.KEYWORD tungsten
.FLYINGHEAD FIRST LOOK
.TITLE Palm gets up to date with new Tungsten family of handhelds
.FEATURE
.SPOTLIGHT FIGALT cover.gif
.SUMMARY On October 28, 2002, Palm unveiled two brand new handheld devices, the Palm Tungsten T and the Palm Tungsten W. Steve Niles has a first look at this brand new family of Palm OS handhelds and introduces you to Palm OS 5.
.AUTHOR Steve Niles
On October 28, 2002, Palm unveiled two brand new handheld devices, the Palm Tungsten T and the Palm Tungsten W. The Palm Tungsten T (at http://www.palm.com/products/handhelds/tungsten-t/), priced at $499, is available now. It features a "slider" that can be moved up or down to hide the Graffiti area when you don’t need it. The device is pictured in both configurations in Figure A.
.FIGPAIR A Palm’s new Tungsten T handheld features a unique slider.
The navigation and application buttons are on the slider. If you’re not inputting data using Palm’s Graffiti alphabet, you can tuck away the silkscreen area, creating a more compact device. There’s a new one-handed 5-way navigator that activates up, down, left, right, and select. With the navigator, you can launch applications and view information without having to take out the stylus. The classic Palm PIM (Personal Information Management) applications–Date Book, Address Book, Note Pad, and To Do List–have been updated to take advantage of this 5-way navigation.
Its wireless cousin, the Palm Tungsten W (at http://www.palm.com/products/handhelds/tungsten-w/), won’t be available until early 2003, but it will feature a built in keyboard and phone. Basically, Palm is following the lead of Handspring’s Treo communicator line. The device is pictured in Figure B.
.FIGPAIR B Palm’s Tungsten W is a wireless phone/PDA combo with a built in keyboard.
.H1 The OS influence
The Tungsten T is the first Palm branded line to feature Palm OS 5. The new operating system has built-in support for ARM-compliant processors, which should word to accelerate applications. More speed and power means the device can handle software with more advanced graphics and manage larger databases. Speaking of graphics, the new OS has support for 320×320 pixel screens (double the resolution of previous generation products). It also supports sound recording and playback. As far as wireless connectivity goes, Palm OS 5 supports Bluetooth and 802.11b wireless networking standards. It also includes a suite security services that can be integrated into applications and corporate security policies depending on your needs.
Let’s take a look at how Palm OS 5 has influenced the design of the Palm Tungsten T.
.H2 Processor
The Palm Tungsten T runs on Texas Instruments’ OMAP1510 processor. This should give it the necessary the power to run more intense multimedia features and software applications, such as short video clips, digital audio files or photos, and interactive games. As mentioned before, the new OS allows for the Tungsten T’s crisp 320×320 color screen, Palm’s sharpest screen to date.
.H2 Sound recording
The Palm Tungsten T features one-touch voice recording so you can capture and record voice memos. You can then later email them from your desktop computer. It also features a headphone jack, as seen in Figure C.
.FIGPAIR C The Palm Tungsten T features voice recording and a headphone jack
.H2 Wireless communication
The Palm Tungsten T handheld has built-in Bluetooth connectivity, so it can communicate with other Bluetooth-enabled devices, such as phones, printers, PCs, or other handhelds. The Palm Tungsten T handheld includes a suite of phone drivers for the major Bluetooth phones on the market.
.H1 Battery life, memory, and expansion
The Palm Tungsten T has an internal, rechargeable lithium ion battery, which Palm says should last up to one week with basic PIM usage at default brightness before recharging. The device comes with 16MB of memory with 14MB of actual storage capacity, but you can use expansion cards for additional applications and storage.
Like the rest of the most recent Palm handhelds (excluding the just released Zire), the Palm Tungsten T handheld comes includes the Palm Expansion Slot for SD Cards, SDIO, and MultiMediaCards. It also utilizes the Palm Universal Connector for connection to the HotSync cradle and hardware add-ons.
On the subject of hardware add-ons, to accompany the announcement of the Tungsten line, Palm, Inc. also announced the Palm Ultra-Thin Keyboard. The product hasn’t yet been released but a tiny teaser picture of it is available on Palm’s Web site, as you can see in Figure D.
.FIG D The Palm Ultra-Thin Keyboard is a new type of foldable full-size keyboard.
The Palm Ultra-Thin Keyboard was designed and manufactured by Think Outside, makers of the previous foldable Palm Portable Keyboard. The case unfolds to a standard QWERTY keyboard, with 18mm key spacing and 3mm key travel. The new keyboard has an aluminum design 30 percent lighter and half the thickness of the previous Palm Portable Keyboard. Another improvement over the previous model is that the Palm Ultra-Thin Keyboard is rigid enough when open to use on a lap or other uneven surface. The Palm Ultra-Thin Keyboard is $99 (estimated U.S. street price) and scheduled to be available in limited quantities beginning in late November in the United States. Volume worldwide availability is expected in early 2003.
.H1 The Palm Tungsten W handheld
The Palm Tungsten W handheld actually has more in common with the Handspring Treo line than its Tungsten T cousin. In particular is the fact that the Palm Tungsten W handheld only runs Palm OS 4.1.1 on a Motorola Dragonball VZ 33mHz processor. Similar to the Treo 270, it’s an integrated GSM/GPRS wireless handheld with a built-in keyboard and a color screen. It does resemble the Tungsten T, however, in that it features the one-handed, 5-way navigation, a 320×320 resolution screen, and integrated Bluetooth connectivity.
The Palm Tungsten W ships with Palm VersaMail, new personal email software for POP and IMAP email accounts. Features include the ability to download and view the text of Microsoft Word documents and HTML email attachments, advanced folder and filtering capabilities, the ability to delete many messages at one time, and common tasks such as forwarding email and moving messages. There’s Windows PC synchronization support, and you can synchronize email with Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Lotus Notes 5.0, and Eudora.
Since the device also acts as a phone, Palm saw fit to include its most powerful lithium ion battery to date designed to provide up to 10 hours of talk time. The Palm Tungsten W features a Quick Connect capability so that you can make phone calls from the Palm Address Book without using the stylus. It also has speed dialing, caller ID, call forwarding, 5-way conference calling, and call-history logs. You can also access custom functionality, such as redial reminders and call notes, which integrate with the Palm Address Book. There’s a hands-free headset included, so you can talk on the phone while performing other tasks with the device.
As already mentioned, the Palm Tungsten W handheld isn’t scheduled to be available until the first quarter of 2003. The international estimated street price will be $549 (U.S.) without wireless service. The price will vary based upon network operator and sales channel.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on the Palm Tungsten T, visit http://www.palm.com/products/handhelds/tungsten-t/.
For more information on the Palm Tungsten W, visit http://www.palm.com/products/handhelds/tungsten-w/),
For more information on Palm handhelds, visit http://www.palm.com.
.H1 Easy, flexible article reprints
ZATZ now offers a quick, easy, flexible and inexpensive way to use article reprints in your marketing and promotion efforts. You can now get article reprints for a one-time fee of only $200. For details, visit http://mediakit.zatz.com/reprints.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO
.DISCUSS http://powerboards.zatz.com/cgi-bin/webx?50@@.ee70303
