Palm Zire 71 or T|T2 for school.

[dmachine]

Since school is going to be starting soon which should I do. Keep my Zire 71 or sell it and buy a T|T2? I was looking at the T|T2 since there is more memory and I have a bluetooth phone which I could use with it. If you have any other suggestions for other PDA's I will appreciate them.

[dirtydog]

i don't no. I hate the slide down thing on the t/t2 but the 32 mb of ram is tempting and wireless. but i still like my Zire 71 camera, i need to save up for a laptop anyway. but its up to you the t/t2 is very cool but rather expensive. its more a profesional palm pilot while the zire 71 is more for fun.


Dirtydog

[ALMS]

What type of school? High or college? If it's college I'd go for the T2 because of more ram and some useful programs it ships with. It'll come in handy with programs like Mobile Word 2003 or Med programs. For High school the Zire will do. The programs out there aren't large enough to make you worry about RAM. MS Dict is the biggest you might use, 10Meg's worth, but you can run all the databases off the sd card.

[dmachine]

I will be using this for high school. ALMS, you said if I need it for college to go with the T|T2, well I am a senior in high school and would use it in college. Should I go with the T|T2 so I have it for college?

[dirtydog]

yeah i go with t/t2 but keep the Zire 71. but that depends on your budget to.


Dirtydog

[ALMS]

I would go for the T2 since your a senior and plan to go to college. Just sell the Zire 71 on e-bay, I here they sell quickly. Use the cash to help pay for the T2 or get a 256M sd card. Have you thought about the T/C? That also would be great for college. But it'll run you $100 more. If you get the T2 tell us how it is. I'm waiting for the T3 and the Garmin.

[dmachine]

I think I will have to sell the Zire because right now I onyl have about $100. I would like to get the T|C but I dont know if I can get that much.

[ALMS]

You should have no problem getting $200 for the Z71 on e-bay. Now you just need another $100 plus about $50 more to cover tax. Do you have a sd card? If not it's a good idea your getting the T2.

[Stardust]

Whatever your Palm model, I believe a keyboard would be indispensible for library and classroom work. The Palm Universal Portable Keyboard carries a list price of US$79 but you should be able to get a used one for much less.

[jus68]

I'm a 4th year university business student and I totally find the Zire 71 and the keyboard is more than sufficient for all my school work.

I really don't see how the T2 justifies for the $100 difference when it only has 16 more MB, especially when you can spend that difference you saved with a Z71 and use that to buy a keyboard and a SD 256 Sandisk!

that's just my thoughts, good luck

[dmachine]

I already have a keyboard for it so I wont need to buy that.

[ALMS]

Jus68 has a good point. If your short on cash just keep the Zire until you get to college and by then you'll find out if you need the faster cpu and higher ram. You could spend that $400+ dollars on a sd card, case, and keyboard and have plenty left over. If you just want something new I'd wait for os6. It'll be out by the end of the year. Or at least wait for a os5 model that has more ram than the T2 and can be os upgraded.

[XeonRebel]

i have seen the t2 specs and its just a zire 71 with 16 more ram, same 144 mhz arm processor...but looks more elegant for college. better wait for a t3 or zire 2004 with more mhz, i dont know, i prefer more mhz more than ram.

by the way, does anybody know about the mp3 quality of the new t2? though i like my zire 71 t2 looks tempting.

and the last one, i have seem that the new programs for os5, most of them say for zire 71 or tungsten C (no tungsten T (1) nor tungsten W), does anybody know why is that?

what has (or doesnt have) the t1 that zire 71 has?

[ALMS]

I believe the T/w is os4.1. What works on the Z71 and T/c will work on the TT. It's just that Z71 and T/C use os5.2 instead of TT 5.0. I also know the Z71 and T/C have enhanced system sounds over the TT and T2. Over at palminfocenter some people have said the sound on the T2 is weak, but not as weak as the TT just not better than the Z71. TI has made improvements to the cpu. Z71 also has it rated at 144Mhz but is a bit faster than the TT. The T2 has also been improved with the cpu. Palm claims the T2 has more mobileMIPS than both. I have no idea what mobileMIPS are. Maybe something similar to the bus speed.

[Stardust]

Bottomline is the TT2 offers only minimal improvement over TT. For those who love their Z71s, I say let's wait for the next Zire.

[dmachine]

Heres another question. What should I get for word processing software?

[ALMS]

I use Mobile Word 2003. Here's what it can do, got this from palmgear.


Spell checker in 6 languages
Mobile Word comes with integrated FREE copies of Mobile Systems' spelling programs QuickSpell, QuickCheck and QuickWrite and free sample dictionaries in 6 languages- English, German, Spanish, French, Italian and Dutch. This allows the following spelling features: on tap prediction of the word you are entering based on frequency of use of the words or alphabetical order,suggestion of correct alternatives for misspelled words, suggestion fall-down lists on each entered character, English, German, Spanish, French, Italian and Dutch keyboards integrated in the program,underlining of misspelled words, 5 English keyboards, Spell checks for imported documents,ability to add your own words to the standard dictionaries, 3 additional commercial dictionaries for each of the supported languages
Mobile Word 2003 Document Launcher
The launcher program that comes with Mobile Word 2003 provides the tools for the documents management on your Palm. Every time you start Mobile Word the launcher program will open first, which will allow you to view all available documents in the main memory on your Palm device and documents stored on memory card, all imported documents from Mobile Word desktop and created locally on the PDA.


Embeded images and compatibility with Mobile Paint 2003
Mobile Word 2003 allows images to be embedded in text documents and features a flexible algorithm for importing images embedded in doctuments.The program is distributed with the painting tool Mobile Paint that allows the creation of images on the handheld device and also the editing of imported images with 16-bit color, 8-bit color (256 colors) and 4-bit color (gray scale) color qualities.


Tables, bullets and numbering
To enhance the intelligibility of your text documents and keep the integrity of imported ones Mobile Word provides the opportunity to insert bullets, numbering, tables and table in table into your files.


Enhanced Fonts Management
Mobile Word supports Bold, Italic and Underlined fonts, different font sizes and colours and also some advanced effects as Super and Subscript, Strikethrough, Double Strikethrough and font highlighting. The application comes with libraries of hi-resolution and low-resolution fonts that can be optionally installed and the compatibility with Font Bucket allows the management of extra fonts and sizes.


Mobile Word Desktop companion and Integration with Microsoft Word (for Windows only)
Mobile Word 2003 comes with desktop companion program for Windows that allows the easy management and synchronization of your documents with your handheld copy of Mobile Word. Mobile Word desktop features: direct transfer of Microsoft Word documents to the memory card of your Palm device through Mobile Word MWD file format, Microsoft Word integrated plug-in that allows the direct opening of a Mobile Word document from both the main PDA memory and memory card, images transfer in several sizes keeping the ration of the picture to original document, transfer of bullets and sub-bullets and numbering, tables and "table in table" support and synchronization, Support of DOC, RTF, HTM, HTML, MWD and TXT file formats
Other Features:


Ability to store your documents on memory cards
Advanced Paragraph and Page Formatting
Import of DOC, RTF, HTM, HTML, MWD and TXT file formats (for Windows users)
Find and Replace
3 levels of document zoom
Hi-resolution support, inclusive 480 x 320 screen size for Sony Clie devices


I first ran this in ram and it took up about 4.5 megs. I moved all the databases to external card and freed up 3.5 megs. Give it a try.

[dmachine]

If I got Mobile Word 2003 I would be able to run the program from the SD card?

[ALMS]

You have to have the main program, prc file, in ram which is about 586k. The rest of the databases you can move to the sd card. It was made to read them from there. I also use the paint portion of this program and that's about 440k. That has to be in ram and it has no databases.

[dmachine]

Looks like im going to go with Mobile Word 2003. If I get it before the 30th I get free lifetim uprgrades. I hope I can get the money by then. Thanks for telling me about that.

[Cutefox]

yar wait 4 da next zire...

zire 72 or 73 sounds nice????
maybe zire 81...=P

well im waitin 4 tungsten 3 if dat thing is real...
but might actually get a clie nx 80 by the end of yr if T3 is not out...

otherwise im happy wit my zire 71...
should hav a compact flash slot thou...

[kardrak]

Z71 is enough for me and with a SD 256+WiFi SanDisk i think i would have everything a palm could have.

[kuyars]

I'm just curious how you plan to use this for school...or for anyone else in this thread for that matter.

I'm a computer engineering senior in college and for the amount of math, formulas, greek letters, etc, the PDA really just doesn't cut it as a note-taking device. Plus there are tons of charts and graphs that would take ages to create on a pda (if you're in engineering, then you would know what I mean).

Also, if you'll be dorming, then you'll always be close to your room, which I assume will have your desktop/laptop where you can use your desktop PIM.

In my case, I use a desktop PIM and by the time I'm on campus, I've already completed my homework and know what quizzes/tests are coming up. I don't need my pda to tell me that I have something due 30 mins from now.

So largely my PDA was used to just jot down assignments, but even that it was a slower process. Since I take notes with paper (no other way with my type of classes), then hauling out the pda, pulling out the stylus, and writing down the assignment takes a lot more time than simply using the notebook that was right in front of me.

Other than the occassional assignment notetaking, the PDA was used as a time-killer inbetween classes where it was too short to drive back to my apartment 15-20 mins away.

So the point of this post is: you may not know your situation in college and if you're going into any type of science/math field, then don't kid yourself into thinking that you can take notes with it. Also factor in whether you'll have access to your home computer which almost negates the need for a portable PIM. That's also affected by whether you'll be dorming or not.

So before you spend the big bucks, you better ask yourself whether you'll be spending $300+ for a glorified GameBoy or whether you'll really be getting your money's worth out of it.

[ALMS]

I guess it depends on what classes he's going to take. He hasn't said. Most people use a folding key board and connect it to the pda to take notes or word processing. I've never taken an engineering class but there are is one program that can help with that from what I've heard. It's called Power48.

[jus68]

That's a really good point Kuyars made. I remember when I first got the m505 for university, I totally regreted it, it was totally unnecessary for first yr courses.. only when I got into 3rd year was when I really made good use of my palm. Definitely waited out until u get to college.

[kuyars]

well Power48 is just an emulator of the HP 48 series of calculator which is not dissimilar to the TI89 calculator. I mean, calculators are good and all that, but they arent notetaking devices. They can simply solve problems, and even in that respect, a dedicated engineering calculator is much more handy.

It won't help you take down pages and pages of mathematical derivations full of greek letters, integration/derivative signs, superscripted and subscripted letters. Also, complex waveforms used in electrical engineering (using fourier analysis for example) would be too difficult to draw on a pda with any accuracy.

[Dragon27]

i've found it very easy to take notes with my zire, i dont have a keyboard.

i use the shortcuts thing and then use grafiti in word to go or memo pad or whatever. does trhe job just fine.

then again, i dont take any technical stuff like maths or engineering, but its easy to take general notes with...