Luca
2004-08-30, 21:35
I was in a store today that was selling PDAs, and I got a chance to use a demo model Tungsten E. It was VERY nice, far better than my impression of what PDAs are like. The screen is extremely bright and sharp, it's super lightweight and the newer version of Graffiti is much nicer to use than the old one, almost as good as handwriting recognition.
Anyway, from looking at some features it seems as though the Tungsten E would probably be the right one to get if I were to get a PDA. All the current Sony ones have cameras, which I couldn't care less about, and the midrange one is a bit too expensive. I don't want to go low-end. Meanwhile, the Zires 21 and 31 are not good enough, and the higher end ones are too expensive and have features I don't care about (cameras, bluetooth, extendo-screens, etc). So the Tungsten E seems like a great choice.
Since I no longer have an iPod to keep things like contact information and calendars, a PDA would be handy. The iPod is pretty useless for that anyway, since it can't accept any input. And while I like having songs on the road, I'd probably be happy to get a 256-512 MB SD card and just use that to store any MP3s I want. The other thing is that the Tungsten E has the ability to store and edit Word and PowerPoint documents. You can get an adapter to use the PDA itself for making a presentation. That would be extremely helpful for my next semester of college since I'll need to make presentations for class.
My main concern is Mac compatibility. I know it SHOULD work fine with a Mac, but how well will it actually do? Is it a huge hassle or can I just sync it with my address book and calendar? And finally, although it says the ability to read PowerPoint files is Windows-only... is it? I don't see why, since both the Mac and Windows versions of Office use the exact same format. If it is a limitation, the worst case scenario is that I have to borrow my housemate's PC to get the PowerPoint file onto it, and that shouldn't be a problem since I'll probably only have to make a handful of presentations over the course of the year.
So if anyone has experience using a Palm with a Mac, do tell! I want to buy one but I really have to find out how well they will work together before I do.
Anyway, from looking at some features it seems as though the Tungsten E would probably be the right one to get if I were to get a PDA. All the current Sony ones have cameras, which I couldn't care less about, and the midrange one is a bit too expensive. I don't want to go low-end. Meanwhile, the Zires 21 and 31 are not good enough, and the higher end ones are too expensive and have features I don't care about (cameras, bluetooth, extendo-screens, etc). So the Tungsten E seems like a great choice.
Since I no longer have an iPod to keep things like contact information and calendars, a PDA would be handy. The iPod is pretty useless for that anyway, since it can't accept any input. And while I like having songs on the road, I'd probably be happy to get a 256-512 MB SD card and just use that to store any MP3s I want. The other thing is that the Tungsten E has the ability to store and edit Word and PowerPoint documents. You can get an adapter to use the PDA itself for making a presentation. That would be extremely helpful for my next semester of college since I'll need to make presentations for class.
My main concern is Mac compatibility. I know it SHOULD work fine with a Mac, but how well will it actually do? Is it a huge hassle or can I just sync it with my address book and calendar? And finally, although it says the ability to read PowerPoint files is Windows-only... is it? I don't see why, since both the Mac and Windows versions of Office use the exact same format. If it is a limitation, the worst case scenario is that I have to borrow my housemate's PC to get the PowerPoint file onto it, and that shouldn't be a problem since I'll probably only have to make a handful of presentations over the course of the year.
So if anyone has experience using a Palm with a Mac, do tell! I want to buy one but I really have to find out how well they will work together before I do.