Time for (a) new toy(s) - PDA & phone or smartphone?

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The dopods seems pretty interesting. Has anyone used one?

There’s a PocketPC phone for around NT$12000 if I remember correctly:
dopod.com/gb/product/515_1.jsp
It has an SD/MMC slot (but I think that you have to take out the battery to get to it).

I saw a new model that is smaller than most PocketPC PDA’s.
dopod.com/gb/product/818_1.jsp
It has Bluetooth, IR, SD card slot (only no wifi) for around NT$20,000. I’m pretty sure the one I saw a couple of days ago at the computer market had a 1.3Mpixel camera but I don’t see that at the link above. Yes, I know it’s expensive, but it’ll get cheaper…

There’s a HP6315 that’s expensive that had some good reviews…
reviews.cnet.com/HP_iPaq_Pocket_ … 81393.html
It seems to have just about everything–IR, bluetooth, wifi, SD; but it might be a little bulky for some.
Lowest price at cnet was USD$469… But I’m not sure if they sell it in Taiwan.

My brother has a Palm OS based Treo650 cell phone/PDA that he loves…

Seems like there isn’t much with a Palm OS. Hope Palm doesn’t disappear altogether.

Does anyone know whether that’s still sold here? Roughly how much? (Did a search but couldn’t find any prices.)

Thanks.

fyi, Re: HP6315, I had seen some positive reviews on it a while back, especially about the battery life. But the user reviews at Cnet don’t appear to be that positive (55% positive, 45% negative).

[quote=“joesax”]Seems like there isn’t much with a Palm OS. Hope Palm doesn’t disappear altogether.

Does anyone know whether that’s still sold here? Roughly how much? (Did a search but couldn’t find any prices.)

Thanks.[/quote]

Not sure where to find one yet, but I think I’m going to replace my 2 year old Tungsten T with this phone. It’s current going for $450US (oops, make that 450 after a 150 rebate) according to PalmOne and they do have a tri-mode version.

PalmOne Treo650 page

Hey Kello, has he used the web apps(browser/email client) yet?
If so, any problems?

I’ve had a few, and even had one phone replaced by Motorla.

[quote=“Harold”]The dopods seems pretty interesting. Has anyone used one?
[/quote]

I’ve met a few people with the Dopod who all love it.
One was going for around 10k at Kuanghua.

I bought a Moto E680

Which has no keys just a touch screen.
Its a really good phone, with excellent voice quaility.

But it’s not a good PDA, with very little functionaility.
and the Battery life is dire (780mA)

and no real Web browser yet (maybe OPERA will release one soon)

although, it has excellent multimedia functions and the Email client is good. although I question Taipei’s GPRS as it seems much slower here than in the UK.

Good Features include

  1. MP3
  2. Real Player
  3. 3D games
  4. Video recording 3GGP quality.

plus it takes a 1GB SD card, so you can use it to watch Movies.

The DOPOD PDA phones is great, very small and good battery life.
They do and English version in Taiwan (it’s not selectable in OS)

It is made by the same company that makes the O2 phones for the UK.

But, I would really love a GSM TREO 650.

I have tried and failed to get one here, but HK should have them.

[quote=“miltownkid”]Not sure where to find one yet, but I think I’m going to replace my 2 year old Tungsten T with this phone. It’s current going for $450US (oops, make that 450 after a 150 rebate) according to PalmOne and they do have a tri-mode version.

PalmOne Treo650 page[/quote]I’m still thinking of buying some kind of Treo phone, maybe an older model such as the 180 or 270. I believe they’re available in two models; “GSM” and “CDMA”. Which is the kind sold here? I thought I read that it was CDMA but not sure. Will that kind work OK on visits to the UK? (My current phone does roaming in the UK no problem; the network is “TWN GSM” so I suppose it must be a GSM phone).

[quote=“TaipeiDaddy”]I bought a Moto E680

Which has no keys just a touch screen.
Its a really good phone, with excellent voice quaility.

But it’s not a good PDA, with very little functionaility.
and the Battery life is dire (780mA)

and no real Web browser yet (maybe OPERA will release one soon) [/quote]

Try…
http://www.reqwireless.com

Works really well on my phone(A780). Better than the Opera anyway.
As well, I found that the EmailViewer works really well with Yahoo and Hotmail, which apperently doesn’t happen with most proprietary email clients on Symbian, Java or Linux based(which are for the time being really just Java anyway) phones.

At least that what I got out of the Techs and Engineers at Motorola’s Ren-Ai office.

I have a P900 and it suits me just fine. I can check my emails while on the go, browse whatever I need on the net, keep contacts and all kinds of stuff, it’s small, long battery life (for my use).
A good product.

Yes, well, I need a phone that runs Palm OS. Not many places sell them here though. Saw what looked like a Treo 180 or 270 at Nova for 7800NT. Might go back and look at that. Short (internal) battery life and flimsy flip cover, though, according to reviews.

Decided against Treos 180 or 270. Breaking flip cover is very common due to bad design.

Treo 600 looks pretty good though expensive. Not sure about the tiny keyboard though, and it would be nice to have a removable battery, not an internal one.

The Kyocera 7135 and the Samsung SPH i300 and SPH i500 are clamshell phone/PDAs running Palm OS. Graffiti only but they look quite rugged and durable. Has anyone seen them on sale in Taiwan though? I’ve done a search and couldn’t find anything.

OK. Time for me to consider a Pocket PC/Phone combo, but now the GPS spanner has been thrown into the works.
So far in my travels I’ve seen PocketPCs with phones OR GPS but not both…any thoughts?

Pocket PCs with GSM built in still seem pretty expensive (circa 25-30,000 for something decent).

[quote=“truant”]OK. Time for me to consider a Pocket PC/Phone combo, but now the GPS spanner has been thrown into the works.
So far in my travels I’ve seen PocketPCs with phones OR GPS but not both…any thoughts?

Pocket PCs with GSM built in still seem pretty expensive (circa 25-30,000 for something decent).[/quote]That’s a lot of money! Why does it have to be Pocket PC? The (Palm OS) Treo 600 is a good piece of kit and you can get it for less than 16,000NT. There are a number of aftermarket GPS things available for it.

One problem I have, is to find a Taiwan map for my Palm/GPS system. Any ideas? A GPS is fine, but with out a map almost useless. I heard MapKing has Taiwan maps, but only for the PocketPC

[quote=“joesax”][quote=“truant”]OK. Time for me to consider a Pocket PC/Phone combo, but now the GPS spanner has been thrown into the works.
So far in my travels I’ve seen PocketPCs with phones OR GPS but not both…any thoughts?

Pocket PCs with GSM built in still seem pretty expensive (circa 25-30,000 for something decent).[/quote]That’s a lot of money! Why does it have to be Pocket PC? The (Palm OS) Treo 600 is a good piece of kit and you can get it for less than 16,000NT. There are a number of aftermarket GPS things available for it.[/quote]

I hear what you’re saying but I’ve been a PPC fan for a while, and my personal opinion is that the Palm will eventually be a dead duck - which may be why the prices are generally lower - but I may be completely wrong on that thought. I guess it’s like the old mac vs pc debate.
I spotted an HP 6365(?) PPC last night with GSM for around 20k with free bluetooth headset. Apart from GSM, the specs of my 5550 are equal, (if not better in the RAM dept), so not worth the jump yet.
MSN messenger to a PPC via GPRS is the shit!

I have seen a number of Taiwan GPS maps in FNAC Asiaworld(I think) - but they are in chinese.
Even finding a conventional paper Taiwan map that’s readable is a challenge.

Dopod seems to be the current king of SmartPhones in Taiwan, but I haven’t heard much about their quality. There are also the O2 phones (I think they changed their name recently, though). At this point, I don’t think the price justifies what you get, since the processors on the phones are rather slow and the screens are too small and not high enough quality. At least some (if not all) of the Dopods take flash memory cards, which I’d consider a basic must for any SmartPhone. I also wonder how long the tiny batteries last…

I tend to agree a PPC enabled phone is the way to go, especially if you use Outlook as your main PIM storage center. Being able to sync your info between mulitple platforms is critical. Case in point how this doesn’t work for proprietary software: I have a Sony Ericsson cell phone. It took a data transfer from Outlook, which is cool, but it proceeded to screw up a lot of the formatting, and it only took a few pieces of info from each file. It’s fine for basic use on the cell, but I won’t resync again, since it would corrupt my original Outlook contacts due to the dropped data.

Recently I’ve been looking for the type of phone you’re after, or a new PPC. I decided to just keep my old PPC for a while until it totally conks out. I also bought a Sony PSP (hee hee) since it can play MP3s, show movies, photos, etc. So, for now I’ll be carrying a few gadgets until the tech specs come up and the price point comes down for “all-in-one” phones.

[quote=“Jefferson”]Dopod seems to be the current king of SmartPhones in Taiwan, but I haven’t heard much about their quality. There are also the O2 phones (I think they changed their name recently, though). At this point, I don’t think the price justifies what you get, since the processors on the phones are rather slow and the screens are too small and not high enough quality. At least some (if not all) of the Dopods take flash memory cards, which I’d consider a basic must for any SmartPhone. I also wonder how long the tiny batteries last…

I tend to agree a PPC enabled phone is the way to go, especially if you use Outlook as your main PIM storage center. Being able to sync your info between mulitple platforms is critical. Case in point how this doesn’t work for proprietary software: I have a Sony Ericsson cell phone. It took a data transfer from Outlook, which is cool, but it proceeded to screw up a lot of the formatting, and it only took a few pieces of info from each file. It’s fine for basic use on the cell, but I won’t resync again, since it would corrupt my original Outlook contacts due to the dropped data.

Recently I’ve been looking for the type of phone you’re after, or a new PPC. I decided to just keep my old PPC for a while until it totally conks out. I also bought a Sony PSP (hee hee) since it can play MP3s, show movies, photos, etc. So, for now I’ll be carrying a few gadgets until the tech specs come up and the price point comes down for “all-in-one” phones.[/quote]

so you ARE a geek then Jefferson :smiley: