Stick it!

Author's Rating:

Pros: Very functional item at a decent price.

Cons: It would be nice to be able to buy a 2-pack instead.

The Bottom Line: 
This is the best value for a replacement stylus for a Palm Tungsten E Series Organizer if you need it fast.

Author's Review
Last week, I lost the stylus for my Palm Tungsten E organizer. After a day or two looking through my not so secret hiding places, in other words, where I usually leave the stylus or the organizer, I came to the conclusion that it was gone.

Of course, the stylus is the little metal stick (my wife’s words, not mine) that fits easily in a slot inside the actual organizer. The stylus performs one important function which is to permit the user to navigate through and input data to the organizer. Most organizers come with a metal body for balance, a plastic head so as not to damage the delicate (ha!) touch screen and an unscrewable plastic top that helps the stylus fit in the organizer slot and has a little reset pin. The reset pin is very thin and very straight and is used when you need to push the small recessed button to reset the organizer.

There are plenty of stylus options out there. I went to the Palm web site to see what the list price was on theirs. Palm has a nice looking standard stylus for $14.99 for a 3-pack and an even nicer one with a little ballpoint pen inside for $19.99 for a three pack. Well, all that was fine but I didn’t need more than 2 and I didn’t need to spend more on it than I would on a 6-pack of a solid craft beer.

So, I went on Ebay. The Palms were a little cheaper. Ebay also had all sorts of generic type styli with little lights and bundled with battery operated chargers. Well, I was going to pay $8 - $9 with shipping and wait a week unless I paid to expedite it.

I surfed to OfficeDepot.com to see if they had a generic version. The Belkin 4-pack showed right up on search. It was $7.74 for a 4-pack that was compatible for my unit. The sales tax was going to cost a whole lot less than shipping, so I went over to Office Depot to see if they had it.

It was yet one more adventure. The office supply stores I frequent, Staples, Office Max and Office Depot all are staffed very thin. That’s because with everyone competing on price and availability, wages and benefits are really the only controllable cost. While I have gotten pretty good customer service from the managers at the local Office Depot, the rank and file employees seem to be relatively dim bulbs. I asked for a stylus for an organizer and the person at the desk took me to the Franklin paper refills. I said Palm Organizer and got a look like I was from another planet. So, I tried Treo and she said that they were in this other section. I then said that I was looking for the aftermarket stylus pack for the Tungsten E and she said she wasn’t sure they had it. She went to look it up and I found it myself while she was doing so. They had 6 or 7 of them on the shelf.

Back home, I opened them up and put one through its paces. It felt fine, fitted comfortably in the slot, if not quite as perfectly as the standard Palm unit and worked great. So, I was a happy camper, getting what I needed without paying an arm and a leg. However, I would have preferred a 2-pack instead of a 4-pack.

I’ve been using it since then and it meets my needs wonderfully well. So, I can recommend this unit highly.

it comes with a lifetime guarantee against defects. For me that's not a big deal because the only thing that can go wrong is to lose it and the warranty does not cover that.

Now, I want to close this epinion with some tip on organizer usage, if you use one or are considering one.

I use my organizer to help me run my music business, including calendar and contacts. I also use it for work scheduling on occasion. It is extremely important for me to have one and to keep it working well. I’ve had organizers for several years now, and there are a few things I’ve learned along the way.

Protect the unit
Two things here: first, a solid hard case with light padding can protect the unit from inadvertent drops. I’m klutzy, and it has happened. The case really helps. Second, use screen protectors. Those are pieces of clear plastic that fit on the display and protect the display from scratches and scuffs. They are available quite inexpensively on Ebay.

Protect the data
Here, what you can do is to synchronize data regularly with either Microsoft Outlook (my choice) or Palm desktop software on a computer and back up that data regularly. The other piece is to make sure the unit stays charged. For me, it’s pretty easy since my cell phone, Kyocera Milan, has a charger that will charge my organizer as well as the phone. So, I only need one charger each at home, in the car and in the office to charge both. You don’t have to overpay for extra chargers, either. I’ve had good luck getting aftermarket chargers on Ebay.

So, take care of your organizer and it will take care of you.

Thanks for reading. God bless!

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