Rating: 
Summary: Life is Better with a Zire 71
Review: I did a lot of research on the internet and at the stores. I looked at the array of Pocket PC and Palm models out there. Since I am a stay-at-home mother, price and functionality is really important to me because I can't afford to upgrade each year. I chose the Palm 71, and it has lived up to everything I hoped I could find in a handheld and more.I am a busy mother with two young children. This little gadget has made me more productive in the three months that I have had it. I don't waste time trying to find a note or phone number. I can book activities ahead of time with the confidence that I can handle it all. I love the camera... if my child does something cute, it's on my 71 ready to show everyone. I have also used the camera while shopping, if something is of interest, I can take a picture and attach a note to it. I wanted a handheld that did a little bit of everything, and this one does it all very well. I use it with Outlook and it transfers and updates my calendar and contacts easily and in a matter of seconds. I am also pleased with the MP3 player, though I don't use it much. The cradle was an important feature with the 71 that Palm has dropped with their newer Tungsten series. I like having a specified place to put the 71, so it can recharge and download-upload. I have never had a problem with the Hot-Sync, and it beeps to tell me that I've plugged it in correctly. The Palm 71 comes in a close second next to my microwave in conveniences I can't think of doing without.
Rating: 
Summary: Eats power and freezes without warning
Review: This device eats through power like there is no tomorrow, and generally needs to be recharged every 2 - 3 days. Make sure you have a charging cable with you if you travel, otherwise you'll be stuck schlepping around the heavy and bulky hotsync cradle all the time. I've had the unit for about 6 months, and it has recently decided to freeze on. None of the buttons work, it will not shut off, and resetting the palm with a paper clip (both soft reset and hard reset) only makes it get stuck on the introductory flash screen. The only way to fix it is to let the rechargable battery drain completely, then reset the system. I'm off to buy a new handheld computer -- probably from a competitor of Palm. I've been using Palm products for several years, and am sorely disappointed with this one.
Rating:
Summary: The best PDA I've ever owned
Review: I had a Palm Pilot years ago (I can't remember the model number). When my dog chewed it up, I bought a Handspring Visor. After three years, it was on it's way out, so I bought the Palm Zire 71. It is fantastic. Going from a monochrome screen to color is great; the speed increase from the Visor (144 mHz from 16 mHz) is fantastic. I mainly chose the Zire 71 for the camera. No, it's not a full-fledged camera (no zoom, flash, etc.); but it serves my needs. It does great closeups, too. My only complaints are: 1) It has a metal back, it's slick, I'm afraid I'll drop it; 2) it has no hard cover like my old Visor. But, all in all, I'm happy, that's why I have it 5 stars. I synch it with my Mac OS X (Panther) computer, no problemo.
Rating:
Summary: Now it Froze!
Review: I wrote a review below called "Doesn't Hot Sync with XP". I took the Zire 71 back to [local store] and they offered to give me a new one (actually I had to buy the new one to transfer the data, then return the first one after I cleaned out the data). I was happy with this, but now my second Zire 71 is 3 weeks old, and suddenly Froze, completely. I called Palm Support (they're all my familiar friends across the globe by now) and resetting in a variety of ways didn't work. I was told what to do (I should know in 5-6 hours if it works) but this entailed losing the data in the handheld and I hadn't Hot Sync'd in a few days. This time I bought a service contract, so I guess I'll just get a third new one since December, if this doesn't work. I generally have decent luck with these things, but I think my Zire 71 is jinxed. Stay Away.
Rating:
Summary: Design Student's Best Tool
Review: As a fashion design student in New York, I use this thing all day long. I listen to music on the bus & subway. I keep my schedule. I take notes (in Memo Pad)- using grafiti for quick notes and the folding keyboard (sold seperately) for long lecture classes. I put my homework assignments in my to-do list. I take pictures of my professors' examples, my own work, or anything that inspires. I even use the camera instead of the photocopier in the library! I have great maps of the city in it so I don't get lost in the fashion district. It amazes me that not only do my classmates not have one, but most of them have never used a palm. It's a definite edge. The only place where it does not adequately replace paper is with quick sketches & diagrams. Sure, you can use Note Pad, but then there's no way (that I know of) to attach that to the relavent notes that go with it in Memo Pad. I'm sure there's some more sophisticated software to be had for this purpose that I haven't investigated & invested in yet. Overall: it's the next best thing to the French curve.
Rating: 
Summary: Great value for the money - not for hardcore nerds
Review: This is a great device for those who want to stay organized, listen to some mp3s, watch some home video clips and BEST OF ALL, take quick snaps with the camera and display them to others. Pros :
- Screen - bright, crisp, probably the best among handhelds after comparing with my coworkers.
- Camera - ultra convenient and an easy way to carry pictures around and show them off to others. better quality than most stupid camera phones with up to 640x480 resolution
- ease of use - amazingly easy and natural to use - anyone from computer illiterate to ultra nerd will enjoy the ease of use and navigation. most of the controls are intuitive including the joystick thing in the middle - although sometimes i think it'll break
- graffiti 2 - very good handwriting recognition - i've never used a palm before and i had no problem getting used to it. some characters are not the way i usually write, but no biggie.
- tons of accessories - thanks to palm that is...
- stay organized with the palm desktop and the to-do list - great and easy to use and sync up with the PC. cons -
As my title says, this is NOT for the hardcore nerd. For the true nerd, you might want to stick with a zaurus or a pocket pc. here's why :
- no wireless connectivity - as of this review no 80211 wireless connection is available - therefore it's difficult to surf the net at all....
- no CF slot - only 1 SD slot - so I can't use all the nifty CF gadgets like an 802.11 card, etc.
- great organizer, but not a laptop or pc replacement at all. at least the zaurus and pocket pc have similar features to what you might expect on a laptop.
- everything is pretty much proprietary... to play mp3s you have to use real one software ... i haven't seen anything else good. and i swear real one degrades the quality of the mp3s so that it can play faster on the palm... AND once i load the songs onto my palm, I cannot download them back my computer (probably RIAA mandated). They're stuck on the palm - I can only delete them...
- I cannot use the SD card (easily) as a removable storage device - meaning like a floppy where it just holds files. again, everything is a bit hokey under palm and so files have to be proprietary.... i can't just drag and drop onto my palm and vice versa to my pc. each file has to be associated with some software program. Using some freeware, if i load a jpg onto the palm, the picture view software sometimes cannot recognize it. mp3s, avi, etc are the same.
- to watch videos using the free kinoma software, i have to convert the mpg to some uncompressed format. again to compensate for the slower processing of the palm.
- not enough ram... 16 mb is measley.... at least for what I want to do with it...
- oh yeah, the camera can adjust for low light but it's really still grainy and not high quality. with enough light, the picture is decent. good enough to view on the palm - but not good enough to print. also, there's no flash so indoor photography is not that great. Some of these complaints may be due to the palm OS software and not the zire... i like it a lot and since it's from my wife... i love IT! :) Also, for this price, it's hard to beat... however, i think i'd get one with wireless connectivity next time. enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: In regards to hot syncing with xp
Review: There was no problems hot syncing with my xp machine and palm does a great job updating their software. The camera can slow down quite a bit once software is added. The movie and mp3 support comes in handy, but does not have built applications I can recommend. The basic features are nice and the layout is very comfortable and functional. I recommend this handheld to anyone looking for a great deal. But if you want top of the line and the big price tag I would look else where.
Rating:
Summary: Most fun I've had with a PDA Yet!
Review: I purchased the Zire 71 as a going back to school present. It was brand new at the time, and such an improvement over Palm's older models (M500 series). They fixed their lackluster screen problems. This model is bright and clear, and the battery doesn't die nearly as quickly as it did with the m500 series. This palm is multimedia capable, AND a digital camera! It came in handy in class whenever my teacher drew a diagram, and even during concerts where "cameras" aren't allowed this thing is allowed through! Of course it doesn't have a flash and the resolution is limited, but then again you'd look sort of weird whipping out a high res camera to take photos of a diagram in class. The camera is hidden inside of the palm, it has a slide-open case to reveal it. With memory cards you can take hundreds of photos. It uses SecureDigital cards, which I have found to be very durable. Even special software has been released for this Palm. The joystick on the bottom of it make it fun for playing the new Sega Sonic The Hedgehog games, as well as flipping through your information with ease. Some of the nitpicking I have seen on this site regarding the case being "slippery", and the buttons too easily turning the unit on - I do not think the palm is slippery, and it's thickness actually makes it feel much more sturdy to me than other PDA's. I dropped my Zire a few times and it never even had a scratch on it. As far as the buttons, if you try to jam it into it's included case, you will get that problem. Maybe the same people jamming it in are also the same people reporting it being "slippery"? The only thing I can complain about on this unit is the RealOne Software. I was never able to sync my mp3s through that software, however palm's desktop software will allow you to also put MP3s on the device so it wasn't as big a deal. If you plan on using it as a full-time MP3 player, I recommend getting an empty jump drive to connect your memory card directly to your PC for faster transfers. Those are only about $17 and definitely a good investment. There are no WiFi capabilities with this unit, but that's normal for this price range. But for the money, this is the best Palm PDA out there!
Rating: 
Summary: Great product... save for the battery life
Review: I was overall very pleased with this Palm. It looks great, is easy to use, and the camera works suprisingly well. After using it for a few months now, I've run into some serious battery problems. If the Palm runs low on battery, it will lose data. This is a serious pain; you'd think there is some kind of backup, even graphing calculators have a small battery reserve so memory is not lost. Considering you can run out of battery life in 24 hours with consistent use, this Palm is certainly not for active PDA users or professionals, as I am sadly learning.
Rating:
Summary: Doesn't Hot Sync with Windows XP
Review: The handheld is great, but after 6 weeks, it suddenly stopped Hot Sync-ing with my computer. Many hours and 3 days later on the phone with Palm Support and I've been told "sometimes this happens with Windows XP". I'm still at it, currently downloading all sorts of updates to Windows and Drivers for the USB Port (my computer is about 14 months old). I've been told to "take it back" if it doesn't work, but all my data that I rely on is there in a form that can't be backed up or transferred. Despite the fun with the camera (I'd email a photo, but I can't upload those either!) the Palm is essentially worthless. Even if I do get it to HotSync, it's been many hours on the phone with Tech Support and many more hours of aggrevation. How can Palm sell a product that can't work on XP? I've been a huge Palm Fan for years, but I may be back to pencil and paper from here.
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