Palm Zire
The new Palm Zire is out. Although it seems to be squarely targeted at a mass consumer audience (I usually like my gadgets on the higher end of the spectrum), I am strangely attracted to this device. For one thing, the design looks really clean. The price is also right (under US$100), I seem to go through a PDA about every year and a half or so, and at $100 I wouldn’t feel as bad about the frequency of these upgrades as I do now. The only thing I really don’t like about it is the skimpy 2MB RAM (I currently have 8MB RAM on my Clie 710, and it is maxed out on DateBK5 and other apps that I really can’t live without. I also have a 64MB memory stick that I keep assorted nick nacks in.)
Why am I considering getting rid of the Clie? Glad you asked! I am not happy with the fact that I can’t use it with my Mac at home (the Clie is using OS 3.5, which is not supported on OS X.) Sony stopped doing the OS upgrades earlier this year, and the cost of an OS upgrade through a 3rd party is more than the cost of a Zire. Did I also mention the fact that the headphone jack on the Clie crapped out about eight months into its life and that its use as an MP3 player was less than ideal because it totally drained the battery?
