Some NZ Questions

[Unregistered]

Hi, I currently own an HP Ipaq 5455, and am looking to get a Clie NZ90. Could someone please help in answering the following:

1) Could an external keyboard, more specifically, the Stowaway Keyboard designed for the Clie, be used in conjunction with the NZ90? Note: I wish to use the Stowaway rather than the Pockettop IR Keyboard.

2) Does the NZ90 have a vibrate mode for alarms?

3) How comparable is the new Palm OS 5 to Microsoft's Pocket PC 2002 OS? To people who have been users of both, I hope to hear the strengths and weaknesses of both. THis is not meant to be a pro-Palm or pro-MS post, rather as an opinion point for consideration.

4) Considering that it is first a PDA and second a digital camera, for people who have had this device for a month or so now, how often do you use the camera? It is an effective 2 MP camera from reviews, but is it more of a novelty that is highly effective, or an actual tool that people use?

Thanks for your input and I do apologize in advance of my ignorance in this camp as I've been consistently using ipaqs for the last several years. However, I do see this device as being highly innovative and I would seriously consider it if, a) it could use the stowaway keyboard, and b) if it could use CF slot for memory in addition to the sony wifi card.

Thank you.

[oneeyesquare]

No
No
Have no idea
4-5 times a day; both tool and toy

[Narniahopper]

1) As of this moment, there are no supported external keyboards for the NZ. You could probably get one up and running using some beta drivers and extension cables, but there not an out-of-box solution at this time. You do have the built in keyboard, and it can speed things up, but it's still nowhere near as fast as touch-typing on a fullsize keyboard.

2) There's no vibrate mode. No Sony Clie has had them since the T series. I wish they did, but that's me.

3) Palm OS5 flies. Even though the newest Clies only use 200 mhz processors, they outstrip PPCs by quite a bit. It's just a matter of how the OS goes about doing things. Palms lack the variety in games, but they're catching up there.

4) For me, the camera is great. I don't know how much of a tool it is, but I'm able to take good, relatively high quality pics anywhere I go. Just last night I was at a baseball game and I was able to take plenty of pics of the occasion. It's missing any kind of optical zoom, but that may be a bit too much to ask.

CF memory does not work on the NZ, but people are working on the problem too. Not Sony, but independent developers. They're supposed to maybe have something up and running by next month.

[n2ifp]

The Palm OS is more efficient and has less bloatware. PPC was always locking up on me. Yes, one can get errors on the Palm also, but in most cases is correctable.

I am not aware of any keyboard designed for the NZ as of yet.

The camera is fine as long as you realize that it doesn't completey replace a full blown digital one.

[the_iceman]

1> No Keyboards known to me at the present time. I do know there is a keyboard which uses IR ..... however I do not know if this keyboard is compatible with the NZ specifically.

2> Vibrating.... No it doesn't. Actually I'm kinda glad that it doesn't. With the cost of these High-end PDAs.... less vibration is better... LOL. I'd hate to be in the middle of something... and a vibrating alarm goes off.... and my PDA starts walkin across the table. I would not think it good for the PDA to 'vibrate'... but I know many phones do (mine included). Phones are cheap to replace... but a NZ is a bit more expensive to replace.

3> I have a buddy here at work with a H5455 and we run them side by side occasionally to test the throughput. I'm sorry to report that the H5455 can't compete with the NZ. We've compared games made for the PPC Devices against the same games made for Palm OS .... and Palm OS beats the PPC in execution hands down. Palm has simplified many things where PPC has made it a bit more complicated. I was amazed going into the bluetooth settings on his h5455 seeing how many 'taps' it took to get where I want. Man there are a lot of screens/tabs in the H5455. Very 'cumbersome' if you ask me. I think PPC has added way too many layers in their Handhelds.

4> There are days I use my Camera often... and there are days I don't even use it. Twice a week... I take about 30 pictures with my camera during the course of about 2hrs. Other than that... I may take a total of 10 pictures (being generous) in the other 5 days of the week. You will find.... that in the beginning... as you 'play with the new toy'.... you will want to take tons of pictures... but as time settles down you will take less and less. Just like buying any normal SLR Camera or digital camera.

The NZ does take absolutely awesome pictures for the size that it is. It is actually amazing to me the quality they packed into that little camera.

There is a WiFi Slot for a WiFi Card. Built In BlueTooth... However the Memory comes in Memory Stick (MS) form. Price ranges from $60-90 for a 128mb Stick. Good News is there are PRO Sticks coming out in 256mb, 512mb, and 1gb sizes (all for a nice price) which are compatible with the NZ Handheld.

Since you are interested in WiFi...... You will be happy to know there have been posts here in ClieSource which have stated over and over the battery life on the NZ outlasts the battery life of the H5455.

Advantage of the H5455 against the NZ is the screen colors seem better on the h5455 than the NZ (but not by too much) :)