Pocket PC's or Palm Pilots

[xssiveone]

Any one use a Palm Pilot or Pocket PC? Any pros/cons about either one? I'm thinking about getting one and haven't made up my mind which one yet. I've currently got the use of an older PalmIIIxe with a monochrome screen(UGH!!) and also an older HP Jornada with a colour screen. Leaning towards the pocket PC as I think it offers more versatility then a Palm does.

[e_sloan]

I am a long time user of palm pilots, I have owned every model from the palm III to the new Tungsten T3. I have used a couple pocket PCs in my day.

I will be honest I am biased towards the palm pilot. My main reason for this is the absolutely massive amounts of software available for it.

In the older models the pocket PC had definate advantages. But with the new palm models I would give the edge to Palm.

[Tracker]

I have used a Pocket PC for a few years now and find that I can't live without it. Along with a GPS module and maps, the ability to use word documents and excel spead sheets makes it a natural extension from the PC or laptop. I can take templates with me on the road and update them on the fly. When I get home, I just uplink them to my laptop or PC and I'm done! I also have a wireless module so I can use it as a web browser and e-mail device when I'm in hotels with wireless access. It's really neat to have all the funtionality in your pocket.

[rneal55555]

I use palm's mostly cause the first couple I got were from work. I did buy my first one this past year actually went for an Palm m505 because of the mono screen. My wife got me a Garmin IQue for Christmas last year basically a palm with built in GPS. I love the Ique but the battery life is no where near as long because of the color screen. With a mono palm I can go 1 1/2 to 2 weeks without charging. The Ique is good for maybe 2 days not using the GPS much less with it. I don't have a convenient place to drop it on the charger at work so the battery life was my overriding concern. Below is a link to Kim Kommando's newsletter it has a blurb on PDA's
Russ Neal

http://www.komando.com/nl_080704.asp

[srq68]

You'll see that Palm users will rant about Palms, and Pocket PC users will rant about the PC...
I've had a Palm IIIe for 5 years now, the same one, very rugged, simple and reliable. Yeah, it's monochrome, but it uses 2 AAA batteries in 2-3 months with daily use! That's the part I like, I can find batteries everywhere. Not worrying about craddle or charger every few days.
They get more and more elaborate now, with integrated phones and MP3 players, cameras, but IMHO, those extra features are just gimmicks to get an edge on the competition and sell more, i.e. the quality of the pictures taken is poor, or the storage capacity for MP3 songs is nothing like a real MP3 player, which BTW I think the iPod gets way too much publicity. I have a 20 GB Archos for half the price of the 20 GB iPod. Pays to do some research...

[xssiveone]

Thanks for all your replies.

Looks like it will be a pocket PC unit. Just won an HP Jornada 520 on ebay. It's the same model we've been playing with for a couple weeks here and it seems to do everything we want.

It's actually for SWMBO. She's an avid (rabid?) quilter and there is a program she wants to get for it called QuiltNCalc. Apparently it takes all the guess work out of doing cacluations for sizes and whatnot. Now if I can only find the program for less then the $90US$ they want for it!!

[iron_llama]

I've got a Garmin iQue 3200 and I love it. I use it at work driving & hiking the backcountry of AZ on a daily basis. The GPS is first rate and the palm functions do everything I need them to do.