OK… so here’s the scoop. I’ve had a Palm Tungsten E2 for about three years now. I basically use it for the following:
-Writing memos.
-Note pad.
-Calendar.
-Calculator.
-Contact list.
-eBooks.
-Storing FAQs so I can read them while playing downstairs.
-Solitaire. 8p
I do not have a cell phone and am not interested in watching videos, checking e-mail, or browsing the Internet on my organizer, though having a few more freeware games would be neat.
Unfortunately, the good ol’ boy gave up the ghost yesterday. I need to get a new one, but I am totally lost in today’s markets. I have no clue what’s good and what isn’t any more. Hell, I haven’t even seen PDAs advertised anywhere for months.
Additionally, I’ve been thinking about getting an MP3 player for a while. Ideally something under $200 Canadian, which at least has an SD card slot so I can stick a 16GB SD card in there, which should cover my whole music collection.
Maybe I should look at getting one device that can handle both things, but while I’m sure most PDAs can play music, I doubt they have an intuitive interface and good software to do so.
Yeah, my sister has a Zen and she’s happy. I’ve tried it once or twice, though, and the interface confused the hell out of me. O_o
I’m not particularly interested in anything Apple. From what I’ve seen they’re wonderfully overpriced, their hardware is more apt than most to fail, and they aren’t known for playing nicely with other software.
I have a first gen Nano and it hasn’t had a problem in two and a half years, which is when I got it. I definitely don’t take good care of it either. I never wasted my money on some trendy case, didn’t really avoid bashing it on anything… It’s solid. I don’t think you can get a new Touch for less than about $300 Canadian though.
I’ve only heard good things about Zen, and you can probably find one better than a Touch for a lot cheaper. But Apple, not trustworthy? Balderdash.
What do you do for a living that you need a calendar, calculator, and contacts? I say just go for a bare bones MP3 player and start reading the kind of books with pages. And playing games without FAQs because it’s a lot more satisfying to figure something out without being told explicitly how to do it.
It’s got nothing to do with what I do for a living. I have a hard time remembering things without writing them down. I carried a notebook but they tend to get dog-eared, and either I have to continually cross things out or write in pencil till everything looks smudged. I like having the names and numbers of people I know easily searchable, and having a calendar and calculator on hand if needed.
And I generally only use FAQs when replaying a game. For example, I’m going through VP2 a second time now and enjoying it quite a bit more using an FAQ than I did without one (though I wouldn’t have used one first time round).
I’ve particularly heard that Apple batteries have a high tendency to die within a year, and are so expensive to replace it’s more worth it to get a replacement.
I don’t know much of anything about PDAs beyond, say, Blackberry. Maybe they make plain jane PDAs? For mp3s I have a Microsoft Zune 4GB. It’s a mini little thing, but I like the interface waaay more than the iPods (the touch wheel is a little picky but besides that the controls are good, it has 3 buttons including the dpad/scroll button). It’s pretty spiffy in that it charges out of USB ports and can sync wirelessly when setup. You can also access the marketplace to purchase (or even just listen to) songs wirelessly. It even has FM radio. I love it, although it is a little wierd not being able to charge it from a wall.
Hmm… did some poking around at a nearby Best Buy and it looks like the closest thing to what I want is, ironically, an iPod Touch. It comes with calendar, notes, contacts, and calculator, which are my most-used apps, and it looks like I can download more. No SD card slot, but I went back and double-checked the size of my music collection and it’s only about 7G, so a 16G model should tide me over for quite a while. With the refund from my Palm (thank God for extended warranties) it wouldn’t cost me anything at all. Or I could splurge on the 32G model for an extra $100, not sure it’d be worth it.
I’d definitely get an extended warranty on it, though, as well as a hard case (it looks far too flimsy).
iPods have looked flimsy from day one, but they’ve always been rocks. If you ask me, a case is a waste of your money, and so is 16 more GB. My Nano is 1g, and instead of putting my whole library on it and spending more time shuffling through songs than actually listening to them, I just load it up with songs I really like, and listen to those. With any portable media device, less is more imo. The touch sounds like a good deal for you. Just don’t waste more money than you have to. $100 can buy a lot.
I agree with Hades in regards to the size of space part. My zune is only 4gb and it’s relieving and fun to swap out music I’m tired of with some I haven’t heard so recently, mix in newer songs on the radio etc. I used to have a 20gb iPod and I really hated cycling through my whole library to find the songs I wanted to hear. Zunes have also masterfully integrated adding songs to the shuffle.
Anyway, the chemical composistion of diet dr. pepper was too much for my phone when it took a dive into a glass full of it and died, rather promptly. I looked at phones today; discovered that ‘smart phones’ are all the rage (and hugely expensive) and most other phones look flimsy and lame.
I don’t randomize my songs though… most of my library is soundtracks, which I listen all the way through (I only have music on for about 20 minutes or so a day, during my commute, so it takes a LONG time to get through the whole library). I like listening to the soundtrack from beginning to end so I sort of relive the game/movie without having to rewatch it. So I like the idea of putting absolutely everything on at once without having to swap it.
Also, I’d rather spend a little bit more money upfront and not have to worry about spending a lot more when inevitably I invite destruction by not having a case or warranty.
The Sansa fuze 2gb is 69.99 the last time I checked. It’s got an expansion for microSD. It’s compatible with Mac and Windows and has an option to simply drag and drop without proprietary software. The microSD memory is automatically shared with on board memory so you can listen to files from both memories in the same playlist.
The scroll wheel has a tactile feedback. I wouldn’t call it a click but it’s the first word that comes to mind. The back of it has a rubberized coating instead of metal like an iPod. You can put it on your dashboard and it won’t slip. This is useful if you have an FM transmitter and range to your car’s receiver is an issue.
One drawback is they look cheap.
I got my dad a creative zen and the biggest gripe I have is the software that comes with it. When he was transferring songs the progress bar would stop and hang at 30% or something.
The next biggest gripe is the SD card expansions isn’t shared. You either listen to files in the on board memory or the SD card.
I would’ve suggested an iPod touch as well since it has everything you want, but you appeared biased against Apple’s products (not entirely without good reason, they’re good concerns to have when you want a product like this). The iPod touch is an iPhone without the phone part basically. It won’t drain your battery quite as much as the iPhone’s features. Every person that I know that has an iPhone or iPod touch worships their machine religiously. I second the claim that you don’t need to spend the extra 100$. I barely accumulated 21 gigs of stuff over the past few years and I’ve been connected to my music players as if my headphones were an umbilical cord for years. But really, 100$ for someone like you and me is nothing nowadays, as seen by the fact getting an extended warranty is a non issue, so you might as well just take it.
I also agree its a good idea to get some kind of protective casing for your iPod touch if that’s what you want to get. They cost 20-40 bucks usually. I’m not sure how the iPod touch casings work though. I only have one for my non-touch iPod and it covers the screen (which is counterproductive for your purposes).
Yeah… I was thinking of something like what comes with my Palm, which is a flat cover that swivels back and forth, so the screen is protected while inside my pocket but I can easily open it to use it. I’ll talk to the guy at Best Buy and see what he recommends. I think I’ll probably stick with the 16G model in the end though.
This is all assuming that they can’t or won’t fix my Tungsten E2, but that’s pretty likely, unless it’s something really simple, like dust in a connector somewhere. I’ll find out in a week or two.
Anyone who spends more time shuffling through songs than playing them seriously just needs to get more decisive. Or just listen to albums, there’s a reason they’re released that way. Personally I prefer listening to albums, but I do like to shuffle through my library sometimes, if I can’t decide immediately what I want.
Or I could splurge on the 32G model for an extra $100, not sure it’d be worth it.