What's New

October 28, 2002

 
New Handhelds from Palm

Today, Palm announced two new handhelds. The Tungsten T is one of the smallest Palm OS handhelds to date, and features a sliding Graffiti area that closes up when you're not using it. The Tungsten T offers a Texas Instruments ARM-based OMAP1510 processor and the new Palm OS 5. It is optimized for a wide range of multimedia and BlueTooth wireless capabilities. It features a new color screen, a built-in voice recorder, a 5-way navigator button for one-hand operation, plus an SD/MMC expansion slot and Palm Universal Connector. The Tungsten T retails for $499, and is available now.

Also announced today, the Tungsten W is Palm's answer to the Handspring Treo and RIM Blackberry, and features built-in tri-band GSM/GPRS wireless capability (offered through AT&T Wireless in the U.S.), and an integrated Blackberry-style keyboard. The device also features a 65,000-color 320x320 pixel high-resolution display, the new 5-way navigator button, 16MB of RAM, a Universal Connector, and an SD/MMC expansion slot, but continues to rely upon Palm OS 4.1.1 and the 33MHz Dragonball VZ processor instead of the newer processor and OS used by the Tungsten T. The Tungsten W will be available in early 2003 at a retail price of $549.

These announcements follow the recent release of the new Palm Zire handheld, a $99 entry-level model that will likely be of little interest to medical users due to its limited 2MB of RAM.

Palm Ultra-Thin Keyboard

Along with its new Tungsten line of handhelds, Palm also announced the Palm Ultra-Thin Keyboard, a full-size, collapsible keyboard. It remains rigid when in use and then folds into a compact stainless steel package. Designed and manufactured by Think Outside, it is one of smallest touch-typeable keyboards available and is 30% lighter and half the thickness of the previous Palm Portable Keyboard. It uses the Palm Universal Connector and will work with a variety of handhelds from Palm, including the new Tungsten T. The Palm Ultra-Thin Keyboard will retail for $99 when it becomes available in late November.
posted by Kent 6:00 PM | |

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