The other day, I went to turn on my Palm Tungstern T3, and it was dead, and I mean D-E-A-D. No combination of charging, resets, etc. would bring it back to life. I posted a message at www.1src.com (an excellent PalmOS forum) and found some suggestions and links. Fortunately, opening the T3 and re-seating the battery connector did the trick, so a replacement battery was unnecessary, but if I did have to replace the battery, it would have been an easy task. Read on for some links and information about disassembling and resurrecting a dead Palm Tungsten T3…

I did a Google Search on Palm T3 Disassemble or Palm T3 Disassembly and got a number of good hits. I found the following links to be very useful:

http://www.pspilot.de/ppptun3/ppptun3.html
http://www.pidcock.co.uk/pda/tungsten-repair.html
http://www.gethightech.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=GHT&Category_Code=_tungsten_takeapart

If your battery is completely unusable, go to http://www.PDAParts.com , where they have a huge selection of PDA replacement parts.

A couple notes:

1. You only need a simple, small Philips screwdriver to disassemble the T3. No need for a Torx driver (which is required for the T5….)

2. Have patience and be careful. The parts are small, and you don’t want to break anything. The good news, though, is that once opened up, there is a logic about how things are connected, and it’s very simple to locate the proper connections.

If nothing else,  it’s kinda cool seeing the insides of a T3, and how it works!

PalmOS PDA Tips Google, news, PalmOS

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Google has just announced that they are adding Chat capability within Gmail! Go to http://mail.google.com/mail/help/chat.html to learn more about the specifics. Over the next few weeks, it will be deployed to all Gmail accounts.

Adding chat to Gmail should be a huge boost for Gmail for several reasons. First, it will be integrated right into Gmail’s Web-based application, so there will be no need to launch a separate application like Google Talk. This is important because it will simplify its use, and nicely integrate Gmail with chat. Second, you will not need to rely on cryptic screen names as is typical with most chat applications. You will be able to use the verbose naming that Gmail’s Contacts uses.

Additionally, you will be able to set your availability status, and see when your friends are online allowing you to decide how you will contact them: by Gmail or via IM through chat. You will also be able to optionally maintain a history or log of your chat sessions.

I’ll post additional information as it comes out!

Gmail Tips, Gmail Tips - The Complete Collection Gmail, Google, history, import, status

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