About to buy a PDA, any ideas?

DAMiEN · 06-13-04, 12:44 PM

Hi

I'm about to buy a PDA and I'm thinking of prehaps an Dell X5 or X30. I only know what I would like to be able to do with it and hope that if I list it here you guys will be able to guide me towards the right buy for me.

Things that I would like to be able to do is

Use my Haicoms HI-203E GPS with Tom Tom Nav. 3
Wath whole movies in decent quality
Connect and control other devices (via wireless or other. i.e. VNC to control my PC)
Be able to use my own developed software with ease (no locks that prevents me from doing what I want)

Thing that would be nice

Play games (the cooler the better)
Watch TV
Other useless cool things :D

The thing that got me to think about a PDA at all was the fact that I had the GPS. Then I started to think about how nice it would be to have a Windows compatible mobile device and prehaps beeing able to control the TV, PC etc with it.

Can these PDA's be used to write in word etc. with ease or is it frustrating? Can any of the PDA's run Linux?
How much storage space do you usualy need in a PDA?
Saw that the X5 had Compact Flash and that the x30 lacked that. Isn't CF good to have? What I have heard CF storagecards are WAY cheaper than SD... Am i wrong?

Thanx for any input, feels like I'm in a jungle right now ;)

Falco63 · 06-13-04, 01:58 PM

I suggest you do some reseach on the specific needs you have. GPS works on the Pocket PC wheather or not it will work with the one you have?? Check with the manufacturer.
You can watch multimedia on a Pocket PC but you need to be more specific, DVDs?? search for and read threads on DVD players & conversion, PocketTV works well playing video and is free.
VNC works fine, a little hard to read the whole screen, again what do you need to do with it?
If you program software you should know the Windows Mobile 2003 is its own OS and you will need to rewrite or recompile your code. No one would have a clue whether or not it'll work.

06-13-04, 10:06 PM

to know if your GPS will work you need to provide more specifics. is a bluetooth based unit or direct connect? what is the connection?

you can watch movies in good quality. i do it all the time by converting dvds into avi files and loading them onto an SD card.

for controling other devices you will want to stay away from the x5 as its infrared does not have a range of more than three feet. the range on the x3 is fantastic.

not a clue about developing your own software. depends on what you want to do.

games, lots of them...tv, yes with the right software...other useless stuff, definately.

for CF, it may or may not be something you want. if your GPS is bluetooth, then the x30 will provide all you need to run that. most people use the cf slot to run a wifi card, which is already in the x30. SD is more expensive, but CF has only been on the market for half as long as CF. prices are getting closer as time goes on.

DAMiEN · 06-14-04, 07:35 AM

Regarding the development of software I understand that it has do be rewritten etc. I just wondered if they have some kind of lock on the pda that prevents me from using my own software.

Regarding movies I was basicly thinking about divx movies. But is there a DVD drive for this PDA?

Regarding my GPS it seems to have the connection that goes at the bottom of the PDA (so no bluetooth). The bad thing is that the cable I got seems to be for iPAQ but I have heard of people using this GPS with Axim X3, but prehaps it's with another cable.

I have read that there are a few emulators for PDA's. i.e. SNES, NES, PSX emus etc.
They didn't seem to run at full speed though but that was when the X3 was top of the notch so how does they run on a X30 with 624MHz processor? (If anyone knows)

Are there 3D games for the X30? How do they run and how do they look?

Regarding watching TV on the PDA, does that require a hardware reciver or is there a videoin connection and software avalible to decode the signal?

Nancy Stanphill · 06-14-04, 07:42 AM

Probably most of your needs will be better served by the X30. However, if your GPS hooks in by CF, you will need the X5.

2000FordFocus · 06-14-04, 11:35 AM

you can watch TV on a PDA? how?