Amazon.com Review
Palm’s Zire brand is designed primarily for consumers rather than for professionals. The first Zire was a low cost, entry level machine, this one, the second in the range, is a multimedia extravaganza. The most eye catching feature of the Zire 71, after you’ve noticed the sleek rounded blue casing for the hardware, is the built-in digital camera.
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| The Zire 71's built-in digital camera |
You need to slide the upper and lower body apart to reveal it, and when you do so the Zire 71’s screen automatically turns into a viewfinder. Click the button that is also revealed during the sliding process, and you can take pictures, at resolutions of 160 x 120, 320 x 240 and 640 x 480.
Palm has even produced a new version of Palm Desktop to help you make the most of managing digital images. This includes a nice viewer and some editing tools. Palm Desktop also, incidentally, has a new installer which is more efficient than before when it comes to selecting multiple applications to send to your Palm. The Zire 71 runs version 5 of the Palm operating system, which has improved sound features. Install the provided copy of the Real One player and you can play MP3 music through headphones. Gaming is assisted by a joystick style navigation button that sits beneath the screen. But when you want to use the Zire 71 for more traditional personal information management tasks you can tap the application shortcut buttons to launch Date Book, Address Book or Note Pad. The fourth button takes you to your digital photo library. As usual these buttons can be reallocated to other applications if you like.
Only 13MB of to the 16MB of memory on board is actually available for applications and data, but an SD card slot means you can add to this easily. The screen is a superb transreflective TFT type – it is the best we’ve seen on a PDA from Palm. The Universal Connector means existing peripherals like keyboards which support this should work without problems with the Zire 71. The Zire 71 is a great multimedia PDA which finally puts Palm in a position to rival Sony for its Multimedia crown. --Sandra Vogel
Amazon.com Product Description
Early Adopters Pick: April 2003. First handheld under $300 to have a built-in digital camera.
The Palm Zire 71 handheld helps you organize your life on the fly. View your appointments and addresses on an outstanding high resolution color screen, or capture pictures with its unique hidden digital camera. Listen to MP3s, watch video clips, and enjoy the Zire 71 handheld's long-lasting rechargeable batteries.
Built-in Digital Camera
The Zire 71 handheld features a built-in digital camera with 640x480 (VGA) resolution, auto exposure, and automatic white balance control. To use the camera, just slide the front down to reveal the lens, point and click, and you've captured the images to share with your friends and family.
Display
The Palm Zire 71 features a 16-bit, 320x320 bright transflective TFT color display, which supports more than 65,000 colors.
Expansion
The Zire 71 uses Multimedia Card and Secure Digital expansion cards, which instantly add software applications, additional memory, large databases, and more without taking up built-in memory space.
Operating System
The Zire 71 is powered by Palm OS 5.2.1, which provides higher performance, enhanced multimedia features, support for Bluetooth connectivity and networking, and enterprise-class security.
Extra Software
Along with the standard Palm software, you'll receive a Software Essentials CD-ROM containing RealOne Mobile Player for MP3s, Kinoma Player for video, Audible Player for audio books, RealOne Arcade, Palm Reader for eBooks, Solitaire, Adobe Acrobat Reader for Palm OS, powerOne Personal Calculator, Phone Link Updater, Telephony/SMS, VersaMail 2.5, and more.
Compatibility
The Palm Zire 71 is compatible with PCs running Windows 98, NT 4.0, 2000, Me, and XP, and with Macs running Mac OS 9, version 9.1 or higher, or Mac X, 10.1.2 or later.
What's in the box
Zire 71 Handheld Protective Carrying Case USB HotSync Cradle Power Adapter Stylus "Read This First" Document
Palm Desktop 4.1 for Windows, which includes: Palm Quick Install for easy transfer of Palm OS applications, photos, audio files and more from your computer to your handheld. Palm Photos for editing and emailing photos from your desktop Palm Desktop 4.0 for Mac
Software Essentials CD-ROM RealOne Mobile Player Kinoma Player & Producer AudiblePlayer Handmark's Solitaire RealOne Arcade Palm Reader VersaMail PowerOne Calculator Acrobat Reader
From the Manufacturer
The Palm Zire 71 handheld helps you organize your life on the fly. View your appointments and addresses on an outstanding high resolution color screen, or capture pictures with its unique hidden digital camera. Listen to MP3s, watch video clips, and enjoy the Zire 71 handheld's long-lasting rechargeable batteries.
Built-in Digital Camera
The Zire 71 handheld features a built-in digital camera with 640x480 (VGA) resolution, auto exposure, and automatic white balance control. To use the camera, just slide the front down to reveal the lens, point and click, and you've captured the images to share with your friends and family.
Display
The Palm Zire 71 features a 16-bit, 320x320 bright transflective TFT color display, which supports more than 65,000 colors.
Expansion
The Zire 71 uses Multimedia Card and Secure Digital expansion cards, which instantly add software applications, additional memory, large databases, and more without taking up built-in memory space.
Operating System
The Zire 71 is powered by Palm OS 5.2.1, which provides higher performance, enhanced multimedia features, support for Bluetooth connectivity and networking, and enterprise-class security.
Extra Software
Along with the standard Palm software, you'll receive a Software Essentials CD-ROM containing RealOne Mobile Player for MP3s, Kinoma Player for video, Audible Player for audio books, RealOne Arcade, Palm Reader for eBooks, Solitaire, Adobe Acrobat Reader for Palm OS, powerOne Personal Calculator, Phone Link Updater, Telephony/SMS, VersaMail 2.5, and more.
Compatibility
The Palm Zire 71 is compatible with PCs running Windows 98, NT 4.0, 2000, Me, and XP, and with Macs running Mac OS 9, version 9.1 or higher, or Mac X, 10.1.2 or later.
What's in the box
Zire 71 Handheld Protective Carrying Case USB HotSync Cradle Power Adapter Stylus "Read This First" Document Palm Desktop 4.1 for Windows, which includes: Palm Quick Install for easy transfer of Palm OS applications, photos, audio files and more from your computer to your handheld. Palm Photos for editing and emailing photos from your desktop Palm Desktop 4.0 for Mac
Software Essentials CD-ROM: RealOne Mobile Player Kinoma Player & Producer AudiblePlayer Handmark's Solitaire RealOne Arcade Palm Reader VersaMail PowerOne Calculator Acrobat Reader
