Buy a Palm TX, Get a Free Z22 Handheld

You know... there are so many ways they could turn the TX into something better. Even just updating all of the software in flash to recent/last versions and releasing it as T|X mark 2 would probably sell a bunch.

Or... hey... why not put Cobalt on some and auction them off on ebay?

Maybe there's an aftermarket opportunity here in disguise... could Access or someone else offer OS upgrades for existing/abandoned Palm PDA users?

I see this as simply a move to blow out all of the remaining inventory...remember, Palm had a LOT of inventory in limbo after the sudden closing their retail stores. Add to that the of Office Depot and Circuit City as Palm PDA retail partners over the past year + the closure of nearly all of CompUSA's stores...that's a lot of unsold Z22's, E2's and TX's somewhere in the channel that needs to be unloaded somehow, somewhere. I bet that the final Palm PDAs rolled off the line months ago and they're just going through the remaining inventory now.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here & predict that by May or June Palm will go ahead and put their defining product line out of its misery, quietly EOLing the remaining three models. Basically, the PDA lineup is the next victim after the Fooleo of the aggressive belt-tigthening and wagon circling of Rubinstein & co.

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Verizon Treo 700P-->Verizon 755p

it is quite possible they are getting ready to release something.

P.S. Paul Loeffler are you there? I didn't mean to run you off. When I see a mole sticking his head out, I tend to whack it. It is a bad habit and I'll try to be nicer.

I wish I could believe that Palm was still the kind of company that might do that.

"All opinions posted are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled."

No offense/offence intended! That was just an attempt to inject a touch of humor into today's gloomy proceedings!

Trust me, as a daily user of my TX as a web-browser/E-book reader at home, I long for a 320x480 Treo! But I gave up hope of ever seeing one of those LONG ago! I can live without wi-fi if I have EVDO (strong coverage around here) but SSS & cramped keyboards that are growing smaller with each generation are just silly in 2008!

It's just that I am not around a wi-fi hotspot at any point during an average workday, so the TX is unfortunately rendered useless for me. And since Palm disabled BT DUN connectivity with CDMA phones on their last batch of PDAs, that's no longer an option for me. So I'm stuck with a Treo with an overpriced data plan for use during the day and a TX for "after hours" enjoyment. If anything pushes me to the dark side (WinMob) it'll likely be something along the lines of the new SE Xperia X1.

I agree that other than the major addition of EVDO/EDGE connectivity along with the small niceties of a standard voice recorder, removable battery, charge/alert LED, and larger heap/cache memory, the Treo/Centro are inferior to the T3/T5/TX in several ways:

A TX trumps the smartphones with a larger, higher-resolution screen, 128mb of RAM, wi-fi, a 3.5mm stereo headphone jack and a superb stylus. The T5 brings a 416mhz CPU to the table and an internal flash drive. The T3 comes with blazing fast performance, a fantastic retractable stylus, metal body, and a usable Graffiti 1 hack. Believe it or not, my original (Nov '06) TX is still going strong and has not exhibited any of the build quality woes of my T|T5, fortunately.

P.S. The best setup I ever had was a T|T3 connected online via BT to a smallish flip phone (circa 2004-2005). The T3 died and I "upgraded" to a T5 and then to a TX. Again, I only ended up with the Treo because Palm pulled every sneaky trick possible (no CDMA BT connectivity, never updated their PhoneLink software to support newer GSM phones) to FORCE their users to downgrade to under-spec'd, high-margin smartphones.

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Verizon Treo 700P-->Verizon 755p

Wow, it's hard to believe that it's been 2.5 years since Palm's "newest" PDAs were released.

Are all TX's realy not flashable? Or are EFIGS units just not flashable? I realy never bothered to look too much into this...

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Verizon Treo 700P-->Verizon 755p

what is EFIGS?

Now, let's say the Centro's QWERTY board was attached to a big, bright, lovely 320x480 LCD. I wouldn't complain ONE BIT. But increasingly SSSs and shrinking keyboards without the usual Treo "smile" are just impossible.

It's like Palm is doing everything in their power to decrease the efficiency of their users. First we had the trend of increased power consumption coupled with dimishing battery capacities (think from the Palm V to the m505) that was sort of accepted due to the addition of color screens. Then we lost Graffiti 1 in favor of Graffiti 2 and NO ONE liked that. Then in '04 or so Palm began to jettison features (charge LED, vibrating alarm, voice recorder) to save $. Now in the past 12-18 months we've seen screen & keyboard sizes start to shrink....and continue to shrink...and shrink. That combines with the removal of certain backlit keys & buttons, the loss of the reset button and the ring/vibrate switch on the Treo 500. And let's not forget memory card slots that are harder to access and memory cards that are more fragile and less compatible...wow. Where, pray tell, aside form the legacy PIM apps, is the remaining "zen"?

P.S. The LifeDrive's wi-fi implementation is worse than the FIVE year old Tungsten T|C. And its Bluetooth is less stable than any of the old Tungsten series models! I really think that even with the CF card mod, the LifeDrive's hardware is so inherently terrible that it drags down FrankenGarnet to a new level of mediocrity. In all fairness, the TX's wi-fi is MUCh more stable than the LD's.

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Verizon Treo 700P-->Verizon 755p