Well, to be perfectly honest, with a Tungsten T3, you can never know.
Although this Palm PDA is almost four years old, it still holds up as a very powerful productivity booster and a great entertainment device. Who says you need the newest and bestest devices out there? In the eyes of this university student, a T3 still cuts it. Read on to see how I've used the T3 in my day-to-day life!
Basic Organizer
Simple is beautiful. The built-in organizer functions are more than enough for a busy student, with your basic scribble board (Note Pad), basic text dump (Memos), to-dos (Tasks), address book (Contacts), and by far the most important, the almighty Calendar. And guess what? Aside from minor differences, the T3 has the same revised PIMs that you'll find in the newer Palms.
Colour-coding has helped me more than once when trying to find who I'm supposed to be meeting, where I'm supposed to be, and random notes associated with those events in my Calendar. While I was in Hong Kong for a trip I got to use a Bluetooth phone which let me dial contacts directly from my T3. Listing what you have to do (and watching the list grow and never shrink) is essential for any student, and random guitar tabs, song lyrics, and small notes are thrown into Memos. Note Pad is so versatile, as not only can you draw really bad graphs from class in there, you can also play tic-tac-toe with your younger siblings...and lose.
But we all knew about the PIM functions already, eh?
Pretending to Work
Another beautiful thing about the T3 is that it's discontinued. Wait, isn't that a bad thing? Not really, especially when you can pick up compatible accessories for really, really, REALLY low prices. Crucial for every starving student.
Take my Palm Ultra-Thin Keyboard. I got mine new for $14.95. That's in Canadian dollars, and that's a lot lower than a new Palm Universal Keyboard, which usually retails close to the C$100 mark. Yeah, I got one of those too, but used and even then at $30!
The Ultra-Thin is pretty slick. Amazingly light and compact, plus it has a very spiffy opening sequence. Only downside is that it uses the T3's battery and doesn't allow you to charge it while using it. Oh well. At least it looks sweet. Combined with Documents-To-Go, this PDA is one mean note-taking machine!
Multi-Multi-Media
The T3 is powered by a PXA255 400 Mhz processor, and with the relatively economic Palm OS, that translates to lots and LOTS of power. I overclocked mine with warpSpeed (and with that, also eliminating the damn annoying screen whine) to 472 or so Mhz, and I watch videos, play Nintendo and Super Nintendo games, and listen to lots of music.
Oh yeah, did I mention the screen is actually larger than an iPod Video's?
Connected...for About an Hour
Let's talk connectivity. The T3 has Bluetooth and optional WiFi. Problem is, the folks at Palm sacrificed battery life for a very very slim handheld. Solution? Get a battery adapter and some batteries, then you can go for ever on the thing!
I have free wireless all over my university campus, so it makes it easy for me to check email every once in a while. Plucker is a great offline reader too, and it keeps me connected with news and RSS feeds that I sync from my laptop.
Outclassed and Outgunned, but Still Good Enough
I think most students will find the T3 more than enough in terms of an all-in-one device. It's sleek, has that slider that I absolutely love (makes it easy to hide the PDA when wearing a suit!), and is one of the few PDAs with a speaker at the front. Go figure why not many others do. There are also countless undocumented ways to upgrade the T3's built-in software, so that you can be on par with the latest Palms as well. It's stable, versatile, and best of all, cheap. US$150 can fetch you a decent machine, and I tell you, it's worth every penny of that!
That being said, some people will find that they may need an even more "all-in-one" device. Take me for example. My beloved T3 is being passed down to my brother, and my new Treo 650 just arrived last week. How does it stack up against the T3? What's with the antenna? Why can Jack Bauer kill terrorists with his and I can't?
Stay tuned for more on the Treo!
Although this Palm PDA is almost four years old, it still holds up as a very powerful productivity booster and a great entertainment device. Who says you need the newest and bestest devices out there? In the eyes of this university student, a T3 still cuts it. Read on to see how I've used the T3 in my day-to-day life!
Basic Organizer
Simple is beautiful. The built-in organizer functions are more than enough for a busy student, with your basic scribble board (Note Pad), basic text dump (Memos), to-dos (Tasks), address book (Contacts), and by far the most important, the almighty Calendar. And guess what? Aside from minor differences, the T3 has the same revised PIMs that you'll find in the newer Palms.
Colour-coding has helped me more than once when trying to find who I'm supposed to be meeting, where I'm supposed to be, and random notes associated with those events in my Calendar. While I was in Hong Kong for a trip I got to use a Bluetooth phone which let me dial contacts directly from my T3. Listing what you have to do (and watching the list grow and never shrink) is essential for any student, and random guitar tabs, song lyrics, and small notes are thrown into Memos. Note Pad is so versatile, as not only can you draw really bad graphs from class in there, you can also play tic-tac-toe with your younger siblings...and lose.
But we all knew about the PIM functions already, eh?
Pretending to Work
Another beautiful thing about the T3 is that it's discontinued. Wait, isn't that a bad thing? Not really, especially when you can pick up compatible accessories for really, really, REALLY low prices. Crucial for every starving student.
Take my Palm Ultra-Thin Keyboard. I got mine new for $14.95. That's in Canadian dollars, and that's a lot lower than a new Palm Universal Keyboard, which usually retails close to the C$100 mark. Yeah, I got one of those too, but used and even then at $30!
The Ultra-Thin is pretty slick. Amazingly light and compact, plus it has a very spiffy opening sequence. Only downside is that it uses the T3's battery and doesn't allow you to charge it while using it. Oh well. At least it looks sweet. Combined with Documents-To-Go, this PDA is one mean note-taking machine!
Multi-Multi-Media
The T3 is powered by a PXA255 400 Mhz processor, and with the relatively economic Palm OS, that translates to lots and LOTS of power. I overclocked mine with warpSpeed (and with that, also eliminating the damn annoying screen whine) to 472 or so Mhz, and I watch videos, play Nintendo and Super Nintendo games, and listen to lots of music.
Oh yeah, did I mention the screen is actually larger than an iPod Video's?
Connected...for About an Hour
Let's talk connectivity. The T3 has Bluetooth and optional WiFi. Problem is, the folks at Palm sacrificed battery life for a very very slim handheld. Solution? Get a battery adapter and some batteries, then you can go for ever on the thing!
I have free wireless all over my university campus, so it makes it easy for me to check email every once in a while. Plucker is a great offline reader too, and it keeps me connected with news and RSS feeds that I sync from my laptop.
Outclassed and Outgunned, but Still Good Enough
I think most students will find the T3 more than enough in terms of an all-in-one device. It's sleek, has that slider that I absolutely love (makes it easy to hide the PDA when wearing a suit!), and is one of the few PDAs with a speaker at the front. Go figure why not many others do. There are also countless undocumented ways to upgrade the T3's built-in software, so that you can be on par with the latest Palms as well. It's stable, versatile, and best of all, cheap. US$150 can fetch you a decent machine, and I tell you, it's worth every penny of that!
That being said, some people will find that they may need an even more "all-in-one" device. Take me for example. My beloved T3 is being passed down to my brother, and my new Treo 650 just arrived last week. How does it stack up against the T3? What's with the antenna? Why can Jack Bauer kill terrorists with his and I can't?
Stay tuned for more on the Treo!
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