From the m505 to the T3

Some time back, I wrote an article for SPUG entitled, "My Palm m505 Setup: A Journey Into Discovery". Well today, I’m here to tell you about a new journey, "From the m505 to the T3". I’ve used a Palm III, Palm V, m505 and, recently I got my brand-spanking new T3 on 5 October, and now use it exclusively as my every day Palm. Below are entirely my own opinions and experiences comparing an m505 to the T3, so your mileage may vary. But I hope that by sharing my own experiences, I will help you come up with your own fair and balanced insight into this machine.

The Hardware

Well, there are already many in-depth reviews of the T3 on the Internet like at Palminfocenter and The Gadgeteer. So do take a look at those as well for a balanced viewpoint. The items that impressed me the most are the screen and the speaker quality. Other people who own Clies have also commented that they like the T3 for its size, and yet still have a 320×480 screen. Perhaps this "Slider" idea of Palm is really a "killer app" after all.

Indeed, one of the reasons why I myself changed to the T3 is I can have the 320×480 screen but yet without giving up the form factor of the m505 or Palm V. Only when you open up the slider do you get roughly the same size as a Clie NR. I had refused to go the way of the Clie simply because of its size, and now with the T3, I have the best of both worlds. To sum it up, when showing my T3 off to my Clie owning friends, we concluded that all of the T3’s key features have long been available on the Clie, so it is nothing new to them, but the T3 has one major "I’m better than you" feature, and that is its size. Price too has been mentioned as another key factor. So for those who wish they had all the stuff of a Clie (except a digital camera), but were put off by the fact that it was too big for your pocket (both your shirt pocket and wallet pocket), your prayers have been answered. And what about the digital camera? Well, I already have a Nikon D100, and don’t really intend to go around taking "spy shots".. err, but that’s for another article.. :)

But even as the T3 "matched" the Clie feature for feature, the T3 in fact betters the Clie in two more areas other than size - the screen and the speakers. The T3’s screen is the brightest I’ve ever seen on a Palm, beating the Clie with obvious ease. It’s like having the brightness on a new 505 on full power all the time, and this is when I turn my T3 brightness down to 35% or so! The speaker too, is fantastic, out-performing the Clie hands down. I can tell you from personal experience, that if you have a T3 and work in a "open office cubicle" style workplace, do not, I repeat, do not turn your speaker volume past 80% and play Linkin Park or something.. Your colleagues will be screaming their heads off. Yes, the speaker is as powerful as those cheap $15 speakers you can buy from Sim Lim to listen to your PC CD-ROM in the office. But I have my own office, so I usually go at about 88% when next to my PC monitor.. Still, I urge you to go out and buy some headphones, and no, Palm did not supply you with headphones in the box.

The casing is also quite sleek and stylish. Very "corporate". The bottom where the Universal Connector is reminds me of the bottom of an iPAQ, and the stylus slot with spring-loaded stylus is just like the Pocket PC ones. For once, Palm actually supplied a good stylus. I’ve been a Panache user for years, so when I got my T3, I immediately went to the shop to look for a Panache for my T3. Unfortunately, I came away extremely disappointed. Furthermore, the Palm stylus is heavy enough, and has a good tip, and has that cool spring-loaded feature, which the Panache lacks. For the first time (ever), I think I will stick to the Palm’s "default" stylus. And the reset buttonhole is big enough for the tip of the stylus to fit in. No need to unscrew any stylus head or search for a paper clip. And yes, in less than 48-hours after I got my T3 I had seen some fatal exceptions and at least one or two soft resets in the back. But more on this later on. What can I say, I really push my machine to the limits :)

The good news is that hardware compatibility is maintained, and all your m505 Universal Connector hardware stuff still works. You can keep all your old cradles and chargers too. I plugged in my Ultra-thin Keyboard, and it worked like a charm. This brings me to my next point - the 400MHz CPU. Note that, there has been a publicised problem with soft-resets and losing 25% of your CPU power due to the audio portion not reseting properly, but a fix in software (called "T3Optimiser") has already been released as freeware, so that should take care of that problem. Anyway, the 400MHz CPU is fast. I tried a few things which convinced me that the T3 has more power under the hood than I can hope for.. First, I loaded up Benchmark, that old Palm III tool for performance. The T3 registered performance speeds past 400%, and then promptly crashed. So I tried Aaron Ardiri’s old black and white G&W Games, like Phire, and Oktopus. Guess what, the machine was so fast, the octopus ate my diver faster than you can say "Gloog! Gloog!" I didn’t even have time to move! Lesson: Beware of old games and software, they will run happily with no compatibility problems, except that now, the Palm is so fast, you don’t stand a chance! So I tried the final litmus test. I loaded Aeroplayer with some MP3s playing off the SD card, and Wordsmith typing a document using my Ultra-thin Keyboard. I’m not too sure what multi-tasking OS6 is supposed to bring, but already on the T3, there is absolutely no "lag" at all when I play MP3s in the background and do touch typing at the same time. Note that both tasks are quite processor intensive, with the main CPU decoding MP3 from the SD Card and handling IRQs from the serial port to the Ultra-thin keyboard at the same time. Not to mention both Aeroplayer and Wordsmith doing some work. Very impressive for a Palm.

The other usual review stuff is supposed to cover the built-in Bluetooth, IR and 5-way buttons, etc, which I’m not going to go into detail. Please see some other review for that. I’ll just confirm that the Bluetooth and FunSMS works fine with my T68i, although I did have to install the T68i PalmOS specific driver before it worked. Agendus also managed to "dial" a phone number from my addressbook using Bluetooth directly as well, so that’s another happy arrangement. Other than looking for the driver (which was located in the "Add-on" folder where you installed the Palm Desktop), setting up was a charm, having only to specify the type of connection (Bluetooth to T68i) and then setting up a pairing for the first time. I know that there are some IR-based keyboards out there, but I look forward to trying a Bluetooth keyboard.. :) Korean company Flexis was rumoured to be developing a Bluetooth keyboard, but nothing yet.. Battery life? Well, I’m sorry, you’ll have to look in other reviews for that one. I keep my Palm fully charged most of the time, and have not "burned my juice" and so can’t tell you much about that.

What about the RAM you say? Well, when I got the T3, I immediately started looking at PowerRun, JackFlash, JackSprat which I used on my m505 and so on. But what do you know, with 50+MB of RAM and a 64MB SD Card, I don’t even need to think of those softwares to squeeze more RAM out of my Palm. And why would you need more SD Card space? For all those MP3s you start loading on it. OK, so my MP3s are all "archival quality" with each MP3 at least 4MB.. Programs and Softwares can all sit very comfortably in RAM without PowerRun and MSMount and so on. I still have more than 50% or free RAM and am wondering what else I can put in.

Another useful feature is the "key-lock" function. If you turn on this feature, you can press the power button for more than 2 seconds and it will "key-lock" all the buttons on the Palm, like on your handphone. Press the power button once and it will ask you if you really wish to turn on the Palm (and disable the "key-lock"). This just made a whole bunch of hacks and add-ons obsolete.

Here’s where I started encountering the first problems with being an early adopter. When I got my T3, I realised that there were no cases or screen protectors. I was forced not to take off the plastic covering on the screen and am still using that. I just saw Brando (HK) come out with some screen protectors, so maybe I will check it out. As for the case, I’m still looking for a good T3 case, again Brando has some, but maybe I will shop around. Since I was forced to use the leather cover that comes with the T3, I’ve grown used to it, and so maybe I can afford to wait a while until third-party developers come up with some nice choices. One shop in Funan explained very simply that Palm does not release information (like screen size and dimensions) until the product is launched; so third-party developers have to wait until it is out. This way, early adopters must choose original Palm accessories if they can’t wait. This is quite obviously a purely business decision on Palm’s part.

Finally, "What about the camera?" scream my Clie-owning friends. Sigh.. OK, so we were at Ikea surveying office furniture, and we were writing down dimensions, options and choices. So then my Clie owning friend whips out his Clie and takes snaps for our future reference. OK, so this I concede. But how often am I going to need this? Perhaps I should look at investing in a Veo camera if I really need it, or upgrade to a T610.. Sigh.. But think of this, a T3 + Veo is under SGD$900, and a Clie is.. And the Clie’s form factor, screen and OS and .. well, you do the math.

The Basic PalmOS Software

Palm has included some software updates in this release, namely the Datebook and some name changes (like Addressbook is now Contacts, and Datebook is called Calendar). The Calendar has a nice "Today" page and with 320×480, can show you more information in month-by-month view.

But one of the single biggest software improvements in the T3 is the new "always on top task bar" (for lack of a better name. On the left, are buttons for "Home / Applications", "Find", "Menu", "Clock / Status", "Alert Manager", "Bluetooth", "Graffiti Anywhere", "Screen Rotate" and "Virtual Graffiti". Wow! The first three buttons are obvious, but the others are new and fantastic.

The "Clock / Status" is a button that pulls up the clock, shows you a status of your memory (on both the Palm and SD card), battery, brightness and audio profile. In this single screen, I can think of a number of Hacks that have been eliminated, including SALVGDA (audio profile), status and so on. The audio thing is really cool because you can quickly turn your Palm to silent mode easily. The "Alert Manager" helps you keep track of missed alarms and the like while the "Bluetooth" button has just eliminated BtToggle from your palm. In this one button, you can turn on or off your Bluetooth easily, and connect to another Bluetooth device. Two more buttons are the "Screen Rotate" and "Virtual Graffiti". "Screen Rotate" rotates the screen from portrait to landscape. This is the kind of thing that FlipDA used to do remember? But now, this rotating seems to be done in HW, and even when you rotate the screen while Kinoma is playing a Hi-Res movie, there is no loss of quality, and so far, every app I’ve tried can be "rotated" with no side effects. "Virtual Graffiti" will pull down, or push up the virtual graffiti area on the screen. With apps that do not support VG, then it doesn’t do anything.

The "Home / Apps" button and "VG" button also do other things if you "press and hold". "Home / Apps" will show you a list of the last six apps you ran (minus hard button presses), thus eating into McPhling’s pie, and the VG will allow you to change your Virtual Grafitti look from the standard one to a keyboard to a three-panel Graffiti 2 look. McPhling incidentally has some problems because you can’t swipe from "Menu to Home" anymore if there is no VG displayed (hence no Menu or Home buttons!). And in fact, there is no "Menu" button on the silkscreen anymore! This will be tough.

Speaking of silkscreen buttons on the VG, one thing I miss is the calculator button. The four silkscreen buttons now are Home, Photos, VersaMail and DocsToGo. Since I don’t use any of Photos, VersaMail, and DocsToGo, I skip them entirely. And sadly, none of them are re-mapable. But I do use the Calculator (Parens actually) and wished there was a "calculator" button to map to it. The four hard buttons are still the same, but now there is a new re-mapable button on the side, namely the voice recorder button, which I’ve mapped to AeroPlayer. Speaking of re-maping buttons, the Palm Preference screen looks like something out of Win XP.. It also has colour theme support now, so I’ve eliminated Butterfly, Khroma and the likes..

Did I miss a button? Ah yes, the "Graffiti Anywhere" button. Well, it does what is says, allow you to turn on and off Graffiti anywhere on the screen. But it takes some getting used to. The default is that one quick press while GA is on is interpreted as a "dot", and a long press is a "screen tap". This is opposite the interpretation the freeware Graffiti Anywhere. But more about Graffiti later on.

Software Support for 320×480

This is the part where only time will tell. I’ve tried numerous softwares to see if they work with the VG on this T3 to get the full 320×480 experience. First, let me explain how applications can make use of 320×480 mode. There are actually no less than 3 different "APIs" for third-party developers to use to handle 320×480 mode. The first and most common is the Sony API for all the Clies, the second is the Palm API (sometimes referred to as Palm’s Version 1 320×480) which is also known as the Garmin iQue version, and the last is the Palm API Version 2 320×480 which is the one implemented on the T3. None of the three APIs are interoperable, so you can’t load a Sony 320×480 software on the T3 and expect to get full screen wonders. So you can only count on (at the time of this writing) original Palm apps (and not all of them either) able to take advantage of the 320×480 screen. Almost no third party app yet officially supports the native T3 320×480 API. However, there are ways to cheat - see the screenshots below:

OK, so how is this possible, you ask? Simple, these apps were designed to support the Garmin iQue API (Palm Version 1 320×480 API), and what I did is load in the Palm’s Version 1 API libraries and wah-lah, 320×480 is now supported! Now there is an important caveat, once you install these libraries, it is extremely difficult to uninstall them, and no one really officially sanctions you to install them. Use at your own risk! But why use it? Well, here is a comparison of Adobe PDF Viewer and RepliGo. I think you can easily come to your own conclusion.

Need I say more? With this API, all the apps that support the Garmin iQue (Palm Version 1 320×480) API also does 320×480 in landscape mode. And yes, if you are wondering, you need Screenshot5 2.1 to take 320×480 screenshots, but version 2.1 still cannot take shots in landscape mode on the T3, so I can’t show any here. One third-party app that does support the T3 320×480 native API (Palm Version 2) is the just released Kinoma Player version 2. But regrefully, since Screenshot 2.1 cannot take the picture of Neo while Kinoma is playing, I can’t show you that in its full glory. Nevertheless, here is a bunch of 320×480 screenshots for your reference.

Yes, you are seeing the Virtual Graffiti with Launcher X in that last one, and it has been "skinned" using Velo’s DIA VG skin.. Quite Cool huh? Notice the new silkscreen buttons as mentioned before. Games? Well, most games still can’t do the 320×480, even with the Version 1 API. And many games don’t quite get the Hi-Res either. Still, when it does work, it works very nicely. My favourite has got to be Billiards. Very beautiful and sounds great as well. I’ve got Bzzz! and Zap2016 for "old times’ sake", but I wished they’d update Bump Attack pinball. It doesn’t work quite right on the T3 currently. Note how some of the screen colours don’t work out well. Reminds me of the old Windows 3.x colour palette problems.. (Windows 3.x? Damn, I’m getting old..)

Graffiti 2

Another major change in this T3 is of course the change to Graffiti 2 (aka Jot). Now regardless of whatever each person may or may not say about this, I decided to just go in with an open mind and give it a try. In the beginning, I was pissed off with my "i" "t", "k" and capital "I" letters. But after two weeks, I am slowly getting the hang of it and am improving. Thankfully, it recognises most of the original Graffiti method as well as the new ways, meaning I can write letters like "a" and "d" in the Graffiti 1 way, or in the "handwritten way" and both will get recognised. However, for those die-hards who just want the original Graffiti 1 back, the method used to "re-install" Graffiti 1 on the T2 also works on the T3, although as they say, it is unsanctioned, possibly illegal and use at your own risk.

I still ended up installing the freeware Graffiti Anywhere for the simple reason that the on-screen display of Graffiti writing also includes the separator line showing where the alphabets and numbers were while the built-in Palm version does not. I need that for the "cross-over capitalisation" that easily allow you to capitalise your letters. Another major feature is the ability of freeware GA to turn off and on on-screen graffiti writing based on the application being run. Very useful - keep it on for Wordsmith, but off for Bzzz! and Billiards. So, even though the T3 has on-screen Graffiti writing built-in, I still strongly recommend installing freeware GA as well. Only thing is, it has some problems with "i" and "k" with Graffiti 2. But other than that, it’s an excellent app and well worthy of any amount of excellent praise.

In the end, I think this topic will be one of those topics ripe for flame wars in the forums, so I am only going to say: to each his own. For myself, my reasoning went like this: when I first picked up a Palm III, I had to learn Graffiti and now that it has changed to version 2 (aka Jot), I should be able to "re-learn" again. And after the initial pissed-off-ness, give me another couple of weeks and I am confident I will adapt fully to Graffiti 2. Why should I even need or want to re-learn? Well, because I want to make sure I personally am capable of changing with the changing times, and not be always "stuck" in the old, whatever the technology or reason.

Voice Record and Audio Playback

AeroPlayer works like a charm, and as I’ve mentioned before, the CPU is really fast to make background MP3 playback really useable. As for the voice recorder, its microphone is located on the side right between the headphone jack and "voice record hard button". It records audio in rather low mono 16bit quality, so it’s OK for basic use, but nothing fantastic. The length of time it can record though is quite good and can record to SD Card directly as well. I’ve found that the microphone recorder tends to drop off when sounds are too loud - its volume range is a little limited. Here’s a screenshot of the AeroPlayer, and a recording (converted from WAV to MP3) by the T3. And yes, the recording IS copyrighted!

Download "Love Leads" MP3

While on the topic of audio, here is one gripe I have for Palm. After they put in this nice speaker that even plays MP3s and WAVs quite well, the basic alarm system still uses the old "System_MIDI_Sounds.pdb" which is essentially a bunch a beeps and clicks. Now, I’ve got some nice MIDI tunes in there, Indiana Jones, Star Wars and so on, but can’t we have default alarm system that plays WAV or MP3 instead of these MIDI beeps? That isn’t cricket, old boy! Nevertheless, I suggest you try out WaveLet 0.60 which is freeware, or wavAlarm 1.3 which is not. Both allow you to configure a WAV file from your SD Card as your alarm sound. Now, there are limitations on the WAV files you can play. It must be uncompressed WAV and in the case of WaveLet, must be smaller than 64K in size. Also, in both cases, the way they work is that they merely "hook" into the Palm alarm system, and when an alarm is activated, they too get called and play the WAV file you selected. This means that the "normal" MIDI alarm also sounds when the WAV file is played. Nevertheless, you can set the MIDI alarm to silent or a short beep to make your WAV alarm the main alarm. The difference between the two is that WavAlarm allows you to configure specific programs to use specific WAV files, but WaveLet uses one WAV file for all. I’ve now got the Quantum Leap theme (anyone remember that show?) as my alarm.. :)

Conclusion

Well, it’s been almost two weeks since I’ve switched to the T3 as my full-time day-to-day Palm and in that time, I’ve also added CrashPro and DigiFix. Even though it is much easier to reset the Palm now than ever before, Crash just makes it super easy with "auto-reboot". And while it is way too early to tell if these machines suffer from "Mad Digitizer Syndrome", I loaded DigiFix anyway.

I’ll give you a basic rundown on what I managed to get running happily:

• Bread and Butter: Agendus, FunSMS, Parens, RepliGo, Secret, ThinkDB, WordSmith
• Misc: MegaClock, Metro, MSDict
• Multimedia: Acid Image Pro, AeroPlayer, HandPainter Pro, Kinoma, MMPlayer, VFSi
• System: CrashPro, DigiFix, Filez, FindHack, Graffiti Anywhere, Launcher X, McFile, Screenshot5, WavAlarm
• Games: Bejewelled, Billiards, Bump Attack Pinball, Bzzz!, GTS Racing, Noah’s Ark, Rook’s Revenge, Zap2016

What I’m missing (at the time of this article)?

• A good backup program to SD Card - currently JBBackup sort of works, but has some problems still and Backup Buddy VFS doesn't work at all
• A good standalone (and small) pop-up Today page like TealGlance Aggression in 320×480 Landscape mode!
• Nice Leather Case and Screen Protectors

What third-party software has been eliminated?

• Whole bunch of hacks and system software, not really because OS5 can’t support them, but more because they aren’t needed anymore - like McPhling, FlipDA, SALVGDA, key-lock, BtToggle, Butterfly, Khroma, etc
• Whole bunch of Flash/RAM/SD Card Software, cos 50+MB RAM is a lot of space - like PowerRUN, MSMount, JackFlash, FlashPro, etc (until you load up with too many MP3s of course :)
• Whole stacks of old games and softwares that just don’t cut it anymore - mostly black and whites, greyscales, from the Palm III days.

I think third-party developers have to go back to the drawing board to think up new ideas and things to do for the T3 because the T3 really provides lots of functionalities previously done so by hacks and other third-party software. Hmm, this reminds me of Microsoft..

So what’s the conclusion? You know, I believe that owning and using a Palm is a very personal thing, so your viewpoint will be different I’m sure: "cat flames >& /dev/null".. But I feel that Palm has finally done something right with the T3. For someone like me (a non-Gizmo-Whizz) who uses the Palm mostly for "work" (scheduling, contacts, etc) every single day and only sometimes for fun, the T3 is the real successor to the m505. Sure the Tungsten T was a jump, but it wasn’t a big enough jump for me to make the switch. But the T3, with its top notch 320×480 screen, big RAM, built-in Bluetooth, slim and sleek form factor, audio capabilities, fast CPU and many more features, has really made the difference in persuading me to upgrade from the m505. There are some small wish lists for the T3 of course (others have cited the battery life as "could have done better"), but overall, I find it hard pressed to name any character flaw in the T3 that ranks as a show-stopper or even a "let’s think about it first" issue. The proof of that is since I got my T3 and started work on this review, one of my Clie owning friends (mentioned above :) has just sold his Clie in favour of the T3. My view is the T3 will be a workhorse Palm for quite a while to come and well deserves 5 stars.

Only problem is, after everyone reads this review, no one is gonna want to buy over my m505.. sigh.. :(

Likes

• 320×480 screen but in m505/Palm V slim and corporate looking form factor
• Fast CPU, big RAM, excellent screen and good speakers
• Good stylus for the first time in Palm history
• Good software updates (ie Task Bar, Calendar, Bluetooth integration, etc)
• Good price
• Eliminates a whole bunch of third-party software you don’t need to spend money on anymore

Dislikes

• Could have included more accessories like headset
• Graffiti 2 (but actually depends highly on the individual)
• Alarms could have been WAV/MP3 based instead of MIDI beeps
• Duh, what’s there not to like actually???

Links

• http://www.handango.com - for most of your software needs
• http://www.freewarepalm.com/moresoftware.shtml - for free software
• http://www.cerience.com/downloads/files/T3/T3_DIA_Compatibility_prcs.zip - Palm 320×480 Version 1 Libraries.
• http://www.palminfocentre.com/view_story.asp?ID=5830 - How to change to Graffiti 1 from Graffiti 2, sorry, but it is illegal to distribute the G1 libraries on the net, so I can’t tell you where or how to get them.

Rating: 5 Stars
Reviewer: Patrick Khoo
Date: 24 October 2003

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