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julietMy Palm has died (won't switch on; when I tried resetting it the screen started flashing alarmingly & wouldn't stop). This is BAD & I am now going to have to fork out for a new one.
Inspection of the various available Palms reveals that the one I really want is the M500 (it's light, small, monochrome (I don't need colour), & has a rechargable battery). Unfortunately, this isn't readily available any more - Dabs have it for £175.07 but have to order it specially for you, no one else appears to have it at all. Or I could get one from Ebay for £75 (or maybe a bit less - that's the "buy it now" option).
The other option is the M130, which is cheaper (£139.82 from Dabs) & available, but colour, heavier, & twice the thickness. Or the M515 (£202.10 from Dabs, though, which is getting a bit expensive given that really I didn't ought to be spending the money at all, but I NEED an external brain!. And it's colour, heavier, but with more memory).
So: does anyone have any experience of the M130/M500/M515? And does it seem sensible to buy a M500 on the cheap from Ebay, or is this going to be a false economy? (the current one was second-hand, after all, & has only lasted a year, bah) Oh yes - & is that "Notepad" application (where you can write handwritten things) any good at all?
Inspection of the various available Palms reveals that the one I really want is the M500 (it's light, small, monochrome (I don't need colour), & has a rechargable battery). Unfortunately, this isn't readily available any more - Dabs have it for £175.07 but have to order it specially for you, no one else appears to have it at all. Or I could get one from Ebay for £75 (or maybe a bit less - that's the "buy it now" option).
The other option is the M130, which is cheaper (£139.82 from Dabs) & available, but colour, heavier, & twice the thickness. Or the M515 (£202.10 from Dabs, though, which is getting a bit expensive given that really I didn't ought to be spending the money at all, but I NEED an external brain!. And it's colour, heavier, but with more memory).
So: does anyone have any experience of the M130/M500/M515? And does it seem sensible to buy a M500 on the cheap from Ebay, or is this going to be a false economy? (the current one was second-hand, after all, & has only lasted a year, bah) Oh yes - & is that "Notepad" application (where you can write handwritten things) any good at all?
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no subject
Date: 2003-07-09 03:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-09 03:28 am (UTC)Having phone & PDA in the same thing might be handy (also it has magical interweb access. Which might be dangerous, actually. Um). How big is it (height/width/depth)? And how easy is the keyboard to use? It looks kind of little.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-09 03:44 am (UTC)IME the keyboard is pretty easy to use and I now prefer it to Graffiti. Its good to be able to type in an SMS without having to go via T9 - the only problem I have now is that the messages get a little long, although the SMS app handily automatically breaks the message up into blocks of 160 characters as required.
Its relatively small and light. Tt measures 10cm x 7cm x 2cm (HxWxD) and weighs ~150g.
The only problem I did find is that to get GPRS working with Orange I had to switch to a contract rather than PAYG which was annoying, but possibly due to problems with Orange rather than the phone itself.
The battery life is reasonable - I normally charge it once every couple of days as I would do with a mobile. This is partly due to the office I work in causing lots of problems for mobile phone signals and thus eating up more power.
I'll have it with me on Friday if you want to have a play with it.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-09 04:28 am (UTC)Investigation reveals that a) my current phone does GPRS (which I didn't know) & b) it appears to work, thus implying that it would continue to work with the Treo.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-09 05:03 am (UTC)Out of interest: does it work as an organizer without a SIM in it?
Yep - just tried that on mine and it continues to work fine as a PDA.
I have been muttering previously about the usefulness of phone & PDA in same object
I've found that its been very useful to have PDA and phone in one. Advantages I've found so far are:
no subject
Date: 2003-07-09 05:20 am (UTC)*dribbles*
RIGHT that's IT I clearly have to get one.[0] Ahem. OK, I shall cogitate a *little* bit more, but it's looking pretty tempting. Especially if the pilot-link stuff works - that implies that it'll talk to JPilot which means that my most recent backup (sadly a couple of weeks old - yes, I am a bit rubbish) should be importable. And I'll be able to put Weasel on it & carry on ploughing my way through Project Gutenberg :-)
Cheers for advice!
[0] I am aware that in theory I could use ssh from the previous Palm, but this would have involved being in possession of an IR mobile, which I am not.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-09 05:27 am (UTC)I had to use a serial cable for the link (required buying another cable), but this is thanks to me using Solaris.
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Date: 2003-07-09 04:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-09 04:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-09 05:05 am (UTC)All of the newer Treos are only available with keyboards now.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-09 05:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-09 05:43 am (UTC)To get it into or out of wireless mode you just hold down the power button for a couple of seconds until you get a "trill" from the phone.
I found that the battery lasted about 2 weeks with the wireless mode turned off, although this wasn't a fair test as it was used as a phone for the start of that fortnight.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-09 03:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-09 03:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-09 04:26 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2003-07-09 05:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-09 04:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-09 04:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-09 04:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-09 04:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-09 05:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-09 04:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-09 05:33 am (UTC)What's flashing on the screen? If it's constantly flashing a Palm logo then a hard reset ought to cure it (modulo loss of all data). I had a Palm IIIC which kept crashing and doing that. Palm blamed me for using third-party software packages(!) and refused to change it, though I strongly suspected a memory fault. I now have a basic Sony Clie, though I'm being tempted by the Treo.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-09 05:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-09 05:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-09 05:50 am (UTC)Thank you lots! I shall start backing up more regularly now, mind... even after I get home & restore it, I'll have lost a couple of weeks' worth of stuff.
Interestingly, the Graffiti was misbehaving & now appears to be behaving better, as well.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-09 03:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-10 03:49 am (UTC)I like the look of the *new* Treo even more, but it's not out till the autumn & will be a) expensive & b) only available from Orange, it appears.