Tao’s Blog

My Palm Tungsten T2 deal

About two weeks ago, April 15, 2004, I got a good deal on a Palm Tungsten T2 PDA. The regular price is $299, and I got it at $99. This is how I got it:

The previous Saturday, I ordered a Palm Tungsten E. Comaring to T2, Tungsten E is rather limited: no Bluetooth, no sliding writing area. But the screen is as good, color LCD. No universal cradle, only a USB hotsync cable. Actually, what I really need is a color LCD to read ebooks, so no big deal, I am very happy with Tungsten E’s feature set.

Wednesday evening, Li told me she saw an New York Times ad on a new Palm Tungsten T2 for only $99. My first reaction was she must be wrong. A Tungsten T2 should be around $299. She went out to fetch me a copy of the newspaper. Really, there is an advertisement of a Staples store grand opening at 47th Street and 8th Avenue, one day only.

I knew such a good deal will not last. So the next day, I got up at 6 am, hurried to the store to catch the deal. At first, the salesman said they already sold out. The time then is barely 8 am. Another customer and I decided to go to see the manager. After some bluffing, finally the manager yield. It turned out there were two more left in the warehouse. The warehouse manager told us they were the last two. I am not sure if that’s true. But anyway, I got a Palm Tungsten T2 for only $99 ($108 plus tax)! That’s a dream bargain. A friend of mine went there at 8:30, returned empty-handed.

I spent several days to get familiar with the new gadget. I am a Palm III veteran user, but since Palm III, Palm handheld underwent significant changes. A lot of new built-in programs, Bluetooth, SD and Multimedia card support, and last (and worst) the change of Graffiti to Graffiti 2. I already wrote about the Graffiti and Graffiti 2 in another entry, so I can save some ink here. (Actually, there are no ink, I am writing on my Palm III with the GoType keyboard).

Friday, I received my Tungsten E. Both run Palm OS 5.2, which is quite novel comparing to Palm OS 3.3 I am running on Palm III and Palm IIIx.

The most surprising thing I found when comparing Tungsten E and T2: they have different Graffiti 2 tutorial. The Tungsten E’s tutorial features a writing method almost the same as the natural writing alphabet, almost the same as Jot. The T2’s tutorial features a writing method not much different than Graffiti 1, with changes only at “t", “i", “k", and “x”. Finally, it turns out both are accepted strokes for Graffiti 2 (a version of Jot by CIC). On Tungsten E, the version is more inclined to Jot (and the natural alphabet), while on T2, another alternative strokes were used for reference and tutorial. To see the difference, you just go to a program which accept text input, input shortcut-G to see the difference of Graffiti 2 reference. It is rather intriguing.

Currently, I am stilling playing around my new color Palm handhelds, no important information is loaded, so I can feel free to install and test shareware. If something goes wrong, I just hard reset (the PDA equivalent of formatting hard drives) the unit. Easy and simple.

I also bought a 128 MB SD card to try the MP3 player feature. The RealOne player for Palm is OK, but the headphone volume level is not very loud. It is usable at a quite place, but definitely not suitable for commuting. My portable MD and iPod have louder audio output, and fit for my daily commute.

Links:

Palm Tungsten T2

Palm Tungsten T2 Review

Graffiti 1 on my Palm Tungsten T2

I bought my first Palm handheld, a Palm III in 1999. Since then, I am a big fan of the Graffiti input method. It is simple, it is fast, and it is elegant. A lot of practice and experience, I became a Graffiti veteran. I can write on my Palm almost as fast as I type (I exagerated, I am a quite fast typist). Anyway, I feel very comfortable writing on my Palm with Graffiti, although I have a GoType keyboard for fast text entry to my PDA. The simplicity of the PDA+keyboard combination brings me less distraction then a full-fledged, broadband-connected desktop computer. I write most of my journal entries and some blog entries on my Palm III and GoType keyboard.

Years ago, Palm Inc. was involved into a lawsuit brought by Xerox. It was argued that Palm Graffiti infringed Xerox’s patent, Unistroke. Eventually, Palm lost the lawsuit. Then it decided to abandon Graffiti, and licensed CIC’s Jot technology, which is the input method of most of the Microsoft PocketPC handheld computers. Palm renamed its version of Jot as Graffiti 2.

Actually, Graffiti 2 is not so bad. It is almost the same as we write ordinary alphabet. It is easy to learn, although not as fast as the original Graffiti. A lot of people feel learning a new alphabet daunting. However, for a Graffiti veteran like me, to study Graffiti 2 is a royal pain. Graffiti already became my reflective behavior, just like riding a bicycle and typing. The skill is engraved into the grooves of my brain. There is no easy ways to erase it.

Palm Tungsten T2 and E (and later models) all come with Graffiti 2, not the familiar Graffiti I preferred. At first, I tried hard to re-program my brain for the new input method, but with little success. Finally, extensive Google search brings me the following web sites:

http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_story.asp?ID=5830
http://www.gearbits.com/archives/000160.html
http://users.wpi.edu/~ahecht/palm.html

So I downloaded the necessary files, installed to my SD card, then using FileZ to copy them to the Palm. Soft reset. Abracadabra, The familiar Graffiti is back!

I also tried to install Graffiti 2 to my Palm III (just out of curiosity). I didn’t success. Graffiti 2 is for Palm OS 5, and Palm III is running on Palm OS 3.3, too much difference between them. Anyway, I am happy to be able to use the classical Graffiti on my Palm Tungsten T2. Feel good about it.

Sharing Internet with Bluetooth

My PowerBook G4 is connected to the Internet via the Ethernet card (which is connected to a cable modem). My recently purchased Palm Tungsten T2 is Bluetooth-enabled, I can hotsync the T2 with my PowerBook G4 with Bluetooth. Since Bluetooth has a range of 10 meters (about 30 feet), it would be convenient to share the Internet connection between the PowerBook and T2.

By Google search, I found two very useful web pages,

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20021103062212288

and

http://stevenf.com/mt/archives/000406.php

The first page is about start the sharing when the Mac OS X machine is booting up. It involves some command line tweakling. The second page use AppleScript to simplify the procedure, and you can start and end the sharing easily by excuting the scripts.

However, when I tried them, they don’t work. As soon as the Palm displays “Sign on", it dropped the connection immediately. I spend several hours trying to figure out, but without success. So it is time to return to the basics: the manual pages.

The basic idea is to open pppd to sharing the Internet, using the PowerBook G4 as a ppp server, and Bluetooth to emulate the serial port connection. The original command line I downloaded from the web site is as below:

/usr/sbin/pppd /dev/tty.Bluetooth-PDA Sync 115200 noauth local passive proxyarp asyncmap 0 silent persist :palm_ip &

However, this doesn’t work on my PowerBook G4. To diagnose, I scan the man page of pppd. I found there is an option called logfile. The format is logfile your_logfile. It would be a great help to troubleshoot my problem. I added the logfile option, ran a test, then read the log. Oops, I found the reason: the pppd cannot figure out the local (PowerBook G4) IP. The full format of specifying IP address is: local_IP:Palm_IP. I suppose for most of the cases, the pppd can figure out the local_IP automatically. However, for some reason, it is not the case here. All I need to do is to explicitly specify my local PowerBook G4 address.

After the change, I tested it. It worked! Now I can browse the net from my Tungsten T2 via Bluetooth. That’s fun. With this Internet connection, I can receive and send emails, chat online, and telnet. That’s great! Now I can remove the logfile option from the AppleScript. I don’t need it any more.

Batteries for my Palm III & Palm IIIx

Inside Palm III (and Palm IIIx), there is a switched power stablizer, which essentially is a small transformer to increase the voltage of the AAA batteries to 3.3 V, which is required by the internal electronics. Palm OS constantly check the battery voltage (around 100 times per second), and set the CPU state accordingly.

When the Palm handheld is shut off, it still draw 0.2-0.3 mA current from the batteries. When the unit is powered on, but idle, the current is 16 mA. When the CPU is busy, it draws 50-60 mA. When the backlighting is turned on, it will draw 30-35 mA in addition. Roughly speaking, a Palm III consumes 5 mAh per day. That is a very rough estimation, it all depends on the actual usage.

For Palm III (and IIIx), there are three different types of batteries: alkaline, NiCad, and NiMH. They have different characteristics.

Alkaline

An alkaline battery usually has a capacity of 1100-1200 mAh, which is huge compared to NiCad and NiMH batteries. Another advantage of alkaline batteries is the discharge curve is quite linear and flat. It is easy to predict the battery life from the voltage. This makes the alkaline batteries suitable for Palm handhelds. They also tend to have a longer storage life. NiCad and NiMH batteries will self-discharge even not in use. However, compared to rechargeables, alkaline batteries are expensive in the long term. It is the only disadvantage of alkalines.

NiCad

The usual capacity for an AAA NiCad battery is 250 mAh, compared to 1100 mAh of alkaline and 650 mAh of NiMH, it is quite low. To make it worse, NiCad batteries have a very steep discharge curve, so the warning time is dangerously short. The biggest problem of NiCad batteries is the infamous “memory effect”. That is, you must fully discharge them before you recharge. If you recharge them before a full discharge, they will lose a significant of their capacity. This is quite inconvenient: you cannot recharge them when it is convenient for you. For high current applications, NiCad is a decent choice, but for low current situations like Palm, NiCad is not the ideal choice.

NiMH

NiMH batteries have a capacity of 650 mAh, which is better than NiCad (250 mAh), but not as high as alkaline (1100-1200 mAh). Their discharge curve is not as steep as NiCad batteries, but still not as linear as alkalines. If treated well, NiMH batteries can have 500 cycle life time. The best thing about NiMH batteries is that they don’t have memory effect. You can charge them whenever you see fit. You can even constantly keep a pair in charger. That makes life easy. Actually, one must be very careful not to deep discharge NiMH batteries. Deep discharge means below 0.9 V per cell. It will render the battery useless or greatly affect the life time. So be careful, don’t wait for the warning to recharge them. Instead, recharge them when the gauge shows a half full battery.

An extra note: use the undocumented dot dot seven shortcut to change the battery gauge’s calibration to make it acurately reflect the real battery situation. Use the shortcut in “Find” dialog or Memo pad. In that case, you will see what calibaration is selected.

Reference

Peter Strobel http://www.pstec.de/ppp/

and the book Palm OS Bible

If you get a Brooklyn Public Library card, you can access the famous Encyclopedia Britannica from Here.

Bluetooth: First encounter

Bluetooth is a short-distance wireless communications standard. It is invented to replace those messy cables connecting mobile phones, PDAs, and computers.

My first Bluetooth device is the PowerBook G4, and I bought it last October. Back then, I don’t have any other Bluetooth devices to communicate with it, so the issue was shelfed.

Until last week. Fortunately, I caught a deal on Palm Tungsten T2, a Bluetooth enabled PDA. Its Bluetooth enables it to communicate with mobile phones, computers, and other PDAs. I set it up to hotsync with the Powerbook G4, and it works perfectly, although it seems that it is not as fast as the USB connections. But that’s already good enough, I cannot complain.

With this Bluetooth, I can connect the Tungsten T2 with any Bluetooth enabled mobile phone to connect to the Internet, or send SMS messages. Since it is easy to input text on a PDA than on a mobile phone, it can be a great help to be able to use PDA to send SMS messages.

This morning (4/20/04), on the uptown 6 train, I made first contact with other Bluetooth user. Somewhere around Grand Central station, I was reading AvantGo on my Tungsten T2, a window popped out, it read: “A Bluetooth user want to chat with you, do you want to chat?”. I clicked yes, a Tungsten T user appears on my screen. I looked around, but the train was crowded, I cannot see the Tungsten T user, but I knew that he (or she) is around, because Bluetooth has a range of around 10 meters, that’s around 30 feet. But my Graffiti 2 input skill was not sufficiently honed, so the input speed was excruciatingly slow. I was quite accustomed to the classical Graffiti input method, with which I can write every letter with a single stroke. However, with this new Graffiti 2, you need two strokes to write “t", “i", and “k", which is quite clumsy for a Graffiti veteran. However, between Grand Central and 68th Street, we managed to exchange quite a few lines, until we both disappeared in the commuting crowd. That’s fun, and interesting.

Currently, there is two Bluetooth applications on my Tungsten T2, BlueChat and BlueBoard, the latter is used to exchange drawings with other Bluetooth PDA users.

For other non-Bluetooth Palms, to connect to a mobile phone, you need either a cable or an infrared port, which is built-in in most of Palm devices.