Good Backup PDA

I got this as a backup to my TX which I lost. This was a special promotional package it seems because I got 2 colored plastic rubber covers and a set of international AC plug adaptors for same price of $99. The AC adaptor, charger now supports international voltages, the TX charger only supports U.S. voltage so I had to buy another charger when I went overseas.

It appears that manufacturers are not making stand alone PDA's anymore. Many stores like Best Buy stopped selling PDA's long ago. Fry's used to have a half isle filled with pda's and now only carry a couple shoved in a corner that is difficult to find. It doesn't appear that Sony and other big players are making these anymore. I prefer stand alone than being part of a phone. In any case it looks like these are going to be history very soon.

This hotsynched to my Palm TX desktop with no problem using the USB cable. Some programs would not run obviously because they require higher resolution. The operating system is the same as the TX so had no difficulty transferring all the data over.

The first thing I did was reprogram the keys to my most used applications then tested the applications. Most ran with no problem and I had to reinstall Avantgo which synched with no problem after. All the games not requiring high resolution worked. Some applications like PocketSat didn't work at all and locked it up.

Transferring photos to the device is a little tricky. First, the photo program wouldn't install from the CD so I had to manually install it. Then I had to read the instructions on how to transfer photos because the manual is absolutely no help. Photos must be in the photo application which must be open as well as the photo application on the Z22. Then the photos were scaled and transferred no problem.

There is a major problem with the resolution of the Z22. Because the screen is small, they should have made it higher resolution than the newspaper resolution. Most text cannot be read and news from Avantgo is almost impossible to read. The ebook is readable after getting used to the blocky text and putting it right up against your face. For this price it should have come with a better screen for sure.

I have had many palm and Sony pda so I am a power user and this is a good backup because it is small provides me with the calender, memos, and contact information that is most important to me. I think for $5 more they could have put in a better screen so the fine text is readable. The usb interface is the best thing yet that Palm did. Now no more proprietary cables and power plugs.