New Palm?

[drcpunk]

I walked into J&R on Friday, asking what model pda would read my docs, pdfs, and spreadsheets. The guy at the counter showed me a T|X, but it didn't recognize my card when we put it in. He argued against an IPAC which cost the same, but with less memory and space. However, he was convinced that nothing would read a file that wasn't in special format, or maybe it couldn't read a card -- whatever it was, it was something my old T5 could do, so I decided I'd get no further.

Sunday, mnemex and I went to Datavision and asked what pdas could read my card. The guy we talked to took us to a T|X. This one recognized my card and could open not only the doc files, but also text files. And, while I still couldn't select a quantity between a paragraph and an entire memo, I could select exactly as much as I wanted from a document open in Docs to Go. So, we shall see.

Meanwhile, there was a lovely little tablet for about $1600 that mnemex and I both lusted after, but both decided to pass on for now.

Comments

[avram]

Wouldn’t it depend more on what software is loaded into the device than on what kind of device it was?

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

Yes and no. If there's nothing that can read a doc file loaded, then it can't read a doc file. To a large degree, mnemex thinks that the problems I had with the Nokia boiled down to a) the software isn't there yet and b) it didn't have an interface that looked like Palm's. I think it's mostly a).

That said, there's stuff that works better and stuff that works worse. You can only put so much software on a device with less memory, correct? And sometime the machine isn't compatible with the latest and greatest versions of certain software, correct? So, while the Nokia has what mnemex assures me is a good pdf reader, it still takes forever to open a large pdf file, even when the file is on a card. I'm guessing this is because of how much memory the Nokia has.

Currently, we've got the T|X device recognizing my card, which took awhile. We're not sure if registering Documents to Go is what did it, or if it was just taking out and putting in the SD card until the pda recognized that it was there. But, I've got a doc file open.

The pdf reader doesn't seem aware that I've got pdfs on the card. Not yet sure if that means the reader is defective (I think unlikely), it won't read from a card, or what. Step one is to confirm that I have the files I think I have on that card. Step two may be to take them out of the folder and see if that helps. Step three would be to put one directly on the device.

[mneme]

I was going to play with the device to see if I could find the "look at the card, twit" button if there was one (for pdfs).

I thought the nokia problems boiled down to (a). It's still a very new platform.

I've seen the tablet available for 1200 on froogle (with 30 gigs). OTOH, my failed ebay bid has been drawing scam attempts.