Oh boy, my new Zire 72 case, styluses and Now You Know Zire booklet came today. This will console me for a minute while I wait for PB15. Apple could learn some from whoever designed this case (of course Palm started out as a heavily ex-Apple employee shop and probably still is).
You have full use of your Zire while in the case - once you flip it open. And it has a neat sliding cover for the camera lens on the back and outlets at top and bottom for all ports, connections and controls. And not quite so easy to get to - if you slide the Zire 72 out, there are two little slots to store a couple SD cards. The case might seem ho hum in the photo but much better in the flesh.
Then there're the replacement styluses or is it styli? As usual, I lost the original stylus within the first couple of weeks. It's probably somewhere around the house but I don't know where. The replacements are metal stock - probably tin - with a black plastic tip. I've seen better but not bad. I had one once that was springy - the tip had some give to it - which was really nice. But then, it probably cost $15 or more for one stylus. These are 3 for $10.
Then, last but not least, the booklet! In the old days these booklets came with your purchase. Oh well. I wanted a little book I could carry around with me in a cargo pocket while I learned the Zire 72's secrets. This is it. 176 pages with an index. Nevermind that it has lots of marketing fluff. That's OK - the tone is high energy and upbeat which makes it easier to learn and get through the whole book. It has fundamentals, tips and warnings.
Before I go, I should update you on how I'm liking the Zire 72. I love it still. I've downloaded an RSS reader: Hand/RSS and I'm bookmarking PDA-friendly sites like crazy. Now, when I'm sitting at Peet's or Starbucks without my Powerbook (that may change soon), I can still read my favorite bloggers and websites. I think the speed is something like 27 kbps but since I turned the graphics off and only double-click them when I REALLY want to see something, it goes pretty fast.
The other day, I had forgotten my Minolta Dimage X camera and wanted to take some quick pix. So I used the Zire 72. Pretty low quality with fixed focus and no zoom, but it sure was better than nothing! The best part is you get to see your photos immediately with a 320x320 TFT screen rather than the tiny screens on most cameras. Instant gratification and showing the photos to the friends you are with is high.
As I surf around and check out Palm applications now, I'm noticing that most of the popular ones are capable of displaying 320x320. That wasn't true until just recently.
I would like to have GPS with maps eventually and was glad to see that PalmOne has announced GPS Navigator according to PalmInfoCenter. The $299 kit is scheduled to be available on June 11th. It comes with a bluetooth-capable GPS receiver and full US and Canada street maps plus roadside services info and Palm software for the T3 and Zire 72.
Also, Brighthand has a tip that Palm is going to release an SD-sized Wi-fi card that will run only on the Tungsten T3 and the Zire 72 [via Engadget]. I know, I know. Sandisk was going to release a Palm-compatible wi-fi SD card and it hasn't happened.