I’m thinking of buying a Palm TX or LifeDrive . The TX looks pretty solid, but for $100 more I can get 4gb of storage with the lifedrive. Reviews of the lifedrive aren’t exactly glowing though, as the battery seems to drain pretty quickly and in general it’s not quite ‘there’.
Anyway, some of the fine print has me a little confused. I know very little about wi-fi. the fine print reads “web and email require data plan and an ISP, all sold separately.”
I was under the assumption that if I already have an ISP, earthlink in my case, I would be able to go to a wi-fi hotspot, enable wi-fi, log in to earthlink and do my web stuff. I thought wireless data plans were just for dialing in with a cell phone or treo type device.
Is this fine print just a generic statement they use for all their devices, or do I really need to purchase a separate data plan to do internet on my PDA?
It depends what you mean by “wi-fi hotspot”. Some are public and free and you would not need to purchase anything additional to use them. Others require you to pay a (sometimes hefty) fee to use the connection. Your existing home internet ISP really has nothing to do with it. I would suggest you find out the information about hotspots you intend to use regularly before you make your decision. Also be very wary of mobile plans where you pay for data by the byte, as it can add up very fast.
Stan has got it. Check out the places you would normally be and care to use their hotspot. Most coffee shops around here have free wi-fi (as long as you stay out of Starbucks).
Of course if you have an Apple store nearby you can always leech their wireless.
I’ve got a TX and I love it. I didn’t think the Lifedrive was worth the extra money. You can buy 2 gig SD cards if you really needed to store that much stuff on the palm. Plus, SD cards can be used other places as well. I have a 1 gig SD card and an adaptor to turn it into a USB jump drive. Double use!
I got my TX when they first came out. If you have any questions about them feel free to ask.
I also have a Palm TX and have been very happy with it. As others have said you wont need a seperate data plan to use the wireless. If you have a home wireless network you can log on to that with no additional purchase necessary. If you don’t already have a home wireless network be sure to purchase the right type of router. I believe the TX uses ‘B’.
Well, I was going to come in here and suggest to get a Pocket PC device, not Palm but I see you already made your choice. But if you like it, then that’s all that matters.
By the way, you can install the mobile version of the Opera web browser on the TX. You need to install the Java app to run it (the one for for the Lifedrive works on the TX)
Just the group of folk I need to talk to.
My Tungsten E finally gave up the ghost, and I’ve been lost without my calendar and games (to pass the time in waiting rooms). I don’t really have need of the business apps, other than notepad and memos; most of the rest of memory would be taken up with photos.
I was looking at the TX, but it does not appear to have Graffitti fields. Where do you write? And with the 100 MB (accessible) built in, is an SD card really necessary?
Anyrose: The Graffitti area is on the display screen itself.
Take a look at this picture. On the lower right of the screen there is a square with an arrow icon. Click that and the graffitti screen slides up.
The graffitti area isn’t hidden on all applications, only newer apps that support larger screens. When I click the hide/show icon in my older applications it doesn’t do anything - the graffitti area shows all the time.
When I’m web browsing or viewing a spreadsheet I’ll hide the graffitti area and rotate the screen to landscape. You can use the buttons on the TX to navigate.
It’s pretty cool.
As for memory, I’ve got mine fairly loaded with apps and I’m not even close to running out of space. The only reason I use a SD card is for mp3’s. (my TX is also my mp3 player)
I think it’s important to note the memory on the TX is flash. You can run the battery dry and you won’t lose data or have to reload anything.
Both my Dubya and the Ipaq , they are absolute nessecities, the w only has 15 meg of onboard memory ,and the 1710 has 25 megs, adding the SD card gives a lot more flexibility to what you want to accomplish with your device.
Also the SD card gives you the space independent of the platform, to perform Back ups, if you have to to a hard reboot away from your main computer.
The icon two over from that is the “write anywhere” icon. When enabled you can write graffitti anywhere on-screen, and see your strokes as you write to boot. The area is (invisibly) divided up like the graffitti area, too.: left-side is lower case; middle is upper-case, right side is numbers. The down side is you lose tap-and-drag capability while enabled. Or you can tap-and-hold the graffitti icon to choose your entry method. (Graffitti standard, graffitti wide, or virtual keyboard)
