Palm Pilot vs Zaurus
Written: Mar 18 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Excellent 3rd party support
Cons: No real keyboard
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| johneiko's Full Review: Palm Vx Handheld |
I bought a Palm Pilot V and took it back after working with it for the whole day. I have been using a Zaurus 5800 and the Palm Pilot did not meet my needs. I consider myslf pretty savy in learning how to use an organizer. Here is what I wrote to a friend in choosing an organizer.
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Here are some things to consider when selecting an organizer. I consider myself pretty expert on this subject because I have used many different ones over the years and have spent a considerable amount of time evaluating them in the stores.
Real keyboard vs. onscreen keyboard
This decision depends partly on whether you will use the organizer as the primary means of entry. For me, I use the organizer as the primary means of entry. The alternative to this is to enter information into the computer and then transfer it to the organizer periodically. One way you can do that in the field is to have a notebook computer. When you get back into your vehicle after being with a customer, you make your entries into the computer. I prefer to make entries directly to the organizer because it easy for me to always have it with me. I consider it too difficult and slow to use the onscreen keyboard that many organizers have. And that graffiti or what ever it is called is not for me.
Flexibility in naming fields
This feature is very important to me. Casio used to have it and they discontinued that model. The Sharp Wizard and Zaurus have flexible field names. Most organizers have preset field names and maybe a few that you can name yourself. Geeezz, I don't want a field for home phone, work phone, car phone, e-mail address, spouse name, birthday, etc. I need a field for the equipment they have, along with serial number and purchase date. My field names match my needs. The Wizard and Zaurus have 6 data bases, each with a max of 16 fields. I have just one field for address. Everything concerning the address goes in there. That includes street, city zip, apartment number, directions, and GPS coordinates. Most organizers have a very limited length for each field. I don't know what the max length is on the Wizard and Zaurus, but I have never had a problem.
Communication
There is more emphasis being able to transfer info from or to the organizer via a phone line. Doing that with a mobil phone is possible now and probably will be much more common in the next few years. I don't consider it to be very beneficial to me, but I might change my thinking in a couple years. The primary job of my organizer is to organize ME, not to communicate with anyone else.
Support
One of the reasons the Palm Pilot is so successful is because they opened up the operating system so that 3rd parties can write software for it. Sharp did the opposite. It is only because a bootlegged copy got out that some software was written. Now the Zaurus has become another dinosaur.
Ruggedness
I used to break the Casios regularly. I bet I bought at least 6. I have broken 2 Zauruses (or is it Zauri?) and know why. Hopefully that wont happen again. I am pleased with the abuse they can take.
Price
I don't mind spending $500, but I also want a backup which is all set to use. I think Wizards are about $100 and I can buy a Zaurus for about $150. Palm Pilots vary in price according to the model. Figure about $300 to $500.
Memory size
I started out with 64K and got a larger one with each new purchase. My Zaurus has 2 MB of main memory and another 2 MB with a ram card. The main memory has almost 2500 names and related info. It also contains about 2000 entries of daily activities. So most any decent organizer is going to handle your needs for quite a while.
Linking
Linking is something that only the Zaurus has. Each of those 2000 daily entries is linked to a name (sometimes more than one name). When I look at my file for daily entries, I see my entries listed chronologically. I can see what I did today, or yesterday, or any other day. But when I look at a customer in the customer file, I can see all my activities associated with him. (Also appointments, other related people, birthdays, and more.) If I order a part, that activity gets linked to the customer and the supplier. It will have the part number, cost, retail price, who I talked to, etc. When I view the customer, I will that info. If I need to order that part again, I don't have to remember who the customer was the first time because I see it when I look at the supplier. It is really genius what Sharp did. Recently I started a data base of diseases. I link the disease to people that have it. (My business is related to the medical field.)
Filing
This is another feature that I have not seen on other organizers. There are a max of 23 files which can be called anything you want. I have one called "Today." When I am looking at a someone in the customer file who I want to work on that day, I just need to tap the screen 3 times and he is in the "Today" file. I have another file called "This Week." I can put a person in more than one file. When a new product that I would be selling was about to come out, I put customers that were prospects that customer into the appropriate file.
Searching and filtering
Most good organizers should have these features. However I was disappointed in the Palm Pilot. I bought one for one weekend and did not think these features worked like on the Zaurus. I may not have learned it well enough.
These features are similar. The filtering has the advantage of showing me all the "Roberts" in "High Point." If you wondering what benefit that is, wait until you trying to think of someone and you can't remember his name. All you can remember is that his first name is Robert and he lives in High Point. (I have more and more "senior moments" all the time.)
Size
The Zaurus is about as large as I can carry comfortably. (I wear pleated trousers. And I don't think any females have mistaken the bulge for me being glad to see them.)
Writing and drawing on screen
This is a very common feature on the better organizers. I find it very handy. I use this feature sort of like Post-em notes. It takes a lot more memory than entering the same info with the keyboard. Every day, I transfer the information into the files. The Zaurus has a nice feature where it will show it reduced in size so you can copy the information into the file.
Documents
Most organizers support this feature. I use this for listing IC-9 codes, HCPCS, sample letters, Medicare requirements, etc.
Outline
The outlines are easy to manipulate and rearrange. I keep information such as troubleshooting, location of parts, software serial numbers, printer and fax cartridge part numbers, ID's and passwords, etc.
Spreadsheet
I was willing to give this up if the Palm Pilot worked out. This is the only thing on my organizer that will calculate except for a simple calculator. The calculator does not have capability of such things as trig functions. The spreadsheet lets me do almost any kind of mathematical function.
Display
The monochrome display is fine for me. Color displays drain the batteries faster.
My intentions are to use the Zaurus forever. I will always be able to buy it from ebay. To me, the Zaurus is a true organizer. I attended a Franklin-Covey seminar to learn more about the Franklin system. Franklin-Covey should have bought the rights to market the Zaurus. It does exactly what they preach.
My advice is to get something to get names into. I started that about 8 years and it one of the best things I ever did. Wish I started earlier. I was always able to transfer the names from one organizer to the next, even when I went from Casio to Zaurus. (Sometimes I had to write a program to automate the transfer.)
Hope this gives you some things to think about.
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Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
johneiko
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Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 1 member
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