Electronics

Amazing how the price of memory and especially SD cards has dropped. 8GB stores a ton of stuff. I think I’ll pick up one or two for my PDA so I can store more video and music.

Here is a review that covers the Dell Axim X51v … I ended up with one of these because I was a bit overzealous in my eBay auction bids.
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Before I go on you MUST perform the activesync fix which is detailed at the aximforum website, once that fix is done the dissapearing CF card, the white screen of death, battery drain, random restarts all go away. And Rom A06 was shipped with mine.

Im floored at how powerful these PDAs have become. I have been using it for 2 weeks now, and today in this simple one day it made my entire investment worth it. Im a high level analyst at my company and today we had our offsite meeting, I was the junior member there everybody else was either manager, controller or a director.

Half way through the PPT the laptop crashed, we spent 20 minutes fiddling with it and finally realized it was just kaput. The IT guy on site said he would run to the office to bring another laptop but it would take 90 minutes, I said hang on.

I used my Axim 51V to log onto the hotels wireless internet asked our secretarhy at work to email us the presentation, then used my VGA cable to hook it up to the projector set it at 1024×768 and started up the presentation and we were good to go. The exceutives and managers were COMPLETELY floored, Im sure I just sold 5 axims for dell but also secured myself a solid bonus come March!

I whole heartedly endorse this item, not only does it more then suffice as a day planner its multimedia capabilities are mind blowing.

Updated 2/21/2006

Still no problems as of yet and all the major negative comments I have seen are simply because they have not taken my advice above and done the fix. It is PARAMOUNT that you do the activesync fix. I have an SD card and a 4GB Microdrive in my axim, which I forgot in our Montreal office, it took me almost 10 days to get it back but when I did it still had 90% charge and I used it there so I know it was not at 100% when I left.

PS the boxwave crystal lcd protector with 99% transperency is a great addition.

——- UPDATED 3/29/2006 ——–

Still going strong no problems what so ever, but I must emphasize PLEASE do your research there is so much that can be done with this. Dont let it just be a place to store phone numbers and an occasional appointment.

It is my 5 AM alarm clock, as soon as I wake up the screen shows me a 5 day weather forecast the top 5 international news stories 5 local news stories, and my appointments/meetings for the day. It sure beats the 20-30 minutes I’d lose every morning trying to read the paper, watch the weather channel, then the local news, and update my franklin planner.

I have been looking at a PDA to replace my old Dell x3i and thought this review of the Ipaq hx2795b hit close to home:

I use it literally for EVERYTHING (well, phone and camera excluded) -that is, agenda, customer database, ebooks, reference books, review powerpoint presentations, wi-fi, email, msn messenger, bluetooth, watch videos (you can watch entire DVD movies on it, after encoding of course), music (in my opinion it sounds even better than the iPod, was it the earphones?), games, anyway, you name it. I find the Windows Mobile 5 OS quite stable, and the interface feels pretty much the same as using the ordinary desktop Windows. The speed is impressive too. Battery life is good and it charges fast. The display is bright and clear, though I would have preferred a slightly larger screen. The fingerprint reader device is cool. I personally don’t use it though, because it delays the otherwise instant power-on of the handheld, but it stands as a great security feature for sure.

Some recommended accessories to enhance your Ipaq are: SD card (i’m already using 70% of its 2GB storage capacity, so I’ll soon be looking for an additional CF card; I think it’s less cumbersome to have both cards simultaneously in the handheld than to have to switch cards using the same slot), an extra sync/charger/car adapter (I have the BELKIN Ipaq Sync Charger F8Q0003HP), a leather carrying case, and of course, screen adhesive overlays. Some useful or must-have software are: Adobe Reader for PPC, iSilo, Resco explorer, Resco photo viewer, Resco audio recorder, Resco radio, Clearvue presentation, spb Pocket Plus, Trancreative Magic Button, Touch Notes, Pocket informant, TCPMP the core pocket media player (it plays every format that the Windows Media Player doesn’t, which are a bunch).

Overall, I’m very happy with my Ipaq hx2795b. For those thinking to own a handheld for the first time but have put off till now (like myself), this is the right moment to do it. The technology in handhelds, both hardware and software-wise, has reached to a level of reliable stability, that makes it worthy enough to try on one of these literally do-it-all gadgets.

The Cateye Micro Wireless Cyclocomputer is CatEye`s newest wireless computer. It has 10 functions and 12 features, including LED backlight, manual odometer re-set, and a bracket that will mount on both stem and handlebar. This is the wireless computer for any style of riding. Functions include Current Speed, Maximum Speed, Average Speed 1, Elapsed Time 1, Trip Distance 1, Trip distance 2, Average Speed 2, Elapsed Time 2, Odometer, Clock. Features: Wireless, Backlight, Stem and handlebar mount, Manual odometer set, Universal bracket and sensor mount, Pace arrow, Dual tire size, Conversion friendly speed unit, Auto or Manual start/stop, Sleep mode, Auto power-saving mode. It uses a CR2032 battery & the handlebar mount size is 22-32mm while the Fork mount size is 11-50mm.