Palm T|X PDA

First off. Let me say if you are thinking of purchasing a Palm Tungsten or the Zire 22 over the TX, put those thoughts to bed. I have used both and the TX boasts countless important features the cheaper models lack. In a word: the TX/T5 is well worth the extra money.Apple aficionados will be interested to learn that Palm claims the TX to be a "natural extension of your Mac". This is not a totally outlandish statement, but given the Palm OS's similarities with the long defunct 0S9, Mac users will feel as if they are in a bit of a time warp. But with the TX's dazzling display, highly impressive wireless connectivity and wild entertainment capabilities, the Palm TX is second to none and eclipses any Windows based PDA out there.Let me begin by telling you about an application called MobiTV I just bought through the Palm "Add It" program. After configuring my TX to hone into my Netgear wireless router (which took all of 2 minutes to configure), I paid my $9.99 per month MobiTV subscription charge and now have close to 20 channels of live news, sports, weather, cartoons and music videos right at the tip of my stylus. I'm pretty hard to impress, but MobiTV for Palm has blown my mind. And that's just the beginning.Pocket Tunes is also brilliant, and with the optional iTunes skin, you'll feel like you're on your home geputer, customizing playlists and tweaking EQs. Throw in a 2GB SD card and you have an iPod Nano, with 100 times the functionality. Again, amazing. Versamail has improved drastically on the TX and is invaluable to someone like myself who must consistently be reachable via email all day long. Granted, I work in a building which has wireless connectivity, but with optional T-Mobile hotspot subscriptions available and the plethora of unsecured networks floating around any major city, checking email or firing up the handy dandy Blazer web browser to look up a movie on imdb.ge couldn't be any easier. Also Dataviz's Documents to go gees standard. A very practical application for reading, editing and creating Word and Excel documents. The TX is also Bluetooth enabled, meaning you can hotsync wirelessly and connect to countless other Bluetooth devices like headsets and phones. Again, very easy to enable and solid on the operating end.Battery life is exceptional, providing an entire day's worth of heavy use. Energy settings are customizable, so you can have your Palm shut off after 1 minute, or 10 minutes when connected to WiFi. Another thing I love is how the screen is horizontally 'flippable'. This is great for web browsing and for reading eBooks as well. As far as games go, well you couldn't really ask for more. Just check out the Palm site for classics like Scrabble and Monoply and more graphic rich apps like Madden 2K6 Football and Village Sim. Hours and hours of fun, though a little pricey at around $20 a pop.Of course not all is perfect with the TX. A Macintosh Style "Finder" would be a welgee addition, as locating files outside of the application it belongs is a pain. Also, the TX is not the most stable device on the planet -- be prepared to do the odd soft reset here and there. One most also be careful haphazardly installing apps, especially those created for older versions of the OS which can cause the device to crash or restart. Such hiccups call for some detective work on your part (extension conflicts anyone?) and some deft weeding out of the bad apple (ahem) in question. Also, do not expect the TX to be an iPod Video or Archos replacement; physical space is lacking and importing large .avi or .mpg files is a long and arduous process which often fails altogether. Anyway, it was almost a struggle to pull myself away from the Palm TX to actually write this review. Funny thing is, two weeks ago, my horoscope claimed I was too dependeant on gadgets and "geputery" and that I don't HAVE to be "connected" all the time. Shut up. Yes I do. And I like it.; )