Justin Noland

A few weeks ago, when I was doing my research into purchasing my hx4705, I made a stop by CompUSA. The guy there said that the hx4700 had the capability for GMRS expansion through a SIM chip. Does this really exist, or did the guy just not know his stuff?

allklrnoflr

You can get a CF card for your 4700, check out mobileplanet. I never tried one myself.

psionandy

I got an Audiovox 8000 GSM/GPRS CF card as a freebie from Dell when I bought my X50V. It should work with the Ipaqs.

It works pretty well for GPRS data but. Before you get too excited and sell your phone it does have some major drawbacks (some of which are common to most GSM CF cards)

The CF card sticks out the top of your PDA, Making it rather bulky and unable to fit in a lot of cases.

It needs its own headset which is plugged into the CF card... Not your normal headphone socket

It eats battery life far quicker than your normal phone.

No you can't use your BT headset with it

The phone software isn't that hot. In fact the worlds cheapest cellphone probaby works better as a phone.

Overall it was something of a disapointment. But it was free so I can't complain. I do know of people who are happy using it for GPRS data (email, web etc) and it does seem more suited for that sort of thing

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sugar_cube

I also have an Audiovox 8000 GSM/GPRS CF card; it's true that the phone software wasn't so hot but there is an updated version now - mine shipped with the card but for those with the older version I believe the new version can be downloaded from Audiovox's website.

Having said that, I don't actually use the phone bit (I have a mobile phone that's a lot easier to use!) - I bought the card so that I could access my email account regardless of where I was.

The battery does tend to drain down if you use the card for any great length of time, but that at least is an incentive for me to stay on the internet for only as long as I really need to (it helps to keep my phone bill down! )

rob1303

Originally Posted by Justin Noland

.....The guy there said that the hx4700 had the capability for GMRS expansion through a SIM chip. Does this really exist, or did the guy just not know his stuff?

By telling you how they connect all the others answered your question - sort of

The guy doesn't know his stuff. There is a SIM card slot (under the battery) but connections to it were never implemented.

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Rob

psionandy

Originally Posted by rob1303

By telling you how they connect all the others answered your question - sort of The guy doesn't know his stuff. There is a SIM card slot (under the battery) but connections to it were never implemented.

Wow.... that change must have happend quite late in the day for the hardware to make it though to the end device.

__________________
How can you think about gumbo at a time like this? I was almost eaten by a gorg!

- Boober Fraggle

Justin Noland

Ha, HP. What a bunch of whackjobs. I can just picture it now:
Enter: HP hx4700 R&D Design Team...
Guy 1- We should integrate GPRS into the hx4700! It would be one more awesome feature to add to the repetoire of things it can already do!
Guy 2- Sounds great to me, how about you guys?
Guys 3,4,5- Yes, absolutely!

.... The next day....

Guy 1- Ok, the chips are stamped for the SIM chip slot, and the casing has been designed to allow for a SIM chip to be inserted. All we need to do now is run a quarter of an inch of wire from the sim chip slot to the motherboard and, presto, cellular internet and voIP capabilities on our sexy littel devie!
Guy 2- CONSUMERS WILL GO CRAZY!!! They willlove this!!!
Guy 3- Yes, this will seriously give some appeal to our device. We could make millions off this idea!
Guy 4- I honestly don't think this is a good idea anymore. We should stop this now!
Guys 1,2,3,,5- WHY ISN'T IT A GOOD IDEA???!! ITS PERFECT!!!
Guy 4- Because the magic 8 ball said it would fail!
Guys 1,2,3,5 - Ohhhhhhhhhh! All hail the mighty magic 8ball! It speaks only truths!

Guy 1- Well, the mighty 8ball says we cannot continue.
Guy 2- Yes.
Guy 3- Okay, whatever. Anyone want to go to the pub?

Guy 1,2,4,5- YEAHHHH!!!

Kenundrum

actually, i think that putting a 3G radio would have messed up the sales because then they would've had to pitch it to service providers as well as end users... and usually the service providers keep a lot of strings attached. it would have also alienated a lot of people if they chose one technology or the other. if the ipaq had a GPRS radio in it, i would not have bought it. i use CDMA. and to put 2 different models out with different radios makes for lots of red tape at the fcc and complicated manufacturing... ps- 3G connections eat battery like its going out of style!

__________________
Ipaq hx4700
X5 Advanced PXA250 - WM2003
Mugen 3800 Battery
Fortuna BT Clip on GPS - Ambicon BT2000
1GB PQI SD

Justin Noland

good point

cgavula

The HP 5400/5500 also had unwired SIM slots in them - it just saves on manufacturing costs should they later decide to implement a GSM/GPRS version later on using the same form factor. I think the tech changes so fast that it allows them some flexibility should they ever choose to act on it. That said - I've never actually seem them act much on anything like this.

--Chris

Kenundrum

i just checked on my 4700, and it does not have a sim cutout or anywhere that looks like it might fit one... where is it on yours?

the real cool thing is mini-pci 3g wireless cards, that way you can use EVDO or EDGE (pick your poison) without a card sticking out, however it requires taking out the laptop's internal wifi...

__________________
Ipaq hx4700
X5 Advanced PXA250 - WM2003
Mugen 3800 Battery
Fortuna BT Clip on GPS - Ambicon BT2000
1GB PQI SD