Sony compatability

I've had my TH55 for a few months now and, generally, have found it to be very useful, for all of the reasons stated by others in their reviews. The things that I don't like are:

1. Sony's"picsel viewer" for documents is not particuarly good when viewing word or adobe files. This is because it will not optimise the page width for easy viewing. Although you can scroll across the page the picture stutters as you scroll. It's so frustrating that I don't use it. If there's a setting that overcomes this I don't know about it! You can't use"documents to go" as it will not read the latest version of Word documents and you can't upgrade the"documents to go" programme to the latest version as this will stop the"Clie Mail" synching with your PC.

2. In order to transfer music to the TH55 you have to use Sony's programme and use a Sony memory card. The"problem" with this is that you are locked into using Sony memory cards which are twice the price of others on the market. I bought a card from a different maker and although it will take all the data files it will not accept"Sony" music files. You can transfer music to the memory card but the TH55 music player will only play music via its own programme. There is no way round this.

In summary, lots of the features are great but this device locks you into Sony and they are very restrictive in what they allow you to do!

The nearly must-have

So how do you fault a HotSync cable - it does the job right ?

Well I would push for a little more functionality - for instance, why is there not a travel adaptor that will allow the Clie to trickle charge via the same USB slot that you are HotSync-ing to ?

It is worth knowing that the adaptor that comes with the HotSync cable and allows it to plug into the Clie contains a second socket for a power supply. This socket is the same as that on the back of the original cradle, meaning that once you have the HotSync cable kit, you do not necessarily need to buy a second power supply for travelling (although one for the office may still be advisable).

No instructions!

What a poor product! It arrived and I excitdly looked for the instructions to find that there are none. You haveto load the instructions onto your computer, and I don't know about you but I hate reading off the screen. And if you print them you end up with reams of A4 paper with hardly anything on them. I tried to find out how to do things with it but gave up and shoved back in the box. How disappoiting of Sony to produce shoddy product. My son bought a Dell pda a few weeks ago and that one is brilliant, I wanted the Sony for memory stick compatability, but never mind!

PEG TG50

Very clever but its only down fall is the lack of memory. It looks good and feels good and the MP3 player sounds great. Just the thing if you where using the old Palm V range (as I was)and need an upgrade, this combines all of the Palm Vx and the Sony softwere which gives you the best of both worlds.
Still needs more memory though, put to much on it and it will crash, you'll end up deleting the programs you don't think you'll need.
It's bigger brother is a lot bigger so the PEG TG50 remains slim and light and easy in the pocket. Plus it has all you need from the Palm V range. A wirth while upgrade.

Best value for price

About a year ago I went shopping for a new PDA. I had an old Palm 100 and wanted to upgrade to something with a colour screen and enough memory to handle the 2MB free on AvantGo (now 3MB). I have to say in the past year I have grown to love the SJ22. I'm sure that a more expensive PDA would have more gimmicks but the SJ22 does everything the average user will ever need. Unless you are seriously into having the latest gadget in your hand then don't look too far beyond this machine. The only problem is the colour screen with backlight is a bit battery heavy but keeping the charger beside the desk generally keeps me out of trouble.