Tungsten E2 Announced

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

Looks quite nice. How does the $249 compare with the old T|E? UK price
seems unannounced as yet.

I'm surprised it's still only 32MB, especially if being flash means
it's allocated with less granularity, as has been discussed re the T5.

And does the new connector have any advantages over the T|E's mini-USB.
I like that I can use a standard USB cable to my T|E, so I can share it
with a digital camera and card reader (thereby saving a USB port) and I
don't have to pay for a Palm special cable if I want to sync to two
PCs.

- PG

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

This is what the bottom of the line for Palms should be. But I really think
Palm needs to start stepping things up. This will be an "Okay" palm for
newcomers or first timers.


But What are hardcore Palmists using?

the T5? ugh....

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

It was a time of great turmoil. The strong preyed on the weak, dogs
and cats lived together. One voice cried out in the wilderness:
"PaddyG" <disposable1@psae.f2s.com> wrote in
<1113486084.968876.12050@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>:

> Looks quite nice. How does the $249 compare with the old T|E? UK price
> seems unannounced as yet.

About $50 or a twenty five percent increase.
>
> I'm surprised it's still only 32MB, especially if being flash means
> it's allocated with less granularity, as has been discussed re the T5.

PalmOne recently released a patch for the Treo 650 which makes its
record storage more efficient. Originally its NVFS allocated each
record to a 512 byte sector. With the new system each sector is
divided into 32 byte subsectors which greatly reduces the amount of
slack space. I'd expect the TE2 to have similar record storage.
>
> And does the new connector have any advantages over the T|E's mini-USB.

It's supposed to have some multimedia-related wiring which would
theoretically allow Palm to develop connectors that hook in to AV
equipment like TVs and TiVos. But that's not likely to be too
important in this model so for the most part the only advantage is for
PalmOne since you have to buy a new cable.

> I like that I can use a standard USB cable to my T|E, so I can share it
> with a digital camera and card reader (thereby saving a USB port) and I
> don't have to pay for a Palm special cable if I want to sync to two
> PCs.
>
I got sick of swapping USB devices and installed an PCI card to add
four more USB ports to my PC.

--
Roberto Castillo
robertocastillo@ameritech.net
http://www.freewebs.com/robertocastillo/

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

It was a time of great turmoil. The strong preyed on the weak, dogs
and cats lived together. One voice cried out in the wilderness: Steve
Knight <stevek@knight-toolworks.com> wrote in
<ro9u515t31kak8hmgho59216554bhcaklm@4ax.com>:

> >- nv ram

> is it needed? so far I have never lost anything. the only true lockups I have
> had were my fault.

It's not needed but it's very convenient. I've never lost anything
either but I have had the battery drain completely and had to restore
everything from my PC when I got home. That was annoying.
>
> >- brighter display

> god I hope not the TE is way brighter then needed now. it is hard to dim it down
> enough as it is.

That seems to be a trend. My Treo 600's screen is brighter than my
Tungsten E's screen and judging from the Treo 650's I see in the
stores, the 650 has an even brighter screen. The Tungsten T5's screen,
on the other hand, seems dim by comparison.
>
> >- better battery and better power management

> that would be good though I can get 6 or more hours out of the TE now with the
> right software.

I usually get five but I like to play video, MP3's and read e-books
for hours on end.

--
Roberto Castillo
robertocastillo@ameritech.net
http://www.freewebs.com/robertocastillo/

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

Steve Knight <stevek@knight-toolworks.com> wrote:

>the TE is way brighter then needed now.
>it is hard to dim it down enough as it is.

You can use the free program SilkDimmer to replace the internal brightness
slider on your TE. It will allow you to dim the display as low as you want or
even turn it off.

http://silkdimmer.sourceforge.net/

Unfortunately no dimmers I've found including the above Silkdimmer work on the
newer Z72. And the Z72 is even brighter on the low stop than the TE. And they
say the TE2 is even brighter yet? I'll bring my shades when I check it out...

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

On Sat, 16 Apr 2005 01:22:42 GMT, Logan Shaw wrote:

>> Lone Bard wrote:
>> Why would you want that 4gig hard drive? for music? if thats so, then why is
>> it as thick as two T3s? wouldnt having something that huge be stupid?
>
> I like to think of it this way: people don't mind having an iPod that's
> that huge. If it also has Palm functionality built-in, why would that
> be a bad thing?
>
> We have entered a phase where Palm is not just competing against
> Pocket PC (or Zaurus, etc.) based on price and features. People
> only have a limited amount of space in their pockets, and they
> don't want to carry around an MP3 player and a PDA and a phone and
> possibly some other device (like a camera or a USB flash drive).
> If they already have an iPod and a cell phone, then basically
> that shuts the Palm out.
>
> Basically, Palm is competing for market share AND "pocket share".
> If they can combine two or even three of the above types of devices
> into one, they could have a compelling product. This rumored
> Tungsten X looks like it would be a PDA, an MP3 player, and a
> USB flash drive all in one. iPods are selling like hotcakes, and
> if Palm can manage to make this device as slick as an iPod, they
> could probably sell a lot of them.

But the question remains - why would the X have to be as thick as
two T3s? That's about twice as thick as a Palm III also, right?
Handera's 330 and TRGPro had CF slots and were no thicker than the
Palm III. (The 330 even had a second SD slot.) I'm sure they
wouldn't be able fully compatible with a 4GB CF microdrive, but it
would only require updated software to properly read the drive, and
that wouldn't add anything to its thickness. So it seems that the
Tungsten X could do it all and still fit in a T5 case. The only
thing I can think of that would justify such a large case would be a
mini Sears DieHard battery to keep the X running for more than 24
hours pre charge. The Handera 330, in addition to everything else
it contained also was able to hold 4 AAA batteries,

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

BillB wrote:
> But the question remains - why would the X have to be as thick as
> two T3s? That's about twice as thick as a Palm III also, right?
> Handera's 330 and TRGPro had CF slots and were no thicker than the
> Palm III. (The 330 even had a second SD slot.) I'm sure they
> wouldn't be able fully compatible with a 4GB CF microdrive, but it
> would only require updated software to properly read the drive, and
> that wouldn't add anything to its thickness. So it seems that the
> Tungsten X could do it all and still fit in a T5 case.

It will need a pretty beefy battery. Microdrives have to physically
move, so they require a lot more battery power than flash. iPods
are pretty big, and they don't even have the (relatively) giant
display that the Palm has.

I'm not saying it has to be literally twice as thick as the T3,
but there is reason for it to be a bit bigger than other Palms.

Of course, I'm not worried about the rumor that it's twice as thick
because rumors are notoriously inaccurate, so I'm assuming that
its being twice as thick is an exaggeration.

- Logan

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

Hello, "Lone Bard" !
You wrote:

> Why would you want that 4gig hard drive? for music? if thats so,
then why is

Music, video, documents, pictures. Just about everything you'd want to
carry. I've been waited for such a device.

> it as thick as two T3s? wouldnt having something that huge be
stupid?

Internal hard drive, wifi and Bluetooth radios, and a huge honking
battery to feed them power. I still have and old Visor Prism that I
carried everywhere not too long ago. It's considerably thicker than
two T5's and I loved it because it could do more than any PDA I had
owned up to that point.
>
> This story about the TX LifeDrive smell shitty.
>
It could ultimately turn out to be a false rumor. But a device like it
has to show up sooner or later. It just makes too much sense for some
electronics manufacturer to not try it.
--
"It's a long story. And it ends with me on the roof of a goddamned
nuthouse on Route 128 doing a one-man tribute to the Three Stooges."
-- Art in "Eastern Standard Tribe"

Roberto Castillo
robertocastillo@ameritech.net

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

It was a time of great turmoil. The strong preyed on the weak, dogs
and cats lived together. One voice cried out in the wilderness: Logan
Shaw <lshaw-usenet@austin.rr.com> wrote in
<0X%7e.5765$AE6.5701@tornado.texas.rr.com>:

> Of course, I'm not worried about the rumor that it's twice as thick
> because rumors are notoriously inaccurate, so I'm assuming that
> its being twice as thick is an exaggeration.

One thought that has occurred to me is that the Tungsten E looks a lot
like the Tungsten T5. But it's thinner than the T5. Maybe the X is
only as thick as two TEs about same thickness as my old Visor Prism.

--
Roberto Castillo
robertocastillo@ameritech.net
http://www.freewebs.com/robertocastillo/

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

Zombie Elvis <DELETE-ME-2-REPLY-robertocastillo@ameritech.net> wrote:


>the Tungsten E looks a lot like the Tungsten T5. But it's thinner than the T5.

Not by much.

The TE is 0.5" thick vs the T5 at 0.63. About a tenth of an inch is all...

(Same source as B4.)

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

On Sat, 16 Apr 2005 03:49:16 GMT, Logan Shaw wrote:

> Of course, I'm not worried about the rumor that it's twice as thick
> because rumors are notoriously inaccurate, so I'm assuming that
> its being twice as thick is an exaggeration.

I agree, you've convinced me!

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

I saw a TE2 at a local retailer today, so I thought I would see if
silkdimmer would work on it.

It seemed to work normally, from 100% brightness down to about 20%.
Presumably this is just the range of the built-in dimmer. From 20% to
0%, the brightness was at full.

Either PalmOne put a hard-coded limit in that range (maybe so you
can't turn the light all the way off), or silkdimmer will need to be
slightly modified to work on that model.



On Fri, 15 Apr 2005 16:33:27 GMT, AaronJ <noemail@noemail.com> wrote:

>Steve Knight <stevek@knight-toolworks.com> wrote:
>
>>the TE is way brighter then needed now.
>>it is hard to dim it down enough as it is.
>
>You can use the free program SilkDimmer to replace the internal brightness
>slider on your TE. It will allow you to dim the display as low as you want or
>even turn it off.
>
>http://silkdimmer.sourceforge.net/
>
>Unfortunately no dimmers I've found including the above Silkdimmer work on the
>newer Z72. And the Z72 is even brighter on the low stop than the TE. And they
>say the TE2 is even brighter yet? I'll bring my shades when I check it out...


Remove the BALONEY from my email address.
-----------------------------------------------------
Matthew Fries Minneapolis, MN USA
freeze@baloneyvisi.com

"Quit eating all my *STUFF*!" - The Tick

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

>For example, using SilkDimmer, my TungE registers at about 26% for the
>brightness level seen at the built in internal low brightness stop. I have to
>increase the TE level to about 39% to equal the brightness level of the Z72 at
>it's low brightness stop. That's quite a difference. It's kind of like looking
>at a flashlight when you're reading in a dark room...

when you can take it down to below 8% then you start getting some big battery
savings.

--
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?)

Steve Knight <stevek@knight-toolworks.com> wrote:

>but I never really timed it [battery usage].

For my OS5 units I use a free program called BatteryGraph. It graphs your daily
battery usage. You can directly see your daily on time, battery voltage, charge
percentage, and even on-off times. You can set the display graph for 1 day to 1
month. There is also a statistics page to average things out for you. Besides
being interesting, it will let you know when your battery is starting to fail.
For example since being new (in October of 2003) my TE has lost about 20% of
it's capacity. *If* I decide to replace the battery, that will be a good
indication of when to do it. Hopefully newer battery/screen technology will come
along soon and make the TE obsolete in which case it goes in the junk box.

For my OS4 and lower units I use the free program/hack BatteryLog. It does
nearly the same thing but doesn't graph it. Even though I just replace the AAAs
on those old mono units, battery longevity information is still interesting. For
example I can determine that I get an extra 10 to 15 hours by just slowing the
processor down. My record for my m125 was just under *50 hours* on a set. Those
were the days...

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

On Wed, 20 Apr 2005 02:11:34 GMT, pfw <pfw@pobox.com> spewed forth these words
of wisdom:

>On Fri, 15 Apr 2005 01:38:57 -0400, Galley
><Galley@Spam-Jammer.galleytech.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>The new connector can also transmit audio. The T5 cradle has a speaker built
>>into it for listening to music on your desktop.
>
>my T5 cradle has no speaker. It has an audio line-out on the back for
>connecting it external speakers or a stereo system.
>
>Besides, how could a speaker small enough to fit in the cradle sound
>much, if any, better than the speaker built into the T5?

Perhaps I was thinking of a iPod dock that has a built-in speaker. It looks
like a PDA cradle. True, the sound quality would be lacking to say the least.

--
"I'm not a cool person in real life, but I play one on the Internet"
Galley

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

Logan Shaw wrote:
> Lone Bard wrote:
>
> Basically, Palm is competing for market share AND "pocket share".
> If they can combine two or even three of the above types of devices
> into one, they could have a compelling product. This rumored
> Tungsten X looks like it would be a PDA, an MP3 player, and a
> USB flash drive all in one.

Somewhere I heard it was possible to make your PDA act like a flash
drive - I didn't see any software on PalmGear that would let me do this.

Anyone know how?

Jamie

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

In article <5Ar9e.1$6w.0@bos-service2.ext.ray.com>, jpittman1@yahoo.com
says...
> Logan Shaw wrote:
> > Lone Bard wrote:
> >
> > Basically, Palm is competing for market share AND "pocket share".
> > If they can combine two or even three of the above types of devices
> > into one, they could have a compelling product. This rumored
> > Tungsten X looks like it would be a PDA, an MP3 player, and a
> > USB flash drive all in one.
>
> Somewhere I heard it was possible to make your PDA act like a flash
> drive - I didn't see any software on PalmGear that would let me do this.
>
> Anyone know how?
>
> Jamie
>

Card Export2 <http://www.softick.com/cardexport/>

--
Jim Anderson
( 8(|) To email me just pull my_finger