First Timer

[BarePaw]

I am a pharmacy student looking to get a Pocket PC for work/school. It needs to have enough memory to hold and run a drug database program quickly, so that I can answer customers questions about their perscriptions without waiting on it.
Most drug programs are for Palm, so a Palm emulator would be nice. Does such a program exist?
I will need MS Word, Excel, and an external fold-up keyboard (fullsize preferably) for school, as well as a voice recording program that will record a full 2 hour lecture.
I will also need wireless internet compatable with the local coffee shop's system. This is the area that I don't really understand. I asked the guy down there and he said it was a "Linksys" system. Someone else told me that I would need "Wifi". The models I've been looking at have "Bluetooth". Are these all compatible?
I was looking at the Hp iPaq h4155. Would this suit my needs? I would have to get the keyboard separately. Could you guys reccomend one? Also, where would be the cheapest place to go for one? They are around $450.00 right now at CompUSA. That's where I was today.
Thanks for the help, guys. It's very much appreciated.

[Sven Johannsen]

At the risk of being flamed, if the primary reason for buying a PDA, is to run one specific program, and that is ONLY available for the PALM OS, buy a Palm (or Sony Clie while you still can). I don't think you will be very happy with the performance of a Palm emulator on the PPC, if it even exists.

For the rest of your requirements. Pocket vrsions of Word and Excel do exist and are standard. They are by no means full featured. Anemic is a polite description. They will allow you to view the data (info) in a word or excel file, but creating and editing has very limited feature sets. There are outstanding third party options whether you wish to just view the files in all their glory, or actually wish to create and edit.

There are keyboards galore, and it really doesn't much matter which PPC you get as most are support by most offerrings. The caveat to that is if you want to attach a real keyboard, maybe one of the roll-up ones, that has a USB interface designed for a regular PC, you will need to limit yourself to one of the couple of PPC that have HOST USB capabilities. Most are client USB ports and cannot talk to peripherals.

Voice recording on a PPC is really designed for recording personal notes. There are third party programs that will get you the extended time you seek, as long as you provide additional storage, in the form of a memory card. There are no (AFAIK) PPC that have an external microphone input (except maybe the phone edition ones, but I'm not sure they support the recorder) and so the ability to record a distant speaker, such as in a lecture may be limited. You are stuck with the internal mic. Others may have more experience here.

WiFi, or Wireless Fidelity, also called 802.11a/b/g, is the predominanat way of getting on the internet wirelessly. Most so called Hot Spots, such as your coffee shop, use that. Linksys is a company that produces a lot of networking equipment, including WiFi Access Points, the transmitter/receiver boxes required to connect wireless users to an essentially wired internet. If the service at your coffee shop is free, you just need a PDA that is capable of WiFi, either built in, or via an add-on card. If it is not free, you also need to cough up the fee ;)

Bluetooth is totally different, though also a wireless technology. It is designed to replace short cable runs, PPC to printer, PPC to PC, PPC to phone, phone to headset, etc. It can be used to attach to the internet via a data capable cell phone, but that requires an associated data plan with a cell phone provider.

The 4155 is a very nice machine, I have one, and it would do all you want with the addition of the appropriate hardware and software. I realize I haven't provided any real specifics, but I hope I have broadened your understanding enough that you can ask some more questions if you are still willing to go in the PPC direction. As long as your PALM app requirement can be solved in some way, I don't think you would be dissapointed in the PPC platform.

[BarePaw]

Those programs are available for Pocket PC, but there are more to choose from for Palm. I could live with the ones that are for the PPC. I played with some Palm Pilots in the store and didn't really like them. I have a desktop with Windows XP, so I'd like something that communicates with that easily. Because I use Windows at home, I'm used to it and I think I would figure out a Pocket PC easier.
As for the Word, as long as I can take notes or write a paper with it, I'll be happy.

[Falstaff]

Voice recording on a PPC is really designed for recording personal notes. There are third party programs that will get you the extended time you seek, as long as you provide additional storage, in the form of a memory card. There are no (AFAIK) PPC that have an external microphone input (except maybe the phone edition ones, but I'm not sure they support the recorder) and so the ability to record a distant speaker, such as in a lecture may be limited. You are stuck with the internal mic. Others may have more experience here.

In response to this, there are a few PDAs that had 4 ring audio jacks, which means you can plug a microphone or headphones into the port. Included are the Toshiba e755, e355(?), and the HP 55xx, any others?

Also, as for hotspots, I'm curious as to how well PIE handles connecting to a pay hotspot, as I did that once, and it seemed to require a constantly open IE window.

[Pony99CA]

At the risk of being flamed, if the primary reason for buying a PDA, is to run one specific program, and that is ONLY available for the PALM OS, buy a Palm (or Sony Clie while you still can). I don't think you will be very happy with the performance of a Palm emulator on the PPC, if it even exists.
Only a zealot (or fool :-D) would flame you for suggesting a Palm if the software needed only runs on a Palm.

As for an emulator, there was one being developed. The last I heard, though, work had been suspended.

For the rest of your requirements. Pocket vrsions of Word and Excel do exist and are standard. They are by no means full featured. Anemic is a polite description. They will allow you to view the data (info) in a word or excel file, but creating and editing has very limited feature sets. There are outstanding third party options whether you wish to just view the files in all their glory, or actually wish to create and edit.
To be fair, Pocket Word is a pale imitation of desktop Word. It doesn't even handle headings well.

However, from what I've heard, Excel isn't too bad, mostly lacking only charts and graphs and some higher end features.

Steve

[surur]

Drug Databases for pocketpc (http://www.medicalpocketpc.com/articles/review_pdr.shtml)

Toshiba e800 with built-in wifi (http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/pdet.to?poid=263419&seg=PSE&sel=1&rcid=-26367&ccid=1291021)

128 Mb built-in ram, VGA display, optional USB host

Netfront 3.1 (http://nfppc.access.co.jp/english/index.html) so you can surf the internet in style, wit no real limitations (as you would have with the built-in IE)

Belkin wireless infra-red keyboard (http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/adet.to?poid=269049&seg=PSE&rcid=-26364&ccid=1291043)

Textmaker, a full-features no conversion fully compatible wordprocessor for the pocketpc (http://www.softmaker.de/tmp_en.htm)

On the same site you can get Planmaker, an Excel clone.

Resco Audio Recorder for PocketPC v2.52 (http://www.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=8096)

This is just a random selection and possible solution to your question, addressing all of your points I hope. As some people have said previously, if your drug database is best implemented on a palm, that mights still be the way to go. However the solution above should be adequate for your needs.

The best thing to do is solidify your requirements and read a lot of reviews. Thinking out of the box, your best solution may something completely different, such as a small laptop or TabletPC (http://www.forbes.com/wireless/2004/06/03/cz_mh_wifi04_docs.html).

Surur

[Kacey Green]

In response to this, there are a few PDAs that had 4 ring audio jacks, which means you can plug a microphone or headphones into the port. Included are the Toshiba e755, e355(?), and the HP 55xx, any others?

The iPAQ h54xx