Give the TG50 a chance!

[Red Boats]

I got a TG50 yesterday and wrote a laundry list of complaints in another thread. Today I'm thinking positively--hoping to get a thread started that brings answers to the obvious (and maybe not-so-obvious) TG50 questions. Here are my starters--

(1) What about HiRes Assist for older apps? The T665C had it and it was useful. Is it available on the TG50. I can't find it. Is there some alternative?

(2) Is the Virtual Graffiti really as clumsy and button-bound as it seems? I've installed Graffiti Anywhere, which is a fair solution. I started it with a long press on the THUMB SCROLL BUTTON and then write letters on left of screen, numbers on right. Works pretty well. Closes automatically when you close whatever app you were in when you called it up. I'd still rather have the little arrow of the NX70 snapping the regular Graffiti area up on screen. Is there any way to accomplish that?

(3) What's teh best way to operate the keyboard? My thumbs are too big, I guess. I tried THUMBNAILS and that worked better. Forefingers are fine when the 50 is flat on a tabletop. Other ideas?

(4) Any way to make the BLACK or RED SHIFT KEYS sticky so you don't have to hold them down when trying to enter numbers with the keyboard?

(5) A silly one: When the TG50 is closed I often have a hard time gripping the top to open it up--is there a trick I'm missing there?

Please add your questions and ESPECIALLY YOUR ANSWERS to this thread so we can start to gather TG50 info for all new users--

Thanks,

Boats

[alan98]

I'll answer the 2nd question:

The virtual graffiti area can be activated by using the last hardware button on ur clie. But Graffiti Anywhere is a better solution. Stick to that.

[Importluva]

Originally posted by Red Boats
I got a TG50 yesterday and wrote a laundry list of complaints in another thread. Today I'm thinking positively--hoping to get a thread started that brings answers to the obvious (and maybe not-so-obvious) TG50 questions. Here are my starters--

(1) What about HiRes Assist for older apps? The T665C had it and it was useful. Is it available on the TG50. I can't find it. Is there some alternative?

(2) Is the Virtual Graffiti really as clumsy and button-bound as it seems? I've installed Graffiti Anywhere, which is a fair solution. I started it with a long press on the THUMB SCROLL BUTTON and then write letters on left of screen, numbers on right. Works pretty well. Closes automatically when you close whatever app you were in when you called it up. I'd still rather have the little arrow of the NX70 snapping the regular Graffiti area up on screen. Is there any way to accomplish that?

(3) What's teh best way to operate the keyboard? My thumbs are too big, I guess. I tried THUMBNAILS and that worked better. Forefingers are fine when the 50 is flat on a tabletop. Other ideas?

(4) Any way to make the BLACK or RED SHIFT KEYS sticky so you don't have to hold them down when trying to enter numbers with the keyboard?

(5) A silly one: When the TG50 is closed I often have a hard time gripping the top to open it up--is there a trick I'm missing there?

Please add your questions and ESPECIALLY YOUR ANSWERS to this thread so we can start to gather TG50 info for all new users--

Thanks,

Boats


1) Not sure

2) There is no arrow to use for VG, but you can just use the button on the far left. It works pretty well, but as alan said, stick to GA

3) Try to use the outer edges of your thumbs, don't try to use the "pads" If you do this, you'll have less area to type with on those small keys

4) Get a freeware program called OKEY and it allows you to sticky them. I don't know if it works for the TG, I know that it works with the NX series.

5) I'm assuming that this is something that you'll just have to get used to.

[neon]

I am glad I got to look at the TG50 before buying it. If you absolutely need a new PDA, it is worth it when the price goes down, not at $400. Here are some things that really irked me, in addition to some things you mentioned above.

1) Perhaps only on the unit I demoed, but the flip cover is not easy to grasp and open.

2) Get ready to blow a load on replacement styli since the stylus hole is on the BOTTOM of the TG50. I couldn't believe it. While it has this neat snapping feel I KNOW that there will be dozens of styli lost, falling out because it wasn't in all the way, because the "snap" loses its grip after time, etc. Gravity is not a good thing to fight.

3) The keys aren't so bad but I can see where people are annoyed that you really have to press them. You don't get a "click" feel either after the keys have been depressed.

4) Per the above user, there is no question you will be using the stylus. I do not believe that the keyboard is an effective replacement, at all.

5) The ripples on the bottom of the screen are HORRIBLE. Really annoying. They don't screw up the whole unit but if you are paying $400 it is not a nice sight. You don't want to be looking at graphics if they will appear on the bottom of the screen regularly. Ridiculous... my N760C looks better. That said, the screen is pretty sharp, albeit slightly smallish.

6) On the bright side, the screen is large enough so that reading books isn't a serious problem and the screen real estate doesn't look like it suffers so severely so that the font will be even smaller to read.

7) I hope those letters on the keyboard don't rub off... unless they are inside the transparent buttons...

Ah well. It's a nice unit and is snappy. Too bad it came out way too late with only 11MB of usable RAM, although hopefully this will change with system upgrades. Still that is too little. There is a lot to like if you can get over some serious annoyances. I'd love to know what people think about the stylus... I blew way too much money replacing many that fell out. Sony can go to hell charging over $4 per stylus...

[yOyOYoo]

Graffiti Anywhere is nice but I hate the way you have to activate it. Also it does not do punctuation and everytime I try to capitalize a letter, it brings up my graffiti pen stroke command (which for me is set to brightness) sooo annoying I wish I could shut it off

[big_raji]

Hmmm, I'm using Graffiti Anywhere flawlessly on my NR70v... It's too bad it doesn't seem to function the same way on the TG50.

The TG50 finally showed up in some Canadian stores, so I may be picking one up tonight. I sure hope I'm not disappointed.

[Importluva]

You can do punctuation in GA. You have to do a stroke from the right to left in an upward diagonal fashion, if you have 1 pt touch activated. I haven't had any problems with it, but I tend to use the keyboard a lot (on my NX)

[big_raji]

Originally posted by Importluva
You can do punctuation in GA. You have to do a stroke from the right to left in an upward diagonal fashion, if you have 1 pt touch activated. I haven't had any problems with it, but I tend to use the keyboard a lot (on my NX)

I guess it's much different on the NR70v...

I use Graffiti Anywhere EXACTLY like normal graffiti. Tap Tap does a period, stroke up capitalizes, etc, etc.

[diceboy]

Originally posted by neon
1) Perhaps only on the unit I demoed, but the flip cover is not easy to grasp and open.

I don't have a problem with this at all. You must have big hands.

5) The ripples on the bottom of the screen are HORRIBLE. Really annoying. They don't screw up the whole unit but if you are paying $400 it is not a nice sight. You don't want to be looking at graphics if they will appear on the bottom of the screen regularly.

Man, you guys are picky. Use it for 5 minutes and you won't even notice.

QUOTE]7) I hope those letters on the keyboard don't rub off... unless they are inside the transparent buttons...[/QUOTE]

They are in fact inside the transparent buttons.

QUOTE]Ah well. It's a nice unit and is snappy. Too bad it came out way too late with only 11MB of usable RAM, although hopefully this will change with system upgrades. Still that is too little. There is a lot to like if you can get over some serious annoyances. I'd love to know what people think about the stylus... I blew way too much money replacing many that fell out. Sony can go to hell charging over $4 per stylus... [/QUOTE]

Agree on the ram, although when I can upgrade it to MS Pro, this will no longer be a problem, at least once 512MB+ memory sticks come down in price...I don't think there's any "serious annoyances" at all - you've got to be less picky. Re: the stylus - I think it snaps in pretty firmly and when I carry the unit in my back pocket, I put it in naturally TOP DOWN, so there's no chance the stylus will fall out in my pocket or when I remove the unit from my pocket. It remains to be seen whether the "snap" will lose its grip, but it fells pretty solid right now.

Some serious plusses: the unit looks really sharp, it's far from a brick (it's actually surprisingly thin), it has built in bluetooth, and a pretty good sounding speaker. All that and the promise of MS Pro upgrades made this a pretty attractive unit to me....:D

[diceboy]

BTW, my main gripe is actually with the flip cover...not that I find it difficult to open, but I wish it flipped all the way around to the back so it doesn't look like a Star Trek communicator (from the original series) when I'm using it.

Perhaps someone will comeout with an aftermarket replacement flip cover that will flip all the way around to the back, although it looks like a design challenge because of the fact that the flip cover hinges on the top FRONT due to the bluetooth piece being in the way...

[neon]

1. I totally agree about the Star Trek communicator feel with the cover flipped up. ROFLMAO. I hate that and love the flip over covers. It doesn't look like an option.

2. For those of you saying not to be so picky about he wavy lines -- get real. My N760C which came out years ago still looks nice and has no wavy lines at all. For $400 you'd better believe that looking at the screen -- something you do more than anything else -- it should be at least as smooth as the N760C. The other stuff is not as important.

3. You could have 760GB on a memory stick but that still doesn't change the internal RAM problems. To begin, the memory stick access is MUCH slower than internal. Second, many apps don't function as well or with all the features as internal, e.g. many doc readers cannot bookmark docs if they are in the memory stick and must be copied to RAM. Third, some apps need to be in RAM such as Avant Go. The 11MB RAM fills up awfully fast and this is ridiculous. Palm got 14MB+, which isn't great, but it sure beats the 11MB of the CLIE.

4. The stylus still worries me even though it clicks in. Time will tell how dumb it was to put it reverse gravity.

5. I am glad that the lettering is within the buttons so they won't rub off. That said, there is no way that they will replace the stylus and I see myself using it all the time if I get this unit.

6. The form factor is not as good as the N760C but it is not bad at all. It is thin but a tad wide and tall, but very acceptable.

[daedaleum]

#5
if you grab from the bottom where the hotsync jack is, the is an edge at the front that sticks out a little bit and you can open it that way.
best of luck!
do you have ant problems with static on the mp3 player with headphones?
thanks
ed

[daedaleum]

The way I solved the ripples on the bottom of the screen is by using launcherX, the blue hue on the bar makes the ripples almost diasappear!
ed

[Unregistered]

I hope sony recall the tg50 bec of this
flaw!!

[diceboy]

Originally posted by neon
You could have 760GB on a memory stick but that still doesn't change the internal RAM problems. To begin, the memory stick access is MUCH slower than internal...

4. The stylus still worries me even though it clicks in. Time will tell how dumb it was to put it reverse gravity.

Re: the Memory Stick...is this as much of a problem with MS Pro? According to the specs at sony.com, access time to MS Pro is supposed to be much faster.

Re: the reverse gravity stylus...looking at the unit, it is difficult to tell what other option they had. Perhaps they could have put the headphone jack on the bottom and the stylus holder upright...but then you couldn't use the headphone jack while the unit is in the crade. I don't know...it seems to work very well as it is.

[Unregistered]

Hey Neon,

FYI: There's no such thing as a 760GB Memory Stick. Just thought you'd like to know.

[neon]

Originally posted by Unregistered
Hey Neon,

FYI: There's no such thing as a 760GB Memory Stick. Just thought you'd like to know. Uh, thanks. Next time I'll use the terabyte Memory Stick as an example. :D

[ymatt]

I just got my TG50 a couple days ago (got impatient with Amazon and just went to Fry's). I guess I can sorta see where some of these criticisms are coming from but, I don't find any of the keyboard, wavy screen or flip cover.

My only annoyance was that having the keyboard there (which I'm about 5 times faster with -- I hate graffiti) I keep wanting to operate the thing without the stylus at all. After installing OKey though, I really can do without the stylus for most usage which is awesome.

I guess the 11meg memory thing is a bit annoying, but I've moved almost everything onto memory stick with LauncherX leaving me with about 8meg of RAM to load huge Mapopolis maps into temporarily or whatever. I can't wait for JackFlash to support the TG50 though so I can eke a bit more out.

In short, I like the TG50 way more than my old SJ30, nice as that unit was.

[ymatt]

Hey, I'm no unregistered guest. <ahem>

[UZI4U182]

I just saw the TG50 today at Circuit City, and I was highly disappointed. The wavy lines at the bottom were far worse than I had expected. Much worse than that on my SJ30. The flip cover was also annoying as hell, and for me, the unit was almost unusable without Graffiti. Just my 2 cents.

[Unregistered]

To each his own.

[Tokyo]

Originally posted by UZI4U182
I just saw the TG50 today at Circuit City, and I was highly disappointed. The wavy lines at the bottom were far worse than I had expected. Much worse than that on my SJ30. The flip cover was also annoying as hell, and for me, the unit was almost unusable without Graffiti. Just my 2 cents. I find the wavy lines to be innocuous; sure, you notice them at first, but I've had my TG50 for just three days now and I don't even notice them anymore.

The flip cover can be hard to open if you're not trying to open from a conventional angle, otherwise I like the extra protect to surface components, and the nice appearance of the brushed metal.

As for Graffiti, why not use it? It's there. Just press the far-right button when you need it. If pressing the button annoys you, use Graffiti Anywhere.

There is lots more to like about this unit than not to like.


Tokyo

[Unregistered]

While in recording/playing back of audio,
do not under any circumstances slide the
power switch!!

[diceboy]

Originally posted by Unregistered
While in recording/playing back of audio,
do not under any circumstances slide the
power switch!!

Care to explain? I was playing back a 5-minute long voice memo today and during playback I slid the power switch to "hold" to turn off the screen while the voice memo continued to play. No problems with that whatsoever.

[diceboy]

Originally posted by Tokyo
I find the wavy lines to be innocuous; sure, you notice them at first, but I've had my TG50 for just three days now and I don't even notice them anymore.

The flip cover can be hard to open if you're not trying to open from a conventional angle, otherwise I like the extra protect to surface components, and the nice appearance of the brushed metal.

As for Graffiti, why not use it? It's there. Just press the far-right button when you need it. If pressing the button annoys you, use Graffiti Anywhere.

There is lots more to like about this unit than not to like.

Completely agree, Tokyo. People here are too picky. The only reason the wavy lines are noticeable is because people here keep talking about them. If you actually USE the unit for any length of time, they all but disappear from your notice.

I've gotten nothing but jealous "oohs and aahs" from people who see me using my TG50. I've shown it to several people and let them play with it. Not a single person said a word about the "wavy lines." This is one sexy looking unit.

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by diceboy


Care to explain? I was playing back a 5-minute long voice memo today and during playback I slid the power switch to "hold" to turn off the screen while the voice memo continued to play. No problems with that whatsoever.


The screen will froze and you can't do anything. By the way it is a long recording, about 30 minutes of precious voice of my daughter.

I still have enough memory since I can install more app (chess, clile paint , etc.)

[Rick 098]

hi-res assist is built into os5

[Kesh]

Well, I've put my own opinions up here (http://www.livejournal.com/users/kesherz/9777.html).

Suffice to say, I like the TG-50. I think it's going to be quite a nice handheld.

[*YellowRose*]

Originally posted by Red Boats (1) What about HiRes Assist for older apps? The T665C had it and it was useful. Is it available on the TG50. I can't find it. Is there some alternative?[/B]As far as I know, OS5 PDAs do not come with hi-res assist. Nor do any of the 3rd party assist programs work.

What I've been 'forced' to do is solicit the assistance of the incompatable app's creator . . . in some cases, 'they're working on it (making it OS5 compatable)' and in some cases, they have no plans to upgrade. You'll just have to try and see.

It's frustrating to me.