Do You Use a PDA - Which One?

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Orbitz · #1 Post by **Orbitz** » Thu May 05, 2005 6:44 pm

I was just curious since we all share some interest in the TP's, which PDA's everyone favors? Currently, I use a Dell Axim X50v and a Sprint 6600 (made by AudioVox) pda/phone.

GoEatFood · #2 Post by **GoEatFood** » Thu May 05, 2005 7:05 pm

I have an old...well, old to me sony clie ux-50. it's basicly a minilaptop...when I first got it I thought it was the coolest thing ever...which I'm thinking about selling as I never use the thing anymore...PDA's are a cool idea they just arn't powerful enough to do anything.

Nolonemo · #3 Post by **Nolonemo** » Thu May 05, 2005 7:20 pm

Toshiba e750 (upgraded from e350 in January).

As you can tell by my sig, I'm always a couple of generations behind the coolest stuff.

JHEM · #4 Post by **JHEM** » Thu May 05, 2005 7:53 pm

An old and utterly reliable Palm Vx. does everything I need in a PDA, including subbing for my primary GPS with the Magellan card.

Regards,

James

pat · #5 Post by **pat** » Thu May 05, 2005 8:42 pm

I have a Smartphone. Verizon palmOne Treo 600.

baraider · #6 Post by **baraider** » Thu May 05, 2005 8:44 pm

I went through a whole bunch of IPAQ.

Got the E755 toshiba but sold it because it's kinda heavy. Currently using a IPAQ 4150, small enough for my pocket.

Got the 2215 for my sisters and 1910 for my wife..

Ipaq is the best...for what i do anyway...try palm once but yuk...

#7 Post by **AlphaKilo470** » Thu May 05, 2005 8:49 pm

I'm still using a circa 2001 Handspring Visor Deluxe. I'd upgrade, but I really haven't seen any reason to. All I do with my PDA is store memos and appointments and a few games and the Visor has been doing that quite reliably for quite a while now.

#8 Post by **jdhurst** » Thu May 05, 2005 9:43 pm

I use an iPAQ. I like the effortless sync with Outlook Mail, Calendar, Tasks, Notes, and Contacts. I also like the Rough Guides. I have one for London and one for Paris. I am heading there next week, and the ability to pop up the map around any tube station is to die for. It's apps like this that keep a PDA alive for me. Otherwise, they are in no way a laptop replacement yet. ... JDH

GoEatFood · #9 Post by **GoEatFood** » Thu May 05, 2005 9:47 pm

AlphaKilo470 wrote:I'm still using a circa 2001 Handspring Visor Deluxe. I'd upgrade, but I really haven't seen any reason to. All I do with my PDA is store memos and appointments and a few games and the Visor has been doing that really reliably for quite a while now.

I used to have Visor Prisim top of the line when they first came out...I ended up returning it and buying a nice TV for my room. it was funny being the only kid my age having two TV's over 30 inches in their room...but, it was a nice for playing games and watching TV at the same time.

#10 Post by **JaneL** » Thu May 05, 2005 10:01 pm

JHEM wrote:An old and utterly reliable Palm Vx. does everything I need in a PDA

Ditto except mine is a IIIc. Has everything in it from my work and personal schedules to the part number for the fluorescent tube over my kitchen sink. I've even used it as a flashlight a few times.

#11 Post by **daeojkim** » Thu May 05, 2005 10:39 pm

Orbitz wrote:I was just curious since we all share some interest in the TP's, which PDA's everyone favors? Currently, I use a Dell Axim X50v and a Sprint 6600 (made by AudioVox) pda/phone.

Hi Ortiz,

how do you like the Axim X50v? I was considering to buy it instead of a light laptop. Just mainly for medical dictionaries, quick e-mail check, listen to music, etc.

I hear that the resolution is 640x480 where as most others have lower QVGA resolution. Another thing that I heard was that if the program that you use is not optimized for 640x480 then it looks blurry. Is this true?

JHEM · #12 Post by **JHEM** » Thu May 05, 2005 11:12 pm

jdhurst wrote:I use an iPAQ. I like the effortless sync with Outlook Mail, Calendar, Tasks, Notes, and Contacts. I also like the Rough Guides. I have one for London and one for Paris. I am heading there next week, and the ability to pop up the map around any tube station is to die for. It's apps like this that keep a PDA alive for me. Otherwise, they are in no way a laptop replacement yet. ... JDH

Palm always had the best synch with Office for me, but I haven't tried a lot of the other machines.

I've got all of my city guides on my laptop and just update the Palm with whatever maps I'll need for a specific trip. Only cities I leave on it are NY and Philly for the restaurant guides.

Have a great trip.

Regards,

James

JHEM · #13 Post by **JHEM** » Thu May 05, 2005 11:14 pm

nonny wrote:Ditto except mine is a IIIc. Has everything in it from my work and personal schedules to the part number for the fluorescent tube over my kitchen sink. I've even used it as a flashlight a few times.

Still got mine in a drawer around here somewhere. The [censored] thing was unkillable.

Regards,

James

Orbitz · #14 Post by **Orbitz** » Thu May 05, 2005 11:56 pm

daeojkim wrote:
Orbitz wrote:I was just curious since we all share some interest in the TP's, which PDA's everyone favors? Currently, I use a Dell Axim X50v and a Sprint 6600 (made by AudioVox) pda/phone.
Hi Ortiz,

how do you like the Axim X50v? I was considering to buy it instead of a light laptop. Just mainly for medical dictionaries, quick e-mail check, listen to music, etc.

I hear that the resolution is 640x480 where as most others have lower QVGA resolution. Another thing that I heard was that if the program that you use is not optimized for 640x480 then it looks blurry. Is this true?

The X50v is overall one of the best value ppc's out right now imo. The VGA screen is actually a mixed bag for me. Of course, the higher resolution makes everything look sharper, however, out of the box you can't take advantage of the higher res as you would hope. As an example, browsing the net with iexplorer looks pretty much the same as on a non vga machine. There are a couple of hacks that force the machine into true vga mode however. I only use them for working on spreadsheets or web browsing and even then not as often as when I first got it. To turn "true VGA" on you need to soft reset which is a little hastle. The big problem with true vga is that it makes everything (scroll bars, menu items etc.) VERY tiny...you really do need pretty good eyesight to navigate in that mode. I will say this tho...in true vga and using a bluetooth keyboard and mouse it comes suprisingly close to a laptop replacement for light duty spreadsheets etc. There is an app available to force only certain other apps into true vga but it doesn't work with everything as the other do. You are right, there are a number of apps that do not natively support vga, however, this is not much of an issue as most mainstream apps are there now.

For any kind of media the X50v flat out is the best I have ever seen. I have a 4 GB CF card and a 2 GB SD card in mine and usually have 4 or 5 full lenth DVD rips with me (of course shrunk down to around 800mb's each) and playing them on the X50v is very enjoyable. It has 16mb of dedicated video ram and movies are smooth as silk. Same goes for viewing pictures (including web graphics)...the extra pixels make a big difference in sharpness.

For me, the X50v has two negatives...one much bigger (potentially) then the other. First, it has a known issue of the charger/sync base frying USB ports...and motherboards if the ports don't have good over current protection built in. I would NEVER plug one into a TP....you pretty much have to use a hub to be safe and mine has fried 1 hub and one PCI card (which ticked me off having to add it since I have 8 USB ports on board but didn't want to risk my motherboard). I know have Dell and Adaptec talking...the last Adaptec card mine fried I sent to Adaptec who passed along their findings to Dell (Dell refuses to admit formally that this problem exists thus far). The other negative is it only ships with 64megs of ram (as does the Ipaq 4700 which is also VGA)...which gets eaten up quick. If you go beyond having 20 - 25 megs free you start to have issues with running bluetooth and wifi at the same time...or at least a number of people have. Usually easily solved by a soft reset.

Even with these two issues, I would recommend it especially if video or game playing are important to you. If you want to use it as a laptop replacement occasionally (tho you will need to spend another $250 in a mouse, keyboard and software to make this happen) an Ipaq 4700 is a better choice imo (the Asus 730w is also VGA but doesn't have as good user support and accessories etc. here in the U.S.). I also have a 6600 and actually use it more often...I would equate the X50v to a Ferrari ie. very tempermental but runs like hell when you make it happy The 6600 as a Ford 150...it doesn't look near as good..or move as fast...but it runs really well right out of the box, plays movies and music well and provides a good web experience (especially with a service like Thunderhawk).

I am sure there are Plam machines that also are very good...I am just a Windows guy and allready have a big investment in software (not a small detail since the software to really utilize the full capacity of any ppc can easily cost half if not more of what the machine cost). I have had 7 Ipaq's, 2 Toshiba's and few others...the X50v is far and away the most sophisticated...and the 6600 is the most "solid" yet in terms of operation.

pphilipko · #15 Post by **pphilipko** » Fri May 06, 2005 12:31 am

i have a palm m515 that's on my desk gathering dust...too inefficient to be practical, in my opinion.

#16 Post by **daeojkim** » Fri May 06, 2005 1:21 am

Ortiz,

Thanks for the great info. Your experience with fried UBS hub makes me weary... I would have to search some PDA forums to see if anyone else had similar experience and if it something that happens often. If that is the case I woul have to find out if there a way to avoid that.

I didn't know that ipaq4700 was also a VGA screen. I would be mostly using for dictionaries, e-mail, portable music player, etc. THe only accesory I would prefer to have is a folding keyboard, if it has an integrated track point that would be wonderful (I don't think there is one though). May be some light webbrowsing to check weather, etc. I think it will be better than buying a small old laptop for things that I need to do. Save wieght.

Decisions decision...

selvan777 · #17 Post by **selvan777** » Fri May 06, 2005 2:53 am

Sharp Wizard OZ-770 but I wouldn't buy a one today, the prices have gotten way out of hand.

DavidNZ · #18 Post by **DavidNZ** » Fri May 06, 2005 3:33 am

Tungsten E here. Syncs easily with Outlook (on my X40, primarily, and my office computer - it's how I make my Outlook calendar match on both machines).

Also use:

1. SplashID (www.splashdata.com) to keep track of critical passwords and identification documents
2. Gulliver 2.0 (travel itins - i travel quite a bit)
3. Star Alliance schedule (related to #2 above)
4. Priority Pass lounge listings (www.prioritypass.com - related to #2 above)
5. an imaging application (to view seating charts of major airine's aircraft, just in case I have the option of switching seats on checkin!)

Orbitz · #19 Post by **Orbitz** » Fri May 06, 2005 9:14 am

daeojkim wrote:Ortiz,

Thanks for the great info. Your experience with fried UBS hub makes me weary... I would have to search some PDA forums to see if anyone else had similar experience and if it something that happens often. If that is the case I woul have to find out if there a way to avoid that.

I didn't know that ipaq4700 was also a VGA screen. I would be mostly using for dictionaries, e-mail, portable music player, etc. THe only accesory I would prefer to have is a folding keyboard, if it has an integrated track point that would be wonderful (I don't think there is one though). May be some light webbrowsing to check weather, etc. I think it will be better than buying a small old laptop for things that I need to do. Save wieght.

Decisions decision...

http://www.aximsite.com (Just serch "cradle of death"

) They even have a nift poll up with a sticky under "Hardware Problems" forum. There was a theory that it was old cradle's causing the problem...mine was brand new as were many others and no such luck. The only semi-safe work around is a powered usb hub...and it still cooks those on occasion...at least they are fairly cheap. For the tasks you listed, ppc's (or many palms) would be very useful.

#20 Post by **jdhurst** » Fri May 06, 2005 9:36 am

JHEM wrote: I've got all of my city guides on my laptop and just update the Palm with whatever maps I'll need for a specific trip. Only cities I leave on it are NY and Philly for the restaurant guides.
James

I have a 256Mb memory card in my iPAQ. The next step for me is to move (reinstall) the Rough Guides to the memory card. Right now, when I install stuff, it wants to go in main memory and I need to study how to put it on the storage card. ... JDH

jasonjackson · #21 Post by **jasonjackson** » Fri May 06, 2005 10:33 am

jdhurst wrote:I use an iPAQ. I like the effortless sync with Outlook Mail, Calendar, Tasks, Notes, and Contacts. I also like the Rough Guides. I have one for London and one for Paris. I am heading there next week, and the ability to pop up the map around any tube station is to die for. It's apps like this that keep a PDA alive for me. Otherwise, they are in no way a laptop replacement yet. ... JDH

I also use an iPAQ. Very easy to sync with Outlook (which I use to manage everything).

slagmi · #22 Post by **slagmi** » Fri May 06, 2005 10:47 am

A rather dated Toshiba e310, schedule, contacts, maps, games and oh yes, eBooks, lots of eBooks.

If only it had a flexible screen and chassis, and a place to put my money & ID, so that I could put it in my back pocket...

a31pguy · #23 Post by **a31pguy** » Fri May 13, 2005 1:01 pm

Treo 650 - phone + pda combo. Works with my thinkpad just fine.

ian · #24 Post by **ian** » Fri May 13, 2005 1:37 pm

JHEM wrote:An old and utterly reliable Palm Vx. does everything I need in a PDA, including subbing for my primary GPS with the Magellan card.

Regards,

James

I use a Palm Tungsten - without the GPS - after a few days stumbling around the house I got used to where they'd hidden the bathroom and after that GPS was just a memory...

asiafish · #25 Post by **asiafish** » Fri May 13, 2005 1:45 pm

Palm m500, but I rarely use it anymore. In my daily grind I carry my 12" PowerBook with me, and with the instant wake of OSX I really don't need my PDA anymore.

I always put the Palm in my ThinkPad bag though as resuming from hibernation takes a bit longer. Still, I rarely bother with the Palm and just wait for Windows to resume.

Of course, as a cross-platform kind of guy, my Palm still serves one vital duty, and that is keeping contacts, schedules, calendars and to-do lists synchronized BETWEEN my ThinkPad and my PowerBook. Works like a champ.

stgreek · #26 Post by **stgreek** » Fri May 13, 2005 2:53 pm

Palm m505 for me. I've tried every PDA and smartphone there is, but you can't go wrong with the old and tested. Contacts, todo, tasks and appointments. Isn't that what a PDA is for?

#27 Post by **JaneL** » Fri May 13, 2005 4:52 pm

stgreek wrote:Contacts, todo, tasks and appointments. Isn't that what a PDA is for?

And grocery/shopping lists!

emorphien · #28 Post by **emorphien** » Fri May 13, 2005 5:11 pm

Tungsten C which I got for free.

Orbitz · #29 Post by **Orbitz** » Fri May 13, 2005 11:03 pm

I depend on mine for all the normal things...contacts, schedule, email etc. but more then anything I usually wind up pulling it out to watch the news or other tv programing since disovering Orb. Even with an ultraportable, I can't imagine it being as convenient for that kind of activity. Same for quick web looks ups...I have been in a couple of stores and looked up pricing on the web and even gotten the price lowered a few times

Torque · #30 Post by **Torque** » Sat May 14, 2005 2:12 am

Good old iPaq3870

Do You Use a PDA - Which One?

Do You Use a PDA - Which One?

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