Brand new to PPCs! Help!

[Danae55]

Okay! I'm a sitting duck. Gimme your best shot. I must've been asleep at the wheel when they started Pocket PCs - or just very busy :lol:
I went to the Getty Museum and took a tour of Rembrandt's later works. I carried one of their Pocket PCs with a touch screen and had a tour guide all to myself. What a kick! I want one - I'm thinking of using it for kids to introduce books to them in the library. What is the BEST Pocket PC (that uses Windows?) What is the least expensive? What is the easiest to program? I'm ready to learn!
AND - since I'm new to this, try to remember to use "standard English" until I get used to the new language! :|
Many thanks ahead of time! Danae

[Pocketjumper]

Personally, I love my new Dell Axim x51. It replaced my old Toshiba e830, which was quite a lemon (I have a really good story about it). Purchased it for $550 CDN, with a 2 year extended warranty, which I felt was a good investment.

[Nurhisham Hussein]

What is the BEST Pocket PC (that uses Windows?)

That seriously depends on your particular requirements. Power users want/need high end specs, while basic users can get away with a lot less. It really helps if you decide at the outset -

1. What do I want to use this for e.g. ebooks, audiobooks, satnav, MP3, podcasts, video, games, databases, remote access, internet use, document reader/editor, photo bank? There's an enormous range of things you can do and lot of models to choose from, and prioritising helps narrow the field for you.

2. Which specs are important to me? Do I need an integrated phone? Wireless connectivity? Memory card slots and format? Screen and resolution?

3. What's my budget? You can go from as little as US$200 to US$1000, depending on what you want.

BTW, the Windows Mobile platform is quite different from Windows - you can't interchange programs compiled for one platform with the other.

What is the least expensive?

Unless you're talking about 2nd hand, or e-bay, then the least cost solution is not a good idea - they're so basic, that they're only borderline usable if you go beyond just basic PIM functions (e.g. iPaq rx1955). Look for a machine that at least carries 64MB RAM, which I'd consider the bare minimum for a Windows Mobile 5 machine.

What is the easiest to program?

Microsoft has been pretty good about providing tools to the development community, and keeping a clamp down on interoperatibility between various hardware platforms - in short, they're all hard/easy to program for, depending on your viewpoint. Having said that, it's really not that much differrent from developing for the Windows platform, and may actually be a little easier.

[Sven Johannsen]

Before you get inundated with more info than you can absorb on the trivia and scads of personal favorites, why don't you browse around on http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/default.mspx to get a feel for the platform. Lots of good info there, and then come back for specific questions, or advice. Not chasing you away by any means, but the MS site will be a bit more organized than the deluge you'll get here with such an open ended question. ;)

BTW, the units that are normally found at museums and such as guides are generally one or two generations behind.