Palm Pre coming soon?

I'm a Palm fan. I have been using Palm products for 12 years, starting with a Palm III, moving to a Palm Tungsten T3, then Lifedrive, then TX, and currently using a Palm Centro on Verizon. I've always thought that Palm had the best PIM (Personal Information Management - calendar, tasks, memos, and contacts) system of any PDA or smart phone. I use my Centro for everything - Calendar, Contacts, Memos (over 1600), Tasks, email, web browsing, text messaging, games, productivity, lesson plans, and even as a phone.

I've been anxiously awaiting the Palm Pre. Palm announced their new smart phone back in January. The phone has a new operating system (webOS) and a great form factor (touchscreen with a slide down QWERTY keyboard). The applications and operating system look great and all the industry analysts are calling the Pre an "iPhone killer". 

The problem - it still hasn't been released and I'm dying to get one. It will be released on Sprint for the first 6 months, and then go to other carriers after that. Palm has announced that it will be released in the first half of 2009. There are indications that the release is imminent. There are commercials being filmed, reports of Sprint employees being trained on it, and reports of Pre shipments being sent out to stores. 

I'm hoping it will be out soon. I love the idea of a smart phone as an educational tool, and I think that the Pre will be a great educational tool.

For more info: www.palm.com and www.sprint.com 

Disclaimer - I do own Palm stock.

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PC to TV

Don't have an LCD projector in your classroom? Have access to a TV with a pretty large screen, even an old one? Then you are all set.

There are devices available that will enable you to show what's on your computer on a TV. You need a PC to TV VGA converter. You plug in your PC video output and audio output into the device and then the other cables get hooked up to your TV. This enables your whole class to see what's on your computer.

I helped one teacher her set that up in her room. She had a very old TV, but we were able to do it. Now she doesn't have to try to sign out a multimedia projector, she just uses the old TV.

Saves money and recycles an old TV.

The converter boxes range in price from around $40 to $100. Wal-mart, Target, Best Buy, Tiger Direct, all carry a version of them.