Going Tungsten E

I hadn't really planned it, but today, kind of on the spur of the moment, I came into an opportunity to do a swap with a good friend to get two palmOne Tungsten E handhelds for my wife and I. We're both very excited about this, since we really like the new Tungsten E.

Of course, this will mean a significant change for us, switching to Palm OS 5 devices from our Sony Clie N610's with OS 4. I suspect a few of our old apps may need updating, but that's to be expected. We're already pretty sure all of our most-used apps will work on OS 5. Probably the bigger task will be making sure we both back up adequately and install the new Palm Desktop (with new conduits) methodically and correctly.

I'm actually very interested to see what the new palmOne Calendar, Tasks, Contacts and Memo apps look like and how they work when beaming to older devices. And of course there will be comparisons to do between the screen, shape and processor of the Clie and Tungsten E. We're also going to be looking for cases and probably some other peripherals to get the TEs up to snuff with our old Clies.

I'm already thinking about doing an article about my switch from a Clie N610 to Tungsten E, just like the article I did a Palm Tipsheet in June 2002, when switching from a Visor to the Clie. So, if you have any suggestions for planning the transfer, lessons learned on your own switch, or questions for us to mention in the article, I'd love to hear them.

Meanwhile, I've collected a few nice reviews of the Tungsten E at Brighthand, Bargain PDA, PDA Buyer's Guide and InfoSync World, in case you're contemplating a switch yourself.

Update 19 Oct 2003: My friend Bill Shadish at Fundamental Objects is offering a Tungsten E for $185, including shipping to the US lower 48 states, through a special deal in his excellent, and informative FO PDA Newsletter.

Hey, have a wonderful weekend! :-)

Comments

[Bryan Nystrom]

You may be interested in looking at this advice about updating to an OS5 device prior to doing too much. Mainly it discusses keeping the same hotsync names on the new device to avoid having to got through getting all new registration codes for 3rd party software that you have registered under the old names:

http://www.natara.com/faq/SingleQandAnswer.cfm?ProductID=0&QuestionID=55