Need advice on replacing my PDA

[starrigger]

My venerable Cassiopeia Pocket PC has developed lines across the screen that pretty much make it unusable anymore as a book reader, and I want to replace it. (I like it for sticking in my pocket when I go out, and for reading in bed. Though I love my PRS700 for reading around the house, and I like the light, it's awfully bright for reading in bed when my wife's asleep.)

Any suggestions? Someone told me that there were low-end Windows Mobile devices available for around $100, but I haven't been able to find any. I don't have hugely sophisticated needs; I want a decent screen for reading in the dark, and the ability to sync my Outlook contacts and calendar. It would be nice if it could run Mobipocket software and something that reads epub.

My wife likes her iTouch, so that's one thought. But it seems a little fragile to me, and has poor battery life. Something with a protective cover might be better.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by starrigger

My venerable Cassiopeia Pocket PC has developed lines across the screen that pretty much make it unusable anymore as a book reader, and I want to replace it. (I like it for sticking in my pocket when I go out, and for reading in bed. Though I love my PRS700 for reading around the house, and I like the light, it's awfully bright for reading in bed when my wife's asleep.)

Any suggestions? Someone told me that there were low-end Windows Mobile devices available for around $100, but I haven't been able to find any. I don't have hugely sophisticated needs; I want a decent screen for reading in the dark, and the ability to sync my Outlook contacts and calendar. It would be nice if it could run Mobipocket software and something that reads epub.

My wife likes her iTouch, so that's one thought. But it seems a little fragile to me, and has poor battery life. Something with a protective cover might be better.

If my Loox goes really dead, I know with what I'd replace it... Problem is, if you want a decent backlit screen, you want transflective and none of the cheaper devices has that (readable in bright surroundings without backlight).

You could look for second-hand devices.

[HarryT]

Check on eBay; you can often find bargains there.

[starrigger]

Any suggestions for brands, models? (I care more about reading in low light or no light than I do in bright sunlight.)

[HarryT]

I'd suggest going for one with a full VGA res screen - something like an HP iPaq 4700. I used one of those for several years and would recommend it thoroughly. It has a "transflective" screen, which means it can be read both in the dark (using the adjustable brightness backlight) and in full daylight, too. I've just had a quick look at eBay (US) and there are dozens of them for sale. I've always been a big fan of the HP (later Compaq) iPaq range; I've had lots of them over the years, and never once had a hardware problem of any kind with them.

[starrigger]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'd suggest going for one with a full VGA res screen - something like an HP iPaq 4700. I used one of those for several years and would recommend it thoroughly. It has a "transflective" screen, which means it can be read both in the dark (using the adjustable brightness backlight) and in full daylight, too. I've just had a quick look at eBay (US) and there are dozens of them for sale. I've always been a big fan of the HP (later Compaq) iPaq range; I've had lots of them over the years, and never once had a hardware problem of any kind with them.

Thanks for the tip.

Hm. I just searched ebay and found about a hundred accessories for the Ipaq 4700, but only a few actual 4700s. Do you have a secret search method? I put in a couple of bids, but it looks like interest is strong. They'll probably bounce up in price before the end.

Any similar models I might look for?

[HarryT]

The Dell Axim range also has a good reputation. There are full VGA models in its range too, but I'm not sure what the model numbers are. Perhaps someone else can assist?

[Leep]

If you want easy calendar and address/phone box syncing, and lots of fun free applications, go with the iTouch. You should get 12-24 hours battery life unless you do video or games and you can pick up a little portable battery charger that will triple that.

cheers

[starrigger]

Originally Posted by Leep

If you want easy calendar and address/phone box syncing, and lots of fun free applications, go with the iTouch. You should get 12-24 hours battery life unless you do video or games and you can pick up a little portable battery charger that will triple that.

cheers

My wife's iTouch doesn't get nearly that much battery life. Aside from that, she really likes it, though. However, one disincentive to the itouch is that if I get one, my daughter will always be stealing it from me.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by starrigger

Any suggestions? Someone told me that there were low-end Windows Mobile devices available for around $100, but I haven't been able to find any. I don't have hugely sophisticated needs; I want a decent screen for reading in the dark, and the ability to sync my Outlook contacts and calendar. It would be nice if it could run Mobipocket software and something that reads epub.

What I use is a Palm OS PDA. Specifically, I have a Tapwave Zodiac 2. Tapwave was started by a couple of former Palm execs who wanted to create a device that was a handheld gaming platform and a Palm OS PDA.

Because it was designed for gaming, it has features you wouldn't expect, like a 320x480 screen driven by an ATI graphics chip with 2D acceleration and 8MB of screen RAM, Yamaha stereo sound with actual (tiny) stereo speakers on the device, and 128MB of RAM. It also has Bluetooth radio and two SD card slots, with a 2GB card in each.

The game developers never really got behind it, and the marketing made it hard to tell it was a great PDA, too, and Tapwave went under in 2005. No matter: I have three...

About half of the Zodiac's mission is to be an ebook viewer. I have about 3,500 volumes on in, in an assortment of formats. Most (about 3,200) are HTML files from the Baen Free Library, Project Gutenberg and elsewhere, converted for Plucker, a free, open source offline HTML reader for Palm devices. Plucker supports color, embedded images, hyperlinks, text attributes, and (under OS5) fonts. It also supports volumes created with gzip compatible compression, for an average 70% size reduction.

I also have several hundred Mobipocket volumes, read with v5.3 of the Mobi reader for Palm OS, plus things in eReader format read by eReader 3..0fp, PDF files read by the open source PalmPDF program,l and Word docs, RTF files, Palm DOC ans zTXT files and plain ASCII text files read by the open source PalmFiction viewer.

The only thing I can't read on the device now is ePub, but that's not a huge issue, as I have little in ePub I need to read, and can read what I do have on desktop, laptop, or notebook in FBReader.

Battery life is decent, with the main variable being screen brightness. I usually keep my screen set as low as is comfortably readable, and expect the battery to last a couple of days, but generally top it off overnight.

Because it's a Palm OS PDA, I can sync my Outlook Contacts to it as the basis of my Address Book, and the Calendar syncs to my DateBook and handles appointments and alarms.

I can also view/edit Excel spreadsheets and Word documents via Documents to Go, write with WordSmith and a folding keyboard, and sync that with Word, and go online (though I seldom do) via a wifi SD card and one of several browsers, or send/receive email.

It's my pocket reference library on a variety of topics. And oh, yes, it plays games.

There should be a fair number of deals on Palm devices on eBay or the like, and you're welcome to ping me with questions. I've been using Palm devices for years and have learned a bit about them.
______
Dennis

[starrigger]

I found just one Zodiac 2 on ebay, "Buy Now" for $30 w/o charger or stylus. But the listing gives no useful information about it, except that it's been wiped of software.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by starrigger

I found just one Zodiac 2 on ebay, "Buy Now" for $30 w/o charger or stylus. But the listing gives no useful information about it, except that it's been wiped of software.

It's a Palm OS 5.26 device with a 200mhz Motorola ARM processor, 320x480 color screen, Yamaha stereo, Bluetooth, and two SD card slots, one of which is SDIO. The SD slots top out at 2GB/card stock, but if you add the FAT32 driver from the Palm Lifedrive (readily available) you can go up to 4GB cards. (No higher, as the Zodiac can't read SDHC cards.)

Out of the box, the Zodiac includes the "old style" Palm PIM apps: Address Book, DateBook, Calculator, and Memopad, plus PalmReader (now eReader), Acid Solitare, WordSmith, and apps for viewing JPGs and listening to MP3s. (These are all in device ROM).

The "killer app" for the Zodiac is a Palm port of The Core Pocket Media Player, which handles AVI and MPEG video, and MP3 and Ogg audio files among others. TCPMP is free and open source. There are reams written elsewhere on how to rip your DVDs to a form you can play on the Zodiac with TCPMP.

Anything can be a stylus. The big issue will be lack of charger, as the Zodiac uses a unique design, and you'll need a charger made for it. If you can find a charger on eBay to go with it, and what is being sold works, it's a good deal. (I am biased - I love mine with a passion.)

I can provide a copy of the Zodaic Palm Desktop CD if this doesn't come with one, and an assortment of useful software and advice if you go for this.
______
Dennis

[magicmonster]

The screen does not dim as well as I wished when reading at night. I preferred my Jornada 565. Though the unit is much faster than my Jornada that I gave to my sister. The Jornada was on Windows Mobile 2003 if I remember correctly. Though if you wanted to use it as a mp3 player the Dell has windows media player 10 preinstalled.

[starrigger]

Does anyone have an opinion on the Palm TX? There seem to be a fair number of them for sale on ebay.

[HarryT]

What I primarily dislike about Palm machines is the "Palm Desktop" software you need to use to add and remove files from the machine. With Windows Mobile, as you know, it's just "drag and drop" from Windows Explorer; far simpler.