We now know a number of people who have purchased a Zire 71. There is a lot to like about it. It plays mp3s, it has a built-in camera, it has a beautiful color screen, and it is a whole lot faster than the Palm devices people are replacing. Agnes says: "It’s made my whole life better!"

With a new Palm device comes new questions, and we wanted to try to summarize our answers to these questions here. If you have suggestions for additional questions (and especially answers), feel free to email us here.

1. Should I use a screen protector?
2. Does anyone sell a metal case for the Zire 71?
3. Do I need an SD expansion card?
4. How do I create mp3s to play on my Zire 71?
5. What’s the best way of copying the mp3s to my Zire 71?
6. Is the Palm branded mp3 kit worth it?
7. How do I get a movie onto my Palm?
8. How do I make an mpeg file to put a movie onto my Palm?
9. How do I get a movie off of a DVD to put onto my Palm?
10. What are some tips for taking good pictures with the built-in camera?
11. What’s this I hear about the camera taking pictures in the infrared spectrum?

1. Should I use a screen protector? [back to top]
Definitely. Over time a screen will get scratched up and that beautiful color screen won’t look quite as good any more. There are many brands out there that work great. Just be sure to buy something that fits. The screen protectors that Palm sells for the original Zire will not fit because the original Zire has a smaller screen. The Zire 71 has a 3.5" screen that is similar in size to many Pocket PCs. If you cannot find a screen protector that is made for the Zire 71, others should work fine.

While most screen protectors are clear pieces of sticky plastic that adhere to the screen (and can be removed without problem), there are others that simply wedge into the tiny space at the top and bottom of the screen. The kind that wedges is suspected of eventually confusing the digitizer as it is putting constant pressure on the screen. We don’t know if this is true or not, but the sticky kind of screen protector certainly works.

2. Does anyone sell a metal case for the Zire 71? [back to top]
Yes! A case has been announced by InnoPocket made of aluminum. It does not seem to require adhesive or Velcro to be attached to the back of the case. We haven’t tried the case, but it looks promising.

3. Do I need an SD expansion card? [back to top]
It depends on what you use your Palm for. For most purposes, the 16 MB in the Zire 71 is plenty. It’ll store a lot of contacts, appointments and lists. It’ll even store almost 300 photos. However, if you use some of the other features of the Zire 71, you may want to invest in an SD card. Here are some guidelines about things that will take up memory on your Zire 71:

A photograph: 100 KB
An ebook: 500 KB
An mp3 file: 5 MB
A movie: 250 MB

Once you start to use your Palm for playing mp3s or movies, you’ll want to get an SD card. 16 MB is just not enough to store much at that point. You should also consider buying an SD card if you are installing large programs. Many programs can be installed on an SD card instead of main memory.

People have reported excellent results with Panasonic or Lexar SD cards. Most of the time, a Lexar card is simply a Panasonic card resold by Lexar. People have reported poor results with SanDisk SD cards, which is unfortunate, because they are the most widely available. In particular, 128 MB SanDisk SD cards have given people trouble. There is usually some kind of a rebate available for SD cards, and after rebate, the prices you find should be around $30 for 128 MB, $60 for 256 MB and $120 for 512 MB.

4. How do I create mp3s to play on my Zire 71? [back to top]
There are a number of ways to create mp3 files. For the best quality mp3s you need to use good tools. Please read this page to see our recommendations on how to create the best quality mp3 files. Unfortunately, this method is also one of the slowest methods and there are many other options out there.

Since the Zire 71 comes with RealOne Mobile Player, many people install RealOne for their Windows computer. Historically, RealOne has been an intrusive program in that it wants to be the default player for all of the media on your computer, but it’s really not a bad program. For quickly creating mp3 files from CDs, it should be considered. If you are trying to create a collection of mp3s on your computer, where you have lots of space, we recommend you use EAC and LAME, as described in the previous guide.

You can also use RealOne to create RealAudio files, which tend to be smaller than mp3 files; however, you’re committing to using the RealOne player for all of your music at that point. If you stick with the mp3 format, you’re leaving your options open for using other players in the future. Two highly regarded players are Aeroplayer and Pocket Tunes.

5. What’s the best way of copying the mp3s to my Zire 71? [back to top]
While RealOne has the ability to copy mp3 files to the Palm through its cradle, it’s not very fast. In general, copying things through the Palm HotSync connection isn’t very fast. The fastest way to get mp3 files onto an SD card to play on a Zire 71 is to copy them through an SD card reader. SD card readers generally cost around $30, but they can be found more cheaply. SD card readers that use a USB 2.0 interface will naturally be faster than a USB 1.1 card reader. The RealOne Mobile Player will recognize any mp3 files you put into a folder named \AUDIO or \SD_Audio or \RN_Audio.

6. Is the Palm branded mp3 kit worth it? [back to top]
Palm sells the Palm™ MP3 Audio Kit as a bundle of things that are useful for creating and listening to mp3 files on your Palm. It includes software for creating mp3 files from CD, an SD card reader, a 64 MB SD card, and headphones. It sells for $99. It doesn’t quite seem worth it. One can easily find free software for creating mp3 files. An SD card reader is worth about $30. A 64 MB SD card isn’t really in the sweet spot of price per MB for SD cards. The 128 MB or 256 MB SD card is closer to the sweet spot. And finally, most people already have a set of headphones they can use. If you want the bundle, go ahead and buy it, but you probably really only need the card and the reader.

7. How do I get a movie onto my Palm? [back to top]
Not yet written.

8. How do I make an mpeg file to put a movie onto my Palm? [back to top]
Not yet written.

9. How do I get a movie off of a DVD to put onto my Palm? [back to top]
While it is not a complete answer yet, take a look at the guide to converting a DVD to a DivX AVI file. Most of the steps in that process are relevant to creating a video file for the Palm. The final step of converting it to Palm format is all that remains.

10. What are some tips for taking good pictures with the built-in camera? [back to top]
Considering that the Zire 71’s camera has no flash, and that the pictures it takes are only 0.3 megapixels, the camera takes surprisingly good pictures. It’s a great camera to take a quick picture that you can then show to people. Most digital cameras will take better pictures, but will have much smaller screens built-in. It’s nice to use the large, bright Zire 71 screen to show the pictures you’ve taken.

Here are two hints for taking better pictures with the Zire 71 pictures. Of course general photography tips also apply.

  • Let the automatic white balance feature have time to adjust before you take the picture. The camera will compensate surprisingly well even when you would not expect there to be enough light.
  • Either turn off the shutter sound or tell people that the shutter sound is played a moment before the picture is actually taken. If people hear the shutter, they think the picture has already been taken, and either the photographer will move the camera, or the subject of the picture is likely to move. Either way, you’ll end up with a blurry picture.

11. What’s this I hear about the camera taking pictures in the infrared spectrum? [back to top]
One interesting feature of many digital cameras is that they often lack an IR filter. As a result, they can take pictures when the only light source is an infrared light. Here is a picture taken of a Stitch (from Disney’s Lilo and Stitch) figurine, using only a TV remote to light it up: