Palm Pilot

3Green · Post by **3Green** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 10:32 am

Do you use a PalmPilot? Which one do you have and what would you recommend?

Dust Devil · Post by **Dust Devil** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 10:59 am

currently using a pocket pc but switching to a treo 650 soon

bush pilot · Post by **bush pilot** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 3:05 pm

Palm M505, I like it but my buddy has a Tungsten and I think it is better than mine. He can listen to MP3's and view pictures etc.

VSF · Post by **VSF** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 3:25 pm

the guy i was flying with here used to write on his palm... does that count? (get it "palm pilot"?)

mellow_pilot · Post by **mellow_pilot** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 3:26 pm

Groan

3Green · Post by **3Green** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 9:40 pm

Did you think that up all on your own??
Anyway, I'm just looking for a basic palm for organization and W&B or flight planning programs. Already have the MP3 player.

bush pilot · Post by **bush pilot** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 9:44 pm

The M505 should do the trick, it is still a very good palm with colour display. It has been discontinued however you could still pick one up off EBAY for about $100 plus shipping.

A. Thompson · Post by **A. Thompson** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 10:33 pm

The advantage to the PALM is that there are hundreds of free programs that can be loaded on to the unit. The fact that I can “sync” all my information onto my desktop computer is a real plus. I’ve used a PALM III and now have a 515. The 515 has quite a bit of memory and I am able to store my log book, some cross wind computation programs and some other programs specific to aviation. Apparently it is possible to load GPS functions as well but I am not convinced that the screen would be clear enough in bright light. Not to muddy the water but I wonder, if you just want a basic PDA, have you considered the ZIRE as they are less expensive.

3Green · Post by **3Green** » Sat Nov 05, 2005 6:41 am

Yes, I've looked at a Zire. I don't know that much about them though to be able to determine wheather a Zire would be sufficient. I'm sure once I got into the habit of using it I would want something fairly comprehensive. At the same time, I don't want to drop a load of money on something that I'm not sure I'll use alot.
Some of the guys at work are using their palms for flight planning (wind/time/distance/fuel burn) programs...would a zire be able to handle something like this?

desksgo · Post by **desksgo** » Sat Nov 05, 2005 7:51 am

I write shit on my hands.

250 byte capacity, but I can scratch my ass with my palm pilot a lot better than you guys can with yours.

A. Thompson · Post by **A. Thompson** » Sat Nov 05, 2005 9:17 am

Good point Three Green, as I recall, the reason went from the III to the 515 was because I ran out of space as I kept adding interesting “stuff”. If colour is not a factor for you then Bush Pilot’s suggestion is good. Mind you, when I scanned the PALM site there were no 500’s listed. The site (http://www.palmone.com) offers a chart where you can make comparisons so that might help you. If I were upgrading I would probably go with the TX or the Tungsten E2. Good luck.

And desksgo? …. If what you are doing makes you happy … well then, I’m happy for you.

3Green · Post by **3Green** » Sat Nov 05, 2005 9:33 am

Hey man, thanks for the help. I've done the comparison shopping on the Palm site...it helped narrow down my search of them, that's for sure. Like I said, bells and whistles are not a priority, but keeping frustion out of it definitely is. I can see that running out of available memory would be a huge annoyance. Do they run alot slower when they're at capacity?
Do you think a IIIxe would be sufficient, or is that old technology?

A. Thompson · Post by **A. Thompson** » Sat Nov 05, 2005 3:33 pm

From what you have written I doubt that you would be happy with the PALM III platform. They have little memory (8MB), are quite bulky and as far as I know, there is no expansion slot. The next generation would probably be more practical as even the Z22 has 32MB, very basic and probably stable but no expansion slot. When I put to much “stuff” on mine it had a tendency to crash – really annoying if it had not backed it up recently.

bush pilot · Post by **bush pilot** » Sat Nov 05, 2005 4:08 pm

Hey,

Here is a link to a M505 on E-bay, I think that this is all you need. It has a expansion slot and is colour yet cheap due to it no longer being made.

http://cgi.ebay.ca/NICE-Palm-M505-Color ... dZViewItem

3Green · Post by **3Green** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 1:31 pm

That was a great deal...did you just search "Palm Pilot" on the site? When I did, I still didn't find the listing you posted.

bush pilot · Post by **bush pilot** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 2:13 pm

Narrow the search a little bit by typing in Palm M505 in the search catagory.

bush pilot · Post by **bush pilot** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 3:42 pm

Here are a couple more:

http://cgi.ebay.ca/PDA-Palm-M505_W0QQit ... dZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.ca/Palm-M505-color-PDA- ... dZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.ca/Palm-M505-PDA_W0QQit ... dZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.ca/Palm-M505-Bundle-PDA ... dZViewItem

flythefrigginplane · Post by **flythefrigginplane** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 5:42 pm

Bought a cheap Zire ... kind of girlish looking but does all you need ... plus Mp3 and Pictures ....

$179

app flap · Post by **app flap** » Sun Dec 24, 2006 9:56 pm

totally just got a palm pilot IIIc.

not sure how much im gonna use it, not real computer savy - but i definatly feel like im a bit bigger of a deal.

what do you guys use yours for? what programs do you have on there?

w squared · Post by **w squared** » Mon Dec 25, 2006 1:35 pm

I have a Garmin IQue M4 - just bought it, actually. I had to purcase a pocket PC based platform because the software that I need to run does not support Palm OS, only Windows CE. It'll handle audiobooks and MP3's, although I needed to add a 2GB SD card in order to have room for things (like the topo maps and detailed road maps that I added). It's a lot of money to pay for a palm pilot, but given that it comes with a built-in GPS and a North American map/half-assed yellow pages/adress book/route-finding software, it fits the bill for me.

Of course, this model has been discontinued, but there are still a few out there, and Garmin makes comprable models.

http://www.garmin.com/products/iQueM4/

Flybabe · Post by **Flybabe** » Mon Dec 25, 2006 1:56 pm

Do any of these have wi-fi capability? I'm pretty illiterate when it comes to handhelds...

w squared · Post by **w squared** » Mon Dec 25, 2006 3:11 pm

I think that any palm pilot/pocket pc with an SDIO capability can be upgraded to do wi-fi or bluetooth. I know that for $150 or so a Best Buy you can get a Wi-Fi SDIO card. Of course, that isn't ideal for me since the internal memory on my unit is pretty much all taken up by the pre-loaded software, meaning that my software and the maps I want are all on the SD card

xsbank · Post by **xsbank** » Mon Dec 25, 2006 7:43 pm

All those electric doo-dads will let you down. My experience has been that you get addicted to a Palm (or whatever) then the batteries die, you drop it, or you can't reach it from where you are sitting and you're lost. If you drop your Palm and the screen breaks, which it will, you will have to pay about a hundred dollars and lose a month while they fix it. I have the t-shirt. Put all your expenses on it and it will fail and it will actually cost you money! Put your logbook on it and you can't synch for a week or so and it fails - huge waste of time. Get a notebook and an Ipod, then if the Ipod goes south, you have only been inconvenienced.

Get a Filofax, or if you really have to have it, a Palm Treo 700, which is also a cell phone - we all need cells, right? Only thing is, listen to music, play games and use the calendar and the batteries get toasted - no cell phone!!

If its any more complicated than a Buck knife, it will fail.

Merry Christmas!

w squared · Post by **w squared** » Mon Dec 25, 2006 11:01 pm

Do the luddites in the crowd have anything else to add?

xsbank · Post by **xsbank** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 12:08 am

You'll have to ask some of them. Do you even know what a Luddite is? Google it, perhaps (there's 2 syllables in Google).

My experience with Palm Pilots has been uniformly bad. They're great for the office worker who has a desktop that he is in front of all day, and a place to put the thing in a cradle, but for pilots that are gone for days on end and don't normally have a private office, they will cause you nothing but grief. I really don't care if you wish to waste your money, Staples has the TX for $369 - they might be useful for those of you who can't write, but if all you want it for is solitaire and fiddling, get a Game Boy.

Something else, if you get one buy a bunch of stylii because you will drop yours in the cockpit and its very hard to make the sucker work with a thumbnail. Not to mention trying to input anything while the air is rough.