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It has my grocery list, my "to-do" list, cd's I want to buy, calendar, notes & memos all in one place and none of it has to be written on paper. I have owned my palm pilot z22 for over 2 years. I am not a very techy person so this is great for me. I am also impressed at how much it can be used and go between charges. I used to keep it with my all the time, then put it to the side about a year ago as I got tired of carrying my phone & z22. But I picked it up a few months ago again, trying to go paperless and it has done the trick.
This was intended to be a gift.We charged it for more than the required time but it never got past the initial startup screen (orange Palm logo).Neither the soft reset nor the hard reset made any difference nor did draining the battery & recharging.This was obviously a faulty device.I've just dropped it off at the post office for return.As Amazon have extended the return window for the Christmas period I anticipate a full refund.I own a Palm Pilot & have had no real issues with it so I was quite disappointed that this organiser (for my wife) was faulty but that's the luck of the draw I suppose.
Installation was a breeze, but I had to charge the battery a second time because the unit was slow. I also use it for personal contacts (phone numbers, email addresses), especially for out of town travel. Haven't gotten the hang of free writing, but the alphabetic entries with the pointer work fine since recharge. I have two desks--upstairs and down--and sometimes forgot to enter items on both desk calendars. This small, lightweight personal organizer fits in my pocket and is always with me.
The thing is smaller than anything else I was considering. 3) the alarm. I'm a bit of a neat-nic, not the type to be dropping things or leaving my stuff where it is bounced around. The upside is that the whole room doesn't jump when it goes off to tell me to leave this meeting and get on to the next thing. I have one calendar now, so nothing gets lost. So there you go.
If I need to travel, then I set up the travel time as an appointment and I get an alarm that reminds me to get in the car and go. It spends the entire day there, I never notice the weight. In fact the battery level seems to be full all the time. Wish someone wrote a review like this when I was looking. After the restart it had all the information saved as before.
If it were bigger I would be tempted to leave it on my desk, and it would be less useful. 5) Graffiti2 Writing is a joke. So I'm not too concerned. All these pointed to Palm as the leader in the choice.Pro: 1) size. Novell has software for sync. When I'm at home and my wife asks if I am going to be at such-and-so, I can easily check.
After the first drop I take more care where I keep it at night. I quick Yahoo search found several other colleges that use Groupwise and have instructions for PDA use. So, part one was not needing it to be a phone too. And you cannot beat the below $100 price.Yes, PDAs are old technology, but I'm not the type that needs the newest anyway. None of these goofy things have caused any loss of information. Imagine I would always be connected. So, part two was not needing it to browse the web.So, in the end it was all about sticking to simple.
4) the alarm is not very loud. I attribute them to the link between Palm and Novel and the age of the software. I've waited two months before writing this review, but I got to tell you it feels like I've been carrying my Z22 for a year. The downside would be that I would always be connected. And I really did not want to carry the thing all the time the way I do my cell phone. I just dropped it a few inches onto a table, but after that it didn't start. Once I accept the appointment and re-sync everything is ok.
I need something to remind me I have a meeting and I need to get going. I honestly tried to learn it and then I realized that the keyboard has a quick button, now I just use that. I carry it in my shirt pocket where it is about 8 inches from my ear, so for me it works. actually needed to be sure that anything I got synced with that. For example if I sync while a Groupwise appointment is waiting to be accepted, it will give me an error message. 2) old technology means that, while Palm does have a support website, nothing is really being updated.
3) take it easy. Then I looked at web-capable PDAs. Which means it fits in my shirt pocket easily. It does EXACTLY what I need, and nothing I don't. It charges all night and that seems to be enough.Con: 1) there are some goofy things. And I'm never far away from a PC when I'm on campus anyway. My workplace uses Novel Groupwise, and my calendar is always changing with new appointments and changed meeting times. 5) battery.
I keep agendas for the meetings that I have, poking them in as the issue comes up, and then have it in Groupwise so that I don't need to re-key the issues for the agenda that I create. When I am not at work, I leave work behind. Even turned all the way up, it is not loud. Some reviews led me to think that it would be hard to keep it charged, but I normally work 9 and 10 hour day and haven't had any trouble.
The one time I needed to restart was just after I dropped it. Palm has moved on to other technology. 4) Memos. I did not expect it, but memos I write on the PDA show up on Groupwise the next time I sync. I work in a wireless building on a wireless campus, so I was lusting at what the technology would make possible. This was important. I cannot imagine carrying this in my briefcase and expecting to hear the alarm. Oh, man I was really looking.
The thing works about the same as it did 5 years ago and you need to be OK with that. It was easy to set up that any appointment on my calendar has an alarm that warms me 15 minute before hand. I wanted. 2) Sync means one calendar.
My main concern is how long will it work. Everything works as advertised. It was easy to import my Z31 contacts and schedule.
This review is based on a comparison of the Z22 to the Z31. There is also no music player and memory expansion port. I purchased the Z22 to replace a Zire 31 (Z31) whose screen stopped responding, despite cleaning and hard resets.
On the plus side, the Z22 is easy to use and has enough memory to meet my day-to-day needs. My Z31 stopped responding after 3 years, despite having a screen protector. The Z22 alarm is not very loud, despite being on the highest setting.
In addition, the screen is smaller than the Z31.
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