What would you guys recommend to me as far as PDAs. I’m specifically looking into Sony Clies. Gotta love Sony. Just from browsing online, I got interested in the PEG-TJ37 (WiFi), UX-40/50 (Wifi/Bluetooth), Treo 600/650 Smartphone (T-Mobile). Anyone have any experience with any of these, or any other PDAs.
Well it has to be able to read Word, Excel, PDF, HTML files. Wifi integrated. Camera, eh, doesn’t really matter, I have a DSC-T1 for that. MP3 and Video playback. Thats about it basically.
Well, IMO Palm has never handled Office or PDFs well. That being said, the UX series has a tiny screen that you won’t be able to see much of a document anyway.
I haven’t used the TJ, its about the only clie i’ve never used. My favorite is still the NX-80 but i guess it is getting a bit dated.
Neither Treo has wifi and the 600 has a low res screen.
Out of the list you gave us, the Treo is the only one still actually in production. If you want Wi-Fi and decent document reading, take a look at Pocket PCs like the Axim or iPaq.
With Smartphones evolving as they are, do you guys think there will be a slope off on PDA production. Demand certainly isn’t as strong as it once was for these handy little gadgets.
[quote author=“TruthSeeker”]With Smartphones evolving as they are, do you guys think there will be a slope off on PDA production. Demand certainly isn’t as strong as it once was for these handy little gadgets.
Yes, but then the Treo *is* a full-fledged PDA OS inside a phone. It can do anything a similarly equipped Palm PDA-only device can, plus it’s a very capable phone. The Blackberry (and to some extent the Sidekick) more than the Treo sealed the fate of the PDA, IMO. The only thing right now is that WiFi doesn’t seem to be a priority of the phone makers. The support for it among devices without the full MS WM OS is pretty slim.
I’m kind of curious what the rest of you think, but I’ve never been a huge fan of WiFi for smartphones. BT is better for inter-device communication and GPRS for the moment does what I need everywhere I need it done. I find it kind of funny when I see posts on other forums about an upcoming, latest-and-greatest phone and everyone moans about how they won’t even think about it because it doesn’t have WiFi. I guess it would be cool to have Skype or Vonage on my cell, but it’s by no means a requirement. How would you guys use WiFI if your phone had it?
[quote author=“Drachen”][quote author=“TruthSeeker”]With Smartphones evolving as they are, do you guys think there will be a slope off on PDA production. Demand certainly isn’t as strong as it once was for these handy little gadgets.
Yes, but then the Treo *is* a full-fledged PDA OS inside a phone. It can do anything a similarly equipped Palm PDA-only device can, plus it’s a very capable phone. The Blackberry (and to some extent the Sidekick) more than the Treo sealed the fate of the PDA, IMO. The only thing right now is that WiFi doesn’t seem to be a priority of the phone makers. The support for it among devices without the full MS WM OS is pretty slim.
I’m kind of curious what the rest of you think, but I’ve never been a huge fan of WiFi for smartphones. BT is better for inter-device communication and GPRS for the moment does what I need everywhere I need it done. I find it kind of funny when I see posts on other forums about an upcoming, latest-and-greatest phone and everyone moans about how they won’t even think about it because it doesn’t have WiFi. I guess it would be cool to have Skype or Vonage on my cell, but it’s by no means a requirement. How would you guys use WiFI if your phone had it?
Connect my phone and my laptop via BT and connect to Wi Fi using my phone, saves battery on the laptop.
[quote author=“TruthSeeker”]Do up and coming technologies like WiMax use any less battery power?
WiMax uses more power than WiFi. Most of the WiMax applications I’ve seen are for connecting fixed offices with an Internet backbone, not connecting clients.
[quote author=“Drachen”][quote author=“Sol510”]Connect my phone and my laptop via BT and connect to Wi Fi using my phone, saves battery on the laptop.
Phones tend to have much smaller batteries. That doesn’t sound like a very good idea.
Well, phones don’t need to process even close to as much as the computer, so wi-fi would be the only real burden on the phone, and I think it’ll last long enough til I get home. On top of that, it’s easier to carry a phone battery, cheaper to buy one, and also they’ll probably be out on the market to buy for a long time. (If I use it for wi-fi I expect to be going through cycles quickly)
[quote author=“Sol510”]Well, phones don’t need to process even close to as much as the computer, so wi-fi would be the only real burden on the phone, and I think it’ll last long enough til I get home. On top of that, it’s easier to carry a phone battery, cheaper to buy one, and also they’ll probably be out on the market to buy for a long time. (If I use it for wi-fi I expect to be going through cycles quickly)
Phones don’t usually process something as intensive as WiFi, you’re right, so it would be much more of a drain on the average phone than on the average notebook. Also with using BT, you’re not only draining the phone battery even more by using an additional wireless radio, you’re also limiting your connection to a theoretical maximum of 768 kbps (realistically, you’re getting less, since BT and 802.11b/g use the same frequency spectrum and there will be collisions).
[quote author=“Drachen”][quote author=“Sol510”]Well, phones don’t need to process even close to as much as the computer, so wi-fi would be the only real burden on the phone, and I think it’ll last long enough til I get home. On top of that, it’s easier to carry a phone battery, cheaper to buy one, and also they’ll probably be out on the market to buy for a long time. (If I use it for wi-fi I expect to be going through cycles quickly)
Phones don’t usually process something as intensive as WiFi, you’re right, so it would be much more of a drain on the average phone than on the average notebook. Also with using BT, you’re not only draining the phone battery even more by using an additional wireless radio, you’re also limiting your connection to a theoretical maximum of 768 kbps (realistically, you’re getting less, since BT and 802.11b/g use the same frequency spectrum and there will be collisions).
I see no real advantage.
As I said, it’s much easier to carry extra cell phone batteries rather than laptop batteries. And supplies for laptops that arn’t targeted towards a huge consumer base will start to produce less and less replacement batteries, so it’s much better to put the cell phone batteries through more cycles, rather than the laptop’s battery. (When it’s gone and there’s no replacements, you’ll end up with a semi-useless laptop) That’s my main reason for it’s use anyways. Also I’ve never experienced any interference while using Wi-Fi and my Bluetooth Mouse at the same time.
First, you’re seriously overestimating the effect of WiFi on the typical laptop battery. Take a look at our very own gr00vy0ne’s PCGA-BP3T review, specifically the DVD Playback test . The baseline is running the test with 50% brightness. Compare the drain WiFi adds compared to increasing the brightness to 100%. It’s a drain, but not nearly as horrible as you seem to think. While running DVDs all day, WiFi knocks 5 minutes off of the standard battery life. Whoopie. The TR comes stock with a 4000+mAh battery, but few phones come with batteries much more than 1000 mAh where WiFi (and BT) tend to have a far bigger impact.
