After mentioning my handheld of choice in a previous blog entry “Don’t need no Notebook”, some may be wondering why I’m using such an outdated handheld. Instead of the Tungsten C maybe I should be using the Palm TX, which was first released as recently as October of 2005. After all the TX has Bluetooth as well as 802.11b Wi-Fi, and double the memory of the Tungsten C.

My response, one word: QWERTY.

The Palm TX does not have a QWERTY thumbboard. Instead, it uses the Graffiti 2 handwriting recognition system. After owning various Palm handhelds over the years, I am not averse to Graffiti, although I prefer the original Graffiti to the litigation-inspired Graffiti 2. However, I can type a lot faster with the thumbboard than I can write, even with Graffiti 1. External Bluetooth or infrared keyboards are available, but they really detract from the portability of the Palm handheld.

There are not many Palm-OS based handhelds with a thumbboard. A number of Sony Clies have keyboards, like the Sony Clie UX50. As with the more recent Sony Clies, the UX50 is hard to find, and new ones sell for a premium. The UX50 was first released in September 2003, the same year as the Tungsten C. Accessories are expensive and hard to come by. So what are my alternatives?

Posted on January 20th, 2008 by mervyn