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threebeers · 09-07-2010, 07:16 PM

like this thread. I use several Palms I have picked up over time from second hand stores, six to twenty bucks each. My prized Sony PRS-505 screen broke in my luggage coming home from vacation. Arrg. So I went back to Palm and realize it may be all I need. Here's why:
Generally--Default Palm font isn't very good, but with freeware hacks you can fix this easy. It takes about a half hour at the freeware sites to figure out what to download to hack the font, with lots of choices and sizes. Hacks are different between OS4 and OS5. The later Palms had high-resolution screens 320 by 320 (or even more for the TX and T3), much better than Pocket PCs.
Mobipocket is great. It converts non-drm formatted stuff to the Palm format well. And you can use Calibre to convert something that Mobipocket can't convert natively. Mobi's enews program for rss feeds is up there with Calibre's.
Plus games and a backlit touchscreen. The OS5 Palms have variable backlights.
Mobipocket can be set to sync to an SD card in the Palm. 1 gig card limit for most Palms but as you all know, a gig holds plenty of books.
Putting books on the device requires hotsync. I use an old XP machine. Don't know if Vista or W7 hotsync to the old devices?
1. Sony PEG-SJ20 (six bucks with cradle). Highest resolution black and white Palm made, I think. Battery lasts longer because it's BW. A blogger ran a test of this against its color equivalent and he said it made it 8 hours instead of 2. So dock it at night and the eink battery advantage is no big deal. Nice scroll wheel to change pages. Instant page turns. Bright screen.
2. Tungsten C. Has wifi and a keyboard. Can be hacked to run an early version of Opera Mini. Good for RSS feeds in Opera.
3. Tungsten T3. Best of the bunch. Nice cover flap. Slides open to a big screen. Touch screen option to turn pages in Mobipocket. Bluetooth to sync if you want. Battery is only about two hours though since it is old.

Honestly I wasn't using the PRS-505 late at night or on the bus because it had no backlight, now I read more. I don't get the eyestrain issue with the Palms that I do reading from a computer screen.

09-07-2010, 07:16 PM	#19
threebeers Member Posts: 18 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2010 Device: Palm, Sony, Nook, Literati	like this thread. I use several Palms I have picked up over time from second hand stores, six to twenty bucks each. My prized Sony PRS-505 screen broke in my luggage coming home from vacation. Arrg. So I went back to Palm and realize it may be all I need. Here's why: Generally--Default Palm font isn't very good, but with freeware hacks you can fix this easy. It takes about a half hour at the freeware sites to figure out what to download to hack the font, with lots of choices and sizes. Hacks are different between OS4 and OS5. The later Palms had high-resolution screens 320 by 320 (or even more for the TX and T3), much better than Pocket PCs. Mobipocket is great. It converts non-drm formatted stuff to the Palm format well. And you can use Calibre to convert something that Mobipocket can't convert natively. Mobi's enews program for rss feeds is up there with Calibre's. Plus games and a backlit touchscreen. The OS5 Palms have variable backlights. Mobipocket can be set to sync to an SD card in the Palm. 1 gig card limit for most Palms but as you all know, a gig holds plenty of books. Putting books on the device requires hotsync. I use an old XP machine. Don't know if Vista or W7 hotsync to the old devices? 1. Sony PEG-SJ20 (six bucks with cradle). Highest resolution black and white Palm made, I think. Battery lasts longer because it's BW. A blogger ran a test of this against its color equivalent and he said it made it 8 hours instead of 2. So dock it at night and the eink battery advantage is no big deal. Nice scroll wheel to change pages. Instant page turns. Bright screen. 2. Tungsten C. Has wifi and a keyboard. Can be hacked to run an early version of Opera Mini. Good for RSS feeds in Opera. 3. Tungsten T3. Best of the bunch. Nice cover flap. Slides open to a big screen. Touch screen option to turn pages in Mobipocket. Bluetooth to sync if you want. Battery is only about two hours though since it is old. Honestly I wasn't using the PRS-505 late at night or on the bus because it had no backlight, now I read more. I don't get the eyestrain issue with the Palms that I do reading from a computer screen.