- Grandmaster played e2-e4 ...
I. Ilf and Petrov
"The Twelve Chairs" Obeying the universal law of the market, palmOne updates range twice a year - spring and fall. Each time for about two months before the anticipated premiere of online media are beginning to circulate rumors about the upcoming event, which has taken a week or two before the hour «x» more plausible shape. Anyway, a few days we know what awaits us this time. However, during the preparation of this material for certain was known about the release of only one appearing in the rumors PDA - palmOne Tungsten E2. As to the second, more intriguing, according to the same intelligence, the model - LifeDrive, then its fate is not to say anything other than the fact that this PDA exist. A little later, however, appeared again, unconfirmed information about the most recent in May. I must say that for two years, accustomed to a spring renewal line midrange Zire 7x (in 2003 came to light Zire 71, and in 2004 - Zire 72), this time we were expecting quite logical Zire 73, rumors of which are also a couple of months ago, began to multiply on the Internet. But palmOne, contrary to our logic, decided to freshen up the position of first in the lower price range, and behind him - and a hi-end'e. Today, 13 April, the court PDA community was revealed Tungsten E2, which replaced the Tungsten E. We represent your attention a little review of the absentee machine, prepared, including, thanks to our colleagues overseas.
Tungsten E2
What's new?
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All changes made by the manufacturer - entirely predictable, since most have already been implemented in the junior models of the family Pocket PC. First, the E2 appeared Bluetooth, which will provide, finally, normal web surfing via mobile phone c support for the blue tooth or work with the text with a wireless keyboard. Secondly, our hero has enlisted more powerful processor Intel XScale c 200 MHz vs. 126 MHz TI OMAP predecessor. Thirdly, all the internal memory of 32 MB, of which 26 MB user available, has become volatile (built on technology NVFS - Non-Volatile File System, or NAND flash), and thus preserving the data entrusted to it, even against a loss of battery charge . Fourth, our hero is equipped with a more capacious battery - 1020 mAh (about tests for battery life - just below). In addition, E2 installed a newer version of Palm OS Garnet 5.4.7, which in addition to the standard set of several improved PIM-application includes an updated version of a powerful office suite Documents To Go 7.0 (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) from DataViz, the Web browser Blazer 4.0 (supports Javascript, bookmarks, History, cookies, proxy, and SSL), an application for working with Bluetooth, making SMS, photo viewer and video palmOne Media. Handheld comes with Palm Desktop version 4 for Mac and Windows. Windows-version of Palm Desktop includes a conduit to synchronize all of your organizer data with MS Outlook. By the way, the system of handwriting "Graffiti 2", which has acquired even the last version palmovoy OSes, allows use by typing the entire surface of the screen. So that developers could still remove the standard physical area of graffiti, increasing at the expense of screen size and adding pluses E2. But graffiti somehow preserved. Screen E2 has not been immune improvements. According to the palmOne, matrix display has a 30% brighter and 40% richer than the first model, at one time went round in this indicator, even then-flagship - Tungsten T3. The rest - this is the same great vysokontrastny display with a resolution of 320x320 pixels, 65,536 colors, which is almost equally pleased to work in the office, and on the street. At daylight the image is quite a contrast. However, the coin has another side. The fact that an overvalued minimum level of illumination of TE concelebrated with him once a disservice.So just below a look at how to reflect changes in battery life - an important indicator for a budget Pocket PC.
Appearance
Design, dimensions (114 x 78 x 15 mm), weight (133 g) and the placement of structural elements of the "second" again inherited from the former. And this despite the fact that the CCP has built-in Bluetooth and a more capacious battery. However, in the design of E2 was still made one small change: miniUSB port replaced by a new Universal Multi-Connector, which was taken into service, starting with the palmOne Tungsten T5 and Treo 650. So most of branded accessories, issued for the flagship, will be compatible with the E2. This includes: cradle, does not go complete with a novelty, memory cards, Wi-Fi SDIO card and wireless keyboard Universal Wireless Keyboard. However, according to the site Brighthand.com, the software needed to work with Wi-Fi SDIO card is not released and probably will not until a month later.
So far, the only available slot, SD / MMC / SDIO you can use to enhance memory, which on-board PDA critically low, especially by modern standards.
Supplied
Supplied E2 also remained the same: USB HotSync cable, AC charger, protective cover, stylus, CD c additional software, which you will find Adobe Acrobat Reader, a new version quite good mailer VersaMail 2.7, which supports work with POP, IMAP and SMTP servers, multiple email accounts, automatic notification of new messages, etc., as well as MP3-player from RealOne and a program for reading electronic books eReader.
Battery
Incidentally, in the specifications sent by palmOne, did not specify what the battery capacity will be equipped with a Tungsten E2. The manufacturer promises up to 8 days Standby load average - a figure very vague and as usual somewhat exaggerated. But our foreign colleagues c opinion! MobileTechReview managed to get something new. They report that E2 is equipped with a lithium-ion 1020 mAh battery (unfortunately not removable). According to their data, our hero has survived in playback MP3 (c screen off) more than 12 hours, after which the testers did not have enough patience to continue to experiment, and they broke it. It is interesting that after 5 hours of music playback E2 cignaliziroval about 74% charge. Well, a very worthy. According to testers, the CPC will hold completely without charge from 3 to 5 days depending on intenstivnosti and patterns of use. It seems, palmOne actually managed to double the battery life compared to TE. Once the PDA gets to Russia promise to test it, as it should, in all possible modes of loading.
Sound
With regard to the sound when playing MP3 and quality sound section, the testers found them excellent for the CPC (especially if you listen to music through headphones on the iPOD;). Tungsten E2 equipped with a 3.5 mm jack for connecting. Sound through headphones - quite on the level of background noise is almost not observed, and good bass. However, if you are causing the quality still is not satisfied, then using the equalizer, which is equipped with, for example, alternate MP3-player Pocket Tunes from NormSoft you may well achieve the desired sound. Sound from the regular speaker on reviews testers also very clean and volume. Moreover, E2 can be called one of the most "high profile" handhelds to date.
Total
Now, palmOne, unfortunately, did not set a new standard for the ratios of "price / quality for low-end category of PDA market, as is usually done Hewlett-Packard or Dell. However, the novelty is still possible to call a product with a good fighting qualities needed to compete with low-cost Pocket PC. The main trump E2 - a price which, of course, will fall over time. In Russia, the Tungsten E2 Cobiralas start at $ 280. Deliveries will begin in May. Output Tungsten E2 is unlikely to elicit current owners Tungsten E to replace their military machine to a more topical.So Camp Palm users will grow, most likely due to the replenishment of fresh - those who decided to buy a classic Pocket PC organizer c Bluetooth for the first time and did not want to spend the more than $ 300.
Cons: - non-removable battery
- only 32 MB of onboard memory (26 MB user available)
- physical presence of graffiti
Pros: - Bluetooth
- nonvolatile memory - NAND Flash
- bright and high-contrast display
- colidnoe runtime (for reviews of foreign testers)
- price.
Next! ..
More exciting premier store for us soon in the camp of hi-end-handhelds. If the available information is confirmed, palmOne will reveal the world of the new Pocket PC Series LifeDrive (perhaps this inaccurate name) with the following characteristics:
- Operating system: Palm OS Garnet 5.4
- Processor: Intel XScale PXA270 c clock frequency of 416 MHz
- Memory: 32 MB RAM (memory), 4 GB HDD (hard disk)
- Screen: Color TFT transflective 320 x 480 pixels with support for 18-bit color
- Battery: Removable Lithium-Ion Battery
- Expansion Slots: SD / MMC / SDIO
- Connectivity: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi (802.11b), USB-port 2.0 (!), IrDA (Infrared)
- Multimedia: MP3-player, stereo output, voice recorder, built-in microphone, speaker, headphone 3.5 mm.
In addition, LifeDrive released an innovative design and some design features. Novelty equip special hardware button to rotate images and three-position power switch. According to rumors, the CPC led the line palmOne. Approximate price LifeDrive will be about $ 570. At the official presentation - May. This is all we know about our editorial LifeDrive today. The authors, translation:
