Newbie questions about Axim.

[nullvector]

Hey guys...

Im looking into getting a PocketPC, and I'm really impressed with the Axim. I will be waiting to see what Dell will bring out in the next month or so as far as PPC2003 goes...and in the meantime, I have some questions about what I can look forward to doing on it. If you guys could answer these, id appreciate it.

1. What type of battery life does the Axim have? For instance, playing mp3's?

2. What type of media playback should I expect to get out of a PPC? (mp3, divx, mpg, etc)

3. With wireless, is it possible to stream media and internet across a network? (And which wireless method will I use?, 802.11, etc...?)

4. I run Linux mostly on my network....is there a remote SSH client program I can use to check up on the network?

5. Lastly, is it possible to get internet connection via Cell phone? Ive got a Samsung N400 Cell phone, with Sprint PCS internet service. Is there a way to connect the two for internet access?

Thanks for your help.

[spursdude]

2. What type of media playback should I expect to get out of a PPC? (mp3, divx, mpg, etc)
All that you mentioned, plus ogg, wma, wmv, wav, midi... Pocket PCs excel at multimedia.

[maximus]

1. I am using the 3400 mAH battery. 4 hours of ogg/mp3 playing, with screen off, and GPRS card mounted (phone mode active) give me an approximately 30% drop in battery power.

2. See above.

3. Streaming audio, yes. streaming video, no experience yet. I read somewhere on this site that it can be done. Try searching this site. (Pony: any help with this ? We need your memory power on this one :D)

4. Sorry, have not played with linux since my undergrad years.

5. It can connect to a lot of phone models, if you have the right cable. The one on http://www.gomadic.com/sammobphonca8.html does not support your N400. Does the N400 has bluetooth ?

[Pat Logsdon]

What type of battery life does the Axim have? For instance, playing mp3's?Pretty darn good. Probably around 8 hours of normal usage. If you've got the screen toggled off and you're playing MP3's the whole time, you could probably get pretty close to that figure with the normal battery. YMMV, however. :wink:

What type of media playback should I expect to get out of a PPC? (mp3, divx, mpg, etc)As mentioned above, you can play all of that stuff. To get the most use of your space, I'd recommend using the OGG format (capable of compressing an MP3 to half the size with no discernable quality loss), and dump mpg in favor of divx.

With wireless, is it possible to stream media and internet across a network? (And which wireless method will I use?, 802.11, etc...?)Yup. There are several ways to do this. Usually I'll use Windows Media Encoder 9 (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/encoder/default.aspx) to stream music from WMP on my PC via my WiFi card. I've also heard that you can stream using Resco File Explorer 2003 (http://www.resco-net.com/explorer.asp) through ActiveSync via WMP on the Axim (whew!).
I think that the general consensus is that Bluetooth is too slow to do video streaming, but you might be alright with music.

I run Linux mostly on my network....is there a remote SSH client program I can use to check up on the network?Check out this thread (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9695&highlight=ssh).

Lastly, is it possible to get internet connection via Cell phone? Ive got a Samsung N400 Cell phone, with Sprint PCS internet service. Is there a way to connect the two for internet access?You can do this, but I don't think it's possible with your phone. Check out this link (http://www.gomadic.com/sammobphonca8.html) for more info.

[nullvector]

Thanks for the answers! That helped alot with the questions I had.

Im gonna wait a bit to see what happens with PPC2003 and any new Axim's Dell might release.

As far as my phone goes...the only cable I can find for internet access is a USB cable. I guess id have to use that on a laptop or something, until the wireless internet technology matures, and gets cheaper and more mainstream.

How is web-browsing by the way? Is it feasible? or is the screen too small?

[nullvector]

Check out this link (http://www.gomadic.com/sammobphonca8.html) for more info.

Thanks for the link. I think my phone is too new for that cable. I noticed the newer 3 phones arent supported. Hopefully there will be something soon that will work.... :)

I found more info here (http://www.socketforum.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1226)

Apparently, the N400 I have is a USB only device. Its mainly for laptops. Although USB is a lot better than older serial, it might be a while before a company releases a usb-only connection for the Dell-Samsung, which would be nice.

Kinda sucks, since the n400 is an amazing phone.

Im sure by the time I make the investment in a new Axim, and mem cards, ill get a new bluetooth phone...or someone will come up with an easy way to get the two devices connected. (Maybe PPC2003 will have drivers for N400?)

Thanks again for your help!