Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

I am looking for a straight answer. On a typical color Palm such as the
T5, or Palm Zire, how long of battery life can you get? I hear that on
many PPC's you only get 3-5 hours if even that. Is this the case with
the color Palms? I suppose since the Palm Os is not as feature bloat as
MS the battery life would be better.

On my monochrome Palm I get 1 month of usage if not more at times. This
is a reason why I am hesitant to upgrade to a color unit. I use my Palm
as a tool. I have a laptop for multimedia uses. Is it really that much
better on a PDA? On the other hand I think serial is slow. Do newer
units sync that much faster over USB? It takes me about 7-8 minutes to
sync everytime. I use Avantgo ane PocketQuizken. Pocket Quicken always
has to backup all its file on every sync. This is a problem with the
software not my Palm.


John

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

I have the T|E and I can usually go almost a week before charging. True, I
don't have it on all day every day, but I do use a bit every day.

My USB normally syncs within a 1-1/2 minutes.


"John" <johnw_94020@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1103126684.5166634b7ff0906766619142b6717f7a@teranews...
> I am looking for a straight answer. On a typical color Palm such as the
> T5, or Palm Zire, how long of battery life can you get? I hear that on
> many PPC's you only get 3-5 hours if even that. Is this the case with
> the color Palms? I suppose since the Palm Os is not as feature bloat as
> MS the battery life would be better.
>
> On my monochrome Palm I get 1 month of usage if not more at times. This
> is a reason why I am hesitant to upgrade to a color unit. I use my Palm
> as a tool. I have a laptop for multimedia uses. Is it really that much
> better on a PDA? On the other hand I think serial is slow. Do newer
> units sync that much faster over USB? It takes me about 7-8 minutes to
> sync everytime. I use Avantgo ane PocketQuizken. Pocket Quicken always
> has to backup all its file on every sync. This is a problem with the
> software not my Palm.
>
>
> John

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

In article <41c0ab1f$1@news.qgraph.com>, "JD" <joeydba@yahoo.com> wrote:

> I have the T|E and I can usually go almost a week before charging. True, I
> don't have it on all day every day, but I do use a bit every day.
>
> My USB normally syncs within a 1-1/2 minutes.
>
>
> "John" <johnw_94020@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:1103126684.5166634b7ff0906766619142b6717f7a@teranews...
> > I am looking for a straight answer. On a typical color Palm such as the
> > T5, or Palm Zire, how long of battery life can you get? I hear that on
> > many PPC's you only get 3-5 hours if even that. Is this the case with
> > the color Palms? I suppose since the Palm Os is not as feature bloat as
> > MS the battery life would be better.
> >
> > On my monochrome Palm I get 1 month of usage if not more at times. This
> > is a reason why I am hesitant to upgrade to a color unit. I use my Palm
> > as a tool. I have a laptop for multimedia uses. Is it really that much
> > better on a PDA? On the other hand I think serial is slow. Do newer
> > units sync that much faster over USB? It takes me about 7-8 minutes to
> > sync everytime. I use Avantgo ane PocketQuizken. Pocket Quicken always
> > has to backup all its file on every sync. This is a problem with the
> > software not my Palm.

The battery life is affected greatly by the display so 3-5 hours of
continuous use is about right. Now, 3-5 hours a day is a big part of the
day ... although probably not unusual for MP3 junkies.

Don't know what you mean by multimedia uses. If you mean, does a color
display make a difference, I'd have to say yes.

Yes, USB syncs are faster, especially when there's lots of data to sync.
If your serial sync is only a few seconds, then USB probably won't make
that much of a difference.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

On 2004-12-15, John <johnw_94020@yahoo.com> wrote:

> I hear that on many PPC's you only get 3-5 hours if even that. Is
> this the case with the color Palms? I suppose since the Palm Os is
> not as feature bloat as MS the battery life would be better.

It depends on what you are doing (no straight answers to this question
at all I'm afraid), on the older palms the features available to you
were much more restricted than on the new ones, colour screens,
backlights, faster processors, more RAM, voice recorders, more
flexible sound systems and so on will make it eat more battery so if
you *really* need to only charge once a month then you have no option
other than to stick with your current unit.

I read books on my Palm and I can read for about an hour and a half
and the power level will be down to about 70% or so in that time,
which for a unit of this type is not bad.

I am a heavy PDA user but my Palm Tungsten T3 is rarely out of power
because I tend to have powered cradles close to hand in most of the
places I use it a lot (my home office, my desk office, the car). They
tend to get treated like mobile phones, recharged frequently and
carried around but only used in short bursts.

If you indend to sit there playing MP3s or playing games then you will
eat the battery in probably 3-4 hours hours but for organiser use you
could easily go for a week without a recharge.

> Do newer units sync that much faster over USB? It takes me about
> 7-8 minutes to sync everytime.

I use Plucker to sync over 8 megabytes of news sites to my T3 several
times a day, and it takes about a minute to transfer all that. Using
things like avantgo will make your internet connection and Avantgo's
site the bottleneck rather than your palm.

The clarity of the screen and the extra potential of the device far
outweigh the limitation on the battery life for me, as the limitations
don't really impact much at all unless you start reading books,
browsing the internet and so on.

--
For every expert, there is an equal but opposite expert

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

"John" <johnw_94020@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:1103126684.5166634b7ff0906766619142b6717f7a@teranews...
> I am looking for a straight answer. On a typical color Palm such as the
> T5, or Palm Zire, how long of battery life can you get? I hear that on
> many PPC's you only get 3-5 hours if even that.
<snip>
> On my monochrome Palm I get 1 month of usage if not more at times.

Straight forward answer:

I've used all three Palms the same amount each day, which is quite a lot:

- My first Palm was a B/W m125 Palm, had it for about 3 1/2 years. It took two AA batteries, and they lasted a month
or more.
- The second was a color m130, had it for 3 months, and it took two AAs. I switched to recharagables, since the
batteries didn't last as long, but they were NiMH, 800 mAh each, so lasted maybe a week. I think I returned the m130
to the store.
- My current Tungsten E has a terrible built-in Lithium-Ion battery pack, around 800 mAh.
I get about 4 hours use from a full charge, and keep it charging each night. I don't let the charge get too low,
but that doesn't seem to help.

I'd much rather have the option of using regular alkaliine or recharagable batteries with a separate charger. Then I
would use two sets, and have one set ready to install when/if needed. I do this for my digital camera.

It was a big shock to go from one months use to 4 hours use. Palm made a backward step there. Even though the T E
offers great resolution and features, if I can't use it say on an airplane flight, or away from a charger, it's not
really useable.

Stay with your monochrome, if battery life is important, and use your laptop.

USB sync is MUCH faster, but important only if you need a fast-syncing Palm.
What model is you mono Palm?

- Dugie

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Hi John,

As others have said, there are a number of variables that effect
battery life. I use my Tungsten|T3 for e-mail and when I'm on the
road for news groups. I like to listen to mp3s while I am writing my
novel on the Palm. Between Bluetooth (for e-mail), mp3 playing off
of card and my infrared keyboard, I can kill a battery in about 2.5
to 3.0 hours (my Tungsten|T3 is a year old and is not holding as
much of a charge as when it was new). I just carry a couple of
Power-to-Go sleds with me.

As to a color screens, I love my hi-res 480 * 320 display. I use my
Palm a lot during the day so I want something comfortable to see. I
tried ebooks on my old M515, and I hated it. Now with my new screen,
I keep ebooks on my expansion card and read them while listening to
mp3s when I am waiting or eating. A good screen will effect how much
you use your Palm.

Ciao . . . C.Joseph

That which a man buys too cheaply . . .
He esteems too lightly


John wrote:
> I am looking for a straight answer. On a typical color Palm such as the
> T5, or Palm Zire, how long of battery life can you get? I hear that on
> many PPC's you only get 3-5 hours if even that. Is this the case with
> the color Palms? I suppose since the Palm Os is not as feature bloat as
> MS the battery life would be better.
>
> On my monochrome Palm I get 1 month of usage if not more at times. This
> is a reason why I am hesitant to upgrade to a color unit. I use my Palm
> as a tool. I have a laptop for multimedia uses. Is it really that much
> better on a PDA? On the other hand I think serial is slow. Do newer
> units sync that much faster over USB? It takes me about 7-8 minutes to
> sync everytime. I use Avantgo ane PocketQuizken. Pocket Quicken always
> has to backup all its file on every sync. This is a problem with the
> software not my Palm.
>
>
> John
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x-- 100 Proof News - http://www.100ProofNews.com
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Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

Here's my experience.
I started my palm life with a 3x. Then graduated to a 3xe.
I must be a very heavy user. Even with brand new Duracel or other
brand name batteries I never got more than a week's use out of them
before they had to be replaced.
I have many reminder alarms that go off daily. I'm a night person so I
use the back-light a lot.
Because of the large turnover of batteries I switched to nimh
rechargeables.
They would last perhaps a day before needing to be recharged.
I've recently moved up to a TE.
The battery life varies. I've had it only be down to 70 or 75% by
day's end and I've had it where I needed to recharge before the day is
over.
As a result of the above I always invest in more than one charging
adapter and I always buy one for my car. I'm religious about plugging
it in.
When I drive in the car it's always plugged in. Likewise when I'm at
home doing desk work.
The TE will charge back to 100% very quickly so even if it's discharged
heavily I don't have to wait long for it to get back up to speed.
I agree with the one poster. I will trade battery life for a clear,
beautiful color screen.
If I ever go anywhere where I know I cannot be near a charging source
I'll just take my 3xe and a minimum amount of data.
For me, the biggest problem is not the battery life, it's the general
quality control of the TE.
When I began using an electronic daytimer, some 10-15 years ago, I used
an el cheapo sharp unit. When it crashed and lost some of it's memory
I moved to Psion and then to palm. I always buy two units so when one
dies I am only down for a short time.
Yeah, it's an expensive habit but I've not lost data since that one
time.
Both of the TE units I bought have significant problems.
The one has a speaker that is intermittent. This is a problem, of
course, because I can miss alarms, but worse, the palm sits there in an
"on" state waiting for the alarm dialog to be answered and the
batteries just drain away. I usually catch it in time but it has, I
think twice, drained to nothing. Fortunately I just put it back on the
charger and it was ok. Not even a need to restore data.
The other palm is worse. Gradually the recognition of the grafitti
area became more and more sporadic and now it doesn't work at all.
Of course the generous 90 warranty from palm ran out several months ago
and they will want a set $125 to fix it. Being a starving musician I'm
pretty much screwed at this point.
I'm tempted to tell palm to fix it or shove it, sell it, and buy Sony
or something else.
I'm pretty disapointed, so, even though the screen on the TE is
stunning, I would recommend buying Sony. They seem more well built to
me.

My usb hotsync is way faster than serial.

Good luck!

shawn

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

In article <2A7wd.196319$Np3.8082760@ursa-nb00s0.nbnet.nb.ca>,
"Dugie" <d_fren@NOSPAMhotmail.com> wrote:


>> It was a big shock to go from one months use to 4 hours use. Palm
made a
> backward step there. Even though the T E
> offers great resolution and features, if I can't use it say on an airplane
> flight, or away from a charger, it's not
> really useable.

Thats what I'm afraid of. They value the color, music, photos, and
video playing abilities more than the working conditions and reliability
of the unit.

>
> Stay with your monochrome, if battery life is important, and use your laptop.
>
> USB sync is MUCH faster, but important only if you need a fast-syncing Palm.
> What model is you mono Palm?
>
> - Dugie
>

Its a Palm VIIx. A very, very reliable little bugger. I'm afraid if I
got a new Palm I'd lose the reliability and battery life for the
multimedia features.

I miss the wireless features, it was handy to have. I cant browse the
web when I'm in a car, and the web clipping made it so easy to instantly
find things. What a loss it was to lose palm.net.


John

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

> > Do newer units sync that much faster over USB? It takes me about
> > 7-8 minutes to sync everytime.
>
> I use Plucker to sync over 8 megabytes of news sites to my T3 several
> times a day, and it takes about a minute to transfer all that. Using
> things like avantgo will make your internet connection and Avantgo's
> site the bottleneck rather than your palm.

Not bad!! It takes me so much longer, but then I use Avantgo over a
serial connection. I wonder if this other software would work on my
Palm VIIx, Mac OS 9.1 combo.


>
> The clarity of the screen and the extra potential of the device far
> outweigh the limitation on the battery life for me, as the limitations
> don't really impact much at all unless you start reading books,
> browsing the internet and so on.


Yeah guess it depends on what you do. I think I'm going to stay with my
current unit for the time being. I dont necessarily need a PDA to
replace my laptop just yet. Besides the laptops screen is so much
bigger, so for watching movies its an advantage. I hear you can watch
movies on a PDA (not sure about Palm) but then you'd need to convert
them and have a large SD card. Dont think SD goes as large as CF. But
the screen is so dinky, its hard to see the action.


John

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

"Dugie" <d_fren@NOSPAMhotmail.com> wrote:

>"John" <johnw_94020@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:1103126684.5166634b7ff0906766619142b6717f7a@teranews...
>> I am looking for a straight answer. On a typical color Palm such as the
>> T5, or Palm Zire, how long of battery life can you get? I hear that on
>> many PPC's you only get 3-5 hours if even that.
><snip>
>> On my monochrome Palm I get 1 month of usage if not more at times.
>
>Straight forward answer:
>
>I've used all three Palms the same amount each day, which is quite a lot:
>
>- My first Palm was a B/W m125 Palm, had it for about 3 1/2 years. It took two AA batteries, and they lasted a month
>or more.
>- The second was a color m130, had it for 3 months, and it took two AAs. I switched to recharagables, since the
>batteries didn't last as long, but they were NiMH, 800 mAh each, so lasted maybe a week. I think I returned the m130
>to the store.
>- My current Tungsten E has a terrible built-in Lithium-Ion battery pack, around 800 mAh.
> I get about 4 hours use from a full charge, and keep it charging each night. I don't let the charge get too low,
>but that doesn't seem to help.
>
>I'd much rather have the option of using regular alkaliine or recharagable batteries with a separate charger. Then I
>would use two sets, and have one set ready to install when/if needed. I do this for my digital camera.
>
>It was a big shock to go from one months use to 4 hours use. Palm made a backward step there. Even though the T E
>offers great resolution and features, if I can't use it say on an airplane flight, or away from a charger, it's not
>really useable.
>
>Stay with your monochrome, if battery life is important, and use your laptop.
>
>USB sync is MUCH faster, but important only if you need a fast-syncing Palm.
>What model is you mono Palm?
>
>- Dugie
>


Hi,
Is it really 1-month to 4 hours? I mean ,was it 1 month constantly on? is it
4-hours PDA usage, or is it used now for other stuff as well?

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

I found a couple of apps that really help out. lightspeed lets you set the clock
speed of apps. not all apps need full speed. like ereader works fine slowed way
down the only thing that is slower is when you open it up or open a new book.
it's not really a problem. on the TE a app that lets you turn the screen down
lower then you can with the built in control.
between these two I get about 3 times the runtime out of my TE.

--
Knight-Toolworks & Custom Planes
Custom made wooden planes at reasonable prices
See http://www.knight-toolworks.com For prices and ordering instructions.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

1 month of usage. Its not on all the time, but its on enough.


>
>
> Hi,
> Is it really 1-month to 4 hours? I mean ,was it 1 month constantly on? is it
> 4-hours PDA usage, or is it used now for other stuff as well?

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 18:31:36 +0200, no@spam.wanted wrote:

> Is it really 1-month to 4 hours? I mean ,was it 1 month constantly on? is it
> 4-hours PDA usage, or is it used now for other stuff as well?

For it to be 1 month constantly on the 2 AAA cells would have to
be replaced with something a bit larger, on the order of 2 D cells,
maybe even F cells. My old IIIx usually got 45 to 50 hours out of a
pair of fresh AAA alkaline cells. Depending on usage, some people
would need to change batteries weekly, while others might go a month
or two between changes.

--
"YMMV"