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Fri
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Oct '06
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by Frank Spychalski filed under Computer
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My old PDA (Palm V) is slowly falling apart and I’m thinking about buying a new one. The Palm TX has all the features I really want: PDA with WiFi. A smartphone would be nice, but I’m not willing to do without WiFi.
Here is my perfect PDA wishlist, if someone knows of any other PDA/Smartphone that fits these criterias and is available in Germany, please leave a comment.
- default PDA functionality (this should be no problem)
- small and shiny (~Palm V - Apple should build a PDA)
- WiFi
- decent runtime (this will probably clash with WiFi)
- able to sync IMAP-mailboxes
- any kind memory card, I’m not picky
And now to the contest part of this post: If someone recommends a PDA and I follow this recommendation, he or she will get all my old PDAs (2 * Palm V, 1 with Titanium Case) 
Well, I recently got an IPAQ 4150 from ebay, which was good in that it had Bluetooth and WiFi for a decent price. The device has been discontinued, though. The ipaq 1950 has the same form factor, WiFi, but no Bluetooth. I don’t really used it that much, since I synced my appointments and addresses into my mobile phone and keep notes on scrap paper
- Less intuitive than PalmOS
+ More feature-laden
+ Easy to develop applications
o Text entry: Soft keyboard, handwriting or graffiti clone
o SD expansion slot for memory and expansion cards
o Form factor like Palm V, but cheaper finish
+/- IMAP sync possible, but hardly full-blown (I’ve yet to see that in PDA)
- Web navigation a pain on the small screen
- IE Mobile sucks (Opera is better, but costs)
- Wouldn’t log on our WPA encryption
+ Replaceable battery
+ Can be used as a media player
All in all, I don’t know if I’m going to keep the thing; if you want you can try it out and I give you a qote
I have been looking at smartphones with WiFi, like the Nokia N80 and especially the E60. Problems here: High price (~ €330 for the E60), size (a phone should fit a pant pocket). Also, I don’t know if you really need WiFi on a device with such a small screen; even though they say the Opera phone browser is really good. Developing for Symbian is certainly possible, but looks harder than for Windows CE.
The Treos look decent, but they don’t have WiFi. There are also a number of Windows-based devices, but many seem rather clunky.
And in case you want this more for surfing the web and a high toy factor, have a look at the linux-based Nokia 770. This one doesn’t have any PIM features, though.
I use Qtek S200, it has WiFi, BT, GSM, GPRS/EDGE, USB, runs for 2-3 days [depends on usage], I read my IMAP mailbox and have 1GB SD card installed. Fits into the pocket nicely. Hope it will help you to choose one.
The N80 looks really nice, but I couldn’t find any information if it’s possible to sync the phone with an IMAP-mailbox. Do you know if this is possible? For me, this would be a major use-case: sync at home, read/answer in the train and send mail at work.
So far, I found only one disadvantag for the S200: Windows. It looks nice and according to this review it has all the features I wanted. So far it’s on the top of my list.
Thanks both of you!
Its Windows, yes. I’m a Mac user, and of course Windows Mobile 5.0 is an evil
but it works just fine (as it could work on a smartphone), and with $39.95 MissingSync it is even synchronized with my Mac.
As for mail, I use it extensively on my smartphone, it checks my IMAP once per 30 minutes automatically and I’m able to reply if I have any kind of an Internet connection (say, EDGE or WiFi), and that is definitely what I like! Most probably its IMAP client isn’t very feature rich, but as for me, it is sufficient for a phone.
Hope this helps!
I suppose that the N80 will have an IMAP-capable mail client, even my old SonyEricsson phone has one. But I haven’t seen it myself, so I don’t know if it’s any good. Of course you could go to Saturn or Media Markt, there’s a chance that they have a working one on display to check out.
Just out of curiosity, did you already get something? I’ve put up my iPaq for sale now, and I’m looking for something new
I’m not 100% sure, but I think I will buy the Nokia E61. I found an article at heise.de which confirms IMAP with SSL: “…Zugriff auf die eigene Mail via POP oder IMAP wie bei größeren Geräten. Da sich diese Verbindungen auch SSL-verschlüsselt einrichten lassen,…”.