Rumor: Tungsten T5 Spotted in Retail Database

And everyone in the telcomm industry that uses rs232 on their Palm on a regular basis. The sell apps and accessories dedicated to this function. I'll seriously have to think about this one, as it will mean I go back to lugging my laptop around again for network configurations... or NOT buy the T5.

Anyway I was just thinking, the speculation that the T5 would have a new connector was based purely on the reason that there is a new cradle and portable charger. What if the portable charger and cradle are actually the new interchangeable kinds where users can remove the power tip.

Also redesigning the cradle is normal. Look at Sony and HP. Almost all their models uses the same serial connectors but for every model there is a new cradle. And who knows, its possible the T5 would have removable battery hence a redesigned cradle to accomodate a spare battery.

I have to add that this are just my speculations.

Generic PDA > 5mx > Vx > m505 > N770C > T625C > NR70V > e310 > m550 > h2210 > T/T3 & h4150
StarTac > T28m > T39m > T68m > T610 > T630 > K700i

Sounds great if they will fit in my back pocket and work with "Online", the app I use for that type of work. The BT verson would be way cool, as most of the routers and switches I work with have the console port on the back, making line-of-sight for IR difficult. Have any links?

Can't wait to see if this is the exception.

______________________________
An armed society is a polite society.

I am with you on the whole Palm marketing folly. PPCs may be boring, but at least they know how to make full featured model after full featured model for about the price of a feature curtailed PalmOne TE. This may be changing as HP shows a terrible lineup for this season-- $279 for a PPC with 25 MB of RAM! Are you CRAZY, HP? I hope PalmOne goes the extra mile to gain back some sales momentum.

Of course you can. Dell and HP both have dual wireless units for under $400, and dual wireless Dells sell for $250 or less. To say that PalmOne can't build a dual wireless unit for under $400 is lowing the bar to a ludicrous extent. PalmOne needs to face tougher expectations, rather than have people praise them for just showing up.

PalmOne sold 950,000 units in the second quarter, Dell sold 150,000. If PalmOne can't get a better deal on handheld parts, they need to seriously reconsider how they do business.

Dell's prices also fluctuate regularly since they sell direct and adjust to market conditions. P1's products are generally purchased at retail so there's some markup there as well.

$150 worth of markup? I don't think so. Even if there were, there's nothing stopping them from selling them lower online.

By all indications, Dell's quality for handhels may be even lower than Palm's/P1's has been lately.

Not in my experience. I've had all three high-end Dells, plus the Tungsten E, Zire 71, and Zire 72. I've never felt like the Dells were lower quality, and I've never had defectivity problems with them. In fact, I've found them to be consistently reliable and well built.

Also, keep in mind that Dell can afford to subsidize their PDAs

Dell doesn't subsidize their handhelds, they make a solid profit off them. More profit, as a percentage of price, than they make off their desktop sales.

Basically, P1 has determined that dual wireless is still not yet "crucial" and has some sort of evangelistic favoritism towards BT over wi-fi (and battery life concerns as well). I think it'll take them until spring '05 at the earliest to intro a dual wireless model.

I hope they don't take that long, because if they do they're dead. Just getting WiFi into a few models would help, since PalmOne is completely missing the boat on the huge adoption of WiFi. But dual wireless is very neccessary. It's getting closer to being an entry level feature, and once wireless internet becomes standard I doubt that most buyers would find an unconnected Palm very appealing.

There's been a real need for it for years. WiFi is incredibly popular all over the U.S. and elsewhere, with millions upon millions of access points in homes, businesses, and hotspots. And, besides web browsing, there's email, IM, streaming media, network access, and dozens of other things that you can do with WiFi quite comfortably even if you don't like web browsing. To not have WiFi would be inexcusable.

I see the real need now is to move to the brighter thinner OLED screens that Sony has developed. I'm not buying a new PDA untill Palm has an OLED model to offer. OLED is the future in PDA screen technology.

OLEDs aren't really that good. Sure, they're bright and thin, but they die after a few years of heavy use and are difficult bordering on impossible to see outdoors. Their benefits don't really outweigh the disadvantages.

I personally like substantiated rumor more than the baseless variety, and I think the jury's still out the inclusion of WiFi. I'm ambivalent about it, because I've already invested in Bluetooth, and am afraid that most would be unhappy with the battery life of a WiFi T5 -- I'd rather have built in low power GPRS so I could get ride of my Blackberry. But I wouldn't want to sacrifice my 360x480 screen for a Treo 650.

That's my point. We all have our own needs. A PDA doesn't need to be a religion, and differing opinions don't need to be ridiculed. =)