gfunkmagic

I posted this over at PIC and figured I'ld do the same here:

IMO, the ommision of certain features are forgivable, while other are not. First, the forgivable features that are ommitted:

-NO Cobalt: You really can't blame PalmOne if rumors that Cobalt really wasn't ready for prime time are true. The T5 was probably in design phase for a long time, and the decison to use Garnet is excusable in this setting.

-No Palm Universal Connector: Really, PalmOne could have avoided this whole mess if they hadn't called it "Universal" from the beginning. PalmOne had supported the PUC for 3-4 years now, and it is understandable that they would want to move on from this legacy interface. I know alot of PalmOne users are pissed b/c they accessories will no longer be compatible, but I can accept this decision if it means more variability in the choices of peripherals in the future.

Now the Unforgivable features that are ommitted:

-No Voice Recorder: WTF is up with that? For $400 bucks, this should be a default feature like it is on almost any other pda in this price range. How can P1 market the T5 as a "business pda" and not have an integrated voice recorder or mic? The explantion that 'oh, most users don't use a vc anyway' is extremely lame. What kind of rationalization is that? PalmOne has to realize consmers will be comparing spec sheets and this ommision has to be glaring. Why are they removing features that is present in they lower end pda (T3)? Shouldn't the T5 as their flag-ship also have a voice recorder?

-Lack of Vibrating Alarms: This is another massive failure of this device. Again, how can they ommit such an important feature in a deice supposedly marketed towards business users? Don't business users need vibrating alarms to notify them of meetings? The ommision of this is just retarded. And again, I don't want to hear that crap about "users don't need that or they don't use it" nonsense. What next, do they want to remove the audio-out b/c most users use iPods instead of pdas to listen to music?

Now finally there is the question of wifi. I didn't list it as an 'unforgiveable' ommission b/c it squarely has to do with the price and naming of this device. To put it succinctly, if PalmOne was smart enough to name this the "TE2" instead of the T5 and priced it ~$100 bucks cheaper, then no one would really be b!tching about the lack of wifi. But it isn't and now PalmOne had a marketing catastrophe on their hands. I still think the T5 can be a successfull device for PalmOne, but they will have to quickly and drastically cut the price of the unit to do so imo...

Finally, from the various previews posted, it's nice to know that T5 case isn't as cheap looking as the TE. Too bad the internal specs don't live up to it's outward appearence though! : Any thoughts?

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