Technology Which Palm to get?

[BellKicker]

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All right. I'm looking at buying my first PDA. Don't really know too much about PDA other than what the PPC and Palm people tell me about their respective choices. After some web and soul searching I've decided on a Palm. But which one?

I guess I'm stuck between the Tungsten E, C and T5. Originally leaning toward T5 but then I started thinking about how much I hate graffiti (whenever I use other people's PDAs; I have never owned one myself). Maybe the C would be better then? Maybe I would be fine with just an E.

And where would you get it? It seems like they have a good deal at pdamd.com with their epocrates bundles ($424 for Tungsten C or T5 + epocrates essentials).

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[burs0028]

As a pocket pc fan, I have to ask: What made you decide to go with palm?

 

[BellKicker]

I saw a study quoted in the discussion forum on pdamd.com where they estimated that 68% of physicians use palmOS. What would you recommend?

 

[burs0028]

I started looking for a PDA in Oct. and had ordered my Dell Axim x50v by mid-Nov. I read "how to" guides on PCWorld.com and various other websites and decided to go pocket pc for the following reasons. Pocket PCs are gaining the market share while some manufacturers of palm devices are no longer coming out with new models. I had heard that Palm devices had more medical software available, but so far I've found only one program for which this held true: the Johns Hopkins Antibiotic guide. If you check out skyscape.com you will find hundreds of programs for both OS types. I also wanted to use my device for more than just looking up stuff on the wards. On my x50v, I've got a VGA screen with 4x the resolution of any palm device out there (unless one has recently been added to the market). With software companies coming out with VGA versions of their programs, I figured why not pay the extra 30-50 bucks and get a nicer screen. At the time, the x50v had the most RAM available and also had wi-fi and bluetooth built-in along with 2 memory card slots (CF II & SD)...Many of my peers had to pay extra for wireless cards that took up the only memory card slot available. Currently I can surf the web, listen/watch music/movies, and look up a drug or clinical condition--all at the same time w/o having to close programs down. I'll admit that I know next to nothing about Palms except that the ones I've seen don't hold a candle to the new Dell Axims & HP Ipaqs. If you're sure you just want to use it to look up clinical stuff and nothing more, you can probably get a Palm for cheaper. If you want a device that's truely more like a small computer, I'd suggest looking at the pocket pcs.

A good resource that I use is the Medical Forums on www.aximsite.com. Most of the site is dedicated to Dell's Axims obviously, but in the medical forums you'll find people discussing all types of PDAs.

One last thing. Epocrates blows. Get A to Z drugs & 5 minute Clinical Consult if you really want to pay for some good programs. There's a ton of stuff free on the net including PDR, Merck Manual, Labs, etc. If you look at some of the other threads here on SDN and do some searches in the Yahoo Groups you'll find other, albeit less legal or moral ways to get programs.

 

[hulbdo]

Its a pretty tough call between getting a Palm or PPC. I actually have an Axim x5 that I've had for almost 2 years and a Sony Clie TH55 that I got last year, although I have been looking at the x50v (only thing i've heard bad about it is its low battery life) for a while. The TH55 is a really nice PDA, too bad sony doesn't sell the Clies anymore. While the x5 I have (400 mhz) has a faster processor than the Clie, you can't can't really notice a difference, unless you are playing graphically intensive games. A lot of people tend to directly compare PPC and Palm stats, but that doesn't really tell the difference between them, since the way they manage their programs are completely different. PPC needs more RAM because its programs take up more space. The higher VGA resolutions for the PPC such as with the x50v looks really nice, I believe its 480 x 640. The higher end palms have 320 x 480. I wouldnt' say thats 4x the resolution. While not as nice as VGA, 320x480 is still really nice in its own regard. If what you want is to be able to play graphic intensive games, get a PPC, otherwise they both the do same in terms of playing audio, video, and other tasks. Also, skyscape medical programs are MUCH better on the Palm in terms of interface. But if you can wait, rumors have it that a new Palm is coming out in May and a new Dell maybe in early fall and if rumors are true, people are stating that they both might have built-in hard drives. Otherwise, I have both a PPC and Palm and they're both good in their own ways.

The x50v is a pretty nice PDA. Only thing you have to contend with is the battery life, so if that concerns you, u might want to consider either getting the extended battery or lower brightness & throttle back CPU speed.

In terms of between TC and T5, I guess it depends on what's more important for you, a bigger screen or a keyboard. The TC does have built-in WIFI, so you'd have to buy a $100 WIFI card to get wireless on the T5. You might want to check out skyscape.com , they've got some nice bundles with palms and medical programs.