pslewis

Right, now I have seen an Oregon Osaris Handheld for £58!!!! NEW!!!

Good?? Bad?? Ugly??

It seems to me to do all I need?? AND at £58??? Bargain of the year??

Pete

[Edited by pslewis - 2/1/2002 8:51:00 PM]

pslewis

Hiya, just got my Annual Cashback Cheque from the Alliance & Leicester Credit Card - good eh? use your card as you would anyway and get dosh back once a year!!! RESULT!! anyway:-

I quite fancy treating myself to one of those Personal Digital Assistant things - I know NOTHING about them!

So, what should I look for? will I actually use it more than my Electronic Organiser?? which one is the best?? etc. etc.

Thanks in anticipation

Pete

Neil Smalley

If you want the best, then it has to be a Compaq Ipaq.
It's more expensive than say a palm, but with it you get so much more. You can even add GPS Satnav to it, at a later date

http://www.compaq.co.uk/products/ipa...3850/index.stm

[Edited by Neil Smalley - 1/25/2002 8:19:30 PM]

pslewis

Thanks Neil - how many spondoolies??? ££££££'s????

I would be looking around £80 - £150 'ish??

Sound right? What about memory?? 2Mb ok?

Pete

Neil Smalley

A little bit more than that i'm afraid. (try double) but they come with 64Mb of memory and can be used as MP3 players, webcams etc etc etc. So you get a lot more than just a diary.

if that's too much dosh, check out http://www.zdnet.com/special/filters/sc/pda/ for some more reviews.

pslewis

Thanx - dont need it to make the tea and all that

Just to have info on the hip - downloaded from my PC - have a digicam - MP3 player, well that would be nice - but not needed really

Thanks for the link!!

Pete

Tiggs

pete,

get one- wait 6 months and report back, i reckon you'll ask yourself why you bothered.

i have a psion, palm and some other thing that seemed a "must buy" at the time all hidden at the bottom of my draw and never used.

Tiggs

kav

Hang on Neil
The Compaq's a great tool but it all depends what Pete's looking for. If you want all the bells and whistles - MP3 player, video player, full colour, MS Office in your pocket - great. If you only need diary, contacts and 'to dos', then the Palm's the kiddy.
All down to you Pete. What are you going to use this new toy for?
Cheers
Kav

polarbearit

Bought me brother a handspring deluxe 8mb for £89 at carphonewarehouse a couple of weeks back (they were asking £99, but the salesman did £10 off when I said I would only buy at a discount). He is just going to travel the world and wanted something small he could keep notes and a diary in... That combined with the fact it was just christmas and his birthday at about the same time meant I splashed out on the handspring - he loves it, loads of free software to download (seemed better free selection than for the Win CE machines). Small and portable, he's not had to change the batteries yet, and it has all the apps he wants, plenty quick enough and has backlit screen. He's even got a driving game on it now

So I'd definately recommend one, having used palms and CE's the handsprings offer a good balance with a quick and easy to use OS, but still good expansion etc.

Jon

Reffro

Forgive my ignorance, I am almost computer illiterate, but i understand a new Toshiba unit is due on the market soon that will outperform the Compaq. Does anybody have any more info on it?

Blow Dog

You can buy my nearly new 64MB compaq ipaq off me if you want.
I spent sumat like £400 for it, make me an offer.

It's the nads, I just don't use it.

Neil Smalley

Reffo

DO you mean this one http://www.csd.toshiba.com/pda/pda_home.html

It might go ok, but looks cack IMHO

JackClark

I'm very tempted by the iPAQ, so many people have them now. Common environment is a good thing. The tri band phone sleeve looks good.

SiCotty

Ipaq with wireless LAN card, eates batteries but great if you end up in one of those meetings that drag on and on and on.

They also have an IP phone available on them now and a I hear the sat nav is very good.

Si



[Edited by SiCotty - 1/26/2002 10:42:45 AM]

Tiggs

lol- all yu techno heads! pete's got bored already i expect

Tiggs

pslewis

Not Bored - maybe more confused

I reckon I will use it as an organiser - diary, calender, to-do list, have some simple Word Processing and maybe able to download stuff from the net??

I am more confused than ever now - saw a reduced Psion 5MX in comet for £200 dont know if thats good or not??? It was alongside a Palm for £98 (the assistant said that it was £150 2 weeks ago!!)

Are the prices of them dropping as fast as they say?? I have read that drops of 20% are common over the past 4 weeks?????

Pete

[Edited by pslewis - 1/26/2002 5:58:07 PM]

Neil Smalley

Offer Cem 200 quid for his Ipaq.
Or just go into Dixons/PC world and ask if you can try a few out.

alistair

IPAQ is nice but a bit big (for me). Palm is smaller and I prefer it.

You don't really need colour for diary / mail etcc. but I find I use my colour Palm 505 loads more than I used to use my Vx !

You will definately either love a PDA or never use it, there seems to be no middle ground. I sync mine every time I leave the office so I've always got all my contact info, appointments etc there when I need them.

If you don't live your life by Outlook then I wouldn't have thought you'd find it as useful !

polarbearit

You could just buy a better mobile phone if its simple PDA functions you want.

I think the Siemens SL45 and some of the New Erissons does a fair bit PDA stuff.

pslewis

Just been surfing the net and that Psion 5mx I saw today at £200 seems a good buy - anyone got one??

I know they are now discontinued

Pete

JackClark

I was a Psion freak for quite a while, wouldn't pay £200 for one, you'd be better off with the Palm. Reasoning; More Geeks have Palms nowadays, easier to palm - pun intended - off support.

Scott W

You might want to hold out and wait for the MM02 XDA. It's a mobile phone/pocket PC all in one. I'm not sure on the pricing yet, as MM02 (BT Cellnet) have not released it to the general public.

The only reason I know about the product is because I work for a company that has developed an application to work on it.

I believe it's due for general release in March/April. It also offers a lot more functionality than the Compaq iPAQ, Toshiba's new Pocket PC, or anything else that Psion offer at the momnet.

pslewis

Seems to be the same as in all the new tech areas - wait for the next best thing since sliced bread and you will be waiting forever

I have just upgraded my computer - it seems safe to do so now, as the software is nowhere near challenging the new hardware - not so long ago your computer was out of date because it wouldnt run the new blah de blah .................. now, most machines over the last year will blow all software into touch for a long, long time

Pete

Brendan Hughes

Point 1. Do you want keyboard or not?

Point 2. How much do you want to connect it with your mobile phone (internet, GPS etc)?

Point 3. When you've got an idea, go out and try it. Best bit of advice I ever had was from a guy who said "I tried them, and if I couldn't work it within 5 mins, I didn't buy it."

I have a Nokia 9110, almost 3 yrs old, really don't like it. Screen is too small, software lacks shortcuts etc. My old Psion 3a, I adored. What I want is a fantastic PDA with a basic phone attached, what I got in the Nokia was a fantastic phone with basic PDA. If you're not Mr Super-Busy, all the stuff about WAP and beaming digital movies around the world is horseshyte - connection speed is 14.4k if you're lucky, and on a mobile phone bill too! I'd like to go back onto a Psion product, but can't find a one-box solution with both phone and organiser. I think the keyboardless ones are on their way, but I'm more cautious this time (bought the Nokia without testing it first). I used the Psion all the time for a diary, I don't use the Nokia as the keyboard is too fiddly and the screen too pokey to read, so I've gone back to paper - yuk!

Interesting to read about the developments though. Mine's 3 yrs old and switches off two or three times a day, more if it gets bashed. I want a new one, but am trying to last a bit longer until something really rated comes out. IPaq sounds interesting from the above, except 1. it uses MS OS, and 2. with phone it's a bit bulky methinks.

BJH

James Neill

iTrader: (1)

pslewis

This will most likely suit your needs and budget

http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=HAND_VISORDLUX

Its not the best/fastest/newest. But it will do eveything you want bar the word processing (for this you can download a program called WordSmith)

It's got the Palm OS so there are oodles of programs to try (http://www.palmgear.com). But out the box it'll do all your diary, contacts, notes and to do stuff.

I've had a Palm IIIx (similar device but older) for a few years now and its perfect.

GEJL

I'd vote for a Palm as well. I've got a Vx, with a GPS attachment for traffic camera warning and basic sat-nav, too. It can browse the web through my mobile phone, send SMS etc, and has a rally game with a Scooby in it. New for about £160 at Carphone Warehouse, 2nd hand on ebay for about £100.

It only comes in silver, though. Might be possible to get it resprayed in gold, I suppose...

kryten

Well, I've recently got the bluetooth ipaq - cracking piece of kit, especially when used with my ericsson T68. REAL web browsing on the move, plus I can admin my servers from anywhere

Of course, the bluetooth headset is nice too and the navigation system for the ipaq comes in handy when you're lost.

The iPaq calendar views are pretty awful - i've got an add on app that gives better day/week/month views.

If you're just after something to store contacts/appointments then get a palm - much cheaper and it'll do everything you want out of the box.

Of course you could always make me an offer for my old Cassiopia E115....

zoog

Kryten

How much of the features you describe come with ipac at basic list price? It seems to me to be very dear and to have the possibilty of being even costlier once you realise what needs to be bought additionally. (Oh well I suppose its offsettalble against tax.)

It cetainly looks to be the king at present.

pslewis

Not interested in Phone - I have a couple of phones anyway!!

Not really interested in MP3 player

Jotter, dairy, addresses, to-do list, that type of thing is all I need ................... a word processor may be good?

What is with this freeshare software?? what does that get the thing to do??

I am beginning to think that my Organiser does what I want?? just wanted to waste some free money thats all!!

Pete

GEJL

Pete - freeware/shareware software is stuff you can download off the net that other people have developed for the Palm or whatever. Useful little utilities, games etc. (I've got versions of Space Invaders, Galaxians, Scramble etc. on mine, being a bit of a fan of those early eighties arcade games...)

You can now get an 8MB Palm 105 for less than £100 from PC World (bizzarely, they appear to be the cheapest). At that price it's almost disposable

Check out http:\\www.palm.com for details of what it can do.