Technology Palm TX have enough memory?

[Acherona]

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Hi,
I'm thinking of buying a Palm TX but I see it comes with only 128MB. Is this enough for all the med programs? Should I get an expansion card?

Also, did people get the wireless keyboard and find it useful? I don't want to be bringing my laptop to the hospital and wonder if having the keyboard might enable me to do case reports etc. during down time. The hospitals where I rotate don't have many free computers for med students to use.

 

[deleted87716]

128MB of RAM is plenty, but you're still going to want an expansion card. Most medical references run from the card, anyway (except Epocrates). SD cards are dirt cheap nowadays.

 

[DOctorJay]

agree with the above, get a card even if it's just to put movies on, but seriously load it up with isilo books.

i have the keyboard and used it all through first and second year to take notes. i really don't use it much on the wards but if you think you'll be writing up reports and what not then it will definitely be useful in your free time (which you will have plenty of). even though my laptop is extremely portable it's so nice to leave it behind sometimes and just use the keyboard and PDA combo.

-J

 

[Acherona]

Thanks guys. How much do you recommend? Should I splurge for the 2 GB card? I don't necessarily want to watch movies on there but would like to be able to fit all the med programs comfortably with room for ppt docs etc.

 

[deleted87716]

Should I splurge for the 2 GB card?

I don't think thirty bucks is really a splurge. 😉

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Memory-SDSDB-2048-A10-Retail-Package/dp/B0009RGLSE

 

[Acherona]

I don't think thirty bucks is really a splurge. 😉

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Memory-SDSDB-2048-A10-Retail-Package/dp/B0009RGLSE

Oh, I don't have to get the "mini SD expansion card" from palm? I thought a generic kind would not be compatible. Why is the palm one so much more expensive?
http://www.amazon.com/2GB-MINI-EXP-...9?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1173835960&sr=1-8

 

[Shroom]

Oh, I don't have to get the "mini SD expansion card" from palm? I thought a generic kind would not be compatible. Why is the palm one so much more expensive?
http://www.amazon.com/2GB-MINI-EXP-...9?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1173835960&sr=1-8

To rip people off that don't know any better.

 

[Acherona]

To rip people off that don't know any better.

ah, well that is not very nice of them 😡 Thanks for the clue-in.

 

[southerndoc]

Thanks guys. How much do you recommend? Should I splurge for the 2 GB card? I don't necessarily want to watch movies on there but would like to be able to fit all the med programs comfortably with room for ppt docs etc.

You will fit all the med programs on there comfortably with room with only the base 128 MB of memory.

You don't need an expansion card until you start putting a lot of movies, music, etc. on your TX.

Why not buy the TX and use it without a card. If you find you need one, you can buy one then. Chances are you probably won't even need one.

 

[deleted87716]

Don't get miniSD confused with SD. The Treos use "regular" SD cards, not miniSD. This photos shows (L to R) SD, miniSD, microSD.

BTW, the link to the Palm product that you posted is for a miniSD card with an included SD adapter, so you can use it in a Treo. Workable, but totally unnecessary (and more expensive). Just buy a regular SD card instead, unless you intend to move the card back and forth from one device to another, and the other device only uses miniSD.

 

[Acherona]

Don't get miniSD confused with SD. The Treos use "regular" SD cards, not miniSD. This photos shows (L to R) SD, miniSD, microSD.

BTW, the link to the Palm product that you posted is for a miniSD card with an included SD adapter, so you can use it in a Treo. Workable, but totally unnecessary (and more expensive). Just buy a regular SD card instead, unless you intend to move the card back and forth from one device to another, and the other device only uses miniSD.

I'm confused, so the Treos have to use the mini cards but the palms do not? How can the same slot accomodate two different card sizes? This is why I assumed you had to get the mini (which is what the TX comes with if you buy from palm). Also, what is an SD adapter?

 

[DOctorJay]

I'm confused, so the Treos have to use the mini cards but the palms do not? How can the same slot accomodate two different card sizes? This is why I assumed you had to get the mini (which is what the TX comes with if you buy from palm). Also, what is an SD adapter?

NO.

treos use a regular SD card. you can get the mini one as it comes with an adapter that basically makes it into a regular SD card (aka pointless unless you have some other device you want to share the card between).

at this time ALL palms that use cards use regular SD like the pictured 64mb above.

I personally have a 1GB card and it is not full yet, even with a movie on it, some mp3s, tons of games, and about the equivalent of 100 pounds of books.

I agree with the above poster who suggested using the T/X and seeing if you run out of space, you can always transfer the data to the card later if you need one and if you can last a while the prices will only continue to go down.

-J

 

[16846]

With 128 MB of RAM (minus system space) I ran out of memory with just installing programs (I have a lot of apps installed). I needed another 128 in the expansion slot.

 

[EP to FP]

We're using a Dell Axim pocket PC at my residency right now and while it's ok, the battery life isn't. I think Dell has left the PDA world so I'm looking for a new PDA. I'd like one that has a fast processor and a good amount of memory (although I would probably get an SD card anyway). I like Palm because it supports one of my favorite programs (John Hopkins Abx guide) and pocket PC does not. I was also thinking about putting UpToDate on my PDA (which I think requires 2GB of space just for that program). I know you could always just connect to the internet and use your subscription that way, but there may be times you are not in an area where you can use your wireless... I don't know, do you think it's overkill to load UpToDate on the PDA and not just use the internet function? I also want wireless connection with the PDA which doesn't take a millenium to load the web page. Knowing all the above, which PDA would you all recommend? In terms of books, I would probably just use the various 5 minute clinical consults (peds, medicine, maybe sports medicine), epocrates, archimedes, John Hopkins Abx guide, and connect to uptodate in some fashion as I alluded to above.

Thanks.

Dean

 

[BlondeCookie]

I have been installing everything on the internal memory of my Palm TX. How do I know when to install it to the SD card? For memory intensive applications like Epocrates, where do you install? Also, isn't it faster to install to internal memory than to the SD card??? 😕 😕 😕

 

[deleted87716]

I have been installing everything on the internal memory of my Palm TX. How do I know when to install it to the SD card?

I'm assuming that you're asking, "how do I know that I can install it on the SD card." In most cases, you'll have to either read the installation instructions that came with the program, read the FAQs on the vendor's Web site, or e-mail their technical support folks. Even for programs that will run from the expansion card, sometimes you still have to install certain program files in memory even though most of them can be placed on the card.

For memory intensive applications like Epocrates, where do you install?

This doesn't have anything to do with it being "memory intensive," but Epocrates doesn't run from an expansion card.

Also, isn't it faster to install to internal memory than to the SD card?

Programs run faster from internal memory, but installation speed during a HotSync is about the same. If anything, it's often faster to install programs to an SD card, because you can do it without HotSyncing if you have a card reader on your PC.

Here's an article on the Palm support Web site that tells you how to install files onto the expansion card: http://kb.palm.com/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE?New,kb=PalmSupportKB,CASE=obj(29064),ts=Palm_External2001