Review of "live" Palm Tungsten T. Part One, steel

For the past three years I use exclusively by the operating system Palm. I know her well, changed a lot of models for a long time, yes indeed, as much as I waited for the release of new operating systems ... even more devices based on it, look at what else is capable of a legendary company. Recently, the PDA market was a lull. No, no, on the surface of all the bubbling and gurgling: handheld computers came into vogue, companies zhelezyachniki (producers of computer hardware) has finally realized that the CCP is the thing demanded, but the main thing - the fashion and began to flood the market model similar to one another. Well, it is no wonder, operating systems that have proven their loyalty to the user, after the untimely death EPOC remained only two: Pocket PC, so Palm OS. Both, it is not difficult to see very demanding on hardware solutions, and that's filled with endless clones of the shops have already gained success models. To announce the new operating system, Palm has identified certain point out of the vicious circle, that's just in my opinion, too early. Release of the new OS world waited over a year. During this time, the development time to acquire so many rumors, mysteries and guesses that at some point became clear: that Palm would not do it, it will still be worse than what already nafantaziroval currently user. Moreover, the company Sony, apparently recently trying to someone to prove their weight on the PDA market and, therefore, produced several models in the month, the pop-user more and more close to the most rumored model PDA. The undoubted climax of this was, of course, the representation model NR-series. Thus, the debut of a new, in fact, generations of handheld computers Palm, in the face of Palm Tungsten T was held in late October. And only now, before Russia got the first machine that can be touched with his own hands, poke regular stylus, compared with competitors, to assess how the rumors came true. We begin immediately with the specifications. The heart of Palm Tungsten is a processor OMAP1510, from digging Texas Instruments, which consists of two subprocessors: ARM 925 and C55x. The latter - a DSP (digital signal processor) processor and is used exclusively for the implementation of multimedia tasks. Also on the main processor implemented LCD controller, USB, SD, Bluetooth. Despite higher than the previous generation of processors Palm (Motorola Dragonball EZ, VZ) clock, OMAP1510 compare with them in power consumption. Tungsten does not shine in memory: 8 MB Flash, 16 RAM. It's just heartbreaking, because at first glance, the program for the five, on average, one and a half times more unique to version 4.1. Sure is there a slot for cards SD, which can also work with the periphery on the basis of this standard. The display is nothing new in the design is not introduced - such as for a year already shows us Sony: 320 by 320 pixels, 16 bit, the front lights. Pleasant one - Palm has finally officially adopted a new, high resolution and basic "disease" of these handhelds - "dancing pixels obsessive, hopefully, cured. Screen closes a transparent plastic lid with a hole for access to the joystick, which is simple enough anywhere to forget: apart from the Tungsten, it skillfully disguised as details of the interior, so that, at first, I had almost lost her. Then it became clear that the lid can still mounted on the rear panel - convenient, and most importantly, it is clear that someone thought about it. «TT» equipped with a speaker and microphone, and "right off the bat is able to work as a voice recorder - record and play back voice messages. For these purposes, at the end, where the Sony is usually wheel JogDial, made a special button to start recording, and beside it is a hole-in microphone. His way, you can inadvertently hurt when you press the button. Speaker (I mean a real speaker, not the beeper, as in the previous Palm) now adorns the front panel by an elegant mesh. In light of the fact that the speaker is not very loud, it is a pleasant alternative to the standard 3.5 mm headphone jack. Themselves earphones do not like, however, there is no mp3 player. In this connection, go obsessive rumors of imminent withdrawal from the free player of Palm and its analogue on Real Audio. Another pleasant surprise was the use of a Palm Tungsten universal connector (Universal Connector), so that most of the periphery of m500 series can be perfectly used with «TT». This, incidentally, it becomes clear immediately: the new set of standard cradle 500y series with the same standard power adapter. A useful "frills" can also be noted LED indication of charging batteries and alarm, vibration, and, of course, rapidly entering the mode Bluetooth. Deserves special attention stylus. Telescopic metal pen kept on a special mount and gets a touch on the tip. For dealing with clear analogy is a comparison with first-class PDA stylus Newton series 130 and 2000. Separately to say about the buttons and controls. Of course the main "chip" is a sliding area of ​​graffiti. The idea is very good, but certainly not original (think, for example, Sharp Zaurus, with its sliding keyboard). Most interestingly, it is this innovation and bring the greatest amount of frustration. For example, if a closed area graffiti remain closed part of the action buttons, including back button in the main menu (house) and the context menu. As a result, in the folded state can not even call a soft keyboard! The most offensive that these functions can not even give any of the 4 hardware buttons, joystick, neighbors, have all the time to open and close a PDA. There is in this opening and closing and interesting solutions, for example, you can make your computer turned on when you open the graffiti on and off at closing.

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Joystick, in my opinion, is the most useful acquisition, especially in light of future multimedia capabilities, in particular, advanced games, which these same opportunities will be used. In our daily work life, he was really helpful to me except that only when working with spreadsheets. The power button is on top, next to her the elegant svetodiodik slightly get on the front panel. Infrared, as well as it lives on top, and is represented by a narrow dark little window next to the card slot. I would say that design new Palm I rather like it than dislike. Despite the fact that in the folded position, he looks a bit kutsym, but it fits easily into a shirt pocket, for some reason considered to be the benchmark for small size, and, in general, in any pocket of your choice. Brushed metal case, in conjunction with black plastic gives you a feeling of solidity and strength of the assembly as a whole, like the good old Palm Vx. Well, of course, a wonderful stylus that completes the image of an expensive and stylish things. The authors, translation:

Alexander Eremeev