Originally posted by viqsi
[B]I’m really glad to see that Palm’s finally gotten the virtual screen gimmick working. Great for those of us that go for reliability in one’s gadgets.

I will *never ever ever* buy a Clie. Absolutely never. They’re as unstable as WinCE for me – I’ve had demo units crash on the store shelves! Sony seems to subscribe to the idea of “throw in the feature now, actually get it RIGHT later”, and while that might work for someone who wants a new toy, I actually need to get serious work done with a PDA now and again. (shock!)
(There’s also my paranoid fear of Sony as a corporation and the whole Memory Stick proprietaryness issue, but those are really secondary.)

Handspring had similar issues. My Visor, with or without Springboard modules within, would crash constantly. Constantly. It got to the point that I kept missing appointments because I couldn’t trust the thing.

Whenever I’ve bought from Palm, however, I feel like I’m getting something that’s not going to explode on me. My m130′s crashed, oh, maybe three or four times in the six months I’ve owned it so far; I had similar reliability (if a little better) with a Palm III, a Pilot 5000, and a PalmPilot Professional upgrade (anyone remember those? ). My Visor crashed that often every *week*. One Clie (the NR70V, if I recall correctly) crashed almost that much for me (twice) in LESS THAN ONE HOUR.

Of course, Windows also loves to explode around me, and even Linux can’t handle the sheer level of entropic bit rot essence that seems to surround and enfold my person. But that just means I need devices that are that much more reliable.

The point of all this? The fact that Palm’s coming out with the T3 suggests to me that they’ve finally got virtual graffiti stable enough that I might actually be able to use it sometime. That’s pretty damn cool, if you ask me. [/B]

I’ve had just the opposite experience. Every single of my Sony PDA’s have been rock solid, and have never crashed on me. They may’ve run slower than others with some of the background software I run, but they have never out-and-out crashed. All of the PalmOne models I’ve tried have been nothing but headaches. I started with the Tungsten series. Three of three T|Ts had dust under the screen and/or dead pixels, two of two Tungsten|Cs had problems with light coming from the bottom of the screen and keyboard issues, and all of the four different display models of the T|3 I’ve seen in four different stores all have an annoying screen whine to them.

Now, with Sony pulling out of the US PDA market it looks like my choice for an upgrade are limited. I was going to wait until this fall to see if Sony came out with a new model with Bluetooth. I use Bluetooth all the time to share data and “stuff” with coworkers, and the WiFi in the TH55 is not a practical solution for me. I also don’t care for the TH55 design. The TJ series don’t have a very user friendly jog dial/jog wheel layout (no f**king back button!), and the UX50 does not have a portrait screen mode, or use the standard T series connector (I have two additional cradles).

Right now with very few non-PalmOne Palm OS PDAs out it looks like my choice is with the Tapwave Zodiac or with, well, with the Tapwave Zodiac.

Gary

Originally posted by JYewMD
[B]Maybe stupid question..
How exactly do I “disable AvantGo” ???

It sounds like I need to reformat my SD card? I have to move a bunch of DocToGo files to my T3 Handheld, then do the T3 Update, and then reformant? Any tips before I do this?

Thanks! [/B]

Right Click on the Hot/Sync icon.
Goto Custom
Find Avant Go in the list of operations, double click and disable it.

Avant Go synchronization will be skipped for one Hot/Sync operation and will then re-engage.

The T3 is my most recent PalmOS PDA in a long line going back to the Pilot 5000. And I think it’s a real winner. I’ve had mine since 9/26 (yes, prelease date) and have been extremely pleased with it performance. The only minor annoyance is the battery life, but I’m usually close to a power outlet and can charge up right away. For the rest of the time, I’ve just purchased a Power to Go Sled on ebay. I’m getting about 4 hours of uptime (based on Battery Graph) and that’s with the brightness at about 20%, beam receive on & a lot of BT activity (SMS, WebPro connected to my T610).

It sounds like I need to reformat my SD card? I have to move a bunch of DocToGo files to my T3 Handheld, then do the T3 Update, and then reformant? Any tips before I do this?

Thanks!

Originally posted by johnm
[B]and before you install the Palm T3 update…
1. disable AvantGo before you back up (i.e. otherwise you risk

All works well with this update: apart from the above minor suprises I didn’t notice anything else. I’m not a big SD card user so I don’t really have a sense of how its changed things in this area (the primary intent of this update).

Enjoy!
John M [/B]

For me, the ability to close the T3 and put it in my lab coat or even
my back pocket (w/ aluminum Proporta case) is key.

The Zodiac looks a lot like the old Sega game system, doesn’t it?!
Also, seems a bit big & bulky? Anyone have some exact
dimensions and comparisons with the T3??

Originally posted by Gendou
[B]From your Tungsten T3 Review:
“For me, the perfect Palm OS PDA would be a T3 that doesn’t hide half of its face under a slider mechanism, has 128mb of RAM, WiFi and a better battery.”

Have you looked at the Tapwave Zodiac Z2?

Anodized aluminum housing
200MHz Motorola i.MX1 ARM9 processor
ATI Imageon W4200 graphics processor
128MB of RAM
320×480 with soft graffiti
Bluetooth.
Built-in stereo speakers,
2 Secure Digital/MultiMedia Card (SD/MMC) slots
2 Li-Ion batteries (16 hours estimated life)

And it retails for $399!

Tapwave Website

PDABuzz Preview

Palm Infocenter Story [/B]

All easy to workaround. I must admit I’ve never seen a Palm OS update this big. I wonder what other fixes they’ve quietly hidden in this!

All works well with this update: apart from the above minor suprises I didn’t notice anything else. I’m not a big SD card user so I don’t really have a sense of how its changed things in this area (the primary intent of this update).

Enjoy!
John M

John M

how nice is it? im after a pda mainly for video playback (video is my main industry) so if I have to encode for it, thats fine (as it comes from uncompressed sources, so its not re-encoding)

can this unit handle 320x480x25/30fps playback? (Mpeg1 is fine)
I dont mind losing heaps of space for the video, so the less compression the better.

is it truly full screen playback? (so hopefully I can get a pixel for pixel 320×480) I cant find any info on playback specs, video res’s etc.

cheers

James,

There is a software setting under Prefs on the T3 (Prefs->General->Keylock), which can be set to off, automatic (when handhold is turned off) or manual (press and hold power off for 2 seconds). Personally – and I carry my T3 everywhere – I haven’t had a problem with it, so I haven’t bothered using Keylock

John M

You wrote:

For me, the perfect Palm OS PDA would be a T3 that doesn’t hide half of its face under a slider mechanism

And I agree completely that this is the most annoying feature of this machine, adding two more steps to every use. Moreover, the mechanism tends to decay — I know from my Tungsten T. It must add weight, definitely thickness, and also cost.

The dream would be very close to the form factor of the Tungsten E, with the virtual Graffiti area. On the latter, I agree on saying “Finally!” Microsoft got it right from the earliest “Palm-Size PC” as they used to be called.

The concept of input panel is gradually making it with the Clie NX80, the Garmin, and now the T3 (in addition to the now defunct Handera). Four machines and four incompatible ways of implementing it. Four mostly undocumented ways also, to make our life as developers more difficult — and Costly. We finally made it for Fitaly on the T3 (not on the Garmin):
http://www.fitaly.com/board/palmfitaly/posts/4076.html

(Yes life is simpler on the Pocket PC side where we can target an operating system and not incompatible machines.)

Back to the T3 after this digression, a minor annoyance is that side button that is so easy to push in my pocket (yes women may carry it in a bag but men are more likely to have it in a pants pocket where the button will get accidentally pushed and drain the battery). Here the Clies with their lock button have done it right.

Jean Ichbiah
Textware Solutions
http://www.fitaly.com

Regardless software installed on my Palm T3 (which I’ve used enough to know works well or not):

Avantgo, Bejewelled, Calc, Calendar, Card Info, Contacts, Documents to Go, Expense, Hotsync, Keyboard (for ultra thin keyboard), Memos, Note Pad, PalmReader, Photos, RealOne, Shadow, Solitaire, SunCompass, Tasks, Tide Tool, World Clock

RealOne is a bit dubious (as all Real software I’ve ever touched). It works OK, but when I get time I’ll look for something else, I will: partly prejudice agaisnt the general quality of Real’s software

Lexar SD cards appear to be fine, I don’t think I’d purchase a Sandisk SD card again (some early poor experiences)

Shadow provides some T3 enhancements released by Palm to developers (AppSlipRotate v1.1 and StatusBarLib.prc). I’d suggest staying away from these till Palm officialy releases them: my Palm does does a couple odd things since installing them (artifacts being left on the screen)

RealOne is the only software which has casued a reset to be required on my Palm.

Hope this is useful
John M

Yes, when the unit is slid down to compact size the Graffiti area is hidden down below i.e in effect underneath the 4 app buttons and navigation button

Starting with the T3 is in 320X320 mode (slid in), then switching from a hires+ app to an old app, and then switching back to the hires+ app, and then sliding out (to 320X480 mode), does the hires+ app fill the full screen without the Graffiti area? I just tested this (started with the built in Tasks app, switched to Bejewelled, switched back to Tasks then slid out the slider: and yes it was in hi-rez mode i.e. full 320 x 480!!.

A twist on this if you repeat this but you start out with having last used the Grafitti area, just before closing the device, if you then repeat this you will end up with the grafitti area when you open up the slider at the end of this sequence.

Curious. I certainly find thegrafitti area isn’t annoying like it was on the NZ 90 i.e. the darn grafitti area was always popping up when I didn’t want it and there was no nice way to keep it down (i asked Sony support as well).

John M

Thanks for the oh so useful post. The added information left me with two new questions.

When the unit is slid down to compact size, I assume the Graffiti area is hidden down below. Is this correct?

Starting with the T3 is in 320X320 mode (slid in), then switching from a hires+ app to an old app, and then switching back to the hires+ app, and then sliding out (to 320X480 mode), does the hires+ app fill the full screen without the Graffiti area?

It rocks for a start!! Having owned a Palm III, V, Vx, Sony NZ90 and now this, I still think the Vx was the best device – for shear lightness, length of time between recharges, but this is close (without even taking into account all the extra functionality). Its only drawback is battery consumption. But when you look at why it consumes battery – stuff you just didn’t have in the Vx world, it hard to really knock and easy to work around as below

Pluses:
- I love the slider: a bigger screen when you want it, a small compact device when you close it (and yes I did open and close it about 30 times in a row with no problems!)
- all the old apps work great in full screen mode (memo, notepad, contacts, calendar, tasks)
- the virtual graffiti/keyboard screen works great. You can set it up in one of 3 modes: a keyboard, the classic old Palm graffiti screen mode and a new mode called wide which has capitalized letters, uncapitalized and numbers as 3 separate columns. I’ve just left mine in keyboard mode which lets you just forget about graffiti!
- the new toolbar along the bottom works great
- the slider works great (you can even set it to power on when you open it and power off when you close!)
- SD cards are no problem. Check out Costco for 256mb cards
- one handed navigation with the buttons works well
- nice solid stylus
- blowing the 4k limit on Memo. You can slap much bigger docs into memo now (I think limit is 32K now). Very noticeable. Means it really is useful with the Palm keyboard (the ultra thin keyboard also has a universal adapter and works great with the T3. It doesn’t have any batteries while the wireless keyboard has a battery. I don’t even notice the ultra thin keyboard in a jacket pocket – so it lives there now)
- the new security app allows you to assign buttons on the device for unlocking and it masks the sequence. It also provides encryption options e.g. delete all private records if 10 consecutive failed attempts are made to unlock the device

Drawbacks:
- third party apps which don’t support the higher resolution i.e. above 320 x 320 will bring the virtual keyboard/graffiti area up e.g. Bejewelled or Avantgo. Switching back to a built in Palm app will require you to click on the bottom right hand corner of the screen to lower the virtual keyboard, when the slider is open (which is what you must do to get at the virtual keyboard/graffiti area up) . However if you were just switching between the built in palm apps and any other apps which support the full screen mode/slider open mode, none of this would be a problem: the virtual keyboard/graffiti screen will stay down
- yep if you want to listen to MP3s, with screen brightness cranked and play graphic intensive games its going to burn through battery. Solutions:
1. Battery conservation: turn screen brightness down as far as you can tolerate (shouldn’t be a problem it really is a bright screen), turn off Bluetooth (turn on when needed), set RealOne (the bundled MP3 software) to blank screen after 30 seconds, etc
2. Grab a travel charger: leave your travel charger at home or work (whichever is your secondary location) and take it with you when you travel. If you’re going to hit the MP3s heavy your going to need it. If usage is light your definitely OK for a few days at a time: I’m consistently heavy so I don’t really know how long it would last on light usage! The Palm universal adapter charger plugs right into the T3 (i recharge many a night this way)

The only bit of software I had some early hiccups with was RealOne (any heavy users of RealPlayer probably aren’t surprised!). Whn I get round to it I’ll probably look for an alternative.

Grab the security app that Palm has posted for this (http://www.palmone.com/us/support/downloads/tungstent3/security5_update.html)

Avantgo doesn’t display full screen on the T3, but given that Avantgo updated their software for the NZ90 I would expect they will do the same for the T3.

Man: they got this right. I’ve gone from Sony NZ 90 to this. If you don’t care about the camera, and you do care about quality of integration of hardware and software then the Palm is way superior. Unfair to knock Sony when they got their device out 6 months ago, but, Palm has learned and has just got this right.

John M

In stores that I have seen (CompUSA, BestBuy, OfficeMAx, OfficeDepot, Staples, Circuit City, and RadioShack), the T3 has been on sale but no T3-specific accessories have been available.

What is worse is the TT and T2 accessories are almost always marked “For T-Series Handhelds,” which is misleading, since the size of this device is different from the others, something that will undoubtedly cause some headaches for both consumers and the stores having to handle returns.

I, for one, would like to be able to walk into a store and get everything I need for my handheld in one place, rather than having to buy a case and screen protection online, wait for them to arrive, and then go to a store and buy the PDA. I guess I could just order all 3 from Palm, but I like buying from a brick-and-mortar store.

Maybe I am weird. Just my .02.

It was the result of a patent infringement lawsuit with Xerox.