James Neill

iTrader: (1)

Have been using an old Palm IIIx for the last few years. Recently just got given a HP IPAQ 5450 - for a trial at work. It's got 64Mb, colour screen, Bluetooth, wireless LAN - the works.

And I've decided to stay with my Palm.

This iPAQ is heavy, cumbersome and slow. I use AvantGO a lot for reading news and stuff offline. As far as I'm concerned this is the killer app for PDAs. On my Palm (with 16Mhz 68000 CPU) all the pages pop up pretty much instantly. On the iPAQ (with 400Mhz ARM CPU) the pages takes much longer.

Addresses and Tasks sync perfectly on the iPAQ, the datebook is a little low on features. The notes feature is bizarre. On the Palm and in Outlook they're all categorized and I have 1000's of them. When they get synced to the iPAQ it creates an individual file for each one and I loose the categorisation.

I tried to use Bluetooth and the Wireless LAN features - talk about making a mountain out of a mole hill. Must have been about 15 stylus-click - just to get Bluetooth connected to something.

Personally my feeling is that the PocketPCs are over-engineered and trying to do to much. The Palm on the other hand is a lot simpler and basic, but so much more useable (and its 3 years old)

All in all a little disapointed as I thought this iPAQ would be the ultimate PDA. In reality it's just a small PC, with a tiny screen and without a keyboard (and all that that entails)

Why do people get so enamoured with these PocketPCs? They must just be techno junkies rather than actually using them ?????

IWatkins

James,

I'm going to have to agree with you even though I'm a self confessed Microsoft junkie.

I've used a Plam Pilot Pro from years back, the IPAQ and recently the Palm Tungsten.

Both Palms do the job good enough but the Ipaq is a little on the overkill side and yes, fairly slow.

I don't use them everyday, non-stop, so for those kind of users maybe the Ipaq is a better solution, I don't know.

Cheers

Ian

gregh

>> Why do people get so enamoured with these PocketPCs

cos it does what I want, plays MP3s, colour videos, can pick up my email via bluetooth, contacts, calendars, GPS navigation, word, excel, internet browsing etc. Works as well out of doors as well as in.

There are better notes stuff out there, the standard one is a little basic as you've found.

gregh

btw check out hpc notes for a better note client for Pocketpc. There are various versions, all linked from my website

http://www.pocketpcsoft.net


Benefits and Features
Organize your notes - by clicking on the column header buttons, you can sort notes by creation date, modification date, subject and type.
Compatibility - export and import notes as text files or transfer data to and from other applications using copy and paste.
Efficient - small program size and compressed database leaves plenty of storage space.
Privacy - protect notes from unauthorized access with a password.
Simple User Interface - intuitive user interface allows you to start using HPC Notes right away.
Microsoft Outlook support - synchronizes notes directly with Microsoft Outlook, or import (export) notes directly with Microsoft Personal Post Office (PST) folders.
Email capability - send email messages directly from Note Editor form by clicking on Send Mail button. You may also send one or more notes as attachments.

BigGT3Fan

Also they have loads of excellent expansion options. I know that Palm do to, but the iPAQ seems to have the best spread of peripherals. I have recently bought an FM Radio CF card from expansys that enables me to have FM radio as well as MP3's on the move


Alex

jbryant

I have been given a Palm Vx and an iPaq at work. I gave the ipaq back for the simple reason it's not pocket sized. I carry my palm in my jeans pocket and don't need to worry about it.
The Palm OS is nasty (not that CE is better) though so I've replaced that with Handscape which is nice

scottywrx

Ive been using the 5450 for a couple of weeks now .
Nice features ..
Sync via bluetooth .. no need to stick it in a cradle
VNC on WLAN...
Great Screen ..

Battery life is appauling !! Watch out . I left mine on all night with WLAN on and it drained battery so much it would not turn back on .
Had to do a "hard" reset to get it back and going again .So glad I backed the beast up ..

Scott

gregh

>> Had to do a "hard" reset to get it back and going again .

Scott if that happens again leave it charging for 30mins ish and see if it will turn on then, before you do a hard reset.

greg

scottywrx

Greg ..
Had it on charge for more than two hours ... learnt about hard reset from support call to HP ...

New to ipaq so had to be "told" the three finger salute of hard-reset ....

Other thing is that the only way i seem to be able to link both @ home with WLAN and work is to take battery off for 5 secs when changing profile/location . Otherwise it does not pic up IP addr and annoyingly allocates its own IP (chocolate teapot mode! )..

Once battery has been disconnected and repowered it works every time .. Just an annoying feature I suppose ... This was a tip from another 5450 user !

James Neill

iTrader: (1)

So Pocket PC's crash then? Well that just rounds things off nicely - will definately stay with Palm.

gregh

>> So Pocket PC's crash then

yes, that's the one (IMHO) advantage of Palm!

Greg

gregh

btw to increase battery life on PocketPCs:

I looked in the "settings" "connections" then "beam"
> icon and noticed that by default the box is ticked to enable infrared,
this
> means that not only is the receiver powered all the time the transmitter
> will power up on a regular basis to interrogate any possible infrared
> devices out there, since disabling mine I have seen a 15 to 20 % increase
in
> battery life,

boomer

Greg,

does this now mean that you can run your iPaq for more than 8 hours without a charge

mb

BigGT3Fan

Thing is, how often do you need to

Not that often are you away from mains power for that length of time. It's a simple choice, have a Palm and you get a PDA that is less power hungry, but can't do as much, or have a Pocket PC and you get a 'pocket pc' that can do a whole lot more, but requires correspondingly more power.

If you are not using it, or just using it as a diary/address book, it'll last a week, more if you have an expansion pack. If you are playing MP3's and browsing the web over GPRS or listening to FM radio, you'll need to charge after a few hours.

As they say, you don't get summat' for nothin'



[Edited by BigGT3Fan - 3/25/2003 6:28:08 PM]

gregh

>> does this now mean that you can run your iPaq for more than 8 hours without a charge

yup, although bluetooth and/or WiFi eat batteries!!

[urlhttp://www.pocketpcsoft.net/html/real_life_battery.htm[/url]