Windows Mobile Questions

[mikecel79]

I'm looking into getting a Dell Axim X30 with bluetooth and wifi and have a few questions about Windows Mobile. I've only used a Pocket PC device once and it was just to set it up so I did not have much experience with it. I'll mostly be using this for getting my email remotely, contacts, and schedules.

How good is ActiveSync? What I would like to do is run ActiveSync on my desktop at home and be able to connect to it through WiFi from my Axim to sync my email and stuff. Is this possible? What about synching with two different PCs? Can I synch it with my home PC and my work PC and keep seperate calendars, contacts, email, etc?

How is browsing with the IE that is included with Windows Mobile? Any other browsers for it?

I'm also looking into gettting a GPS system for one. Any recommendations?

 

[mikecel79]

anyone?

 

[mikecel79]

Nobody?

 

[tomwalshco]

Few thought on PPCs:

- ActiveSync is generally pretty stable, especially if running latest Mobile OS. Synching wirelessly can be hit or miss. You need to be within 50' of the PC. If you're that close, might as well drop it in the cradle.
- PPCs are battery hogs and any accessories you add just decrease battery uptime.
- Had Bluetooth on an HP 2215 and could never get it working right. They claim Bluetooth is plug n play - yea, right.
- Also had GPS on a Dell (Pharos). Worked OK, but if you use it in a car, you need an antenna or must hang it out the window to get good results.
- Surfing the web on PPC sucks. At best you get 1/4 page and many sites won't even open. There are some browser programs you can buy for $$. Haven't tried any. Generally loads are slow and painful on the web. You can cache web pages for viewing offline, but not sure I understand the value of that.
- No, as far as I know, you cannot setup 2 email/calendar profiles on Win Mobile.

We have had a lot of experience with PPCs from the beginning because we developed a mobile solution for the construction industry that uses them for mobile input and syncing to remote server. Have tested just about all of them. HPs are best all around for performance and battery conservation. Dells are good also. Toshibas are Ok, but battery conservation poor. I'd buy the fastest processor available which I believe is the Dell X5, 650 Mhz, or something like that. Dells are generally better outside (daytime) because of the LCDs they use. Some are totally unreadable.

After all that experience with PPCs and PPC combo units (PPC/cell phone) was overall disappointed. I bought a Treo 600 (Palm) for Verizon a few months ago and love it. Synchs great with Outlook and Calendar. Use Snapper Mail and can get my emails on the fly. Processor not as fast as PPCs, but they use memory more efficiently, so they're pretty quick.

If you're looking for a good all-in-one device, I would seriously look at the Treo - available for most wireless carriers. I've had T-Mobile, Sprint PCS card, Hitachi G1000 (sprint) and Samsung 700 series. Treo is a clear winner among them. You can operate Treo withthumb on most programs. With PPCs, you've got to whip out the stylus which means 2 handed operation. Pretty tough if you're going down the road in a manual transmission...

Hope this helps. Lots of PPC and Palm forums out there. Check them out.

 

[mikecel79]

Thanks Tom. This is the type of stuff I was looking for. I was talking with my CIO today and our sales department is looking into getting PDAs for our entire sales staff (about 30 people) and want a single solution so we'll be buying a few types of PDAs over the next few weeks to try them out. Thanks for the input!

 

[tomwalshco]

Sure, no problem. With 30 sales guys, you should have a wireless sales guy/gal that calls on your company. Have him/her come in and bring some demos for you to try out. Verizon, Sprint, ATT, T-Mobile, Cingular, Orange are all players with combo devices. Nextel seems to have hung its hat on the 2 way radio deal. Not sure I see the value there unless you're on a blasting crew or something like that. My company works with the constructoin industry and see the misuse of these devices all over the place. Time wasters....

 

[SearchMaster]

I will disagree slightly with that assessment...you CAN sync wirelessly over WiFi (802.11), so you don't have to be 50' from the PC, just 50' from the nearest wireless router/access point. I sync my old Axim X5 this way often.