(kindof) drooling over a Zire 72

[braj]

ok, I've got a TX that is wonderful, butmy wife brought home an old Zire 72 today and now I'm drooling a bit. Why Palm, why? Why couldn't you have included a mic, one button voice recorder, a LED alarm, and a camera in the TX? All of these would have been so useful in the corporate world. I could easily snap pics of clients and co workers for my contacts, would have really appreciated a silent way to be notified during meetings, would love to get some of my boss's BS on 'tape'. It just feels weird to see this older device trump my TX is so many little ways. Grrrr....

[Gregte]

It should be noted that some places will not allow you to bring in a PDA or anything else with a camera. I doubt that that is Palm's excuse for not providing one but it could matter to somebody.

Also, you can add a mic. I've put one in two different TXs. for about $2 each. You can also add a vibrating alarm for a few bucks. I haven't because I don't want one.

This doesn't answer your question of why Palm didn't do it though.

[philpalm]

If you look at my posts in gadgets they have separate camera options for the Handspring and the PSP. The only problem of adding a camera module is that you might have to have the IR located on the side of the Palm.

Other options to consider: a cell phone that can be added.

[braj]

Well I do have an external mic for my TX, am thinking about doing the internal mod though. And I can send pics from my cel phone to my TX so it isn't that huge of an issue. Vibrating alarms aren't that useful to me, I rarely feel my cel going off. I guess I'm just feeling Palm has skimped on their last great PDA model. Hopefully there is some resurgence of PDAs as a concept. I'd love to see a future Lixux based Treo that has a slide out keyboard under a VGA screen. It looks like Windows Mobile is making these kinds of strides though, not Palm. As I sit listening to George Harrison 'Isn't it a Pity' seems appropriate.

[braj]

If you look at my posts in gadgets they have separate camera options for the Handspring and the PSP. The only problem of adding a camera module is that you might have to have the IR located on the side of the Palm.

Other options to consider: a cell phone that can be added.

I have a Visor Prism with the original ultra-low-res Eyemodule :) I took some wonderful pictures of my wife and I when we were dating way back when with that little thing. This was really before camera phones were available, it was revolutionary at the time. I had the wireless web (Omnisky) module as well. Too bad Handspring didn't continue that concept with new and better springboards. I always thought that being able to add sensors for scientific and medical purposes always seemed like the natural extension of the pocket computer to me. When I first saw a Palm device (when they were all greyscale, ran on AAAs and went weeks on a set of batteries) I always thought they were the perfect computer for the common man on the planet. Like the savannas of Africa for instance. A rural doctor could travel all over and be able to hold the medical records and documents easily. Anyhow...

[Modnar]

ok, I've got a TX that is wonderful, butmy wife brought home an old Zire 72 today and now I'm drooling a bit. Why Palm, why? Why couldn't you have included a mic, one button voice recorder, a LED alarm, and a camera in the TX? All of these would have been so useful in the corporate world. I could easily snap pics of clients and co workers for my contacts, would have really appreciated a silent way to be notified during meetings, would love to get some of my boss's BS on 'tape'. It just feels weird to see this older device trump my TX is so many little ways. Grrrr....

Yeah I know exactly how you feel as I 'upgraded' from my Zire 72 to my TX and yeah as far as it goes the Zire 72 runs faster (an example of this is that My Z72 can play high quality divx in TCPMP on normal fine whereas the TX cant).

But my biggest things with the TX is that of the larger screen and most importantly Wifi!

[braj]

Yeah I know exactly how you feel as I 'upgraded' from my Zire 72 to my TX and yeah as far as it goes the Zire 72 runs faster (an example of this is that My Z72 can play high quality divx in TCPMP on normal fine whereas the TX cant).

But my biggest things with the TX is that of the larger screen and most importantly Wifi!

Yeah, even notepad draws smoother on the 72. But again, the TX can handle 4gb SD cards.

But the Zire 72 is really a great little handheld. And now I have a decent backup device that we'll also use as our family handheld for mundane kid alarms (tell him to go pee etc) :D

[Modnar]

Yeah I did find the digitiser on the Zire 72 is far better and as far as drawing goes is better But I dont think I could go back as a full time device but as a back up it is pretty useful.