Handheld Reviews

This unit comes with a serial cable that is used for programming the unit and sending GPS data to the computer. after getting a new unit, check for updated firmware at garmin.com. the newest firmware helped the start time of my unit (the time it took to find a satellite) and improved its reception capability. after I updated the firmware I got a solid sat. lock from my living room couch.

some of the older units are effected by a poor audio quality due most likely to a faulty microphone in the unit. read the footnote at [website] and it says Rino 120 - Serial Numbers 38905977 through 38941463 are recalled. I have two units in this range. they are usable but you have to speak at just the right level. I will be returning them and getting updated ones when they become available in my area.

The FRS radio works well with my other motorola radios, and from my limited testing the sub channels (0-38) appear to all use the same tones as motorola. the FRS radio has the ability to 'scan' for conversation. something that is very useful if you were using it in conjunction with search and rescue (trying to find someone that you knew had an FRS radio)

some people have commented that when you are driving down the road the unit shows you as being off the road. the reason for this is that the basemap is VECTOR based (straight line between points) and there is a limited number of points stored in memory. If it bothers you to have your point shown off the road, there is a feature that you can use 'snap to road' or something like that. The actual position reported by this is VERY accurate. I have gotten the unit to 9ft of accuracy which is helpful for such things as geocaching.

There is limited third party software to generate your own map. do a search for 'garmin custom map' at google.com

this device is a great integration of GPS and FRS. the... pricetag seems steep until you realize that the exact same GPS WITHOUT a radio (and the vibrator that is in the model) is about that price. The features over the 110 are well worth it. it has a basemap of North/south america, 8 meg of memory for downloading map data, and a vibrator that will vibrate when you receive a call after 45 seconds.

Some of the reviews mentioned problems with radio compatibility with the Motorola FRS units. We have six of the Motorola units and have had no problems between them and the Garmin. I have also, so far, not had problems with battery life, and have used the unit in all combinations of operation. One hopes these problems were isolated events.

I find the RINO's operation to be very intuitive, little or no reference to the manual was necessary (though I have now read the entire thing). The unit is certainly the easiest of all the various GPS units I've used. This one even picks up signal while in our house, something no other unit I've seen has done.

A factor I had never considered with other units is how well the machine fits/holds in the hand.

So far, in our short association, I'm both very impressed and pleased with the machine. I would recommend it highly.

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June 03.
The RINO and I have now been together for a number of months. It continues to be an excellent tool.

In addressing the reports of battery life and radio reception, I feel it necessary to report that I STILL have not had problems with battery life. I get two full days of 8-10 hour use from a set of batteries, with power left over.

Between my wife and kids, we have five different Motorola units and have zero problems communicating with them. Both my parents and my in laws have generic "no name" radio sets and the Rino also "talks" to them with zero problems. My unit has software version 2.10, and that may be a factor.

1935 has everything e355 has except that
it uses a slower processor, but i dont use it for
intensive computing. it is a lot smaller. it is battery life
is quite good....very happy to swtich to 1935

Hopefully this review will give a student a little insight into this "student" view of this.

Pros:
1. Great speed.
2. Works right out of the box.
3. Excellent battery life (3.5 to 4hrs continuous running)
4. Crisp display. (especially for video playback)
5. Smooth buttons that feel pretty nice on your fingers.
6. Good price for the quality you get
7. The speakers on this player play audio in the best way i have heard for a small speaker unit. You would not believe that a pda could do so well with sound. It plays my mp3s, wma, anything and don't forget the videos.
8. It has a SD card slot so you can expand the memory at any time. the SD card slot has a dummy card that protects it from being damaged by dust or other particles.
9. Quick charge time. Good size storage built in, 64mb.
10. Windows Mobile 2003 is much much much more stable than its predeccessor.
11. It's much much much thinner than many other pda's i have reviewed.
12. It's much more resiliant to 'falls to the floor' than the Dell or Ipaqs for example. I'm a teacher. I can guarantee you...running around the class will lead to a fall on the ground. It has a metallic covering. (no shaking inside!)

Cons.
1. Sometimes if you use up close to 90% of the memory, it stalls.
2. The 'record audio' button is placed near the top so sometimes taking it out you may mistakedly begin recording. (this can be disabled though so it is not really a con)
3. It does not include the ability to 'go wireless' for internet. You can still access the internet though but you need to be connected to your computer. I did not need wireless internet just yet. When it does become ubiquitous...maybe then i'll go for something else.
4. The battery is not removeable. By the time this actually becomes a problem I'll be getting a new pda..about 2 to 3 years from now.

THis is an excellent PDA is you do not need wireless internet access right away.
I would recommend it with all authority people out there.

pros: Great screen; great price...; FAST 200mhz processor; nice materials, good multimedia capability; easly to sinc up with Windows XP; and Palm 5.0 OS

cons: stylus pops out the bottom pretty easily; no SD slot; no Compact Flash slot; One of the few Clies that doesnt come with Documents to Go; low basic memory (buy a 128K mem stick at least with the clie); the great world clock and calculator prepackaged with older OS no longer avail on 5.0

I would have given 5 stars if it had SD or Compact Flash and slightly better software package.

Con's: No built in wi-fi

I love my new toy. I'm actually writing my review on it right now. I get a new one of these about every year. I started with a Palm Vx, then a Sony CLIE SL10. Now I'm on a TG-50. The MP3 player puts out amazingly good quality music. I'm not even going to buy a seperate MP3 player. The movie quality is great, you could put a couple hours on it, right now I only have a couple of my favorite ads though. The voice recorder function is fun to use. No one even knows when your using the voice recorder. Overall I love it and the amazing brushed metal styling. I wish it had built-in 802.11b but I found a website where you can pick a memory stick adapter up for only $159. For the time being it's my favorite gadget.

I use Outlook on my PC when I hot sync, and have not had a problem. The software that comes with the TG-50 lets you sync with Outlook without much hassle.

The only irritaion that I have had is, sometimes it will give an error and the only option left is a hard reset. However, when it comes back up the most recent data is still there (I use a memory stick). Use the TG-50 with a memory stick and back-up regularly. Data back-up is essential no matter what technology you use.

Bottom line is...It really is a cool little gadget, and provides great value for your money.

The picture quality is good (hint make sure you go into setup and set the 'TV' display to wide screen, at least when watching wide format shows - makes a difference in quality on LCD).

IMO the 5.8" screen is ideal in the fact that this player is no bigger than a normal CD player. As long as the player is close to you that size is pretty good. It works well if no more than a couple of people are watching it.

The sound is also good (given the size) and is loud compared to other DVD players. (Another hint - change the equalizer setting to live, etc. to get louder sound).

I can also play SVCD and DVD+R disks in the player although this appears to be undocumented. This is good news if you have computer with a CD/DVD burner.

My only real complaint is with the battery pack design. Instead of attaching neatly onto the bottom of the player like some models, it is 'hung' on along the back and plugged into to the players power connector. This is kind of minor but I would have prefered a more integrated design. A larger complaint related to this is the battery cannot be charged at the same time the DVD is in use. I would have rated the player 5 stars except for this.

Also, it has a red light that illuminates when the power switch is turned off. I've noticed this in other low end players like Mintek. What is the purpose of this function? It seems pointless and irritating to me.

One other minor complaint is most functions can only be accessed with the included remote control. This is also common to a lot of players. It seems like they could at least use the joystick to navigate the setup menus and such.

For the right price this is a very good player and is highly recommended.

I had been considering buying a recognizable name brand portable DVD player, when a friend told me to wait. I'm glad I did.

I didn't expect much (considering Inital is an unknown brand), but it's unfair to judge the product before seeing how it performs. The picture quality is excellent - As good as a 5.8" widescreen LCD display can get. The colors are very vivid and natural-looking. The display itself appears to be flawless with no visible "dead pixels" which tend to plague LCD screens. The 5.8" screen seems to be a perfect size for a portable player - not too big, but not too small.

The built-in speakers aren't the greatest in the world, but they get the job done and don't sound bad by any means. Since it's a portable player, my main interest is being able to catch-up on my movie watching while riding on the train to and from work every morning. With that said, I listen to the audio with a pair of good headphones (Koss Pro-35 from Radio Shack) and I must say that the sound is outstanding.

Feature-wise, Initial included all of the features you commonly find on a full-sized player. Although not all of them are accessable on on the player-itself, they are available via a fully featured, credit card sized remote control.

If you need another stand alone DVD player to hook-up to an extra TV, this portable little dynamo can do the job. It features a digital coaxial output for audio, and a 1/8" to RCA Video and Audio (sorry no S-Video).

Overall, you get a high quality portable player - for a relatively low price. If you are considering a name brand machine, give Inital a try - for the price I am willing to bet that their quality can not be beat!

Purchase decision - My impression from OTHER reviews and info for Magellan was great hardware, weak software but considering all pluses, minuses and price points and my usage: hiking, biking, back-country skiing, driving, boating, I chose a Magellan Meridian Gold, 32meg memory, and Mapsend Topo Sofware. Keep in mind there's a lot to choose from and yet none seemed PERFECT.

I've now had it for 2 weeks of vacation time biking, hiking, driving and land surveying in S. Utah. I monkeyed with this unit everyday, becoming completely familiar with it's usage.

The Good: Solid, durable hardware. The Gold has a great feel, is a good size and fits into any of my outdoor shirt pockets. It holds satellite signal extremely well in trees, 2nd story house, Utah canyons. Solid feeling buttons and rubber armoring are all great. Seems to do very well on batteries using roughly a pair or less a day. (I already have a charger and extra batteries from my digital camera and headlamps).

The Bad: Mapsend topo software at 1:100,000 is not really precise at closest level. However, the amount of built in software and downloaded maps are sufficient for my usage and I can imagine the memory and processor speed needed for 1:24,000 topos. Also on the positive side Mapsend and Magellan built-in software has a ton of info! It's great having altitude, moon/sun info, vertical trip projections, and much more.

The Ugly: Magellan's method of setting routes and backtracking is absolutely terrible for my usage. I am so annoyed with this, I would return it if I hadn't already used it 2 weeks. Here's the deal -

If you go out for the day and retrace your route exacty, or just set it for the car in general it works very well. But so does a few cents worth of flagging, popcorn, or the cheapest GPS available.

In reality, I usually go on a hike, bike, or ski in some type of semi circle and at some point want to return to my nearest backtrack point and THEN start backtracking. I want the unit to beep when I get near the next point and keep counting them down. In the canyonlands of Utah and backcountry skiing here in Jackson Hole, Wyoming this could really be useful.

However, this ONLY works easily if you exacty retrace your trail.

So... in everyday usage where you aren't going exactly back down your same trail (why have a GPS?) you have to build a route with the GPS and/or go through the user database and select the nearest backtrack points. And then if you don't keep manually going through the database and selecting the next point, it will just keep pointing back at the last one. This is ridiculously time consuming on a day hike and makes operating the GPS the whole excecise instead of enjoying the outdoors. THIS SEEMS LIKE IT COULD BE EASILY CHANGED BY MAGELLAN BY SOFWARE PROGRAMMING.

More ugly: Really ugly.

Okay, so you set waypoints along your way using the GPS. Great, it does this well with 2 clicks. But THEN what??? It's back to the problem above.

It takes SEVEN screen operations and even more arrowing buttons to get a single one of these into a route. This completely insenses me. I could walk around circles for a day and eventually catch up to my wife and find the car in the time it takes to make a route! WHY CAN'T MAGELLAN MAKE IT SO I SELECT ALL THE POINTS FOR A ROUTE AT ONCE!!!???? How about storing waypoints in separate databases to start with? Or using two buttons in a computer-like fashion to highlight and select?

THEN: after I've got a route made HOW ABOUT if the GPS allows me to select manual or automatic retracing???? In other words, I want to go on a trip and set waypoints along the way. (Remember this is easy) Then, no matter where I am when I want to return to camp, I dump all my waypoints into memory in a few clicks, point the way to the nearest, and as I approach each new one, (automatic mode) the GPS beeps and rolls over to the next (lower number) waypoint.

If Magellan would make route setting and retracing easy, this would be a real must-have piece of gear for all my trips. At present, it's an electronic toy to play with while walking on flat ground or while my wife is driving the car. To give it the benefit of the doubt is also perhaps a good last resort safety measure so that if I get really lost I know where the nearest town is.

The annoying part is it is so close to being great, but Magellan's software programmers apparently never leave the office!

One last word - I find the Gold a great decision over the Platinum for using less batteries, having less to break, not needing re-calibrated everytime you change the batteries (daily) and knowing I haven't paid even more for some hardware that is mostly a toy because of the software behind it. Plus, I wouldn't go somewhere I could really get lost without a basic topo map and compass!

Three Stars overall for amazing toy that gives you info from satellites in outer space!

I got quite the scare recently. I knew I had been using my Palm IIIx earlier in the day, but when I reached into my jacket pocket at the train station, it wasn't there. After a quick search of all my pockets I realized I didn't have it. I retraced my steps, but it wasn't in my office, nor in the Starbuck's where I got my coffee.

Fortunately, it turned up the next morning. The cab driver who took me to the station the previous day had found it in the cab and was honest enough to return it. Five minutes after I got my Palm back, I was online here at Amazon looking at cases. I finally decided that the belt clip case made the most sense for me, as the other cases would still risk falling out of a pocket.

The leather is very nice and seems to adequately protect the organizer from damage from inadvertent bumps. The belt clip holds securely. There are a couple of drawbacks that prevent this from being a 5 star product however. One is that it barely fits around the flip top cover of the Palm III. Makes it very hard to remove your organizer from the case. Also you have to take the case off your belt to get to your Palm. It would be nice if the cover were hinged the other way to enable removing the organizer without unclipping the case. Still the case does exactly what I bought it for, which is to keep my Palm handy at all times, without the risk of losing it.

However, the photo-viewing program doesn't allow you to zoom in or out. This is annoying because the Photo program just resizes the image to fit on the screen. That's disappointing. You also need an SD card to take advantage of the mp3 player, which requires another purchase. My last CON is the HORRIBLE graffiti2 that comes with it...NASTY. I found a hack online for converting it back to graffiti1, but it acts a little funny after converting it back. Oh well.

I was happy that both the mp3 player and the photo viewer both allow you to view photos on your SD card without a problem. The mp3 playback quality is great!

Overall, for the $149 price tag, you absolutely can't beat this deal. I would definitely recommend this product!

PROS:
- Nice keyboard
- Love the fact that you can listen to music at the same time performing other functions like browsing, email etc (probably an OS5 feature not restricted to this model only)
- The wireless works like a charm right out of the box.
- Great resolution.

CONS:
- Had to soft boot at least 3-4 times already.
- Most apps require portrait mode which the UX50 does not natively support.
- Battery life - 3hrs max if you use the wireless.
- Need an additional memory stick (128MB - 40$)
- Crappy camera - 0.3MP!!! cmon Sony!
- Native doc support restricted to read only.
- Need the docking station to charge, no direct connection to PDA.

Must have software:
- you can enable the landscape mode for most apps using Code Diver. This is a MUST if you want to use the UX50.

(shareware + 10$. Remember to use the latest beta and not the handango version)
- Also I strongly recommend buying Documents to Go and Contacts to Go (add another 75$ to the tag)

Overall, you can end up spending about 1000$ to make this thing really usable, not worth it. But if you dont mind getting a used one cheap off eBay, this is definitely a nice toy.

The Clie is exquisitely designed. Everything fits together very nicely. The keyboard is large enough to be useful, and you can hide it when you flip the screen to tablet mode. The one gripe I have about the physical ergonomics is the location of the scroll wheel -- I wish it had been placed on the left, where the power button is presently located. Its placement underneath the keyboard can be somewhat awkward. I thought the screen would be bigger, but it's high resolution and quality compensates for its size.

I'm relatively new to PalmOS, so I have no point of comparison other than the iPaq I'm also using, which is based on Windows Mobile 2003. For good or bad, you don't feel like you're using a regular computer on the Clie -- the interaction style is rather different. I'm guessing this is a feature of the PalmOS in general.

The web browser NetFront, which I'd read rave reviews of, is somewhat lame. You can't control the font size, and bookmark management is not especially flexible. As far as I can tell the only thing you can do is create a long linear list of bookmarks -- no user-defined folders or anything like that. It's also darn near impossible to control the web browser from the keyboard exclusively -- I found myself switching between keyboard and stylus quite frequently, which was somewhat annoying.

The "entertainment" functions such as the still/video camera capabilities are merely toys. By no means are they a replacement for a real digital camera. Still, very handy when you need to take a quick picture of something for a report and all you have is your PDA.

I have not yet tried syncing to my PC, so I can't comment on that aspect of it. The wireless networking capability (802.11) works well. I had it up and running with my Linksys wireless router in a matter of minutes with WEP enabled. Connection reliability was very good; I never lost a link to the router when within reasonable range (this has *not* been the case with the iPaq, I might add).

All in all, a pretty nice device. Would I have spent my own $700 on it? No way. I could never justify that kind of dough on something so frivolous. But it is a very slick gadget for those who must have the latest and greatest.

The specifications of the ruined Palm Tungsten-T charger shows 5v, 1 Ampere, Regulated Power Supply, Positive at Center Polarity. These specs are exactly the same as those found in the Palm Travel Charger so I bought it.

The Palm Travel Charger charges the Tungsten-T directly without need of a cradle. The Palm Travel Charger is light, handy and comes with 3 plug adapters that should make it usable in almost all power outlets in the world. The charger's connector to the Tungsten-T appears frail and flimsy but works quite well.

I would highly recommend this to travellers who wants a lighter weight charger and who wants to charge his Tungsten (and m130, i705 & m500 series) without need to attach the Tungsten to the cradle.