Palm Tungsten

It had a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack and a speaker in back and used a mini USB connector not supported by most dock accessories. At introduction, it was US$199.

The Tungsten E, released in October 2003, was intended to replace the aging

Since it was released at the same time as the Tungsten T3, the Tungsten E included the T3's newer PIM apps and the enhanced "agenda view" for quick viewing of to-do items and upcoming calendar items. The Tungsten E's design influenced the Tungsten T series' subsequent devices, the Tungsten T5 and the TX.^[citation needed]

It was superseded in April 2005, when palmOne released the Tungsten E2.

Tungsten E2

The Tungsten E2, introduced on April 13, 2005, replaced the similarly named Tungsten E, had 32 MB of memory (29.7 available), a 200 MHz Intel XScale processor, 320x320 Transflective TFT color display, and ran Palm OS Garnet v5.4.7. It is 114 by 79 by 15 millimeters (4.5 by 3.1 by 0.59 in) and weighs 133 grams (4.7 oz). It had a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack, a longer-lasting battery than the Tungsten E, had Bluetooth capability, and a single speaker on the back.

Much like the Tungsten T5 and

When it was released, its retail price was US$249. In October 2005, the price was reduced to US$199.

Unlike other models, the Find function was limited to only the first eight matches, and the calculator incorrectly found percentages at half their actual value, though this was fixed in units shipping after April 2006.^{[citation needed]}

The Tungsten E2 had the ability to use WiFi, but only as an add-on SDIO card made by PalmOne (now

The maximum size SD card supported on the Tungsten E2 was 1 GB due to a software limitation. In order to read larger SD and SDHC cards an upgraded driver is required.^[3] The previous model (Tungsten E) had been reported to be capable of using 2 GB SD cards.^[4]

Tungsten T

The first Tungsten, the Tungsten T, introduced in November 2002 and known during development as the M550, was the first model to use Palm OS 5. The Tungsten T was designed by Palm engineers based in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

It had:

• 16
  megabytes
  of memory,
• Texas Instruments OMAP
  (ARM) 144 MHz processor,
• built-in microphone for voice memos,
• dedicated voice memo button,
• vibrating alarms,
• standard 3.5 mm headphone jack,
• one front-facing speaker,
• indicator light,
• Palm OS 5.0

It is 4.0 inches (100 mm) tall, 4.8 inches (120 mm) tall with the slider extended, by 3.0 inches (76 mm) wide by 0.6 inches (15 mm) thick, and weighs 5.6 ounces (160 g).

Its design set itself apart from other PDAs by having a sliding lower portion; the bottom third of the casing could be slid up and down to cover or reveal the touch-sensitive Graffiti writing area. At introduction, it was US$499.^{[citation needed]}

Many of the features in the Tungsten T were Palm firsts. It was the first Palm PDA to use a version of Palm OS 5 and an

• 320 × 320 resolution screen
• Bluetooth wireless communications radio built-in
• microphone with a dedicated voice memo button
• front-facing speaker instead of rear-facing
• telescoping stylus
• reset hole large enough to be pressed by the included stylus' tip instead of a pin as with previous Palm PDAs

The slider feature was unique. When open, the Tungsten T looked like a normal slate-shaped PDA, but the bottom portion, with the five-way controller and four buttons, could slide shut, covering up the Graffiti writing area. This made it the smallest Palm PDA in height. The Tungsten T was the last Palm PDA to use the original Graffiti Version 1 handwriting recognition software. Because of a lawsuit by Xerox Corporation Palm Inc. was forced to discontinue Graffiti 1 and later Palm PDAs used Graffiti Version 2. The revised software required two separate strokes for entry of some letters of the alphabet, such as the letters "t" and "k". Most all of the other letters required strokes different from those used in Graffiti 1.

Palm's reasoning behind the slider was that users spent more time viewing data rather than entering it.^{[citation needed]} Thus, they chose to hide the data entry medium while not in use to make a more compact device.

The slider caused two problems with the Tungsten T. One drawback was that the Tungsten T was known for its

The Tungsten T3 was the third T-Class Tungsten device, released in October 2003. It had 64 MB of memory (with 52 MB usable), a 400 MHz Intel PXA261 processor, a new 3.7" 320x480 transflective TFT LCD touch-screen, and ran Palm OS version 5.2.1. It was the last product designed by the Palm engineers in Arlington Heights.^{[citation needed]}

The T3 included Active Input Technology with Virtual Graffiti 2, a Virtual keyboard, and the typical Tungsten line slider. Along with many other additional features, the T3 was released with the same $399 retail price tag as the Tungsten T2 until the release of the Tungsten T5, when it was reduced to $349.

Like the Tungsten T and T2, the T3 still had a front-facing speaker, a microphone, a vibrating alarm feature, an indicator light, and all of their other features.

Like the Tungsten E, the Tungsten T3 came with an enhanced PIM Suite which categorized all appointments and tasks on the Calendar (formerly Date Book) screen. The Enhanced PIM Software also featured an improved Task suite (formerly To Do List) which could categorize Tasks by urgency, category, etc., and an improved Contacts (formerly Address) application with picture support and more fields.

Furthermore, a new status bar appeared at the bottom of screen, giving quick access to the time, system information, home, find, menu access, alerts, Bluetooth, full-screen writing, screen rotation, and what is shown in the input area.

The Tungsten T3 came with

The T3 had a bigger, non-round, 5-way navigation pad with the four application buttons placed around it in a circular fashion instead of in a row, breaking from Palm's traditional application button layout. Palm would return to its more traditional layout in the following Tungsten T5 and

The T3 had a Green/Red

The T3 also had the

Shortly after the early 2005 release of the Tungsten T5, the Tungsten T3 was discontinued. Since then, no other Palm handhelds included a vibrating alarm, a slider to make the device smaller, or the Palm Universal Connector.

Tungsten T5

The Tungsten T5, introduced in October 2004 and now discontinued, was aesthetically a combination of the Tungsten E and Tungsten T3. It was the first and only Tungsten to use a 416 MHz Intel

The Tungsten T5 was the first Palm PDA to have a 320x480 pixel screen without a slider mechanism as used in the Tungsten T3, T2, and T, though other brands have had sliderless HVGA displays for years. It was also the first to have 256 MB of

While the Tungsten T5 was meant to be a replacement for the Tungsten T3, it lacked several features from the Tungsten T3 such as a charge-indicator LED, a vibrating alarm, an included HotSync cradle, and built in microphone for voice memos. Furthermore, its speaker became rear-facing instead of front-facing and the PDA used the then-new

At the time of its release, the Tungsten T5 (along with the Treo 650) was plagued with memory inefficiency problems, third-party application issues, and device driver crashes, due to the new Non-Volatile File System.^{[citation needed]} The addition of NVFS however, brought the benefit of no longer losing all stored data in the event of a complete battery drain.

Tungsten T5 owners were encouraged to install the Tungsten T5 1.1 Update, which addressed the memory inefficiency issues alongside other operating system-level problems.

The power button was prone to reliability issues causing it to become inoperative over time, requiring the user to either use a third-party app, rely on the PDA's other physical buttons or insert a SD card which would then switch the PDA back on. ^{[citation needed]}

In some countries, including Australia, the Tungsten T5 was withdrawn early since the

Tungsten W

The Tungsten W (known as the i710 during its development period, and X420 at the prototype stage

It had a thumb-sized hard plastic keyboard, like the Treo 600 rather than the typical silkscreen Graffiti Writing Area found on most Palm handhelds. (This form factor would be reused in the Tungsten C, except lacking the W's external antennae).

The Tungsten W focused more on its PDA half than its cellular telephony half, much like its predecessors, the

A flip cover was also released that allowed the user to hold the handheld like a normal phone and talk on it, although it did obscure the screen. (In the US, it was sold exclusively by

The Tungsten W was succeeded by the Treo 600 after Palm purchased Handspring and became palmOne.

Tungsten C

The Tungsten C introduced in April 2003 was, at the time of its release, palmOne's only handheld that allowed the user to access the internet wirelessly through 802.11b Wi-Fi without the use of a card or other external device. It lacked support for the WPA encryption standard but did however have built in PPTP VPN support for secure connections to VPN servers.

The

Other details were its 400 MHz Intel

• Palm, Inc.
• Palm Pilot
• Palm TX
  , the first business-oriented Palm-branded handheld without the Tungsten moniker.
• Zire Series, Palm's brand of consumer-grade handhelds
• Treo Series, Palm's brand of Smartphones
• LifeDrive, Palm's brand of Professional-Class Mobile Managers
• m500 Series
• Palm Handheld Modifications
  to increase battery life

Competitors and contemporaries

• Dell Axim
• iPAQ
• Sony CLIÉ
• Tapwave Zodiac
• iPod Touch

References

External links

• Palm Unveils Palm Tungsten T, the Most Compact and Powerful Palm Branded Handheld, Palm Press Release, Oct. 28, 2002
• Palm Introduces New Integrated Wireless Handheld, Palm Press Release (Tungsten W), Oct. 28, 2002
• Palm Introduces Tungsten T2 Handheld, With Palm's Sharpest Screen, More Memory and Software, Palm Press Release, Jul. 23, 2003
• MobileTechReview, review site and (incomplete) database of models
• PalmInfoCenter, longstanding Palm review site: T T2 T3 T5
• 1src, large Palm OS user community
• Palm Handhelds Support Pages: E E2 T T2 T3 T5 W C
• infoSync World Review
• list of all Palm OS versions on PalmOne handhelds
• Easy to use interface (video)