The Palm Is Back! And Better Than
Ever!
Don't give up on the Palm Pilot just yet. Yeah, I
know, this is the day of the smart phone, and many will look at Palm
Pilot and think, "Those things are so passé". Granted, the Palm dose
have sort a blast from the past feel, but it still serves a purpose.
While smart phones offer the same functions as Palms Pilots, they do
so with a drawback. In the age of small, thin and slick, smart
phones are anything but. When I put one in my pocket, it feels as
though it's trying to drag my pants to my ankles. Me, I prefer being
able to put my Razr in my pocket, and be only reminded it's there
when it rings. And while your smart phone may offer features
important to your working life, most of them are useless in every
outside of the job. Using the Palm TX Handle in conjunction with a
cell phone allows you to leave those extra features behind when
you're not going to need them.
 Although the TX Handheld offers plenty of new bells and whistles,
Palm has not forgotten it roots. The TX Handheld is still a business
organizer first and foremost. It store contacts and phones numbers,
and has a calculator and calendar. The strength of Palm Pilots has
always been their strong line up of applications. The TX comes with
some good ones like DataViz's Documents to Go 7. With Documents to
Go 7 you can view edit and create Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
compatible files. It's like carrying around a mini version of
Microsoft Office, so you can leave that laptop behind on your next
trip. Wait, you can't leave that laptop home, you'll need Internet
access, right? Don't worry the TX Handheld is WiFi, so you're only
a hotspot away from the World Wide Web. Once connected, you'll burn
through the Internet with it very capable web browser, Blazer. It'll
easily handle all your web surfing needs. Checking your email? One
word, simple. The TX Handheld is compatible with web based email
accounts like yahoo and hotmail, and comes with VersaMail 3.1, which
supports POP, IMAP, APOP, and ESMTP based email.
 The TX Handheld is also a multimedia device. It has a 320 x 480
razor sharp vibrant display that measures 4-inches diagonally and
boasts a 65,000 colors, so it's the perfect photo viewer. If videos
are your thing, flip the TX sideways, hit the Portrait/Landscape
button on the toolbar and view your videos in widescreen format. If
you'd rather jam to music, the TX handheld comes with an application
called Pocket Tunes. Launch this and you're the Palm TX is now an
MP3 player that supports Ogg Vorbis, WAV, MP3, and PCM audio
formats. You'll be able to create and edit play lists for your
listening pleasure, and search your musical library by album, artist
or song title.
 The TX Handheld is
Bluetooth enabled, so it can wirelessly connect to
other Bluetooth devices like cell phones, and PCs for wireless
syncing. It comes with 128mb of flash memory, which is fine for the
business applications, but if you're going to use the TX for music
and video, you're going to need more then that. No problem. The TX
Handheld has a memory card expansion slot that accepts SD, SDIO and
Multi Media Card formats.
Although it doesn't have the market cornered like it once did, a
Palm Pilot can still be a useful tool. If you're a Soccer mom, a
business executive who is looking to stay organized, or someone
seeking a travel companion, try the Palm TX Handheld.
S.P.
Staff Technology Writter |