Article: 1225 of meer.list.pilot Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 09:59:20 -0800 (PST) From: eric@cybernut.com (Eric J Schwertfeger) Message-ID: <20020221091025.U16891-100000@cybernut.com> Subject: Pilot: Re: I have to buy a new pilot :( Newsgroups: meer.list.pilot Organization: meer.net (mail gateway) NNTP-Posting-Host: mail.meer.net X-Trace: 21 Feb 2002 10:06:29 -0800, mail.meer.net Lines: 115 Path: news.meer.net!freeside.ultraviolet.org!pilot-pda-return-32342-jg=meer.net Xref: archive.mv.meer.net meer.list.pilot:1225 On Wed, 20 Feb 2002, Justin Slootsky wrote: > Last week, I lost my pilot. I've had several over the years Feel for you, my wife had one of our original 1000's stolen (She saw one at Comdex the first year they were out, so I bought one for her for Christmas, and had decided to buy one for me while I was taking the bus home). > Here are some of my concerns. I'm interested in hearing people who have > experience with the new models. > > - I'm interested in colour, but am not sure if it is worth the extra expense > to me. > - the m100/m105 has a smaller screen than the old-school models. Is it too > small? I personally don't like them, as they're not as sharp and easy to read as the glass screens. Then again, the plastic screens are probably more durable, though I've never broken a screen. > - rechargable batteries. I'm concerned about not being able to change > batteries on the road. Currently, if I'm away from home, and I notice my > batteries are low, I can go to any store, buy new ones and be fine for the > rest of my trip. Well, there's one PDA that earns very high marks for this one feature to me, though low marks on cost. The HandEra 330 normally runs off of 4 AAA (tons of runtime there), but has a rechargable battery pack option. I've got one, and the recharging module as well. The only two downsides to this are 1) cost, as the battery pack is about $70 on top of $300 for a PDA, and 2) there's a small part you have to remove when you install the rechargable battery pack. I keep the part in my travel bag, but if you forget it, you can't fall back to AAA batteries. Other advantages to the HandEra 330 are: The screen, part one: Rather than 160x160, the screen resolution is 240x320. First, you'll notice that that isn't square. That's because the 330 has a software grafitti area that can be minimized, or used for any number of other purposes. Hacks exist to put time/date/battery voltage/etc in the grafitti area, to put the popup keyboard in the grafitti area, etc. When minimized, you can get several more items in a list, etc. Oh, and the equivalent of TealEcho is built into the grafitti area, so you can actually see the strokes where they are happening. Makes it easier to see why grafitti sometimes doesn't see the stroke you thought you made. Because of this, the grafitti area and soft-buttons are also backlit. The screen, part two: You'll also notice that even after you chop off 80 pixels vertically for the grafitti area, you've got 240x240 rather than 160x160. The HandEra version of PalmOS will automatically scale apps that aren't HandEra-aware, replacing any use of builtin fonts with smoother fonts that are the same screen width (50% larger pixel width), so it looks good for text. Bitmaps usually suffer, however, for non-HandEra-aware apps. HandEra-aware apps, on the other hand, can use the same pixel-size fonts to fit more information on the screen, or use the larger fonts to maintain the same screen size. The screen, part three: It's just plain the sharpest monochrome screen I've seen in a PDA. I'll use the smallest font, minimized grafitti, and still be able to read it easily all at arms length. The screen, part four: Screen rotation, combined with the rectangular screen and minimisable grafitti area, makes the 330 great for reading DOC files or spreadsheets (Quicksheet is HandEra aware and bundled with the 330). Expansion Slots: Yes, I said slots. The 330 can take both a CompactFlash card and a SecureDigital card at the same time, so you can pop an internal modem into the CF slot, memory into the SD slot, and still have the cradle connector free for a keyboard, making for a very portable emergency terminal (can you tell I'm in the oncall rotation at work?). Backing up to either slot is very fast, too. Speaker: Can you say loud? As in you can hear it from the next room even over a conversation. It also plays waveforms with much higher quality than Palm PDAs, able to play touch-tones through the speaker to act as a speed dialer as well, or play WAV files off of memory cards. The downsides of the HandEra 330 are few, though they can be killers for people that they are important to. First: The HandEra 330 keeps the Palm III form factor, though with a better look to it (IMO). Some people want smaller PDAs, some want USB, so these won't work for them. Works great for me, because it means that I don't have to replace my keyboard, I don't need to get an extra cradle for work, etc. Second: Because of the modified display, graphical games tend to run slower on the 330 than on a Palm III. It's ranged from unnoticable unless I pulled out a stopwatch to half the speed, depending on the game, but it's there. Then there are games that bypass the OS alltogether, and these will usually not run, or even crash the 330. Third: Price. At $300, this isn't an entry-level PDA. Fourth: The jogwheel isn't as functional as the Sony jogwheel. Minor nitt, but the Sony jogwheel can be moved up and down while pressed in, but pressing in on the HandEra jogwheel locks it in place. Other than that, the HandEra jogwheel is as functional as the Sony jogwheel, and much easier to work with from a programmer's perspective. Don't take this as an endorsement for the HandEra 330. It's a great PDA, but it isn't for everyone. I'm just providing as much data as possible so that you can make an informed decision. Many of my PalmOS-using associates, upon seeing what my 330 can do, assume that the 330 is PocketPC because they've never heard of HandEra or a Palm with a minimisable grafitti area. The Pilot list/archive/unsubscribe page is http://www.ultraviolet.org