My old Casio’s battery is finally kaput, and since the models are long long dead and gone, and I don’t want to spend $50 on Ebay for a “new” battery (manufactured several years ago), I’m just going to pick up a new Pocket PC.
I’ve been checking around Taiwan. Seems it’s not too easy to get something with an English OS. I’m leaning towards a Dell or HP. The latter have quite a few models here but are costly.
Has anyone used a Dell PPC? I can get an X3 for $7,000 NT. It’s an older model, but it has Win 2003 (OS 1, unfortunately) and Wi Fi.
I have a Dell PDA and it is great. I have the Windows OS and wonder how I ever got along on the Palm OS of my former now defuct Handspring. Damn batteries :fume: , the eventual degradation of the rechargeable battery killed my poor Handspring. I was very emotionally attached to it after 2 years and if I could of found a new battery for it, I would of kept it.
I’d also like to thank the extremely kind forumosan who gave me the Dell PDA.
I had both a Dell and Compaq PPC. I liked the Dell unit much better than the Compaq mainly because of battery and form factor issues. The iPaq did not have a removeable battery. The Dell was smaller, but to be fair, it was 2 years newer also. Most of the ubergeeks (properllerheads, technogods, gadgetmonkeys, etc.) that work in the super secret consumer electronics lab at my company have the Dells as their personal PDA’s if that’s any help. It was their recommendation that steered me to the Dell when my iPaq needed a heart transplant.
[quote=“Okami”]I have a Dell PDA and it is great. I have the Windows OS and wonder how I ever got along on the Palm OS of my former now defuct Handspring. Damn batteries :fume: , the eventual degradation of the rechargeable battery killed my poor Handspring. I was very emotionally attached to it after 2 years and if I could of found a new battery for it, I would of kept it.[/quote]Realise it’s probably too late now but; handspringbattery.com/
The same company has a wide range of PDA batteries here; pdainternalbattery.com/
They give instructions for installing internal batteries (of course, any warranty still running would probably be invalidated by doing this).
The new Treos (600, 650) have much improved battery life. The 650 has a removeable battery so much easier to replace.
I’ve had an Acer n10 for a year and a half now… I love it; it’s really been a helpful tool in being organized and learning Chinese!!!
I go online & use MSN Messenger at Wifi hotspots (wifi CF card around NT$1200). Also have a handy folding keyboard (cost around NT$1500?).
Cons:
-a little big
-Chinese PocketPC 2003 OS (afaik can’t install English)
-I don’t think they sell it anymore, and don’t think the newer models have CD and SD slots
Pros:
-Windows Media Player (plays MP3 and Windows audio formats)
I think there’s a RealPlayer or Winamp version as well
I use it to listen to Chinese (not enough!) and music
-CF AND SD slots
I use CF Wifi card and then SD card for music, files, pix, etc.
-Comes with MS Word and Excel
-Syncs with Outlook (not Outlook Express?)
I never lose anyone’s contact info anymore!
-Infrared so I can beam info/pix to/from laptop, phone, wife’s PDA
-Dr. Eye Chinese<->English dictionary! (around NT$800)
Can write any character you see & get definition
Also zhuyin and pinyin input (hmmm pinyin maybe not standard)
Instant tranlation
-Relatively cheap (mine was around NT$10k so price must have dropped)
-Chinese PocketPC 2003 OS (I bought it to improve Chinese!)
-Lethal phaser that can blast Klingons (just checking to see if anyone’s reading this far, heehee)
-Service
I’ve had good service from both pdaking & Acer.
I’ve had a couple of H/W problems and took it directly to the Acer service center (very close to Bade Rd. computer mkt.).
Replaced the screen in 1 day… other repair same day!
fyi, www.pdaking.com.tw
臺北市八德路一段37號2樓 Bade Rd. S1, #37, 2F (also a store in Nova)
make sure you get a faster than 400Mhz processor
if you want to run Skype on it, as it’s the minimum
requirement
landscape mode screen would be nice, if you surf a lot
also, the size of the ROM will be important to support the
upcoming WindowsMobile2005, I guess a minimum of 64MB
will be required, but the bigger, the better
on it, as it’s the minimum