Handera 330 Supports 4GB SD Cards

Posted By: Ryan Sunday, January 14, 2007 3:07:41 PM

As seem on TamsPalm, Tapf, a member of the German Palm forum just recently tested out larger 2GB and 4GB SD cards on his Handera 330 PDA.

Turns out the 6 year old handheld was up to the task and worked fine with even the large standard 4GB SD card without any issues. Pretty funny that such an old model can handle a card that even recent Palm OS units have a tendency to choke on.

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Astonishing

hkklife @ 1/14/2007 7:46:08 PM #

The Palm Tungsten E2, launched in March 2005, still a very much in production and widely available unit, cannot handle anything larger than a 1.5gb SD card. Well, it can take 2gb+ cards if you do the very unofficial and unsupported FAT32 driver hack but that is another story.

I assume the HE330 has FAT32 onboard due its compatibility years ago with the larger-capacity CompactFlash and MicroDrives?

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

RE: Astonishing

OMEGON @ 1/15/2007 8:24:30 AM #

I continue my rant. Sorry, after spending $300 and finding I was short-changed by Palm, I'm still not happy with my E2. I have found it to be buggy, (would not run both Print-Boy and DTG without locking up every time I tried to print) and missing functionality that it should have (and could have cheaply....). Sad thing is for those of us who really need the storage we are faced by the same philosophy that Steve Jobs is famous for "Who would need more than 16K?....." when they first released the Apple II, or possibly an earlier model. Solid state memory is cheap. I got 1-gig SD cards at WalMart this year for $13 each. A PDA should have at least this for system RAM, and should address up to 32-gigs. I see the 8-gig cards are available now.

OMEGON

RE: Astonishing

hkklife @ 1/17/2007 3:02:02 PM #

For the record, 8gb SDHC card prices are falling rapidly. You can get an ADATA (not the best brand but still..) 8gb SDHC card at Newegg for $75 shipped. Wow. That price has fallen by $25+ in the past two months.

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

Fossil

Gekko @ 1/14/2007 8:07:25 PM #

anyone that still uses an HE330 should be embarrassed and ashamed. go bury it in the backyard where it belongs.

RE: Fossil

twrock @ 1/14/2007 9:25:46 PM #

I really think the embarrassment and shame belongs on Palm. The HE 330 was a marvel, and I certainly can understand why some people are still using it.

I'm still waiting for the mythical color HandEra.
Thinking about Vista? Think again: http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.txt

RE: Astonishing

legodude522 @ 1/14/2007 11:42:03 PM #

On Palm's forums, I spotted a lot of people using old handhelds. Someone got a Palm III for Christmas! Someone just opened up their Treo 90 that he/she got last year.

Palm m125 > Palm Zire 71 > Tapwave Zodiac 1 > Palm Zire 72 > Sharp Zaurus SL-C1000 + 4gb MicroDrive + Palm Tungsten T|3 (1100mah)
My T|3 is too [i]sexy[/i] for me.

RE: Fossil

joad @ 1/15/2007 1:31:39 AM #

Yet another example of missed opportunity. Imagine the Treo if Handera had gotten ahold of Handspring (and some decent funding), and not Palm. We'd have 2 SDIO slots, Wifi, functional bluetooth, be able to reset it with a stylus, 320x480 color SVGA, driver support, lots of RAM, etc. Instead, we get Palm and 1/3rd less battery life than the model before... Brilliant.

Someone ought to do a case study on the innovative "niche" PalmOS PDA companies that seemed to have the most forward-thinking engineers and products, but got trounced by in the end by the well-funded Palm behemoth.

RE: Fossil

cbowers @ 1/15/2007 5:23:52 AM #

Dude (Gecko), swallow a flashlight or something, there's waaay too much darkness in there.
Swing by again when you can inject a little intelligence to the debate.

As for the 330, it should be no surprise that the 330 had a strong feature set that bears up well to this day. HandEra unlike Palm, actually cared about user experience, and beta testing.

As for the TamsPalm site, the Microdrive was likely not listed as supported because the poster is obviously using the unreleased OS4 beta image. Handera would not have listed compatible devices for an unreleased version of the OS. The microdrives worked in the TrgPro too, but as I recall, were not listed as compatible due to the power consumption. The 330 had beefed up power (4 AAA's instead of 2, or the optional Lithium Ion pack) to handle them. There were a vast number of revisions to their version of OS 4. In part to get it right, in part to work out/around bugs from Palm's code and to implement what they would not, but in the end I guess it was license fees... Pay us up front for X many tens of thousands of units, whether you sell that many units or not. Which was a great change to make to eliminate innovative small startups to compete with Palm. What a shock, mostly all gone but Palm and a couple ultra obscure niches now. Sure it's good money if you can get it, and they had the right to be greedily self defeating. Just don't be 2 faced about being all about the PalmOS economy, and working together for the strength of the platform. Sony at least was direct and open about platform domination. I can respect that without liking it. Not so with Palm's useless, lies, and ineptitude.

Palm has been the author of their own demise all along.

Bastards.

RE: Fossil

smiley1081 @ 1/15/2007 7:08:47 AM #

Ah, Gekko, buzz off, why should I bury a perfectly working machine, where NONE of the PDAs put on the market by Palm(one) since has still reached the ease of use and capacity of the 330..

A dire day was when Palm(source) strangled Handera out of the PDA market with their licencing fees, as the stopped innovation for thirty pieces of silver...

RE: Fossil

seanhennessy @ 1/15/2007 7:41:10 AM #

My HE330 served me very well until this year. It still beats my TX in some ways - battery life and built in mic for a start. For most of the things I really NEED a PDA for, the HE really hit the nail on the head. It doesn't surprise me that they were forward thinking enough to support larger cards than existed at the time - the HE engineers always worked to a much higher standard than Palm.

________________________________________________________
If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there.

RE: Fossil

LiveFaith @ 1/15/2007 9:21:24 AM #

True, but nobody has been as consistent to update their power-on screens as Palm. First a little P dot thingy, then a blue ball, then the maroon-orange P1, now the big orange. Gotta give Palm some props here guys. As many times as resets are needed during the day, it's nice to see that they keep the power-up screens changing. Who else cares that much about detail?

Pat Horne

RE: Fossil

cbowers @ 1/15/2007 12:29:49 PM #

You know, you've got a point there. And with newer palms we also get much longer to enjoy that screen during a reset.

RE: Fossil

Tuckermaclain @ 1/15/2007 12:32:38 PM #

I always liked the styling of the 330. Reminded me of a Wurlitzer jukebox. A 1950's vision of the future. It's a pretty sad comment on the state of Palm when the newest stories are about an Apple phone and the 330. There was such a mood of hope right before OS4 was released. TRG had the CF slot, Handspring had that quaint springboard that did lots of cool things and weren't they the first to give us color? Sony released the Clies with the exciting VFS. Things were happening. Now in the past few years Palm has managed to removed the stump antenna from the 600. Sad.

RE: Fossil

joad @ 1/15/2007 3:23:11 PM #

>>>anyone that still uses an HE330 should be embarrassed and ashamed. go bury it in the backyard where it belongs.

I forgot to mention in response to your amusing trollbait - my HE330 is still working perfectly, which is more than I can say about my nearly brand new Treo 700p... cbowers pretty much summed up the situation - typical capitalist greed devoured itself - killed off the innovators that made the platform vibrant, and all we have now is the unimaginative monopoly of Palm over the "Palm Economy."

Palm screwed up so badly that Microsoft is not only in the door but apparently running the show there now...

RE: Fossil

potter @ 1/15/2007 4:17:03 PM #

>>> TRG had the CF slot, Handspring had that quaint springboard that did lots of cool things and weren't they the first to give us color?

Palm was the first to give use color, in the Palm IIIc. Handspring was the first to give use 16-bit color, in the Prism.

RE: Fossil

SAS @ 1/15/2007 4:46:37 PM #

Hmmmm, this guy should get a TRGpro :P

Just recently purchased a backup Handera 330 - not 'cause I buried the 5-year old one :B, but because IMVHO you can't beat its battery life & power and expansion options. And if you are 'on the road' - personal view again - it is more reliable than any other PalmOS PDA for heavy usage.

--------------------------------

"Everyone has the right to have wrong opinion"

RE: Fossil

Gekko @ 1/15/2007 4:54:32 PM #

welcome to 2007, kids!

RE: Fossil

SAS @ 1/15/2007 5:09:47 PM #

Say it to Palm Inc :P

--------------------------------

"Everyone has the right to have wrong opinion"

RE: Fossil

Skyrm @ 1/17/2007 12:51:45 PM #

I've used MANY different Palm OS PDA's over the years, but my favorite was always the 330. I dropped it onto a wooden bedframe and killed it the day after HandEra announced they were no longer supporting hardware. :(

I started with a Palm Professional, upgraded that to the 2MB/Infared version, then went through a IIIx, IIIc, a VII, and now a LifeDrive. And the LifeDrive HD just died.

All of those PDA's were purchased by my employers, and I've asked for a TX to replace my dead LifeDrive.

Maybe I should just look for a 330 on eBay?! :0

Steve

Sometimes you get lucky

mwalter @ 1/15/2007 1:04:58 PM #

I can honestly say we did not intentionally design our unit to work with the 4Gig cards, but sometimes you get lucky. We tested the 330 with the 1G Micro drive at the time, so we made sure that it would work with larger SD or CF cards.

FYI, a few quick notes ...

HandEra is indeed still around, in fact we still have all the same engineers that worked on our Palm products (all 10 of us :) ). Today, we work primarily with WinCE and Windows Mobile, however, we still work on Palm OS devices for other licensees.

I'm sure we won't come out with another consumer type device, but we private label devices for our WinCE customers.

Oh yes, we did get a color 330 to the preproduction stage. In fact Doug DeVries still uses it here. (sorry, no we don't have any left)

We enjoyed our time as a Palm OS licensees and wished we could have remained one, however it did not work out, and we spent the past few years transitioning to WinCE.

I want to thank everyone in the Palm community for supporting HandEra. Hopefully, you'll be hearing of interesting things coming out of Des Moines, Iowa again.

Often asked questioned of Iowans. "What coast is Iowa on?"

Mike Walter
VP Software Engineering
HandEra, Inc.

RE: Sometimes you get lucky

joad @ 1/15/2007 3:29:13 PM #

Mike, I was one of the first to buy a TRGPro and also the HE330, and I really miss the days when you were pushing the envelope with these devices. As a midwesterner myself, I notice there's a certain common sense that people in California always seem to be missing, but it's obvious that TRG/Handera had it working in spades.

From "innovating" the reset hole to work with a stylus (revolutionary), dual cards, rechargable batteries, QVGA high-resolution screens, rotating displays, etc - you guys were actually doing the stuff that was so obvious to those of us that actually USE the devices. While Palm was rearranging chairs on the Titanic selling the same device, you broke free and began showing the possibilities of the device beyond the little green box Palm sold.

The fact your tiny staff in Iowa were able to create such marvelous systems ought to embarrass the hell out of Palm's huge staff. The competition was apparently all that forced Palm to make any improvements in the product - and with the competition gone it's obvious why their only "improvement" is kludging in WinceMob.

I hope Handera is someday given a contract to fix the Treo - I'm sure it'd be amazing.

RE: Sometimes you get lucky

hkklife @ 1/15/2007 4:06:04 PM #

Mike;

Great to hear from you. Would you (and/or anyone else there in the HE crew) be interested in doing an official interview for PIC? I'm thinking you can tease us with a few more tidbits about the color HE330 and tell stories about the good ol' days or the woes in tryng to get an OS4 license etc.

I think that a lot of the "old-timers" & members of the Palm OS faithful like twrock, gmayhak, joad, TVoR, myself, LiveFaith etc. would really get a kick out of it.

Please contact Ryan or me if this could possibly be arranged.

P.S. Sorry for appealing to you in a PIC news item comment but the Handera web site's contact form is having issues at the moment so I figured this was the next-best way.

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

RE: Sometimes you get lucky

Mendodave @ 1/15/2007 4:45:09 PM #

I love my Handera! but, the rechargeable battery bit the dust, and I can't find another one. I am currently using a Lifedrive, but if this augers in, as the last one did, I am going back the Handera.

Does anyone know of a source for new rechargables for it, or am I stuck with the batteries?

David

RE: Sometimes you get lucky

SAS @ 1/15/2007 5:14:40 PM #

Mike,

Just two words - thank you!

Thank you all for the great experience, the outstanding product, the KISS approach, the admirable innovation and superb 'Zen of Palm' implementation.

These are my first comments at PIC for many months, and though my HE330 is not the primary PDA anymore - it is still the beloved one :D

And I applaud the idea for an interview for PIC ;)

Thanks again!

SAS

--------------------------------

"Everyone has the right to have wrong opinion"

RE: Sometimes you get lucky

cervezas @ 1/15/2007 8:19:57 PM #

Add my thanks to the rest, Mike. I've been a Palm OS software developer since 2000 and was always impressed both with the fantastic engineering that went into your devices and the willingness of your engineers to work with developers that needed special information about them. I remember picking up the phone years ago and calling you guys to find out the impedence on the HE330's microphone for a client that needed a special highly sensitive mic installed for biological research. Had a great time chatting with two of your guys about the problem and learned a bunch of other stuff I'd wanted to know in the process. When I hung up the phone I thought "who else but Handera would have had a conversation with me?"

One of these days when I've got a little venture capital to throw at it I'm going to commission a device from you guys!

David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
www.pikesoft.com/blog

RE: Sometimes you get lucky

atrizzah @ 1/15/2007 9:15:29 PM #

That's what Iowa State engineering is all about! I'm a former senior design advisee of Dr. Mina's. It sure was a shock to hear the word "HandEra" come out his mouth, not having known that HandEra was started by ISU almums until then.

Peace Out
Alan

RE: Sometimes you get lucky

mwalter @ 1/16/2007 4:32:46 PM #

>>I love my Handera! but, the rechargeable battery bit the dust, and I can't find another one. I am currently using a Lifedrive, but if this augers in, as the last one did, I am going back the Handera.

Dave,

One of my engineers had a battery pack in his desk. Email me your shipping info and I'll send it to you.

Kevin,

I'd be happy to do an interview with you.

mwalter@handera.com

Mike Walter
VP Software Engineering
HandEra, Inc.

RE: Sometimes you get lucky

twrock @ 1/16/2007 5:51:10 PM #

Mike,

I'm a little late joining the bandwagon, but I think my tagline says it all.
Say "thanks" to all the HandEra guys for the good memories.

-Ron

I'm still waiting for the mythical color HandEra.
Thinking about Vista? Think again: http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.txt

RE: Sometimes you get lucky

mwalter @ 1/16/2007 10:20:21 PM #

>>Mike,

>>I'm a little late joining the bandwagon, but I think my tagline says it all.
Say "thanks" to all the HandEra guys for the good memories.

>>-Ron

Ron,

Shoot me an email. I looked up your past posts and noticed you've had your tagline for quite awhile. I just might have something of interest for you.

Mike

Mike Walter
VP Software Engineering
HandEra, Inc.

RE: Sometimes you get lucky

ronhoney @ 1/17/2007 2:44:39 PM #

Mike,

My 330 still works great (why did you leave us); I use the Kyocera 7135 now, but still pull my 330 out of the drawer from time to time. If only your HE team could update the 7135.......

Thanks for all the innovation & great products. By the way, there are still a lot of folks begging for JackFlash & JackSprat; please bring them back to the market.

Ron Honey

RE: Sometimes you get lucky

twrock @ 1/17/2007 8:06:35 PM #

>>"Shoot me an email."

Most certainly!

-Ron

I'm still waiting for the mythical color HandEra.
Thinking about Vista? Think again: http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.txt

RE: Sometimes you get lucky

mwalter @ 1/19/2007 8:48:36 AM #

To all those trying to email me at mwalter@handera, sorry I must have had a brain fart. My email is mike.walter@handera.com.

Mike

Mike Walter
VP Software Engineering
HandEra, Inc.

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Handera 330 Supports 4GB SD Cards

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