OTHER TECH

$299

•4-inch, 320 x 480-pixel color touchscreen •128 MB of memory (expandable with memory card) •Plays MP3 audio files •Displays JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PSD, and PSX image files •Plays AVI, WMV, MPEG, MPG, ASF, MOV, and QT video files •Connects to PC, network, or other devices via USB, Bluetooth, IR, or Wi-Fi •3 x 4.75 x 0.625 inches •5.25 ounces •palm.com •800-881-7256

Any PDA that offers music and video playback along with wireless connectivity conjures up fantasies of a single handheld to replace all the smartphones, MP3 players, and portable video players hogging our valuable pant and briefcase pockets. That's the carrot dangled by the multifaceted Palm TX PDA/media player.

The TX is a PDA first and foremost, a superior organizer that lets you create, edit, and store contact lists, appointments, memos - even Word documents and Excel spreadsheets. Once I paired it with my Powerbook via the USB connection (you can also make a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi wireless connection), I was ready to start bringing in content. For Mac guys like me, files are moved from your computer to the PDA by drag-and-drop, so I just tried pulling my pictures, movies, and music tracks over the "Send to Handheld" icon in the Palm folder on the desktop.

But I had to abort my first attempt to move a video clip because Mac users need to save audio and video files to a memory card, which isn't included. Oddly, I was able to get around this problem by using Bluetooth to send the 85-second MPEG file directly to the TX - time-consuming, but workable. Windows users have it easier, since media files can be stored directly to the TX's 128 megabtyes of onboard memory. (Though that will fill up fast.)

Later, I inserted a 128-MB SD card and loaded up Madonna's "Hung Up" video, a couple of New Pornographers MP3s, and the absolutely cutest picture of my niece. Via USB, the 5.5-minute (55-MB) video took about 3 minutes to transfer. Now I had something to watch on the bus ... over and over again.

To choose and view media files, you use the same responsive and vibrant 3.25 x 2.875-inch, 320 x 480-pixel touchscreen that makes tapping through the Web a colorful diversion. The onscreen menus make it easy to find selections you've loaded - just use your finger or the included stylus to tap the Photos & Videos or Music icons on the main menu. You can use the six-way rocker bar below the screen to scroll through any menu and play any file, but there are no onscreen controls for pause, reverse, or fast forward.

How much detail you can see on the screen is determined by the available memory and the size of your video clips. The Madonna video - typical of what's out on the Web - ran natively at 352 x 240 pixels in landscape mode. Its tiny 2.25 x 1.5-inch image was reasonably sharp but couldn't be expanded to fill the screen. The TX is said to support a wide variety of video formats, but a couple of AVI files I downloaded wouldn't play. Photos, on the other hand, resized automatically to fill the screen and looked great, with excellent detail and accurate color.

The Palm TX could never replace the iPod as my MP3 player. It's easiest to navigate your songs and control volume and track movement by tapping the onscreen transport keys, but you have to rest the TX on your palm. You can use the rocker bar to control play/pause, volume, and track forward/back, but it's not ideal for in-pocket control. The built-in speaker underwhelmed me with its tinny sound. Plugging in headphones gave me much better audio, but they still didn't sound as good as with my dedicated music player.

The Palm TX PDA/media player is just adequate as a personal audio and video player, but it does so much other stuff well that it's hard to fault. It will please a Palm devotee or anybody else desperate to make sense of his schedule and stacks of collected business cards. In the end, its entertainment capabilities aren't the main course, but they're definitely icing on the cake.

Back to Homepage What's New on S&V