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More problems with the material world

1. My Palm Vx died yesterday. This is the one that Buzz ActiveWords Bruggeman gave me after I ran over mine. The writeable screen is so far out of whack that I can’t even get the menu to recalibrate it. It’s been going downhill for a while.

I use my Palm just about entirely as a portable address book. I’m having trouble reading the monochrome screens, so I’d like to upgrade to a color screen. I want to use the Palm OS. Battery life counts: I want to be able to take it on the road for a week, turning it on only occasionally, without having to carry a recharger.

So, I seem to have it narrowed down to the Palm Tungsten E and the Sony Clie TJ25. Any comments, recommendations or expressions of profound uninterest?

2. The heating pad I use for my back died last week. So far two replacements aren’t hot enough; the Hot settings on them don’t get as hot as the Warm on my old one. Have the overly-protective, chicken-ass manufacturers dialed down the temperatures on heating pads sometime in the past ten years?

The good news about my heating pad crashing: I don’t have to reinstall Windows on it.

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13 Responses to “More problems with the material world”

  1. Why don’t you look at the Treo 600. I have one and it is sensational. And on 11/24/2003 cell number emancipation day, you probably can cut a great deal.

    The screen on the Treo is dazzling, and so far every aspect of it has been sensational.

  2. The lusted-for Treo 600 is waaaaay out of my price range. I don’t feel that good about paying $180 for a Tungsten or Clie since I just use it as an address book, and I’m not willing to go much higher than that.

  3. If you had an Apple Ipad you’d had greater heat control. *ducks* (since now one has made a switch comment recently :))

  4. You used to could pour McDonald’s coffee into your hot water bottle, but now it won’t do any good.

  5. Glück im Unglück.

    David Weinberger hat Pech: Sein Palm Vx gab seinen Geist auf – und eine Woche zuvor auch noch das Heizkissen. Soweit die schlechten Nachrichten. Nun die gute: “The good news about my heating pad crashing: I don’t have to reinstall…

  6. I got a Tungsten E about a month ago, and I really like it — but long battery life it doesn’t have, at least not at my level of use. It definitely needs to be charged often, at least every couple of days.

  7. Taper, what sort of use do you put it to? I’d only be using it to look up phone numbers on occasion. Am I safe in assuming that if I only turn it on a few times a day, the charge will last for more than a couple of days?

  8. you have to have…

    reinstalled Windows so often you could do it blindfolded to appreciate the following… More problems with the material world …The good news about my heating pad crashing: I don’t have to reinstall Windows on it. [Joho the Blog]…

  9. David: I bought my Treo 600 for David: I bought my Treo 600 for <$400, I can: download and write email using the thumbboard, browse the Web at an average of 80Kbps, use the digital camera to share images, post to my blog (Radio Userland) and post comments on other blogs, use the telephone (300 minutes) and have unlimited data for $40/month, use the battery without recharging <1x/day. When I have to stay at a hotel on a trip, I don't have to start searching for wi-fi or a dial-up connection for a laptop. I've been able to connect to the Sprint data services w/o fail so far, and I'm not limited to sitting in some noisy, overpriced coffeeshop. Why should I carry a laptop? If I need to do some lengthy typing, I can use a portable keyboard. But again, the convenience of being able to pull out this device from my belt sheath and do all this stuff without bothering to do the whole laptop thing is such a relief. BK

  10. 1. Have you considered ditching the PDA? Just swap business cards when you meet someone new. Give the business card to your office assistant when you get back to the office, or if you don’t have an assitant, enter the info into something like a Yahoo Address book — that can be accessed while on the road.

    2. Perhaps you don’t have to replace the electric heating pad. According to my family doctor, in some cases, exercise and an old wooden Kennedy rocker have been found the best treatment for back problems. When reading or watching TV, don’t sit in a stuffed, oversized chair — rock!

  11. Fishrush: I access a Yahoo POP mail account with my Treo to have that other option. But suppose you want to look up a phone number to call someone? You either must have a complete, duplicate database in your cell phone or you have to gain Web access with a laptop or PC in order to look up the Yahoo Address book.

    The only wooden Democrat I could think of is Al Gore, variously described as the Tennessee Two-By-Four. ;)

  12. I tend to read a lot of ebooks, so I do have pretty heavy use on the E. I generally need to recharge it daily. (Playing with video and audio obviously went even faster.)

    I’ve heard three-days-per-charge quoted, but I don’t know the level of use. Just an occasional lookup should let you get by with charging less often.

  13. David, what about a hot water bottle? You can make it as hot as you want, it’s cozy and fat, and makes cute little noises as a bonus. I mostly use mine for cold feet–but I believe this awesome technology scales to do what you want. Er, not store addresses for you tho.

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