This PDA can connect to wireless networks, right?

[chees]

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=PD800E-00001-JX&cat=PDA

It says it has only bluetooth but can bluetooth connect to a wireless network?

I'm asuming yes as the quote from the website says "Easily access email and the Internet anywhere with both integrated Bluetooth wireless connectivity"

[Darius Wey]

The e800 is available in two versions - the Bluetooth version and the Wi-Fi version. The one you've linked to is a Bluetooth version, so if you are able to connect to any Bluetooth networks, you will be able to access the internet (provided you have access privileges). Note that Bluetooth isn't the same as Wi-Fi - the latter is the technology used in most of the wireless networks people talk about nowadays. So to answer your original question, you can only use Bluetooth to connect to a Bluetooth network, and Wi-Fi (typically, the 802.11b specification) to connect to a Wi-Fi network. To be able to access Wi-Fi networks, you will need either (1) the Wi-Fi version of the e800, or (2) a CF-based or SDIO-based Wi-Fi card add-on for the device.

[martin_ayton]

Bluetooth is not the same as Wi-Fi. The specs for this say nothing about Wi-Fi, so you have to assume you will not be able to connect to wireless networks (like the one at your local coffee shop).

This does have SD (supporting SIDO) and CF card slots, so you will probably be able to add wireless connectivity with a card, but that will cost you more $$$.

There are probably cheaper options out there.

[yankeejeep]

You will find that the wireless hotspots and most office wireless access points are wifi rather than bluetooth. Bluetooth is commonly used to connect to peripherals (keyboard, mouse, printer, cell phone. etc) since it has long had a shorter range than wifi. While you can find bluetooth-enabled routers for network access, my experience is that they are rare and I have never encountered one in a public hotspot. Since the e800 line has both CF and SD slots, it would be easy enough to add a wifi card but as Martin has pointed out, that will be an additional cost. On the other hand, if you get a wifi version, you will probably end up adding a bluetooth card somewhere along the way for ease of access to a wide range of peripherals. Wifi cards are definitely easier to find.

[chees]

Well I ordered it a few days ago thinking it did have wifi because I read a review of the wifi version and didn't notice that there are 2 different versions. :p. Its not a big deal though, I still have the wireless card for my older pda which is a linksys wcf12 that should still be compatible with it. I have to read more closely next time :p not a big deal though. Just a bit of a dissapointment.

[Hx4700]

You will find that the wireless hotspots and most office wireless access points are wifi rather than bluetooth. Bluetooth is commonly used to connect to peripherals (keyboard, mouse, printer, cell phone. etc) since it has long had a shorter range than wifi. While you can find bluetooth-enabled routers for network access, my experience is that they are rare and I have never encountered one in a public hotspot. Since the e800 line has both CF and SD slots, it would be easy enough to add a wifi card but as Martin has pointed out, that will be an additional cost. On the other hand, if you get a wifi version, you will probably end up adding a bluetooth card somewhere along the way for ease of access to a wide range of peripherals. Wifi cards are definitely easier to find.
Or ---> You could get a HP Hx4700 and have both Bluetooth and Wifi Built-in (maybe connect with Wifi and type with a BT KeyBoard) - and still have both CF and SD slots available for whatever at the same time. And have a bigger screen to see whats up. VGA instead of QVGA is nice, too. Oh yes, having native ability to rotate screen to landscape is good for looking at some sites. And did I mention the faster 624mh processor speed?
PTP (points to ponder)...
Ron...

[surur]

Or ---> You could get a HP Hx4700 and have both Bluetooth and Wifi Built-in (maybe connect with Wifi and type with a BT KeyBoard) - and still have both CF and SD slots available for whatever at the same time. And have a bigger screen to see whats up. VGA instead of QVGA is nice, too. Oh yes, having native ability to rotate screen to landscape is good for looking at some sites. And did I mention the faster 624mh processor speed?
PTP (points to ponder)...
Ron...

Yes, they should be getting very cheap on ebay around now ...... :lol:

Surur

[chees]

You will find that the wireless hotspots and most office wireless access points are wifi rather than bluetooth. Bluetooth is commonly used to connect to peripherals (keyboard, mouse, printer, cell phone. etc) since it has long had a shorter range than wifi. While you can find bluetooth-enabled routers for network access, my experience is that they are rare and I have never encountered one in a public hotspot. Since the e800 line has both CF and SD slots, it would be easy enough to add a wifi card but as Martin has pointed out, that will be an additional cost. On the other hand, if you get a wifi version, you will probably end up adding a bluetooth card somewhere along the way for ease of access to a wide range of peripherals. Wifi cards are definitely easier to find.
Or ---> You could get a HP Hx4700 and have both Bluetooth and Wifi Built-in (maybe connect with Wifi and type with a BT KeyBoard) - and still have both CF and SD slots available for whatever at the same time. And have a bigger screen to see whats up. VGA instead of QVGA is nice, too. Oh yes, having native ability to rotate screen to landscape is good for looking at some sites. And did I mention the faster 624mh processor speed?
PTP (points to ponder)...
Ron...

I'm not really up to dropping nearly 700$ canadian on a PDA right now.

[yankeejeep]

I think if I were going to recommend a device, I would have to go with the Dell X50v before the hx4700, even though it has a smaller screen. The 4700 is going to be plagued by the same ATi chip issues that held the e800 back in the SE update: ATi is not supporting the Imageon well and not issuing updated drivers. Add to that the trackpad, which has not been picked up by other devices and will probably also become a driver drag on updates, and I think there are a couple of significant drawbacks for the 4700 now. I would be willing to put money on one of those two being the bottleneck that is delaying the WM5 update for the 4700 until next spring.

But, given the fact that the e800 had already been ordered, we were giving feedback based on what it would and would not do. Too bad, though, because a new X50v would be pretty reasonable and it will have the WM5 update in just a few weeks.

[chees]

What kind of flaws plagued the ATI chip in the e800?

[yankeejeep]

ATi has not released a driver for WM2003SE. So, the video memory that made display so responsive on the e800 running WM2003 is not accessed under SE and the video performance dropped noticably. Most devices have opted for Intel's display scheme and that is what is harnessed best by the WM2003SE and WM5 OS natively. The lack of an ATi-updated driver for SE has slowed down the e800 video performance. I have kept the SE update on mine because screen rotation on the fly and some other OS enhancements are more important to me than the raw video benchmark. It's just unfortunate when a device takes on some cutting-edge features (like the e800 adopting the ATi Imageon for video) only to have that same feature not have support available for an OS update. The third-party driver issue is what will be postponing the WM5 update for the hx4700 until spring where the other updating HP models will see their's appearing this fall.

[chees]

Thats too bad. :(. Maybe when I get it I shouldn't upgrade to wm2003 se. Is there really a big advantage of wm2003se over wm2003? Or does it just add in more crap software like AOL.

[yankeejeep]

There are two things you will notice immediately with SE. One is that its video runs slower, but the other is the incredible clarity of the display. While MS did not use true VGA (that is, allow the screen to natively display four times the screen real estate by continuing to address single pixels), the screen is fully addressed. There is no comparison between WM2003 and WM2003SE when it comes to displaying apps; SE is incredibly vibrant and crisp on the e800 screen. Apps that are not VGA-aware may need the 'hi-res hack' in order to display properly. Being able to rotate the display on-the-fly (no soft reset required) is major for me, because I do this type of switching frequently through the course of the day.

There are some minor enhancements to other apps (like Messaging - the new name for Inbox), but nothing stellar. I rarely go into trueVGA display (which is possible in WM2003 with the addition of myVGA), so that is not a major deal for me, but I appreciate the much sharper display and the screen rotation without reset. If you add an app like Tweaks2k2, it will be easier to apply the hi-res hack to apps that need it for proper display as well as a number of other helpful hacks.

[chees]

Wow! That sounds like quite an enhanchment. So do you think it is worth upgrading to wm2003 SE when I get it? Is the video playback still good at all? On my old Casio e115 I was pretty impressed with the frame rate I would get after I used the pocket divx encoder to encode a movie and play it in betaplayer. But of cource those were only low action movies like eurotrip. Does the e800 still kill the casio e115 video playback really bad with the SE update? And can it play a divx encoded action movie such as spider man 2 nicely with wm2003se? I really like the idea of switching to landscape mode whenever I want.

[chees]

Well?

[yankeejeep]

If video playback is something you use often, then I would say stick with FE on your e800. This is a very minor use for me, so I don't mind the hit with SE, but it sounds as though this would be an issue for you. You will find a greater incidence of dropped frames with SE. Though for the small amount of time I watch video playback on mine (I use TCPMP, the replacement for BetaPlayer), this is not so bad as to make it unusable. But it is not as smooth as FE and I attribute this to the lack of complete support for the ATi chip in SE.

Like I said before, if video is going to be a critical use for you, then stick with FE and load MyVGA. The new version of Nyditot Virtual Display was not available before I switched to SE, so I can't tell you if that would be an acceptable substitute for MyVGA or not. If you can download MyVGA and the Undead hack, that is a definite addition to get the maximum out of your VGA display with FE.

[chees]

It turns out the site I ordered the e800 from screwed up and accidently said it had both bluetooth and wifi but fixed it after I ordered the PDA. So that counts as a wrong product shipment and I can return it with a full refund on the product and shipping. I would rather get a device without so many problems. I was looking at the HP rx2410 which seems to be pretty good used. Do you know if video playback is any good on this device?