Clié SL-10: At first Glance

(This was actually written on Friday, which is why it may seem a little late.)

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A few days after the news was leaked via PalmInfoCenter, Pen Computing carries the story of Sony announcing a new low-end Clié. Touted as an entry-level PDA for students, the Clié SL10 is retail priced at $149.99; it will replace the Clié S360, which is being discontinued. Like other Clié models, the SL10 will come with PictureGear Pocket and Documents to Go.

The SL10 appears to be a cross between the discontinued Clié T415 and the old-style Palm PDAs—offering the PalmOS 4.1 operating system, 8 megabytes of RAM, memory stick port, jog dial, and 320x320 high-resolution monochrome screen of the 415, in the AAA-battery-powered "brick" form factor of the Palm III or Visor Deluxe-type models. However, looking closer, there are some interesting differences.

Sony has changed the buttons yet again; the SL10's buttons are wide and flat, harking back to the Palm III or Visor Deluxe. This can only be an improvement over the T415, whose buttons were stylish but uncomfortable.

In addition to the standard Sony hotsync port, the SL10 has what appears to be a standard USB port built into its lower left corner. Though this port is not even mentioned in Sony's announcement or its SonyStyle specifications webpage, it opens up some interesting possibilities for the device's use. Could the device be attached directly to a computer's USB port to allow files to be uploaded and downloaded directly? Could it enable two Cliés to link up for direct file transfer or head-to-head game competition? What will the cadre of hobbyist PalmOS hackers be able to do with this feature?

The SL10 fills a niche in Sony's PDA price/feature spectrum that had long been conspicuous by its absense. For months, PDA pundits such as Memoware's Kenneth Rhee had been remarking on Clié's lack of concentration on the lower end of the price spectrum. Now, the SL10 brings to beginning or budget-conscious users the double-resolution screen that only Sony has been able to offer—the screen that makes an ordinary Palm or Visor look like an etch-a-sketch. Now the PalmOS PDA competition is fully joined...and may the best PDA win.

Hello, everyone!

Hello, everyone; time to introduce myself. My name is Chris Meadows, though on the Internet I tend to go by the handle Robotech_Master. I'm honored and privileged to be invited to join the Writing on Your Palm blog, and I hope you'll find my writing interesting, or at least worthy of debate.

To give you some idea of my PDA-wise origins, I first fell in love with the Palm Pilot several years ago. I read several interesting articles in Salon Magazine about how they were becoming the new cool electronic reading machine and hand-held device, succeeding where the Apple Newton had failed. That suited me just fine. It was a couple of years before I could get one; I started out with the Palm IIIe, then moved up to the brand new Visor Deluxe almost immediately. However, since I wanted to take notes in college class with it, and there was no keyboard available for the Visor yet, I ended up owning and carting around two Palms for several months...plus a Happy Hacker cradle and a full-sized PS/2 keyboard—the very height of nerdiness.

Within the last few months, I broke the screen on my Visor for the final time, and upgraded to a Sony Clié T415 immediately. The 415 was everything I had ever wanted in a PDA...until it malfunctioned, and I had to send it in for service three times before Sony finally fixed the problem. (I plan to write about that in an upcoming column.) Still, now that it works again, I am quite happy with it, and expect to be into the near future.

I have never owned, nor had any desire to own, a PocketPC/Windows CE/Windows Powered/whatever they're calling it this month PDA. That being said, I intend to stay away from "sucks" advocacy flames—I'll leave that to my readers. Instead, I will simply write about news and views on the Palm as I see them. Granted, my vision may be limited by my budget...but at least that also means the Palm fans out there can count on me not to make a sudden Windows CE purchase and undergo a radical conversion. Palm user I am, and Palm user I expect to stay.

If you like or dislike, agree or disagree with what I have to say, I hope you'll let me know...by email, on the discussion board, or in the Yahoo Group. (Why the heck WOYP needs both a discussion board and a Yahoo Group, I have no idea. You'd think just one forum would be sufficient, wouldn't you?) Feedback is, after all, how a writer improves.

Next up: my audition column, on Sony's new low-end Clié.

The Shameful Details

Being that the super secret, ultra powerful Writing On Your Palm Team has finally been formed I am compelled to inform you that there in a new thread on the WOYP Discussion Board to let you know all about us. Now you can learn all the sordid details in the lives of the new scribes. Shameful Secrets Revealed! Closeted Skeletons Interviewed!

(Just click the old "Discuss" link here...)

Forms Meet Function

New HanDBase 3.0 Released: Bring Forms, color, and style to your handheld databases.

In the making for more than two years, this ambitious enhancement to DDH Software's very popular handheld database program for Palms and PPCs has been released for demo downloads and purchase. But not without some catches.

Gotcha #1. Early reports from those earliest of adopters indicate that the new Forms-enhanced version has corrupted some complex databases. DDH has publicly acknowledged some nasty bugs and promised a swift fix.

Gotcha #2. Pocket PC users must wait several more weeks before they can create forms on their devices. The new version 3 for PPCs can read forms created by the new desktop version, but will require another, free, update later to actually craft forms on the Pocket PC platform, which is taking a backseat to the larger installed base of Palm users.

Gotcha #3. DDH's slick new web design is long on pizzazz and a bit short on details surrounding the new version release.

Here's the not-so-well-told story: To make forms, you need a NEW desktop version of the software, HanDBase Pro, available for a very reasonable $15 upgrade for current Palm and PPC users.

All things considered, the new release, when the kinks get worked out, looks like a great addition to a superb little program that many of us find addictive in simplifying life (or at least codifying it).

If you write articles for fun or profit, watch the HanDBase Gallery for a couple new applets from yours truly to track article submissions and manage quotes!

Greetings, Fellow Scribes

Quick introduction to your latest intrepid correspondent: Don Blohowiak, a business writer who pens columns, books and more.

PDA pedigree: goes back to the HP 100LX --- before we knew what a PDA was.

Closet shelves contain HP 200LX, Palm Professional (the original reflective brick), Palm IIIx, Psion 5, TRG Pro... I can't bear to go on. Current electronic li'l buddy: iPAQ with his best friend Stowaway.

Looking forward to posting useful perspective for fellow mobile writers in the Kirvin tradition!

New Recruits

Everyone give a shout out to the new members of the Writing On Your Palm team! Thanks to everyone to submitted a piece, the final cut was a hard one to make. Helping me out (okay, carrying me) are Rick Padgett (who you've already met), Chris Meadows, Don Blohowiak and Sam Kleinman. Welcome aboard, guys!