I am buying an NX70V tomorrow. . .

[Verxion]

. . .and I need some help. :)

I basically left the Palm world back when I sold my Visor Prism. At the time I sold my Prism, I was on top of absolutely EVERYTHING in the Palm world. It is sad, but I pretty much knew every single app on palmgear and had tried probably 75% of them out personally. I had a CF adapter for my Prism, and could easily launch my apps off of my 256MB CF card. I had full control over the ROM, had all of my hacks nicely organized - my Prism worked precisely how I wanted it to.

I got a free PocketPC from work, was lured in, then switched it over to Linux, ended up with a Zaurus, was liking life and all, but now I want something that interfaces with Windows easier (ie - I want ease of linking to Outlook for one thing!)

So I had been looking at the various options out there. I couldn't bear to go back to 160x160, and I couldn't bear to go back to black and white. I was pretty much set on buying a T3 (or T5, until I read the reviews. . . ), and then I happened onto a review that mentioned that Sony was no longer making Palms. I really lucked out in finding that a local store has some old Sony models still in stock, brand new, in box. The $600 (originally) NX70V that I drooled all over but couldn't CONCEIVE of spending that much on is now available for only $125!!

So I am buying one tomorrow. But I have been out of the Palm world for probably four plus years. I have been reading, and I might as well be a Palm newbie - it seems like everything has changed.

So I found this forum and it looks like you guys are pretty knowledgable. I am hoping you can help me.

1. It sounds like hacks are no longer something I want to even try - they sound like something that will guarantee me to lock up. One of the things that took me forever on my Prism was finding the right combination of things to get myself going with the configuration that I wanted, but that was STABLE. What has replaced hacks? Are there any current things that let you tweak the way your OS5 Palm works? Without even knowing what this "new" type of utility is called, I don't even know what to search for! :(

2. I have read that there are ways to make the CF card slot work, and this is something I plan on doing. I read a portion of the sticky thread in here and it looks like it should now be free. Hopefully as I finish reading that thread I will learn enough to know what I can and cannot do with the CF card. It sounds like I will absolutely HAVE to have a memory stick for the purpose of crash recovery. So with that in mind, can anyone give me a quick run down of what my plan should be? It sounds like I can use Jackflash to put most of my stuff into flash rom, but that if I hard crash I LOSE everything in flash rom? (this is completely opposite to what things USED to be like with flash rom). So what utilities should I plan on having and where should they be installed? I assume I will use Jackflash to organize my flash rom how I want, and will need it plus the CF drivers (or whatever they are called) on the memory stick to recover from a hard crash. Would it be possible to do something like a COMPLETE backup of flash memory to CF or MS so that I can restore the entire image when I bring the unit back up? Or do I have to do it piecemeal? Hopefully you can understand enough from my question here to extrapolate what I want to do. . .

3. I had read something that seemed to indicate that Backup Buddy no longer worked reliably to back up everything on your unit. That sucks! I loved that thing - I could rely on it to back up EVERYTHING on the entire Prism - the apps in RAM, the apps in the Prism Flash ROM, the apps in the expansion card flash rom, and the apps on the CF card (which was plugged into the expansion card). What are my options in todays situation?

4. Can someone give me a quick rundown of which apps FULLY support the NX70? It seems (from what I have read) that there are very few apps that fully support 320x480. If I am wrong, can someone tell me how to identify apps that support the NX70? When I got out of the Palm scene, I could look for apps that were color and that was enough to know that they supported all I needed. Today it seems like there are 160x160 bw, 160x160 color, 320x320 color, 320x480 color, and then there are the myriad differences in storage types (SD, MMC, MS, CF, etc.) and I frankly have no clue what to be looking for. . .

Thanks for any and all help you all can give! :)

-Verxion

[cliemia]

Hi, welcome to 1 source! I won't be able to give you much in the way of detailed answers, since I have an NX80, and there are quite a few differences, but I'll at least try. First of all, as you have probably already discovered, there is a wealth of info on this forum. Sometimes you have to sort through some garbage to get to it, but definitely browse around.

As far as Flash goes, the stuff in flash rom is stable, meaning that you won't lose it in a crash or hard reset. You do, however, lose access to it until you run FlashEnable. (Now that I think about it, I think there may be a different way to restore Flash on an NX70, but I'm blanking on the name. Help?) JackFlash is a must-have app because of the expanded memory it gives you. As far as backup goes, there are plenty of people on this forum who swear by BackupBuddy, so even though I don't use it, I believe it works quite well. I simply use the MS Backup program that came with my NX80. Again, I don't know if it comes with the NX70 or not.

Hacks-- There are once again people using hacks on OS5 handhelds successfully. There is info on this forum as to how to do it. I have found plenty of other little freeware programs to tweak things, so I have never felt the need to venture into Hacks. If you could give some of the ways you plan to "tweak" I'm sure that people could help you get there.

CF slot-- Wade through the thread about it and get Pelaca's CF drivers. Definitely worth the effort.

Support for the Hi-Res + screen-- Any app that says Hi Res + supports the 320 by 480 screen. I don't know of a comprehensive list, but there are several. There is an app called Codediver, I believe, that can "force" some programs to support 320x480 .

In general, one thing you should definitely do, as soon as you get your NX70 (after putting on the screen protector, of course), is to install Uninstall Manager BEFORE trying out any other programs. It's shareware, and it comes with a generous amount of free use, and it will prevent your Clie from becoming cluttered with bits and pieces from programs you try and then delete. You sound like someone who tries out a bunch of stuff, and this beautiful piece of programming will preserve your precious RAM.

Hope this helps some, and I hope that you get some more specific help from an NX70 user! Good luck!

[cerberus]

First, welcome to the light-side. You'll find we are superior to those PPC guys! lol

1) Hacks can be used. The worst that can normally happen is a hard reset. I just don't see the point though.

2) You don't really need to have a MS. CF is good enough. However, I don't think there are hacked drivers yet to allow for taking pictures/video with the camera and storing directly onto the CF. I could be wrong.

3) There are a ton of backup apps around that are superb. Just run a search here and you'll find a list with reviews of each.

4) Read descriptions. Palmgear, Handango, etc. have descriptions on each program that will let you know if the app is 320x480 compatible. Since you had memorized all of Palmgear's offerings in the past, it should be no problem for you to find those type apps now.

I see you got your first PocketPC free. What about the Zaurus? It wasn't a cheap little device if I remember correctly and you were worried about the NX70 being $600?? I bought mine new when it was $600 and it's easily the best purchase I've ever made. I have yet to regret spending that amount on this little device. It should also show how well thought out and technologically advanced it is for me to still have it and not need to switch to anything else.

I think you'll be happy with your new purchase and again, welcome to our fanatical group!

[Verxion]

There was a contest that Sharp sponsored for people to write software for the Zaurus. I wrote an app and got a free Zaurus. :)

As it turns out, I wrote some other software after that (for the Zaurus) and made about $400 or so.

Now I write software for a game called City of Heroes, and accept donations for it. I have been stunned at how generous some people have been!

Regardless, I don't see a way to get the nx70v for free, so $125 seemed a reasonable price. :)

-Verxion

[SHaubner]

Hey Verxion...would you mind sharing which store has these available? PM or email me if you can. Thanks!

[d94]

if you want to save pics/recordings on the CF card then you need to buy the athena CF driver - its 27 bux

[cerberus]

No, don't buy the Athena driver. You can get drivers here for free. A member here(Pelaca) came out with CF drivers of his own that work quite well. At least try the free ones before buying.

[Zyll]

Hey, welcome to the community.

Regarding backup and restore, keep in mind that if you hard reset, you don't have access to the compactflash. To complicate things (and I learned this one from experience), you don't have access to your Memory Stick if its a MS Pro, because in order to support MS Pro, you need to install a Sony patch (can get this from the Sony support site), and that patch will be wiped out from the hard reset. So... if you are using BackupMan (which I love), then in the event of a hardreset, you either need to:

a) have a backup on a normal Memory Stick
b) go to a PC and install the MS Pro update and then restore from MS Pro
c) go to a PC and install Pelaca's CF enabler drivers, then restore from CF
d) restore from desktop via BackupBuddy, or whatever suits your fancy

Note that option a is the only viable solution for someone who will not be at their PC (e.g. on holidays or travelling). That's the route I have taken, and so I picked up a cheap 16mb MS off of Ebay a while ago. I also have a 256mb CF, which I replaced with a Wifi card, and so then I bought a 256mb MS Pro. The 16mb MS has a backup of barebones what I need to gain access to the MS Pro (as well as FlashEnable), and the MS Pro has my daily full backups.

Hope this helps,
Z

[cerberus]

Exactly. I carry around a small(8MB) MS that has a backup on it just to get me running again in case something happens while I'm away from my laptop. I only wish you could load the Pro update into ROM with JackFlash so that wouldn't be a problem. :(

[Verxion]

CompUSA. There are a few stores left that have floor models of this unit. Their normal price on these units is $149.99, but many of them are missing various things and therefore you can get a discount (if you are persistent).

The particular unit I bought was missing the power adapter, but had everything else, new, in the box, still wrapped in plastic and so on. I negotiated to get the unit for $125 with a third party power adapter since I would have "no way to even use the unit" without the adapter.

I could have gotten a unit for $150 with everything unopened, but the box they were holding for me literally left the store as I walked in - the idiots at the front of the store didn't realize it was being held.

Regardless, try CompUSA for some unbelievable deals on these great units.

I am charging mine right now and am waiting for it to get charged so I can sync it up. :)

-Verxion

[Zyll]

Exactly. I carry around a small(8MB) MS that has a backup on it just to get me running again in case something happens while I'm away from my laptop. I only wish you could load the Pro update into ROM with JackFlash so that wouldn't be a problem. :(

Yes, but even if you could put the files in ROM, you would still need FlashEnable to access the flash, and you wouldn't be able to run it from your MS Pro, because you need the Pro update! bok bok bok, chicken and the egg! :)

[cerberus]

No kidding. That's why I was wishing for a way to store it in ROM......

[Brunobiseu]

No, don't buy the Athena driver. You can get drivers here for free. A member here(Pelaca) came out with CF drivers of his own that work quite well. At least try the free ones before buying.

Cerberus,

What you say about Pelaca's CF drivers is true, but unfortunately in http://snow.prohosting.com/cfutil/ and http://uk.geocities.com/mattyj2003@btinternet.com the links to the drivers (and the other downloads) are broken :( ...

Bruno

[cerberus]

Actually, there is a post that has what you need. It's a post I made and I have no idea where it is in that thread. I'll get you the link and send it to you. :D

EDIT: Here's my post (http://www.1src.com/forums/showpost.php?p=792439&postcount=85)
I would have just posted the link itself, but I haven't used it in so long I had forgotten myself... :eek:

Enjoy!

[Brunobiseu]

Thank you Cerberus, you have been most helpful :)