Category: Gadgets

I’ve been busy installing and customizing applications for my axim x50v. Here’s a good discussion about products for it.

How Podsites work. We all know that ipods offer limited text support, but it’s a little crazy to think that people would design text sites for it. This is a case where a workaround reveals an unmet need. It would be far easier to put this on a PDA or ebook reader.

On another note, I possess: a cellphone, a high end PDA, a 40 gig mp3 player, a bluetooth keyboard and of course an ebook reader. Obviously it would be better if one device could encompass all these things. But because of form factor, or because single purpose devices are easier (and cheaper) to design, people are trying to make these devices more versatile.

Here are some reasons to opt for single purpose devices. First, if you use a device for a subscription (for example a cellphone), you don’t want to be tied down to a single provider. Second, breakability. Versatile devices, by their complexity, are more prone to failure. A failure on one function risks making other functions inoperable. Third, costs. Versatile devices will always be more expensive than single purpose devices. You limit your risk by having multiple devices that are easy to replace.

What I would like is a universal battery charger that could charge all these things (kind of like a multiple card reader), and a device-to-device USB interface to move content back and forth (although perhaps bluetooth could do it). I don’t like having to carry batteries and wires, but hopefully as battery times increase, it won’t be always necessary to lug around rechargers or connectors. It would be nice if this Uberdevice could handle multiple types of cards, and PDA’s are rapidly doing this.

A laptop is a good form factor, though the prices are way too expensive (and the screens are prone to failure). When the screen fails, do you throw the whole laptop away? Also, midsized laptops are simply not portable enough to carry around without looking conspicuous. On the other hand, I haven’t found my PDA versatile enough to be useful (not yet anyway), although my foldable bluetooth keyboard may change that. The other thing about PDA is security; it’s just too expensive to keep around without becoming paranoid.

Well, I did it. I bought a Dell Axim X50 PDA. It was pricy ($400), but I have been looking for a mobile device that can handle Wifi, address book,scheduling, notetaking and of course ebooks. This product has a lot of bells and whistles, and undoubtedly I will share in this weblog which of the bells and whistles I actually use.

Interestingly, about a year ago, I was exploring the question of whether to buy a PDA and whether to buy an integrated cellphone/PDA solution. I eventually went with just a cellphone, and in retrospect I think that was a wise move, although a year later I have a feeling that the integrated solutions are much better than before. But it’s just too tempting for Cingular/Sprint to “cripple” their integrated solution as an incentive for people to use their premium services.

I just bought a web server and am making the transition to a wireless home network, so that seemed the good time to go for a wireless PDA. I expect that in a year or two prices on PDA will all be in the sub-200$ range, and this PDA will seem like a luxury. But from talking to other users, I am hearing that PDA increases in value over time as you accumulate more personal data. When buying a “cutting edge gizmo” you need to factor in the extra time that a product can be used. For example, I was one of the first people to buy a CD writer, an expensive $350 SCSI thing (which I still have by the way). CD writers plummetted in price (to the point where they sell for under $40), but that’s not the point. For a year or two I had the ability to burn and archive all my email and documents easily, which makes the high price well worth it. Before the CD writer came along, I lived in perpetual fear of having a hard drive crash, and I was buying peace of mind.

The challenge is waiting for the moment when a cutting edge gizmo is just one rung below cutting edge, (that moment when the product offers great value). In fact, sometimes when you are too cutting edge, you end up having lots of “early adopter bugs” to deal with and a dearth of utilities and help pages to help you make full use of the product. One thing Dell does well is being “second best” at making products. Right now, HP’s PDA’s are technologically superior to almost all of Dell products, but Dell’s product (even its high end products) are 30-40% cheaper and comparable. The HP iPaq hx4705 is slightly ahead of the Axim X50V in almost every respect, but 200$ more expensive (which probably is too expensive for a PDA anyway).

When buying a PDA, you should check the reviews at bargainpda, which are great. (They even link to third party reviews). BargainPDA publishes Dell coupons for PDA’s, although the Dell coupons are tricky to redeem (as I found out). Also, bargainpda has a consumer forum with lots of helpful information. Some things I’ve learned: Anti-virus programs are a waste of money, a lot of good free software already exists for pda’s, SD memory cards are a little faster than CF memory, and a little cheaper, and how to run DivX vids on a PDA.

Review of the recent Dell X50v pda. I’ve probably going to take the plunge and buy one as Christmas season approaches. If the High End Ipaq’s go down in price, I’d consider that as well. (Another review of the Axim on bargainpda. More reviews at geek.com and cnet and pocketnow

Here’s a headphone review site. I’m interested in buying some cordless/wireless headphones. On another note iriver has announced its timeline for better firmware for its ihp-140.. I use the iriver every day, so this is like a big deal for me.

While continuing my research on portable recording devices, I discovered that the iriver HP-120 limits recording to 790MB for WAV and 195 for MP3’s. That leads me to investigate other possibilities, including the very intriguing PDAudio. Basically, it’s a CF/PC card that attaches to your PDA device, along with audio recording software. The cool thing is that storage capabilities are becoming bigger and cheaper. Coresound.com site writes:

Some folks have asked about the cost of the media that PDAudio uses to store WAV files. Revised 10/30/2003:Currently (October 2003) you can buy a 2 GB PC Card hard disk (from Toshiba, Kingston or CMS) for around $75 and 5 GBs for under $150. An IBM 1 GB CF Microdrive costs less than $150 and a MagicStor 2.4 GB CF hard drive costs $199. A 1 GB CF memory card can be bought for less than $165, a new-to-market 2 GB CF memory card for under $375 and 4 GB for under $950. All of these prices are dropping rapidly. And if the recording software application streams the digital audio stream to a network (via a wired or wireless network interface), there are *no* media costs.

Coresound does some CF storage comparisons here: storage comparisons between CF and SD memory cards .

Now I have yet to think this through (I need to look into how CF memory cards connect to desktops without a slot and look into microphone connections, but this seems like a great solution (and a linux friendly solution as well). So the real choice is whether I want my recording device to double as an mp3 player or as a PDA. I’m leaning to the latter.

Update: Brian Dipert writes a two part article about the Core-Sound Alternative and why it is good: Part One and Part Two . Also, a Slashdot forum about pro-level hd portable recording.

After reading a Slashdot forum on low cost DVD burners, I’m trying to decide between the Plextor PX-708UF and the AOpen DRW4410. The Plextor is is external USB 2.0/firewire and costs $200, while the AOPEN is IDE at $100, and not both + and – (forgot which). Of course, all this assumes that I install my PCI USB 2.0 card successfully on my machine. My neighbor at work thinks I should just ditch my machine and start from scratch. (I built my PC from scratch in November 2000. The specs: Athlon 1.1 Thunderbird processor, A7V Motherboard, Radeon 64MB VIVO, a (now nonfunctional) DVD player, 200 gigs of storage and 768 MB of SDRAM. I use it for dual booting (mainly in Windows), and I haven’t had much problems (though I wish I had a quieter and better fan). (This page is being served on a slightly more powerful box built from scratch (1.2 athlon, 1 gig RAM, RAID 5, gentoo). So, I cannot decide anything until I confirm that my USB 2.0 card works. More later.

Here’s a good DVD Writing and Burning Forum

Portability tips for consumers. Myrateplan.com (look at the cool interface!) . Don’t forget Amazon’s cellphone rebate page and Om Malik ‘s 5 Best Cell Phone Plans in USA.

Helpful FAQ about USB 2.0.

Article about Building a budget storage solution.

Webcamworld is a great source of webcam information.

10 more links to add (mostly literary). Later.

Looking for a cellphone and plan. Leaning toward Nokia 3650 (Reviewed on TechTV and either ATT or T-Mobile. Here’s a nice page dedicated to the 3650. Any thoughts?

The hard part about buying new gadgets is trying to settle on when to actually buy something. While I’ve been pining for a Zaurus 760, here I find that Zaurus has a new prototype for Jan 2004 release