Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: mikhael on April 15, 2002, 09:09:35 pm
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Completely OT, but I'm getting ready to fork over the better part of a thousand dollars for a PDA and its various and sundry accessories. I'm looking for opinions from people who have/use any of the current crop.
I'm dead set against PalmOS devices (Visors, Clies and PalmPilots), due to some issues with storage capacity, screen size and physical interfaces. I am currently considering the newest Compaq iPaq, HP Jornada, Casio Cassiopeia and the Sharp Zaurus. All of these are WinCE/PocketPC devices except the Sharp Zaurus, which is a Linux based device. I'm no big fan of Linux, but it has a builtin hide-away keyboard and its pretty speedy.
Does anyone have any opinions, roadstories, or warnings about any of these devices?
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I have a Palm M100...its okay, and a lot less than what you're talking about. Good for my needs (which are slim)
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Originally posted by Corsair
I have a Palm M100...its okay, and a lot less than what you're talking about. Good for my needs (which are slim)
I'm specifically not looking at PalmOS devices.
Each of the devices I'm looking at runs between $500 and $600, before I consider accessories, so I'm hoping to get opinions and real life information about them outside of the (bought) reviews and corporate hypesheets.
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Oh yeah. Ummmm heh heh. I read that part! No, really I did! :D
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I was going to say Palm as well...but apparently not. I've got no idea....I haven't even looked at the alternative PDA's at all. Whats the difference?
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Difference? well, the Zaurus is a Linux based device. The others are all WinCE/PocketPC (Microsfot Windows Compact Edition) based devices. I dislike Palm devices for several reasons, principally the small screens, the dedicated input spaces, and the lack of decent expansion slots or memory space. All the devices I am looking at are 64mb devices, with CF slots, some with SecureDigital slots.
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Just remember to get a fold-up keyboard add-on (if you can't stand not typing) :p
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I personally don't really see the purpose of PDAs; they are basically just really slow computers that can be carried around. I would just buy a full-fledged desktop computer instead. :D
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Originally posted by CP5670
I personally don't really see the purpose of PDAs; they are basically just really slow computers that can be carried around. I would just buy a full-fledged desktop computer instead. :D
End of Point :D
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What's the point of carrying around a slow computer everywhere though? Might as well just stay in one place and use a more powerful one. (you can't really do anything with a computer while walking around anyway, even if the units were at all powerful) These things seem more like consumer gimmicks to me, sort of like cellphones. :p:D
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Let's see... some of those Sony Clie Palm OS-based (yes, I know... you're dead set against, blah blah) devices have hi-res screens, memory stick slots (128mb, anyone?), and multimedia capabilities.
But I digress. The real question is: What do you need it for? :D
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I personally don't really love PDAs either. It's the same deal with laptops, as well; pay more, get less. Portability isn't something I like... have to worry about battery power, and visibility, and all sorts of other stuff. ;) But anyway, the Zaurus gets a nod from me... Linux systems everywhere work well. To my knowledge. ;)
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My cell phone does almost everything I'd need on a PDA, and my WAP applications do the rest. I don't think I'd ever buy one of those things, but if I HAD to get one, I'd get a Yopi. I don't even know if it's out yet, but it's the only one I liked. :D
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It's the same deal with laptops, as well; pay more, get less. Portability isn't something I like... have to worry about battery power, and visibility, and all sorts of other stuff.
Hey same with me; I don't really mind if a computer takes up several rooms if it is relatively inexpensive and still powerful. ;) :D
Anyway, I have heard good things about the Jornada and the Cassiopeia, at least in magazine reviews, but that was over a year ago. You might want to check the zdnet site or something and see what reviews they gave for the various PDAs.
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Wasn't the Cassiopeia line discontinued?
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use the power of your mind instead of a keyboard, or one of those fold up keyboards.
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From Sandwich:
Let's see... some of those Sony Clie Palm OS-based (yes, I know... you're dead set against, blah blah) devices have hi-res screens, memory stick slots (128mb, anyone?), and multimedia capabilities.
But I digress. The real question is: What do you need it for?
Sandwich! :) Hi there. Missed you. To get the groovy multimedia, storage, hi-res screens etc in a Palm, they cost more and have less options than the PocketPC/WinCE devices of the same price.
What do I need it for? Second brain, organization, programming, writing, sketching, personal entertainment, and (most importantly) portable access to critical information when I can't be anywhere near a real computer. I spent Friday and Saturday tearing down an ISP and rebuilding it at a new location, singlehandedly. During the process, I had no network access, no dialup, nothing. I needed information that I could not get without resorting to a long distance phone. I often have ideas during my long drive home for work, that are gone before I get there. All the PDAs I'm looking at have a voice recorder. Besides anything else, they make just plain good toys. I can't bring myself to buy a Gameboy Advance, for example, becuase its JUST a toy. I got real work out of my old Philips Nino, and I'll get real work out of whatever I end up buying AND it will play games too. :D
From Setekh:
I personally don't really love PDAs either. It's the same deal with laptops, as well; pay more, get less.
You know, a friend of mine just bought an IBM laptop (she calls it the Black Slab of Power) specifically built for use with Alias|Wavefront's Maya. Her laptop cost about a grand more for the same desktop, but its far more portable. Hell, it outclasses all of my desktops at home and at work (though not my multiprocessor servers). Never underestimate the joy of being able to work on a 3d model under a tree in the park with a Wi-Fi connection back to HLP. ;)
From Styxx:
Wasn't the Cassiopeia line discontinued?
Nope. The new E200 just came out. Its quite sexy, with a builtin USB host. I'm still trying to get the Casio techs to tell me if it can handle my MP3 Player (6gig hard drive). If so, that might close the deal. Being able to attach my PDA to my 6gig MP3 player (which acts as a hard drive when attached) would indeed rock.
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Man, and all i want is the new RSI matrix watch, which displays the time in binary.
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Mmm... You should probably take another look at Visors, dude. They've got an insane number of add-ons, including memory cards.
Palm pilots make nice word processors- basically, they give you everything you could usefully do with a laptop, and are many times as portable.
I'd like to note, however, that the fold-up keyboards suck- fifty-some dollars and the keys stop working first time you drop it!!!:mad:
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Well....er.....um....dont drop it. Im pretty sure my keyboard would break if i dropped it as would most.
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[drops desktop ketboard]
[keyboard lies on ground, perfectly fine if a bit hard to type on in this position]
I think I've demonstrated my point...;)
... and for something built to be carried around alot and sporting a steel girder along one side it should be even tougher. But NO...
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Originally posted by mikhael
Nope. The new E200 just came out. Its quite sexy, with a builtin USB host. I'm still trying to get the Casio techs to tell me if it can handle my MP3 Player (6gig hard drive). If so, that might close the deal. Being able to attach my PDA to my 6gig MP3 player (which acts as a hard drive when attached) would indeed rock.
Well, I really like the iPaqs, when it comes to looks alone. :)
And is your MP3 player USB? Sounds like a nifty little device... Maybe I'll scratch my plans for a pendrive and get one of those... :D
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Originally posted by Styxx
Well, I really like the iPaqs, when it comes to looks alone. :)
And is your MP3 player USB? Sounds like a nifty little device... Maybe I'll scratch my plans for a pendrive and get one of those... :D
Yep. http://www.archos.com
I've got the Jukeobox6000. I think it ran US$235 or some such. I've seen them for lower.
Originally posted by Stryke9
Mmm... You should probably take another look at Visors, dude. They've got an insane number of add-ons, including memory cards.
Palm pilots make nice word processors- basically, they give you everything you could usefully do with a laptop, and are many times as portable.
I've looked at the Visors again and again. They offer more expandability than a PalmPilot, but they still suffer the other shortcomings: screen size and quality, dedicated input area, very small main memory, and the PalmOS (which I detest). About the only thing I need that CF slot for is memory and a Wi-Fi card. The Visors offer only one CF slot, whereas the Zaurus, Cassiopeia and the iPaq offer a CF slot and and SD slot (which my wifes digital camera uses. That's a big win.)
I'll not buy a folding keyboard no matter which device I buy. The hideaway keyboard on the Zaurus is groovy, but just a bonus. I'm pretty fast pecking away at the onscreen keyboard for most things.
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Well I may not go blindly and buy a Palm as I once had thought. All of these WindowsCE (aren't the new ones using a version of XP?) hand held PC's....do they have keyboard extensions comperable to that of a Palm?
I live at home and go to the local campus. On my down time during the day, I really want to be able to type essays and whatnot. One of the major draws is carrying a portable PC and then typing stuff out.
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Originally posted by IceFire
Well I may not go blindly and buy a Palm as I once had thought. All of these WindowsCE (aren't the new ones using a version of XP?) hand held PC's....do they have keyboard extensions comperable to that of a Palm?
You can get several different portable keyboards for all the hand held devices. The newer PocketPC/WinCE devices are not based on XP in anyway. WinCE was a completely new operating system built for mobile devices. It shares no common code with Win9x, WinNT/2k/xp. Sometime last year, WinCE was renamed 'PocketPC'. I guess they got tired of the 'WinCE/wince' jokes.
I wish they still sold Jupiter class devices. Those were like laptops, but all solid state and super-light. The only problem was that, like CP already pointed out, they cost as much and had less power. I think a modern Jupiter class device would cost much less and be very powerful indeed. There's something sweet about a laptop that turns on /immediately/ with no boot time, weigh only a couple of pounds, and has a near full size keyboard. :D
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Originally posted by mikhael
There's something sweet about a laptop that turns on /immediately/ with no boot time, weigh only a couple of pounds, and has a near full size keyboard. :D
;7
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Originally posted by mikhael
...I'm dead set against PalmOS devices (Visors, Clies and PalmPilots), due to some issues with storage capacity, screen size and physical interfaces. I am currently considering the newest Compaq iPaq, HP Jornada, Casio Cassiopeia and the Sharp Zaurus. All of these are WinCE/PocketPC devices except the Sharp Zaurus, which is a Linux based device. I'm no big fan of Linux, but it has a builtin hide-away keyboard and its pretty speedy.
Does anyone have any opinions, roadstories, or warnings about any of these devices?
I have a Sony Clie (I know I know, it's Plam OS based) and has worked fine with me, but I have to agree on lack of accesories and some other stuff. I just wanna tell you, don't get the "Sharp Zaurus" JUST because of the hide-away keyboard, because it may be cool but those keyboards are just not the same, if you are gonna get a keyboard get those foldable ones. And yes, they are delicate and you need to be careful with them.
The only pro about the Clie would be the resolution of the screen, which has resulted pretty good. Well that's my opinion, I haven't really used the Windows CE based ones so I wouldn't know.
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i will only say this once: do not get a palm. get a pocket PC.
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Originally posted by CP5670
Hey same with me; I don't really mind if a computer takes up several rooms if it is relatively inexpensive and still powerful. ;) :D
I'll give you twenty cents... :D
Anyway, Carl, why? Seriously, what do I see for Pocket PCs? Sluggish and it soaks up battery power something fierce. Palms are light, fast, and it runs for weeks. :)
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Originally posted by Setekh
Anyway, Carl, why? Seriously, what do I see for Pocket PCs? Sluggish and it soaks up battery power something fierce. Palms are light, fast, and it runs for weeks. :)
In using my old Nino (a very slow beast indeed), it took a a moment to load an app into main memory, but once there, it was very fast.
The battery power is not an issue. Though my MP3 player will run eight hours straight on a charge, it seldom sees the far end of its battery life before I put it on the charger. A PDA is similar. It has very little use for me in isolation. When I'm at my desk at work, or asleep, the PDA would be on the charger. As long as it can last through a day of moderate to heavy usage, I'm cool.
That said, my old Nino rather handily managed two days on a charge. Modern Palm devices, unfortunately, suffer from a similar short battery life as the PocketPC devices, after you throw in the bright, backlit color screens, speakers, wireless connectivity, larger memory spaces, etc. That sort of hardware is very power hungry.
Finally, on the subject of weight, I have to say that's not an important factor for me either. My MP3 player is a 6gig hard drive with an MP3 player chip attached. It weighs twice as much as any PocketPC device and three times as much as a Palm device. What's a PDA next to that?
PS: I've decided completely against the Cassiopeia. Casio has been unresponsive to email, and calling their support lines resulted in being shunted off into the aether and never talking to a human. Bad service before the sale will translate into bad service after the sale, I think.
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I read in an article somwhere about a new device that projects a fully functional laser keyboard onto you're desk/table/floor. I think it was on show somewhere, but just as a prototype. It looked really cool, I just wonder how well it picks up you're writing when you're a fast typist? ;)
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Originally posted by Dark_4ce
I read in an article somwhere about a new device that projects a fully functional laser keyboard onto you're desk/table/floor. I think it was on show somewhere, but just as a prototype. It looked really cool, I just wonder how well it picks up you're writing when you're a fast typist? ;)
I don't know about that one, but there IS a waterproof CLOTH keyboard that you can roll up around your handheld when you're not using it.
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The laser thing sounds feasible, but a cloth keyboard?! :wtf:
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Originally posted by CP5670
The laser thing sounds feasible, but a cloth keyboard?! :wtf:
The laser thing is harder to do, actually, and power hungry.
The cloth keyboard is by Electex and works by measuring differences in the bending of electroconductive cloth fibers.
Read the tech brief on the cloth. (http://www.elektex.com/www/site/tech_spec.shtml)
There's also a rubber keyboard (http://www.techtv.com/products/mobilecomputing/story/0,23008,3367609,00.html). You can see a picture of it here. (http://www.techtv.com/graphics/library/3367603.jpg).
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Well, the cloth one sure sounds like it's better to type. I checked the laser one, and the main problem is that it lacks any kind of feedback...