| Page 10 Diablo Blue August, 2002 |
|
Toshiba also recently released the E-740. This PDA works on the same platform but includes both SD and Compact Flash memory slots. It also has built in Wi-Fi and the new 400 MHz (that is not a mistake!) scaled processor and an advanced graphics processor. Admittedly there is not a lot of software out now to take advantage of these improvements, but just wait. (The new iPAQ has the same processor). The Toshiba E-740 has a MSRP of $599.00, which is about $150.00 less than the iPAQ. (I bought mine for close to $500.00). A Wi-Fi add on compact flash or SD card runs about $150.00. The unit is also much smaller than the iPAQ which makes it fit in a shirt pocket easily. I love having Word and Excel right on my PDA. Using the infrared port I just hold my E-740 next to my IRDA printer and printing out a document is a snap. ActiveSync seems to work well. I have my E-740 set up to sync on 2 machines. With Wi-Fi built in, it allows me to roam the house and get networking and Internet connectivity. My Linksys wireless router had no problem connecting with it. Very cool. Battery life seems pretty good. Maybe not as good as the Prism, but unlike the Prism the Li-Ion batteries are USER replaceable! A soon to be released $99 add-on module will let me connect a USB keyboard and provides a VGA port. The software included is not as rich as some other offerings, but all the basic PocketPC stuff is there including software to do PowerPoint, etc. I love the jog wheel for fast scrolling. The hand writing recognition is very good. No special characters to learn, and I find with practice that I need less editing. Check out their website for all the specs: www.toshiba.com. So what’s not to like: the speaker sounds a bit tinny, but plug in earphones and the sound is terrific. I keep hitting the side mounted record button. (Practice needed in taking it out of its carry case.) Lastly, I liked the way my Prism displayed two weeks of my calendar side by side. (For those of you with the Palm operating system, this is a feature of the Handspring called Calendar Plus is not available on the Palm — as far as I know.) All in all, I am very pleased with my new toy. Like my old Handspring, it manages my calendar and contacts (running Outlook 2002 no less). It has all the expansion I want/need. And it plays SimCity 2000. What more would any fool want? |
| I recently replaced an old computer with a brand,
new, sparkling, whisper-quiet Pentium 4 speed demon. |