First Impressions of the HandEra 330 Parts I-III - Page 3
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The most impressive card utility is Backup. Backup does just what it sounds like it does - backs up and restores the 330 using either CF or SD. Backing up 7.4MB to CF took exactly 12 seconds. Restoring the same data took 38 seconds. It sure beats waiting an hour for a full hotsync restore.
One of the new additions is the auxilliary button found on the upper left side of the device. Why yet another hardware button? Mainly to control the voice recorder.That's right folks, no more GoVox required. This one has voice recording built in. Press and hold the Auxilliary button to start recording a .wav file. Let go when you are done. It's that simple. You can also control the recorder from within VoicePad. VoicePad lets you play existing wav files and select where to store recordings - you can record to RAM or directly to CF or SD. Recording directly to CF is very nice because the only limiting factor is the size of the card. Recordings made to CF or SD are .wav files, whereas files recorded in RAM need to be converted to .wav using a Windows converter that comes with the 330. I don't know how much I'll use this feature, but it's very nice.
Playback of .wav files on a Palm? Can you even hear them? The answer is a resounding yes! In fact, I have the volume of my 330 set to about 30%. That is loud enough for an alarm that I hear through fairly loud music or to enjoy a music .wav. The TRGPro was known for its exceptionally loud speaker, but that pales in comparison to the 330 speaker. Located on the front bottom of the device surrounding the ToDo and Memo button, the speaker is shockingly loud at full volume.
The other new addition on the left side is the jog wheel. A small button that slides up and down along a circular path or can be pressed in, by default the jog wheel pages up and down within forms and lists when turned and selects an item when pressed in. This is excellent for one hand operation since the wheel can easily be turned by the thumb of someone holding the device in their left hand or almost as easily by the index finger of someone holding the device in their right hand. The jog wheel lets you scroll through the launcher at a fairly speedy pace then select your application of choice. It is especially nice for one handed reading while standing on a bus or train. This is indeed a welcome addition.
