Cell Phone/PDA Combinations
 

Cell Phone/PDA Combinations

For the past few years many tech wags—including yours truly—have been waiting for cell phone/PDA combo devices to take off. And while there have certainly been more hitting the market, they’ve hardly taken the market by storm. I think the less-than-stellar reception is due to a few reasons. One, the Wi-Fi boom means you can now use your notebook virtually anywhere. If you can easily connect to your corporate network from nearly everywhere, be it a Starbucks or an airport lounge, there’s far less reason to access your e-mail from your phone. Not to mention, once you get accustomed to Wi-Fi speeds, cell-phone data speeds seem downright pokey. And finally, with cell-phone providers charging hefty fees for wireless data (with some exceptions), it’s hard to justify for all but the most extreme road warriors—unless, of course, your company is picking up the tab.

But with all that said, there are still plenty of us who want to be able to read our e-mail without schlepping around a PC, want to get a stock quote (or more importantly, a sports score), or check out the top restaurants in whatever city we may find ourselves. Which means not only do we need a Web-capable phone (which are in no short supply these days), but we need a data plan to go along with it.

There’s really only one wireless company offering remotely reasonable pricing, and that’s Sprint PCS ( www.sprintpcs.com ), which charges $15 a month for unlimited usage (you’ll have to pay an extra $15 if you’re using a device running Microsoft’s Pocket PC software). Of course, the drawback is that you need to have a Sprint PCS voice plan too, which has never been one of my favorites. If you happen to live in—or travel to—an area that has great Sprint coverage, you’re in luck; for all but the four of those folks, time to look elsewhere.

http://frequentflyer.oag.com/stories...technology.asp

If I understand your assertion I'd argue that T-Mobile is at least as reasonable in its pricing : $19.95 or so for unlimited GPRS data when purchased in conjunction with a voice plan. I find the Basic voice plan with 300 anytime minutes/unlimited weekend minutes at $29.95 to be more than adequate for my usage pattern.

Another TMobile plan that could be regarded as reasonable is $29.95 for unlimited data plus a fixed 20 cents per minute for any voice calling. - If your voice usage is under 100 minutes per month this prices out cheaper than the Basic plan plus data.

I've had the TMobile PocketPC phone (aka XDA) for about 18 months now and have been very happy, although your comments about RF performance are well taken.

^ ^ ^

I love this phone!

I've had mine for two years, and can't live without it. Being able to post on FT has while sitting in a plane has been a major plus. I don't know how I ever managed without this capability!

Anyway, I don't know what RF is, but my reception and signal strength are not the best. My old Motorola Talkabout could run circles around the pocketpc in that respect. Also, I wish it had more memory! (Like a hard drive - that would be nice). It's technically able to function as an MP3 player, but I can only load 4-5 songs onto it. :td:

BTW, Samsung, the pocketpc's OEM, released a newer version in ROK last year that includes a TV tuner.

And yet again OAG posts a POS article, where do they get these people...

Advising Sprint to frequent travelers? What if they leave the USA? Sprint has virtually NO international roaming partners, and even less than, that that will offer international roaming with data.

T-mobiles unlimited plan is much more appealing, plus it offers bundled WiFi plans.

His article is completely flawed, as are his product "reviews"; he advises the Sierra VOQ, which hasn't even been spotted ANYWHERE yet instead of the Motorola MPx200 which is available everywhere, he advises the Audiovox PDA ATTWS sells even though Audiovox announced that it was quitting the PDA/Phone business and finally he claims the SonyEricsson P900 will work on Cingular even though parts of Cingulars network is GSM850, something the P900 will NOT work on.

He leaves out obvious contenders like the Blackberry, the MDA(II) and the Treo600.

I could have written a better article in 5 minutes.

Hp6310
 

Considering trading in the Nokia 6600 / HP 5550 combo for this new model.
Check out a very brief description here.

Im very happy with the TMobile unlimited data plan on a Bluetooth phone and an IPAQ or Treo90 or G4 powerbook as an add on. I can use the browser on the phone but it is simple enough to just use the phone as a modem with the Bluetooth connection from one of the other devices. A major advantage of this strategy is that I dont have to worry about not using my PDA on planes. I can even write a bunch on emails on the IPAQ or Powerbook while on a plane then connect and send them when we land. I like that degree of flexibility and I dont think you can get it with an all in one device since the airlines wont let you use them on the plane.

I have the XDAII and it is awesome. ^^ I have a 512MB storage card attached as well. The camera is not great, but that is not one of the features I wanted most.

When I return to the states, I'm assuming that my only option will be T-Mobile for service. :confused:

I have the O2 XDA II as well. I bought it in SIN. I love the phone. I live in the US and use T-Mobile. Among the GSM providers they have the most reasonable plan and service. The unlimited data for 19.99 is great.

It took me a few days to get the device working on T-Mobile and got little support from them.

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Thanks very much for the info all! :)

-Mark

HP6315 from TMo
 

The HP 6315 is available for (pre-)pre-order from T-Mobile.

Quad-band GSM/GPRS, BlueTooth, WiFi, SDIO, (lousy) camera,...

and featured in both the NYT and the WSJ:

A Palmtop as Wireless Omnivore
By DAVID POGUE
Published: July 29, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/29/te...ts/29stat.html


Phone-PDA Combo That Works On Wi-Fi Is Bulky but a Winner
By WALTER S. MOSSBERG
http://www.ptech.wsj.com/ptech.html

Have to go with the XDA II recommendations. I have used mine for 12 months now and have recently purchased a sandisk wireless sd card and as a result I am really happy with the system I am using!

Sprint's going downhill. They paraded around the Hitachi G1000 in front of us at the office as a device that is at "the forefront" of pda/phone convergence. I told them that 2001 called and wanted their phone back.

That thing is MASSIVE, they are being discounted massively at the moment...

It is massive. The camera is useless, it's running an old OS AND the SD card (soft upgraded to SDIO) sticks out the side. So if you wanted to try to run it with Wifi and their data network, you've got a wifi card that sticks out the side. It's asking to be broken.