What Pocket PC to choose? [Archive] - Thoughts Media Forums

tezmez

08-04-2004, 04:02 AM

I am interested in buying a pocket pc, but I am after some advice as to which is the best suited to my needs.
What I want the pocket pc for is:

a) general emails and web surfing
b) microsoft word, etc
c) msn messenger
d) microphone jack if possible for msn messenger
e) possibly to work as a phone as well
f) I do not need it for MP3 as I already have an MP3 player

Some questions I have are:

Does wireless mean that you can connect to the web anywhere in the world as long as you have a contract with a server and as long as there is coverage in that area? Please explain.

What is the difference between bluetooth and Wi-Fi?

Is it possible to buy a pocket pc with a microphone jack to use with msn messenger? If so, which ones do and which are the best?

Is wireless easy to set up with a server?

If someone could help me out, and give some advice, that would be great!

Terry

Peace out

Jon Westfall

08-04-2004, 04:22 AM

Hi Terry, Welcome to Pocket PC Thoughts!

I am interested in buying a pocket pc, but I am after some advice as to which is the best suited to my needs.
What I want the pocket pc for is:

a) general emails and web surfing
b) microsoft word, etc
c) msn messenger
d) microphone jack if possible for msn messenger
e) possibly to work as a phone as well
f) I do not need it for MP3 as I already have an MP3 player

You'll probably get A-C from pretty much any PPC out there with WiFi or Bluetooth (For the surfing)
If you go with a PDA that can be used for a phone, the original XDA or T-Mobile Pocket PC sounds like it would be a good match for you. Its coming down in price, supports GPRS for wireless data, and can do a-d quite well. F, fortunatly or unfortunatly, will probably be in any PPC you buy, as they include Windows Media Player be default.

Some questions I have are:

Does wireless mean that you can connect to the web anywhere in the world as long as you have a contract with a server and as long as there is coverage in that area? Please explain.

It depends what bands of GSM your phone/pda supports. The original XDA came in 2 flavors, an 900/1800 dual band and a 900/1900 dual band. The newer XDA II is a tri-band phone, and some of the newer PPC-Phone Editions will be quad band. You'd also have to have an unlocked version of the phone to use it on different networks. Aside from that, if you have coverage, you should have GPRS Data.

Now if you're talking about just WiFi or Bluetooth wireless, than you must be near a WiFi or BT access point to connect through wireless data.

What is the difference between bluetooth and Wi-Fi?

Bluetooth is primarily for Personal Area Networks (PANs). Short range and interoperability are the key for BT - things like bluetooth headsets for audio, bluetooth enabled phones that can be dialed from bluetooth enabled pocket pcs, etc... It wasn't designed for network access, but it can be used for it. Bluetooth works off of standard 'profiles' that devices can support. Examples are the headset profile, the serial port profile, the network adapter profile, etc... Each serving to emulate a feature for BT.
Traditionally, Bluetooth hasn't been as popular in the US as in Europe.

WiFi (or 802.11b or 802.11g) is the more common way to wireless connect to a network (normally the internet). For it, you need a wifi access point, which are becoming common in both residental (i.e. broadband routers) and commercial applications (in the form of pay-as-you-use HotSpots). You're more likely to find WiFi in an american version of a PPC rather than Bluetooth. Unfortunatly, the original XDA doesn't support either BT or WiFi.

Is it possible to buy a pocket pc with a microphone jack to use with msn messenger? If so, which ones do and which are the best?

Most all Pocket PC's have headphone jacks that allow you to hear any sound the PPC makes through headphones. As for microphones, that's a different story. Most have builtin microphones with no way to use an external microphone. The headsets that come with the XDA / XDA II or other PPC-Phone Editions have microphones built into them, but I do not believe they can be used for MSN - Anyone else here know?

Is wireless easy to set up with a server?

If someone could help me out, and give some advice, that would be great!

Terry

Wireless activesync (Which I assume you're talking about) isn't too hard to set up. You simply specify the server name and if you want to syncronize contacts, calendar, or Inbox (or a combination of all 3). Once you have an active data connection to the internet, you should be able to sync using scheduled syncs or manually through ActiveSync. I do this now with my inbox, and have no problems.

I hope this helps ya.

Jon.