Palm T/X or iPod Touch?

[BluCheez]

My old Palm Tungsten W is on its last legs. I have really enjoyed the Palm for organizing my day (all that personal management stuff). I wonder if the generation 2 iPod touch (32 GB) is a good option for me, or should I stick to Palm and buy the Palm T/X.

Any assistance here would be appreciated.

[Edit: I changed the title from t/x to pre, because if I am going to go with Palm, it will be the Pre.]

[RIPSeanTaylor21]

Originally Posted by BluCheez

My old Palm Tungsten W is on its last legs. I have really enjoyed the Palm for organizing my day (all that personal management stuff). I wonder if the generation 2 iPod touch (32 GB) is a good option for me, or should I stick to Palm and buy the Palm T/X.

Any assistance here would be appreciated.

pre

[BluCheez]

Originally Posted by RIPSeanTaylor21

pre

Isn't the Pre is a cell phone? I'm one of the few who have resisted getting a cell. I am only interested in a PDA/music player (with an emphasis on the PDA part).

[bigred7078]

get the ipod touch....waaaaay better unit.

[BluCheez]

Originally Posted by bigred7078

get the ipod touch....waaaaay better unit.

Any thoughts on the Palm Pre? I wasn't originally thinking of going in that direction, but when it comes out here in Canada, I'm going to look into it.

[alansaysstop]

Originally Posted by BluCheez

Any thoughts on the Palm Pre? I wasn't originally thinking of going in that direction, but when it comes out here in Canada, I'm going to look into it.

From what I heard from CONSUMERS, not people who review the product, it feels kinda cheap. Go with an iPhone.

[cdot2four]

I have the itouch and love it. Typing on it kind of sucks.

[greyrocket]

i just got a i phone 2 weeks ago and its great. i also did not want a cell but $99 for basically a i pod touch for half price.

[GBMidge7]

I just got a Pre and so far I am loving it. I don't think it feels cheap at all... not to mention that fact that I am paying at least $20 less per month on Sprint compared to AT$T. If you like Palm products, there's no reason you shouldn't look into the Pre as a cell phone as well. BTW, I also have an iPod touch (1st gen), which I do like... but I just had to give the Pre a try.

[BluCheez]

Originally Posted by GBMidge7

I just got a Pre and so far I am loving it. I don't think it feels cheap at all... not to mention that fact that I am paying at least $20 less per month on Sprint compared to AT$T. If you like Palm products, there's no reason you shouldn't look into the Pre as a cell phone as well. BTW, I also have an iPod touch (1st gen), which I do like... but I just had to give the Pre a try.

What do you see as the pros and cons of each?

Also, how much $$ do you pay per month?

[GBMidge7]

Originally Posted by BluCheez

What do you see as the pros and cons of each?

Also, how much $$ do you pay per month?

The biggest Pro of the Touch is absolutely the app store. At this point in time the Palm has NOTHING in the way of great apps. In general the build quality, optical quality glass, etc. of the Touch makes you feel like you have a high end piece of equipment. Notes, calender, alarms... all of that stuff is there and pretty much equal to what's on the Pre. I've never been too keen on the touch screen keyboard, however.

Palm Pre
Web OS/Multitasking: The multitasking capabilities of the Pre are pretty sweet, and there's a lot of great ways to stay connected and organized. Having push email/gmail, AIM, text/pix messaging, etc. all at your fingertips at any given moment is great. Notifications are great, too. You can be doing ANYthing... web browsing, messaging, listening to music, whatever... and if you get an email, text, whatever, a nice, non-intrusive message will pop up at the bottom of the screen. You don't HAVE to answer it, you can shoose to ignore it. But if you do answer it, you don't have to leave the current task.. instead, a new card will open up, you can check your message, and then easily return to your previous task. Music handling is nothing special on the pre, though... great sound quality, simple interface... it does the job.

Battery life: The battery life of the Pre isn't great, but I am not a heavy web browser, so I easily get to the end of the day with plenty of juice.
Build quality/keyboard: In general I dont think the Pre feels cheap, per se, but the fact that ot's made of plastic and doesn't have a glass screen sort of undermines the power of Web OS and multitasking that is under the hood. When I first tried the keyboard at a display model at Best Buy, I thought I was going to HATE it. But after having the unit in my hand, I am loving a physical keyboard compared to a touch keyboard. I also have small hands, so I figure that goes a long way toward the keyboard not feeling cramped for me.

Camera: The camera of the Pre is incredible. There s NOTHING in the way of editing or manual settings, but the photo quality is just amazing for a 3.2 megapixel phone camera. The shutter speed is amazing, too... you can literally take a picture about every 2-3 seconds if you want to. And the LED flash doesn't tend to leave things that weirdo bluish tint that a lot of cell phone cameras tend to.

And cost wise, of course the Touch was a one time cost, but if I were to have an iPhone, Sprint's plans win hands down over AT$T's. Here's my current plan...

450 anytime minutes, free nights and weekends starting at 7:00, unlimited data, unlimited messaging.... all for 69.99 per month.

AT$Ts not quite equivalent plan...

450 anytime minutes, free nights starting at 9:00, 5000 weekend minutes, unlimited messaging, ulimited data.... for 89.99 per month.

Essentially, if the Palm can create a compelling app store, I have a winner on my hands and a nice alternative to the iPhone

[BluCheez]

Thanks, GBMidge7.

I appreciate your input. About the iPhone apps store. Is it really that big a deal. Doesn't Palm have a ton of apps that can be downloaded for it? I don't know much about the iPhone apps store, so I am speaking out of ignorance. I'm just wondering if there is really that much missing (regarding apps) when comparing the Pre to the iPhone.

[Newmason]

Use my 2nd gen touch every single day at work for almost 8 hours a day monday through friday, and the only complaint I have is that I have to rip dvds to play them if I want to watch them while I work Get the touch!

[GBMidge7]

Originally Posted by BluCheez

Thanks, GBMidge7.

I appreciate your input. About the iPhone apps store. Is it really that big a deal. Doesn't Palm have a ton of apps that can be downloaded for it? I don't know much about the iPhone apps store, so I am speaking out of ignorance. I'm just wondering if there is really that much missing (regarding apps) when comparing the Pre to the iPhone.

When it comes to the Apple app store, it really depends on what you want out of it. As the commercials say, there are apps for just about everything, but how useful a lot of these are can be questionable. One place the Apple app store does excel in is games... you can get tons of great little games that serve as good distractions for things like road trips, flights, etc. Of course there are also great apps for organization, time management, etc., etc., etc. However considering you were cosidering a Palm Pilot in the first place, games probably weren't much on your mind anyway.

In terms of the Palm app store, no, at the moment there are NOT a ton of apps for download. It's actually limited to about 30, which is not many at all. However Palm is continuing to open up the development software for the app store to the developing community, so more apps should be on the way. And in terms of processing power, the Pre has the same specs as the new iPhone 3Gs (although a direct comparison of specs doesn't really mean much), so games and powerful apps are possible, just not avialable yet. The apps that are available show great promise for future apps though, considering the Pres multitasking and synergy aspects.
For example, one app that is always talked about is the Fandango app, where you can check out movie times and purchase tickets. First off, since the Pre has built in GPS and apps can be location based, when you open the app you don't have to type in your location, the Pre already knows where you are so will offer movie times and what not for YOUR location. Secondly, if you then purchase a movie ticket for a given showtime, the Pre will place the movie into your calender and block off the appropriate amount of time. Now I know that was an example that has been in most of the Pre reviews, but it's a GREAT example of the Pre's potential with apps.

And just a personal side note... even though I have a Touch, I don't realy play games or anything like that because I have a PS3 and 360, and I am not a big traveler or anything where I'd need the games to kill time. As a result, I haven't downloaded an app from the Apple app store (which is about 40-50,000 strong, by the way) for many, many months. An again, it's not that the Apple app store is only good for games, it's just I feel that is the main advantage Apple has at the moment. I think once developers really get going on the Palm app store, we're going to see some great stuff, game-related and non game-related.

Anymore questions just let me know... I've had about a wek and a half or 2 weeks to mess around with the thing, so even if you have little questions about functions, ringtones, etc, I think I can help!

[LaMp-PoSt-MaFiA]

i have had my palm centro for about 2 years now and still love it! I drive a forklift and play music and can hear it over the noise of beeping the horn or going in and out of a truck. pocket tunes is the best app aver for mp3/wma playback on a phone!

P.S. PUSH comes out tonight at midnight!!

[Elandyll]

Palm has no good applications ?

Granted they are probably less "shiny" than the Iphone Apps, but if you are talking quantity or quality
-lol-

People need to get out of the isheep mentality. Seriously.

[GBMidge7]

Originally Posted by Elandyll

Palm has no good applications ?

Granted they are probably less "shiny" than the Iphone Apps, but if you are talking quantity or quality
-lol-

People need to get out of the isheep mentality. Seriously.

Not sure if this is directed at me, but if it is... I mispoke when I said nothing in the way of great apps. What I meant was there aren't very MANY great apps, considering there are only 30 or so total. Most of the ones they do have are great, for the most part, although there are definately a few duds as well... I particularly like the available Weather app as well as the Pandora app. And the whole iSheep thing... I am the one with the Palm Pre and am preaching about how I love it, so not sure where that one comes from. I also mentioned how I have barely downloaded ANY apps from the Apple app store... I was just stating how there is a huge variety and number of choices, and that games are something where the Palm seriously lacks compared to Apple... but not once did I mention the quality of said apps (I even questioned the usefulness of many Apple apps), so I don't feel like I ever showed some major Apple allegiance either. Either way, I hope the OP is getting the information he wants, and as I mentioned earlier, BluCheez, feel free to ask anything else you may want to know about the awesome Palm Pre (Man I sound just like an iSheep )

[BluCheez]

Originally Posted by GBMidge7

Not sure if this is directed at me, but if it is... I mispoke when I said nothing in the way of great apps. What I meant was there aren't very MANY great apps, considering there are only 30 or so total. Most of the ones they do have are great, for the most part, although there are definately a few duds as well... I particularly like the available Weather app as well as the Pandora app. And the whole iSheep thing... I am the one with the Palm Pre and am preaching about how I love it, so not sure where that one comes from. I also mentioned how I have barely downloaded ANY apps from the Apple app store... I was just stating how there is a huge variety and number of choices, and that games are something where the Palm seriously lacks compared to Apple... but not once did I mention the quality of said apps (I even questioned the usefulness of many Apple apps), so I don't feel like I ever showed some major Apple allegiance either. Either way, I hope the OP is getting the information he wants, and as I mentioned earlier, BluCheez, feel free to ask anything else you may want to know about the awesome Palm Pre (Man I sound just like an iSheep )

Thanks. I appreciate all the info. I'd love to get the Pre when it shows up in Canada, but I'm just not sure if I can afford the monthly contract payments. We'll see what options our carrier (Bell Canada) offers. $80-$100/mth is a lot for a phone. I'd have to be convinced that the extras that I am getting with the "data" portion of it are worth it. I like the movie ticket purchase example. That is cool, but I've managed to survive by purchasing tickets the old fashioned way thus far.

[GBMidge7]

Hahaha, good luck with whatever you do... glad I could help

[Elandyll]

My confusion still comes from your comment that Palm only has a few "great" apps.

You mean that among the 10s of thousands of applications for Palm OS, there is only 30 deemed good?

Maybe you mean something very specific by "app" that I am mistaking? Just confused ...

P.S: sorry for the isheep comment, I think the constant barrage of TV adds for i-stuff is getting to me.