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Handhelds Hardware Hacking Hardware

Fave All-in-One PDA for Worldwide Connectivity? 31

Posted by Cliff from the world-travellers-with-disdain-for-local-cell-plans dept.
dr-vjk asks: "I just bought a new *unlocked* HP iPaq h6315 PocketPC. This phone/PDA supports quad-band GSM, Bluetooth and Wifi. This is a huge improvement over my old travel kit (Sony P900, h4315 iPaq, and Apple iBook). I needed an unlocked unit as the standard h6315's are locked to the T-Mobile network which charges over a buck a minute to roam outside the U.S. I have tested it in Europe and Africa with pre-paid local SIM cards and it works great. It works out of the box with GSM networks around the world for voice and GPRS for IP Data. I loaded SJPhone in order to access my Vonage account over WiFI (Skype doesn't work on this unit yet). It was great talking as long as I wanted with friends back in the U.S. with no concern for long distance charges. They could also call my Vonage number in the U.S. and my PDA would ring in Europe."
"I would love to hear if any Slashdot readers have their own all-in-one device they would recommend for world travelers. At a minimum, I think such a device would need GSM, GPRS, Bluetooth and Wifi support. As a physician I need Windows Mobile for the O.S. today but would be willing to look at other solutions (especially open source)."
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Fave All-in-One PDA for Worldwide Connectivity? More

Fave All-in-One PDA for Worldwide Connectivity?

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  • VoIP (Score:4, Insightful)

    by spencerogden ( 49254 ) <spencer@spencerogden.com> on Monday December 06, 2004 @04:46PM (#11010467) Homepage
    Its seems that for many Voice over IP is the final key to being able to have their office anywhere. With VPN and VoIP there aren't many restrictions on where you can have your 'office'.

    And yes this a good thing. There is no such thing as being 'to easy to reach' when you need to be in touch. On the other hand, if people get angry when you cut your communications (everything has an off button), that's when you have a problem. Remember, its not the technologies fault, its people who expect you to be on the job 24/7.

  • Linux? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Jahf ( 21968 ) on Monday December 06, 2004 @05:16PM (#11010763) Journal
    So look, I am not dis'ing on Windows, I just want to kill those replies now.

    But ... some of us professionally can't afford to be seen running Microsoft products if there is any alternative.

    So ... is there a Linux-based PDA phone (running Opie on a PocketPC phone is fine, or GPE)? And if so, will Skype or SJPhone or something similar work on it?

    I know that Opie will run on most PocketPCs, but can they be installed on the combi-phones -and- use the phone features?

    If so, they've got my money ... if not I'll be sticking with my current setup for awhile longer.

    • Re:Linux? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Jeremiah Cornelius ( 137 ) on Monday December 06, 2004 @05:33PM (#11010938) Homepage Journal
      A problem with Linux or anything else on this HP is the CPU. For unknown reasons, this model runs a TI chip - not an ARM/StrongARM/X-Scale variant.

      There is no port here for Opie, etc. In fact, I don't know if there is GCC/libc!

      • "this model runs a TI chip"

        Yes, but it is still an ARM CPU. The problem isn't the CPU - it's the rest of the hardware.
      • I'm not particularly concerned with it being -this- PocketPC. I'm more wondering if there is -any- PDA phone that will run Linux and still be able to use the phone features.

      • Corrections (Score:2, Informative)

        by drw ( 4614 )
        The TI chip used (a variant of their OMAP line of processors) contains an ARM core along with a DSP core. They are compatible with ARM processors. And all versions of gcc support it, well at least the ARM core.

        Also Opie, as with most Linux software, needs just a recompile to work on other platforms. I have developed and run Opie using x86, x86-64, G4/MacOS and ARM processors. The only changes needed for Opie on different devices is for hardware components such as touch screens, keyboard mappings and so
        • It is different enogh a target, that it rejects Pocket PC binaries that run on older iPaqs...

          I'd be interested if the gcc is fine!

          • Ahh....I have never had a newer iPaq reject a single older binary....unless is was compiled for PocketPC 2000. 2002 and above binaries have worked fine on almost every ppc that has come out in recent memory. Only exception might be the hacking tools.
    • personally, i'm wondering if this phone specifically can run Linux. not because of my distaste for PocketPC, but rather because the applications i want to use are linux apps. because, if that thing had Wi-Fi, it'd be my ideal portable computing platform!
    • Not sure if this will help, but Cringly mentioned a tri-band card for the sl-6000 from sharp that supported wifi and at least one cell phone archetecture for data connectivity in http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20040930 . html [pbs.org]

      I did not find any information on the links page for that article that identified what card that is.

      The SL-6000 supports both a CF slot as well as a MMC/SD slot. However to the best of my knowledge the MMC/SD slot does not support a communications archetecture, so I presume
    • While Linux (with Opie, GPE, etc.) can be installed quite easily on PDA's, there are 2 main factors which limit this same thing happening with cell phones:

      1. In the US and other countries, it is illegal to modify/replace a phone's firmware (i.e. OS). Installing and removing apps is fine, but the low-level pieces is not.
      2. Phone hardware specs are basically impossible to get. While this will always be a problem for FOSS development (unfortunately), the legal issue above makes companies even less willing

  • best pda? (Score:5, Funny)

    by TurtlesAllTheWayDown ( 688108 ) on Monday December 06, 2004 @05:17PM (#11010772)
    Fave All-in-One PDA for Worldwide Connectivity?

    hands down: the kiss [wikipedia.org]

  • So can I get this unlocked phone to work with GSM networks in the USA, like AT+T (now Cingular)?
    • If it is an unlocked phone it should work on any GSM provider. You just plop your SIM card in it and it goes happily on its way.

      Locking a phone means the practice of forcing the phone to only recognizing SIM cards from a single manufacturer. Unlocked phones don't worry about it.

      Since this is a quad-band phone it is perfect for AT&T/Cingular. That 4th band is the 850MHz band that AT&T/Cingular recently moved many of their old 800MHz analog towers to (though naturally not the single cell tower in my

      • Re:T-Mobile (Score:3, Informative)

        by tyen ( 17399 )

        T-Mobile -used- to but I don't know if they will anymore

        They just unlocked my GSM phone (a SonyEricsson T610) after six months when I requested it and explained I was out of the country and wanted to use prepaid phone cards. This was only two weeks ago. I believe their waiting period is 3 months. I just called 611 on my phone and hit 0 to speak with an operator, and said I wanted to unlock my phone.

  • The HP is OK (Score:3, Informative)

    by 3waygeek ( 58990 ) on Monday December 06, 2004 @06:18PM (#11011448)
    but the i-mate PDA2k [clubimate.com] is nicer. Unfortunately, no US operator is offering it just yet.
  • A link [hp.com] to the actual device, not a generic (non-working) store link.

  • Treo 600/650 - good Internet access, phone sized (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Cato ( 8296 ) on Tuesday December 07, 2004 @05:13AM (#11015978)
    I have a Treo 600 which is quad-band GSM (i.e. every GSM band that exists, including South America's 850 MHz), has great support for email, IRC, Jabber, web, etc, and is very pocketable (not much bigger than a normal phone). Since you may be travelling in third world countries, it's worth noting that it looks much like a normal phone, so perhaps is less likely to attract unwelcome attention. The GPRS is pretty good, and I have used it in much of Europe with no problems. It runs Palm OS so there is a huge amount of software, including a lot of freeware - e.g. several IRC clients including the excellent upIRC, many email clients (one built in), lots of databases, etc. It comes with CityTime built in, a nice world clock that knows about timezones and DST all round the world.

    The 600 doesn't have Bluetooth - the newer 650 does, though you should make sure the potential voice clipping issue discussed on treocentral.com is not happening or fixable (seems to be related to how high the ringer volume is set).
    • We have a bunch of Treo 600s (and some moving to 650's) and are having a hell of a time syncing our calendars with the server... So far all we can figure out is to sync to the desktop PC over the internet (GPRS) but this is riciulous as the calendering is stored on the server.

      What type of software (server and client) can be used to sync calendars and everything else DIRECTLY to the server, without having to use the PC as the middle man? Right now we have to sync the PDA to the outlook client, which is tota
  • Not exactly conventional or slim depending on sleeve usage, but usable as a phone or data. Not limited to GSM or Windows as well, either can be replaced (Linux and 802.11b via pcmcia). Bluetooth can be added or removed as needed. Only problems are related to Carly's manglement of HP and them removing sleeves out of the iPaq line.
  • you just have to wait for its arrival stateside.
    BT, wifi, 1mp camera w/ flash, tri gsm/gprs, unique form factor, keypad, external display.
    http://www.bargainpda.com/default.asp?newsID=2327 [bargainpda.com]
    WHAT MORE CAN YOU EXPECT? (except for more memory, it's got 32mb, maybe gps also?)
    • Moto really screwed up giving the MPx only 32MB; in real-world use, that leaves less than 10 MB free for other applications (the standard built-in stuff, especially the BT stack and the magic that switches between GPRS and WiFi, takes a shitload of RAM).

      That decision has really pissed off at least one community of power users [howardforums.com] who'd been anxiously awaiting the MPx for many months.
  • I'm not particularly enamoured with PDAs - particularly the ones which also try to be a phone. I have, however been trying to research my options for a device more portable than my laptop on which I can easily read and reply to email; use the web etc. It would need to have the handwriting recognition facilities of the best modern PDAs; have a substantial battery life - at least 8 hours; and finally, a c. 7" screen with at least SVGA resolution. I wouldn't mind if it was fairly heavy but I would find anyt

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