Re: Any advice on moving from older Palm device to curre

["Dana Worley" <dana -at- campbellsci -dot- com>]

We provide Palm (and CE) software for communication with our 
dataloggers. I am project manager of the software and end up 
providing technical support on most of the PDA questions. Here are 
a few random thoughts.  

Some of the newer Palms (and CE devices) do not provide support 
for serial (i.e., RS232 9-pin) communication. This can be an issue if 
you need to connect a GPS module or some other serial I/O 
peripheral (or communicate with our dataloggers ;)  This can also be 
a problem if you are running an NT-based OS (NT, 2000, or XP), 
because these OSs have issues with hot syncing over USB. The 
good news is that all the older Palms *do* provide serial 
communication support.  

Someone made a comment about applications running on OS3 vs 
OS5. At least with our software (which runs on OS3.3 or greater), 
there has been no problem -- maybe we have a good programmer :)  

Most of the older Palm devices do not come with a cradle. I also 
have a couple of Compaq/iPaqs, and I appreciate having a cradle to 
drop them in to when not in use. My Palms tend to sit on my desk 
and eat batteries at times (what an odd sentence if it were taken out 
of context ;) The Palms do have a lithium backup battery, but it can 
be drained fairly quickly trying to maintain the memory if the main 
batteries drain (then, there goes all your data and the programs 
stored -- hmm... when was the last time I did a hot sync?).  

Purchasing any new PDA is like purchasing a new car (or any 
electronic device for that matter) -- the minute you drive it off the lot 
it has been replaced with a newer model.  

Overstock.com has some pretty good prices on new (but obsolete or 
blemished) & used PDAs.  

I have three Palm M100 series devices and they have been reliable. 
We have an IIIxe floating around here, and there have been no 
problems. There is also a Handspring Visor, which has proved to be 
a bit problematic at times, but it is likely the application in which we 
are using it (if the power is on when you remove the device from the 
cradle, the serial port can be held open and not available for other 
devices -- e.g., our datalogger communication software...).  

Palms occasionally have a problem with memory scramble and you 
have to reset the device (Fatal Alert messages). Not a huge 
problem if you hot sync regularly, and if you are not doing a lot of 
storing/deleting/storing/deleting of large files, but the devices will 
become unstable at some point (seems to be more of a problem 
with Palms than with CE devices). Maybe the newer OSs have 
addressed these issues.  

Peruse the PalmOne site; particularly the support section 
(http://www.palmone.com/us/support/). Read through the faqs for 
any device you are considering.  

Hmm... that's all I can think of right now.

Dana W.

On Monday, November 08, 2004, Guy K. Haas wrote: 

> Can anyone in the Techwrl-L community share THEIR experiences with
> either the Palm IIIxe OR with making the generational jump from
> PalmIII to Palm's latest OS 5.

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