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View Full Version : Thinking of going backwards.....


biglouis
10-04-2005, 08:12 AM
I recently abandoned using my i-mate JAM for listening to MP3s and bought myself a separate player (an ipod nano, incidentally, which is really good!). A major reason was the lack of a really good software player for the i-mate (and, yes, I have tried them all).

Anyhoo, now I'm seriously thinking of abandoning the whole integrated device route and actually purchasing a separate mobile phone and PDA.

I really like the look of the new Dell Axim 51v, which appears to offer so much more than the k-jam or jasjar. I should add that if I make or receive more than a handfull of phone calls a week I am probably exaggerating my use of mobile telephony.

I do use my i-mate for e-mail but mostly organising my life, taking notes and playing games.

My place of work has recently installed wireless so I'd like a device which can do that and it seems to make sense to me to go back to having three separate devices, each of which is really good at what it does, rather than one which is either a sloth on processing, does not have a big enough screen or lacks decent expansion ports (like being restricted to miniSD on the k-jam).

Is anyone else also thinking about this, I wonder? And, if I enough of us are considering what appears to be a retrograde step what does that mean for the future of integrated devices?

LouisB

ChristopherTD
10-04-2005, 08:36 AM
An integrated device is never going to be best-of-breed in all the areas that are covered. How well you can manage with an integrated device depends on how important each particular area is.

I currently have an iMate Jam and it is fine for general PDA use, reading ebooks, and the very light phone use that I need. I don't use it for music, as I have an iPod with 36GB of music on it. Transferring a subset to a SD Card on the PPC is just way too tedious (and oh so slow).

I thought that a PPC would be good for games, but there really aren't any titles with any depth that I want to play. My Nintendo DS (or SP) has an embarrasment of detailed, immersive and addictive RPG/strategy games, and the form factor is also more suited to games. So that is another area of convergence that doesn't work for me.

I would buy a slim VGA PPC phone (with Wifi) in an instant, because the two things I miss on the Jam are a bigger screen (I read a lot of ebooks) and WiFi (for use at home). All the VGA PPC phones at the moment are behemoths.

yankeejeep
10-04-2005, 12:05 PM
For some of us, moving to a converged device would not be a step forward. I have not seen one that will stand in for my Toshiba e805 and its 4" VGA screen when doing extended periods of work on it. I have a PPC and a cell and do not foresee wanting that to change. If I used it primarily for email and PIM functions, I would probably be happy to move to something like the new Samsung release. But the smaller screens of even the largest converged devices are not my choice for document creation work. Maybe someone will begin making a converged device for those of use who are looking for a replacement to our PPCs instead of those who are looking for a cell phone replacement.

PhilH
10-04-2005, 01:02 PM
I've just recently gone from my hx4700 to an i-mate Jam.

I've found over the year that what I use my PDA for most is PIM, e-mail and mobile internet. I don't play games, watch movies or create documents particularly -- that's what my laptop's for.

The 4700's screen is lovely, but I realised that none of the software I was using really made full use of it (Pocket Informant is the only exception). What I found myself increasingly wanting was a built-in phone. I'm a big fan of convergence.

The only things I really miss with my Jam is wifi and the compactflash slot, but these are by no means deal breakers. A neat side effect is that if I pick up the hx4700 now I'm staggered at how big it is. It's a breeze block!

CowboyNinjaPirate
10-04-2005, 07:34 PM
Although I have been tempted by the converged mobile phone / PPC in the past the temptation has only been fleeting. I used to have a Sony Ericsson P900 and used that as organiser/phone/music player for a while but the organiser wasn't up to much (I know know after having a PPC) and the memory was too expensive.

I gradually started moving away from using one device when I got my Creative Zen Nomad Jukebox 30gig player which was great, the intial rush of trying to fill it with music. In the end I had 15gig on there and got tired of adding more, when playing the music i would skip through most of the tracks anyway. Then my dad got me a PPC for my birthday (started off as a HP 2410 and I later swapped it for a HP3715), bought a 512meg card for it, stuck 70 or so songs on there using the auto playlist feature of WMP10 and it changes slightly each day. That allowed me to dump the beast that was the Creative.
When i get a 2gig card in there it'll be heaven.

As for my SE P900... I use it as a regular phone now... and am looking for something smaller.

Someone mentioned earlier games etc, I have a Nintendo DS and I love it, it's bulky but I shove it in my bag anyway so it's fine, I also have a GBA and SNES emulator for my PPC which a selection of turn based strategies/RPG's to keep me amused. I can play them at the same time as listening to music and flip out periodically to check what plans I have for the day.

I love my PPC, love it as a music player (Conduits Pocket Player) but don't like the idea of it being a phone too, after a few years of chopping and changing devices I think I've finally found my setup. :)

Sorry for rambling.

XanderP
10-04-2005, 09:51 PM
Hi, I have an ipod shuffle for playing my mp3 and a Qtek S100 for my pda/phone and I realy like this setup! My ipod shuffle is so small in my pocket I don't even notice it and my Qtek is big for a mobile phone it is tiny for a pocket pc I even use it as my portable games console but at the moment only have age of empires (which is great!) and mini trans Canada (made by omnigsoft who also make some other great games.) Soon I will buy a gig sd and get an emulator but for now it is fine. I also will get a movie on it. That means if I wasn't using my Qtek I would have to have in my pocket a portable dvd player, mobile phone, mp3, a few pads of paper, pens, games console and many many more!!! Thankyou oh pocket pc god thank you very much!!!