Palm Zire 71

This little machine keeps my life in order!! Simple as that... I use it for photoes, diary, time sheet for work, to do list, memoes, an extensive address book...

I have had it 6 months now and use it more and more. Just add a thesaurus and dictionary, which have given it more use for me.

I bought mine from Dixons at a cost of £140.00, think that they have come down though now.

Amazon £164.95

These PDA's are on sale on ebay as well, sometimes you can pick one up that is used and much cheaper.

I had a Zire before this, the white one which cost £80. I liked it and used it a lot and decided to upgrade to this, and glad that I did. It does far more than the Zire, obviously the cost depicts this. There is the camera, extra memory, the colour screen and other programmes... so well worth paying the extra.

It came with a case and desk top charger.
The charger is good, as it is like a 'docking station'.

The front of the Zire has four application buttons and a 5 way navigation stick. The application buttons are for the Datebook, Address book, Photos and Notepad

The stylus fits in a slot on the top, it is very neat and easy to get hold of.

The speakers are in the back, the audio is through a standard sized jack using a RealOne MP3 player application.

To take a photograph, the Zire front slides up to reveal a camera. Pictures can be a set to a minimum resolution of 160 x 120 pixels, or as high as the maximum resolution of 640 x 480.
By the way, there is no flash with the camera.

There are 2 leads from charger, one to mains and a USB lead to your computer. You sit your PDA on the charger and you can easily sync it with your computer by pressing a button on the base of the docking station. When it 'syncs' any changes you have made to the programme on your PDA or PC will be exchange, so that each is constantly up to date. This is great if you ever need to print a copy off of your diary, memo's etc.. you can do it from your computer.
Also you never have to worry about losing your information, because it is always backed up ont he computer.

There is a 'stand alone' programme on CD for your PDA when using the computer, or you can use with Microsoft Outlook, whichever you prefer.

Because I use it so much the battery is front. Information that you have updated either on your PC or on your PDA seamlessly update each other.

I keep my charger on my desk at work, so have had to buy a charger for my home, as well as a charger for the car. I bought those cheaply on ebay, less than £10 each.

If you want a posher cover, there are some lovely leather ones on ebay for about £15 - £20.

I cannot recommend it more.

I have had to purchase extra memory, as once you start putting on extra programmes there is no room left.constantly running down.

There are a lot of useless programmes to add to is, but most of them come with a trial .. best site is HANDANGO.com for trial programmes.

Operating System: Palm OS software v5.2.1
Memory: 16MB RAM (13MB actual storage capacity)
Display: 16-Bit Transflective TFT color LCD 65,000+ colors,
320x320 Pixel Interface:
HotSync USB cradle,
Infrared
Expansion: SD / MMC card slot,
Universal connector
Built in camera: 640 x 480 Resolution
Audio: 3.5mm stereo headphone jack, mono speaker
Power: AC Adapter 120VAC, 60Hz
Battery: Rechargeable lithium polymer 900mAh battery
Dimensions and Weight: 4.5 x 2.9 x 0.67 in. / 5.3 oz.

The software includes:
Kinoma Player for video - Allows you to watch high-quality digital media

RealOne Arcade for games (Windows only) - Enables easy download of Palm handheld games and desktop games

Palm Reader for eBooks -

Solitaire - Classic card game

RealOne Mobile Player for MP3s

Phone Link Updater - so you can use your Zire with a mobile

VersaMail™ 2.5 -email application that will work with up to 8 separate accounts

If you download a lot of these applications, particularly the RealOne player, you wlil need to purchase extra memory. - about £35 for 125mb

Although this doesn't go very far, when most music tracks are 5 mb's.