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First Impressions of the HandEra 330 Parts I-III - Page 2

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Because the graffiti area is soft, applications can take advantage of a landscape mode where the contents of the screen are turned 90 degrees from normal. The graffiti area follows, running along the long edge of the device that is now the bottom of the screen. This is particularly nice for spreadsheets and Doc readers.

After I tore my gaze from the screen, I started paying attention to the rest of the device and I noticed that it was light. Very light. Lighter than my Palm III, even though it uses 4 AAA batteries. This was very nice, as I was able to keep compatibility with my III accessories while still getting a lighter device.

And yes, the 330 is compatible with pretty much all of my III accessories. The GoType, FlashPlug, MemorySafe, and PalmPix all worked. All of my cases still fit, and my favorite stylus fits in the stylus silo. Heck, even my almost four year old PalmPilot Professional cradle works with it. The only accessory that didn't work was my PalmGamePad. When I insert it it initiates a hotsync, regardless of the driver settings.

That doesn't mean every case will fit, or will present a useable Palm when used. Tight fitting playthrough cases will not work well - in addition to the slightly diagonal buttons not lining up to the buttons on the III, these cases will block the CF and SD slots, the jog wheel, and the auxilliary button.

I don't have any Secure Digital or MultiMedia Cards to use in the SD slot, but I do have copious amounts of Compact Flash. I loaded a few important drivers and applications on a 128MB CF card and used that to load the 330. I had just backed up my III onto my FlashPlug, so I grabbed the built-in databases from the FlashPlug without any difficulty. This all went flawlessly, quickly, and voila! without the benefit of a slow drawnout hotsync I had all of my data and applications on the 330.

Moving files between RAM and CF is fast and easy. The 330 comes with CardPro, a utility that lets you move files between CF, RAM, and SD. Find the file on the CF card, tap on it, then hit the copy button. Seconds later it's ready to go. One thing you cannot do is move a file from one location on a card to another using CardPro. This one addition would really improve an already very nice application.

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