Organizer Reviews

After you put your credit and some other cards and your checkbook you'll have problem to close this case - it's so bulky. You can't put this case inthe pocket - it so big. More of this, when finally I closed it - it turned on my Visor (all night it was turned on!!!) and I saw battery low warning on the next morning, when I opened it!!!

in order to get a good idea about this product the picture should be the inside of the case as well as the outside

This case was good for the first few days for it protects the palm v much better than the case that came with it. The idea of putting everything in one carry case sounded convenient, but it finally got a little bulky for me. It isn't really necessary (for me) to get all my credit cards and my checkbook out to check my to-do list. Overall, I'd give it a 3 for the protection it provides.

This product is junk, due to a cheap connector that broke the first time I tried to remove it form my Visor Pro. The keyboard wouldn't work at all when first installed, then worked intermittently with much adjusting of the position of the keyboard after the connector was cracked. A really disappointing dud.

The ThumbPad is very lightweight, but seems quite durable. The Visor slides into a nice solid dock with the ThumbPad, unlike other mini-keyboards I've seen where the connection is very tenuous, and you have to be really careful to support the unit to avoid putting any weight on the connection. With the ThumbPad the can just hold the keyboard, which easily supports the weight of the Visor for comfortable typing.

The keyboard layout has a pretty big flaw. There's only one shift key, at the lefthand side. Would including a shift key on the right side as well have increased the size of the unit by that much? Punctuation is accessed using the "function" key, and, you guessed it, there's only one, on the lefthand side, right next to the quotation mark and apostrophe, making it very awkward to type these symbols. If there were shift and function keys on each side, you wouldn't have to shift your grip on the ThumbPad and it would be much more comfortable.

My biggest frustration with the ThumbPad is a non-fatal but annoying bug. If the ThumbPad is idle too long (on the order of ten seconds), the PDA stops accepting input from the keypad. I have to turn off the PDA, and turn it back on by pressing a key on the ThumbPad, and then I can continue typing normally. My email to tech support has not yet been returned (though it's only been a few days). I had a similar small bug with a different Targus keyboard in the past, which was never resolved, so I think I'll be avoiding their products in the future (when possible--the Visor user doesn't have a LOT of options for peripherals!)

The Targus ThumbPad is an external thumbboard that attaches to your Palm via the Universal Connector at the bottom. Rather than covering the buttons and Graffiti area, it extends a couple of inches beneath the handheld, which amazingly rests firmly in place. The ThumbPad is made of plastic and is very light.

It's not nearly as functional as the full-size folding keyboards -- useful extra keys like "New" and "OK" aren't there, but that's to be expected with a keyboard this size. More perplexing, however, is the absence of parenthesis keys. You do have to reach for the stylus and the Palm's own buttons from time to time, and you must resist the temptation to use the ThumbPad's directional keys in the Apps menu -- they don't page up and down.

The fact that the ThumbPad flares outward from the Palm's base gives the keyboard more room and allows the keys to be bigger than the keys that PDAs with built-in thumbboards have. Key action is very nice, as nice as the Tungsten W or C (but with more room) and far nicer than Sony Clie thumbboards. I find typing surprisingly quick. I would have preferred to see sticky Shift, Fn and Control keys, like some built-in thumbboards, since holding down two keys at once is awkward on a keyboard of this type.

Overall I'm quite pleased with this little thumbboard, and look forward to using it to send SMS when my Palm Bluetooth card arrives.

This review was drafted on a Palm m505 using the ThumbPad.

This product is junk, due to a cheap connector that broke the first time I tried to remove it form my Visor Pro. The keyboard wouldn't work at all when first installed, then worked intermittently with much adjusting of the position of the keyboard after the connector was cracked. A really disappointing dud.

The ThumbPad is very lightweight, but seems quite durable. The Visor slides into a nice solid dock with the ThumbPad, unlike other mini-keyboards I've seen where the connection is very tenuous, and you have to be really careful to support the unit to avoid putting any weight on the connection. With the ThumbPad the can just hold the keyboard, which easily supports the weight of the Visor for comfortable typing.

The keyboard layout has a pretty big flaw. There's only one shift key, at the lefthand side. Would including a shift key on the right side as well have increased the size of the unit by that much? Punctuation is accessed using the "function" key, and, you guessed it, there's only one, on the lefthand side, right next to the quotation mark and apostrophe, making it very awkward to type these symbols. If there were shift and function keys on each side, you wouldn't have to shift your grip on the ThumbPad and it would be much more comfortable.

My biggest frustration with the ThumbPad is a non-fatal but annoying bug. If the ThumbPad is idle too long (on the order of ten seconds), the PDA stops accepting input from the keypad. I have to turn off the PDA, and turn it back on by pressing a key on the ThumbPad, and then I can continue typing normally. My email to tech support has not yet been returned (though it's only been a few days). I had a similar small bug with a different Targus keyboard in the past, which was never resolved, so I think I'll be avoiding their products in the future (when possible--the Visor user doesn't have a LOT of options for peripherals!)

The Targus ThumbPad is an external thumbboard that attaches to your Palm via the Universal Connector at the bottom. Rather than covering the buttons and Graffiti area, it extends a couple of inches beneath the handheld, which amazingly rests firmly in place. The ThumbPad is made of plastic and is very light.

It's not nearly as functional as the full-size folding keyboards -- useful extra keys like "New" and "OK" aren't there, but that's to be expected with a keyboard this size. More perplexing, however, is the absence of parenthesis keys. You do have to reach for the stylus and the Palm's own buttons from time to time, and you must resist the temptation to use the ThumbPad's directional keys in the Apps menu -- they don't page up and down.

The fact that the ThumbPad flares outward from the Palm's base gives the keyboard more room and allows the keys to be bigger than the keys that PDAs with built-in thumbboards have. Key action is very nice, as nice as the Tungsten W or C (but with more room) and far nicer than Sony Clie thumbboards. I find typing surprisingly quick. I would have preferred to see sticky Shift, Fn and Control keys, like some built-in thumbboards, since holding down two keys at once is awkward on a keyboard of this type.

Overall I'm quite pleased with this little thumbboard, and look forward to using it to send SMS when my Palm Bluetooth card arrives.

This review was drafted on a Palm m505 using the ThumbPad.

It holds only 16 NOT 50 CDs. It takes up a lot of space on the desktop. It doesn't stack. It doesn't expand (they don't fit together) due to its outside shape. You can't cart them around, the black plastic separates from the brown plastic.

It looks like I'll either have to go to Case Logic products and/or find another vendor.

I bought this product after reading Allsop's more detailed product information on their website. It arrived shortly, and reading the packaging you will find that it can hold CDs, DVD's, 3.5" floppies, LS-120 (Superdisk) media, and Zip media.

The setup is nicely designed, the two trays are removeable, so for example you can have one tray facing forward and the other facing sideways. Currently I have it setup with CD jewel cases and a couple of 3.5" floppy disks. No there is no room for double CD jewel cases. However I noticed a problem when it came to DVD's. No matter what I tried, they wouldn't fit. The problem my lie in that all my movies are in Amary-style plastic keep cases. Perhaps the cardboard snap case that Warner Bros. and other movies are distributed with would work, I don't have any on hand to test. Or perhaps Allsop meant DVD's stored in a CD-sized jewel case.

Nonetheless, for hold CD's and floppies, it does it's job very well.

While I should have been more cognizant of the scale of this product from the picture on this detail page, I had envisioned it as more of an ergonomic piece that I could wrap my fingers around and type with my thumbs. Unfortunately, it feels about 80% of the size I was hoping it would be. The keys are tactile, as they are raised, but they're just slightly too small for thumb typing at a better rate than hunting and pecking with the onscreen keyboard. The advantage of the mini keyboard is that, unlike the fullsize keyboards, you don't need a flat surface on which to type. However, the iPaq feels slightly unbalanced in the too-small unit and, rather than using the unit to support the iPaq, I find myself resting the iPaq on a desktop or on my lap. In summary, the typing speed gain isn't significant enough for me to recommend this unit to everyone given it's hefty price tag.

It seems like a neat idea, and it's nice and compact. however if you get into to a typing frenzy, your thumbs tend to cover up your vision of the keys you need to type, and you get lost easily and have to keep looking down at the keyboard to get your bearings. There's supposed to be a button to press in order to disengage it from the iPAQ so you don't break it. The first time I pressed it, it got permanently locked into the "release" position. It still stays on firmly and i can just tug at it to loosen it, but the button was worthless. typing might still be faster if you just use the stylus on the digital keyboard that pops up onscreen.

Every iPAQ user I know either goes naked with the iPAQ (no sleeve at all) or used one of the *functioning* expansion packs like the phone, PC Card, or CF packs.

While these style packs come in funky (sort of funky) colours, they don't do anything, not even protect the screen. If you really, really want one, I suggest that you either spray paint the black one that came with your iPAQ, or, for less expense, glue some dollar bills to your old case. Now that would be funky.

At one tenth the price that these go for I probably won't buy one. At full price, there's just no value.

Fellow amozoner's, The ipaq style packs are not bad. It all depends onthe kind of style you like. The colors match the silver buttons and the exposed unit. It is also a great feature to have a matching stylis. It stands out in a good way, it looks good and it is not depressing compared to the black style pack. The Bottom line is 1.if you want to style-get it 2.if you like your style pack that you already have-dont buy it

I DO recommend it!!!!

-Brandon

This is a quality case for PDAs, soft leather, a feeling of durability. I would definitely recommend it over the cheaper cases you see everywhere. BUT, it is too small for the Palm IIIc, vertically, with either the top or the bottom of the unit sticking out, defeating the goal of protecting this particular unit.

Over all, I have been pleased with the product. The case is made with good quality leather, and it mostly retains its shape well (the only complaint I have is that after about a year, the stylus-holder becomes too loose to keeps the stylus in). When I first got it, I did think that the case is not quite big enough to completely cover the edges of the Palm III; however, over the years, I decided that it served its purpose admirably -- the protection that my pilot needed the most was against the minor but frequent trauma of being banged around in my bookbag or purse, and the thick leather padding did a good job absorbing the shock. Besides, no other case comes with a cute little duckie!

and why would anyone? one side defeats the purpose of the other.

I bought this product after I bought Franklin Covey software for Palm Vx. The latest software works very well with Microsoft Outlook and Palm Organizer, and I decided to try the famous Franklin Covey System.

The product was good, but no calender included. If you need paper calender, you should buy another one from Franklin Covey. But if you use the calender on Palm, that is OK.

the quality of the case is not so good, but woeks.

Overall, this is good as starterkit. If you find this does not work for you, you can quit anytime without hundreds dollar investment.

Truly a poorly designed case:

* no syncing in cradle with case
* not all parts are leather; the essential part that holds the Palm in place
is made out of plastic
-> far too narrow, does not bend enough
* once my Palm was in there, I could hardly get it out again

I was not happy with this buy !

This won't protect your PDA in your pocket, and it doesn't allow you to synch it in a cradle. Furthermore, I took it in and out of the case a couple times and it was already coming apart. Oh, and it was well-nigh impossible getting anything in and out of the pockets.

It would be nice if someone would make a good Tungsten T case that really protected the PDA, and didn't leave holes for lint.

I just got this case for my palm despite the 2 "bad" reviews it got on Amazon. I personally think the case is really nice. it holds the palm nicely and gives it way more protection than the silly plastic cover that came with my TT. I have had no problems with it and continue to have no problems. I did experiance a little trouble with the slits in the case for cards but realised it was my own stupidity and realising you have to slip it "up" into the slit and not "down" into it. it's a well designed an well made good looking case. Only downside is you do have to remove it from the case to hotsink it. but thats Palms fault for not designing more clearance into the synk base. but for that little detail I give it a 4 not a 5

I bought this device because I thought it might help me on a vacation to Spain. Boy was I disappointed. The number of words especially common travel/tourism related-words, that it knows is small. The unit is hard to operate. Even the travel alarm is poorly implemented. Save your money. Buy something else (like a good phrase book).

... Unfortunately,while I found it very easy to operate and very compact, I found using it to be quite disappointing. The first word I looked up was the German equivalent of "train" but the Seiko didn't contain "train," "train station" nor "locomotive" in its dictionary. Considering that much of European travel is done by train, it seems a pretty basic word that should have been included in an item aimed at European travellers. Ironically, they did include "trainer," which I think is far less necessary than train. The currency converter is useless - most of the buttons are for currencies no longer in existence since the Euro is now the standard in most European nations.

Almost all handheld multi-language translators have some common drawbacks and this one is no execption. Here are some examples: In order to translate a verb, you must provide the infinitive version in the foreign language. No gender articles are provided. The vocabulary word total given is for all of the words combined from each language -not for each individual language. This type of device is really just meant to provide catch-phrases and very basic vocabulary only. The Seiko was much easier to operate than others - I did not have to read the directions to figure out how to select the desired language and it was easy to figure out how to enter words. Also, the Seiko is backlit and easy to read - the letters are very clear and huge. It is sturdy looking and sleek,fitting easily into a pocket. Despite these positives, I found it much less expensive and much faster to look up words & phrases in a tiny traveller's dictionary/phrasebook. Therefore,I am returning the Seiko.

The Seiko DF4033 Language Translator is a nice little unit. It's small enough to fit into a shirt pocket, but it will bulge a bit, since it is about 3/4 of an inch thick. It has a backlight which makes it easier to read the screen in dim light. However, each of the keys serves two functions: the main function (such as a letter or numeric value) is printed right on the key and is easy to read, whereas the secondary function (attained by pressing the SHIFT key) is printed in orange over black making it harder to read even in normal lighting and I've found it impossible to read in dim light.

The unit is somewhat intuitive and appears well constructed. It has a number of phrases in various categories (accommodations, dining, health, shopping, travel, etc) that could come in handy. But, like most of these units, I've found the number of such phrases to be very limited. The alarm clock is a nice feature as is the phone directory. And you can even replace the battery without losing your stored data. You have 30 seconds to do so!

The letters on the screen itself are large and easy to read, but this limits the number of letters that can be seen at one time to only 12 per line. You can see the additional letters by pressing the scroll key. However, in translating some of the phrases the first few letters of a word can appear at the right end of screen on the first line and when you press the scroll arrow the screen image jumps to the remaining letters, essentially bisecting the word (you never see the entire word at the same time.) It would have been better if they had wrapped the phrase into the second line on the main screen so you would not have to scroll at all.

I think it would have been a nice feature if the translated word also showed the gender, where appropriate, and if phonetic assistance in pronouncing the foreign word was provided. There is room to do so on the second line of the display. Unfortunately, I have not found any reasonably priced translators that will do so, including this one.

Overall I like the unit and for the price I think it is a pretty good deal. For the casual traveler who does not know the language I expect that it will serve you (and me) well.