Handheld Reviews

Visor Cradles perform well regardless of the type of synchronization port you use. This cradle is handy if you need to synchronize data on your desktop or laptop computer and do not have a USB card installed in your PC.

The price point makes this a better purchase than buying a USB card unless you plan on using the USB port for other peripheral devices.

A lot of good if you have this serial cradle!

Our computers don't support USB in our somewhat dated NT4 Workstation environment. Without this serial cradle, I would not be able to sync my Visor.

I am buying a Visor Handspring, but I already have a Hotsync cradle that came with my now dead Palm 3X. Will that cradle work with my new Handspring, or must I buy this? (sorry, I know that this is not a rating, but I know that some other shoppers will be interested to read the answer! Thanks.

it took me a month to get my order and then it is the wrong cradle. the seller did not specify which cradle this was for in his discription and i recieved the wrong color i recieved metal gray not "ICE". all i can say is thanks for nothing!

Excellent cradles either way. I use the USB cradle at home and a serial one at work. You can't tell the difference in speed. The hot sync button on the cradle works like a champ.

This is a must if you don't have a USB port, or if your running Win NT. Goes without saying that synching with a serial device isn't as fast as with the USB cradle, but it does get the job done. I use the USB cradle at home and the serial cradle at the office.

I get compliments on this stylus all the time. People love to take it from me and just hold it. It truly feels great. I tried literally dozens of different brands and types of styluses (stlyii?) before I decided this was the best one. I don't need one that's four colors of pen and a pencil and a stylus and has a pocket clip. All I need is a stylus that feels right when I write with it. This one is just about perfect. It's much, much heavier than the standard Palm stylus, and it's longer. The orange tip is highly visible against the screen or the backlight; it almost looks like it glows in the dark. And most importantly, the stylus fits exactly into the Palm III stylus slot, and it stays put. The only little quibble I have is that the stylus comes unscrewed a little too easily (there's a reset pin inside), but then again, I come unscrewed easily myself, so I can relate.

Hello,

If you are trying to make a decision on which stylus to buy for your palm, get this one. It is worth every cent.

I own the palm IIIx, and IIIxe. I used the PALM 3 pack stylus that you can purchase..., but they can't compete with the panache for letter recognition. I even was using prior to the panache, the write right screen enhancement on the bottom portion of my palm screen thinking it would help with letter recognition, and it did help some, but when I used this new styli I had no need for the screen protector anymore because the letter recognition is great. It also writes very smoothly. It is sleek, and gives your palm a classier look.

Another thing, the manufacturer will guarantee the orange tip of the styli for life, with free replacement. The styli is heavier than the other palm styli which makes it easier to write. I am going to pick up a couple more because the price is right.

Good luck shopping!

A must have for palm users. It improved the writing recognition and doesn't miss the spot after buying this. It feels great in the hand too. I love it.

I purchased this based on other reviews and were they ever right. Compact and clearly well built. This is my first purchase of a portable CD player and I suspect it could be my last. The earphones aren't adjustable and are a bit bulky relative to the portability of the set and there is loss of sound when using the remote control but the player itself is the best I've seen (I HAVE used others).

i have my philips cd player with me, during all 8 hours that i'm at work. it's pretty physical work, lifting, bending, etc, and my philips cd player has outlasted all the other brands out there. i've dropped it (several times) from several feet, which would have (and did) shattered the other players i've had. nothing has ever gone wrong with it yet, which left me very elated and content. you cannot go wrong with this player. i would give it 10 stars if i could.

this is probably the best CD player i've ever owned in my life. when i got it, i thought it was okay. i wasn't really looking for a durable cd player; just something that would last me for a while. well, i was in for a surprise! i have dropped this cd player on concrete over 20 times, and nothing has happened to it! i even take it with me when i mow the lawn!! the hold feature helps when i'm on the lawn mower or in the car. also, the ESP system is WONDERFUL! even when riding around on a bumpy lawn mower, it never skips! AT ALL! probably the best feature is the fact that this is not a batter-guzzling machine. i don't have to change the batteries often, and that saves not only money, but time, and by that i mean because the battery compartment is inside the cd cover, which could be a pain to open or a plus because you won't accidentally open it. however you look at it. all in all, this is definately a 5-star cd player.

Ok, let's break this one down:

Good: Programmable Macros, you push one button, it pushes as many as you set. Timer, set a time to push some buttons, and it will do it.

Bad: Setup, some of my TV remote buttons wouldn't program correctly, I had to adjust an "IR sample rate" setting to get it to work correctly. I've never seen any Universal remote need one of those settings. Power, this thing doesn't have as much reach as my other remote controls (or so it seems).

Overall: A good buy if you don't mind some setup hassles, and you're using the remote within 10 feet of your TV. Besides it's one more weird gadget to impress your friends with :-)

Ever wish you could mute everything in your home theatre "stack" with one button? This can do it. Ever want to control three different TVs but a "universal" remote will only do one? This will do it. Ever wish the "slow scan and zoom" feature was a single press on your DVD player for those special DVDs ? This can do it. Design your own remote, using macros make buttons that talk to lots of things, talk to things you can't buy a remote for (like the Sony AIBO), all possible with this gizmo.

Its definitely worth it, and the high power IR led makes it all that much better. Too bad you can't beam with it. Also unlike a 'learning remote' you might get, this doesn't forget when you change the batteries. Hotsync and you're back in business.

If you are a couch potato, you _need_ this module.

I bought this module as a gift for my fiancee's birthday. In fact I got him the Handspring Visor Prism at the same time. This module is the greatest idea. It gives you the ability to use your Visor handheld as the first truly universal remote. I say that because there are a lot of so called 'universal remotes' you can buy that may be able to control most or all of your stereo/video equipment, but I have yet to see one that can do EVERY function the original remote for that item could have done. And this one can...and you can program it yourself to do almost anything. I highly recommend this item for anyone who has a Visor. You will not regret the purchase.

The Zaurus series is super awesome. With it's new portrait view I was able to terminal server, using rdesktop a free alternate to Win ConnectZ, in to my Windows 2000 server at a resolution of 640 x 480. Compaired to older modles and other manafactured products where you get stuck scrolling around to use terminal server or have to adjust the screen resolution to match the PDA. One of the single grestest things about the Zaurus is that it is Linux based and has a comunity of people writing software for it. If you can't find what you want at the Zaurus web page, myzaurus.com, there is a tremendous resource for applications at http://www.killefiz.de/zaurus. I recently found a port of Gaim, an AOL Instant Messanging program, that works with the Zaurus there.

I do want to warn the potential buyer to read the warrenty carefuly to make sure the Zaurus doesn't fall outside of your expectations. I recently found out what the phrase "...with .01% or fewer pixels failing to light or remain lit at all times." means to me.

Even with my runin with Sharp's technical support and warranty policy my Zaurus is a wonderful machine.

I'm writing this from my new Zaurus SL6000l, yay!

Haven't gotten a really good chance to get it working with my other stuff yet. I was immediately disappointed to find that qtmail won't do imaps or smtp over ssl; our mail server won't accept clear-text passwords over the net (does anyone anymore?). Seems like a big shortsight for a business-class PDA.

Support files are sure tough to find on the Sharp site, still looking for kernel sources so I can compile up a FreeS/WAN kernel module.

I'm really looking forward to trying out one of the VOIP clients with it; the speaker and mic on the back are clearly positioned with using it as a phone in mind.

Yes! The screen does rock, I can't believe how tiny but fine it is. I'm going to be permanently cross-eyed in no time from working from 6" away!

Soon I'll be looking into trying OpenZaurus, it's clear that's the way to go.

I originally ordered mine from here; on the catalog page it said 'ships in 2-3 days.' After purchasing it, though, the wait got longer and longer; when it went to almost two weeks, I began to get angry, so canceled and ordered from PC Connection instead. Two days later it was in my hands!

First of all, don't buy this product if you want a "polished" PDA with lots of commercial apps to choose from - stick with a Palm or PocketPC.

With that out of the way, this is by far the best handheld computer I've ever owned. I stress the word "computer" because this can do everything my laptop can do. The big screen is the most gorgeous PDA screen I have ever seen. It's even better than the imported Japanese Zauruses. It has bright vivid colors, the backlight can be used as a flashlight in a dark room, AND it is totally usable outdoors in direct sunlight. Believe me, this a rare combination! The 640x480 screen, switchable "on-the-fly" at the touch of a button between landscape and portrait mode makes it incredible versatile for web surfing and editing documents. The pull-down thumbboard is plenty usable for short writing tasks, if you want to do more you can get an external keyboard that connects via infrared. Built in WiFi, built in USB host, CF and SD slots, the feature list goes on and on.

The biggest downside is that Sharp has essentially decided to stop supporting the consumer market in the US. So there aren't a lot of official resources. Fortunately, there are websites like www.zaurususergroup.com that fill in the gap. Over there you'll find an active community that can help you get the most out of your Zaurus. Since most of the basic software is open source (Linux, Qtopia, etc) it's easy to customize and develop for, and compatible with many other Linux applications. You can even install X-windows.

Bottom line, if you want the most powerful handheld device ever made, and you aren't afraid of rolling up your sleeves and figuring a few things out for yourself, this device will do more than you can imagine was possible from a PDA.

I had to retire a palm zire 21 after 2 months because it would reset itself almost every other day. I sent it to the palm guys and it came back in worse condition that before. After reading the reviews on Amazon...I decided to call it quits while I was ahead and search for another PDA. (I had a palm Vx prior to that for 2 years).

WOW! What a jewel the Sony Clie is! It has much more memory than my other two models and for a work at home mom that's using her PDA to keep track of life, recipes, and wants all names and addresses at her fingertips, IN COLOR, this was a WONDERFUL purchase!

For the price (mine was $139), I cannot complain. It is much faster than my other palm pilots, the battery life is great, I don't really care that much about included applications, although the outlook "handler" does a great job (or seems to), and I think Sony really thought out the organization of the main screen on this PDA. A+

I'll begin by saying that I timed this one right! I got it for 160 before the rebate, so the price (140) was perfect.

I upgraded from an 8mb Visor Deluxe and this is AWESOME! The hi-res color screen is very sharp. My wife has a Zire 71 and we both agree mine is sharper. Palm OS5 is pretty cool too, though you wind up only getting 11 mb useable out of the 16. I fairly quickly bought a memory stick.

This thing is FAST! It's noticeably faster than my wife's Palm and faster than any other PDA I've seen (then again, I don't look if it's over 250). The lack of multimedia capabilities was a bit of a bummer, but I didn't think paying 70-100 was worth it when I have computers just about everywhere I go.

I've read the complaints about the lack of a cradle, but I personally like the little sync adapter. It only needs one of the USB cables with a "digital camera jack" to work. Since I have 5 of them, I took one to work. Now, I just grab my Clie and the 1-inch square adapter and I can sync at work and home. I actually even put the charging cord in the bedroom, so I can keep it on the nightstand charging for those late-night "honey do's" :D

Overall, I'm VERY pleased. Battery life is a bit of an issue, but the LiIon battery has no "memory effect" so I just charge it each night. I can get a solid 5 hours at a lower screen brightness (still easy to see) even using the memoery stick and running CPU-intensive apps.

I'd definitely recommend this if you can find it for less than $170. Totally worth it in my opinion. The cover is a weak spot and the stylus takes some getting used to, but these are the only drawbacks (IMHO) and are quickly eclipsed by speed, "look" (The Clie Launcher is awfully cool) and overall value. Put some pix of your kids, family, vacation, etc on it and show your friends and you'll be hooked! Buy with confidence.

PS Sony extends the warranty to one year for free when you register.

A few follow-ups:

1. Apparently Sony is closing this out to make room for the TJ-27. The Tj-25 can now be found as low as 120 (if you time it right).
2. The cover issue was easily fixed with a dab of superglue on each "hook". Quite solid now (fold cover back to get it out of the way (it's made to do this)).
3. Battery life has been measured more accurately at 4:30 on "medium-low" backlight setting.
4. The sync adapter is still quite handy. A tad bit larger than a postage stamp and quite portable if you already have the aforementioned cable where you're going.
5. I've had it for 30 days now, and aside from wishing I'd caught it at 120, I'm still quite happy.
6. To clarify "lack of multimedia" I mean "even your old Nokia phone had more tones". On the other hand, I always have the sound off anyway (as does my wife who has a multimedia-capable Zire 71) so I didn't need one in the first place.

It is one of the best out of sony products that you can get.

I've had two previous CD/MP3 players (Philips Expanium & Rio Volt), and this Panasonic is the best so far, at a fraction of the price I paid for the others. It's not perfect -- I'd like to have a pause on the remote, would like it to restart at the time on the disc where the power was turned off, and would like a backlight on the remote. But on the plus side are the long battery life, particularly with the extra AA attachment, the absence of skipping, even on bumpy roads and hopping up and down stairs, and the sound (I use a pair of Sony NudeX buds rather than the junky buds that are included), which is excellent, and offers four different EQs. The remote operation is simple and intuitive. The unit also seems quite sturdy. I've played the heck out of it, and it plays every MP3 I've thrown at it, which I can't say for the quirky earlier models I've had (and returned as defective). If you burn your MP3s to full-size CDRs, like I do, and want something that will play regular CDs as well, this is a terrific little unit.

Outstanding Qualities
I own several Panasonic CD players, and this is a very refined CD player, with or without its MP3 capabilities. First, it's very quiet in operation, so you won't hear unmusical motor whirring or seeking while you listen intimately to bedtime music :) The audio signal is also relatively noise free, and there is absolutely no hissing noise when the music quiets down. My previous Panasonic SL-CT560 makes a high pitched noise in the headphones whenever the remote backlighting came on, but the with CT700, Panasonic fixed that, too.

Model Family Comparisons
In comparison to the CT700, the CT800 is basically the same unit with metal casing and bundles Ni-MH instead of Ni-Cd reachargeable batteries, offering twice the battery life of CT700. I chose a red CT700 based on the look. Stay away from the budget SL-CT500 and SL-MPxx models, because although they're all Made in Japan like the CT700 (a rarity these days), they apparently use lower quality electronics and have much more noise in the audio.

Comparison with other Brands
A major strengh of Panasonic CD players is their superior mechanical engineering, and you can expect much better compatibility with different CD-R/RW discs and much longer product lifetime than with Sony CD Walkmans. This Panasonic is quality built to last. The only reasons you may choose a Sony might be its second-accurate resume feature, which like cassette Walkmans start at exactly the same point in music from which you left off yesterday, and better sound quality of the top end models. But Sony's all about marketing these days, and sound quality is a mixed bag, as are reliabilty, value (pricing) and design.

I got mine off ebay for ... dollars, but even at retail price ($...+) it's worth the price. Very good battery time, even on the rechargeables.. I have played it on and off for about 2 weeks and only last night did the recharge batteries die out. The sound quality is great; before I had a minidisc player, and this surpassed the sound quality by leaps and bounds in my car, probably thanks to their MASH 1-bit DAC System, designed to inhibit distortion, a common problem with mp3 playing. cdr playing has been a relative non-problem so far, and most of my discs are 3 year old silvers.
The only peeves from me are the non-seeking ability and with the remote. It is hard to advance the tracks without turning off the player, operate it and you will see what i mean. The sound quality out of the remote is also not as good as directly out of the drive, but only slightly. Also the remote is not backlit, so it can be frustrating to see where you are at or what you are doing in the car at night. This is only small a small problem though. The remote is very simple to operate and easy to use when only using your sense of touch. All and all, i would take this over any other portable device that i've handled so far. It's light, efficient, and sounds excellent!

Pros: solid keyboard with no folding -- harder to damage than the Palm rendition.
The keyboard is slightly smaller than a normal keyboard so is a little hard to type comfortably for longer entries, but for most Palm entries, it works fine.
Cons: It is larger than practical for me for most uses since I got a palm to avoid carrying a laptop/bulky stuff. So while it is nice that is one solid piece, I don't use it as much as I would if it fit in my fanny pack.

I'm really impressed with this product.

First, it's about half the price of the Palm product (which I've used) and I like this one better. I prefer the one piece (non folding) construction - can't put it in your pocket, but easily fits in a briefcase or backpack. Just feels solid, whereas the folding ones feel flimsy. Excellent docking base for the Palm, supports it really well.

It came with some nice extras I wasn't expecting. It came with a full functioned Word Processer (complete with Spell check, a thesaurus) capable of saving in .doc format, then loading directly into Word upon HotSync. If bought by itself, this software is about the same price of the keyboard - here, it's a great free bonus. I also appreciate the fact that you can HotSync directly from the keyboard, something many other models don't do.

This is a great keyboard, and truly does make the Palm function more like a mini-laptop. Well worth it.

I use the Landware GoType! Keyboard for my Palm V, and it is just great! Not only is it great for typing, but when traveling it dobles as a hotsync cradle, it comes with cords for power and a serial cord for hot syncing.

It works, it simply works. I can pick up my pop email from any location with an analog phone connection. (watch out, many offices have digital phone systems, which will not like this little modem) And I can also send my pop email with some freeware available out there. So all in all a great product. I can even just peek on the server to see if any relevant email is waiting out there, or if it is spam and spam again. (i am using a commercial software for this feature, so be prepared to spend a bit more money) It is nice to sit in a hotel room somewhere far from home and to read email on your little palm V (or better Vx)... it feels like working on the very first macintosh. It is all very cute, and all the words in the emails seem really important. Hmm, but there must be other solutions. I could think of wireless solutions, or solutions which would use a cellphone as a wireless modem. (look ma, no wires)... This modem is a cute solution for the wired traveler. Emails feel very fuzzy and warm. And you can write them anywhere and then send them off from almost anywhere. Oh, and before i forget, yes, you can also surf the web. (using some other commercial software which is listed in the manual). Hmm, surfing the web on a palm is a completely different story. It just does not feel right. Amazon actually is quite surfable, but many other sites are not. It feels a bit like leaving the house but never crossing any streets. Not quite there yet, it seems. :*) Get it, if you insist. :*) I am keeping mine. I like it.

I love gadgets. My Palm Vx became a constant companion and vital part of my wardrobe, and the modem follows close behind. On business trips or any other time I'm on the road, it has served me very well. The ability to keep up to date on e-mail, news, and HotSync stuff while on the road, combined with a pre-paid phone card, means that I'll never need to lug around a giant laptop! Woohoo! (...)

Excellent service from Palm, shipped immediately, also at his expense shipped accessories as we didn't exchange e-mails in time,would recommend them highly.very prompt.