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aab - 2012-07-29 5:28 PM
It's not the same thing because Palm makes both OS and hardware while MS made only the OS. Palm works like Apple where the same company does everything and you end up with few if any model choices with little differences from one to the other. Also non Palm made hardware was extremely rare, at least in those years I think the TRGPro was the only non Palm made Palm (the IBM WorkPads don't really count as they're really just rebranded and not improved). So the TRGPro is clearly the exception when it's the only Palm device ever made in those years to have all those added features and no Palm branded device had any of them until many years later.
You and I are probably never going to agree on this. I’m looking at it from a 2012 perspective not as an historical timeline. I don’t really care if it’s a second generation model or a 23rd. I’m looking back at what has been produced and giving my advice on the best machine under certain circumstances. In this instance it was a Palm III, which is OS 3 or 4, and runs on AAA batteries. The best device in my opinion, which runs the widest array of software, including your desire for games, and has a really good backup solution is the TRGpro.
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aab
Still, with Palm OS you have to learn a new way to write which will take at least days to get used to, and you may then start writing like that on paper and people will ask you what those strange characters are lol. With Windows CE, you write however you always did and it works even more accurately with no training required either on your or the machine's part.
Again you and I will never see eye to eye on this. As I said earlier I’ve never had a problem and I’ve personally never heard of anyone else having this particular problem, and I’ve known a lot of Palm users over the years.
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aab
Those models are a few years more recent than the ones we were talking about, while CE devices had card slots since the very first, Palm only added card slots by the 5th generation if not later.
As I wrote earlier
(see above
) I don’t care how old a device is or what generation it’s from. What matters to me is whether it can do the job now.
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aab
The reason I said I might get one is that I fell on this auction the other day, look at the title, then the ending price, then pay close attention to the photos
Way to go!!! You got a hell of a deal on that auction. I actually would be very interested in your opinion of the TRGpro, after you use for it for a month.
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aab
Not only that, it seems to include a serial sync cable and I wanted to buy the original Palm Pilot Pro which I had back then but the ones sold with a cradle are expensive, so this cable will allow me to win a Palm Pilot Pro without a cradle for cheaper.
Glad you also got the cable and the Palm Pilot Pro in the other auction. I think that’s what you really wanted all along. I think you’re having a nostalgia moment
That’s great and I think you will be happy reliving the Palm Pro experience and running all the old games. I’m going through my own nostalgia moment right now. I just picked up a Tandy 102 and a 200. Great machines.
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aab
Why did you buy a lot of TRGPros? Did you resell them or keep them?
Interesting story there. It goes back to the mid 90’s when I started to advise people about small computers. I’m a photo editor by profession and often ran into writers and photographers who had a need for a simple, very small computer that had great battery life. I had an interest in said computers since the early 80’s when I bought a Tandy 102. At the time portable computers were very expensive and the battery life sucked – you always needed to know where the nearest outlet was. I began loaning out some of my Newtons, Tandys, Psions, etc. Not surprisingly, some of those machines turned out to be big hits with the people I knew. Later in the 90’s I moved into Windows CE devices and as I gained experience with those and more units, I began to lend those devices. They turned into a hit, especially the MobilePro 700. As prices came down, I acquired more units, including a lot of 700s, 780s and a couple of 790s. In the first few years of this century, prices dropped dramatically for the 700s and 780s and I acquired more and more of them. It got to the point where, if I knew or worked with the person I would just give them one or sell it to them at cost. That continued up until the middle-to-latter half of the last decade. That’s when laptops became much more affordable to your average journalist. My wife and I also bought a house five years ago and started restoring that so time to mess about with small computers became a bit of a luxury. Fast forward to the recent past and I started messing about again, this time with a TRGpro that I picked up. It turned out to be a great little computer for taking notes on the go and writing. It also turned out to be a great computer for running databases. People at work began to notice the new little computer on my desk and the inquires started. I began by telling them it was the computer the Palm III should have been. I was surprised that people actually liked it, especially those who had used Palm IIIs a decade earlier and had moved on. I picked up a few and passed them on, at cost, to a few writers.
And what happed to all those computers I passed out? A surprising number are still in use. There is a need, at least among serious writers, for a small, dependable computer with a decent keyboard and incredible battery life, or at least running on AA or AAA batteries that can be picked up anywhere. The one comment that keeps coming back is the simplicity of the device. You can’t check Twitter or Facebook every couple of minutes, although you can, depending on your ISP, still get email. That simplicity is what a lot of writers, journalists and photographers crave.
These days I personally use a MobilePro 700 and, to a lesser extent, a TRGpro. The 700 is always with me and the TRGpro is not far behind. I still have a few 700s, 780s and 790s and a couple of TRGpros that will probably get passed out during the next couple of years before I retire.
One thing I have noticed over the last two years is that even with the proliferation of Netbooks, iPad this and Galaxy that devices, some of the younger journalists seem to be interested in the older computers. Again the overriding comment is the simplicity of the devices and the fact that there are very few distractions with them.
Don't get me wrong. I also spend most of my working time on the net, it's my bread and butter. But there is a time and a need for something simpler.
Rick
Edited by Richard Plume 2012-07-31 12:58 AM
