12 Days of iPod touch/iPhone: Palm vs. iPod touch
Saturday, December 13, 2008 at 3:00PM 
For years I've touted the wonderfulness of Palm handhelds. My fifth graders and I had a blast earlier in the decade using Palms and the gobs of available freeware. But now, near the end of the decade, I've lost my excitement for Palms in education. Palm hasn't updated its line of PDAs in over three years and has discontinued its educational purchase program. I've always liked that the Palm OS was easy to use and student-friendly, but they just haven't kept up with the times and the Palm Corporation is obviously no longer interested in the education market.
My excitement has transferred from Palm to iPod touch. It's even easier to use than a Palm handheld, especially when it comes to loading it with audio and video. And Palm users will appreciate that syncing actually works every time. Like a Palm handheld, an iPod touch's battery tends to last through a whole school day.
Right now there are currently three times as many applications for Palm as there are for iPod touch and iPhone. That is changing quickly. The Palm OS has been around for over 10 years and PalmGear.com lists 32,000 software applications for Palms. In contrast, Apple only opened up iPod touch and iPhone to software developers in the last year and the iTunes App Store has now surpassed 10,000 applications. I'm guessing that by the end of 2009, there will be more software for iPod touch/iPhone than for Palm. Currently 24% of the iPod touch/iPhone apps are games. Nearly 8% are categorized in Education. About one-fourth of all iPod touch apps are free and about of third of them cost only 99 cents. To me it seems that iPod touch and iPhone applications are cheaper than their Palm counterparts.
| Note: Apple's App Store is part of the iTunes Store and can be accessed through iTunes for Windows or Mac or directly on an iPod touch or iPhone. Most all iPod touch and iPhone apps work on either kind of device. |
Browsing the web on a Palm is tolerable. But its browser is very outdated. The iPod touch's Safari browser is modern and like all those commercials, allows you to view full-sized web pages. But there are also websites designed just for the iPod touch screen called web apps.
Palm.com continues to list the 128MB Palm TX for $299--the same price it has had for over three years. The 8GB touch retails for $229. The iPod touch offers 64 times the memory for less money.
The iPod touch's big disadvantage over Palms is that there are no attachable keyboards for iPod touch or iPhone. If students are writing more than a few sentences, a real keyboard is necessary. I'm hoping a real keyboard will come out soon. If the iPod touch had an attachable or wireless keyboard option, the choice between Palm and iPod touch would be a no-brainer. If the device is being used for lots of writing, then I suggest looking into a netbook instead of a Palm handheld.
Another disadvantage for iPod touch: since Palm handhelds have been used in classrooms for so many years, you'll find tons of Palm resources, including lesson plans, online. Resources for iPod touch in education are scarce, but that is sure to change. (Have you checked out Learning in Hand's Do So Much with an iPod touch section?)
You can look forward to 11 more days of posts here at Learning in Hand devoted to the iPod touch and iPhone. We'll compare them to netbooks, check out some useful features, and showcase educational software from the App Store. On the 12th day, this blog's gift to you is a video where I'll show you my favorite tips and tricks.
Reader Comments (7)
Tony, you and I am once again, in sync.
I bought an iPod Touch for myself for my birthday and finally I feel this is the only substitute for my beloved Zire 72. I never liked Smartphones and my Dell Axim sits unused.
Just bought a Touch today. and I'm really liking it.
Dale
As 90s rapper Vanilla Ice would say, "Word to your mother!", Tony. Good to have ya on the Apple side for this one! ;-)
Tony I can't believe what great ideas these are. It's like you are a modern day saint/genius. It's good to know there are some other aps to use besides the ones for the Palm because my Palms seem so out of date. I really hope I get a Touch for Christmas from my secret Santa so I can use more of your wonderful ideas.
Thanks for being the best. I hope I can catch you in person some time soon.
I look forward to the next few days of your blogs!
I got a Palm TX, and a 2nd gen ipod touch, I feel it is necessary to compare the T3 which was made 3 years earlier, but has more features, and Ipod touch 2g. I compared their features, and the T3 won by a landslide! Search Palm Tungsten T3 on ebay if you want one! They are so cool, and the palm showed above is a TX, oh btw the T3, you need to download the web app off of your computer after you get the hotsync software cd. You will get Blueboard (Paint that can be sent to other people's palms) Bluechat (Bluetooth IM), and a Web Browser (Bluetooth only on the T3, not the TX) The TX can download apps too, and can do it using wifi, it can also watch videos, but the T3 can't, but the TX doesn't have a microphone. The T3 wins I think.
I just figured out you can buy a wifi card for the t3, but you need to modify the internals. To get the app store addition, you need a tx, or a newer palm, you use the palm's beam feature with infrared, and connect. You then will have almost every tx feature on the t3. I think that it will take apple a while to match palm's features. But the t3 needs video player. It has kinoma though which is kind of like it, but you can edit the movies. Here's my tip to you if you want a T3. Amazon.com it, make sure it comes with a software disk, and buy the wireless card, and wifi modification manual. Then get Kinoma for videos. Get addit (the app store), then you have games, and apps.
I love the Palm OS. A year or two ago I got hooked on the Handspring Prism and bought a bunch of accessories for it, including the Phone. I used the phone for the better part of the year. The only thing it didn't have was a voice dialing option. I put it away because the headset jack was too noisy, and I don't use a cell phone unless I use a head set. Two months ago I found something Crazy Cool! It was a "tester" or "pre-release" model of a T5! Although it said "T3" on the outside, it was a T5 on the inside! It had a serial number stamped on the front and back of the case. The "T3" section was on the opposite side than where it is on a real T3. The back of the case has a sticker which includes "Not for resale" "Property of Palm". I think the case is metal, and from what I've read the regular T5 is plastic. Memos on the PDA had topics like, "How to keep the Treo secret when you use it in public". Yes, Treo. It came with the GPS cradle (no antenna) and cost $20 from a thrift store. I love it. I actually bought it because I had a new IR Palm keyboard that I bought for $16, which after I noticed that I couldn't get more than that on Ebay, I decided to keep.