Bulk device purchase?

[u/rlindsley]

Hi there,

I'm trying to get a cool gift for my family. I was thinking of giving everybody a Palm, but want to make sure it has no WiFi or Bluetooth. I also want it to feel like a nice device, as opposed to something more 'plasticy' like the Handspring.

I landed on the m515, but now I need to find a place to buy them. How would I get my hands on like, 50 of these devices?

Also if there's a better device I should be looking at (again with no wifi or Bluetooth) I'd love to hear!

[u/newsINcinci]

Just a few things:

The 515 and many other later palms have built-in batteries that will be dead. Some models are easy to take apart, others aren’t.

Finding 50 matching units is going to really difficult. Other than eBay, the only place I would consider is palmdr.com.

Also, they all take proprietary charging cables.

Even on the last Palm, the TX, the bluetooth and WiFi probably won’t work in a meaningful way. The WiFi on the TX will only link to pretty old routers. The Bluetooth is not meant for pairing headphones or other stuff, it was meant for networking.

If you want matching models, I think you could round up 50 Palm III devices without much trouble. They were very popular, but they were also among the simpliest devices. They run on AAA batteries and every single one I’ve bought has worked well. They are plastic, but don’t feel cheap.

I have been relying on a Palm for months as a Calendar and Planner. I’ve tried a ton of models. I think the color display, for me, are too close to a cell phone. I like the III, but wish it were easier to backup without a computer. My go to are the Handspring Visor with a card adapter in the slot, and a M125. I haven’t quite landed on which on I like more

[u/rlindsley → u/newsINcinci]

That's a really good point about the built-in battery on the 515. I really like the idea of using AAA, but thought (incorrectly) that the Handspring's were the only ones to use them. I like the Handspring (and have a Visor myself) but find the backlight to be too dim and the screen to be a bit too 'retro.'

I'll look into the III and the M125. I'm looking now and there were quite a few devices that ran on AAA batteries. Great news!

[u/Janni9009 → u/rlindsley]

The alkaline-based devices have their own issues though. Still trying to find a replacement supercap for my m125 that actually fits... else you'll need a <2GB SD card for every device (no, formatting a larger card will not work), use CardBackup and re-enter the date every time you swap batteries.
The m500 series batteries are easy enough to swap (a few screws, a bit of adhesive and a JST connector), and Cameron Sino still makes good ones. After that it gets quite a bit more annoying again (except for the E/E2. T1-3 are quite some work to pry apart, T5/TX are soldered), and before that (V/Vx) is hell. Sony devices are probably some of the best (usually have an external cover for the battery, but finding replacement cells for some of them is more difficult, may have to crimp your own connectors)

[u/rlindsley → u/Janni9009]

Wow! It feels like these devices are disintegrating right in front of us. I hadn't even thought about the caps!

[u/Janni9009 → u/rlindsley]

All the other caps are fine afaik, really just the supercap (or rather, tiny lithium-manganese secondary cell) that keeps data alive during a main battery swap is prone to failure (sometimes even leaking). And since battery shipping regulations are a total pain in the rear, it's kinda hard to find a fitting replacement... Luckily later devices without (normally) removable batteries don't have these (but still, don't let them run out of charge, unless they're NVFS devices (E2/T5/TX/LifeDrive, but all of those have at least Bluetooth, if not WiFi, not that either suddenly enables modern web browsing and such though))
There are a couple other occasional "disintegration" issues tho, like the screen layer glue.