PDA advice

[Panda On Smack]

Mate of mine got a Toshiba PDA off Ebay and its inspired me to get one. Whats done it for me is the GPS program TomTom hes got on it.

It would be handy to have a little PC to have on me anyway so im not just doing it for the GPS. I have about 3 PC's at home anyway so im always using them.

Thing is i have no idea about PDA's and which one is good etc. Ive looked on Ebay and there are similar ones to what my mate has. For about 300 quid you get what seems like a decent spec'd Toshiba PDA with memory, tom tom program, gps add on etc etc

Anyone in the know how of PDA's to give me a few pointers?

thanks people.

 

[Tom]

I have a Compaq (now HP) Ipaq 3630, its a few years old now, but still quite well specced. I use it now almost entirely for satnav, with tomtom navigator v2.

If you're considering getting tomtom, look at the tomtom forum at www.pocketgps.co.uk, and pay particular attention to the bad comments about tomtom navigator v3. I'm having a big fight with tomtom right now, as they won't cancel my order for v3, I ordered nearly a month ago, and still no delivery.

Be warned, it can take 5-10 minutes for the gps receiver to power up from a cold start. The cig lighter socket in my car is on all the time, other cars turn them off with the ignition, so you may have to rewire your cig lighter socket so this doesn't happen. The current draw is minimal, don't worry about flattening your car battery. Also, make sure you don't have a heated windscreen, or one of those french polarised ones, if you do, you may have to buy a re-radiator aerial (sticks on your roof).

PDAs are great for downloading emails, best to get one with bluetooth as the IR is a pain to use (line of sight bollocks). I've heard generally poor things about SD slots, CF card slots seem to be the preferred choice, the memory expansion cards are getting bigger all the time.

The sync process is dead easy, I use it with outlook, syncs calendars, contacts, emails, files, etc.

You can also use them for watching films, wmp works fine for mp3s, or you can download pockettv for viewing mpgs. You can rotate the display for the correct aspect.

Software is available to control your television etc with the ir port. You can also store books on them, good for reading on the train (uses microsoft reader).

The newest ipaqs are very slim, and extremely light. Just don't drop them, they don't like that If you want a funky case, get it from www.vajacases.com, I have one, fucking superb quality.

 

[Panda On Smack]

Thanks Tom, great help.

will look up TomTom and the version debate

cheers

 

[Tom]

Just in case I wasn't making it clear, a cold start on the gps receiver is when you remove power from it. My cig lighter is permanently on, so it never cold starts.

Have a look around on Ebay, there are lots of bargains to be had (best to collect though, they're popular devices, and I would imagine a few scammers try their luck).

 

[Panda On Smack]

righto, have sent you a PM



ta

 

[Sohan_thc]

Just a Ipaq 5550 since 3 weeks now with TomTom v3 and it works great
for the receiver thing i not really have that tho , when i enter a new route when im @ home it will ask "Start from last known gps position" that would be oke , then when im in the car it finds gps real quick even before im of the parking lot here .
For the coated windshield problems you could get an external but i really not like things outside my car but you could also get a bluetooth version.
you can put it anywere in the car w/o worry about cables.

Other need items for pda's are

checkpoint 3.2 for speedtraps etc = overlay for tomtom with online update.

And what i do is read mail / msn / irc while playing games.
my ipaq got wifi/bluetooth and with some little software you can
use a cordless desktop keyboard

i got the 5550 for 3 reasons
*biggers screen (hey im no 20 anymore )
*got 128mb intern mem for my maps from tomtom.
*got bluetooth / wifi wich is handy for my phone . getting on accesspoint so i can browse internet from the macdonalds ;P

But you should look what you want with it , memory is not expensive in SD cards. also if you wanna play mp3 from it might be handy if you could use a mini hard drive (like those in ipod) not now is expansive but will be cheap later. tomtom maps are big and if you put some showstuff on it like i did you need to have like 256 sd card xtra in it. backups can be made to a normal pc.


got a minor point also

The sound from an ipaq is not bad but not loud also
with car nav. it should be better if it was little louder.
is fixable with extrernal speaker thingie.
hmmz runs windows so yep it hangs from time to time ;P

 

[Tom]

You know a cheap way of making the Ipaq louder in your car? Buy one of those cheapy hands-free kits, with a microphone that clamps over the loudspeaker. Works a treat, although I don't need one.

 

[DaGaffer]

Don't get a Toshiba, I've got an e750 and its shit. Battery life is poor, support is laughable. If you must have a Windows PDA, follow the crowd and get an iPaq. <edit> or alternatively, you could buy mine!

 

[nick]

I have a QTEK 2020/MDA II/I-Mate II (depending on where you purchased it). This is a mobile phone, camera and PDA in one and works perfectly. I mainly use it for synchronizing my calendar, inbox directly with the exchange server through GPRS (always on pay per kb internet access). It doesn't have WIFI but I use bluetooth instead to access my LAN/Internet/Activesync at home and at work.