Do You Recommend Sony?

[GadgetMan]

Dear Members


I have started using PDA when I purchased My First Windows CE Gadget Casseiopia S10. At that time Palm O/S and Windows CE were just emerged on the battlefield. Psion on the other hand had an upper hand being more mature in the Market.

After suffering from Windows CE Nightmares I have decided to switch over to Palm OS device. So I bought Palm IIIe which worked flawless with me. I got it to retirement (used by my Son now) due to fact, it had limited memory (only 2mb), and non -Flash ROM (limited OS upgrading capability).

Then moving to more advance gadget I have bought Visor Prism. It was great at that time (Comparing to Pal 505), and had almost unlimited expandability though Springboard Slot. I have even invested buying various Springboard modules.

Now suffering the Service and Support of Handspring (Specially their direction is to go into PDA/Cell Phone Combined Devices), they are giving less and less attention to their PDAs (Bad Move Handspring).

Now I am on a round about again. With Introduction of Palm OS 5.0, I am back to square 1 where I have to decide whether go ahead with Palm OS ( I am not sure how much I have to invest again for my application and Hardware and how much I have to throw away from stuff that I bought for my Hand Spring), and to go straight forward to Pocket PC 2002 device ( I will again have to invest in both hardware and software, and that’s why I am back to square 1).

I need your feedback (from people who already put their hands on New Sony NX PDAs) on how application designed for previous Palm OS will react with new OS? Are there any potential problems?

So far I did not see any of the application vendors announcing an upgrade for Palm OS 5.o.

Your advises are really valuable for me.

Regards

[Monon333]

I have a new Tungeston and a new NX70v, and a Toshiba E330, it seems that new and Improved is the catch phrase this year in PDA's. So here is a quick breack down of Good and Bad for each and my pick.....


1 Palm Tungeston
A. a real Dust Issue, it took me three PDA's to get one that didn't have dust under the screen.
B. No Mp3, or Video, or File transfer program (For moving files directly to the Memory card) with the Tungeston
C. A great display, real clear type and color
D. Good voice recording
E. Blue tooth built in
F. 500.00 price tage (way to much for what you don't get)
G. 166 MHZ Processor
I rate the Palm Tungetson 6 out of ten

2 Sony NX70v
A. A great display, Clear and Large
B. MP3, Video, Camera, Keyboard all built in
C. Programs for converting Movies onto your Sony, better than Kinoma
D. Remote for MP3 listening (Wired)
E. 200 MHZ Processor
F. Slide wheel for the sided for great Ebook reading
G. 600.00 but at least you get everything you need to run it
I give the Sony 9 out of 10

3 Toshiba E330
A. A great display good quality type and color
B. Built in Media Player
C. Loud internal speaker
D. real thin device fits well in pocket
E. It has a new Xprocessor but the OS doesn't use the new speed of the Xprocessor so whats the point.
F. The best factor is the Price 350.00 a real good price
I give the Toshiba 8 out of 10, I just can not give a higher score to a pocket PC

This is a real wierd time for handhelds, PocketPC is getting more stable in their OS and Palm is going the other way. Both new OS 5 Palms freeze and reset. I'm not finding a lot of real stable programs on the market for the new palms.... I hope I'm wrong but Palm is really starting to look like PPC, All I can see sofar is we gave up Stability for Speed with OS5 and then charged more for it. (I never thought the old Palms were slow)
The days of just picking a palm program and loading it on your PDA are over, now you have to check and make sure it will run on your type of Palm. Was this the direction Palm really wanted to go Down, I fear that with Palms starting to cost more than PPC's and PPC's starting to run all the same programs like palm used to do, that we could really see a switch in Handhelds.......

Oh well that's just my thoughts........Monon333



:mad: :mad:

[GadgetMan]

Thanks Monon333 for your reply. Really appreciate your Comments and Comparison you have provided.

I and a colleague of mine went through a two weeks of research work and comparison between Palm OS 5.0 and Pocket PC 2002.

This research included speaking to some friends who used to be Palmateers, but now they are Pocket PC users.

One particular friend said something which made me think that History is repeating itself but on a smaller scale.

He mentioned how apple introduced the GUI interface, and how it was great and stable when it first introduced. At the same time how Windows 286, then 386, then Windows 3.0 were flaky.

But it seems to be both went ahead in opposite direction. Apple is still great but no market share and not as stable as it used to be, and becoming more proprietary.

On the other hand Windows became more widely spread and became The De-facto Operating System for almost all PCs.

The same thing is happening to Palm and this was a prime reason he switched over to Pocket PC. Actually your comments confirm his.

But being sort of Loyal and used to Palm OS, we decided to go for Sony NX70V (you have given it the highest score among the three).

I have just order My NX70V (Silver) after we have waited long enough for the Gun Metal color one, and we are anxious to receive it and start to bang it to see how we can get out of the new OS.

The other device we were seriously looking at is Toshiba e740 (the Big brother of e330). The only reason we did not go for this device because this Gadget comes only with Blue Tooth for European Market and we had to invest further for the WiFi which also eats up the CF Slot on the device (the WiFi is available only for US market).

Now lets wait and see how the New Palm OS will perform and how software developer will take advantage of the New OS with the New Processor in Sony. We are a bit confident due to Sony's investment in Palm arena.

Thanks again Monon333 for your input. They are valuable for me
:D

[little-man]

good choice. the NX70V is far better than the tungsten. I truly hope that Palm OS and Pocket PC don't switch places, as Monon333 said. I am a devoted Palm OS user anSony lover. The NX70v is hands down the best PDA on the market right now.

[Todd67]

Monon333,
Hey, I have a few questions if you don't mind. How is the voice recording on the sony. I have been looking at the NX-60, or the Tungsten. I currently have a Prism. I have heard that the Tungsten isn't able to play MP3's yet. How loud is the Sony. Sometimes I can't hear the alarm on my Prism. I do like the vibrate feature of the palm, but, I need good MP3 player. Looking to ge tone or the other before the holidays if there is a good sale at Best Buy....Thanks Todd

[GadgetMan]

My NX70V just shipped today so in just a matter of few days I will be able to provide you with a better overview of the device.

As for the NR70 (I used the one my brother got little while ago), the alarm sound is quite loud (at least for me). But again he is using World Mate for the alarm.

I got prism. The alarm sound in prism is good enough for me. I also use World Mate.

The MP3 Player on NR70 is super. One of the best I have seen in Palm based devices. I used one based on Handspring's Springboard module but the quality of the sound and the features in Sony are unbeatable.

I did not try the voice recording so I can not comment on this.

But Again, YOU ARE RIGHT SONY IS THE BEST PALM OS Based Gadget. :)

[Monon333]

I agree that the Sony is the King of PDA's, The voice recording is great, the Microphone is as good as any PocketPC's. As for the Mp3 and Movie they are both great, Sony includes a terrific Movie Converter that puts Divx quality videos on the NX70v, The only slightly bad thing is the internal Speaker, it is not that loud on mp3's but it is loud on alarms. You won't be dissapointedd in the NX70v........................Try Yishow for a launcher program it's amazing on the NX70v.

[YKZ_Pilot]

Well, I had a Sony PictureBook (True Pocket PC - not 'ME'), but did not use it very much once the PEO's were available.

Who wants the the 'bugs' we are forced to endure with every version of Windows, especially CE ... to be with you everywhere you go?

The best thing about the Palm O/S is that you never get the "blue screen of death" or have to "reboot" to fix problems that nobody can be bother to investigate.

I would recommend the Picturebook to anyone rather than the CE 'subset' systems. It is a phenominal machine. Why not carry your whole computer in your pocket if you want that much power?

Then you can synchronize from one pocket to the other. LOL

The Palm Pilots were never intended to be PCs and that is the very reason they are so popular. If you want to drive people away from them just load Windows onto them ...

I, for one, will stick with the Palm O/S until Windows ever gets to be as stable as O/S 2 Warp was. Ah, those were the days.....didn't even know what a crash was then ....

[RCollins291]

I have just upgraded from the NR70 to the NX70 and I am very satisfied with the new NX70. It is packed with features that no other PDA has, built in at least. The software package the comes with it is great it has all you need and more. I chose the Sony over all other Palm powered devices because of the 200 mhz processor as well as the video features, it even has Macromedia Flash. The Sony Clie PEG-NX70V/U is by for the best for the money.