What got you into Pocket PCs?

[od1]

Pocket PCs have come a long way. Originally they were intended for purposes like to-do lists, reminders, calculators and maybe even a little word processing. But in today's world things have changed. PPCs can be sync'd with personal computers, used as multimedia stations and even connected to wireless networks.

What I'm wondering is what got all of you into the pocket PC world... Whether for work, convenience or because, like me, you gotta have your toys.

[sp0om]

First, it was an emulator/mp3 player. That was my Jornada 520. Now I have a ipaq 2215 which is mainly for the same, but now with video. I'm going to sell my 2215 once my x50v comes in. The reason why I'm getting the x50v, is because the school I go to has WiFi everywhere. I also have it here at home. The x50v is also one sexy looking ppc, with a lovely VGA screen (drool). I guess I'm just a gadget whore.

[ctmagnus]

The thought of a PC I could put in my pocket. :drool:

And my needs are inelaborate enough that the term still fits, imo.

[KimVette]

What enticed me to buy a PocketPC is the expandability of the iPAQ through sleeves, and the ability to slim down the device when I don't need the extra functionality.

Now that expandability is dead, I am waiting to see what's next.

[Vidge]

This was easy - I'm a gadget freak, like others here :lol: I have owned 10 Palm OS PDAs in the past 8+ years and I wanted to see what the dark side was all about.

[maximus]

I got 4 pockets in my pants and 1 pocket on my shirt.

1 for wallet
1 for car keys
1 for mobile phones
1 for dimage Xt
and 1 is empty.

Just to be fair, I bought a PDA to fill the empty one.

:mrgreen:

Seriously, We (Wife and I) were on a long distance relationship before we got married, and the things that kept us sane are sms, icq and email. And we want to do sms/icq/email 24 hours a day, wherever we are. So we bought PDAs with GPRS, and suddenly life became more bearable :)

[moosemastafoo]

The short version:
The reason I got one was because a friend showed me one, and I thought it was awesome.

The Long version:
It was at Marching Band Festival '03 in Hawkinsville GA, I think... Anyways, my friend's mom had let her son, Chris, bring the PPC that her work had lent to her, to the festival. After we had performed, he pulled it out and was messing around with it. I saw him holding the thing, an old casiopiea which was the size of an old game boy. Still, I had never seen one like it and I thought it was freakin' awesome. He went into Notes and started writing and making recordings. Again, I was amazed. The night after, I was on the internet and found the Dell Axim X3 (mid-level). I showed chris, and we both wanted one. I was able to convince my parents into buying me one for christmas. He got one as well. The rest is history... sort of...

Kinda funny how such an old device ended up getting me hooked, huh ?

[Janak Parekh]

I used Palms for years, and shunned PSPCs because the ones I had used were slow and had poor visibility outside... but by the same token, I was growing tired of the PalmOS 3 devices (I had a Palm III and then a Qualcomm pdQ). Then I read about the iPAQ 3650, which captured my imagination: expandable, outdoor color screen, and fast. I decided at that moment I'd go for Pocket PCs, and managed, somehow, to get my iPAQ in June of 2000 during the shortage. I've never looked back. :)

--janak

[KTamas]

Wanted to buy an Motorola Accompli 008, then i got the chance to buy my father's boss' iPAQ 3630...i bought the 3630 ;)

[Foo Fighter]

Constant emotional and verbal abuse from Ed Hansberry.

[OSUKid7]

The thought of a PC I could put in my pocket. :drool:

And my needs are inelaborate enough that the term still fits, imo.Yup. 8) :lol: Read about the first Pocket PCs coming out in 2000, and thought they were incredibly cool. I was never impressed with the black and white Palms that only did PIM, so Pocket PCs were a very welcome addition.

[OSUKid7]

Constant emotional and verbal abuse from Ed Hansberry. :rotfl:

[jgalindo]

I'm an organization freak. First, I carried around a big paper organizor in highschool. Then, in college, my Dad bought me a Palm Pilot, it was love at first sight. I carried around both fror a while, and then went completely digital. Then in 2003, after several palms, I came accross the Siemens SX56, pocket pc phone. Love at first sight, again! I loved the idea of not having to carry a phone and a palm. I bought it the day it became available from AT&T and became a pocket pc fan ever since!


I recently purchased the HP IPAQ 6315 (the day it became available from T-Mobile) and am enjoying the wifi and bluetooth features. I also switched to T-mobile and am enjoying $20 unlimited GPRS.

I LOVE MY POCKET PC!

8)

[Silver5]

Simple Reason: My Palm Vx had to be replaced twice. Two different units froze without me having loaded a single third-party application, and both froze on the same day I purchased each. No way to get them back working at all so I returned them. I bought a HP Jornada 548 (I think that's what it was called...

[Darius Wey]

I have this hard-core fetish with being organised. I guess that's what lured me into the Pocket PC market. But then again, I've always been (okay, here we go...) a "geek" at heart, so that's probably the biggest reason as to why I'm all gadgeted up.

I now use my Pocket PC in a number of ways: work, play, and a paperweight! ;)

[Dolphin]

Started on a Palm III running "Punchlist" to keep track of the 15+ houses that I was building as superintendent for a major homebuilder. When I was in a house I would just make a note of what needed to be corrected. The software allowed me to link that task to a subcontractor and when I returned to the office the data was synced to my desktop which would automatically fax the subcontractor and or print a memo to place in there message box.... pretty slick!

Now I'm an independent custom home builder. I use my PPC's voice memo to keep track of tasks so while I'm driving I just listen... then phone the appropriate contact. I also use the calendar to keep track of house schedules and reminders.

I switched from a Palm Tungsten to an iPaq 1910 because the screen was so much larger and brighter. Then I found out all the advantages the operating system has over the palm (at least at that time)... playing mpegs syncing with MS Outlook and so on.

I love my iPaq rx3700 with the 1.2mp cam with video! It has come in handy more than once. I used to carry a Minolta Dimage in the other pocket. The rx3700 is no match for the Minolta, but it usually works fine for capturing ideas. I can't wait for the cameras to improve in the PPCs... it's only a matter of time!

[disconnected]

I like toys, and I like buying things. :D

A relative had a Palm, and I was intrigued by it, but it wasn't in color and I could barely read the screen. A few months later I read about the upcoming iPAQ 3630, and I ordered one from Datanywhere as soon as they came out. I wasn't sure what I'd actually use it for, but I thought it was beautiful, and I started by mainly using it for internet access when away from home. At the time, that required a really bulky cable to connect to a Sprint Neopoint phone, then a smaller Supplynet cable, and finally! two and a half years later, I got a bluetooth Sprint phone (have also bought dial-up modem, ethernet card, and wifi card along the way).

As it turns out, my most used app is ereader (who knew reading on a PDA screen would be a pleasant experience) and I also wouldn't want to be without GPS (which I never dreamed of when I got that first iPAQ).

[robert_biggs]

I'd just gotten my first real job and would be traveling a lot, plus I'd just been assigned a new position in my church that would require me to keep track of a lot of names and events. In the past I'd used a Franklin planner, but hated carrying it with me everywhere I went. The thought of a mini computer in my pocket which could not only be my organizer, but a source of entertainment as well, was very attractive. I didn't know PPCs existed at the time so I went looking for a Palm Pilot. Then I saw the brand-new Toshiba e310 at the store next to the Palms. The e310 was color-screen, QVGA, sexy, and had a ton more memory for the same price as much less appealing Palms. The choice was a no-brainer. I bought the e310 that day, but returned it 2 weeks later when Amazon threw it on sale for only $250 bucks! Two months later I sold it on Amazon for $260 and ordered the new Dell Axim X5 for just $7 dollars more. I got double the memory, a transflective screen, and the new XScale processor running at a whopping 400MHz! I'm looking forward to the release of WM2005 next year to get my next device when VGA prices go down and there's actually programs that utilize that resolution and a better OS to run them on.

[Dolphin]

As it turns out, my most used app is ereader (who knew reading on a PDA screen would be a pleasant experience) and I also wouldn't want to be without GPS (which I never dreamed of when I got that first iPAQ).

Oh yes! Great for reading the Bible in bed while the wife is try to get to sleep... no lights to wake her up! And now with WIFI surfing the net from bed when I can't get to sleep... or watching a video converted with DVD to PPC.

[arnage2]

i got my first ppc on june of 2002. i was going to buy PoGo Flipster, but they were on backorder. I wanted a device that could play videos, as well as mp3s. I went down to best buy and decided to buy (what was the top model at the time) the ipaq 3835. 15 or so units later, im currently using a Asus a730. I need to feed the gadget freak within.

[Jacob]

Some people at work had them and I was interested.

I got a recommendation from a friend that the HP 1910 was a good model and well, I loved it.

I've been hooked to having a PDA ever since. Now I can't stand being apart from it.

[Mitch D]

I started out using a POS based device (actually 3 or 4 of them) and wanted something more. I decided to buy a demo 3830 that we had at work (it had been bought and returned twice because it was "too hard to use").

Once I played with it for a few hours at home I was hooked and there was no looking back... in addition to the inital 3830 I spent some time with a SX56 which I liked but felt I didn't need all the features and for the last year I have been using my trusty X3i. I am considering moving on to a newer model (I am leaning towards the E830 but the X50v is still an option) simply because I am a gadget freak at heart....

MORE TOYS!!!!! :rofl:

[Sven Johannsen]

I'll bet you'd find the results of this poll are as much an indicater of who hangs out here as they are of why the PPC was purchased. Noting the percentage of 'tech geeks', should remind us that the average user doesn't come here, or likely anywhere else for that matter.

[jimski]

Got hooked on Franklin Planner and finally decided that I needed and easier way to manage my data so I wnt out an picked up a Palm Professional, soon followed by a Palm III. Jumped at the chance for wireless access when the Palm VII became available in the NYC area and followed that with the enhanced Palm VIIx.

Got tired of paying for cellphone service and Palm wireless service so I picked up a Kyocera 6035 Smartphone, with a 3", 160 x 160 screen for a mere $500 US. Never liked the convergent device idea (took me 3 months and some creativity to rig up a portable keyboard for my Kyocera) and when Sony started introducing their line of exciting devices I was ready for a change.

Went through 4 Sony's in six months, during which time I first read about Bluetooth. Ordered a Bluetooth Memory Stick module that did not show up for three months.

Finally gave up on Palm/Sony/etc. and picked up an iPAQ 3870 when it was first introduced WITH Bluetooth built-in. Immediately went out and acquired a Sony-Ericsson T60LX, because I heard you could add a Bluetooth module. When I finally got the module, I was saddened by the fact that ATT did not support data transfer with this phone.

GSM finally became available in November of 2002 in my area giving my T68i GPRS data access for the first time. My iPAQ 5450 soon followed giving me a near perfect data solution. My iPAQ 4700 has gotten even closer and after one of the two I now own gets back from PPCTechs it will be even better. But I will never give up my quest for data nirvana.

BTW, I closed my Franklin Planner for the last time about four years ago and have yet to miss an appointment or forget a task.

[Len Egan]

I used a Sharp Wizard back in 1991. In late 2000, as a gadget freak, I decided I needed a "Palm Pilot". After researching things on the internet, I decided a Windows based device offerred so much more. I got an iPAQ 3650 and never looked back. Since then I've had a iPAQ 3830, 2215, 4150 and, currently a Toshiba E-805. I have ordered a Dell x50v as Toshiba's exiting the market has given me the jitters (sure I really just wanted a new toy).

[socrates63]

I got tired of relying on the scrap-paper-in-the-pocket method of tracking appointments and contact info.

Being a PC geek, doing things digitally is always more fun than the paper-and-pen way. Like lj62061, I started out with the Sharp Wizard organizers and had lots of fun with it.

I then learned about the WinCE PDAs and their ability to connect the PC and recognize natural handwriting. I always had gadget envy of guys who had Palm Pilots but when I tried one in the stores, I couldn't get the hang of graffiti. I started with the Philips Nino and the rest is history.

Today, as someone already mentioned, besides the usual PDA stuff, I use my 2215 to read books more than any other single activity. My wife can fall asleep at the snap of the finger but I like to read in bed. Reading on books on a back-lit PDA is infinitely better than fidgiting with book lights.

[Typhoon]

I needed a discrete and very portable method to read the Bible. ...After getting my first Pocket PC, Toshiba e310, I started doing all sorts of cool things w/it. Now I want to develop software for them. In a couple of days, I will get my ASUS a730 in the mail...really awesome.

[OneAngryDwarf]

I remember the first time i found out you could watch porn on a ppc... that was it, I had to have one. Just kidding... though you could if you wanted to.
It was the point at which I found out about the multimedia functions as well as the emerging wireless tech bridging over. iPaq 3600 w/ sleeve and pcmcia 802.11b... boy was that clunky compared to my 4155 and 2215

[cslaughtermd]

I started out with my Newton MP2K starting 3rd year of med school to write progress notes, take notes in class and for medical references. I lugged it around until the original iPaq came out with PocketPC because Palms just never cut the gadget mustard for me. I managed to go through 3 or 4 ipaqs, broke my 2215 which, of course, necessitated the purchase of my current XDA II. I have 10 or so medical references, 10 or so games, books, mp3s, the movie Zoolander more to "wow" others than for actual viewing pleasure, and now I don't have to fill up my other front pocket with a phone!

[MikeUnwired]

I got my first Palm Pilot in 1998 to have access to contact names and phone numbers instantly rather thaa waiting for my laptop to boot and ACT! to load. I went to PPC because I after using Palms for so long, I found I wanted more. I also stick with PPC because of Block Recognizer -- Palm screwed Graffiti lovers with the second rendition.

[lekim2]

I'm a gadget guy. There's PIM ability on PPC? :? I don't own a PPC for it's built in capabilities, where's the fun in that?

I'd looked at the Jornadas for a while, but held off till the iPaq3630! Still have my h3850 and the dual PC-card sleeve for use on holidays to transfer photos to my PC card HDD, but PPCPE is what I use now.

[TopDog]

Started working for a company that made Windows CE software 4 years ago, we started doing PPC-software already spring 2001.

Today is only a hobby as a Gadget-freak ;-)

[ctmagnus]

C'mon! Nobody's going to say miniaturization? ;)

[DaleReeck]

I was always a Palm guy, from the day of the Palm Professional :) A guy at work happened to have an old WinCE 2.x device and was entering data into it via handwriting recognition. He mentioned that it was a little more flexible than Palm's system.

I always knew about WinCE devices, but just never had the urge to look into them. But I did a little research and saw that HP and Compaq were going to release these new-fangled WinCE 3.x devices called Pocket PC's. I thought the iPaq 3600's specs were better but settled on the Jornada 540 because it looked a little more professional in it's grey color scheme. Plus, it was out first :D

An old SH3 processor running at 133MHZ, 12 bit screen and a CF slot was pretty hot back then - unless you had one of the fancy ARM based 200MHZ iPaqs :) Now I got an MDA III with 400MHZ processor, 16 bit screen, slideout keyboard, SD slot and GSM phone, wireless and bluetooth all built in - all in the same package size as my original Jornada.

[wizardmaster2k]

Like my signature says "pocket doom started it all.." I had a little compaq mp3 player back as a freshman, and was looking to upgrade one day. I noticed a ppc add, it was for a Casio EM-500. It looked soo cool; blue, color screen, games, mp3's, movies, ect.. I had to have one. So basically, I looked at it as an adult game boy... Im very organized, and dont usually input schedules into my pda (use my head), but it is a great mp3/internet/chat/movie/game/whateva.. devise :)

[PR.]

What got me into PocketPCs?

Psion did when they stopped making PDAs :(

Someone at work had an iPAQ 3600 and I was intrigued!

[Jereboam]

I actually had a dream (an actual dream as supposed to a Martin Luther King style revelation) when I was a nipper about a tiny computer I could carry around in my pocket with me. I had a ZX81 with 1k memory and a 16k (literally) bolt-on memory pack at the time. It was one of those very vivid dreams that I can recall to this day, and when the first Palms and CE devices started coming out they were a bit disappointing (as compared to my dream) as well as out of my reach financially. When the first Pocket PC's came out they got closer...until we come to today where the Pocket PC is pretty much what I saw that night.

:roll:

Cheesy huh? But true...

Of course I could never have anticipated how annoying the bloody thing can be when it goes wrong.

J'bm

[Gerard]

As my 30's neared their end, in the winter of 1999/2000, it had become impossible to continue pretending that my memory would ever get better. I'd been missing a few meetings every month. In my business, mostly restoring doublebasses, that means leaving some poor musician standing at the door ringing the bell and wondering 'where the hell's Gerard?' I'd be off at a coffee shop, or walking around, or just whatever... Problem was, no matter what model of paper calendar I bought with really interesting pages to look at, most days I'd forget to look at it.

So I needed something to beep at me. Something to make a noise, then flash me a message saying what it had beeped for. I could have got an alarm watch, then set alarms according to the calendar entries I'd written while on the phone with people. But there's that looking at the calendar problem again. No, it had to be automatic, something that'd reduce my input to just one instance, something I could scratch out a note on while on the phone and then forget about (because I would anyway) until it popped up all by itself.

So I did some window shopping. Looked at the few Palm devices displayed, as one of my clients had one of those and I vaguely suspected such a thing might do the trick. Not having any computer nor experience with them I was grasping at straws, just hoping for a clue. I'd put off getting into computers, as they seemed too complex, too big a time sink. Then I happened to see Pocket PC Magazine in Magpie Magazines, and bought a copy. Wow. I think it was their very first issue, and the timing couldn't have been luckier.

An article on the Compaq iPAQ looked interesting, but the chrome put me off. I already hated the way 'ghetto blaster' boxes and other mass-marketed plastic items were headed, and this thing just looked cheap. The HP Jornada 545 looked very, very nice, but the more I read and compared the few clues in the articles, the more it seemed this one was less capable than the iPAQ. Then there was the Casio E-115. Smaller article, but there were plenty of little tidbits which hinted at an all-around superior machine. Didn't have the speed of the iPAQ, but the screen looked great, and the retro '60's transistor radio look had me hooked.

I made about 20 calls around town until at last a company specialised in computer consulting was able to bring one in, through a connection they had in New Jersey. Took about a month to get it. May 16, 2000 was the day they called me to say it had arrived, and I was over there in a flash! Must have spent most of the next week learning, cramming my head full of everything I could figure out about it. Using Casio's special Menu program, digging in deep to customise the displayed shortcut buttons, I began to see some mysterious elements, pathways to files which gradually began to take on patterns... it was only many months later that I'd find my first registry editor, and really understand that what I was seeing was a kind of remote registry editor function there. The layers! I was fascinated, and soon forgot why I'd bought the thing, marking in appointments to be sure, but spending inordinate periods of time trying to figure things out.

By the beginning of June I needed a modem, and ordered one from the same people, a Casio CF card. Great modem, though it cost a fortune. Then I wanted a Casio CF camera, the JK-710DC. Then memory started to become an issue, so I got a 340MB IBM microdrive... returned that the next day, as it got so hot and froze the device so often it must have been defective. Replaced that with a lowly 64MB CF card, a Lexar. Then I realised that a PC was really needed if I was to install more than just a very few programs supplied in CAB format or as standalones, so off my girlfriend and I went notebook shopping. And that's how I got the PC I still use. I've had 9 Pocket PCs in all. That E-115, 5 EG-800s (4 defective, one is still around), an iPAQ 3935 and 3870, and now a Dell X5. But the old Acer Travelmate 520, still running Win98SE, is the only PC I've ever had. What a piece of junk. Still, it's served all these Pocket PCs well, as an accessory for my real computers, the little guys.

[maximus]

And while we are at it, lets vote for the most fascinating story.
I personally choose the post directly above.
So much love in one post :)

[pdantic]

That's an easy one...it was the next natural progression in a long line of PDAs. I had a Newton MessagePad on the first day they were released in 1993, progressed through the various models of that device, detoured slightly to use a Motorola Envoy (wireless, ran MagicCap OS) for a while until the wireless costs killed me, got the first "Pilot 1000" when it came out, bought a Casio Handheld PC the day they first appeared on the market (first Win CE machine), and then worked my way through the first "Palm Sized PC" devices into Pocket PCs.

Despite the fact that I also use a palmOne Tungsten T3, I still think Pocket PCs are a much better device!

[Typhoon]

That reminds me... at first I had tried about 3 different Palm OS PDAs. I thought those had rocked because of their simple GUI and use. It is so easy on the eyes and still is today. I think that is where Palm beats out Pocket PC (GUI). But Palm OS PDAs lacked so much in functionality. File format conversions was something I had to go through often and the Palm PDAs were getting annoying in that regard. So I went with Pocket PC. Pocket PCs are the best, I feel. File format conversions are automatic and a lot of the times not needed. And I eventually found out that Pocket PCs were so much better in handwriting recognition... this is one reason I would probably never use a Palm OS PDA (w/out a keyboard). There were so many functionalities that the Pocket PC had over the Palm OS. I think when it gets down to it, Palm OS has just as much a learning curve than Pocket PC, no matter how easy Palm looks.

[griph]

And we want to do it 24 hours a day, wherever we are. :)

Err - you might want to re-phrase that for the benfit of the Finbar Saunders amongst us! :)

An iPaq got me into Pocket PC's. Why - I've been interested in gadgets since I bought my first Organiser - a Sharp IQ7000, through Psion, then Palm (?) through to PPC's. iPaq 3650, 3870, O2-XDA and now an iPaq 2210. Not sure what I would do with out it!

[EyePAQ]

Let's see, the journey began as a humble high school student in need of cool toy to impress his friends. Working at a computer store (this is in 1980 mind you) and having the collest jon on campus, testing computer games for a local, and yet to be famous company, I need a gadget to complete my reign in geekdom.

Where does one go to get a cool toy? Radio Shack of course! I scraped together all my nickels and quarters ($400 worth) and bought the Tandy Pocket Computer PC-1 (http://oldcomputers.net/trs80pc1.html) It was great in AP-Calculus. All the formulas could be stored in the REM statements in the program editor. (oh, did I say that out loud? - oops)

That lasted for a while. I then sold it and when gadget-less for many years till the blessed event in 1993 occured. The Apple Newton MessagePad MP-100 came out. Handwriting recognition, intelligent sketching, etc. I was in geek heaven.

So to make a long story even longer, here's the progression...
Tandy Pocket Computer PC-1
Apple Newton 100
Apple Newton 110
Sharp Mobilon HPC
Philips Nino
iPAQ 3650 (the day it was released!)
iPAQ 3850
iPAQ 6315

[miterb]

In 1998 I bought a refurbed Sharp ZR-3500X Handheld to take to England for an extended bicycling trip. It has built-in software for communicating with Compuserve. I already then knew how great a small device was for travel and when my local computer club had a presentention by the MS PPC team when they first came out, I was sold and just had to upgrade.

Brad

[bridgecrosser]

I was at a conference in June 2000 and a friend purchased a 545 HP Jornada. He asked me to learn it and then teach him. I did and bought one myself the same week, retiring my Palm V.

I have had to switch to a Palm T3 in the last 3 weeks because I bought a Mac PowerBook and PocketMac didn't work well for me. My 4150 Ipaq sits in the cradle now, unused, until PM can improve the syncing.

:(

[Jorgen]

Presenter-to-go so I could show my lecture slides on a projector + wireless so I could play at StarBucks + the ability to read .LIT ebooks + of course, the geek-value of having another type of toy.

For everything else I used Palm until my early retirement last year as Palm has far better applications: Agendus as calendar + MathU Pro as calculator (if I didn't pick up my hp-12 or hp-15) + ToDo plus for todo's + better iSilo.

Jorgen

[Solarix]

I remember seeing a WinCE 1.0 hpc with a B&W screen back in 98. I then went into Sam's Club with my dad and saw one IRL. I was floored. I didn't have the cash to purchase one at the time, but then in late '99 I came into about $500 of disposable income. So I got my first PocketPC (at the time it was called a Palm-Sized PC) a Jornada 430se. And I was the envy of all. No one else I knew closely had any PDA, and anyone I knew in passing only had Palm units. And oh the agony of having people say, "Hey, you got one of those Palm Pilot thingys!" NO. Palms had no color screen. Palms, couldn't play MP3's or video. Palm's didn't have active syncing. THIS KILLED PALMS..... Ah the good ole days.....

[Phillip Dyson]

It all started when I got my first job out of college circa 1995.
The company sent my whole group of new hires to a Franklin Quest time management class and supplied us all with Franklin binders.

Well needless to say, we all took to it like a UFO cult. And it grew. You couldn't go anywhere without seeing people carrying these binders. Me included. I was indoctrinated.

Well after a couple of years, I started wishing that I didn't have to carry a bag everywhere I go. And I mean everywhere.

So I sought out digital help. My first stop was with the PSION Revo. I liked it. At the time, a keyboard was mandatory. But I ultimately had to realize that Psion wasn't going anywhere with Symbian.

My next stop was the Ipaq 3600.

Then from there I picked up the HP2200 about a week after it was released.

A week ago I picked up the Audiovox SMT-5600 to complement my PDA.

I am currently looking at the new VGAs. I'm leaning towards the X50, but a close runner up is the 4700. The loox and Asus keeping haunting the back of my mind though.

[mhynek]

I used to use a psion series 3a and then the Series 5. Those, imho, are still my favorites as far as customization of databases and their typing keyboards. However, when I saw the Ipaq 3650 with expansion sleeves, I was hooked. I didn't even know the screen was milky. Unfortunately, the digitizer crapped out and I was forced to either fix or replace it. I chose the Ipaq 3970. Haven't looked back since. but I AM eyeing the Dell x50v. Time will only tell. :?:

[Chris Pi]

I wanted to listen to streaming audio over wifi on my back porch. I bought a Toshiba e7?? (the first Toshiba with integrated 802.11b) and couldn't get it to stream the BBC (my first target) and took it back. A year later I tried again with the Ipaq 5550 and got the BBC to stream. Then this summer I found out about Windows Media Encoder and can now stream any audio I want. It works great now.

[divajess]

I bought a Handspring Visor shortly after I graduated college as a grad present to myself. It met its unfortunate end some months later when I had a slip on some ice and it flew out of my bag, smashing to a million pieces on the concrete. I was sad. :(

Then came the beautiful day the next summer when a friend of mine decided to get me hooked on the Pocket PC and sent me his old Casio EM-500. I was in LOVE! It was everything I'd ever imagined--a whole computer in my pocket! All my friends and family were so jealous. Then I started surfing the web and realized that there were even MORE beautiful PPCs out there, and the gadget lust began anew.

My Casio blew a line of pixels, creating a horrible blue line in the middle of my display, and I decided to replace it with a beautiful little iPAQ 1910. I couldn't believe how small and sleek it was! The screen blew me away, and it was much, MUCH faster than my Casio. I kept it right up until two weeks ago, when I received my gorgeous Dell Axim X30High. I told myself that if I used the 1910 as much as I thought I would, I'd buy myself a really really nice PPC with all the bells and whistles, and I LOVE it.

[gdyson]

What got me hooked was not one of the choices.

I used to travel on a weekly basis all over the US and used Hertz rental cars with Neverlost to get around. I liked it so much that when my Dad started to travel I talked him into getting a GPS unit that he could use with a laptop. He ended up with a Ipaq 3835 and Destinator, along with a laptop. When he passed away last year, I took possesion of the Ipaq, and got hooked.

I take it everywhere I go now: church, camping, and school. I type emails to my daughter in N. Ireland on it daily while in Marketing (boring class, easy A). I also use it to type homework on while I am away from my desktop, in addition to keeping contact information and other stuff on it.

I am looking for some good books to read with it as well as some etextbooks (for next semester, save some cash) and will eventually put a wi-fi card on it as well.

Greg

[darin1480]

I went from a Palm VIIx to a Palm M500. Then, wanted a color screen and a better OS, so I went with the Ipaq 3835. After a while, convinced my wife I needed the Ipaq h5455, which I still have (after 1.5 years) today, and totally love. I had the problem where I did a hard reset, installed the battery update, then it wouldn't turn on, so for one day I was without it, and that was one of the hardest days ever!!!

[mclaugh]

It started w/ a filofax, great paper organizer- and I had the back filled w/ color maps
Then, right after Xmas 1998, a staples price error finally pushed me over the edge to buy the Palm III I'd been lusting over.
Then, a Palm V.
Upgraded to a Palm Vx- but something was still missing- color.
Thus, an Ipaq 3650 (from handheldcanada, which was cheaper at the time).
Sleeves, sleeves, silver sliders, etc.
Ipaq 1910, for size.
Ipaq 1945, for now......

[Zidane]

I started out writing small games for TI-85 and HP-48G(X) calculators. Then, I got a job as a support technician at Franklin Covey and got into the whole Palm Pilot scene. I eventually got a Handspring Visor and loved using it to take class notes during college. One day I dropped it and the screen broke. My boss felt sorry for me and bought me an iPaq 3600 and I've never looked back.

[TheOrange]

Pretty much all of the above...

I'm a gadget freak who's friend (that owned a Palm Vx) suggested I get one of my own because it suited my organizational needs/methods and my work life was hectic at best (there was always a meeting or a deadline). I soon found myself the proud owner of a Palm Vx, I loved the weight and form factor. I strayed from the Windows devices of the day because they seemed heavy and clumsy. I held onto that little Palm for four wonderful years when I decided that something faster, more feature rich was in order. It might not be the fastest/latest/greatest but its a huge step away from the monochromatic days of my Palm Vx.

(the Palm is now enjoying its retirement with all of its favorite accessories in its roomy, original box on the top shelf of my closet. It sounds stupid, but I just couldn't bring myself to part with it.)

[Zidane]

I know the feeling. My old Visor was being used as a Yachtzee game by my wife until I got my hx4700. Now she uses my 2215. But I still can't get rid of my Visor.

[maximus]

And we want to do sms/icq/email 24 hours a day, wherever we are. :)

Err - you might want to re-phrase that for the benfit of the Finbar Saunders amongst us! :)


Err .. rephrased :p :p I dont want to be responsible for a thread going X rated :p

[cyclist]

Phone and organiser all in one box. Didn't anyone else start out because of the phone edition?

In summer 2002 I was planning a two month backpacking trip to Australia, and hoping to meet up with lots of people that I knew from email. So I needed portable email with connectivity, in the smallest box possible. Mobile phones did offer email, but only with T9 input and no web access, so I bought an XDA1. I did use it for email on that trip, and still do when I'm away from home, but now its biggest uses are reading, calendar and tasks.

[dibbs26]

I've had a PDA (Palmtops as they were called years ago) for 10 years. My first was Psion 3 which was great, then I upgraded and went for the 3a and finally I purchased a 5mx 6 years ago which has now given up the ghost.
What a dramatic change from using a psion to a pocket pc...anybody else found this?

cheers

[Perry Reed]

It was the early 90's and I was working at HP. I was using a paper organizer at the time, which did the job, but not well. A coworker convinced his boss to get him one of the brand new HP 95LX clamshell PDAs (DOS-based) and when I saw it, I was hooked! I knew that I absolutely had to have one, but I also knew that I absolutely couldn't afford one. Fortunately, since I worked at HP, I had a workaround. I convinced my boss that I needed one and, remarkably, convinced him that my entire team did. The rationale was that we could share files and such. In the time it took me to do the sell-job, HP had released the much nicer 100LX and that was what I got.

I used the heck out of that thing! (I still own it.) Eventually, though, it was time to move on. I needed something with a better way to share information with my PC. I detoured briefly into the Casio Zoomer world, but then back to HPs with a Jornada 320 running WinCE 1.0. A Windows-based PDA! I was in heaven. Then the palm-sized devices debuted, with color screens no less. I entertained the idea of getting the Jornada 430, but held back (though my wife bought one). But when the first Pocket PCs showed up, in the form of the Jornada 548, I had to have it. I used it right up until I upgraded to my Jornada 568, which is my current PDA.

I'm starting to get the itch, however, that it may be time to upgrade again sooner rather than later...

[ppcmw]

Well actually this will be my first step into the PPC / PDA world. I love gadgets and organization. My current plan before years end is to get the Axim x30, add Teletype GPS and set up wifi in my house to surf the net when I don't want to sit at the desktop. I'm going to replace my cell phone with the new Treo 650 when it comes out, which will allow me to have PDA function and access to the web anywhere that I am. I think it's the best of both worlds. The Dell Axim x30 will provide GPS when needed while driving and while at home I can surf the net anywhere in the house thru wifi at a decent speed. The Treo 650 will always be with me and will handle my organizing needs and will be able to connect to the web from where ever I am ( of course at a slower speed ) And there is also a ton of software for both. It sounds like I win. :D

[nitestrike]

The company I used to work for I had to support the HP XL620s (I think that was the model). Anyway I liked them and when PocketPCs came out I took the plunge after doing a little research and find a great deal got myself a iPAQ 3150, never looking back. I bought the 3975 and a Nokia 6310i so that I could dial-up over Bluetooth. I am now looking at getting a VGA PocketPC.

[primaz]

For me the great clamshell early devices where exactly what I needed. A device that I could perform my basic business laptop use that would fit into a suit jacket pocket. I used most devices as the technology evolved and with the HPC2000 OS the devices finally allowed me to ditch my laptop and Palm devices. But now I use the Jornada 728 and am very disappointed in that the market has forgotten about the real need for clamshell devices. Many people need a pda with a 1/2 vga screen, ability to touch type, yet have it fit into your suit jacket. The current palm size devices just do not meet the need of a business user even if you try as you might with external keyboards. So no I keep waiting and looking to upgrade but nothing to buy. The new pocket pc OS allows for many types of screen sizes yet no MFG has took the advantage of this as of yet but I still hope and wait.

[rlieving]

I had a Palm IIIxe and was sick of looking at the black and white screen. When looking for an upgrade, I has the following features in mind for my next PDA:
* Rechargeable and removeable battery (most Palms didn't have removeable batteries)
* Thumb keyboard (Had a folding keyboard for Palm - didn't want to do it again)
* Color screen
* Ability to send and receive e-mail wirelessly
* Expansion slots
* Superior Task List
* Superior Calendar
* Internet browsing
* Ability to create and edit office documents

The Palm lost at the time on all counts, except for the wireless e-mail and the document suite. DataViz for Palms has a great Office suite that is cheaper and kicks the crap out of most PPC implementations. It took me over a year to get wireless e-mail (via a Socket Card), but everything else pointed to PPC. (To be honest, I didn't really understand how bad PPC Excel and Word were.)

As time went on, my decision has been tempered by reality.

I like the interface and software much better on a PPC. PocketInformant Mapopolis just can't be beat on the Palm. And none of that yucky icon screen.

However, the instability and crappy ActiveSync continues to give me nightmares. The Dell Axim I bought will reset intermittantly and that means several hours of loading software. Plus the sync limit to 2 computers really stinks. I NEVER had that problem with my Palm.

Overall, I am really glad I switched though and haven't looked back.

[Cybrid]

My earliest PDA awareness came from my older cousin's Casio 64Kb B.O.S.S. which I later inherited. It developed a battery short and later became inoperable. I was still a kid and could not possibly afford a new one.
I then later received a gameboy as a gift, and was quite entertained by it until I began to think of ways I could get it to store information. Not being a programmer...I didn't get far.
Then I saw the Casio E-100, and couldn't stop crying :cry: My dream, my beautiful gameboy-like PDA, 65,000 color...and I was a goner.
That trooper died on the operating table during a botched motherboard upgrade to E-125.
I've since owned 7 E-125's simply because I bought cheap and sold dear thus enabling my massive accessory collection.
microdrive, freedio scanner, camera, gps (2), modems (2), LAN card, WiFi cards (2), Over a gig in CF/flash memory, custom cases (2).
I became ready for a new device when the internal memory became inadequate for gps and maps at the same time forcing a move to the dual slot X5.
You could never make me go back to a single slot device except the Casio E-125 which I still own. Dat was the most wonderful gamer pad... :devilboy: I miss my Casio...It still sits at my desk with all it's glorious capabilties...possibly plotting the demise of it's rival the X5 :lol:

[Raven]

hi all,

my first pda was a palm M500(the b/w one), which i bought during my college days(scrimped and save for that baby). used it mainly for ebooks and a couple of games, but was really disappointed with the capabilities of it. when the hp jornada568 and casio E200 was launched, i was swayed towards the pocketpc direction...and after a small windfall, i bought my first pocket pc, the jornada...

Man, i tell ya, it was pure bliss comparing that to a palm in my opinion...the gaming capabilities, the emulators, the music playing, the video watching stuff all rocked my world. I took that baby everywhere.. about a year later, when the tungsten T was launch, my gadget hoarder instinct took over and i bought it in(give palm another chance, i thought). and the money was basically wasted....i find myself constantly returning to my pocket pc simply because of the power of that baby.

my next pocket pc was the ipaq h1940,which i managed to get it at half the retail price (got the chance at a lucky draw). very pocketable, very nice. i had it for almost a year, sometimes returning to the jornada for old times sake.... finally gave the jornada to a good friend due to under utilization..and bought a p900 to use with the ipaq... wasn't really feasible carrying 2 devices, and i missed the powerful capabilities of the ppc everytime i carry the p900.

and in the end, i sold off the ipaq and p900 and bought a second hand XDAII. never looked back since....it had every thing i wished for(until vga resolution and megapixel camera on pdas came along :roll: ) and of course the ocassional soft reset which i happily live with in exchange for the power at the tip of my hand. and now with the xda mini and benq p50 in the horizon, i maybe changing my pocketpc again :mrgreen: