mrbiotech made some good points, especially about batteries. my ipaq 3765 is an awful charger hog, though i've heard that the newer models were better about that. to work for extended hours on the go, i have to run with the backlight turned off. i made myself a special DB skin which looks good and is very readable with no backlight. i'm itching for a newer paq with a bigger battery.

Can't find any Dutch info on the h1910, meaning it's not out here. Now let me spook you with some randomly picked prices (remember € is roughly equal to a $):

iPAQ H3970 €845
iPAQ H3950 €675
iPAQ H3870 €719
Toshiba e330 €666
Toshiba e740 €792
Fujitsu/Siemens PocketLOOX 600 €685
Fujitsu/Siemens SX54i €1006

Don't know what these run on, but they are cheaper:

Sony Clie PEG-SL10 €205
Sony Clie PEG-SJ30 €360
Sony Clie PEG-T625c €414
Sony Clie PEG-T675c €470
Sony Clie PEG-NR70v €545

Hmmm the 3950 & 3955 are 599 over here right now... (even 45-50 dollars lower if you find a rebate)
the h1910 is 299 and that is the best price you will find anywhere for someting of that caliber
and having the removable battery feature alone is worth it too bad you don't have that model available by you to check out plus it's much sleeker then the more expensive models too.

Dutchy the Sony Clie's you listed below are palms, they are not the same at all though the latest Clie's are not bad at all (once you go pocket pc you will never go palm)
but if you've never had a pocket pc before the Clie will satisfy you hehe

The Siemens that I have is actually a phone w/ pocket pc (Here's quick pic, http://www.epinions.com/content_82492362372 yes ugly I know, but it gives me everything I need in my hand when I want to run away from the cave for a few hours to take my kids out or whatever, I just load my documents up and it has vibrator/ring for phone so yup I can even work in a Theater and then send the excel document to them via e-mail attachent (really neat devices when you know what to do w/ them)

of course pcAnywhere is still my drawback for most the stuff I have to do since they still have no version of it yet available for ppc OS
but atleast this phone gives me "some" freedom! hehe

i've got a palm IIIe, a visor, and a ipaq 3830 (i think that's the model)

i bought them all for the same reason, put my access book database on them, reading newsgroups, email on the road.

it was much easier putting the access database on the pocketpc. it's my portable database pda of choice now...i don't like the fact that i'm tied to outlook, but what can you do.

i think it's easier to get a pocketpc connected wirelessly then it is a palmpilot...i like the ipaq expansion options.

blogging is much easier for me on the pocketpc than it is on the palm.

i program for both of them using various languages, i find them about the same for programming...

Doreen... I am not absolutely positive about this but... I am pretty sure there is a Pcanywhere for PPC... My friend used it on his Cassiopiea which ran CE 2.0 ... however that machine had a MIPS so it may not be compatible with ARM ... I will look into it and let you know... I know there is also another program that I have used its called Pebbles it is a freeware program for both palm and pocket pc http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pebbles it is fully capable of remote desktop operations. give it a try.

Still, they'll have to drop way below the 200 mark (right about to 150) before I am even tempted to get one.

Well on the issue of Pcanywhere for Pocket pc. At one time Symantec did make available a version that was compatible with MIPS and SH3 procs for HPC... even if you had a MIPS unit it would run off the screen of a PPC... Unfortunately Symantec found little in the way of sales for their first foray into the remote desktop PDA market... so they have dicontinued it.

Pebbles is a pretty good prog it can connect by IP address just like PCanywhere can, also it can connect by port. however being a freeware project it lacks some extra features and security.

"Thank you" Static for that info, but unfortunetly the only way I'm allowed to enter is via pcAnywhere at the moment, I checked out that pebbles which is not bad at all, (I'm not sure it does file transfers back n forth via the remote to host but for free I'm sure most ppl could find use for it...

pcAnywhere is really not used as much as in the past these days so I doubt they would ever get w/ it in the direction of strong arm ppc's but I wish they would cuz boy could I use it.

The Dell Axim runs for $200 (after a $50 rebate). I might just get one...

Hi Doreen, I have ordered a Ipaq 3950 from HP Canada. The guy was really nice and explained the different models and features. I should be receiving my new toy in a couple days. There was a promotion, I shall be getting a 64M SD card and a car adapter for free.. Can you tell me where are the places to read up and find software for it. My first thing I want to get in there is Microsoft Access.

Have a nice day

Good for you
the SD's go up to 512 now (can you just imagine that?) but you don't want to know how much, I can't handle even thinking about that price but I just got me a 128 SD not too long ago. okay now on to the business at hand...

First stop:
Leather
http://www.vajacases.com/pda_eng.htm

Must haves
WordLogic Keyboard
https://microsoft.handango.com/PlatformSearch.jsp?homePath=MICROSOFT&optionId=1_2_2&siteId=75&platformId=2&txtSearch=word+logic

Clear Type
https://microsoft.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=75&jid=1C8D21AE136ECAB15A5D3BB89621D921&platformId=2&productType=2&productId=26807§ionId=0&catalog=30

Battery Bar
https://microsoft.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=75&jid=1C8D21AE136ECAB15A5D3BB89621D921§ionId=0&catalog=0&productType=2&platformId=2&productId=24948

Best Browser
http://www.bitstream.com/index.html

Pocket Tweaker
https://microsoft.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=75&jid=1C8D21AE136ECAB15A5D3BB89621D921&platformId=2&productType=2&productId=24717§ionId=0&catalog=30

Useful & Cool
http://mtux.com/
http://mtux.com/update.aspx

Icon plug-in for Today Screen & icon app
http://www.dooblo.com/dooblodates/plugin.asp
http://www.pocketicon.com/

Skinnable Calendar
https://microsoft.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=75&jid=1C8D21AE136ECAB15A5D3BB89621D921&platformId=2&productType=2&productId=31304§ionId=0&catalog=30

Apps to animate your Today Screen
http://www.pocketfacelift.com/activetoday.html
http://www.comstudios.com/at/

Music
http://www.pocketwerks.com/description.php

Phone and GPRS Monitoring stuffezz
http://microsoft.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=75&jid=13F393ECAEAD56D57D2B924914769598&platformId=2&productType=2&productId=49201§ionId=0&catalog=30
https://microsoft.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=75&jid=1C8D21AE136ECAB15A5D3BB89621D921&platformId=2&productType=2&productId=43793§ionId=0&catalog=30
https://microsoft.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=75&jid=1C8D21AE136ECAB15A5D3BB89621D921&platformId=2&productType=2&productId=32633§ionId=0&catalog=30

Hopefully those links came out right & that should get you started...

Have fun

iPaq freeware! http://www.ipaqsoft.net/php/ppcfreeware.php

Skinnable Calendar is wrong that app up there is to make your ppc look and behave just like windows (its bloated and un necessary don't get it you'll be sorry even w/ the Xscale processor it stinks)

This is the link to the Skinnable Calendar but don't let the funky ss fool you (if you have a good imagination & some skills you can skin that program into a masterpiece, cuz the "icons and bg and colors" are all completely skinnable)
https://microsoft.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=75&jid=1C8D21AE136ECAB15A5D3BB89621D921&platformId=2&productType=2&productId=25425§ionId=0&catalog=30

yes that freeware link is the bestest static!

(someone just turned me onto that recently I forgot about that one)

and of course there is pocketblinds right here at Wincustomize, Ian is working on another build soon

I just got to say is, Doreen knows their handhelds.. I got to say that was one of the best break downs of the handhelds I've seen. I use the Palm m505 which is color, IR port, Expandable, and can have alot of attachments. I got to say, there are like millions of apps for the palm. Too many for me to DL

It's really all about budget, you know.
It's like buying a Mac or a PC. Sure the Macs look nicer, but they are a lot more expensive.

Just gotta ask yourself what you want to do with your handheld. Me, I only need it for appoitments, emails, notes/reminders, read my daily news in the morning train, read my joke of the day, weather forecast, sport results. I also like to play some cool games once in a while.
That's pretty much it. And to do that it would be a big waste of money to pay 600$ CA more to get a PPC. You can get a Palm for 200$ CA.

I would never spend 1000$ CA for a handheld computer. The day I'll have money to spend on a portable computing solution, it will be more aling the lines of HP's tablet PC: http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/tabletpc/tc1000.html (start around 2600$ CA right now, but prices will drop in a year or two).
Now THAT is cool and could be very useful. If I'm going to buy a small computing device, I need to be able to run Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash and all my regular programs on it. I'll never spend 1000$ on something where I can't.

Exactly what paxx said, it depends on what or if you know what to do w/ it...
my very first ppc was tossed me cuz the person did not know what to do w/ it and so it was a gift, and then I almost tossed it cuz I did not know what to do w/ it but then I thought if I could skin it I know I would get more interested in it and started browsing the net, and found all kindsa stuff for it, that's how I fell in love w/ ppc's.

If you try to make icons on your desktop it is murder but making icons on these devices are a snap cuz you can use your stylus to tap each pixel out and the icon is literally in your hand so you can really get precise

The biggest thing for me is being accessible for work and having the ability to beam it to anyone from anywhere etc.

There's lots of things you can do to make it worth the money but that stuff is up to the individual like w/ everything else...

Anybody know if graphic designing tools are for the Palm? Mine is color so it would work.

O', like I use mine for pictures, keeping track of things to do, ideas, thoughts, phone numbers, addresses, just information in general. Calculator subsitute. Plus games if your bored.

Weakid: check out Mobile Paint 2003 http://mobi-systems.com/product-info.asp?ID=130. My Palm isn't colour, so I didn't try it, but it looks like a very nice application. It's shareware: $12.95 Drawback: it's only 256 colours, but depending on your system or what you need to do it might be enough.

There is also VCW VicMan's Photo Editor http://www.photo-editor.net . It's free but there is a Pro version you can purchase. Seems very powerful. Give it a try and let me know what you think. From the features list on their web site, it looks awsome.

Of course there are many more, you can look through the list at Palm Blvd: http://www.palmblvd.com/software/pc/graphics-drawing-datesort-1.html

Thanks for the links.. I downloaded them, I'm going to try them out and let you know how they are.

~Weaksid~

Hi Doreen, at last I have received my Pocket PC. If you every have time and feel you want to convert a guy to love a ipaq, here is my ID: in [email protected].

HAVE A NICE DAY...