Ditched PPC - some q's re Clie and Palm OS

[rsk21]

All,

Have turned my back on MS PPC so have traded my MS Smartphone for a Sony Ericsson P800 and have put my iPaq into mothballs. I now want a handheld to pair with the P800 and the TG50 looks ideal, primarily because of size and bluetooth but the fact that it looks and feels so well made in comparison to any PPC helps also ! I'm off to NY next week and hope to pick one up at Datavision (£80-90 less than UK prices) but before I take the plunge I have a couple of questions - I have done several searches and hopefully am not being too repetitious

1: Web Browser - Does the included browser support frames ? I need to be able to access an OWA Outlook server which relies on frames. Also does it render web sites for the small screen like Opera browser for Symbian does on the p800. If not can anyone suggest a reliable, third-party browser which does both/either ?

2: SMS / MMS software - I understand SMS composition software is included from the start, assuming the bluetooth link is enabled do incoming messages pop-up on screen ? Secondly does anyone know if an MMS (picture messaging) composer is available anywhere ?

3: MS Office Docs - I want to be able to carry around MS Docs with me which I can beam/e-mail to users for immediate reading/ edit i.e. in native format. I understand Docs To Go cannot do this - What is the best solution for this, Quickoffice ?

4: E-mail client - My P800 supports my POP3 inboxes via GPRS plus my MS Outlook inbox on my work PC through its synch prog. This allows me to work on work mails when away from my desk and then send them up the wire next time I connect. Can Clie mail do all this too ? Hotmail is not a problem as I would point my browser to the MSN mobile site for this as with my phone.

5:Pass-Through connection to Internet Can the mail application use my net my connection to poll my pop3 servers throughout the day for my messages ? Obviously it uses this connection when synching with Avant-Go but can other apps use it ?

All assistance gratefully received.

[graph101]

Why datavision? If you're buying it regular price i would stay away from them,,, unless youre getting such a good deal. just walk across the street for compusa or walk 5 blocks for staples.

[rsk21]

Graph 101 - I've bought from both Datavision and J&R before and always found them to be pretty good in terms of product knowledge, price and international warranty.

Current best price at Datavision is $359 whereas I thought Staples and CompUSA stick to RRP ? Happy to be proved wrong though if you know where I can get a bargain !

[graph101]

i dont like stores who doesnt have a good return policy and forces you to only get a store credit.

but for $359,,,,maybe its a good deal but i would probably find a 10% off with free shipping online to get a good price. for a $359 item you will be paying a lot for NY TAX.

Try to haggle for a free Memory stick if you really wanna buy it from them. officemax or compusa is giving away 128mb MS for pdas.

[Reggie]

Alright here's my take. I can't answer all your questions though.

I would thnk that a good reason for you to get a Clie is to reuse the memory stick duo for both devices (P800 and the Clie). I would recommend though that since you are travelling, that you get an NX instead for several reasons:

1. You can get the WiFi CF card just in case there are hotspots in your area.

2. You can purchase a bluetooth MS module over there in UK from Expansys.

3. You have a bigger screen to surf with, and as answer to your 1st question, you can use NetFront that support frames. Of course you can always use P800's browser or Opera.

4. There is no SMS/MMS built in with the NX but I'm sure you can get a third party app. I'm not aware of any though that is 'always on' and does pop-up notifications on the background.

5. The NX comes with Documents To Go but can't read native MS files as you have mentioned. Yes, Quickoffice did claim they can natively read and modify MS files. Another option is RepliGo which I think can read native MS files too.

6. E-mail, I know the SmartPhone app email client sucks since it can only setup one account, but I heard good things about P800's email app. NX comes with Clie Mail which is some how a good enough app that does POP3 and attachments. Of course with a BT MS and a WiFi CF, you can choose how to connect to the net.

7. As for Pass-through, hmm... I'm not aware of any app that does that now. As I mentioned previously, you can you can always connect via WiFi or through GPRS anyway. But you schedule mail retrieval in your P800 anyway right?

8. The TG50 is pretty slick too. What I don;t like about it though is there is no WiFi solution (yet) and the screen is small (once you've get accustomed with the 320x480, you just don't want anything lower).

I am using a MS SmartPhone for several weeks now. I'm getting a P800 soon and would also like to try out the 3650 just to compare each other. I also have an XDA (S35 here in the US), and a T68i. As for PPC, I have the V35 (and of course the XDA). I yet to have a PPC with BT and WiFi though. Everything just has its use depending on what you want to do. :)

Tell us what you eventually decide on. :)

[chris]

hello there,

i cannot help you on the tg50 questions, but for email have a go at snappermail, i'm using it after having tried multimail and snappermail is cracking ! combined with quickoffice premiere and jpegview, it is nearly like working with a desktop :-)) supports native office attachements and jpgs really nice !!! and i have no shares with them :-)) just a satisfied user ....very much satified...

c u
christoph@jertrum.ch

[graph101]

IF i had the P800 and it has bluetooth i would really go for the TG50 coz i can just check my email everywhere i go. IR is annoying it use. i have WIFI at home but id still get the tg50.

but anyway you wont go wrong with anyt device. just ask yourself if you want a huge pda or a thin pda to go around the country or world with.

[Reggie]

SnapperMail looks great. Thanks for the info chris. Here's the specs link just in case: http://www.snappermail.com/palm/email/specs.cfm

How does it handle WAV and MIDI on the Clie? Will it use Clie's Sound Utl app automatically? I just wish that it supports the hi-res+ resolution. :(

[Unregistered]

hi reggie

no idea will try the wav and midi right away and will let u know.

cu chris

[Unregistered]

hi reggie

does not work :-((
cannot handle midi nor wav......pitty, but the problem seems to be the audio player in my t665c somehow it only sees mp3's.....

pitty.

but for me word excel jpeg and pdf more important.....

c u
chris

[rsk21]

All,

Thanks for all the replies so far - Friendlier people than than on some of the PPC boards !

Graph - Take your point re: Online price and NY tax etc. Problem I have is that if I order for delivery to home (UK) then I'm likely to get hit with UK customs duty meaning I'm no better off plus of course the cost of international shiupping, insurance etc. I'm only in NY for five days (2 at the w/e) so I'm not sure I could time this to coincide with delivery. Furthermore if I could get a guaranteed overnight delivery or similar I'm not sure as to what the delivery policy would be to a hotel rather than a residential address - Any thoughts ?

Reggie - Spot on regarding Mem stick inter-changeability. I assume the MS duo with adaptor will work just fine with the Clie. Am loathe to go down the NX or NZ route because they seem that much chunkier plus I have no need of the camera. Last time I was over I picked up a Fujitsu Lifebook mini-notebook which I have wi-fi enabled and use in Starbucks etc. when I'm over in the US. As for the P800 I heartily reccomend it, takes a little bit of getting used to but certainly has the beating of Smartphone, only problem area is the slightly clunky sync software. As for 3650 this is a very different animal, much more leisure biased and feels very poorly made to me.

Chris - Thnaks for the heads-up on snappermail and Quick-Office, this certainly looks like what I need.

[contravox]

Why would you want to carry around a .wav file? They're bulky and the sound difference shouldn't matter on a palm device.

here are a couple MIDI resources...I don't believe there are any MIDI sequencers, but there might be a link to it somewhere in there...best I could do with a quick search.
-Robert
http://63.203.49.62/~PhysicalBits/Pilot/PilotMidi.htm#MidiMonitor
http://www.opennet.ru/prog/info/838.shtml

[graph101]

rsk21, i guess NY is your only choice. IF you can haggle for a better price or a free 128mb or atleast a 64mb MS then go for Datavision. if not then get pricematch the price at staples. plus they give you an extra 10%

[George M]

rsk21, You're right the folks here are much nicer than PPC forums. Onother nice thing is that they don't bask PPC either (well sometimes :-) but hardly.

Since you been using a PPC you will end up using the tg-50 believe me. So go for it and give it a try. The only thing I did not like about the TG was the screen cover when opened.

The NZ90 is nice as well but it's big but I like it, I take mine out when I know I will be taking pictures.

[Reggie]

rsk21 - yes you can re-use your ms duo using the adapter that came with the P800. regarding the nx/nz camera, do you know that you can take video (with sound) with it? ;) As for the 3650, I'm just interested on the apps will come out for it. I have this socket bluetooth gps and I heard that someone is doing something for it on the P800 and the 3650. :)

contravox - yes, wav is certainly big. I was just curious if SnapperMail has support for the Clie Sound Utl app if you get an email with a wav attachment.

chris - thanks for testing it out. too bad though. :(

[X Destruction]

The T665c and lower models with sound utility don't have higher than midi-0. SJ33, TG50, NX60, NX70V and NZ90 I think have the 2nd version of the sound util. MIDI has great compression but there's limited resources of it. I like it for listening to old and new video game bg musics :p

[alan98]

Originally posted by rsk21
All,

Have turned my back on MS PPC so have traded my MS Smartphone for a Sony Ericsson P800 and have put my iPaq into mothballs. I now want a handheld to pair with the P800 and the TG50 looks ideal, primarily because of size and bluetooth but the fact that it looks and feels so well made in comparison to any PPC helps also ! I'm off to NY next week and hope to pick one up at Datavision (£80-90 less than UK prices) but before I take the plunge I have a couple of questions - I have done several searches and hopefully am not being too repetitious

1: Web Browser - Does the included browser support frames ? I need to be able to access an OWA Outlook server which relies on frames. Also does it render web sites for the small screen like Opera browser for Symbian does on the p800. If not can anyone suggest a reliable, third-party browser which does both/either ?

The netfront browser included is ok. It's only slightly big in size.

2: SMS / MMS software - I understand SMS composition software is included from the start, assuming the bluetooth link is enabled do incoming messages pop-up on screen ? Secondly does anyone know if an MMS (picture messaging) composer is available anywhere ?

incoming message do not pop up on screen.

3: MS Office Docs - I want to be able to carry around MS Docs with me which I can beam/e-mail to users for immediate reading/ edit i.e. in native format. I understand Docs To Go cannot do this - What is the best solution for this, Quickoffice ?

Pixel viewer that is in the ROM does this well.....But u cannot edit the documents that's all.

4: E-mail client - My P800 supports my POP3 inboxes via GPRS plus my MS Outlook inbox on my work PC through its synch prog. This allows me to work on work mails when away from my desk and then send them up the wire next time I connect. Can Clie mail do all this too ? Hotmail is not a problem as I would point my browser to the MSN mobile site for this as with my phone.

Cliemail conduit does this well.

5:Pass-Through connection to Internet Can the mail application use my net my connection to poll my pop3 servers throughout the day for my messages ? Obviously it uses this connection when synching with Avant-Go but can other apps use it ?

Can use bluetootth to archieve this.

All assistance gratefully received.

[TechnoCat]

Originally posted by Reggie
8. The TG50 is pretty slick too. What I don;t like about it though is there is no WiFi solution (yet) and the screen is small (once you've get accustomed with the 320x480, you just don't want anything lower).
Can't help with the screen, but there are wifi solutions for the TG50. It's just very pricey. I believe the Possio, BlueLan, and PicoBlue all can interface Bluetooth and 802.11b, but they're all over $350... for which you could almost simply buy an outboard Tunsten C. ;)

I'm eagerly awaiting those prices dropping!

[xenna]

A Wifi to BT device would be very cool. I would like to have one that is about cigarette packet sized and would work on batteries or mains power.

A cool thing to carry around in your attache case or plug in wherever you're going to be in one place for a while.

Any manufacturer types around? ;-)

I think snappermail looks very promising (esp. with quickoffice that I'm planning to buy), but I really need IMAP and they don't have a release date for that yet...

Xenna

[TechnoCat]

Originally posted by xenna
A Wifi to BT device would be very cool. I would like to have one that is about cigarette packet sized and would work on batteries or mains power.Several of them, certainly the Possio, can run off batteries. None are cig package size though, for two reasons. First off, they require too much juice and wouldn't last long with that tiny a battery. Second, the bluetooth and the WiFi 802.11b antenna should be at least six inches apart or they interfere, badly.

[xenna]

I see, that Possio sounds good except for the price, I mean, 700 GBP, they must be kidding...

I think I'm going to wait a while, maybe they'll make one with a normal ethernet connection as well as the Wifi & BT.

Anyway I think the real wave of cheap BT devices is still ahead of us.

[Vince]

What I'm curious about is why you want another device along side your P800?

Check out the Tungsten C - it looks nice, but no bluetooth just WiFi but with a kickarse battery life (8hrs WiFi use I hear!) With the TC you get VersaMail and DocToGo and I believe Netfront in ROM! Not bad.

I use SnapperMail with my and love it.

PS
I've seen the P800 and it was bulkier than I expected but nice. How are you finding it?

[rsk21]

Vince - P800 is great, little bit chunky but not much bigger than than the SPV Smartphone I had before (and of course has built in camera rather than clip-on) and certainly no bulkier than the Nokia 760 I had previously. I guess it only really looks and feels huge when compared to tiny little phones like the T68.

What I like about it:

Stable and intuitive OS (symbian)

Built in camera, not exactly Herb Ritts standard but passable and recently upgraded via firmware so now at least as good quality as the 7650

Excellent Calendar and contacts functions for my needs - works really well with the 5 way jog-dial

Pen input is neat for composing messages - particularly with the excellent MMS composer

Multiple e-mail account support allowing me to have both work network mail and pop3 accounts on the same place

Opera - best browser I've ever seen for portable devices, shame it's not available for Palm OS


What I don't like about it:

Lo-res screen, only 4096 colours

Limited Multimedia - i.e. MP3 player has no playlist support, & no rewind, skip or search functions. Also while video playback can be very good in terms of frame rate etc. the 4096 colours let it down

Very flaky sync software

Viewers only for Office Docs, no edit function

Why do I want a Clie ? Well they look very well made, the Hi-res screen seems excellent and the increased multimedia support appeals to me. I will check out the TC but I have to say that the fact that I could switch data between Clie & P800 using MStick is another positive. Do I really NEED one ? Probably not...........

Graph If you're still out there can you give me a touch more info re: CompUSA price policy ? If I can find the TG50 in stock with an official dealer (i.e. Datavision or J&R) at a lower price will they price match + a further 10% off ? I checked out their website but couldn't find any info re pricing policies.


Thanks for all the replies so far.

[TechnoCat]

Originally posted by Vince
What I'm curious about is why you want another device along side your P800?Can't answer for him, but for me...

First off, I want Bluetooth and WiFi, and since there are no WiFi-to-Bluetooth adapters, gotta go the other way.

Second, Bluetooth will more likely be handy in places where I'm more mobile, e.g. with a cellphone in my car or a resturant. 802.11b will be more handy where I'm more settled... at home, at a remote office, renting a booth at an internet coffee cafe in London. So the extra box will matter less for 802.11b than for Bluetooth.

Third, have the box rather than integrated device or card allows me to also use it as an extender. Hopefully you're aware by now that real-life Bluetooth range is signifantly under the 10 meters (30 feet) rated; more like half that, and a lot less if blocked by walls, sofas, etc. Similarly, the 802.11b in the T|C is remarkably weak. The external box would enable me to put it (1) 3 meters (10 ft) closer to the access point than I'm sitting and (2) higher up, such that I might get much better range.

[Vince]

rsk21,
I do like Symbian. I still have the 5mx and I have always desired a Clie T series style hardware, running its software with an update of course on multimedia. The MemStick issue makes sense, I guess that's why I got a Sony as well since it matches my Sony camera etc.
Let us know what you get and how you like it!