Palm recently released the Tungsten T. After spending some time with this new Palm OS 5 device, I have to say this is one of the most exciting offerings I've seen from Palm in quite a while.
The first striking feature of the Tungsten is its slider design. The outside of the slider features four buttons--Date Book, Address Book, To-Do List, and Note Pad--plus a new five-way Navigator, which allows for fast scrolling through long lists without tapping on the screen.
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| Figure 1. The Tungsten T with the slider open |
Pull the slider down and you will see the usual Graffiti area. Palm's rationale for designing the slider is that most of the time you don't need Graffiti. And hence, the slider will make the device smaller when it is in place. Size-wise, the Tungsten is smaller than a Pocket PC, as shown below.
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| Figure 2. Comparing the size of iPaq with the Tungsten T |
Besides the cosmetic improvements, the Tungsten T also uses the faster Texas Instruments OMAP1510 processor (an enhanced ARM-based processor), running at 144MHz. It also comes with 16MB of SDRAM, though this seems measly compared to the 64MB found in most Pocket PCs. However, you have the option to add an SD memory card to the Tungsten T for additional storage.
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| Figure 3. The top view of the Tungsten (image from Palm.com) |
Just as with previous Palm devices, the Tungsten T uses a rechargeable Lithium-Polymer battery. The screen resolution is 320 by 320 and supports 16-bit colors on a reflective display. It also comes with built-in speaker, a new Voice Memo button (similar to Pocket PCs), and a new headphone jack.
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| Figure 4. The new headphone jack and the voice recorder button (image from Palm.com) |
Most importantly, the Tungsten T comes with Bluetooth built-in, eliminating the need to buy an additional Bluetooth card (which is costly). The bundled software, BlueBoard and BlueChat, allow you to use the Bluetooth connection to share a common "whiteboard" as well as to chat with another user via Bluetooth. There is also an SMS application that allows you to send SMS messages on your Tungsten T.
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| Figure 5. Using the BlueBoard application to share a common "whiteboard" |
The Tungsten T also includes a Palm Universal Connector for connecting to add-on peripherals such as a keyboard, a wireless network card, and so on.
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| Figure 6. The Palm Universal Connector for add-on peripherals (image from Palm.com) |
While the Tungsten T includes a headphone jack, it does not come with software that plays your audio files. So if you want to listen to your MP3 audio, you have to look for the application yourself.
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Fortunately, I managed to find a free MP3 player from Aerodrome Software. The AeroPlayer from Aerodrome is currently in beta (6.3) and is available for free download.
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| Figure 7. Playing MP3 audio on the Tungsten T |
By default, the AeroPlayer supports the Ogg/Vorbis audio file format. But it supports plug-ins that play other music format. Currently, two plug-ins are available: Wave and MP3.
You can also change the default "skin" of the player. Additional skins are available.
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| Figure 8. Changing the skin of the AeroPlayer |
Because MP3 files take up significant storage (as compared to the 16MB onboard memory of the Tungsten T), you will need an SD memory card to store the MP3 files.
Besides the AeroPlayer, Kinoma also produces a player that plays multimedia files on your Palm device. The Kinoma Player is a digital media player for Palm OS. It supports video, VR objects, VR panoramas, animation, and still images with synchronized audio. You can download some sample panorama clips and movies.
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| Figure 9. Playing sample movie clips using the Kinoma Player |
If you want to play your multimedia clips on your Palm (such as MP3 files), you can use the Kinoma Producer to convert the files to the Kinoma movie file format. The Kinoma Producer supports standards like QuickTime, MPEG-1, MPEG-4, AVI, MP3, WAVE, AIFF, Macromedia Flash, animated GIF, PNG, and JPEG. Download a trial version of the Kinoma Producer.
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Just as the Pocket PC has Pocket Word and Pocket Excel, the Tungsten T also comes with Documents To Go by DataViz. Documents To Go is an application that allows you to view, edit, and create Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents. The greatest strength of Documents To Go is perhaps its ability to preserve documents-formatting after synchronization. Using Documents To Go, I am able to copy my Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents onto the Tungsten T and make modifications to these documents on the device.
Documents To Go is included on the Bonus Software CD that comes with the Palm Tungsten. For more information, see Palm.com.
To add your documents to your Palm device, install the Documents To Go software and add them to your device using the Add Item button, as shown in Figure 10:
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| Figure 10. Adding documents to your Palm device using Documents To Go |
Files that are created on your Palm device will appear in the window, as shown in Figure 11, after the next synchronization.
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| Figure 11. Viewing Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents on the Tungsten T |
I find Documents To Go a handy tool when you need to write something quickly (like on a plane) or you need to rehearse for an upcoming presentation when you are on the road. Coupled with a keyboard, the combination could possibly replace your notebook!
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| Figure 12. Palm Ultra-Thin Keyboard for Tungsten T |
One of the challenges I discovered when working on this article was capturing screen shots. Obviously, I could use a camera to take photos of the screen. But there should be an easier way. And there is. After some searching, I found the ScreenShot5 1.0 application from LinkeSOFT GmbH.
ScreenShot5 works with Palm 5 devices, including the Tungsten T. You can download a trial edition of ScreenShot5.
Upon installation, you should see the ScreenShot icon on your Palm device:
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| Figure 13. Using ScreenShot5 for capturing screen shots |
There are two main ways to capture screen shots using ScreenShot5; the first is to use the Silkscreen; the second is to use a key button or a delayed capture.
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| Figure 14. Using the Silkscreen method |
The Silkscreen function allows me to activate the capture when I perform a specified action in the graffiti area. For example, in Figure 15, I have configured my action to be "from Menu to Find." Therefore, I will use the stylus and tap a line from Menu to Find to capture a screenshot:
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| Figure 15. Capturing a screen using the Silkscreen method |
The second method allows me to capture a screen by using a key button. As shown in Figure 16, pressing the Calendar key will capture the screen, while pressing the Address button will activate a delayed screen capture (after three seconds).
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| Figure 16. Using key buttons to capture a screen shot |
After capturing all the screen shots, you need to download the images onto your computer. If you are using Windows, you can download ScreenShot Conduit to automatically save the images onto your computer in the format that you want. After installing ScreenShot Conduit, you can right click on the HotSync button on the task tray and select Custom.... Change the settings for Screenshot and you will be able to set the directory and the format for the files to be saved in:
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| Figure 17. Using the ScreenShot Conduit to download images from the Palm device |
For Mac users, you need to use the Graphic Converter to view the captured images. After you have performed your screen capture, use HotSync to sync the images to your Mac. The images will be saved in a file named ScreenShotDB.pdb. Perform a search for this file (it is located deep within a folder called Backups).
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| Figure 18. Locating the ScreenShotDB.pdb file |
Next, use Graphic Converter to open the ScreenShotDB.pdb file:
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| Figure 19. Viewing images using Graphic Converter |
To view the next image, click on the bottom-left button, as shown in Figure 19, and select the next image. You can also save each image individually.
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The Tungsten T has been my best Palm experience to date. With so many features packed into such a small footprint, and with the thousands of applications available for the platform, this is definitely a tempting consideration for users who want power, good looks, and versatility.
On the downside, the Tungsten is expensive. Its $499 USD asking price seems out of line compared with more powerful Pocket PCs in the same price range. A quick check on the Internet shows that you can buy a Tungsten T from reputable vendors for less than $400, which still seems a bit steep to us, but definitely more palatable.
Users, on the other hand don't seem to have a problem with the price, or much else for that matter. A quick check of CNet's user comments shows that 90 percent of Tungsten's owners (1,290 postings) give Palm's new, high-end PDA a resounding thumbs up. It's hard to argue with consumers who actually shell out the bucks and use the device every day.
So we're not going to. The Palm Tungsten T is an attractive, compact, capable multimedia PDA that should delight both the business professional and the techno hobbyist. Built-in Bluetooth and a powerful new processor just sweeten the pie.
Wei-Meng Lee (Microsoft MVP) http://weimenglee.blogspot.com is a technologist and founder of Developer Learning Solutions http://www.developerlearningsolutions.com, a technology company specializing in hands-on training on the latest Microsoft technologies.
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