Help with Pocket PC Phone and Provider

[mosthumbleone]

Sorry, complete pocket pc/phone neanderthal here. Spent some time browsing the web and looking at the wireless providers sites and visiting their stores. One company has this phone but the other company has a better internet email price but not the same phone. I thought I wanted a Blackberry Curve from Verizon but T Mobile internet prices are better. And I can't seem to get a straight answer from any sales people about its ability to edit office documents with or without existing software. Now I think I'm leaning toward the Palm Treo 750. What do y'all think? So here is what I think I need for sales:

...sink with outlook and easily edit account/contact information
...internet access
...email, web based or internet provider based only (not corporate)
...gps
...one handed phone use while in car
...mp3 player would be nice
...good sized memory card for sales/instructional videos
...full keyboard
...bluetooth
...play flash videos off company website

Thanks for any enlightenment you may provide in this quagmire of machines and providers.

mh1

[schmenge]

I am not sure about the PPCs ability to play flash stuff, but that is not to say you can't. For all the other requirements there are a number of devices that will fit those needs. Add MS Voice Command and you can be almost no-handed in the car. :) Take a look at the AT&T Tilt for a start.

[Sven Johannsen]

OK lets refine the needs a bit

...sink with outlook and easily edit account/contact information
OK you talked sales, are you needing to sync some CRM additions to Outlook or are you just using stock Outlook?
...internet access
This is dependent on a data plan, or WiFi and access to HotSpots. Preference? worried about data plan price? $20 T-Mobile, $20-$40 AT&T
...email, web based or internet provider based only (not corporate)
Existing or can be a new account (Hosted Exchange?)
...gps
Need to be integrated? Any with BT can attach to a BT GPS receiver.
...one handed phone use while in car
I'd strongly recommend investing in a car handsfree setup. Even One-Handed is a bad idea and increasingly illegal. BT empowers that.
...mp3 player would be nice
Universal feature
...good sized memory card for sales/instructional videos
Pretty much universal, you can still get bigger cards in SD than mini and micro. Maybe easily accessible memory card might be a desire.
...full keyboard
What does this mean? On-screen OK? Thumb, two hand typeable?
...bluetooth
Pretty universal, but..need basics or want PAN, A2DP, etc?
...play flash videos off company website
This probably has the most, depends, associated with it

You mentioned Office document support in the initial text but it doesn't appear in the list. Need it? What products, what features? Lots of edits? Just view?

[mosthumbleone]

...stock outlook

...can be new account

...gps, doesn't have to be integrated, but it would be nice if I only had to tote around 1 instrument (I think).

...yes, easily accessable memory card desireable

...QWERTY keyboard

...Don't know benefits of PAN and A2D2

...still don't understand if any of the smartphones/pda devices come with flash clients

...edit word, excel and maybe powerpoint

Truth is, as may be painfully obvious, I'm not sure yet exactly how much I will use any of these specific items. I'm trying to figure out the differences between a smartphone and a PDA phone. Do I just buy a smartphone and teather it to my laptop when I want to do some serious editing? Probably, but I might need some of these things in a pinch and don't want to underbuy if I'm going to spend the money. Is it smart to have a seperate GPS than the phone maybe? I am sure there are some other maybes as well!

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

MH1

[Sven Johannsen]

OK, a little more clarity now. People have favorite carriers, but currently, if you can stomach T-Mobile and they have decent coverage where you live, they have the best data plan. Their Total Internet is $20/mo, covers all you can eat cellular data and all you can eat WiFi at any T-Mobile Hotspot (most Starbucks). The WIfI is usable on a laptop as well as a WM device that has WiFi.

GPS external receivers can be just a bit bigger than a Zippo lighter. These hook to the PPC/Smartphone via Bluetooth wirelessly. They are rechargeable and last longer than the PPC will. So if you are travelling longer than the GPS charge, you would need to be providing power to the PPC as well. Take a look at Semsons to get a feel for these. Note, it is rare for a WM device from a phone company to include navigation software, so that would be an additional expense, if the online stuff, Google Earth, MS Virtual Earth, isn't acceptable.

BT works on types of connections called profiles. A serial profile emulates a serial connection for things like syncing. Headset/Handsfree is what it sounds like, for conection to a BT headset. A2DP is Advanced Audio Distribution Profile and allows stereo to headphones (or other A2DP receivers). PAN is personal area network, for rudimentary networking. DUN, dial-up networking is to allow dialing through your phone from your laptop to access the internet via your cell data plan. Not all devices do all profiles.

Most all can now do a fairly good job of editing Word and Excel, though not everything is supported by the stock apps, MS Office Mobile 6.1. There are some third party apps in those areas that do darn near everything. Powerpoint is a bit stuck at viewing only. I don't believe there is a product out there that allows you to view and edit .ppt files. There are some that let you edit presentation files on the handheld, but they rely on proprietary file formats on the handheld and a translator on the PC.

The takeaway here is you can receive and view .ppt, but you can't edit and reply. If you have program that edits presentations, you can't email that to someone with a PC, as they would have no way to translate the file.

Keyboard, you need to go to a store and handle them to see what you want. There are blackberry style phones with a scrunched thumbboard at the bottom (Motorla BlackJack), and slide out fairly wide keyboards on PocketPC (Professional, touchscreen) such as the Tilt. Verizon has a nice 'combo' in the i760. Smartphone with slide out keyboard. Note that the Palm you are looking at has the Blackberry style keyboard but also is a touch screen. Although Palm calls it a Smartphone (now called a WM Standard device) it is technically a PPC Phone Edition, (now called a WM Professional device.)

Typically for heavy, but still 'portable' entry, you could look into a BT keyboard.

For a good deal of stuff though, my MO is to do things on the PC and sync, or copy to the device when connected, keeping my on device pecking to a minimum.

Out of the box you can't just hook up the device to a laptop, and type stuff into it, as if the keyboard is connected to it. There are third party apps that do allow that though.

Sorry I haven't just told you what to buy ;), but maybe I've helped with clarifying some of what you might need to consider.

One thing that always seems to be the basic starting point is whether you have had some experience with phones and PDAs before. When two devices was the norm, many folks either fell into the heavy PDA user and light Phone user...or heavy Phone and light PDA. Which sort of drives you to either a Professional device (more PDAish) or a Standard device, (more Phone-ish). Don't know if you fall in either camp, but if you do, follow your tendency.

[Nurhisham Hussein]

I don't believe there is a product out there that allows you to view and edit .ppt files. There are some that let you edit presentation files on the handheld, but they rely on proprietary file formats on the handheld and a translator on the PC.

I believe Softmaker are working on a powerpoint companion to Textmaker and Planmaker, so this deficiency might not last much longer.