Prospective buyer
 

Hello. My name is Cameron. I'm a college student attending George Fox.

I have an iBook, but I want something lighter/smaller for general note-taking, organizing and internet access. And I know the on-screen keyboard probably isn't better than my iBook's full-size keyboard.. I'm not looking to completely replace my iBook, just to leave it home somedays. (I'm an art student, so I don't take much notes anyhow)

Anyways, I want to get a nice handheld computer for organization useage and such, and it's come down to Talm TX vs. Nokia 770. Both have a big(ish) screen and bother have bult-in Wi-Fi.

So in your opinion, what would be the best wireless-note-taking-internet-enabled-handheld-device? TX vs. 770.

Hello, Cameron. From my perspective, your title should be "prospective" buyer :-)

Apart from that, as a friend of mine is fond of saying, these forums are not "write-only". They're also for storing and sharing information, hopefully just once.

If you had taken half the time you spent on writing down your questions above and used the search function instead, you would have found most if not all of your answers. Like IT-is-not-a-PDA. Like state-of-PIM-software-on-770. Like Mac-users-feedback. Like how-to-install-packages. Like Theme Maker. Etc.

If after that you have a specific, personal question that's still unanswerered we'll be happy to help. But no one is going to spend time writing a personal digest of a wide cross-section of six month's worth of accumulated knowledge in this forum for you, if you're not motivated enough to look it up by yourself first. Sorry.

Thanks for the reply ... I should have known better than to just post with demanding questions (and darn, it won't let me change the title)

Anyways, the main reason I posted was because I wanted to hear people's opinions about the Palm TX vs the 770. Most of the questions I had were answered as I browsed this site's wiki, blog, news and forums for several hours last night. This is really a great site. Makes me think of a similar one I found when I had a Clié.

I found several threads about general Palms vs. the 770 ... and I've heard that ITOS 2006 is much better at PIM than 2005, but I haven't heard much specific about Palm TX vs. 770.

For instance, they both (now) have PIM functions, media players, photoviewers, web browsers, wi-fi, bluetooth, HWR, onscreen keyboard, larger screens than competitors ... I just want to see which one people think is better.

you may be able to try them out at fry's or some other big box electronics store.

good luck

fpp:The TX vs 770 thread is ancient and referred to the 770's 2005 OS.

shrimp: In essence. The 770 has a larger screen and a richer set of applications available for it. The resolution on the 770 is also much better at 800x480. Being a student, the price of 770 apps is right: free. There are also note taking apps like MaemoPad+ that will let you include both text and sketches. If you're using it in a lecture hall setting, then a bluetooth keyboard might be your forté, but otherwise the onscreen keyboard is alright. I can get around 20 words a minute on it which isn't much but does the trick. If your school is blanketed in accessible WiFi then you're sitting pretty. With the right setup you could dump your notes right onto your Mac through thin air.

The 770 is weaker in PDA functions like scheduling, calendar, etc, but still capable of performing those tasks. Movie/mp3 playback on the 770 isn't too bad but you'll have to format the movies for optimal performance.

Anything else, just reply. (And you can always throw those art skills at making some new themes for it) :)

OKAY.

So I've been trying to post for a couple days. The first time I posted, I think I included a link ... or something. But I got a message that said "this site has deemed your post to be spam, your whole account has been disabled until the admins mark your message as clean"

And then I made another account, shrimp_was_banned, and I tried posting without a URL, so I click "Go advanced" and it gave me the "your account is screwed because you're spam" message.

Judging from the recent spam in this very forum, this board isn't very good at blocking spam anyways ....

So here's the post I've been trying to post:

yes, I think the antispam system has been going nuts lately : several perfectly legit posts have been flagged as 'spam alerts', while most actual spam goes through unhindered...

I purchased a Palm TX for my wife last Christmas. After the first charge, we discovered that the power button on the Palm TX didn't work. It wouldn't turn the unit on or off, nor could a hard reset be done. Fortunately, the unit could be turned on by pressing the home button and initially we resorted to the TX turning itself off after 30 seconds of inactivity.

After some searching, I discovered that the inoperable power button is a very common issue with the TX units, so much so, that it discouraged me from sendin it back because it is likely that the replacement unit would have the same problem.

We decided not to exchange the TX unit because software is available that maps the power functions to another button of the users choice. In other words, we don't use the original power button on the TX, but get the same functionality using another button.

The Palm TX is very light compared to the Nokia 770 (I have a 770 too), probably because the screen/battery.

For me, the killer application on the 770 is the Application Manager/Catalog, which has huge potential in tailoring the 770 to the needs of each user.

Dr. Hood

Thanks for the info Dr. Hood!

I rememeber about a year ago I was looking at Palms, and I heard a lot about the T-series having problems, most notably a "screen whine" ... and I expected the TX to have some problems too .. it seems to me that Palm is in decline in the world of tech.

I'm not too worried about weight ... anything will be better than my 4 pound iBook. :D

But this brings up a question I had about the 770: how many hardware problems are there? I've read some about "the white screen of death" and someone who claims they've had two 770s sent in for that problem! Is this a widespread problem?

I can only speak for me - I've had mine for 6 months, use it relentlessly, and have had no problems whatsoever. I have read about some others having problems, though.

Same here: bought mine in march and have been using it steadily without any hardware problems (knock on wood).

Using my Nokia 770 for about 5 months now, it's still working smoothly !

Of course there will be some people that have hardware problems, I think Nokia will replace those equipments. By the way, this happens with all kind of 'techno' stuff.

By the way, if you will only by equipment nobody has any complaint about, you will wait forever ;-).

Cheers, Jan

Good point! I just wanted to make sure that there weren't any widespread problems before I get one. I know I've gone to some Palm forums, and there's tons of threads about their T-series breaking right after the warrenty.

But it sounds like the Noika 770 has much less hardware problems, from what people have said.

I'm going to Fry's today, and checking out the 770 in real life. I hope they updated the demo model to OS 2006.

Of course the OS 2006 is better, more stable, more fancy, ... but OS 2005 was also good and fancy. I don't think this will change you decision on buying or not buying.

770 complements a Mac well.
 

Wow, I have travelled this road! I have a MacBook Pro and although I consider it the finest notebook money can buy, it is still a chore to lug on a short trip. The 770 is ideal for all the reasons you are wanting it for, although the PIM functions are somewhat lacking. I "discovered" that I could access my ical calendars from the web via my .Mac account, so now that issue is resolved.

I bought a Palm T|X and became outraged (literally, lucky I didn't have a cerebral hemorrhage) when I tried to get it to DUN with my cellphone--only to discover after mucho research that Palm did not "include it" with the software and had no intention of doing so. Then I found that a 1 GB SD was the limit that the T|X could access. That was the final straw and back it went. I am a happy camper with my 770.

Thanks for the great response everyone! I got a 770 today. I love it. I am amazed at the display .. and I'm actually very impressed with the handwriting recognition. I used HWR to write a blog post, and I managed to find a 770 image on Google images and upload it to Flickr.

I'm going to be updating it to OS 2006 tonight.

But seriously, I think one of the best things about the Nokia 770 is the community. You guys are great, you can count on me being around ... hopefully I can get my "shrimp" account un-disabled ... who's an active admin?

And Odin: it's good to see another Mac user using his 770 with his Mac! I'm planning on using Google calendar (with the Firefox-like browser... called minimo, right?) and using iCal to sync to that. But we'll see ...

None here either, heavy use since Dec 2005. For every problem you hear about there are a thousand that work properly.