Views on PDAs

Scorpion · Post by **Scorpion** » 27 Sep 2006, 10:13

I'm thinking of buying a PDA and I was just wondering what people think of them? I mainly want it so that I can browse the Internet using WiFi. I want it so that I can boot it up quickly rather than wait ages for my PC or laptop to boot up e.g. if I want to look up cinema listings and that's all. Does anyone have any experience with them? Here is a review of the one I have in mind http://reviews.cnet.com/HP_iPaq_rx1950/ ... al=1925586

Dadaist · Post by **Dadaist** » 27 Sep 2006, 10:30

I don't know anything about normal PDAs - but my phone is a PDA as well with a tablet/touch screen.

I think these days you can get a PDA phone whose internet is 3G - but if all you're wanting is a PDA with wi-fi, I don't know. They have bigger screens but to me they're a bit big and you'll have to carry around a phone too. My vote goes for the SE P990i :

http://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?cc= ... &pid=10336

impossiblevoices · Post by **impossiblevoices** » 27 Sep 2006, 10:32

A mate has got one of [these] and it rocks!

Whatever you decide to go for, I would advise something with MS Windows Mobile and not Symbian sofware onboard.

Dadaist · Post by **Dadaist** » 27 Sep 2006, 10:43

Does it have better software, MS, than Symbian?

My last two have been Symbian (SE P800 & P900) but I'm open to suggestion.

What stuff has your friend got running on his phone?

impossiblevoices · Post by **impossiblevoices** » 27 Sep 2006, 10:54

The thing with the MS stuff is that you know it is going to work with any Office document you are sent. A client sends you a Powerpoint slideshow or a colleague sends you a excel ssheet - you know it will work. You can easily sync stuff up too.

The guy I know who has this phone is a total, total technology gimp. He has a media player (I can't remember what its name is, but it is specifically for this series of phone) on it which allows him to watch all his downloaded movies and tv shows on his phone. When he finds the time to do this, I don't know. Full screen though and if you download a hires copy of the tv/movie file its really, really good.

Also, he has his hooked in to his wireless network at home and can control all his media on his NAS drives via his XBox (XBox Media Centre?) via his PDA, which acts as a remote control. So, you can't be bothered getting off the sofa to pick up the XBox controller? No problem, just pick up your PDA, start the software, select your media (ie which movie you want to watch) from your NAS drive or your server next door and 'Huzzah' there it is on screen.

Fabulous. You will never need to leave your couch again!

impossiblevoices · Post by **impossiblevoices** » 27 Sep 2006, 10:58

Oh yeah and with the MS or Symbian thing, there is more software for the MS side of things, I think...

Post by **wangi** » 27 Sep 2006, 16:35

This a big enough view:

That's actually a reduced set, should be 21+

Anyway, have been developing on a wide range of pretty exotic PDAs this year using every possible version of Pocket PC / Windows mobile that's out there. But nothing non-MS.

On the cheaper end of the scale (the bad boys above are Â£2k+ each) I've been using an iPAQ hx 2490 - has bluetooth, wifi, windows mobile 5, ...

L/

Scorpion · Post by **Scorpion** » 27 Sep 2006, 19:27

Thanks for your comments everyone. I'm afraid that although I like computers, I'm not really into mobile phones. I've got two and hardly ever use either of them. As for the 'bad boys above', if you want to give me one for free that will be fine

Otherwise, my needs are simple and I'll look around for something a bit cheaper. I did think about bluetooth but although my son has it, I don't have anything that would use it.