23 Responses to “5 Reasons the iPod Touch cannot replace a Palm”

1. Jim Peterson:
   September 10th, 2007
   

   Five reasons the palm will never be a iPod Touch:

   1.) Media capabilities

   2.) Internet you can read!

   3.) 6 million songs and counting

   4.) Easier to type with keyboard

   5.) Designed by Apple!

2. Shaun:
   September 11th, 2007
   

   Palm sucks.

3. Valen:
   September 19th, 2007
   

   Ema, I’d be right with you if it wasn’t for the fact that Palm seems to be trying to get out of the PDA business and make smartphones only. I can sense that my Lifedrive is approaching the end of its useful life, and I can’t seem to find a reasonable replacement for it. I had high hopes that the iTouch would be it… but if you can’t add calendar items and can’t hear an alarm, then it’s just not useful. I don’t make a lot of calls and I’m not interested in paying $40 a month for cell service that I won’t use… so the iPhone is less than attractive.

   So what the heck am I going to do for a PDA???

4. James:
   November 27th, 2007
   

   I’m right there with you Valen… my Tungsten E is LITERALLY falling apart. I replaced it this past weekend with a touch and I haven’t looked back. The only thing I miss is PocketQuicken but I’ll live until someone ports a companion app over for one of the many OS X Finance Apps.

5. Ryan:
   December 6th, 2007
   

   I was actually thinking about this argument. First of all, itunes music and their drm music can suck a fat one, so please leave the “6 million songs and counting” out of it. If I want the best quality, to hell with wma or m4a or aac, I’ll just eac a file from the real cd and have better quality than all 3, without being told what to do with the music I bought to own.

   Secondly, I’ve had my TX for about a year and a half now. I don’t know what some of you people do with your hardware to make it “fall apart”. Mine was in my lab coat for a year, bouncing around and in and out of cold weather. The only issue I ever had with it was the power button responsiveness, which was nullified when I downloaded pwrbtn and is now no longer an issue.

   I don’t know how much easier the ipod keyboard is to use than the palm keyboard on screen. I mean, it’s pretty close to me, and I have big fingers.

   I know apple is starting to open up to 3rd party development finally, but 1) how much freedom these 3rd parties will have will be tbd considering how anal they are about their iphone, even if we’re talking about software on the touch. 2) there’s already an existing developer base on the palm that squashes apple’s, and many of those developers happen to be users, so I really wouldn’t worry about support, and at this point in time Palm still has the edge.

   Obviously I would prefer the touch if all I did was listen to music. Put movies in there, and considering the expandability and cheapness of it (I bought 3 SD Ultra II cards, 2 gb each for $17 usd a pop 2 weeks ago), I’ll give the palm the edge here again. I got more flexibility in supported video formats with 3rd party software (surprise!) than I would with the ipod.

   Also, is there a reason the touch doesnt have bluetooth, or any ipod for that matter? What’s kind of strange is I saw an acura commercial using a blank ipod (like without a logo, but same physical design) in their bluetooth capabilities commercial which I didn’t understand. If I was a teenager, or an adult that was not so computer savy, I would’ve gone with the touch. But right now, until I see what kind of software support they have a year from now when they drop the 3G iphone, the tx gets the edge.

   and call me when the ipod touch supports epocrates. people forget that there’s so much software on the palm available, that people actually use at work, while they work.

   If you’re still using palm’s garbage browser to surf the internet, well then, you probably bought the wrong hardware, considering you don’t seem to want to make the effort to look for better, newer stuff out there, which is what owning a palm is all about.
   So my two biggest questions to apple are :
   1) why do you keep avoiding installing fm radio when some of your biggest comp (creative and microsoft) have had for years?
   2) where’s the bluetooth?

   Basically the things that give the touch the edge are:

   1) better default web browser
   2) better default on screen keyboard (I’ll give you this one after some thought)
   3) video out
   4) better mp3 playback
   5) more accessory support

   and the things that give the tx the edge:

   1)expandability
   2)3rd party software support
   3)bluetooth
   4)flexibility – last time i checked it was a pda
   5)video playback – don’t really need to take much time to worry about formats with this
   6) longer battery life when watching movies/playing music? My battery outdoes the touch and mine nearly two years old? WHy hasn’t anyone addressed that? If it does beat it depending on what kind of “unit” you received from apple, it’s awfully close. They rated it at 5 hours of video (apple’s rating, try to duplicate that go ahead) and that would probably match my video playback.

   On the whole, if you were stricken with a choice for your teenage daughter, I would suggest the touch, but even that is questionable unless you are going to buy the kid gift cards for the itunes store or went through the motions on how to convert music and movies to play them for the kid.

   If you’re an adult with a job, especially one that is benefited by a palm like I have, I can’t see any possible reason to say the touch is better to have.

6. Ken:
   January 11th, 2008
   

   “1. External Audio – The iPod Touch lacks any sort of external speaker. … If you want to use your iPod as an alarm, you have to buy a add-on with speakers.”

   Wow — wrong right out of the box. My iPod touch came with an external speaker for alarm tones. Did you actually try using one before writing a review?

7. art:
   January 18th, 2008
   

   I switched from a TX to a Touch. The TX went all over the world and I thought was great. I’ve also used win PDA’s. The same comments apply.

   My experience:

   External Audio – ??, its there for alarms.

   Expansion Slot – I plug my cards into my PC. The same PC I plug my Touch into. The 16 gig is equal to 8 2 gig SD cards. Who carries around 8 SD cards? Oh, and the Touch will always read its memory. No format issues, no cross-platform issues and no incompatible cards.

   Software – Let’s see, I traded lot of really bad apps that crashed on a recurring basis for rock solid apps that are automatically updated in a virtually transparent manner. As far as the number of apps available, its simpler to jailbreak a Touch than getting a lot of Palm software working. After that there’s not much that’s out there already.

   WiFi AND Bluetooth – The Touch has comparable wifi (both very good). My experience with the Palm’s bluetooth was with a bt keyboard and modem. Too unreliable. Connections lost frequently. Maybe the app, maybe the Palm. Irrelevant to me, it did not function well. Both have email. If you would compare any of the email apps available on the Palm they don’t come close to the rock solid performance of the Touch’s email. Its less featured for sure (a pain) but it works, always.

   Stylus Entry & Handwriting Recognition – This is a real trade-off. The Palm is faster, no doubt. People have to decide if they want to peck on a tiny keyboard or tackle graffiti.

   I thought I could never deal without a Palm being within reach. Not a bit. Life is soooo much nicer.

   Start the Touch and the world just seems so much nicer. Its gorgeous, the interface is Apple at its best and its rock solid.

   Plug it in and every file is formatted for the Touch, every file is updated and the Touch os is updated. That’s 10gig of music, calendar, contacts, email (one way), over 2,000 image files and pdf files which first have to go thru an ultra simple utility that turns them into a Safari page.

   For me I would never go back to a Palm device.

8. Wolf:
   January 29th, 2008
   

   Until the iPhone / iPod Touch has Pocket Quicken and Mobile Filemaker it’s not comparable to the Palm T/X. I’ve had a T/X for three years now and it’s integral to running my business as an artist. I use Pocket Quicken to keep track of finances when I buy things and synchronize with my laptop and online bank statements when I return home from trips or errands; I use Mobile Filemaker so I can take orders on the road or look up production schedules in the studio and then synchronize with the laptop. I’d rather have free wifi than some assinine cell service contract since (thankfully,) I don’t even have cell reception in my mountain home. There’s talk of putting some kind of online Quicken on the iPhone, but I live in Vermont, where Apple’s agreement with AT&T pretty much bricks the iPhone even if you live in a spot with service. (AT&T will shut you off if the realize you live in Vermont and own an iPhone. The local Apple store won’t even sell one to you if they know you live here.) Anyway, after 3 years of hard service in a leather case that lived in my leather jacket and in my dirty studio, my Palm T/X finally took a bad hit and the screen broke. I’ve been considering whether or not a Apple device would work for me since a functional one would be fun and seamless, but simply put, Apple has crippled the iPod / iPhone with software limitations and bad legalities. I guess I’m buying another Palm.

9. Norbert:
   February 2nd, 2008
   

   1. The Ipod Touch will have LEGAL 3rd party apps in a month or two
   2. It looks WAY more sexy
   3. If you want to carry 10 flash cards around yes, but an ipod has 16 built in.
   4. Multi Touch
   5. Already works as a Gameboy, Nes and ps1 emulator

10. James:
    February 17th, 2008
    

    you guys have no life or have you?

11. Pavel:
    March 11th, 2008
    

    Palm is better.
    1.Cheaper(for anyone who wants to spend 300, fine by me but i have a zire 72 with a patch that allows me to read ANY size memory, even a 32 GB one)
    2.Internal, Swichable External memory look i can switch beetween my camara sd and palmSD(32GB[HAHA as much as your best iPod Touch]) ANd my palm wi-fi adapter
    3. More programs 300,000 i don’t think they will just get them from thin air (13 years in the making slakers!!!!!)
    4.I may not have one with 320×460 but they exist
    5.We have a program that works like your own kind!!!!!
    6.It is not sexy it is an obejet freak go show your gayness to objects somewere else
    7.I have my trust pocket keyboard in my backpack when i go to school to take notes if they saw iPod on the back of it they whould confiscate it
    8.games are like 1/4 of the programs anyway
    9.just cuz it’s by apple don’t get me wrong i like macs and ipod but their F!@# overpriced @$$holes that rip u off

12. Jon Irenicus:
    March 26th, 2008
    

    1.Palm cheaper? Don’t make me laugh! TX = $299 iPod Touch = $259 (at my local BestBuy)
    2. …Sorry, I don’t need carry around 30 000 000 contacts.
    3. Programs coming out! And, classic mac argument… you don’t need software!
    4. Is this a point?
    5. Huh?
    6. Okkkkaaaaayyyyyyyy……
    7. Whatever. TAKE YOUR NOTES ON PAPER.
    8. For what?
    9. YOUR’E AN IDIOT.

13. Paul:
    March 30th, 2008
    

    “What can I do to get you into an iPod Touch today?”

    ebooks. For free.

    Tell me how. And I’m not being sarcastic. I’d really like to know. I read on my Palm TX using Plucker reader. If you favor the classics (or rather, I don’t read off today’s best-sellers lists), as I do, there are hundreds (more?) of titles at Gutenberg, e-library at U.Va. and manybooks.com — all free. If apple allows free ebooks, that would get me closer to deciding on the iPod Touch.

    As for 3rd-party apps, Apple users will have to wait, probably a long while, and 3rd-party authors writing for the iPT have a long way to go to reach the number of freeware apps available for Palm. If I think that I’d like an app for my Palm, I do an immediate search and usually find a freeware that does what I want: medical calculators and tutorials, scientific calculators, chess, custom clocks, easy PDF downloading (direct to device!) and viewing, access to desktop files over LAN, MS document creation and editing, and any of a number of readers. Music and movies? Kids’ stuff.

    Palm: fug but highly functional. Apple: sexy and fun.

    I agree with pro-Palm posts here, but note: I’m really considering the Touch to replace my Palm based on Apple’s reputation for stable devices with design and use in mind. I just don’t want Apple telling me what I can have on my device. Assure me that they won’t, and I’ll buy.

    No need to hate, Apple fanboys.

14. Theo:
    May 11th, 2008
    

    say what ever you want but if i was to buy a plam tx or a touch i would get a touch. I have a palm tx and it crashes alot, sms appication can not be oppened anymore, bluetooth has become total usless… and expension card is crap too as you can’t put in the new sd format. Also the palm os system is a joke, they should really do something about that. I mean it cant even download something while browsing on the net.

    Palms reputation has reached junk

15. pedro:
    May 29th, 2008
    

    I need to know, is the ipod touch able to:

    1 – Browse and open files from computers (with windows) in a wireless network
    2 – ssh to a linux server or access to a remote desktop
    3 – be used as an ordinary pendrive to transfer and access all files (even my music) without apple’s software or any driver
    4 – in case of emergency or lack of software, can i install a dual boot linux?
    5 – connect to bluetooth headphones
    6 – disable upgrades or reverse them in case you don’t like them (What if apple thing that a program must expire, can it be done?)

    Thanks!!!! (i really like the ipod but i’m not sure if buying one, looks a bit limited)

16. El Gordo:
    June 19th, 2008
    

    I have both a TX and an 8 gig ipod touch… they’re both great! The TX I use for the office or at conferences and the ipod for entertainment and fun! Both are good for web browsing, e mail, movies and music. So, be patient, PALM didn’t have third party programs right out the chute…ipod third party programs are only going to grow and get better with time.

    Hey, my ipod just received an e mail from my TX. What does it say? It says, “Get a life nerd!”

17. Lee:
    July 1st, 2008
    

    I have used a Palm for over 10 years. I picked up a Zire about 2 years ago after my previous palm broke when I dropped it. New features that I didn’t need were added and existing features were compromised. I noticed that it was near impossible to use the stylus to input letters in the writing recognition box and had to resort to using the tiny keyboard. That was an un-welcomed change. I think the new OS also used more memory so now I’ve overloaded the thing and it has locked up. It won’t even re-sync. I’m thinking of getting an iTouch because I own an iMac. Does anyone know if there is a conversion program to transfer all of my “junk” from my Palm to an iTouch?

18. Donna:
    January 12th, 2009
    

    I’d still be a TX user except for three (count them, three!!!) replacement TX’s and the same digitizer problem makes my $250+ TX unuseable!!! Palm offered me a new (vs refurmished) replacement, but added that the new TX would not be warrantied. If that is not an admission of failure, I don’t know what is.

    Sure the iPod touch is not a TX. but sadly, neither is the TX…..

19. La Primavera:
    February 2nd, 2009
    

    Well, I read this post before making the switch and decided that much of it was based on opinions of those who had not used both products. I had a Palm TX for two years, and a series of others before that, using it mostly for business: e-mail, calendar, contacts. I have had the ipod Touch for about six months now, and here is what I think: Making the switch was easy. Palm was synced with computer, therefore syncing computer with ipod brought over all the information, except a few applications that I had to export and import manually. The first thing I notice is the bulk of the ipod is much less… its great to be able to just slip it in my shirt pocket without it bulging out. The, when I turn it on the graphics are a million times nicer than the Palm… no doubt. Slick interface with nice scrolling and clearer internet browsing including nifty zoom and automatic orientation. The contacts does pretty much the same thing as palm… just looks a bit nicer. You cannot categorise the contacts though… but easy to scroll and search. The calendar looks nicer, but does the same thing as Palm. You can have more than one calendar and choose which ones to sync. Mail is nicer in ipod as it has a bigger keyboard (when you use a third party layout app), and it has “push” with Exchange and POP… very slick and dependable with built-ind ability to read most types of attachments (but not edit). Syncing is the same type of thing as with Palm, except for music, which is much easier in itunes. The keyboard tooka bit of getting used to, but is much more accurate than grafitti and easier than the Palm keyboard… I can no two-and it and can type quite quickly. So all of these functions, I give better ratings to the ipod. Here’s what I don’t like: To Do is not built in and does not really have a satisfactory app. Toodle Do is the best I can find, which automatically syncs with Outlook and the Mac Widget. I don’t really like the ipod app, but it works. At the time of writing there is still no app that syncs Notes on ipod with the desktop… this is just ridiculous. Then there is the fingerprint issue, which makes the screen a mess becasue you touch the screen with your finger rather than a stylus. While I like the way this works better, the smudges are bad. I got a smudge-free screen protector which has solved that problem. But then again, there are thousands of apps out there, many for free or cheap, which seem far more useful than any of the Palm programs I ever found… they are easy to find, download, and buy from the itunes store. The options with the ipod are seemingly limitless… just take a look at the itunes store at all the apps you can get… so, after using both devices, I can say that I do not miss the TX at all… the ipod is a far better device for my needs and syncs well with both my mac and PC. Good luck!

20. Bojan:
    March 12th, 2009
    

    Well I guess it’s game over for the Palm TX now (E2 is obviously a non-competitor as well). iPod Touch / iPhone are open to 3rd party apps and have an incredible number of useful applications now. External audio is now here on the 2G. 8GB (the minimum) is plenty of space, plus swapping SDs is a real pain. There are a number of excellent styli for the Apple products. I guess the only thing that is missing is Bluetooth but aside from letting you cause your phone to dial a number from the Palm contact list, it’s pretty much useless on the Palm anyway so I’ll live without it.

    And let’s not even start on all the reasons that the iPod touch destroys the TX.

    Don’t get me wrong here – I am in no way an Apple “fanboy” and I really believe Palm products were very strong in the past. In fact, I had a Tungsten E (which died suddenly, but I don’t feel I need to bring up Palm product lifetime issues here) a while ago. Since then, I entertained the idea of buying a TX many times but never thought the price was quite worth it. Now things are clear – it’s not. The 8GB Touch is cheaper and better in almost every respect. I am very, very happy with mine (and no, it doesn’t have any music, videos, or pictures on it yet – I use it purely as a productivity device).

    Palm needs to do something soon or risk losing the handheld (non-smartphone) market forever. Only one question is left: Why is the TX still priced so high?

21. Rose L:
    April 10th, 2009
    

    what about Notes synchronisation? I tested the iPod Touch and I could not see where you could do a general search in all apps which I love. I could only see that you could scroll through contacts but not search. Sometimes I remember part of a name and search on first name or first letters or company.

    I have been using Palm for over ten years and although I am very open to the iPod Touch, it must be function over fun so for now, the Palm.

22. Peter Stocker:
    July 16th, 2009
    

    All this information and reasons are no longer up to date if you have a gen 2 ipod touch with OS 3. You have bluetooth, better web access, free phone applications with skype or truphone, note sync to your mail program as reminders, and nice additions:

    -external wireless USB program that prints, shares and emails files

    -documents to go Word that is. Excel will be a free update soon, or use Mobile Office

    flashlight

    compass

    map and google Earth (when in wifi — just go in front of starbucks or in front of an apartnment

    -offline web reader which downloads to device

    VNC

    level

    superb and fun games

    internet radio

    weather

    podcasts and video and more (50,000 apps)

    As a former palm user I’m not looking back.

23. Joe Sax:
    August 16th, 2009
    

    Palm is stuck in the year 2000.

    I love Palm, i’ve had the Palm IIIx, then the Sony Clie Nx, then the Clie NZ90, then the Palm TX.
    (I’ve already changed my palm TX screen once. These plastic screens don’t last.)

    The problem is that in every new Palm OS incarnation i never saw any kind of huge development. Colour screen, yeah, right. Bluetooth, fantastic. But everything was always the same: Memo, Contacts, Calendar. Same fonts, same layout. Of course that there were some good improvements, but certainly, in ten years i hoped that Palm would be the greatest thing on earth. But it isn’t. Even Graffitti they managed to ruin it, going from simple and quick to complex and cumbersome.

    Now they announce the Palm Pre, and it looks great, but i feel sorry for Palm, because that is the kind of thing they should have made three years ago. They were going somewhere with Sony and their Clie models and they dropped everything to pursue a lame cellphone design (the Treo)

    The problem is, the Pre looks good, fantastically good. But in the meantime, Apple has made iPhone and iPod two very strong products. There are tons of apps for apple devices, and Palm is still stuck with blocky graphics and no multitasking abilities.

    My daughter’s Nintendo Dsi has better graphics and touch response, and i got it for less than i got the TX.

    So, i’m pretty sure that when the time comes that i need a replacement for my TX, i’m going to get me a flashy ipod touch instead of the Palm Pre.

    I’m sorry, Palm. It was good while it lasted, but now the magic is gone. It’s not you, it’s me. Believe me.

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