Gadget Guild

The Palm TX is well appointed in the features department. Under the hood, the TX is powered by a 312MHz Bulverde Intel processor and comes with 128MB of nonvolatile flash memory, 100MB of which is user-accessible. Not only is the amount of memory sufficient for copious numbers of contacts, appointments, and other PIM data, but you’re also guarded from losing all your data if your PDA happens to run out of juice. A word to the wise: Multimedia files, such as MP3s and video clips, take up a lot of memory, so we recommend investing in a memory card or two to carry such files. The TX’s expansion slot accepts up to 2GB SD cards.

Palm may have been late to join the Wi-Fi game, but we’re glad it at least showed up. Even better, connecting to the Web with the TX is fast and easy. It found our test access point right away (you can also enter encryption settings for enhanced security), and after a couple of clicks, we were surfing the Web within a matter of seconds. Web pages loaded fairly quickly for a PDA, although more graphics-intensive sites took more time to upload, naturally. We also checked our Web-based Yahoo and Hotmail e-mail accounts. In addition, you can take advantage of the built-in Wi-Fi in a couple of other ways. A free service called Avvenu gives you remote access to your computer at work or home and allows you to share content with others and upload data. Although it’s free, you’ll need to download the Avvenu Agent to your computer before setting passwords and security options. For a more entertaining option, you can subscribe to MobiTV (check the company’s Web site for subscription rates) to watch live TV right on your handheld. You can access up to 10 channels, from ESPN to MSNBC to the Discovery Channel, running at 24fps. Clearly, such tools can benefit the mobile professional, as will the built-in Bluetooth. We paired the Palm TX with the Bluetooth-enabled Dell Axim X51v and transferred contacts and appointments between the devices successfully.

On the software front, the Palm TX runs Palm OS 5.4 and includes DataViz’s Documents To Go 7 and VersaMail 3.1, arming mobile professionals with the tools to work on the go. With Documents To Go, you can view and edit native Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, which is viewable only on Macs, while VersaMail 3.1 delivers your e-mail with support for up to eight e-mail accounts (POP, IMAP, APOP, or ESMTP). VersaMail also works with Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, so with the help of your friendly IT department, you can connect directly to your company’s Exchange server. Palm throws in a few other goodies, such as an expense program, a dialer, Solitaire, a world clock, and a calculator.

Now, let’s have some fun, shall we? To fulfill your entertainment jones, the Palm TX comes equipped with Pocket Tunes for listening to your favorite tunes, as well as podcasts. Pocket Tunes supports MP3, WMA (requires Deluxe edition), PCM WAV, and Ogg Vorbis music files. You can create and edit play lists, shuffle songs, and customize the look of your player with different skins. One of our favorite tricks was to use Pocket Tunes for setting music as background while we displayed a slide show of our photos. It’s a cool way to show off your latest snapshots with friends and family, but it’s also great for mobile professionals who want to share relevant images with clients and coworkers.

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