Topic: PDAs / PocketPCs and the Internet

[Scuba Jeremy]

I'll be on the road a lot this year, setting up Point of Sale terminals for my company, and one of the advantages of that is a free account for 802.11b access in any of the buildings that I work in. At the moment, I have my Xbox set up to run Linux so I can check my email from any wired connection in my hotel rooms, but I'll be having a lot more work related email coming in, and I'll need a way to get at it quickly, and often. So I'm looking at going to a PDA. I don't really want a Blackberry device, I'm looking for something with a few more options in terms of expandability. I might also like to try using a PDA to record concerts down the line. So I'll probably get a high end iPaq or something like that.

So my question is - are PDAs these days able to access the "real" internet consistently? Are good web browsers widely available in the PDA department? The "internet" that my cell phone has access to is slow and graphically boring, I know my phone model is slightly dated (three years in this industry is ancient), and I haven't really had a chance to look at modern PDAs in action.

I'm looking to spend between $500-1000 for a PocketPC / PDA thing, with integrated 802.11b, and an extra Compact Flash port for adding data storage capacity. Would a device in this price range be able to access the entire web easily? Thanks.

[bgalizio]

Check out www.brighthand.com and www.pocketpcthoughts.com.

FWIW, I have an HP iPaq 4150. The browsing is slower than on a PC or laptop (obviously), but is still usable. The Wi-Fi range is excellent - actually get better coverage in my house than on my laptop. Setting up the Wi-Fi for my house was easy - haven't tried any other hotspots, though. With the included Pocket Internet Explorer, you do lose some higher-end browsing features, so be aware of that (the above websites will have a ton of information).

Not sure about any 3rd-party browsers, but the folks at the above websites should be able to help. I'm also not sure about recording with a PDA either.

The trend is to have secure digital/multimedia card slots instead of compact flash slots on PDAs. Is there any reason why you'd prefer CF over SD/MMC?