New M515

[ashlyngr]

Thanks to DrMud and OldBlue and others, I apprieciate the response to Newbie M130 Questions.
However, since my daughter was so excited about her PDA, and my having to play GuideDog for getting her up to speed, I purchased a M515 from Staples.
Got 40.00 off 200.00 and 50.00 rebate, so now would be the time to do it.

Wish me Luck,
Bruce :)

[DrMud]

Bruce,
Glad to hear you have joined the Palm family.

I checked the Staples site and the Palm 515 lists for $344.00. The site does show a $50 mail in rebate. Can you share a bit more info.
Doc

[ashlyngr]

O.K., It goes like this...$344.99 + $18.30 Pa. Tax - 40.00 ( On-Line Coupon) = $323.49 - $50.00 MIR= $273.79 Total.
Shipping is free. Staples offers a choice of $50.00 MIR, or Palm Folding Keyboard, or $100.00 in Palm Software. This is probably sponsored by Palm.
Quite frankly, I can wait for a Keyboard. I can see I won't get the opportunity to learn or use my daughter since she'll have it with her at school all the time.
One of the first indications that we would get involved with Palms, was while volunteering at the local Hospital, my daughters Mentor showed her how the Medical field is using Plams. Also, that many Medical Schools, and Universities are now requiring the use of Handhelds.
Best to start now, she works hard and deserves it.

Sincerely,
Bruce

[OldBlue]

ashlyngr

Congratulations on getting your m515! You'll find it a great tool for your personal and your business lives. Plus, they're just way cool! Be seein' ya on these boards.

OldBlue

[ashlyngr]

Ladies and Gentlemen, I must report that I will not have a Brand New M515.
Saturday night the Mrs. and Little Miss M130 saw the Palm M515 and the Sony T665C side by side, and the Sony won.
I think it was the better Features, Faster Processor, and mostly the three characters MP3.

Thanks Again for your help,
Bruce

[DrMud]

Congradulations. I'm not a Sony Handheld convert yet. Too many models and too little support. It is funny since almost all my other electronic goodies are SONY.

Do you and your daughter intend to sync to the same PC?
There has been a problem in the past with trying to put the SONY/Palm Desktop on the PC and use a PAlm with the SONY. That may have been resolved.

Enjoy!
Doc

[ashlyngr]

Thought about the Sync issue...However, my daughter and I each have our own HomeBuilt Desktops (my creation).
She just got her report card today, all A's and a B+. My wife and I promised her the Notebook of her choice for a Graduation Gift.
My Kate is very particular about her things. She doesn't like anyone touching her computer. Don't ever alter her Windows Desktop!!!
I'll tell you, spoiling your Children is hard work.

Thanks,
Bruce

[DrMud]

I found it easy and rewarding spoiling my family. What I find hard is living with the results 30 years later.
Doc

PS: My vote is for a SONY Vaio laptop.

[pdcparamedic]

I have purchased a couple of things from J&R (florida) Great prices and service. Palm 515 is $313.00 AND you get a $50.00 rebate = $263. No shipping and handling! I could not find it less expensive.

Paula

[OldBlue]

ashlyngr

Congrats on getting you T665C! It's a great PDA. You and Kate will have a good time beaming notes and data to each other. There are also several IR games, such as IR Pong, that you might want to investigate. ... I'm with DrMud in that I have been exclusively a Palm user. There was a very, very short period of HP Jornada ownership. (That was during a moment of weakness when the dark side of the Force got the better of me. :) ) ... I came very close to buying the Sony T615C rather than the m515 when I was planning on upgrading from my m505. In the end, I stuck with my m505 and waited for the OS5 machines to appear.

OldBlue

[aking469]

I too read the posts here and elsewhere and decided to get a new PDA. I have been using my wife's IIIxe and liked it, but it was hard to read at times and I didn't like the fact that it was not rechargeable. In addition, I noticed that in order to get the software i wanted it was going to cost me a bit. So, noticing the rebate and the fact that most of the wanted software was already on the 515, I took the plunge. I have had the unit for about a week now and am falling in love. It is helping me stay straight, for once. I am a H.S. Science teacher and am teaching 7 subjects at one time. Keeping all of that straight has always been difficult. Most methods proved too tedius or too awkward. This has been a godsend. Thanks to all who post regularly, you made my decision easy. In addition, the guys at Palm.com, in the support section, were extremely helpful with the old IIIxe when I got confused......love true customer support.

[Stardust]

I'm now tempted to go for m515 in lieu of the pricier Tungsten and T665C. Can anyone shed light on the following points?

1. How is the m515 screen display in a brighly-lit room and outdoors?

2. How audible is the speaker volume compared with the Prism and Sony Clie series?

Thanks in advance.

[OldBlue]

aking469

You'll find your new m515 a great tool for your line of work! You can set the backlight to low and read a presentation or take notes in a darkened classroom. You can keep student data on your m515 and password protect confidential data, such as test scores, grades, demerits, etc. You don't mention which field of science, but star charts are available for night sky viewing (I use Planetarium, which shows constellations, galaxies, etc. and lets you set the screen to red for night vision when you're outdoors at night.) and ocean tide tables are available so you can have your class at the shoreline and coincide with the tide level you want. You can store and show photos, spreadsheets, diagrams, graphs, etc. I could go on and on. ... Conratulations on your m515!

OldBlue

[OldBlue]

Stardust

The m515 screen is usable in all lighting conditions and the colors are great! Outdoors, you may want to turn off the backlight. Rather than having a continuously variable "slide" adjustment control, your backlight settings are limited to Off, Low, and High, but that does not seem to be a problem for most users since those 3 brightness options seem to cover all indoor and outdoor conditions. What you won't get with the m515 is the high resolution screen of the Tungsten or the Clies.

The Palm's speaker is plenty loud for alarms, games, etc. I'm pretty sure that the Palm's speaker is a piezio and not capable of polyphonic sound, so MP3s are out. If you must have an MP3 player, go with the Tungsten or Clie (although some Clie models do not have MP3 either, such as the SJ30.)

OldBlue

[aking469]

Old Blue

I am currently teaching, Biology, Physics, Anatomy, Environmental Science, and Chemistry. Kind of a Jack of all trades and a master of none. I have a B.S. in Biology. I am currently using the 515 to keep my schedule. It has helped a lot to keep me aware of the needs of each class prior to class start. This has always been too difficult in the past regardless of the method I used....mostly kept in my head. The last thing I used was Lotus Organizer, it was nice, and since I carry my laptop to school each day it was easy. But, I had to be at my desk and not infront of the class. This allows me to teach as usual and when an idea occurs to me I can jot it down or schedule it in seconds and return to what I was doing monitoring the class the whole while. I am going to attempt to try keeping my attendance in it next semester.....if I can figure out how I want to do it. I'll probably create a spreadsheet in 1-2-3 and use "docs to go" to transfer back and forth. As it is I am horrible at attendance. But, again, thanks for the ideas. Take care.
ak

[Stardust]

OldBlue,

Thanks indeed for the additional info. I'll be getting the m515 for my daughter's birthday in February. It now sells for the equivalent of about US$320 in Manila. Not a bad price, I think, and it may go lower by January. As for myself, I may purchase the m515 as well if not the Tungsten sometime in June next year. I just have to do with my old Prism in the meantime.

[JohnKes]

aking469,
Check out www.Handango.com They may have Palm software packages for teachers.

There are attendance programs for Palm. I find that searching on www.palmgear.com is easier than on Handango.