OT - PALM PILOTS & PDA's

[Ls1CorpCruiser]

Looking to buy a PDA???

What is the best around for pretty much everyday every purpose use..

There are a few on the markety at the moment and I know nothing about them.

Any advice/recomendations would be welcome.

:confused:

[strife]

ive had an xda2 for a couple of months now, seems pretty reasonable, has all the normal features + phone

myxda.com

[Modena]

I think it depends what you plan to do with it. Personally I just need notes, calendar etc, so I use the built in functions in my Siemens S55 phone, which syncs with Outlook through IRDA or Bluetooth.

I found a dedicated PDA a PITA, another thing to carry around, and potentially lose :)

So if you only need basic organiser functions, go a phone like mine, or if you want the more advanced things like mini-office, web browser etc, go something like strife's that is also a phone.

Just my opinions :D

[BlueSS]

I've got a Palm 515, bit outdated now (18 months old) but great, very handy. The boss has the XDA2 which seems pretty good. I'll be updating soon definatly something with window pocket as apose to palm, better functionality with outlook etc.

[chops]

Have a mate with an XDA (not 2) and has had it for 18 months or so.
He loves it, but said he wouldn't get one again as his only mobile phone.
Features are great, but he finds it too big and a PITA for going out weekends etc.
For work use though he says it's great.

Just something to consider.

[bk-v8vu]

I've got a Palm Vx (5 years old) and Compaq IPAQ 5450 (1 year old)

The Palm is rock stable and is easy to navigate, rarely have a problem. But it can’t interface all that well with other things, but is getting better at it with the newer models.

The Compaq is larger in size but has wireless, bluetooth and IR with a windows mobile os running. Great in my house with my wireless ap, allowing me to surf the web or transfer files around without plugging into anything. And with windows mobile os compatibility problems between files is almost non-existence.

Is really comes to user preference and needs. But recommend maybe a 2nd hand one to try out to be happy before spending $$$ on a new one.

Another good site to look for reviews is
www.eopinions.com (http://www.eopinions.com)

[MYVYSS]

I have a toshiba pocket PC E330 and its pretty cool has all the functions I need for work and Syncs well with both my nokia phone and laptop...Had to change config of laptop to make it work..WIN NT does not support either IRDA or USB (changed to Win2000). No Problems good for movies as well and good battery life . But they do become annoying after a while and you seem to revert back to paper and pen....although i had the universal remote control on mine so had fun in the pubs and clubs changing all the channels and volume controls on the monitors/TV's which almost still made it worthwhile.

[huggies]

Been A Palm Man Myself
Curently running a palm tungsten T3 does its job nicley also have a palm/handspring trio (phone/pda) biggest peice of shit ive ever used
Rob try checking
http://www.pdastreet.com/
They also have forums/reviews all that shit

[jsttry]

I currently own a Palm m500. If I had my day again I would go for an iPaq. Many more features including more compatiibility with windows applications like Word, Excel, IE. Another deciding factor is 99% of my work is Citrix based and Citrix make a client for Pocket PC and Symbion (Nokia phone?) but not Palm.

[who carez]

If you require the function of phone with pda - you cannot go wrong with xda2/imate/xphone. IMHO, the latter one is like phone 80% with 20% pda function, where xda2/imate are more on pda/gprs function and phone component.
Personally - I've used xda and now xda2 and won't leave without home with one :).
If you are just after pda - I'd say hp2210, one of the best for bang pda on the market I'd say - it's got compact flash/sd card slot and bluetooth with 400mhz.

Have alook at this site - http://www.mtekk.com.au/forums/
Lots of reviews and heaps of helpful ppl and australian base pda site.

[SV8VY]

I used a Palm VX for a few years and now have been using a Sony Clie nr70v.
This uses the same software as the Palm and is easy to use.
I like using the quick handwriting shortcuts and it works quite quickly.The battery life is long and I usually charge it up (rechargeable) once a week or fortnight.
There are many cheap and or free software to download.

[emotive]

I have a Palm Tungsten T3. It is my 5th Palm. each time I upgrade I look at what is available from Pocket PC, but Palm are still the market leaders and thus have lots of add on stuff for free - have a look at www,palmgear.com to get an idea of the amount of software available.

Also, a Palm is easier/more intuitive to use, unless you want your handheld to drive like a PC. If so, get a Pocket PC.

And contrary to what you might think, Palm software (Documents to Go 6)is more compatible with Word and Excel, and synchronises more reliably with Windows.

Palm is also more efficient in it's use of memory. So 128Mb on palm > 128Mb on PPC.

Have a read of this article from yesterday. This guy sells PDA's for a living and has used both PAlm and Pocket PC's. Currently he is using a Palm Tungsten E, which for around $300 is a great place to start. He is currently lokoing at upgrading and gives an overview of what he is considering buying and why.

http://www.writingonyourpalm.net/column040614.htm

[IEVLV8]

yeah i have a O2 XDA2 myself and i find that if you get a Pocket PC you have a lot more freedom to add software and whatever you wish to it where as the Palm's i use to have a Pilot 5000 and it was great for ages but i couldn't add any new features to it that would have made things easier or better so my advise is to have a look around at Pocket PC's and make you choice out of one of them and specially when u need to do some i the stuff i have to do now and again

but for sure get a Pocet PC with Window Mobile 2003 not a Palm

some site to help you out

http://www.thepalmking.com these guys deal with Palms only
http://www.ow.com.au and these guys deal with the lot

have a look around on both sites and see what you think

[emotive]

yeah i have a O2 XDA2 myself and i find that if you get a Pocket PC you have a lot more freedom to add software and whatever you wish to it where as the Palm's i use to have a Pilot 5000 and it was great for ages but i couldn't add any new features to it that would have made things easier or better

I have to disagree IEVLV8. The Pilot 5000 was released in about 1996, and had a 16Mhz processor and 500kb of memory. There weren't many programs around in 1996 and 500kb didn't give you much room for expansion anyway. Today the Palm has a 200Mhz or 400MHz processor and 64Mb of memory. This makes them faster than a pocket PC and allows more expansion than a PPC. Also there are many more programs available for Palm than for PPC, and many of them are free.

The Pilot 5000 was superceded by the Pilot Pro, then Palm Pilot III, then Palm V, then Palm 515, then Palm Tungsten T, T2, then T3. That Pilot 5000 is 8 models old. Thats like comparing an ED falcon to a VY commodoreand concluding that because the VY is much better, therefore Holden is better than Ford. It is not an apples with apples comparison.

[Big Wig]

Rob

Mate I went from the Cassiopia (sic) to the Palm VX but was a real pain in the arse carrying that and the phone.

I now had a Sony Ericsson P800 and now P900 phone/pda and I think its the best thing since sliced bread. The P900 is about standard phone size yet it syncs with Outlook, has bluetooth, MP3 and video player along with a range of downloads etc. The phone has about 16mb of memory plus a memory stick slot which I use a 128mb card (great for porn).

Do yourself a favour and check them out - alot more compact than the PDA's with a phone yet with just as many features :D

Cheers Stu

[strife]

First mobile virus

Some useful citizen has written a virus which targets mobile phones running the Symbian operating system. Anti-virus groups received the worm from its authors but it is not yet "in the wild". The Cabir worm is the first network worm for mobile phones, according to Kaspersky Labs. It was written by 29a, a group of virus writers which specialises in proof-of-concept viruses - they made the first viruses for .NET and for Win64. The virus transfers itself as an SIS (Symbian OS distribution file) but is disguised as a Caribe Security Manager utility. It uses Bluetooth technology to find another Symbian phone and forwards itself on. The worm has no malicious payload but will display the message "Caribe" if launched. A spokesman for Symbian said: "We take security seriously and are looking at this carefully. But as we understand it at this point this requires the user to have Bluetooth switched on and to say yes to installing an application despite two messages warning that the source of the software is unknown." Kaspersky warns that the worm could run on other operating systems. As far as El Reg is aware, the only other way that Bluetooth could facilitate the spread of viruses is if someone indulging in toothing caught an unpleasant STD. ®

[Glenn@Autowerks]

Just for the record, I have sent this to numerous people....

If you own a Bluetooth phone and have the settings set to "show all" the phone is open to the new mobile phone worm virus.

The virus is named "cabir", one of our company phone's was infected in a shopping centre last night, when the phone in question arrived at our head office, it started sending messages to other bluetooth phones in a 10 metre radius. I received it as well but rejected it. If the user accepts the "legitimate" looking message that phone too got the infection, then that phone starts sending via bluetooth.

PLEASE BE AWARE

In our company, we have the anti virus downloaded and the virus has now been eliminated..

If you dont beleive me do a search on the net...

Scarey hey !!!