PDA phone or normal handphone?

[chiachean]

Since that PDA phone is quite common nowadays, I m nt sure that whether to buy a normal handphone or PDA phone next year?

I heard that having a PDA phone will save money in a long term because we can install Skype inside, which we can make free video calls..

Can some one please enlighten me?

[youngyew]

Having a PDA phone is common among doctors as it's useful for instant reference. There are tons of medical softwares out there which could help serve as dictionary, reference books, text books, converters, notepad, to-do lists etc.

I am not sure about PDA phone's compatibility with skype at the moment.

[chiachean]

I think as long as ur PDA phone is a smartphone, u can install most of the softwares

or we should be able to find software in mobile edition..

[youngyew]

Not really. Smartphone simply means a phone with advanced features, so anything from Nokia N95, iPhone, blueberry, IPaq, Palm Treo, O2 phones etc could be considered smartphone.

However, the most popular PDA operating systems at the moment are windows mobile and Palm. Things like N95, iphone and blueberry run their own operating systems, and a software that works on one operating system doesn't work on another.

Most popular softwares are available in windows mobile and palm versions, so if you get either of those you won't face problem getting most applications. iPhone is certainly up and rising, but there are still not too many third party applications available, at least in the medical field.

Skype is currently available on mobile devices running Windows Mobile. The official Symbian version (Nokia phones, mainly) is currently under development. Of course there are already unofficial versions available for those phones.

So I would say that it depends on what you want to use the PDA for. If you want it mainly for skype, go for those phones.

[youngyew]

Anyway I am not sure how practical Skype on PDA is at the moment... To use skype you need internet connection of at least 3G or WiFi, and you need to pay for 3G, while Wifi is only free at certain places.

[chiachean]

of course, I would prefer wi-fi, haha

Thx 4 ur info..

[vseehua]

I have had a Smartphone...once upon a time. I find it just too cumbersome to use especially if you are a fan of one handed operations like me.

Anyway, Skype is available for Windows Mobile clients for now, but I reckon that most of the smart phones out there won't be able to use it properly since it requires quite a powerful mobile processor. If you want to use it, get a phone that doesn't use the Ti OMAP 800 processor like those O2, HTC, T-Mobile, Qtek ones. Overclocking will work of course, but only if you know what you are doing... Go for the IPAQ models instead, since they tend to carry more powerful processors on board.

[chiachean]

ipaq is manufactured by Hewlett-Packard ?

[vseehua]

yes

Andriod? I'd rather wait a bit longer to see if it really have it's potential... Right now it's windows mobile's market...

[chiachean]

How about HTC PDA?

http://www.htc.com/

[vseehua]

How about HTC PDA?

http://www.htc.com/HTC is the main contract manufacturer for O2, T-mobile and etc etc etc...

[chiachean]

http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/mobilephones/0,39051199,42048145p,00.htm

I mean this phone

[vseehua]

Wait till it's out before giving rewiews ;)

[chiachean]

http://img117.imageshack.us/img117/7801/htcshift001m1d9c1bdkr1.th.jpg (http://img117.imageshack.us/my.php?image=htcshift001m1d9c1bdkr1.jpg)

http://www.expansys-usa.com/d.aspx?i=154310

HTC Shift really does impress me because

1. it is a combination of PDA (Usually Windows Mobile is used), handphone and laptop (Vista Business is used as the OS)

2. Price sold at the reasonable price - The price of PDA, handphone and 'laptop' --around RM 5000 only

Have a look here (http://www.coolsmartphone.com/article744.html)

[vseehua]

What a giant.

I am pretty sure I don't want to bring such a big thing around with me all the time...

[SynVegeta]

Why does it look scarily like an iPad?

Mine's an old O2 model, (O2 xdaII mini to be exact) which had gone out of production recently. It's been in my family for 5 years, and now it's showing signs of 'old age'.

I'm still wondering whether to have it fixed or to ditch it and buy myself a new, more efficient one that corresponds to the recent times.

I'd rather have a smartphone, preferably Windows Mobile, since I'm the kind of person that doesn't like idling if I have absolutely nothing to do. At least with a smartphone I can do something besides playing games or texting.

Just one question. Do the recent models today have wireless? If they do, I am seriously considering one.

[Leen]

^
I believe most if not all smartphones have wireless support these days.
I do not know how Windows Mobile perform but lately, Andriod have been emerging very strongly with the latest update of Andriod 2.1

I would say that smartphone is not a necessity for students yet. I myself am still using a 5-year old Nokia model since I only need to call/accept calls. I feel like sometimes people are getting expensive phones due to peer pressure or they fall into the advertising trap.

In fact, if you ask people what they can do with their Blackberry, I suspect a decent percentage actually has NO clue what their phone is actually capable of doing. Most are just following the trend. :kukuku

[youngyew]

I used to be in the "I only use my phone for sending/receiving calls and SMS" camp, and I was doing very well with the very thin Nokia 2630 (http://www.freshpilot.com/nokia-2630-thinnest-nokia-ever/). However after a few years I reckon I could benefit from the smartphone's various applications and connectivity, so I decided to get myself an iPhone 3G, and it's been serving me very well since. I make full use of the phone's capability to view websites (yes, ReCom included :P) and the convenience of being able to look up medical information wherever I am. So for now I would not be able to fall back to a simple phone anymore because I feel the extra premium I am paying is worth the extra capability I am getting.

I guess the bottomline of what phone to get greatly depends on how much you make use of them. Nokia 2630 was fine for me back then, iPhone 3G works well for me now. Both are good phones.

p/s: After reading the previous posts and the thread title I think I have digressed. :P Sorry

[Leen]

^
I certainly understand those who ACTUALLY use the smartphones for what they are created for. I just do not get those who get smartphones just to be "cool" or "in trend".

Seriously, many people have no idea what their smartphones can actually do for them and I feel like it would be a total waste if you pay that much money to not know how to use it to its fullest.

It is like buying the most expensive DSLR and setting everything to "AUTO". O__o

[edcac]

Since this is a phone related thread, I'd like to ask for all your opinion. I plan to purchase a new handphone which has adobe reader (and a nice camera, if possible ;D). I'm an ardent reader and I love .pdf format books.

I tried searching and I was considering N97 but then some of the users said that the adobe reader is only a trial version.. Is it so? Is there any other freeware I can download to read .pdf?

[vseehua]

I believe you can get free PDF readers with any platform out there.

Stanza (http://www.lexcycle.com/), for example is one very good eBook reader for the iPhone platform.

Adobe also has released a free pdf-reader (http://lifehacker.com/5547165/adobe-reader-is-a-functional-free-android-pdf-reader) for the Android platform. iPhones can read it natively using Preview.

As for Symbian based phones, like the Nokia N97, there is always the free Adobe Reader LE. (http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readerforsymbian.html)

[youngyew]

If iPhone is in your consideration, you can get very good PDF readers for free or at a low price. Goodreader is my favourite, and it costs only 1 US dollar.

[edcac]

Any previous N97 users here?

[maxx]

I'm using HTC HD2, with O2 unlimited internet plan (10

[Nicholasng925]

Any Sony Ericsson Vivaz user here? I would like to know your comments about the smartphone please. Also, I heard that S.E.Vivaz has a great video recording system as well as 8mp camera. Hmm... I would really appreciate if you can give me some remarks about it.Thanks! :amuse And and, what are the differences between Zitron and AP phone??? Please enlighten me about this!

I heard that the Zitron and AP are actually exactly the same, but they differ in term of warranty, in which Zitron can be fixed at any shop within 1 year of warranty while AP can only be fixed at the shop I bought the phone within 1 and a half years of warranty. And most of my friends said that AP is a fake one, while Zitron is the original one. I'm in dilemma now... >.<

[X-FaR]

hii... i need ur opinions between Garmin-Asus (windows) and Samsung Galaxy S. (android)... Which is better???

[sleevelesssky]

Oh hmm. PDA phone? I still love the good old handphone. ^_^

[youngyew]

By the way is there still such a thing as a "PDA phone"? I thought all that is left are various types of smartphones.