The PDA thread

[RedFury]

Okay, I'm all juiced about my tromp into the grounds of the PDA market.

I just picked up a nice Dell Axim X5 for cheap with an included 128mb CF card, upgraded to windows pocket pc 2003.

These things are cool as hell! My first PDA. It's the 300mhz version, not the 400, but I'm not complaining.

What I'm not well versed in is the accessories for PDA's. Most importantly, a wireless Compact Flash card so I can get online when I'm out and about. What little I've read, some don't like the X5, others like to eat batteries in less than an hour, and other brands seem to be better than others for my particular PDA ( Ambicom being one of them for compatibility ).

Seems to me that the PDA market isn't any better at standardizing how things interface than the PC market... big suprise.

What things do you like about PDA's, not like about them, etc. This is the thread to do it in since no one has done much in the market of PDA's @ TIMO, I figured I'd give it a whirl. I had a hard time really deciding on what was the good and bad about PDA's, so hopefully we can lend a hand here to others who are looking at getting one.

[RayH]

I have a Palm LifeDrive. It has a 4 GB hard drive and uses 2 GB SD Cards. The the price of SD flash cards dropping, it would be better with an 8gb flash with another 8 gb SD Card. It would be the bomb!

It's not a pocket computer, but pretty close for the price. The street price is about $300. It pretty much does everything. It has built in IR, Bluetooh, and WiFi. It surfs the net, does email, Word and Excel, PDA stuff, videos and mp3s.

For walkaround videos, this thing is the bomb! It plays DivX without any conversion for "personal" size. I watch about 3 full length movies a week while riding the bus around town!

[howste]

I got tired of having to carry around a PDA and a cell phone all the time, so I got one with both. My current PDA is the Cingular 8125. It does everything my old PDA/phone did plus it has cellular Internet and a slide-out keyboard.

[RedFury]

What kind of programs do you find yourself using the most? I'm still waiting for my AC adapter, so I haven't had much time with mine yet. I'm just looking forward to having all the important dates, phone numbers, contacts and passwords I keep in one place.

[PoonDoggy]

I am using a Audiovox 6700 with Sprint. My company provided so i dont have to pay for it or the service. The buttons on the side will get in your way if your not careful...also if you press too hard to your ear you might hang up on somebody. Other than that it is pretty good. Has a slide out keyboard, camera, wifi, bluetooth.

[ShuckyD]

well im a big PDA fan, i just hate having both a PDA and a phone so i dont carry my PDA around as much, later this year im gonna look into Cingular's predecessor to the 8125 which is the 8535 ( i think) For the past few years i have been sporting a Ipaq 3765, which i have done a little bit of everything with and had fun doing it... About a year back after i got my tax refund i was looking at the Dell Axim X51 series, but somehow talked myself out of one, which was a good idea, because i still would have been stuck with the whole PDA and a phone issue.. I hope to get them combined in the near future, i just have to have the funds first

I dont own a palm, ive used a few but here is a cool link for PocketPC stuff...

www.pocketpcfreeware.com

[Keymaker]

PSP 4 me thank you.

[M_Six]

I have the XV6700 from Verizon. It's great in the EVDO areas. Not so much on the 1RxTT areas because the phone uses the same protocol as the data stream, so you end up having to dial most calls twice to get them to go through. It's definitely a better PDA than phone. Luckily that suits me fine.

One thing that's cool to do with PDAs is GPS. Just insert a small GPS adapter or Bluetooth adapter with a GPS remote and you have a NAV system. We used it once to find an old cemetery while genealogy hunting.

[howste]

What kind of programs do you find yourself using the most? I'm still waiting for my AC adapter, so I haven't had much time with mine yet. I'm just looking forward to having all the important dates, phone numbers, contacts and passwords I keep in one place.

Besides the phone (that yours doesn't have), almost every day I use the email, calendar, web browser, and PDF reader. Media player (for videos and mp3s) and games come in handy when I'm traveling. I also have another program to read scriptures and other electronic books.

Don't bother with the ClearView PDF reader if that's what yours comes with. Make sure you download the Adobe reader - it's much better.

[Jays333]

palm tx with mic mod for me

[Prexaspes]

I had a 300mhz Axim X5 at one time, too. Before it was stolen, I used it with an Ambicom CF wireless connection. It worked well enough. The cpu in it is designed to run at different speeds. In fact, I used to run mine at anywhere between 100 and 400 mhz using Speed v1.10. The bus speeds are also changeable. It can run on the 50, 100 or 200 Mhz bus. So, 400 on the 200 bus is the fastest configuration.

Since the wireless connection uses more of the battery, underclock it a bit to make it up. I liked to use Mini Stumbler and WiFiFoFum to scope out wifi hotspots. It also did a decent job at playing multimedia.

I played a lot of nintendo games on it. Quake ran on it, but it wasn't very easy to use.

I missed it after it got stolen, but I doubt I'll replace it. Right now I have a Dell laptop that can outlast my old X5 in battery life and do everything a normal computer can do.

[RedFury]

Picked up a car charger and then a few days later my AC adapter came, so I'm up and running full speed with mine now. I have an Ambicon Wireless card coming from Ebay...now all I need is a GPS receiver and I'm set. ( well, maybe a microdrive too ).

Space Invaders for teh win!

[traderonline]

I use an O2 XDA 11s

400mhz
gsm, wifi , bluetooth, IR and many more features.

[RayH]

The thing I like about the Palm Life Drive is that for what I use it for, there are no monthly fees. I Divx movies and MPEG movies (extracted from KVCDs) that will play on larger screens will play as is on my Palm. It plays mp3s quite well also. I can play mp3s and use other applications. I connect to the web in coffee houses via WiFi. I also grab email there. I can view my powerpoints, do excel, and word. It's a pretty complete little package.

I actually like the separate phone. I always have battery for my phone.

[qx9r7man]

I actually like the separate phone. I always have battery for my phone.

I feel the same. I have an hp ipaq rx.... some number. (the number isn't on it, and the box is at home.) Its a good pda: Wifi, Music, Small vids, decent storage space, etc. I don't think I'll ever get a pda/phone. Knowing me, I'll run my battery down playing games, or adding appointments, and miss an important call. Plus, the pda/phones don't seem to comfortable to use. (the mic is too far from your mouth)

[RobRich]

Palm LifeDrive user here as well. I use it mostly for web surfing and streaming music. I also paid for the full version of Pocket Tunes for DRM support to interface it with my Napster account. Otherwise, like RayH said, multimedia works well. I am using an older release of TCPMP for video playback.

I am seriously thinking about tearing into my LifeDrive to replace the MicroDrive (prone to failure, slow, power hungry, etc.) with Compact Flash (reliable, fast, power efficient). Several people have done the conversion, but it requires specific CF card parameters that can be difficult to source.

[RayH]

I wish that I could understand the installation and reprogramming process of making a LifeDrive into a LifeFlash!

[ibanez_bass]

i have a dell axim x50 with 128mb built in flash, 1gb CF and 128mb SD. Its pretty sweet. It has windows mobile 2003 SE, 520 mhz processor, 64 mb Ram, Bluetooth, Wireless a/b, its pretty fast. but the wireless a/b sucks down power like crazy!

[RayH]

My Palm LifeDrive has a 4GB microdrive and 2GB flash card. Holds a lot of stuff for walk around. I have four movies and about 250 songs loaded. Plus other stuff.

[pullmyfoot]

im waiting for the iphone! it looks real cool. and looking at it on apple's website, it looks real good too http://www.apple.com/iphone/.