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Consumer Electronics & Media: Articles & Reviews
The Palm Zire 71 And 72 Can Help You Get More DoneWednesday, November 15, 2006
by Ron Heller
The Zire palm pilot is one of the most useful models of PDA on the market today. The model 71 and the model 72 both have some excellent built in features like a digital camera, speakers, great display and touch screen. When shopping for a Zire palm pilot, it is important to determine what features are most important to you and shop appropriately.
There are many places to buy a Zire palm pilot, both on the internet and off. Palm pilots are available at many electronics retailers and computer stores. In addition, many Internet retailers sell these wonderful PDA's and the accessories to go with them. A nice leather case always makes a great companion to your new Zire.
The Zire 71 runs on the Palm OS 5.2.1 operating system, and it also includes great software like notepad, palm photos, palm reader, address book, photo reader, RealOne player, Kinoma Producer, Palm VersaMail 2.5, Adobe Acrobat Reader for Palm OS and much more. The Zire 71 and 72 both come with a docking cradle and a carrying case.
The processor powering the Zire is a Texas Instruments 144 MHzOMAP310 model, and it comes standard with 16MB of RAM. Input is achieved via a stylus, a touch screen and the standard navigation buttons familiar to PDA users.
The screen of the Zire is a TFT active matrix screen running at a screen resolution of 320x320. In addition, the Zire can be expanded with the addition of an SD memory card, and it provides for IrDA wireless connectivity to help you work wherever you are.
Now for the big question: is buying a Palm Zire a wise decision in today's market? To answer that, you should consider your own needs as well as your budget. There are of course alternatives to the Zime, but ,ost of them are much more expensive. For example, Let's assume you consider purchasing an iPAQ of a standard model - say the hx2795 Pocket PC model. That iPAQ will cost you around $250 in an onlie or a retail store. The Palm Zire 71 will cost around $170. Now, it's obvious that the iPAQ has greater computing power and other abilities, but ask yourself - are you really in need for these extra capabilities? Or maybe a more modest machine will be sufficient.
It is a very good thing that us consumers have such a large verity to choose from.
We think you will agree that the Zire PDA is a great pocket pc for the money, and in many cases - quite enough for ordinary people with no special requirements.
9:13 AM 0 comments
The iPod Is Almost Obselete
by Chris Campbell
The iPod, in all its aliases such as nano, and the shuffle are practically antiques. Functionally, it's really just a personal stereo, which was originally patented by Srirekam Jayram Purushotam in 1974. It first reached true commercial success with the electronics giant Sony in 1979 when they sold their first Walkman model called the Soundabout. The iPod is still filling the same need, but using newer technology to do it better. Many of today's generation of clones marching around with white ear buds growing out of their ears, have probably never heard of a Walkman. Much in the same way the next batch will have no idea what the heck an iPod is.
There is technology just waiting in the wings which will replace the iPod as we know it. The iPod (and most mp3 players) markets, and differentiates its line of products by capacity. All the models really do the same thing, with the same set of controls. The biggest difference between them and the biggest factor determining price, is the capacity of the drives inside them. The second differentiating factor is of course the color. Kind of hard to charge more for blue or pink though. Anyway, there will come a time, when actually having a drive in your mp3 player or iPod will not be necessary. It really doesn't make sense. It makes the unit bigger, and drives the price up. Those little drives are far more expensive than comparable drives for bigger machines. Carrying your entire song collection on your person is kind of risky as well. What happens when Uncle Bob thinks its funny to pick you up and throw you into his new pool? Ooops, is that your 80Gb iPod with 20,000 of your favorite being sucked towards the pool drain? You've got that thing backed up right? Ha!
The answer is of course to store your entire song/picture collection on a server somewhere with proper data protection and backup facilities. Then all you need is a network ready receiver about half the size of a iPod nano with the ability to access your music off that protected server wherever you are. Capacity becomes meaningless. Running out of disk space on a current iPod / mp3 player means either deleting songs (are you nuts!) or buying a new player. Great for the manufacturer, but not so much for the consumer. The different pieces of technologies are there, it's just a question of someone putting it all together, and marketing it to the masses.
I think, maybe I'll just hold on to my old cassette Walkman, for a little longer. The next really great personal stereo for me is just around the next corner.
9:13 AM 0 comments
Using Microsoft Outlook
Sunday, November 05, 2006
By Christina VanGinkel
The Internet has opened up a new world of access to not just information on a nearly unfathomable basis, but also to music, movies, television shows, and much more. Even those of us who feel that we are past the point of being Internet novices still discover things routinely that we never even knew was out there.
As a freelance writer, I often start my day by visiting a search engine or two, browsing the news online, and popping into a couple groups online that I am a member of. Sometimes to chat, other times because I am in search of some specific piece of information that I figure I might find the answer to quicker there than if, I browse elsewhere.
Because of my naturally inquisitive nature, any one of these common activities that I participate in almost daily will often lead to the discovery of something I never knew about the Internet. My bookmarks file is long and detailed, as I often edit the title so I can better pull up what I marked when I need it. While some people get up in the morning and turn on the television to check the weather and news, I find myself turning on my computer and going right to our local weather in seconds, rather than waiting for the Midwest forecast to come up on the Eights on The Weather Channel as I often did in the past. If I have a bill that needs paying, I will sign into the corresponding online account to check the balance due, and to make an immediate payment, or set up a future payment if that is what is required.
Making use of such options online can be greatly enhanced with various software programs, including programs for purchase and some as free online downloads. One favorite that I have come to love is Microsoft Outlook. Many people wrongly assume that Outlook is nothing more than an email client, while in reality it is much more.
Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 for example is a combination email client, a task builder and reminder, a place to keep track of all your contacts in a convenient to use and easy to access database, and a calendar that is full featured and a breeze to use.
Tasks in Outlook provide a user with various options including a simple list, a detailed list, active tasks, overdue tasks, completed tasks, and more. Outlook even offers a timeline view for someone with a busy task list to give him or her, a visual of where all there tasks are at.
Contacts can be set up in numerous categories too, providing the user with many options to keep track of both business and personal contacts. You can choose to view a simple phone list, broken down by locations or categories, addresses, or a detailed look at each entry. Similar looking to a Rolodex, when you click on a single entry, up pops a card onscreen with all contact information you have on the individual or company. Everything from a full name, job title, company if applicable, business, home, fax, mobile, email, mailing addresses and much more. Multi tabs also allow you to add details to each contact and other specifics you want to make note of including their profession, department, assistants, nicknames, spouses, even birthday and anniversaries. By providing a space for everything, you do not have to jump from one program to another to find the various details on a contact. It all has a space right in Outlook.
The calendar is a great place to set reminders, and I personally use it for this option quite a bit. Terrible at keeping track of even the most simple appointments and holidays including birthdays, I input such information once, tell it when I first want to be reminded, and it pops up on screen at the appointed time, giving me the option at that point to set a second and subsequent reminders.
Many other programs do offer some of these same options, but what is so great about Outlook is that they are all bundled together with a program that I am already using each day, the email part. While email was once a novelty or only something that serious business people checked on a regular basis, email has quickly become an activity that most people with online access use daily, comparable even to phone use at times. By coupling the email client with the calendar, address book, and task reminder, even the busiest person can now keep on top of a hectic schedule and keep track of business and personal contacts all from one front end.
8:54 AM 0 comments
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