Author: stuart taylor
Date: 18:06:12 06/18/01
Go up one level in this thread
On June 17, 2001 at 17:04:05, Christophe Theron wrote: >On June 17, 2001 at 11:34:09, stuart taylor wrote: > >> 1.Can someone explain to me exactly what Palm is good for, what it is and what >>it does? > > >It is a true computer that fits in your hand and allows you to carry a lot of >your important data with you all the time. > >You can easily transfer data from your PC to your Palm, and easily transfer it >back to the PC if you have made any change. By easy I mean really easy. You put >the Palm on its cradle and push ONE button. > >The Palms come with various memory sizes, currently 4 or 8Mb is common. That is >plenty of space. You cannot compare PC memory size with Palm memory size. On the >PC, 8Mb is ridiculously small (the system doesn't even fit in!) but on the Palm >it represents thousands of pages of information. > >The Palm is also presented as a sophisticated organizer, but it is actually a >true computer. > >It has a graphical operating system. I find the Palm Operating System (PalmOS) >to be rather close to the first versions of MacOs. So for me the Palm is a >little bit like a Mac Classic in my pocket. As a matter of facts it uses the >same processor as the first Macintoshs. > >The mouse is replaced by the stylus. The keyboard is replaced by handwritting >recognition (or a virtual onscreen popup keyboard). > >The PalmOS operating system is well documented and there exists commercial as >well as free tools to write programs for it. So thousands of developpers have >created thousands of applications for it. > >If you want to see what it can do, then you need to have a look at the >applications that run on it. > >Just go there: > > http://www.palmgear.com > >it is just one of the sites that offer to download PalmOS applications. Some of >them are free, some of them are not, but generally a Palm application is not >expensive. > >There are currently close to 15 million Palm users in the world. > >This represents IIRC 70% of the market of handheld computers. > >The rest is composed of various handheld models which are not compatible with >each other. > >PocketPC represents IIRC someting like 10% of the market at this time. > > > > > >> 2.Can the best buy be recomended? > > >3Com, the original creator of the Palm, has been very wise by agreeing to sell >licences of his OS to other companies. > >So at this time there are several companies that offer PalmOS computers. A true >"Palm" is the one sold by 3Com/USRobotics, but Sony, Handspring and IBM as well >as other less known companies all manufacture PalmOS computers. > >99% of the PalmOS applications will run indifferently on any of these computers. >So you do not need to care about compatibility, you just need to find the right >model for you. > >Personally I would suggest that you have a closer look at the Palm Vx (8Mb of >RAM, and currently rather cheap) or one of the high end Handspring models (some >are running faster than their 3Com equivalents, which is better for chess >programs). > >Go to: > > http://www.palm.com > > http://www.handspring.com > > > > >> 3.Obviously I'm also interested in chess program(s) for Palm. I'm sorry that I >>never read most of these threads about it, but now I'm asking, in a nutshell, >>what are the features and elo estimate of Palm Tiger? > > >Chess Tiger for Palm is a COMPLETE port of the Chess Tiger 14 engine (it is >actually more advanced than Chess Tiger 14). > >I estimate that on a fast Palm it is between 2100 and 2200 SSDF elo. > >Go to my website to find more: > > http://www.chesstiger.com > > > > >> 4. Others? > > >Richard Land has ported his 1987 version (Mephisto Roma) to the Palm under the >name ChessGenius. This one does not have hash tables, but plays well. > > http://www.chessgenius.com > > > > >> 5.Can Palm access internet together with cellphone? If so, how much can be >>displayed on it? > > >Yes, I can read/answer my emails and access the Web with my Palm. > >In order to do so you need: >* a compatible cell phone >* a Palm mail client and Web browser > >I'm using a Nokia 8210 cell phone. The good thing with this one is that it is a >Nokia (the best cell phone manufacturer out there), it's very small, and it has >an infrared port. So I don't need to plug any cable in when I want to access the >net. The phone and my Palm are connected together by the IR ports. > >If you have another phone, you might need a cable to connect the phone and the >Palm. > >The screen is a little bit small to display Web pages, but it works anyway. for >example I can do a search at Yahoo without any problem. With the Web browser I'm >using (Eudora) I cannot see graphics, but some browsers will display them. > >There are also WAP browsers for the Palm if you are interested in WAP. > > > > >> 6.Is it any good for graphics, or even video? > > >You can display graphics on the Palm. Most Palms allow grayscale graphics. Some >of them do have color screens. > >There are applications that allow you to carry photo albums with you. > >Video will be possible later, when the processors of the Palm have been upgraded >to the brand new models from Motorola with an ARM (RISC) core. > > > >>Thanks for answers! >>(The idea is that I'm about to leave for the USA where it is much better to buy >>such a thing than in Israel. I expect to be away for about 5 weeks. Farewell! in >>about another 40 hours, and I'll be checking in until then.) > > >There are currently real bargains on the Palm market. Palm has big inventories >at this time and is offering special prices. That's the right time to buy a Palm >in the US I guess. > > > > Christophe I can't describe how appreciative I am for all your carefull and long informative answers, Christophe. The only problem is that I'm leaving in about 8-10 hours from now, and I simply don't have time to study all about it. If you or someone can recommend an exact thing which is best for relatively reasonable cost, I think that might help me much more than if I have to simply rely on an eager salesman! Thanks very much. S.Taylor
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