Filed under: Peripherals, Portables, Reviews
Impressions of a new Palm T|X
For those who didn't hear, Palm announced a couple of new handhelds this week, and one of them is the Palm I've been waiting for all my life: the Tungsten T|X. It's basically a T5 with WiFi, Bluetooth and 128 MB of RAM, and I'm fortunate enough to be holding one in my hand. Yep, even as I type this. I just can't put this bad boy down.I've uploaded a set of opening and unpacking pics to our TUAW Flickr account. In a week or so I'll post a more thorough review, but for now I thought I'd post a few initial impressions in case anyone else out there is thinking about grabbing one of these:
- The T|X is just slightly heavier than than T5 - no surprise.
- It has a dark steel blue body, but in most light it almost looks black to me
- Software install and setup went just fine, including enabling the iSync conduit (I'm running Tiger 10.4.2). Calendars, contacts and todo's are syncing perfectly.
- WiFi works well and it maintains a strong signal. One quirk so far: the T|X couldn't connect to my AirPort Express with WPA security enabled. Guess I need to learn a little more about wireless security compatibility.
- The screen is bright. Really bright. I haven't compared with another Palm yet, but this is the first Palm I've having to turn down the display's brightness on a bus ride home at night.
- There is no "Disk Mode" application, like the T5 and LifeDrive have. I don't know yet if I can download this from Palm, but out of the box I don't see another way of mounting the T|X as a drive like the T5 and LifeDrive.
- There is also no "File Browser" application either. More investigation pending.
- This seems to be the first Palm made during/after Palm's recent re-naming, as the name atop the device is "palm," not "PalmOne."
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Carl said 9:13AM on 12-08-2005
How can we sync the TX with Mac OS 10.4 using wifi or bluetooth?
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tom hutcheson said 12:21AM on 11-17-2005
what a relief. i, a modestly competent but persistent palm lover, have been trying to solve this dilema for a week.
you reported:
"WiFi works well and it maintains a strong signal. One quirk so far: the T|X couldn't connect to my AirPort Express with WPA security enabled. Guess I need to learn a little more about wireless security compatibility."
i'm just glad it wasn't my fault.... and please report back when you find a solution. thanks
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Scott Dye said 12:21AM on 11-09-2005
I am interested in a TX to replace my current CLIE and (for the most part) my gen2 iPod. I have to have a PDA, and it has gotten to where I only listen to a couple of weekly podcasts on my iPod anyway, so I'm hoping to listen to those on the TX instead of carrying around both devices. I played with one in the store, and absolutely loved the portrait mode. I do have a couple questions I hope can be answered in the full review:
--How well does the TX work with podcasts /mp3s/AACs - is it a difficult process to manage/transfer audio files to the TX?
--Is there any way to play the videos from the iTunes Music store on the TX?
--Can it sync with a mac via BT or Wi-Fi?
--is there any chance of using Apple's bluetooth keyboard with the TX?
--Does the USB cable charge the TX on a mac (I believe I read that it does on a PC, without always having to use the power cord)?
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David Chartier said 12:49AM on 11-09-2005
Scott Dye: great questions, I'll try to hit on them all:
1) It works pretty well with Podcasts, though I use a newsreader app called Quick News to collect them. I've only downloaded one, just to do it, and it was an mp3. I do all my other podcasting through iTunes and my nano, just cuz it's faster and easier imho. Playing AAC's on the Palm is tricky, is there isn't a lot of support out there yet. An app called Aero Player has a plugin you can buy to do it, and Quick News now offers support for outside media player apps to play the podcasts in.
2) I don't think it's possible yet to play iTMS videos on the Palm. Nothing I know of supports the iTMS DRM schemes, making the files un-openable.
3) The HotSync software that comes with the TX out of the box can support bluetooth syncing. If you go to Palm's support site, chose the TX and look or search for bluetooth syncing, they have an easy how-to walk through to set you up. I don't know about WiFi syncing out of the box, but I personally purchased Missing Sync, as it offers a TON of other Palm syncing options (such as iPhoto integration, downloading compatable songs from iTunes, desktop folder syncing, etc) and it supports WiFi syncing and a VERY simple setup to do it.
4) I've never even looked into using Apple's BT keyboard, but my first guess is no. Sorry, but you'll have to google for that one.
5) Everything I read the day the TX came out said the cable probably won't charge the TX, but what-do-ya-know: it does, at least when plugged into my iMac G5. (USB2 is needed, I bet) I haven't tried this on my 12" powerbook, which also has USB2. Thanks for asking, as this makes me really happy.
Hope this helps!
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Mette Christensen said 5:14PM on 11-16-2005
Hi,
I just got the palm TX
I tried to install iSilo (using the modifying software fore the T3 to compensate for the large display on the TX), but the screen i totally messed up.....The status bar dissappears, redering the palm completely useless.(I use G3 iBook with OS 10.3.7) So I had to do hard reset to fix it again.
Is there a way to fix this problem, or another application that can do the job of iSilo (i have no previous experienct with PDA's).
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rick said 9:16PM on 11-28-2005
Just purchased a tx having problems with
bluetooth dun and my motorola e-815
I've managed to connect to the internet
using bluetooth but it seems the phone times out and disconnects to quickly about 20 seconds.
I did not have this problem with my toshiba pda.
Hope someone has solved this because i like this PDA and would hate to have to return it.
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John Knowles said 8:10PM on 12-02-2005
Like Terry Thiel (see comment 21) I also have the Palm T/X and a Motorola e815 cell phone but unlike Terry I have not been able to sync them over bluetooth. The e815 is not one of the phones listed in the TX's phone setup and it is not in Palms Phone Link Updater application either. Does anyone know of a site that will let me download the patch to make the two sync? Or some other way to make them sync? Thanks for any info you can give.
By the way I have not had such a good Palm year so far. My Tungsten E just froze up after 6 months and no soft or hard boot would work on it. Decided not to spend the money to try to fix it and bought the T/X. It did not work right from the start (home button opened up the contacts, contact button opened the task menu, the calendar button opened the contacts, and it would not sync with my PC), so I returned that one after a day of frustration and exchanged it for the one I have now. It seems to work fine except for not being able to sync with my phone. So all in all I am no better off then I was when I had my Palm V, expect thing are in color now.
Also does anyone know of a phone number for Palm tech support? That is not an easy thing to find.
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Doug said 2:30PM on 10-14-2005
"Contacts are syncing perfectly"
How is this possible? I thought that all palm software had issues with isync in that all categories were lost for contacts, and only work addresses copied over. See the following link in Apple discussions for a more thorough discussion:
http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?14@804.cyYDaZPUYNX.1@.68bb62d6/6
How did you get around these issues? Or are you only syncing to the dreaded Palm Desktop?
-=[doug]=-
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nick said 2:34PM on 10-14-2005
I've had the same issue connecting an earlier palm (with a wifi card) to airport express. Let us know if you discover a solution.
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David Chartier said 3:15PM on 11-02-2005
Doug I said that in the assumption that Palm unfortunately doesn't sync stuff like categories. I just wanted to elaborate that syncing was working, as I'm using Hotsync and I've enabled the iSync conduit to sync with Apple's stuff.
Does anyone even USE Palm Desktop anymore?? :)
But yea, categories and stuff don't sync, unfortunately. I'd kill for that ability, but as far as I've seen not even 3rd party apps like Missing Sync have found a way to pull that off.
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Doug said 3:05PM on 10-14-2005
Dave,
Thanks for the speedy reply. It seems to me that saying this unit "syncs perfectly" is an overly positive thing to say. To me, it sounded like you had found a way to avoid all these problems. I think what you meant was more like "Setting up isync was straightforward, given all the known limitations of Apple/Palm sync interface"
BTW, I don't see your assumptions anywhere in the post.
-=[doug]=-
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pketh said 3:39PM on 10-14-2005
I've only ever used a palm on a pc, and i'm not really a big fan of palm desktop - especially compared to the apple aps (ical, etc)
just wondering if the install goes something like this:
buy palmpilot
turn on isync
plug in palmpilot
et voila - contacts, notes, calender(+alarms) and all that are synced up!
so is it like that?
if so I may try and track down one of the older (cheap) zires
thanks :)
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Spad One said 1:48PM on 10-15-2005
I have a T3 and a strong ebook appetite. How does the screen compare to the T3, and is text scrolling equally smooth?
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David Chartier said 3:15PM on 11-02-2005
Pketh the setup is pretty easy on a Mac, but slightly differs between Tiger and previous versions of OS X. In Tiger, a good process is to:
1) Install Palm software (which usually requires a restart)
2) Open iSync and chose Devices > Enable Palm OS Syncing.. which will tell you it has to disable some Palm conduits in order to function properly. This is good, do it.
3) If you want your Palm to sync, always initiate the sync from your palm or from the palm software. If you try to start a sync FROM iSync it will give you a warning that the Palm won't be included.
If you're using Panther or Jaguar you have to go to Apple's Downloads section to download and install the iSync Palm conduit.
Also: in case you want to sync your Palm with software other than Apple's iCal/Address Book, (like Entourage, for example) you'll need to buy some 3rd party software. Crummy I know, but I can recommend www.missingsync.com as a nice solution. I used it for a while, but switched back to using just iSync and Apple's apps.
Hope this helps!
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mathboy said 4:34PM on 10-14-2005
Just a quick note. In David's last comment he stated that you need to buy third party software to sync to Entourage. This is not the case. Entourage has its own conduit and syncs with my Palm Zire 21 fine. I hate to have to use Entourage because I prefer the Apple apps, but I use Entourage to connect to my workplace's Exchange serve. But I digress....
Thanks for the 'First Impressions' of the TX David!
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Joakim said 4:28PM on 10-14-2005
Nice one! I really want one, but I also want one of the new iPods.
So how does it handle video content?
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David Chartier said 3:15PM on 11-02-2005
Woops, Mathboy was right. I tracked down the Entourage conduit at Microsoft's Mactopia site. This link will be ugly, but it should work:
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.aspx?pid=download&location=/mac/DOWNLOAD/OFFICEX/palmsync.xml&secid=5&ssid=9&flgnosysreq=True
Hope this helps.
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dirk long said 4:44PM on 10-14-2005
Also wondering how video will look on this Palm and how web browser/wifi hold up!
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David Chartier said 3:15PM on 11-02-2005
Dirk long I haven't done any video yet, as I don't have an SD card to save files like that to - yet. Web browsing is snappy for a palm, not quite as zippy as a desktop with a good high-speed connection but hey, what'r you gonna do? It's just a 312 Mhz chip in there anyway. Heavy sites with a lot of images will bog it down, however.
Personally I'm a huge, huge RSS fiend. I probably spend more time in a newsreader than a browser these days, and I really enjoy Quick News on the Palm OS. Highly customizable and able to set feeds to auto-download on a schedule.
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alan said 5:23PM on 10-14-2005
If anybody figures out how to connect palm t|x to airport base using WPA2 Personal security with WPA (TKIP) encryption please post it. According to info on palm.com t|x supports WEP and WPAPSK. WEP is not an option so if WPA doesn't work then no t|x for me.
Thnx.
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