Final Summary
O.K I’m coming in late with this one but I did my working week with the Palm, and as a result I am moving straight back to the Newton today.
My reasons...(and I’m going to be as fair as I can)
The Palm is small, in comparison to the Newton its very small. This is an argument that a lot of PDA users make about using the Pilot and without a doubt it is very important. I think in this instance you can go a little bit too tiny when it comes to form factor.
The Palm does fit comfortably into my pocket yet there is too much of a sacrifice in terms of functionality.
While I did start to get the hang of Grafitti I never felt comfortable with it. I think if I had never been used to anything else then I would have gotten the hang of it and lived with it quite comfortably. However using the Newton can indeed spoil a user, HWR is cool and it works.
I believe a big reason for the Palm’s success is that a lot of its user base have learned Grafitti without every trying out the Newton platform. I doubt it would be that easy to convert many people over to what they might see as a “dead” machine. In my opinion the Newt has always been given a rough ride over HWR. It sometimes annoys me when the Newt seems denied its place in computing history by the naysayers.
In its defence the Palm screen does have a nice feel to it. It’s not as smooth and “slippy” as the later Newts. However if I was to be a long term Pilot user I would undoubtedly invest in a better pen. The one I had was too light to feel comfortable with, I have pretty big hands so the 2100 pen always feels that little more substantial in my grip.
The alarm system on the Palm is too damn quiet, I was never a big fan of the Newton’s alarm facility but I have learned that with the right noises installed you can make the Newton make you notice its presence :)
The battery life on the Palm has been good, I’ve given it a realistic amount of use and I have over half the battery power left. My Newton isn’t quite so strong anymore and the rechargeables are from new *and* I whack a lot of power sucking devices into it on a regular basis.
Which brings me on to the lack of PCMCIA slots on the Palm. I did miss this, I’m not sure if the newer models have woken up to the PCMCIA format but an inability to insert a modem or storage card into the machine has been a pain. Nothing life threatening or such, but at work I sometimes receive personal faxes (don’t tell anyone). If I haven’t got my Psion card with me then I borrow the modem card out of a colleagues Libretto and pull in the fax that way.
On the Palm, nah. Although it would have been possible I believe with a Pilot Modem. Yet once again you are limited in choice of what devices you can stick into the Palm because of its lack of slots.
On the support front the Palm has a good web presence and the software is hardly what you could call thin on the ground. While the Newt still has a decent following doing some amazing stuff with it. I think in time the Palm will of course overshadow the Newt, I guess its the natural order of things. However I couldn’t help but feel the Newton has a friendly following behind it, just my opinon of course.
In the general appearance stakes, I think the Newton wins hands down. The Newton is the “Sophie Dahl” of the PDA world. A little bigger but just as beautiful. I couldn’t help but feel the Palm Pilot felt a little cheap and less robust.
So all in all until my Newton dies and I can’t get another one, I’m sticking with the platform.
By the way, I’m going to Ireland next week. My Newton will be coming with me for email and stuff. The Palm, well that’s staying home :)
ADi
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