Follow-up on the technology saga

12 May 2006 •

Yesterday my PDA totally locked up, just froze with the backlight on and nothing on screen. Finally last night the battery gave out. But apparently there is happy news! My dear wife reports from home today that when she plugged it in to the charger, it came back up and appears to be working correctly. Let’s hope that it keeps it up - I don’t like my choices for replacing it, even if I could afford them:

First there’s the Palm brand products. I like their OS, but I’m getting a sour taste in my mouth for them after my recent troubles.

Cheap-o Palm Zire 22. Does most of what I need, but has a lousy screen (160x160 res) and is under-powered. $99.
Palm Tungsten E2. What I have right now. Causing problems after 9 months. $199.
Palm Tungsten TX. Bigger screen than what I have, plus it has Wi-Fi built in. $299.

Or, I could make the big leap and go to the ones running Windows CE, or whatever the heck they call it now.

The trouble there is that the bottom-of-the-line units start, price-wise, about the same place that the Palms stop. I could get the basic Dell Axim for about $250 right now, sans case and extended warranty.

Let’s just hope my E2 is back alive and good to go for a while. As much as I rely on it to keep me on schedule, $250 for a product that lasts only 9 months is ridiculous.