PDA/Cell Phone combos (ie Blackberries, etc)

[The Unknown Gomer]

Hey all you smarty-pantses out there, need some help, please. And this may be just too darn geeky to find help here, but I figured it was worth a shot. :)

My beloved Sony Clie PDA is finally on its way to the PDA graveyard in the sky, I think. First I discovered that my speaker cradle will only charge it half the time, so was going to replace that, then discovered that the digital camera on the unit itself will no longer take a proper photo, so between the two issues, I figure it's time to look into a new PDA.

After doing much research the last several days, I've found that I would really REALLY like to get one that is a PDA/Camera/GPS combo (although since I already have a Garmin GPS, I could get by with just one that's a PDA/Camera combo only like I have now; it would just be nice to NOT have to juggle two separate units when I go geocaching). No phone wanted or needed, since I doubt there's a plan out there that can top my pay as I go $5 per month plan through Virgin Mobile, which really is all I need.

Now, what I've found is that these days, there seems to be just one or two PDAs out there that have the three things that I want, but they both come with phones as well. (And actually most PDAs, if they have just a camera, or if they have just the GPS, they also include phones)

My question is, then... Can I get the PDA with the two or three features that I want and just NOT activate any phone service on it? Or is it a case of "because it's on there, I HAVE to get phone service from someone"? I'm thinking I should just be able to NOT activate it and have it be just an unused feature on the unit, but just wasn't sure...

[The Unknown Gomer]

Hey all you smarty-pantses out there, need some help, please. And this may be just too darn geeky to find help here, but I figured it was worth a shot. :) ...

...My question is, then... Can I get the PDA with the two or three features that I want and just NOT activate any phone service on it? Or is it a case of "because it's on there, I HAVE to get phone service from someone"? I'm thinking I should just be able to NOT activate it and have it be just an unused feature on the unit, but just wasn't sure...

*bump*

WAS this too geeky of a thread? :eek:

Well, nobody can ever accuse me of NOT doing enough research before buying something new. I spent three hours last night, several hours the night before, and have been at it several hours this morning trying to decided how I want to do this.

I think I've got it narrowed down to two, one of which I can find in three different places online, and one that there's only one "lightly used" version available on ebay.

Both are by Mio.

One is more auto oriented, but still seems to have all the features that I want: PDA, GPS, with included mapping software preinstalled, digital camera, and NO phone! Yay! Brand new in the box. Includes car installation software as well if I want to have it anchored in the car.

http://www.gpslodge.com/pictures/Mio_C520.jpg

And one is more of a handheld, like I've got now, except with a GPS, and WiFi (no wifi on the other one), and it comes WITH a phone, which I'm still iffy about. I don't think this one comes with mapping software for the GPS included either. And this is the one that is used, while the other one is brand new.

http://www.mobiletopsoft.com/images/news/mitac_mio_a700_1.jpg

Kinda leading towards the top one, pending on how the auction pricing ends up on it. If it skyrockets this afternoon, I may pass on it. At least my Clie still functions for the most part, so I'm not in a huge rush to go out and buy something else.

Still wondering about the phone situation though, I don't want to be stuck paying for phone service that I don't need if I end up with the one that has the cell phone built in...

[Howlin' Wolf]

Hey all you smarty-pantses out there, need some help, please. And this may be just too darn geeky to find help here, but I figured it was worth a shot. :)

My beloved Sony Clie PDA is finally on its way to the PDA graveyard in the sky, I think. First I discovered that my speaker cradle will only charge it half the time, so was going to replace that, then discovered that the digital camera on the unit itself will no longer take a proper photo, so between the two issues, I figure it's time to look into a new PDA.

After doing much research the last several days, I've found that I would really REALLY like to get one that is a PDA/Camera/GPS combo (although since I already have a Garmin GPS, I could get by with just one that's a PDA/Camera combo only like I have now; it would just be nice to NOT have to juggle two separate units when I go geocaching). No phone wanted or needed, since I doubt there's a plan out there that can top my pay as I go $5 per month plan through Virgin Mobile, which really is all I need.

Now, what I've found is that these days, there seems to be just one or two PDAs out there that have the three things that I want, but they both come with phones as well. (And actually most PDAs, if they have just a camera, or if they have just the GPS, they also include phones)

My question is, then... Can I get the PDA with the two or three features that I want and just NOT activate any phone service on it? Or is it a case of "because it's on there, I HAVE to get phone service from someone"? I'm thinking I should just be able to NOT activate it and have it be just an unused feature on the unit, but just wasn't sure...

you can get a blackberry with verizon and just have data plan activated. its 34.99 a month and it gives you unlimited email and web access.

[Teresa79]

I have a Motorola Q, it has internet and windows media player that you can sync up with the one on your computer, plus I'm pretty sure you can get GPS on it too, but I don't it on mine. I've only had it a week, but I really like it. So much better than my old phone.

[The Unknown Gomer]

I ended up with the brand new Mio C720t unit.



Features

Stylish 4.3 Widescreen Display with unique splitscreen interface puts more information at your fingertips.
Text-to-Speech speaks actual street names in English for upcoming turns and makes it easier than ever to get where youre going!
Included TMC Cradle provides real time traffic incident updates as you travel and allows you to route around them. Includes 3 months free service.
Built-in Digital Camera allows you to take photos as you travel and create geo-tagged PhotoPOIs that you can share and navigate to.
Preloaded Maps of the U.S., Canada and 3 Major Cities in Mexico (Mexico City, Guadalajara and Aguascalientes), with no PC-Map data download, have you up and running straight out of the box.
Built-in Bluetooth pairs with Bluetooth cellphones for speakerphone function and wireless headsets and car stereos for enhanced multimedia!
Over 12 Million Points of Interest helps you locate gas stations, restaurants, hotels and more. Even phone numbers!
Full Featured Digital Media Player allows you to enjoy all your digital music, video and photos.
Supports Multiple Modes Navigation Mode: driving, walking or bicycling; Safe Mode: locks the touchscreen while the car is in motion for safety; Tracking Mode: to replay your travels.
Turn-By-Turn Voice & Text Navigation (in 16 languages, including English, French & Spanish) allows you to keep your eyes on the road and still get directions.
Uses Tele Atlas Maps for accurate navigation.
SD / MMC Slot for easy map and multimedia file loading


I liked the fact that it has US maps preloaded, and it's got that live traffic thing. I'm going to hold off on activating that until the 3 month free trial covers when Doug and I go to New York in September. Might be handy to have as we maneuver through traffic around DC and NYC

It had a better camera than the other unit, plus it didn't force me to buy a phone I didn't want. The only thing missing is the WiFi, and I rarely used the WiFi card that I got to plug into my old PDA, doing anything online was just too slow with it (plus I've got my laptop if I want to do any serious surfing away from home...)

And a serious plus is that the 720t is NOT an already discontinued obsolete model like the other one was, it was just released last October or November or so. Nothing against discontinued models, my Clie was long out of date when I bought it 7 or 8 years ago, and it's been great. You just can't find replacement stuff for it without paying through the nose for it, since it's all been out of production for so long. :(

Biggest selling point? The auction for the new unit ended 3 days before the other one. I didn't want to miss out on a good price on it if I waited to see what the other one was going to do. I ended up getting the 720t for about $100 less than at Amazon, and about $50 less than the least pricey seller I saw online. I'm thinking I "chose wisely". ;)

Just waiting for it to come in now so I can play like the geek that I am! :cool:

[The Unknown Gomer]

And my new toy has arrived! Yippee! :cool: I love ebay.

Alas, it's got to charge for 8 hours first before I can do anything with it, so I'll leave it to charge until tomorrow.

Looks very cool. And not as big as I thought it was going to be, which is great. I thought with the wide screen it would be too big to lug around, but I think it's actually smaller than my Clie.

Can't wait to play. :D

[The Unknown Gomer]

And the Mio turned out to be a bust.

Don't get me wrong, it's great as a GPS, the POI database is very cool, made good use of it on the way back from NY last month, when we were trying to find a motel to stay in on the last night. I pulled out the ole Mio, let the satellites find us, and asked it to find any motel closest to our location. It came up with oodles of them, all sortable by chain, and it gave specific addresses and phone numbers for each, and HAD I had a bluetooth cell phone, it could have had the phone dial the number on its own. As it was, I was able to use their phone book listings to go ahead and call a couple of motels until we found one that was in our price range.

So what it's MADE for, it works well.

As a PDA, not so much. :( I was able to hack into the OS (which was some non-standard quasi-windows thing specifically made to just be what makes the system run, not really made to be compatible with any other Pocket PC games or apps, although some WILL work) and make it NEARLY function like a Pocket PC style PDA, except that it didn't like to hold any game settings or program registration info, my ebooks didn't work properly, and it was just difficult to get it to play nice. The new media player that I loaded on worked GREAT with the nice wide screen in landscape mode, so that was kind of cool. But as a whole, not what I was looking for to replace the Clie.

So I'm comparison shopping for a new PDA yet again. :rolleyes: I was eyeballing that iPod Touch, but it doesn't have a camera. And I was actually contemplating the Clie that was released in Japan only, which is pretty pricey, but looks fantastic with an OLED screen and had all the expansion I could want, and was all set to bid on it, then realized that with all its bells and whistles, IT didn't have a camera either. :eek: They charge that much for it, it really oughta have a camera. It's been hard to find a PDA with the features that I want that also includes a camera. Even some of the Clies I was considering HAD one, but it was actually a step down from what I've got now, so I really didn't want to go there.

Think I finally, after about two weeks of research, finally have it narrowed down though. The HP iPAQ Pocket PC Rx3715 Mobile Media Companion.(Whew, what a mouthful!) Have no idea why it took so long to actually FIND this, unless I did see it, but ruled it out due to the lack of a CF card slot.

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/images/news/hprx3700.JPG

It means I have to stray from the Palm OS that I'm so familiar with and head into the scary realm of Pocket PC, but it really DOES seem to have everything I want, including a camera and integrated WiFi and a screen, which while a little smaller than the Clie screen is much bigger than some of the others I've been looking at. The only thing it's missing is the Compact Flash expansion slot, but it does have an SD expansion slot, which while it won't be able to make use of all the CF cards I have for my Nikon and my current PDA, my little Samsung camera uses an SD card (the Mio does too, actually) so I already have two of those. So that's a good thing.

Now I just have to figure out which one on ebay I want to bid on and how high I want to go.

Here are the boring tech specs if anyone is interested. ;)

Product Features

Integrated WLAN 802.11b, Bluetooth IrDA and USB
Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition software
Samsung S3C 2440 processor
Built-in 1.3 MP camera, 1280 x 960 resolution, 4x digital zoom, video record and playback
152 MB user available memory

Technical Details
Integrated wireless: Integrated WLAN 802.11b, Bluetooth iRDA and USB
Operating system: Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition software for Pocket PC
Processor: Samsung S3C 2440 processor
Display: 3.5 inches (89 millimeters) Transflective TFT color, Portrait and Landscape modes, 65k colors
Photosmart Camera: Built-in 1.3 MP camera, 1280 x 960 resolution, 4x digital zoom, video record and playback
Memory: 152 MB user available memory (includes 96 MB of iPAQ File Store)
Dimensions: 4.5 inches by 2.8 inches by 0.64 inches
Weight: 5.6 ounces including the 1440 mAH battery and stylus
Power: Removable/Rechargeable 1440 mAh Lithium-ion user replaceable battery
AC Power - AC Input: 100~240 Vac, 50/60 Hz, AC Input current: 0.2 Aac max
Output Voltage: 5Vdc (typical), Output Current: 2A (typical)
Expansion: Integrated SD slot - Supports SD/MMC memory cards and 4-bit SDIO cards. SDIO Now! driver included.
Audio: Integrated microphone, speaker and one 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack, MP3 stereo through headphone jack
HP exclusive applications: iPAQ Wireless; Bluetooth Manager; HP Photosmart camera; HP Mobile Printing; iPAQ Entertainment: custom Today Screen plug-in with shortcuts to digital imaging and entertainment applications; iPAQ Mobile Media; Nevo Universal Remote; Pocket TV Pro; Macromedia Flash Player 6; iPAQ File Store; iPAQ Backup; HP Image Zone for iPAQs; llium Dockware Personal Edition; iTask Utilities: Self Test, iPAQ Audio, Power Status
Design features: 4 programmable application launch buttons - defaults: iPAQ Mobile Media, HP Image Zone, Nevo Universal Remote and iTask
Box Contents: HP iPAQ rx3715 Mobile Media Companion, AC adapter, Desktop Cradle or USB Sync cable, Carrying case, Stylus, Stereo Headphones, Getting Started Guide, Special Features Guide, "How Do I…" Guide, HP iPAQ Companion CD, HP Image Zone for the desktop on CD