Need advice on replacing my PDA

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by HarryT

What I primarily dislike about Palm machines is the "Palm Desktop" software you need to use to add and remove files from the machine. With Windows Mobile, as you know, it's just "drag and drop" from Windows Explorer; far simpler.

If you have a model that uses expansion cards, it's still drag and drop.

I keep ebooks on my Zodiac on SD cards, in /Palm/Program/Plucker, /Palm/Books, and /eBooks for Plucker, eReader, and Mobipocket volumes respectively. I pop the card into a USB reader, open it like a drive in Windows, and drop ebook files directly into the desired location. The same goes for other data files, like videos viewed with TCPMP.

Open the ebook viewer, tell it to update the library, and voila!

The only time I need to use the Palm Desktop software is when I am hotsyncing to update my Address Book or Calendar. But I sync with Outlook, so I use Chapura Pocket Mirror instead of Palm Desktop, and on the rare occasions I need to install something in RAM. I use envicon.de's PInstall, which bypasses Hotsync (and won't work if Hotsync Manager is running.)
______
Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by starrigger

Does anyone have an opinion on the Palm TX? There seem to be a fair number of them for sale on ebay.

The TX is Palm's last actual PDA. Everything else has been a smartphone. Some of us have been hoping for a new TX model, but at this point I don't expect to see it.

It's a Palm OS Garnet (5.49, I think) device, based on a Texas Instruments OMAP ARM CPU. It has 128MB of RAM, an SD card slot, and Wifi. The screen is 320x480, with a collapsing data input area.

The TX differs from older Palm OS devices in using NVRAM, so you don't lose everything in RAM if the battery is allowed to drain. This can be useful, but has quirks.

It has the FAT32 driver introduced in the LifeDrive, and will take 4GB non-SDHC cards "out of the box"

Had the TX been available when my old Tungsten E was dying and I was looking for a replacement, I might have gotten one. It wasn't released at that point, so I got the Zodiac and have been happy. The TX will probably meet your needs save for being able to read ePub books, as I don't believe an ePub reader for Palm OS exists.
______
Dennis

[jj2me]

Originally Posted by starrigger

Does anyone have an opinion on the Palm TX? There seem to be a fair number of them for sale on ebay.

Google "Palm TX digitizer" (or add "problem"). They wear out. Otherwise, a solid PDA. This ebay seller sometimes offers them with a glass digitizer, and would probably add one to a TX you send him for repair, though the price of a TX w/ glass digitizer was high, IIRC.

If you're handy with electronics, here's a source for the glass digitizer.

[starrigger]

Originally Posted by jj2me

Google "Palm TX digitizer" (or add "problem"). They wear out. Otherwise, a solid PDA. This ebay seller sometimes offers them with a glass digitizer, and would probably add one to a TX you send him for repair, though the price of a TX w/ glass digitizer was high, IIRC.

If you're handy with electronics, here's a source for the glass digitizer.

Um, so what is a digitizer? Are you talking about the touchscreen layer? I don't think I have much interest in buying a used item cheap, and then needing to fix it. (I used to do that with Roombas, then found I didn't have the time to spend fixing them.)

Truthfully, I'm more comfortable with an OS I'm familiar with, and being able to plug in the PDA and drag and drop via Windows has a lot of appeal to me.

I was thinking that the Windows Mobile machines might be able to run that new epub reader, Freda, but I suspect now that their versions of Win Mobile aren't new enough to do that.

Maybe I'll wait and see if anyone wants to give me an itouch for Christmas. Anyone know if the Kindle reader for the itouch handles regular .prc files okay?

[Jack Tingle]

With respect to ebook reading, here's my advice:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...80&postcount=3

When I was looking for a new device, I eventually went with a free Samsung SCH-i760 from Verizon. Nice phone, good as a PIM, but a mediocre general purpose device. If I had it to do over again, I'd spring for a bigger screen and no keyboard.

If you have a cell phone plan that has "New Every 2" or some such, you might look over their offerings. Beware of required data plans, though. I don't have to have one (corporate rates, etc.) but some people may have to sign up for those.

If I was looking a used PDA, I'd probably go for a Dell X51V. My plain X51 is still good for ebook reading. For new, either an HP 111 or 211 is about your only choice.

Regards,
Jack Tingle

[PhishStyx]

Originally Posted by starrigger

Does anyone have an opinion on the Palm TX? There seem to be a fair number of them for sale on ebay.

My wife has had one for about a year and seems to like it better than the T3 it replaced. She doesn't read books on it though.

[starrigger]

Well, I just snagged a Dell Axim 50v for $81 on ebay, with a 1GB card. I guess I'll see how that does. It has a VGA screen, though probably not a late enough version of Windows Mobile to run an epub reader. But that was just a wish-list thing; I've been doing fine with Mobipocket on my old PDA. And if I don't like it, I guess there's always ebay.

[HarryT]

Good choice - I'm sure you'll be happy with it.

[Jack Tingle]

Originally Posted by starrigger

Well, I just snagged a Dell Axim 50v for $81 on ebay, with a 1GB card. I guess I'll see how that does. It has a VGA screen, though probably not a late enough version of Windows Mobile to run an epub reader. But that was just a wish-list thing; I've been doing fine with Mobipocket on my old PDA. And if I don't like it, I guess there's always ebay.

I vaguely recall that the X50 series was upgradeable to X51 spec software. Check Dell's website and/or the various internet sites devoted to such things.

For an epub reader, Freda will probably run. Check the threads here on MobileRead.

I still use my X51 for reading, even with the shaky digitizer and a couple of bad buttons. For some things, it's better than my jetBook. Enjoy.

Regards,
Jack Tingle

[wayrad]

Originally Posted by HarryT

What I primarily dislike about Palm machines is the "Palm Desktop" software you need to use to add and remove files from the machine. With Windows Mobile, as you know, it's just "drag and drop" from Windows Explorer; far simpler.

I understand you can sync to Outlook; never tried it though. And Softick makes various third party options for file transfer. I find their BlueFiles very useful for browsing the contents of my Zodiac wirelessly and transferring ebooks to its SD cards.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by wayrad

I understand you can sync to Outlook; never tried it though.

You need Chapura Pocket Mirror (included on the Zodiac CD) to do it. There's an extra cost Pro version of Chapura that adds additional features.

If you need to sync the Zodiac and another brand of PalmOS device, fiddling is required, as the default Tapwave install removes any existing Palm USB driver. (Grrrr... )

And Softick makes various third party options for file transfer. I find their BlueFiles very useful for browsing the contents of my Zodiac wirelessly and transferring ebooks to its SD cards.

I use an older freeware utility that lets me FTP to/from the Zodiac SD cards. But I seldom do: it's easier and faster to pop a card out of the Zodiac, into a USB card reader, do the transfers from my desktop, and pop the card back into the Zodiac.
______
Dennis

[starrigger]

One question I didn't think to ask before I bought this was about customizing the display screen--for example, to be able to choose an easy-on-the-eyes color on black for reading in the dark next to a sleeping spouse. Is that a function of the device, or of the reader software?

On my wife's itouch, she has Stanza set for a restful red-magenta against black for her reading. I'm not sure if she did that through Stanza controls or itouch controls. Could I do something like that in Mobipocket? (On my old PDA, I would occasionally accidentally flip it into inverse white against black, but it wasn't very readable. And I never knew what I did to make it happen.)

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by starrigger

One question I didn't think to ask before I bought this was about customizing the display screen--for example, to be able to choose an easy-on-the-eyes color on black for reading in the dark next to a sleeping spouse. Is that a function of the device, or of the reader software?

It should be the reader software. On Palm OS using Mobireader 5.3, I can use Preferences/Colors to set Text, Background, Highlight, Modify and Hyperlink colors. (I prefer black on white, or black on ivory, but I can pick any color combination supported by Palm OS, which is 65,000+ colors.)

It's a bit more complicated in the Windows reader, as you must be in a book to get to the options dialog that lets you select colors, but again, it's done from the reader, not the OS. I'd be surprised if Mobireader for WinCE differed.
______
Dennis

[starrigger]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

It should be the reader software. On Palm OS using Mobireader 5.3, I can use Preferences/Colors to set Text, Background, Highlight, Modify and Hyperlink colors. (I prefer black on white, or black on ivory, but I can pick any color combination supported by Palm OS, which is 65,000+ colors.)

It's a bit more complicated in the Windows reader, as you must be in a book to get to the options dialog that lets you select colors, but again, it's done from the reader, not the OS. I'd be surprised if Mobireader for WinCE differed.
______
Dennis

I'll be danged. I just found it in the MobiReader on the PC. It was buried under the help question-mark button. I might never have found it there. Thanks!

[Sweetpea]

What OS does the Dell Axim 50v run?