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This is the only way you can power up your Clie if you turned it off in the Hold mode. Good news is, contrary to some reports, the keys are large enough to be used effectively if one's hands are not too big. The screen is the standard 320 x 320 size of the OS4 Clies (SJ and T series).About the keyboard, good news and bad. Instead let the Clie power itself down via timeout. Most Clies have only 7 or 8 pinholes for the speaker; this one is better than a quarter-inch across with nearly two dozen holes.Overall this handheld is the biggest non-clamshell formfactor of them all. If one wishes to avoid this situation, one should never use Hold to power down.
To enter special characters one must simultaneously hold down the mode key and the target key. The bad news is that the shift and colored keys used to enter special characters are poorly placed and awkward to use. Entering symbols and numbers intermixed with alpha characters is slow going.A grafitti writing area can be popped up with a special hardware button. Here also, there is news both good and bad. The TG50 is an OS5 handheld that, uniquely, comes in a one-piece formfactor (no clamshell) with a keyboard (no dedicated Graffiti silkscreen) instead of an oversize screen. Apparently Sony sneaked the TG50 into production just before the Xerox lawsuit forced Palm and licensees to abandon the superior Grafitti.The bad news is that the Grafitti writing area takes up all of the screen area except for enough to display four lines of text.I was not able to use the Bluetooth feature. Tried to send a Memo pad text file to my UX40 and could not make the two Clies connect.The TG50 speaker is the largest and loudest I've seen on any Clie.
The TG50 is both longer and thicker than all the SJ series Clies. It's about the same size as the NX80, except for thickness.The built-in applications are the standard OS4 apps Sony supplies with all their other OS5 Clies (except for the exceptional TH55).One thing I should say about the Clies in general concerns the slide switch. If you have had the misfortune of having to use Grafitti 2, you know how awful it is. The keys are raised and backlit. What this means is that if your slide switch should get broken, you will have no way of powering up your Clie.
The good news is that the TG50 uses the original Grafitti, not Grafitti 2 as on all the other OS5 Clies. Most all the strokes are different, and the k,i, and t letters require two strokes. This happened to my NX80 and now I can never use it again. Then it can be powered up again with any of the four application keys on the front (Memo,Datebook,Todo,Address).
The way it runs its applications are so intelligent and as intuitive as today's (2007) offerings. Ive owned this Sony Clie PEG-TG50 PDA (Personal Entertainment Organizer, Sony calls it) since 2003 and since then I have been using it as my main personal digital assistant.Its technology is rather antiquated by today's standards but it is so reliable and durable that I could not let go of it. It has never had a system problem, its battery is about 90% its original potential, it syncs even faster and smoother than my wife's TX, and it has survived more drops than I can think of. Even its construction oozes good quality. I use this Clie mainly as an organizer and information notebook, and for these purposes I do not need a new PDA.
You have to buy Intellisync ($50) to make it work. I just lost the backlighting again and I am going to have to make a tough decision.
The keyboard is great.grafitti is slow and hard to learn, especially numerals. I have had a pda since the early '90's.Casio Boss to all the early palms, but I love my tg50.
Each reapir cost $138 and I conducted all communications via their website. You definitely need a memory stick and a sturdy case.
I have sent mine in for repairs twice: once for a cracked screen and the second for loss of backlighting. another $138 doesn't make sense.especially since the XP version of Outlook doesn't sync to it.
Although the tg50 has a number of great features, I think my next purchase will be a pocket pc.Buy one on ebay and don't get too attached.
The TG50 is not the best Clie, but it is my top choice. I bought it when it first came out, and I broke the motherboard by having it in my bag. I loved it so much I ordered another one on ebay for $110.
I got my tg50 from ebay, you all should. It retails for about $300, I got a used one(that is great) for $97, less than I payed for my clie sj20 (b and w screen) 1- keyboard, gotta have it cause i hate graphiti yah it takes a little getting used to but i like it (but it obviously doesn't compare to the one on the ux50)2- Truely awesome crisp colorful screen3-well thought out and overall fantastic design4-very thin (1/2 inch thick)5-OS 5 i previously had a sony sj20, which has a palm OS (no OS 5), so I am used to a palm pda, but that being this pda is extremely easy to use, I never looked at the manual, but figured out all the features anyway. Neccessary accessories include-a memory stick (64mb if just using for apps, 256 if you want to store a few songs(get these on ebay too, for about half price))-a case, if you are getting a case that stays on it all the time(custom fit) which I recommend get the Bellagio one, its nice and it allows the pda to hotsync in a cradle while still in the case
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