall, <$150 bucks for color pda with mp3 playback is pretty good IMO...think of all the thousands soccer moms, students (3 mil) who got the original ZIre? Now Palm1 has a perfect upgrade product for all these users....and probably handsome profit margins to boot! :wink:

P.S. Where's EdH's flame article about these zires anyways? :lol: :wink:

[jonathanchoo]

I like both and the Zire 72 is on target.

Most people who bought a phone over the past 12 months has Bluetooth phones (apart from you Americans) with crap cameras, the Z72 can take far better pictures which can be sent to the phone using Bluetooth and e-mailed over. It is also the first PalmOS PDA to support a Microsoft video codec - ASF. Will we see more Microsoft multimedia codec implemented on Palmone's PDAs in September? I hope so.

What I am interested in talking is the new Bulverde processor. This is the first commerically available PDA that uses Intel's next generation XScale, unless I am mistaken. It only runs at 312Mhz but from some benchmarks I have seen, its alot closer to although slower than a PXA255 400Mhz T3. The battery seems to be average, which makes me think that the Asus A730 with its VGA screen will be dog in battery life with its 520Mhz.

There has been complains regarding the lack of PUC, but I don't care. I wish all PDAs are equipped with miniUSBs. The other day I had to purchase a USB cable fro my h4150 because I was tired to carrying the cradle whenever I am away. If it has a miniUSB jack, I could have used my digital camera's miniUSB.


As for the Z31 - cheap and cheerful, now with SD card for backup and mp3 - the perfect backpacker's PDA. I might get one for my father...and mother...and sister...

[jonathanchoo]

So this is what the new OS looks like? I would think Palm would get rid of the "writing area" by now. Taking up major screen space.



Because it costs 50% to buy a HVGA screen compared to a square screens. LCD prices aren't coming down yet due to the sudden surge in demand for this type of displays. Its better to have a 320x320 screen with a separate writing area rather than a 240x240 (Windows Mobile 2003 SE) screen with no input area which will end up looking like this:

http://www.pdagold.com/img/articles/en/large/0000000139_FAvL5052.gif

[Trimac20]

Yet another example of Palm cheapskatedness...;-)

[Janak Parekh]

Because it costs 50% to buy a HVGA screen compared to a square screens. LCD prices aren't coming down yet due to the sudden surge in demand for this type of displays. Its better to have a 320x320 screen with a separate writing area rather than a 240x240 (Windows Mobile 2003 SE) screen with no input area which will end up looking like this:
This is slightly misleading -- if you were to have a WM2003SE device with a 240x240 screen, you presumably wouldn't be using the keyboard SIP. You'd have the flexibility of either using a different input SIP, or a hardware input area.

--janak

[billbuckner]

Yeah, What I've thought is that square devices have hardware thumbboards.