cst516

OK this post is for anyone that uses a smartphone, and I mean uses a smartphone-pda phone instead of using a regurlar PDA.

I will start by saying that I am an X50v owner and just love the darn thing. I carry it everywhere and use it just about everywhere. I also have a cell phone that I am required to carry for work. The phone is a total POS and barely works for phone usage but I also carry it everywhere. Currently I do not own a personal cell phone, I am allowed to use the business phone for personal use but not too much as it will lead to a butt chewing. Unknown as to what is too much, I try not to use it. My wife carries a cell phone that we use when we are together but she has it when were not together.

I have wanted to get my own personal cell phone but that leads me to carry three devices with me which is something that I really don't want to do. Besides the convience, the allways on email/internet connection is very tempting. I use the WIFI on my X50 a lot but I am limited to where I have WIFI.

The rumors of the new Treo 700 with WM 5 are very tempting. I have always loved the form factor of the Treo series but have passed on it because it has the Palm OS and the screen seemed really samll. Don't get me wrong I liked the Palm OS but I have grown to love my Pocket PC and don't want to change. \

As I am serious considering a Smartphone as my next PDA purchase (unknown when as I usually plan these types of purchases for months), I have a few questions. Like I said I use my X50 for just about everything so I was wondering how users handle the following things.

-When cruising along in the car using my PDA as a GPS connected to a bluetooth GPS and the phone rings. What do you do? Do these things have speakerphones? Will a bluetooth headset work while being used with the GPS?

- Still cruising but this time listening to MP3s through the headphone jack, through the tape deck and the phone rings. What do you do?

- Typing using my stowaway keyboard while sitting in my car and the phone rings. What do you do?

_ Needing to write notes while talking on the phone. How does that work?

There are other examples of how I use my PDA at the same time as my phone but I think you get the picture. I think a lot of these problems can be solved with a bluetooth headset, however I have never used one, do they work and can they be used at the same time as another bluetooth item? I do like headsets as they leave my hands free, but I don't like the cord.

Plus any input on the Email/Internet usage would be great. How does it work? Is it worth the money?

Any input on this would be great.

DeanJ

I cant really help too much as i dont really use my smartphone in those kinds of ways, I have a X30H, Orange C500 smartphone and a SE work mobile which i normally just leave in my laptop case with call divert on to my personal mobile, i only really use it if i'm gonna make a lot of phone calls.

I'll start with the last comment as thats the easiest. I think all smartphones from the C500 onwards let you use 2 bluetooth items at once ie headset and gps. That also answers you keyboard question too if its a bluetooth one?

if your on the phone and want to use any of the other features you can just press the home key to take you back to the home screen then you can use any other features of the phone, if you want to write something down you could just load up wordpad. Not the easiest to write on if the phones at your head tho.

Not really sure what would happen if you were using the phone to play mp3s and someone rang you, i dont really use it to play mp3s on to be honest so never really used the headphone jack.

The phones do have a built in speakerphone, so if the phone did ring while you were using it as a gps you could turn that on (by holding down the green button) not sure how good it would actually be tho, you could just answer the phone normally and then when the call is finished it'll go back to the app you were using. if you answered with a bt headset you'd still get the call summary up while on the phone, if you wanted to see your gps too you'd either have to wait to finish the call or press the home key and press start and goto the gps app (it'd still be how you left it, you wouldnt have to reprogram your destination or anything)

That answers all your Q, well to the best i can... one more tho would i swap my pda for a smartphone? no way.

Depending on your uses of your pda but how i use mine i just couldnt, dont get me wrong smartphones are great, but more for a person that doesnt need a pda, anything my phone can do my pda does twice as good plus more. Personally i will be getting a pocketpc phone quite soon then putting my works sim in my smartphone as its better then the SE they've give me.

Any more questions just let us know

cst516

Thanks for the info. I was not aware that two bluetooth devices could be used at the same time. I am a heavy PDA user and I think I would have a problem with the screen resolution/ size personally. I will continue pondering my decision for several more months.

workingman

well, i own a nokia n-gage classic. i do like it very much, but for some
things a ppc or palm ir much better. i recommend you using a symbian phone,
as this o.s. have a lot of useful apps, and very easy to use. try any
symbian phone for the usability and programs. or any bluetooth enabled
phone so when you don't have any wi-fi or pc to use the internet, you can
surf the web over gprs...