Before you all go and panic and close this web page then wander off to read about deodorant and Ford Escorts, WAIT!
Don’t be technophobes, hold steady, breath deeply, don’t panic it will be an easily read opinion full of light fact and interesting anecdote. Maybe!
Before I even start, a quick question (designed to grab your attention to read further) do you own an address book, a diary or even a small notepad?
Ok you do, doesn’t everybody I hear you jibe. But I respond:
What state are they in?
Are they dog-eared ancient documents worthy of pride and place in the British Museum?
Can you read the entries?
Do the people in the address book still exist at the addresses given, do they still exist full stop?
Is the diary really helpful, does it tap you on the head and say “ Doctors today in 15 mins – get your skates on”?
I suspect that they don’t and that is why you must read on. I am going to try and pass on the virtues of an electronic organiser called “Palm M515” It is a handheld
organiser and as such it has many basic functions that will replace all of your Address Books, Diaries and notebooks. Before I start don’t believe that this is the Electronic Organiser for you, Palm produce a range of products to suit all pockets with the functionality all based on what is available in the near top of the range M515.
The Palm M515 is a silver grey sexy beast, which without my life would be utter and complete chaos!
Rather than detail a spec that will bore you to tears I shall treat you to a day in the life of the Palm m515 user, me! I have had this since October and feel qualified to take you through the pros and cons. Also rather than state the specifications of the whole damn thing I shall try and lay it on the line in layman’s terms, it’s normally the best way.
0700 hrs: I stir from my slumber to the sound of an Army Medley, I have been conscripted and sent to the Gulf, no its the Built in Alarm in the Palm, the good thing about this is that it will repeat every 9 minutes so you can snooze and you cannot disable it unless you get up and reset it. Good work you boys at Palm, of course throwing it across the room or hitting it with a hammer is not an option – not at that price!
The Palm will cost you about £250, it has come down in price since I bought it so I expect it to come down further in the months to come.
0820 hrs: I stand rocking on the Train, I check my "To Do" list and appointments for that day. I can either check them using different functions or check them together. I set another date, lunch on Friday with my Wife, its her birthday and I set a reminder to phone the Restaurant to make reservations. The Stylus that comes with the Palm is light and easy to use, you have to master a slightly different alphabet to enter details onto the screen but if you cannot remember how to do a Q, I forget often, then you open up the on display querty keyboard and tap away to your hearts content.
0900 hrs: I arrive at work and boot up my PC then connect my Palm to its Cradle it begins recharging and I complete a hot sync.
This synchronises my Office Outlook Address and appointments with what is held on my Palm. It also creates backup files of any Word Documents, PowerPoint presentations and Excel Spreadsheets that I may have worked on using the Palm.
The Palm has a TFT colour screen which has a backlight, it can hold onto its charge for about 5 days in normal operating conditions, but if you intend taking it abroad for business take the charger!
1000 hrs: My boss wants a number for a client, he has deleted it from his Outlook, I pull out my Palm, we cannot remember his name but we think that it begins with M, I do a search for everything on the Palm beginning with M, we find it, a nice tool. Well done you guys at Palm.
Of course because the Palm can sync with most popular desktop Mail products I could have got this address from my address book from my PC after all it is synced with the Palm.
1300: I work on an opinion for Ciao, I save it onto my Palm so that I can work on the document on the Train that evening.
Luckily my Purchase came with a software product called Documents To Go, this allows the transfer of Office documents to the Palm, so you can work on them remotely.
1700: Before I leave I complete a hot sync again, this adds all my appointments, alarms, addresses, to do list and documents that I have added to my PC and ensures that they are now present on my Palm. I am organised and do not have to wait to get into the office to see what waits for me.
2000: Drinks in the Pub, an old friend walks up and asks me how the kids are, I open my Palm and select the Video option and run a captured video image from my Camcorder showing my two daughters playing on the beach last summer in Lanzerotte.
These applications come bundled when you by the Palm M515 and thus allow you to be a posing bastard in whatever place that you want to be one in!
Some Basics: The Cost: £250 circa. The Processor 33mghz fast enough for an organiser. Memory 16mb enough for 10,000 addresses! With an expansion slot for a memory chip (another 16mb) that you can put your video captures, pictures or large documents on.
Some Disadvantages: This is not a handheld computer, it’s an organiser a glorified one I admit but very useful.
Advantages: I think it the Dogs Bollocks! But don’t take my word for it pop into your local Dixon’s etc, don’t but from there but at least see what the range that Palm produce and decide on what model would suite you. Have you seen the new Tungsten?
Other things worthy of mention:
If you have a suitable Mobile you can download web pages to the PDA, usefull if you are on the move.
Games: There are games that come as standard and can help pass the time.
There are many freeware and shareware products written for the Palm operating systems and they can be checked out at www.palm.com. My favourire is Chess Tiger!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Handheld - 128 MB RAM - Screen: 4 in inch - Display: TFT active matrix - CPU: XScale PXA310 - Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi - Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.0, Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.0 Classic
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Advantages: It has pretty nice display, i can't say much but - "It's a Nostalgy". Disadvantages: I doesn't have great sound, and it's battary was never enough for me.
freaker2k4 08.11.2004 (08.11.2004)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Palm M515
Advantages: SImple installation; easy access to common Palm apps and functions Disadvantages: Universal connector now superseded; fitting sometimes tricky
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