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Handhelds Hardware IT

HP iPAQ hx4705 Reviewed 147

Posted by Hemos from the cool-machines dept.
Tong writes "PDA Buyer's Guide has published an in-depth review of the HP iPAQ hx4605. 'This has been the month of the iPAQ with so many new models released! The hx4705 is one of the most anticipated because it features a fantastic VGA display and a super-fast 624MHz processor. Heap on plenty of memory, Bluetooth, WiFi, both CF and SD slots and a touch pad navigator and you've got the 4705. It's one of only two Pocket PCs with a VGA display sold in the US.' Read the full review on the buyer's guide."
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HP iPAQ hx4705 Reviewed More

HP iPAQ hx4705 Reviewed

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  • I don't know about all that... (Score:4, Funny)

    by RangerRick98 ( 817838 ) on Thursday September 30, 2004 @04:49PM (#10399273) Journal
    The hx4705 is one of the most anticipated because it features a fantastic VGA display and a super-fast 624MHz processor. Heap on plenty of memory, Bluetooth, WiFi, both CF and SD slots and a touch pad navigator and you've got the 4705.
    I don't know about all that, but it's got a rubber ducky in its background, and that's good enough for me!

    • Re:I don't know about all that... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by PepsiProgrammer ( 545828 ) on Thursday September 30, 2004 @05:10PM (#10399453)
      I'll stick to my Zaurus SL-6000 its only got a 400mhz processor, and no bluetooth. But I dont use bluetooth and its already running linux.

      Not to mention its ruggedized (Desigined to withstand 1 meter fall to concrete) also features the best looking pda display ive ever seen, and has the trademark sliding keyboard.

      Unfortunately rumour has it that Sharp is wanting to pull out of the US PDA market entirely :( the SL-6000 is not marketed towards consumers at all. But you can still pick em up at amazon.

  • VGA Experience (Score:5, Funny)

    by Nuclear Elephant ( 700938 ) on Thursday September 30, 2004 @04:49PM (#10399274) Homepage
    unless you have excellent eyes, you'll discover why Microsoft didn't go with a true VGA experience

    I heard the same thing back in the '80s, my ANSI ASCII pr0n never looked right in MS-DOS.

  • hp+apple=new newton? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by boomerny ( 670029 ) on Thursday September 30, 2004 @04:50PM (#10399287)
    with HP selling iPods now, wouldn't it be sweet to have one of these top-end iPaq's running some sort of stripped down OSX? PDA of my dreams...

    • Re:hp+apple=new newton? (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      It would probably be pretty nice, but OS X requires some fairly hefty processor power to do a lot of the tricks that people take for granted in OS X.

      Mach itself is nice and speedy, but a lot of the frameworks that make up the OS X experience come from things like the Foundation Kit and AppKit which make heavy use of message-passing in Objective-C, notification centers, etc etc - all of which is a little on the slow side - as well as GUI tricks that require Quartz and such.

      So, yes... it would be sweet, but
    • with HP selling iPods now, wouldn't it be sweet to have one of these top-end iPaq's running some sort of stripped down OSX?

      A nice dream, but I don't see how you're adding iPaq+iPod and getting osXpaq. They're two completely incompatible portable gadgets whose only commonality is the company selling them and the size of the pocket they fit into.

      The HP iPod is merely licensed and resold by HP; they're not adding anything to the gadget. Just the opposite, in fact: they're preinstalling iTunes (for Windows,
      • You don't just load a desktop on a device that small, it doesn't work. OS-X is made to run on big hardware. It takes a lot of processor, RAM and diskspace for all it's nifty features. That's fine, Macs have that, but a PDA does not. They'd need to redesign OS-X to an embedded version before it would be a usable OS for PDAs.

        That's why there is Windows CE. There really is a difference to making an OS run on a normal desktop and a PDA.

        It's like with Linux. You often hear how Linux can boot from a floppy, whi

        • Why Not Real Linux on a PDA? (Score:5, Informative)

          by civilizedINTENSITY ( 45686 ) on Thursday September 30, 2004 @10:33PM (#10401321)
          Well, actually... yes you can, because they did it for us:

          Currently Familiar's Linux [handhelds.org] distribution supports some of the following key features:
          • Entirely based on XFree86's/keithp's Tiny-X server, which includes the latest RENDER extension.
          • Anti-Aliased True-Type Font support in rxvt-aa, matchbox, and fltk (this is extended to any X application using the Xft APIs).
          • Dropbear sshd included by default.
          • The latest releases include JFFS2 support, which enables you to have read/write access to the iPAQ's Flash.
          • Integrated Python v2.3 w/ PyGtk and PyGDKImlib.
          • Binary and Library compatible w/ Debian's ARM distribution. In most cases, programs (as long as their dependencies are met) can be taken from Debian and executed on the iPAQ w/out issue.
          • Full package support based on ipkg.
          • Many system programs are implemented using busybox, saving much space.


          If thats not enough Linux in your PDA, try:

          The intimate project [handhelds.org] is a fully blown debian based linux distribution for the Compaq iPAQ. Taking the work being done by the Familiar Project and combining it with fully blown debian package management, and access to the thousands of existing debian arm packages. The goal is simple. We want the best of both worlds. Sure... it won't fit in the 16MB Flash but for the lucky few with microdrives then this is the way ahead. The minimum requirements are currently around 140MB of storage for the base image.
          • Ummm, ok, great, I know LInux runs on PDAs, I've seen it. Some of them ship with it. What does that have to do with my point, that a desktop OS as is will not run on a PDA espically one like OS-X?

            As you noted, your PDA Linux uses Tiny X, not the normal X.org one that is so popular these days on desktops. You also noticed the use of busybox and so on. The point is, these are compact, modified OSes to run on the smaller hardware. You don't just grab Debian CDs and throw it on an iPaq as is.

            OS-X would need t

            • Wrong on a few counts. (Score:5, Interesting)

              by tod_miller ( 792541 ) on Friday October 01, 2004 @02:27AM (#10402469) Journal
              One upon a year, 624khz was far more than what we had, and VGA was state of the art.

              Lets not forget 256mb smart cards come in Cereal Packets nowwadays.

              So if your VGA screen is small, you have new ways of interacting, multi modal - voice recognition from mobile phone technology (voice dial) for small vocabulary recognition, shortcut buttons, hand writing recog, and stylus input.

              Not to mention new inputs like Dasher. Lets not get appl eand pairs. Opie or GPE and the familar projects and other, they are real linux - and no you don't want an OS formatted for 4:3 19" screen on your 16:9 pocket screen. (google Dasher - it runs on my Axim rather well.)

              So you argue against familiar being a 'full' linux, not just a different flavour, but you also state you cannot just push darwin onto a PDA.

              So if you moddified it to work on a PDA, you would look at in discust, say it isn't a 'real' darwin, and if it was you wouldn't want it....

              What is your point? Sorry but a lot of work is going on in this field (lots of happy hardware hacking) and I am waiting impatiently for a rebootable, power managed debianesuq distro to run on my axim - give them encouragement not misdirectd misdirection.

              Hope that made sense.

            • Checkout the screenshoots [handhelds.org] of not just blackbox, but icewm, and KDE running on the iPaq. I think most would agree that KDE is a "desktop" level window manager. You can take debian .debs (for arm) and install them.

              Debian suports ARM as one of it's many architectures, and has done since release 2.2 ('potato') was released in 2000. The current release is Debian 3.0 ('woody'). Whilst it nominally has equal status with other architectures it is fair to say that there remain some bugs in the ARM releas
      • AFAIK the ipod os was developed my a company called pixo, but it's now done in house.

  • Not for long (Score:5, Funny)

    by lezerno ( 775940 ) on Thursday September 30, 2004 @04:51PM (#10399296) Homepage
    The same battery life as my laptop!

    • Re:Not for long (Score:5, Insightful)

      by timeOday ( 582209 ) on Thursday September 30, 2004 @05:39PM (#10399657)
      That is a bummer, but look at what they were doing for those 3 hours and 20 minutes: "PIM access, working with Pocket Word and Excel documents, viewing photos, watching 30 minutes of videos and surfing the web using WiFi for an hour."

      That's a very laptop-like workload! Maybe it would have more traditional PDA battery life if it were tested on more traditional PDA tasks, like sitting in your pocket turned off most of the time until you fire it up for 10 seconds to look up an address.

  • Has anyone installed linux on these yet? I swear, you can install Unix on anything these days. Just the other day I noticed someone got one on a GameBoy Advanced. (Link bellow) http://www.kernelthread.com/publications/gbaunix/ [kernelthread.com]

    • Re:So... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by PaintyThePirate ( 682047 ) on Thursday September 30, 2004 @05:02PM (#10399386) Homepage
      Handhelds.org [handhelds.org] is where most of the Pocket PC -> Linux action is these days. They are still working on getting Familiar (the main Pocket PC linux distro) on previous generation devices, such as the Dell X3 and the Ipaq 4100, so it could be a while before there is support for the 4705.

      BTW, I have Familiar Linux with the Opie GUI on my Ipaq 3650, and its actually quite good.
    • These PDA's all use different ICs and it's not a simple case of install a configured Linux kernel and you're away.

      The boot code can differ, the chips are sometimes proprietary (reverse engineering required) and the process of installing software into the ROM can be tricky (for one of the Toshiba's you have to solder a socket onto it).

  • Zaurus 6000 (Score:5, Informative)

    by Kent Swanson ( 764578 ) on Thursday September 30, 2004 @04:55PM (#10399332)
    You can buy the Sharp Zaurus 6000 in the US. It has a VGA screen, in fact it has been around for quite a while. Snoooooze.
    • Perhaps thats why the post says "one of two"? - Who needs a sig?

    • Re:Zaurus 6000 (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Yeah, I got a Zaurus SL-6000L with transflective VGA (transflective makes it easy to read in all lighting conditions) in April. It's so lame that PocketPC has taken so long to offer the same (assuming the iPaq is transflective) or worse.

      On the other hand, maybe no one here noticed this small Linux machine, since Slashdotters don't like machines that come with Linux pre-installed, preferring to pay the Windows tax to help fund SCO's legal campaign or patents on FAT or whatever. Only after he's paid Micros
  • They're already fat cell phones. Soon they'll be so full of features that they'll be the size of . . . Laptops!

  • Only two hoh? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Kenja ( 541830 ) on Thursday September 30, 2004 @04:58PM (#10399355)
    I think you'll find that there are more then two VGA PocketPC systems out there. I have the Toshiba e805 which has 802.11b, 128mb RAM, 32mb flash, ATI graphics chip, VGA screen, CF and SDIO slots. In addition I've seen several others with the same 480x640 screens.
    • I've also had a Toshiba E805 for nearly a year and love it. Wish it had Bluetooth like the IPAQ but the new E830 does. Toshiba doesn't seem to want to sell this in the US though and has made a statement to that effect publicly. I think this is a big mistake, as it is nearly the same as a E805 with a faster CPU and BT built in, new Intel graphics chip, and few other changes. I suspect there is some nasty stuff going on between M$, HP and Toshiba where HP says to M$ "We want to be the only ones selling th
    • HP 4795, Toshiba e805, Sharp Zaurus SL-6000, C-7xx, and C-8xx series all have VGA screens. The Toshiba e830 is coming out soon, Dell has a VGA Axim in the Chute and Asus has a VGA MyPal coming soon. In all fairness it is one of only 2 *Pocket PC* devices that have a VGA screen right now.

      This has the aire of a paid shilling. Honestly, the unique part about this PDA is the touch pad instead of the standard 5 way controller. The rest is a been there, done that +1 type of deal.

      On another note, I also

  • Where is PalmOne? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Ryan Monster ( 767204 ) on Thursday September 30, 2004 @04:59PM (#10399361)
    I love Palm as much as the next guy, in fact I use a Tungsten T3, but when is Palm going to get with the times and release a comparable model? The T3 or C seems to be the cream of the crop and it's only got 320x480, not full VGA, and while you can get either bluetooth or wifi, you can't get both (without the expansion card). What's up Palm?
  • "I'd like to dock my PDA into that cradle, if you know what I mean". Now, it's back to work :)

  • Beware of HP (Score:5, Interesting)

    by DrXym ( 126579 ) on Thursday September 30, 2004 @05:02PM (#10399387)
    I bought an iPaq h4150 a couple of months back only to find it was end of lifed 3 weeks later. The device wasn't even selling for a year and it is already obsolete. It was still the #1 seller for HP at the time, I think that's a little raw. No new bios upgrades, no Pocket PC 2003 Second Edition. Zip.

    If this is their new policy, I would think seriously before buying anything off them. One year of upgrades is your lot in life, after which you have a paper weight. Besides, it's not like HP are the only manufacter of PDAs - they're just one of the more expensive. If you don't get value for money including adequate support you may as buy from someone else.

    • HP has a long history of planned obsolescence. I bought the 3780 and within a week or two the 3980 was out with SDIO and other features I'd never see.
    • I bought an iPaq h4150 a couple of months back only to find it was end of lifed 3 weeks later. The device wasn't even selling for a year and it is already obsolete.

      I don't see a problem with this. At some point companies need to innovate - HP did that. It makes no sense to pre-announce your new products, if they will kill sales of your old products. And (I assume) nothing "stopped working" on your unit the day that the new model was introduced. So "becoming obsolete" just means you don't have the lat

      • Re:Beware of HP (Score:5, Interesting)

        by DrXym ( 126579 ) on Thursday September 30, 2004 @05:29PM (#10399586)
        I wouldn't have a problem with it either if I knew then what I know now. I would have simply bought from someone else.

        My issue is that I didn't know, and there was nothing on their site to suggest they were dropping support. In fact the site lead me to believe that their support was good. They even had an offer to update old devices to the latest Windows Mobile 2003 for a nominal fee. I thought "what great support!" and ordered one. Three weeks later and they announce end of life...

        As for being a gadget - no it's not a gadget, it is my PDA. I had a Palm Vx for four years that worked just fine in that capacity but which finally went a bit wonky. I heard good things about the h4150 in reviews in PCW and elsewhere and decided to switch.

        I only expected the level of support that the HP brand and their site lead me to believe I was going to get. That doesn't mean constant upgrades, but it does mean bug fixes and upgrade offers for a fee if they are feasible. For example an upgrade to Mobile 2003 Second Edition is feasible but none is forthcoming. Even bug fixes of the temperamental wireless would be nice.

        I suspect that HP have pulled the rug on support to shove people onto the new models, but it won't work. If I'm shoved, I'll end up buying a Dell Axim, or maybe another Palm. I certainly won't fork out extra money for service that I don't get. I'm sure others will too.

      • Re:Beware of HP (Score:4, Insightful)

        by timeOday ( 582209 ) on Thursday September 30, 2004 @05:45PM (#10399695)
        Releasing something newer and better, even ceasing to sell the old model is NOT the same as end-of-lifing! A decent company will continue to support products after it stops selling them for long enough to support most customers.

        Imagine if Ford stopped making spare parts next week for the 2004 F150 because this year's model is all new. Nobody expects them to stop innovating, that's not the problem.

    • Re:Beware of HP (Score:5, Insightful)

      by GoofyBoy ( 44399 ) on Thursday September 30, 2004 @05:16PM (#10399491) Journal
      > after which you have a paper weight.

      No, you still have a PocketPC. It doesn't stop working just because a company doesn't provide upgrades to it.

    • Re:Beware of HP (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Bios_Hakr ( 68586 )
      >One year of upgrades is your lot in life, after which you have a paper weight.

      I think that's a little harsh. Your palmtop is not a PC. It's more like a cell phone. If you want new features, buy a new model. If not, keep the one you have. It's not a 'paperweight'. It will continue to have the same functionality as the day you bought it. Nothing today makes it worth less than every cent you paid for it yesterday.

      Sorry you feel burned. I felt the same way about my i-Pod. But you know what? Mine
      • I agree that paperweight is probably an exagerration, but I really feel the life of my new device has been artificially limited.

        I never felt that way with my Palm Vx. It's true that Palm have come out with numerous new devices since the Vx, but I was still able to upgrade from Palm OS 3.5 to 4.1, and new Hotsync / Palm Desktop and receive updates for a long time. The battery life is still exceptional - I went away for a month this year and the Vx still had power.

        I find having upgraded that none of that

    • Substitute "Apple" for "HP" and "iPod" for "iPaq h4150" and it reads the same way.

  • HP iPAQ hx4705 [datavis.com]: $645.

    --
    Bush: Borrowing money [brillig.com] to try to make his administration look good.

  • There are lots of VGA pdas coming out soon (Score:5, Informative)

    by jomas1 ( 696853 ) on Thursday September 30, 2004 @05:04PM (#10399406) Homepage
    Check out this article if VGA is something you really want on your next pda:

    http://www.brighthand.com/article/Which_VGA_Pocket _PC_is_Right [brighthand.com]
    • Bah if I wanted a Windows Mobile based PDA, I would save myself some money and buy a brick; both work fine for banging your head against in frustration.

      Granted I am just bitter about my experiences with WM2002 on a dell axim X5, the new versions and devices probably suck a little less.

  • Forgive a curmudgeon, but... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by boredman ( 169127 ) on Thursday September 30, 2004 @05:07PM (#10399438)
    I've been watching the PDA evolution from the outside for a while (ever since buying a Palm Professional back in '98) and, for the life of me, I *still* can't figure out what these things are good for. Despite the trend toward ever-more-powerful specs, I see them as a terribly expensive compromise between the convenience and communications options afforded by cell phones and the power of a modern notebook.

    So, here's the question: what do you, members of the /. community, use your PDAs for, anyway? I'm genuinely curious; please don't interpret this as flamebait.

    -boredman

    • Re:Forgive a curmudgeon, but... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jomas1 ( 696853 ) on Thursday September 30, 2004 @05:15PM (#10399486) Homepage
      If you are never more than 15 feet away from a computer, you will probably never understand the benefit of a pda. My current job requires me to constantly be in the field and at someone else's mercy for electricity and computer/internet access. A pda allows you to take lots of files/documents/passwords etc with you without requireing you carry a laptop with you.

      Once again this means nothing if you are never too far from you computer and are immobile.
    • So, here's the question: what do you, members of the /. community, use your PDAs for, anyway?
      Palm's DualDate helps me coordinate my schedule with my wife's Zire
      I use the address book extensively, with a few hundred entries
      But by sheer hours-of-use, the winner has to be Diddlebug [sourceforge.net] since my kids have drawn close to 500 sketches for me over the years, starting on my Palm III (I didn't have PalmOS 3.5 back when I had my USRobotics Pilot) on up to my current Palm Vx


      --
      Free gmail invites [slashdot.org]
    • I use my ipqa 1945 for:

      1) Listening to Internet audio about the house (wirelessly)with 802.11b and headphones
      2) Listening to a shortwave radio
      3) Using a web browser to control item #2
      4) Running an Atari 8 bit emulator to play games like "Kennedy Approach" or Chess 2000 while in the waiting room
      5) Pocket Calculator, scientific
      6) Notes in the field (push putton, talk)
      7) Address book, phone numbers
      8) Passwords (the entire unit is passwd protected in case of loss or theft)
      9) Alarms and reminders - e.g., I put
      • PDAs are general purpose compromise devices. Bigger and less battery life than an iPod, smaller and more battery life than a laptop. They can do a lot of things but not as well on any job as a single purpose device.

        Here's what I have on my Dell X5 (admitted a big clunker, but has a CF slot and a bigger battery compared to slimmer models):

        1. Music player: either Winampaq or Mortplayer. They both play OGG, MP3 and a few other formats. You can load it with a 512MB or a Gig of flash memory pretty cheap, but I

    • Re:Forgive a curmudgeon, but... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by G4from128k ( 686170 ) on Thursday September 30, 2004 @05:26PM (#10399559)
      I offer both agreement and an answer. I use an 4.5 year old Psion 5mx [the-gadgeteer.com] for word processing (taking notes at conferences, on airplanes, in line at the bank, etc.) spreadsheets, small databases, date & time around the globe, quickie calculations, scheduled reminders, and an occasional game. Its got a whopping 36 MHz processor, 16 MB RAM, and a 16-gray B/W half-VGA screen but that is all it really needs for these tasks. It is totally fantastic as a 12 oz. ultralite laptop because it does all the basic "office" type tasks and gets 20 to 35 hours per pair of AAs.

      Like you, I don't see the need for faster/better (especially at the expense of battery life), although I can understand the attraction to wireless web access.
    • I've got a Zaurus SL-C860 [dynamism.com] running pdaXrom [pdaxrom.org]. My desktop looks like this [mephle.org]. It's quite literally all the day-to-day Linux goodness I need in my pocket. The latest pdaXrom even has a native SDK. I can take notes during a meeting, organize my schedule, try a few lines of code, ssh to a host (bluetooth/gprs/802.11b), browse the web (firefox, konqueror, dillo), email (thunderbird, sylpheed), play nethack/Zangband/etc.

      The idea is that I can be anyplace and have access to information I want. I drop by a store t

    • I mostly use it for scheduling activities and meetings with sometimes detailed notes. I am busy enough at my job that I do need something like this. Its a big relief that I don't have to try and recall everything or feel that I've forgotten something.

      Also, keeping notes of various things help keep the post-it notes/loose papers down to a minimum.
    • My Palm V was a genuinely useful device. I kept my address book and calendar in it, took notes, and carried a little bit of documentation (very little :-). It was my alarm clock on the road. Its battery life was decent, with the hard case I could drop it or sit on it and it would be okay.

      I replaced it when the battery failed with a Sony Clie 610 which was prettier, faster, bigger, more fragile, and had poorer battery life. After a few months, I quit using it, mainly because of the bigger and more fragile p

    • Works For Me. (Score:2, Insightful)

      by eigerface ( 526490 )

      Let's see...

      1. Contact List
      2. Memo Pad (I like to jot down things)
      3. Calendar/Schedule
      4. Games, with halfway decent resolution.

      I bought a Palm IIIx about 4 1/2 years ago. Upgraded the memory. It still works great, although the screen is a little worn.

      I bought a refurbished Palm IIIxe for $35 a couple of months ago. I still love the IIIx line.

      Cellphones make crappy browsers, crappy memopads, crappy schedulers, and crappy game platforms. Add to that, you typically can't sync them with your PC, and

    • Well, my work bought me an iPaq 4150 (I'd never by a PDA myself). I have it sync with outlook calendar, tasks, notes, and contacts, and I actually use it quite a bit. I know you could do the same with a 5 year old palm device, but this is in color, works like the XP versions, and I didn't pay for it. I also have some really good games for the thing, and read e-books with it.

      I.E. I don't do anything essential, but since i didn't pay for it, I'm pretty happy with the things it does.

      LS
    • I have a Blackberry. It syncs with Outlook and gets emails pushed to it. I can check my email anytime. I automatically sync my calendar. I can write a note to myself and read it somewhere else (e.g., write a note in Outlook with the title of a book I want. When I get to the book store, I just pop out the Blackberry and can see what I wrote. I can send emails or just make notes to myself when I'm out and about. The keyboard is great because, with a stylus-based PDA, entering text became a pain.
    • I just recently purchased my first PDA, a Palm IIIxe, for $50. I didn't want to spend a huge amount on a device I may not end up using (or so I was thinking).

      What I use the PDA for mainly is time tracking for my clients (using TimeWhiz, http://www.timewhiz.st/). I also use it as a scratch pad, and I'm trying to get into using it for a day planner.

      I've been using my PDA a lot since I bought it, but not as much as I had hoped. Definately have to discipline yourself to use the PDA for everything, otherwis

    • Re:Forgive a curmudgeon, but... (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      • I *still* can't figure out what these things are good for.

      Well, probably part of the problem is that different people use them for different things. For what it's worth, here's what I use my Palm PDA for:

      • calendar, phone numbers
      • writing down all the trivia that I need day-to-day (code to the laundry room?)
      • pleasure books (several of them. very nice when you're stuck in line somewhere)
      • technical reference (AT command set, abstract of relevant trade articles, various stuff clipped from the web)
      • game

    • Re:Forgive a curmudgeon, but... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by DoubleD ( 29726 ) on Thursday September 30, 2004 @06:22PM (#10399963)
      Palm Tungsten T3 performs several functions a cell phone would not allow me to do as well or at all.

      Current uses:
      • Calender + audible reminders
      • Contacts (instant access to anyone in the company's contact info is nice)
      • Ebooks (great free sci fi library [baen.com])
      • freehand idea sketches
      • Secure/portable password storage
      • calculator (TI/HP emulators)
      • quick excel spreadsheets.

      Future/Dream Uses:
      • remote control for my digial camera
      • photo album
      • wikipedia on a 1GB SD for casual reading/reference
      • tv remote
      • synced movie listings, tvguide
      • mp3 player
      • if you can get power from the airplane divx movies are a possibility.
      • anything else a computer that fits in your pocket might be usefull for.

      Cell phones are limited by input method and screen resolution (currently at least). Laptops take time to boot, dont fit in pockets, and cost more. For some tasks and situations the PDA ends up perfectly in between. That said PDAs are not for everyone and take some effort to make use of. They also have lots of room for improvement, and or convergence with cell phones.

      Final thoughts: I had a dell axim x5 and despised it. The user interface seemed to fight me every step of the way and the size was above my convenience threshold. From my experience using Windows Mobile is like trying to give someone a fullsized piano and only letting them play it through a fist sized hole, underneath it, surrounded with barbed wire, ah well you get the point. Whereas PalmOS consistenly surprises me with well thought features and usable functionality. Also, I would be using a much cheaper pda if I did not get the Tungsten T3 for free.

    • Re:Forgive a curmudgeon, but... (Score:5, Informative)

      by IronChef ( 164482 ) on Thursday September 30, 2004 @06:50PM (#10400170)
      What do I use it for? What do I NOT use it for?!

      reading ebooks every single day... in bed, on the couch, on the can: uBook [gowerpoint.com]
      keeping track of miscellaneous bits of info (eg, project shopping lists): Noterrific [sitosis.com]
      Listening to my MP3 collection, via earphones, over WLAN, while reading in bed: BetaPlayer [corecodec.org]
      scientific calculator: Calc98 [calculator.org]
      Getting online (via T-mo GSM phone & Bluetooth) anytime, anywhere. (In other words, I have Yahoo Yellow Pages in my pocket.)
      All of my contacts and appointments kept in sync with home & work desktops: organizer software is built in but I bought Pocket Informant [pocketinformant.com]
      Various games, of course
      Keeping track of how much I spend on lunch: Pocket Excel
      Taking notes in meetings: PhatPad [phatware.com]
      Storing every single number and password that plagues my life in a secure format: eWallet [iliumsoft.com]

      Sure, it isn't as good as a laptop, but I can (and do) take it everywhere.

      I am upgrading to one of the new VGA models shortly after they hit the streets. I have my eye on the Dell Axim X50V [aximsite.com], which has specs similar to the HP 4700, but is less expensive.

      I can't imagine not owning a nice PDA.
    • Moderators: As evidenced by the massive response, I think the parent needs to be rated as either flamebait (regardless of what he says) or as overrated.

      The usefulness of PDAs has already been established, and this is like getting on Slashdot and saying "I still don't know what the usefulness of a mouse is - I can do everything from the command line and faster" - it's flaimbait, and it's obviously wrong.

      LS
      • The usefulness of PDAs has already been established

        Wow, I guess you should rate the post I made in January as flame-bait or overrated as well. Because I asked the exact same question.

        The usefulness of PDAs is NOT obvious to people who don't use them. I see nothing wrong with a non-user asking what's so good about them. I would have asked the exact same question had I not decided to get a PDA.
    • Calendar
      Contacts
      Collection of reference documents I need daily
      ebook reader
      wireless e-mail when not near a PC
      Wireless web browsing ditto (for a few PDA friendly sites, due to browser limitations - BBC news and slashdot the usual things I visit)
      games for dull moments
      WiFi network scanner (I love walking down the street finding all the open APs)
      Alarm Clock
      Integrates with my call logger system so I have a list of open calls with me all the time.
      Shopping lists
      quick notes of patch numbers, etc.
      Lists of music I've
    • Dictionaries. Cuz Im multilingual. Half a dozen of them that woulda taken up half my shelf. I do maps too, with GPS and stuff for travel.

      I agree with you tho, cell phones do most the other PIM functions already.

      They're not really expensive tho... Look at what you spend on a graphics card.
    • In addition to all the other uses listed (calendar, reference info, passwords, games, music, GPS, web & mail, etc.) there are two other uses I haven't seen mentioned.

      First, I keep a diary on mine. I'd been keeping a diary for several years on little pads of paper, but a paper diary is rather inconvenient for searching. If I want to remember what the name of that bed and breakfast we stayed at a couple years back was, I can find it in seconds. Paper diaries are also much harder to encrypt, if you're wo

    • Well, so, it will be purely for wardriving. I just bought and iPaq 4155 for song from a coworker (200$ - it's only been used for a week or so) and while I don't want to use that for wardriving (It's internal wifi doesn't work with ministumbler, pocketwinc yes, ministumbler no) it did come with an older ipaq 3xxx series that will mate with the dual PCMCIA sleeve that my wife kept telling me to get rid of hehe. Add in a GPS & an Orinco card with an external antenna and I'm good to go.

      I actually plan on m
  • I'm waiting for a pda that can:
    • Connect to the internet
    • Run an SSH-2 Client
    • Interface with a Twiddler 2 [handykey.com]

    I don't care about VGA. I don't even care about color. I just want a remote ssh-2 client that I can type confortably on, without carrying around a briefcase or a purse.

    • USB is so behind the times; we need a BlueTwiddler. Put a VGA PDA in landscape mode and you should be able to fit a whole 80x25 terminal easily.

    • XDA Keyboard [expansys.com]
      PocketPuTTY [duxy.net]
      The XDA from O2. [myxda.com]
      The XDA is a PocketPC with a GPRS capable mobile phone built in. Not sure if it's available outside the UK but I'm sure something similar is. I think there may be an iPaq with similar functionality.

      Don't like PocketPCs? Fair enough.
      SSH2 Client for Palm OS 5 [sealiesoftware.com]
      Treo Smartphone [palmone.com].
      The Treo is a smartphone that runs Palm OS 5 (the newer models anyway) and has a built in keyboard that I hear is quite good.

      I'm afraid I don't know what a Twiddler 2 is...

      • (sigh) I suppose I should have cut-and-pasted, rather than posting a link to the product specifications webpage. The Twiddler 2 is a one-handed chording keyboard manufactured and sold by the HandyKey corporation. With practice, it is said to be nearly as fast as typing with both hands at a conventional keyboard. It has several advantages over the flimsy foldable PDA keyboards like the one you mention:
        • It has a working life measured in years, rather than weeks.
        • It doesn't require a flat surface to work.
    • The Zaurus C3xx was successfully used in a wearable (twiddler and BOB-II). The SL-6000 should work even better, since it has USB host built-in. You might want to consider something like a frogpad, if you have the $$. (frogpad+SL6k+earphones pretty much = instant unconspicuous wearable... we're getting there :)

  • Buy a comparable Dell for half the price... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by SoCalChris ( 573049 ) on Thursday September 30, 2004 @05:15PM (#10399480) Journal
    I just bought a Dell X30 with the 624mhz proc for under $300. It has built in 802.11b, bluetooth, etc... The only thing it doesn't have that the ipaq has is the VGA screen, and CF slot.

    And in their comparison of the Dell screen vs. the ipaq screen, I think the Dell displays better anyways.

    Besides, isn't /. supposed to be boycotting HP and Carly Fiona?
    • The Dell display on the X30 is awesome. I own a zaurus SL-5600 too, and the X30 is miles ahead of the 5600. The 5600 screen seems to have an odd "shimmer" to it if you don't keep your head perfectly still.
    • Looking for something to do in Long Beach, Ca [lbcpc.com]?

      Totally offtopic, but I wish i would have seen your sig 6 months ago. My girl went to CSULB and we didn't really find anything to do without driving outside of the LBC. Ah well.

  • Revolutionary PDA? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by hklingon ( 109185 ) on Thursday September 30, 2004 @05:17PM (#10399496) Homepage
    I am a clamshell nut. I must have a clamshell design, and I've been very unhappy with the US PDA market for a long, long time. Is it just me, or do PDA product lines improve at a snail's pace?

    Why do I think that? I got an HP100LX about late 1993. For those who don't know, it is a 80186 DOS based palmtop. It came with a great suite of PIM software, and could do some sort of quasi-multitasking with near-dos applications. No backlight, one PCMCIA slot, ran what seemed like forever (30-40 hours+) on two AA batteries. 640x240 resolution.

    By about 1998, it disintegrated. I looked for another good PDA, but found nothing. I tried the WinCE based HP 320LX, but it was a piece of garbage. I opted to just buy another 100LX.

    Finally, replaced my 2nd 100LX with a Zaurus C860, but not before trying several of PalmOS and WinCE 2.0/2000/2003 handhelds. Yeah, but the C860 is only available in japan. (Technically you can find it in the states.) It runs Linux, though, so slashdot folks should be all over that. WiFi is great, it has CF and SD (SDIO soon). The 640x480 display is stunning brilliant. Oh, and its clamshell/handheld convertable. Running a linux dos emulator on it lets me run all the old apps I ran on the 100LX (including Derive), at a good speed. Battery life is about 7 hours of continuous use with judicious use of WiFi, which is not bad.

    I'm not impressed, at all, with this ipaq model. 640x480? I was halfway there a *decade* ago. 640x480 has been out on handheld PCs for at least 3 years now, though maybe not in the US. The processor speed is nice, but I just have to have a clamshell.

    I think the C860 is ideal for grad and undergrad college students because of the scientific apps on linux, wifi, clamshell and other reasons I've outlined. I don't want just another toy PDA or PIM system. A PamOS 3.0 device will do basic PIM stuff quite handily. There are some seriously killer linux math apps (similar to mathematica) that run quite well on the C860, too. I just don't think this ipaq is a good geek's PDA because of the native OS and other reasons I've outlined.

    I want to see a new PDA here in the US that I can be as excited about as I was the 200LX and and the C860.

    More about Zaurus C860 [pdabuyersguide.com]

    More info on the ancient 100/200lx I lament [daniel-hertrich.de]
    • Try a psion. :P

      And most clamshells are 640x240, actually. The Psion Series 7/netBook is one of the only good larger-format clamshells, IMO. As for the iPaq, well, it's not a clamshell. And it, unlike the ones you mentioned, fits in your pocket. If I was getting a linux handheld, I'd probably get an Agenda VR3. Cheap enough that I can break without fear.
      • Well, the 100/200lx clamshell is from 1993... 1993. Yeah, its 640x240, but its from 1993. A lot of modern clamshells are still 640x240. I think that is kind of sad, really.

        The Zaurus is 640x480 and its a convertable clamshell/handheld. You really have to see the screen to believe how clear and sharp it is. I have not seen a comparable screen in terms of sharpness and vivid colors on any handheld.

        I couldn't find a link comparing it to an ipaq, but I did pictures comparing it to an Axim. It is shorter than

  • VGA Pocket PC Comparison (Score:3, Informative)

    by llZENll ( 545605 ) on Thursday September 30, 2004 @05:27PM (#10399562)
    Here is a comparison chart [firstloox.org] of the VGA Pocket PCs coming out soon.

    And the only VGA Pocket PC Game so far (a breakout game) [isotope244.com].
  • that lasts for 3 hours on 'light' usage (if you use everything and turn on WiFi the article seems to imply it lasts much less)? My good old Palm IIIc lasts for many, many hours for example: the only reason why I'd like to upgrade it is to get a 320x480 screen (and maybe a little more RAM) but that's about it: I don't care about playing DVDs on my pilot, I just want to use it as a PIM and to read some e-books (where having a higher resolution screen and more memory would help).

    Why doesn't anybody come out w

  • Nice name... (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    When I first read that title, I read it as, "HP iPAQ h4x0rz..."
  • Come on! Couldn't they overclock it just a tiny fraction of a percent more to get it to a nice round number like 625MHz?
  • ...that damn well throws up an ad that looks like a Windows interface. This time, one that looks like the screensaver settings. No doubt nobody will read this post before actually going to the website, but somebody should maintain a black-list of websites that do this kind of thing.

    Maybe I should.

  • I know this gets brought up each time, but let's do it again so maybe some developers that are watching will remember at the next meeting seeing this one issue always brought up when a new PDA comes out.

    Why does this still only have mere MBs of memory and not a 60GB laptop Hard Drive in it? Or at least the option to choose a hard drive model... I would buy if there was.

    Commence Modding...

    • Re:Still no Hard Drive (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      If you'd like a hard drive, just plug a 4Gb Hitachi Microdrive in the CF slot.

      And watch that 3 hour battery life go to 1 hour...

    • most laptop hard drives are the same size as my dell x30, and they weigh more too. Also, they would suck the battery dry in a matter of 5 minutes. PDAs need to be mostly solid state because they are constantly moving, chaning angles, and in danger of falling the the ground. A laptop drive just isn't practical. Next month SanDisk is releasing 2GB SD cards, so storage shouldn't be a problem.

  • ...but what does 'hx4705' translate to non-l33t? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Behrooz ( 302401 ) on Thursday September 30, 2004 @05:58PM (#10399788)
    HP iPAQ hx4705 Reviewed

    When I saw that phrase, I spent a good 20 seconds trying to figure out what the non-l33t translation for 'hx4705' was.

    "HP iPAQ hacks... No... Um, hat attacks? No. What the hell does that say?!?"

    Sure, you can say that I spend too much time on IRC, but I blame the editors for posting an article title that wouldn't pass the lameness filter if I tried to add it as a comment. What am I supposed to think, other than 'wow, that's some seriously obfuscated l33t'?
  • Can't somebody please make a clam shell design subnotebook of about psion series 5 proportions (series 7 at a push) which will run off of regular AA batteries, features a proper keyboard and can run Linux.

    Thats all I want. It doesn't have to be super fast, just have enough power for vi, lynx, ssh and other essentials.
  • Can I attach a USB kybd/mouse/harddrive/whatever to it?

    I wonder what Qtopia looks like on it...

  • Phone. (Score:2, Informative)

    by boijames ( 641781 )
    It's missing a phone.

    This is why the http://myxda.com/XdaII/personal/template/XdaIIProd uctInfo.vm [myxda.com]XDA2 still trumps 'em all.

    PXA263 400MHz processor

    128MB SDRAM(I have 384 in mine) 64MB ROM

    65K display (good enuff for me)

    camera (motion or still)

    BT, Wifi(opt), etc

    Phone, GPRS, etc

    Handwriting recognition

    WMP9, IE, RealOne, etc (the only windows machine I own/recommend) (WM2k3)

    ObBitch: It doesnt have very good osx support (read: none), tho works for periods of time with some third party software. Syn

  • I'm definitely getting a VGA PDA, maybe the HP, but more likely the Asus (also available now) or Dell (when it is available). I would have already purchased a Zaurus by now except for one thing - there is no GPS software for the Zaurus that does routing and voice instructions in the U.S. (when I last checked, I can't imagine this has changed). So I'm limited to Palm and Pocket PC, and as others have pointed out, Palm hasn't announced any VGA products yet.

    I wrote deluo.com and asked if Routis would displa
  • Then no thanks.

    I'd rather have the HP h6315 iPAQ Pocket PC Wireless Phone, which has bluetooth, wifi, etc.
  • I've got one of these, in fact, I'm typing this on it right now... The big daw for me at least was the screen, it's beautiful, large and sharp, it also has built-in wifi and bluetooth, but it's really the screen that did it. (note to self, typing on a virtual keyboard is a PAIN)
  • Or does the model number just look too much like 'h4xx0r5'?
  • Personally, I think the inclusion of a full VGA resolution screen is over-rated.

    On a screen that is 10-15cm diagonal (rough estimate, I haven't seen the specs, but a larger PDA would be uncomfortable), the text is going to be too small to comfortably read -- in fact, the reveiw mentions that the PDA uses a special larger font so it is readable.

    I'm happy with my B&W Palm m105 (160x160 screen), but I'd imagine a 320x240 colour screen should be good enough for most purposes.

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