OD B&M : VTech Helio Palm-like pda(PDA with 8 MB, Recorder, etc) $85.00 after OD coupon.

[slag]

Hey guys, Just wanted to let you in on a pretty decent deal from OD. The Vtech helio is normally $179.99. It's now marked down to $99.88. Use the $15 off $50 or more coupon floating around and its around $85.00 plus tax. Not a bad little toy for the money. From a review I read of it, its supposed to be using a modified version of the linux OS. It's about equal in weight to my palm IIIxe, but has voice recorder capabilities. In all, its a neat toy, and comes with a protector, serial/parallel sync cable, batteries, and manual.

They are going for around $100.00 on e-bay as well if anyone is interested...

Joe

 

[AndrewR]

Excellent -- I think my local OD has one. I'll check it out -- thanks!

 

[OS]

I have a iiixe, is this a worthwhile buy?

 

[slag]

well, the IIIxe is untouchable in terms of apps and games--palm has the market on these. As for these helios, well, I bought one just to play with. It appears pretty cool, is fun, but does not have nearly the apps yet that the palm does. It comes loaded with pretty much everything the palm has except it also has a voice recorder as well.

Its your call. I'm keeping my palm, but am also using this helio to see how well I like it.

I would say I like the helio much more than my old sharp mobilon piece of junk, and the mobilon was color also!!

Joe

 

[Fritzo]

Rats....almost sold me, but no USB My serial and p-ports are full.

 

[slag]

pci and isa serial and parallel port cards are available...

Joe

 

[unclebud]

does anybody have any idea when this was marked for clearance? just an idea?

 

[Peetoeng]

How about buying it now and then returning and rebuying every 14 days until they are just tired of you .

My local OD sucks. They rarely carry or don't have stock of those hotdeals anandtechers talked about. And when they do, the price is still higher than the price mentioned in this forum.

 

[unclebud]

what's your location? they eventually fall everywhere dude.
edit: about below--i didn't know that. sony takes forever to repair something tho. but this is good to know for the co-workers. thx.

 

[Carapace]

My guess is they are getting rid of these to make room for the upcoming Handspring line. It's supposed to be coming in April sometime unless things change. The Sony Clie is also on clearance for 299.88. Use that 15 dollar off coupon and its not a bad buy for what it does.

 

[AndrewR]

I looked at it but declined to purchase. I still have my MCI $150 GC so I'm awaiting a deal at Amazon. It seemed nice enough (the Helio), but I just couldn't justify it.

I did find a cool motion sensor laptop security thing for $9. Made by Fellowes.

 

[OS]

Supposedly, the helios have a better handwriting system than the palms, any comment here?

 

[slag]

I think its a bit better. Of course, I have gotten used to my palm, so some of the letters didnt turn out correctly at first, but then I learned (and read), that you need to write normally and it works. Instead of making the upside down V for the letter "A" like you did with PALM, you just make a lower case "a" like you normally do and it works. Instead of making two lines from the bottom to the top to put yourself in uppercase mode, JOT (what the helio uses), has a line that you write on to make your characters uppercase. Much Much better imho...

 

[HJB417]

Just bought 2. They're all sold out @ Grand Central Station even though the computer reported 5. The manager found 1 behind some palm series. I had them call the other 3 office depots and there were 2 left @ the TImes Sq store. Bought a 2nd one there so there's 1 left. Dunno about the 2nd ave store or the NYU store. gl. SKU# is 593821.

 

[HJB417]

It's not worth it to buy this if you already own a palm, unless it's a palm from like 2-3 years ago. I will admit, the amount of apps available for download = none, a few cheezy games but this is also a chance for 1337 programmers to test their skills (c/c++) because it's based on linux and open-source. I like the syncing between the helio pda and outlook express. I'm sure the palm can do the same or better. The backlit display rocks too.

 

[Atrac]

Blech, no USB. I don't see why all PDA's don't use USB at this point. Serial transfer is quite slow. Same goes for mp3 players too.

USB towers over serial/parallel connections!

 

[slag]

I would say alot of pdas dont use usb because alot of businesses, in fact, most businesses are still using Windows NT4 which was not designed for USB capability. Face it, the majority of people who use pdas do it to synch their work email with home email and also keep appointments for work. The majority of workplaces use NT, not win98 and as of now, a lot still dont use win2k. Yet, all operating systems support parallel port transfers, so its easier to make something that works on all computers, albeit a bit slower, than something that works on some computers..

Joe

 

[HJB417]

USB for a device that only stores 8mb. Bah. and for the guy who is maxed out on ports, they sell pci and isa cards with serial and parallel ports. New systems usually have 2 serial ports. The helio also comes with a Female Parallel to male serial converter [some old or cheap computers have serial ports shaped like a parallel port].

 

[slag]

I would say that put on its fastest setting (115 bps), it has taken my palm IIIxe nearly 24 minutes to sync up before (lots of email and meetings), so yes, USB would be a nice addition even to an 8 mb pda...

Of course, this is just mho, so blah....

Joe

 

[jrichrds]

VTech Helio advantages:
75Mhz 32-bit RISC processor (vs. 16/20Mhz Palm processors), meaning it's way faster than a Palm and it's definitely noticeable.

2MB FlashROM/8MB SDRAM - The amount you'd find in the higher end Palms. And I don't think Palms use the faster SDRAM.

CIC Jot - better (more natural) handwriting recognition. This program is also available as 3rd party software for PalmOS.

50 minute digital voice recorder

Can port linux onto it, although it's not the easiest thing to do.

Has the Handspring Deluxe-like "style" going.

Disadvantages:
Proprietary VTech OS (i.e. no Palm OS) - that'll kill this deal for most, if not all, power PDA users.

If your only intention with a PDA is to use it for its core functions (calender, to do list, address book, etc.), the VTech Helio is a better choice. It's much faster, it's got better handwriting recognition, it's got a digital voice recorder, and it's cheaper.

Anyone else is better off with a PalmOS PDA.

 

[OS]

It's too bad you can't install avantgo on one of these guys. That kills it for me.

 

[flood]

it can run linux

 

[OS]

If you install linux on it, does more software become available?

nm, it seems more like a novelty than anything else

 

[gut]

I just bought one of these things yesterday. I love it, had been looking at the palms and tried to get one of the PalmVII on clearance but couldnt find one. The thing really rocks, not as much software available for it as the Palms, but it does everything I need it to do..Really simple to use!!!

Gut

 

[Fritzo]

I got one. It's actually better than the Palm III I had. Just no software.

BTW- they're working on PocketLinux for the Helio and it should be ready within two months. It's available now, but it's just a developer shell...no apps.