Thanks to all for much helpful advice. My main reason for having a PDA, besides storing contacts and appointments, is to be able to take notes, and to work on articles and stories whenever and wherever the mood strikes me. Dragging my Sony notebook everywhere isn't practical, and the long boot time rules out the quick jotting of ideas. I could do this with pen and paper of course, but keeping it in electronic format saves the time and effort of transcription, as well as the horror of reading my own illegible handwriting. :-) A device that connects to wifi would be nice but not essential. I'm happy with my bare-bones cellphone, and I suppose incorporating the features I want in a PDA would give me a huge clunky combo, or something with a screen to small to see. So I'll stay with separate devices. The Nokia sounds like a heck of a device - too pricey for me to afford right now, but maybe when I start getting paid for this next project, I could do that. Though I'm irked at Palm right now, I might still consider one, especially something with PalmOS but not made by Palm - don't know if any of those exist any more, I know Sony stopped selling the Clie. The sad thing was I was just starting to use it enough that I bought an IR keyboard for it. Luckily, this keyboard would be compatible with most other PDA's, but I would be surprised if it worked with the Nokia, which seems to be a slightly different animal. The Nokia has a nice $150 bluetooth keyboard, as opposed to the $50 Belkin keyboard I just bought. Speaking of IR keyboards, a bit of free advice: avoid PDA keyboards by Pocketop! If you buy an off-brand, check the fine print and make sure Pocketop didn't make it. This company got sold and the new owners are the most obnoxious jerks. The product has a CD with drivers only for the oldest PDA's. You go to their website and they have written drivers for the newer devices, and they want you to pay $10 for each. There's no indication of this fact on the packaging (which touts universal compatibility) that this might be the case. It's not so much the money as the principle of the thing, which I think borders on fraud. (Some disgruntled customers were posting the drivers online, and of course Pocketop threatened them with legal action.) I returned the one I bought and got the Belkin instead, which was better designed anyway. Thanks again! Vaughn On Thu, 2006-04-27 at 22:09, Hap Hap wrote: > > I did not do > > my homework;...... > > This time you are doing your homework, maybe give Palm some consideration. > > I've owned a Palm Treo 650 for 5 months. It's a great tool. I got away > from windows by buying backup software that runs from SD memory and > backs up to SD too. I copy the SD card(s) to three more backups just > to be safe. I'm not a heavy user of talk time or surfing. I sometimes > go 2.5 days with out charging. Sync-ing is not important to my needs > because the quarty keyboard is fast. > > My 650 will, email, surf, games, MP3, watch movies, calculator, > several converters(temp distance mass etc.), camera, movie camera, > contacts, calendar, watch, alarm clock, SMS, Plus plus plus..... > > My favorite SMS number is "46645" Google. It's the only 5 digit phone > number I know of, and it returns some useful results from Google. > http://www.google.com/sms/howtouse.html > hap > > On 4/27/06, Vaughn Treude wrote: > > Hello all: > > > > I'm looking to replace my dead Zire 31. When I bought it I did not do > > my homework; did not realize the battery was not replaceable; after 16 > > months (and 13 months after the end of the warranty) the unit is > > useless. So I really hate to buy anything from Palm again after being > > royally hosed in this fashion. The problem is, what alternative is > > there to MS? (I actually tried a Pocket PC a while back and hated it, > > not just because it was MS, but because its apps were so different from > > actual Windows apps. The idea of compatibility between the two is > > greatly overrated.) It seems like all the Linux PDA's that were out > > there during the early years of this decade are either dead or on life > > support. Too bad Apple never released their PDA to the market! Does > > anyone know of any alternatives? Is installing Linux on a Pocket PC at > > all practical, or is it one of those black-market-ROM deals like with > > the XBox? > > > > Vaughn > > > > > > --------------------------------------------------- > > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings: > > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > > > > > -- > Hap McDaniel > > --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss