PalmOne Zire 31 Handheld

Trust me, I have owned quite a few handhelds from all walks of life including the mini mini laptop known as a pocket pc and I must say that for my money I got a bargain. First of all the price is reasonable and the vendor from Amazon mailed it to me within two days. Complete with the Zire 31 was the CD Rom, guidebook and a free leather case too. The Zire took less than most to upload on my desktop and get it running. It has everything I need such as contacts, calendar, alarm etc... It also has mini databases that I can use to track everything from household expenses or use to view a list of hotels or find a specific area codes, etc... The color resolution is not as sharp as some of the other expensive models but as one reviewer said, "I am not looking to watch a movie or play a high tech game". If I want to do that, I can use my laptop. This is not to say that the color is bad, it's not, its just not as clear as say my Apple laptop.The sleek design of the Zire is easy on eyes and light on the hand. For having so much capabilities, this Zire is slim and very light.All in all, for the money you pay, you will get you money's worth. Also, downloading stuff from my desktop onto my Zire is a breeze compared to others. I have downloaded Weight Watchers and tons of game on my Zire and it still runs great. I think the only downside to this product is the battery life. It is not as long as I would like it to be but that is ok because I just have to charge it like my phone and I am ready to go.I really like this product and I think you will to.

At first, I was happy with the Zire and recommended it for those who only want the basics. But after a little more than a year, when I hotsynced it to my PC, I received an error message. When I checked my info, ALL of my contacts had been wiped from both the PC and the handheld, and I had lost all the categories in Memos and Tasks. Luckily, I had been syncing to a 2nd PC, and as a precaution I PRINTED OUT everything from that PC, then used the program's "archive" function, then tried to sync with the handheld to see if it would restore the info. Nope - - another clean wipe. No problem, I say - I "archived" it. Oops-- restoring the archive does not work - - I get a mixed up mess of a few of my old things. So now I have 100 printed pages of contacts, memos, and tasks and one handheld that turns on and makes mincemeat of any data I put into it.Don't buy this. Yes, it's inexpensive - - and it's not that way because of its limited functionality (which is ok), but because it's cheap junk.

I am the program director for a research team that uses pda's as assistive technology for individuals with cognitive impairment, and we have bought and distributed at least 30 Palm Zire 31s over the past 2 years. These are rock-solid devices with reliable organization software, and the project participants especially like the calendar alarm functions and easily readable color screen with increased font size availability.As with all handhelds these days, the Zire 31s come with very little in the way of a user's manual. You can download a huge manual in PDF format from Palm or go online for FAQs that are helpful, but many people expect a manual in the box and don't know what to do when the screen freezes or seems too dim. In other reviews on the Amazon site, I noticed that some people actually threw out their PDAs after the screen froze, when a simple one-tap re-set would have unfrozen the screen. Unfortunately, Palm doesn't bother to include that information in the box.One other problem we have had with a few devices: sometimes a portion of the screen goes dead. I think this has to do with people carrying them in a pocket with keys that press on the screen, or perhaps from the device being left on a radiator or in a hot car. When that happens, there really is no solution other than to contact Palm and beg for a replacement.To wrap up, this is a terrific basic and relatively inexpensive handheld that is not too complicated for most users with cognitive impairment to learn to use.Because the Palm Zire 31 has a memory slot, it may be preferable to the newer and cheaper Zire 22 for many users (the 22 lacks a memory slot). Otherwise, they seem quite similar.

The Palm Zire 31 became my "other brain" about six years ago. At first I was reluctant to get anything like this because I'd been using a pocket notebook organizer for years and thought I didn't need an electronic gadget. WRONG! I especially need and appreciate the alarm feature on the Zire 31, which gives you the option of setting a warning in advance for appointments, recurring chores, birthdays, etc. I set mine to remind me to change the furnace filter, apply the dogs' flea medication, send off greetings for family birthdays, get there on time to the medical appointments, take my medicine on time, etc., etc., etc. Priceless!!!So many people these days use very fancy phones to store all their information in addition to making calls. This device will do everything except make phone calls, and I really think it's wise to not have all one's eggs in one basket, so to speak. It bothers me not at all to have separate devices for different purposes. In fact, it seems prudent.The only reason I give it four stars instead of five is that this week my trusty Zire 31 simply quit on me. It still has all the information in it, but the touch screen no longer functions, and the buttons only function sporadically. It no longer communicates with my computer, so I can't even sync it any more. Thank goodness I did sync it only two weeks ago, so the info is pretty much up to date in my computer. So, here I am, looking to buy another Zire 31. Bet it will last me another six years, and maybe then I'll be up for getting myself a fancy phone instead! Maybe.

I don't often take the time and trouble to review products, but the Palm Zire was so awful that I felt it needed addressing. Sure, it worked okay at first but it used Palm's 2-stroke script which is annoying at best. I never could make a "K" on it which is a real pest because my first dozen entries were family and my family name has a "K" in it.The reason that this is written in the past tense is that the thing lasted about 1 year before it totally failed to work for no apparent reason. Sitting on my desk it just croaked. My prior PDA at least had an excuse .. I drowned it in a rainstorm. The sole redeeming grace was that i kept the gadget synched. My experience soured me on PDAs and I have done without for a while. And if I do get one, there is no way it is going to be a Palm.

I work on an enterprize LAN using Outlook 2003 to manage my email. I wanted a handheld platform that would synch with outlook and still be inexpensive. Zire 31 does this well with the addition of KeySuites Software. Notes, dates, contacts and tasks are managed in Outlook and updated through the synch cable. The Zire 31 has a socket that I will use later, hopefully with a Bluetooth SD to eliminate the cable at sync time. Adobe's Reader works well to download books. CSpotrun Reader is installed as well.(I never planned to use it to read books, but the screen is resolute enough.) Currently, I have 2 novels and the complete works of Robert Frost loaded on the Zire.The best surprize was my sister-in-law beamed me a new address for my niece. My sister-in-law is not a computer geak, but she showed me how to beam addresses. So, I'm learning about handhelds and all this stuff works as advertised on the Zire 31. I rate it the highest. Amazon got it to me fast and I ordered it over the Internet. This is a great way to get something without too much effort and it saves gas and money. Good job!

This Zire 31 is my first PDA! I've had it 2 weeks! It takes some concentration to get used to it, and to get away from keeping your life on two paper calendars and endless scraps of paper! But it has turned out to be a GOLDMINE for people like me who can't keep track of things! The calendar setup is great, as are the "Tasks" and the "Notes". A program called "SplashMoney" helps keep track of expenses, and it comes on the CD at no extra cost. There's a cool little screen to write notes to yourself with the stylus. There's an "on screen" keyboard that is a cinch to use if you don't want to print! I even found a thing on the CD that I HotSynched onto my Handheld, and I'm in process of entering the titles of all my DVDs into there... and it automatically ALPHABETIZES the titles as I enter them, so that's a great timesaver! So I'm really sold on this thing! Thing is, the memory fills up fast, so you're going to have to get some MMC or SD cards to expand the memory. You can save a little money by buying your Zire 31 off the internet. I did! Good luck! :-)

2 Stars for the item I received, it'd be 4 or 5 if the item I got was actually fully functioning.First of all, whoever had the unit previously put velcro on the back obscuring the reset pin so I had to peel that offSecond, the battery was stone cold dead and will not hold a charge, but this was expectedThirdly, what I didn't expect was a very nearly dead digitizer, I've had plenty of resistive devices these past 15 years to know this one is on the brink and needs to be replaced to actually use itLastly, for the short time I was able to get to the home screen it seemed that the SD card slot would not read cardsNot at all what I intended to buy, I knew it was device only and that the battery was most likely dead, but the digitizer was quite a set back, and if indeed the SD card slot doesn't work then that could spell certain doom for this handheld other than to be used for parts.