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My new Palm: the TX

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Yep, after lovingly using a Tungsten T for many years, I stepped up to the big leagues again: a brand new Palm TX! Why? HUGE screen, built in WiFi, and much faster processor. An early birthday gift for me!

What's really interesting about this Palm is it's clearly the last, best effort Palm will do for its organizers. The Palm OS is not being improved upon, and the PDA market is crumbling, giving way to smartphones, like the Treo 650. PalmSource, the maker of the Palm OS, was recently sold off, and the company that bought it (a Chinese Japanese firm) is only interested in making it Linux based, so so long Palm OS. Palm themselves has decided to make the Treo 700 Windows Mobile based.

So, why buy a Palm, if that’s the case? Here are all the devices this lets me cost effectively replace:
  • iPod. I love my iPod, but it’s recently become a dedicated podcast device for me. Typically, my podcasts add up to less than 250MB, so I could just put them on an SD card, and play them through the TX. It has a headphone jack and I have two MP3 players on it. Savings: $250.

  • Personal Media Player (PMP). The iPod Video that was just released got a lot of fanfare, but there’s not a lot there. Poor battery life, not much content, and small screen. There are a slew of other PMP’s on the market now (Creative Vision, anyone?), and  this market is heating up. With the Palm TX and TCMP, I have a state of the art PMP, with a HUGE screen, great battery life, and I can rip a DVD to the SD card for less than 400MB per movie. Great on the ferry! Savings: $400.

  • The Treo is pretty enticing, but that small screen, the bugs, and the incremental costs for access convinced me to hold off. The TX talks to my Sony T610 through Bluetooth, so I get all of the mobile benefits of the Treo with a bigger screen and stable OS. Savings: $400.

  • My laptop is sexy, sleek, and powerful. For browsing the web in a coffee shop or airport, though, it’s overkill. With the TX, I can hit any WiFi hotspot, with email, web browsing, and a kick-ass IM client. Savings: $300 (access costs and time)

  • Charles and I were thinking of the PSP for Xmas. However, it’s a dedicated device for gaming. I’m not saying I’m backing off that, but it’s a luxury. Palm has hundreds of games; Charles, I’m looking into WiFi ones! Savings: $300

Now the kicker: I’m saving $1650, by my calculations. How much is this TX? It lists for $299! Palm is taking on those who think this type of device is too costly for them, with a vengeance. I picked it up for about $260 (EBuyer has since marked it back up to $300, but CNet still shows some for under $270.

I’m pretty pleased. More, as I find it.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Actually, palmsource is sold to a Japanese company.
Saturday, October 29, 2005 at 11:30:00 AM PDT
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