PDA2K is sold, updating the X50v

I sold the PDA2K yesterday and am shipping it off this morning to New York. After posting on the Howard Forums site I had 4 people ask to purchase it at my special blog price of $600, plus shipping. I took quite a loss on this device, but I needed the money to finish paying for the Tablet and like to spread the joy of mobile devices to all parts of the world:)

I just updated the ROM on my X50v to A03 as I set it up as my new primary PDA that will be used with my Nokia 7610 and SPV E200 to surf wirelessly. It is kind of a nice feeling slimming down my collection, but those Phone Edition devices (the JAM and PDA2K) are very nice machines that I am sure I will miss. I actually haven't been missing the Treo 650 and think it just wasn't meant to be for me.

I spent some time reinstalling apps on my new desktop last night and have a ways to go still. I also finished transferring files off the old hard drive and then reformatted it last night. I now have to remove the HP partition (10GB out of 60GB) so I can take full advantage of the capacity on the drive. The desktop has been performing very well though and I look forward to getting the additional 1GB of RAM put in there.

How can I watch movies on this Tablet?

One of the distinctive features of the Fujitsu T4010 is the ability to have a CD or DVD burner in the media bay. The unit I purchased does not have this in it and it cost $200 for the CDRW/DVD ROM and something like $300+ for the DVD burner. I was thinking of getting the CDRW/DVD ROM, but then took a look at why I would use it. I do need a CD to install software, but I have an external CDRW unit already that simply plugs into the USB connection so that isn't an issue. I rarely even burn CDs and don't imagine I would ever burn DVDs either. So then a big reason a lot of people use them is to watch movies on a plane. That I would do, but I just had a thought that I can just use the Pocket DVD Studio software I have and burn movies on my 1GB or 512MB CF cards. You can get a fairly high quality movie down to a size that fits on these cards and I think the battery savings would be wonderful over a spinning CD drive. So for now, I am foregoing the drive and will attempt to use my high capacity flash cards for movie watching on the Tablet.

Is a Tablet PC a mobile device?

I don't think a Tablet PC is really considered a mobile device, but I am going to keep the tagline of my blog and also include my impressions of the Fujitsu T4010 here as well. I first plan to use the Tablet with a Bluetooth Smartphone (the E200 or Nokia 7610) for on-the-road access and am looking to get an internal BT radio I can install in the Tablet. Tablets have now been out for a couple years and still are not selling as well as I think they should. I think a lot of this has to do with the same issues surrounding the Pocket PC/Windows Mobile platform and that is advertising.

So many people I talk to just do not understand how powerful these devices really are and if someone really gives the Tablet a chance I would think they would love the freedom to work in this manner. I personally look forward to more handwriting, but it is still too early for me to say I am sold. I also think that Tablets and other mobile devices are not necessarily for everyone and it depends on how you work and live. However, if you have a cellular phone, then I do not see why a person would not like a Windows Mobile Smartphone. My wife finally gave one a chance and now I can't even borrow it to test out software :)

Bought a Tablet, now please buy my PDA2K

I made the leap yesterday and paid for a Fujitsu T4010 Tablet PC. It looks like a great high-quality model and the one I bought is only 3 weeks old and basically brand new. It doesn't come with a drive, so I may go out and pay the $200 for the DVD/CD-RW model. Then again, I really only need that if I am going to be watching movies since I can use an external USB drive to install applications. Where will I really be watching movies on my Tablet anyway? OK, I just convinced myself to wait on the drive and stick with a lighter Tablet instead. It also only has 256MB RAM, but I am buying another 512MB stick for $80 to slap in there. The hard drive is 40GB, which is fine and the processor is 1.8GHz. I plan on using this with a Smartphone and connecting via Bluetooth for wireless data when I am vanpooling and traveling. I hope this will allow me to be more productive and allow me to get away from sitting in front of the desktop. I do use my mobile devices for starting reviews, but always have to go back to the desktop to put the photos together and do final layout, etc. I tried out the Electrovaya Scribbler for 3 months last year and think this latest generation of Tablet is ready for serious users to make the jump.

I look forward to installing and using OneNote, MindManager, EverNote, MessagEase, ritePen, and more. I understand the Tablet can be a compelling and very functional device if you use it to its potential. I think the danger of having a convertible is that you use it too much as a laptop since that is what we are used to. I am going to try to take advantage of the handwriting functionality and change my habits a bit. I plan on posting thoughts about my Tablet use here and have added another domain registration to my collection. My current domains I am going to point here are mobiledevicegeek.com, smartphonegeek.net, and tabletgeek.com.

As a result of making this purchase, I now really need to sell my i-mate PDA2K to offset the cost and am looking for only $600 for the entire package (I am listing this for $625 for those who don't check out my blog). This includes a great condition PDA2K (minor scratches around outside of front and rub marks on sides of keyboard, but everything else is MINT), Proporta Alu-leather book case, Piel Frama flip case, 3300 mAh battery, and JAVOScreen screen protector that has been on since day 1.

Computer building status

I posted a couple days ago that the installation of everything went well and I was having some booting problems. I tried using just my old drive upgraded to XP Pro, but that did not work and I figured there was a BIOS problem. I took a day off to collect my thoughts and plan of attack and then went at it last night.

I figured out I did not have the hard drive jumpers set properly (I did not even know what a jumper was when I started this project) and needed to mess with the boot order. I also read it was not a good idea to try to put an existing drive from an OEM in a new computer. The old HP Pavilion we have has a lot of HP junk on it and I can understand it not liking a new motherboard.

So I went back to my original plan of using my new drive as the master and successfully installed Windows XP Pro. I had to call MS for activation since I used it on the old drive that I am reformatting soon. After this install was done everything else went smooth and I was able to salvage the CDRW, DVD-ROM, floppy, and hard drive from my old computer. I installed Office, Trend Micro Internet Security, and ActiveSync 3.8 so far and things are going well. It is refreshing to have such a clean harddrive where I know what everything installed is for.

Photos of PC building process

Scavenging old HP Pavilion

Starting fresh

Almost done building

Am I flipping out? PDA2K may also be up for sale

The Treo 650 and all associated gear has now been sold and I will be shipping the whole package out tomorrow morning to a buyer in Illinois. I hope he enjoys it as much as I did and like when I sold my Zodiac 2 I am sure I will regret the decision later. Then again, it is only a material thing and I just can't get so attached to these devices.

I now have another idea for raising funds for a Tablet PC. I am seriously considering selling off my wonderful i-mate PDA2K that I have had now for almost 3 months. I had a MDA III for a couple months before that as well. I really do like these Phone Edition devices, but again I should be able to get over $600 for the device, the 3300 mAh battery, and other accessories that I have for the device. I am going to try going back to a two device solution with the Nokia 7610, Tungsten T3, and Axim X50v as my solutions. As I spend more time evaluating my real needs and trying to spend more time with my family while saving funds for a more powerful computing solution I want to try this out. If this works, then a Smartphone combined with a Tablet PC with integrated Bluetooth may be a better solution.

Some of the reasons I am leaning this way is that I have been doing some soul searching and real life breakdown of necessities lately and here are some truths.

1. I am approaching my 12th year of marriage and find I am spending too much time with my devices, rather than with my wonderful wife who deserves more from me than what I have been giving her.


2. I only get about 20-25 emails on my Geek.com address each day, with the majority being from forums and lists that I am a member of.


3. I am an engineer and only get about 10 emails a day at work since we spend most of our time doing calculations and talking to clients on the phone in the office.


4. I am on the road with my vanpool for 2+ hours a day, but now I drive home everyday and usually end up falling asleep during the morning commute as that is becoming more important to me than surfing PDA sites.


5. I primarily use my Axim X50v at home due to the VGA display and good WiFi range. Dell loans me the devices for long term use so I can save on buying Windows Mobile devices by using the loaners.


6. I use my mobile phone to call my wife 95% of the time and rarely is email critical.

If anyone is interested in an excellent condition i-mate PDA2K, feel free to email me. Here is what I have for the PDA2K: the unit with a JAVOScreen screen protector that has been on since day 1 along with the original box, extra stylus, cradle, and battery it came with originally, a brown Piel Frama case, a Proporta Alu-leather black book style case, and a Mugen Power 3300 mAh battery. I'll have to check and see if I have something else, but I think that is it. These units are still going for $700+ on ebay and I am including a huge capacity battery valued at $115 along with two cases valued over $80. I am considering offers around $650 at this time.

Treo 650 deal underway

My Treo 650 may soon be leaving and I am still having a tough time letting it go. The unpractical geek in me wants to keep it since it is a very nice device and the form factor is almost perfect. I just find the Palm OS too limiting for my needs when it comes to business and cannot justify keeping two phones that cost over $600 to $700 each. Peter is going to kill me when it goes, but I think he understands I am really more of a Windows Mobile fan than a Palm fan at this time in my life.

It looks like the 650 may be going to a good home and the buyer is getting a nice deal on a complete package with a backup battery so it is ready to travel.

I have also been thinking about getting a Tablet PC after selling a couple more items. There were several people using them at the MSN Search Champs conference and I am seriously thinking about saving up my money for one. Then again, I am a PDAGeek and should try to stick with only mobile devices. I should save up for a Windows Mobile 2005 device and see that Dell may provide an upgrade for X50 users, which would be awesome since that is my favorite dedicated, non-phone PDA right now.

Building new computer issues

As I mentioned last week, I bought a decent barebones kit and had everything together in less than an hour. I then became a bit bold and started scavenging parts from my existing desktop. Everything seemed to go well until I tried installing the OS and kept getting stalled. The desktop is vital for my wife so I spent way too many hours putting the old one back together and thankfully got it running again. I did upgrade it to XP Pro first though and kept some pieces in the new one.

My next plan of action is to put the new hard drive in my existing box and get it all formatted and ready to go. I will then try to install the two drives in the new one, using my existing drive as the master in hopes that it works. I do not mind messing with the BIOS and stuff, but just need to get it right before the end of the month.

It has been fun messing with it so far, although my wife is not too happy with me geeking out so much tonight:)

Treo 650 on the chopping block

Should the Treo 650 stay or go? This is a question I have been tossing around a bit today since I have over $875 in Treo gear that I could sell for $600. Gear includes an unlocked Treo 650, Piel Frama Crocodile case, extra battery, retractable sync/charge cable, extra stylus pack, and screen protectors. I have been a bit frustrated with the device lately with the recent lockups and phone call quality. The lockups may be due to Verichat so I removed the application today. I expect my device to perform when I want it or need it to and the Treo 650 failed yesterday with the PDF file that I could not view. It also failed when my wife was trying to make a simple call and this isn't the first time this has happened recently. I am also a bit frustrated that palmOne hasn't returned any of my communication to them concerning issues with the GSM device while Sprint customers already received an update that fixes most of the issues. I am seriously considering dropping the Treo 650 and going back to using my Tungsten T3 as my main Palm Powered device.

I also discovered I am spending too much time with my devices and not enough with my wife. My wife and family are more important than some geeky hardware and Ed Hardy posted a great editorial today on Brighthand stating that we need to free ourselves from email. I functioned fine using the Inbox application on my PDA2K before and no one died as a result of my receiving email every hour or so. The push email I have on the Treo 650 with Chatter is amazing, but also addictive and 99% of the emails I received weren't even that important enough to require this kind of attention.

So, does anyone want to buy a complete Treo 650 package for $600? I will probably put it up on the various discussion boards later today. I do like the hardware and will miss the device, but other things in life are more important to me right now and the PDA2K is a more reliable and powerful device that meets my real needs and hasn't let me down.

Treo 650 ticks me off at times

Yesterday I received an email telling me out T-ball game schedule changed and the email included a link to a PDF file. I was able to download the file, but the Adobe Reader app on the Treo would not open it or even see it. I moved around into different areas on my SD card and it still would not work. Man, was this frustrating or what?

As I stated in my story of the salvage case a few weeks ago, the PDA2K Windows Mobile device is more reliable and useful for real work.

I have also been having some random resets on my Treo lately. The problem is that it resets and even locks up while it is just sitting there and then when I pick it up to see if there are any emails or calls I find that it was not even on.

There have been some things going on in my life recently too that are causing me to evaluate what I should be doing with some of my time. I am seriously considering selling this Treo 650 because it is becoming more of a novelty than a necessity. I am looking forward to the iPAQ Mobile Messenger running Windows Mobile.

My wife tried to make a call on my Treo yesterday and the stupid thing froze and had to be reset. Then when she did make the call the volume was not loud enough for her. I also have not received a single email back from my palmOne contact on the issues which causes me concern for buyers of their products.

Treo devices rule at Search Champs

OK, this is not a scientific poll or anything, but I counted three Treo 600/650 devices in our small Local/Mobile breakout group. There were only 5 people in the group and no one had a Windows Mobile device. I had my PDA2K, but I was not using it much.

I did count 3 more Windows Mobile Phone Edition devices in the crowd though so that is not bad. I like my PDA2K, but the Treo form factor and Chatter email make it more convenient much of the time.

Bloggers and getting the news out

OK, adCenter was just talking and I have absolutely no interest in this so it gave me time to blog.

As I posted earlier, bloggers are generally quite experienced with tech and are wonderful at getting the word out. This may be another reason there are so many bloggers here. They will blog and talk about Search and whether it is criticism or praise at least it is being discussed and maybe people will check it out themselves.

Start.com is showing their stuff now and it looks very cool. Visit Start.com and give it a whirl. This may be my new home page:)

What is a SEO?

My buddies from the UK, South Africa, Holland, and Belgium are all SEO people and I never really knew what that was until I came to this conference. They are search engine optimizers and work for their clients to increase traffic to their sites. There are about 7 or 8 of those type here at Search Champs. They are very interested in adCenter and how to use MSN Search to optimize for their clients.

Why am I at Search Champs?

Mobile search is coming from MSN in the future, but I still wonder why I was lucky enough to get invited here. I love Desktop Search and use it all the time and MSN Search is growing on me, but I am definitely not a search expert. I am a huge techy geek, use search engines all the time, and provide assistance to tons of family, friends, and others. Hmm, I guess I do have some experiences that can be valuable to someone:) The fact that bloggers are techy people and search a lot is also a reason people are here.

I am encouraged that Microsoft holds these events and is putting efforts into improving Search. I have not heard of Google or others making these efforts.

Win a Treo 650 today!

If you want one of these awesome Treo 650 devices then check out my blurb on PDAGeek.com for the direct link to the palmOne site. They are giving one away every 5 minutes from 9 am PDT and running for 12 hours. It started almost 2 hours ago so go enter and please let me know if you win one.

I am at MSN Search Champs on on my mobile devices so I cannot enter until I get to a desktop since the contest requires you to go through a Flash 7 tour of the device. I will try to enter later and win one for my wife :)

MSN Search Champs discussions

We are here listening to Microsoft folks talking about MSN Search and many of the bloggers are quite passionate about what they want to see. This has been leading me to wonder if having so many bloggers here is really valuable to Microsoft and Search because I do not think that the majority of web surfers care much about advanced features and some of the other aspects brought up here. The attendees here are very intelligent and are providing valuable input for what they want to see, but is this the same as what my Mom or Aunt want to see or use?

Just thinking about my family, friends, and coworkers they do not even know what a blog is, they could care less if there are a couple ads on their search results page (Google has them too), they like having Encarta give them instant answers, etc.

Microsoft is doing well advancing Search and I think a few interface changes and letting people know it is there is all that really needs to be done initially. An easier URL and having the Search bar at the top of MSN will help.

I personally do love using Google and one of the reasons I went to it in the first place is because it has a simple interface and gives me good results. MSN Search is looking much better (and actually gives better results for palmsolo than Google does) and can do well and I am sure they will. Shoot, look at what they have done in catching up and maybe even passing Palm with mobile devices.

MSN Search Champs 2 Day 1

Day 1 was quite long, but we covered a lot of ground. It was good to see that mobile devices is on their roadmap, although we may not see much this year. It cannot be an easy task for MSN Search to get integrated on mobile devices since this is a completely different department with their own priorities. I try to use MSN Search for internet searches, but keep going back to Google. MSN Search is coming along nicely and there are some upcoming features that may make it more convincing for me.

Now MSN Desktop Search is something I absolutely love and use all the time. I have tried Google and Copernic, but MSN was the only one to handle my office network drives so well. We have project folders dating back to 1993 and there is no good Access or other database system other than paper printouts of job lists. Desktop Search now changes all that for me and I can find documents instantly. We saw a couple of cool Microsoft Research tools that you can soon check out at the research site.

We had a great dinner at El Gauchos last night and the filet mignon was outstanding.

Start of MSN Search

MSN Search Champs 2 is about to get started and we just finished breakfast. It started last night with a meet and greet, but my family was all sick so I stayed home to help care for them instead. I did meet up with my European and South African buds from last time this morning though.

In traditional Microsoft way, we each received a nice bag of goodies. I was very happy to see Windows XP Pro since I just ordered a barebones kit and am building my own PC soon.

2005 Geek.com Tax Day Buying Guide is up

Our huge (62 products) Geek.com Tax Day Buying Guide is now live. Check it out to see some reviews of the latest products and enjoy!

Thanks to Sam and Joel for all their work in getting it together with me.

GSM Treo 650 speakerphone volume can be improved

My buddy Peter sent me an email yesterday linking to this TreoCentral discussion thread talking about a new method to increase the volume of the speakerphone. The speaker and speakerphone volumes are too low to use in any environment other than a silent one on the GSM Treo 650 (I read that the CDMA versions don't have this problem) and this is a major issue for those who use the Treo 650 as a mobile phone. Now personally, I am more data centric so this hasn't bothered me as much and I keep using the Treo 650 as my primary device (the PUSH email is way too addictive). Also, volumes are very loud when I use my Cardo Scala-500 Bluetooth headset, which I use all the time when I am driving.

Anyway, back to the discussion forum and method to increase the speakerphone volume. I performed the steps and then tested out the speakerphone by placing the Treo 650 on my dash (I have a sticky gel pad to set it on) and calling my wife. The speakerphone volume was definitely improved and I could carry on a conversation without having to hold the Treo to my ear like I had to before. I don't know if it is 75% improved, but probably at least 50%. This setting may only be temporary and the procedure may have to be followed after each soft reset, but it is a band aid fix for now.

The back speaker is plenty loud for music and this little procedure shows it can be increased for the phone as well so I think there is real hope that it is only a minor software glitch and palmOne needs to get off their rear NOW and get this fixed ASAP! They should have had it solved by now and can issue a simple downloadable software update to make customers much happier. They may be waiting to release the update along with the memory fix they gave Sprint customers, but my palmOne contact has been unresponsive to my emails so I don't have the inside scoop on this yet.

Is mobile search important to you?

I found a post on Aximsite last night discussing the new Google Local Mobile search functionality and went and gave it a whirl. I submitted a blurb on PDAGeek that discusses this new tool for mobile devices. As a result of checking this out, I also discovered that the XHTML (WAP 2.0) Google Mobile search pages are better than the Google Palm page I have been using on my devices because it does a better job of fitting to the display and it allows me to use the image and local search filters.

I am participating in the MSN Search Champs conference starting on Sunday and would like to see MSN Search make an attempt at optimizing for mobile devices. Windows Mobile Smartphones and Pocket PC Phone Edition models are becoming more and more popular and they could even ship with MSN Search Mobile preloaded on the devices with the other Microsoft products. When MSN Search was first rolled out it didn't even work on Windows Mobile devices, but that was corrected within a couple weeks. It now works on mobile devices, but the results are the same as you get with your desktop.

I posted a blurb a couple weeks ago on PDAGeek concerning mobile search that didn't even get one comment so maybe there aren't as many people who want an optimized mobile search tool as I thought. Does anyone care about mobile search?

PocketMap Navigator USA 2004 R3 is amazing!

I reviewed PocketMap Navigator USA 2003 over two years ago on Pocket PC Life and haven't tried it since then. I recently made contact with them and asked to review the latest version for Geek.com. I am including a short teaser in the upcoming Tax Day Buying Guide and am working a full review of the software to be published later. I have had it for over a month, maybe even two, and never even loaded it until a couple days ago.

WOW, the application is awesome and greatly improved over an already very nice product. One of the nicest features of PocketMap Navigator USA 2004 R3 is the ability to create all of your routes right on your device. The only time you need a desktop is to get the maps loaded onto your device. Like Mapopolis, maps are broken down by counties. PMN also has highway routing and a cool "corridor" feature on the desktop. What you do is create a route and then PMN figures out all the counties you will be passing through and then loads them to your device or storage card.

Although I have only been testing it for a short while so far, I love their updated easy-to-navigate with your finger interface. I loaded it up on my Axim X50v and plan on doing some routing and testing with it over the next couple weeks. The program has a 3D view, Outlook contact integration, different routing alternatives, and real-time traffic detour features. I don't know what they use for the traffic detour, but I am going to check out this feature since this could be very helpful for our vanpool. PMN 2004 sells for $89.95 that includes all the maps for the US. They have bundles with GPS receivers too, but I already have my awesome Pharos Bluetooth receiver that goes with me everywhere.

Review: Suunto n6HR SPOT watch w/ heart rate monitor

I have updated my Geek.com MSN Direct SPOT watch review two times over the last year and decided it would be nice to post a new review of the latest generation model here on my blog since I am such a HUGE MSN Direct SPOT watch fan. You will always find one model on my wrist, which is funny considering I rarely wore watches before SPOT models came out in early 2004.

palmsolo's review: Suunto n6HR SPOT watch with heart rate monitor

I was wearing the CES 2005 Commemorative Swatch model with the outstanding battery life for a couple of months until my excellent Microsoft PR rep, Susan, sent me the Suunto n6HR to evaluate. I started my spring workout season to try to get in a bit of shape for an upcoming Hawaii vacation and summer 7s rugby. I primarily go jogging for a couple miles and do a bit of weight lifting as well. The Suunto is actually helping motivate and keep me out on the road due to the geeky feature of it serving as a heart rate monitor recording device and workout assistant.


The Suunto n6HR

The Suunto n6HR is a MSN Direct watch so I get news, sports, weather, movies, and more on it as well as the ability to use it as a heart rate monitor receiving station. The watch is lightweight (only 2 ounces), waterproof to 100 meters, has a removable band (the leather one on the model I tested is very comfortable), and has a battery that lasts a long time (8-10 days).


Weather channel

The MSN Direct site allows you to manage your channels because there is a limit to how much data you can download to the watch. My current favorite channels are Glance, Movies, Sports, Daily Diversions and Weather. Microsoft recently added Local Events to the Calendar channel so you can select the type of events you are interested in (I chose Festivals & Special Events, Comedy, and Religious Music) so these now show up on my Calendar channel for the city in which I am located at the time.


Viewing local Events

Each MSN Direct watch comes preloaded with certain watch faces that are specific to the manufacturer and then you can visit the MSN Direct site and download others that you like. The Suunto n6HR lets me download two additional watch faces. Microsoft has added some new watch faces and the current collection includes Basketball, Bling Monogram (personalized with your initials), Circuit (small LED indicators are a binary representation of the current minute (VERY GEEKY), Dual Time, Jikan (Kanji lettering), LeMans (race fan face), Modern 60s (my favorite because it shows the signal, battery life, and cool time counter), Quarter (my past favorite), and Tree.


Circuit watch face


My favorite face; Modern 60s

The antenna on the Suunto is around the watch face, making the band much more comfortable compared to some other SPOT watches. There are two buttons on the left for activating the backlight (a cool green color) and switching between channels. The three buttons on the left are for scrolling up or down and for selecting a channel or feature.


Leather watch band


Left side buttons


Right side buttons


Backlight

Unlike the other Fossil and Abacus watches I reviewed, the Suunto charges via a USB cable that clamps like an alligator on side of the watch. The interesting thing about this method is that there is a SDK available where developers should soon be able to release applications that can be installed on the watches that connect via USB.


USB cable

The Suunto n6HR connects wirelessly, via digital FM technology, to the heart rate monitor strap that you wear around your chest just by the solar plexus. The heart rate monitor has an elastic, adjustable strap to make wearing it comfortable. The electrodes on the back of the strap must be damp to send the signal to the watch so I dab a bit of water on them as I start my exercise routine and sweat then maintains the wetness for the signal as I progress through my workout. I am quite a hairy guy (as shown below) and was worried that I may have to shave a spot on my chest to get a good signal, but the Suunto maintained a connection with no issues.

Caution: The photo below may be too graphic for small children :)


The heart rate monitor strapped around me

At the start of your workout you simply go to the Time channel and then scroll to the Chrono function. You then start the chronometer and start your workout and you should see the time progressing as well as your heart rate showing on the display. You can also set heart rate limits, both low and high, so that alarms will go off as you approach and then go outside the limits. You can then view your workout data right on the watch in the logbook file area. However, the preferred method of using the data is to sync via the USB sync/charge cable to your desktop with the Suunto Training Program software.


One of my training logs


Using the online service to download a training plan

The Suunto Training software allows you to download the data from your watch and analyze it for ways to improve your workouts. You can schedule workouts in your training plan and have them synched to your watch or to Outlook. You can also register with the Suunto Sports site and share training plans and workout data with others. The Suunto n6HR is available now for $399 and it comes with a 2 year warranty.

My wife ROCKS!!!

My wife is a Party Lite candle consultant and does very well at it. She started 3 years ago as a way to get out of the house for a break after homeschooling the girls all day and now she has about 2-4 parties a week and has been paying off our bills like crazy.

She earned us an all-expense paid cruise to Caribbean 2 years ago (on a new Royal Caribbean ship) and just found out today that she earned us a 5 day trip for two to Hawaii on the Big Island. Not only that, she was in the top 10 trip earners in the entire country so we get first class airfare, a luxury suite at the Waikoloa Hilton, and special prizes and awards. Man, I can use a vacation and will be going towards the end of May.

Here is a shot of my wife on her Motorola MPx220 Smartphone (see this post is mobile device related:))

Treo 650 review live on Geek.com

My Treo 650 review is now up on Geek.com. Enjoy.

PDA2K Mugen Power battery tests

I finally finished running a battery test using Spb Benchmark on my PDA2K. I first tested the standard included battery, 1490 mAh, and with backlight on full and in normal operating mode it came out to 4 hours and 54 minutes. Running the same test with the Mugen Power 3300 mAh battery I received a whopping 11 hours and 3 minutes. This battery does stick out a bit and makes my cases unusable, but I have been running with it every weekend with lots of WiFi time and it has never gotten close to dying on me. If you are a traveler and want a reliable battery that lasts a long time then I would definitely consider picking one of these up for $125. The standard battery life isn't even that bad considering I only have my backlight normally set to 25% (it is quite bright at that setting) and can go a full day with lots of use. I have a Mugen battery for my Axim X30 as well and these are very good quality 3rd party batteries.

HP iPAQ hw6500 may be my Treo killer

I was checking out my mobile device/gadget sites today and saw some awesome hands-on pics of the upcoming HP iPAQ hw6500 on engadget. This looks almost like a Windows Mobile Treo 650 and has the following specs; quad-band GSM/GPRS with an Intel 312MHz Xscale CPU, 64MB RAM, 64MB flash, 8MB NVRAM, 2.2 x 2.2-inch 65k color transflective QVGA screen, SDIO slot, miniSD slot, 1.2-megapixel camera with MPEG-4 and H.263 support, 2.5mm headphone jack, class II Bluetooth, IrDA, GPS, and EDGE support. The GPS is a cool feature, but not necessary with my awesome Pharos BT GPS. I do like the dual expansion slots where I can use a WiFi SD card with a miniSD memory card. I may need to think about selling my PDA2K or Treo 650 soon to get one of these babies. My only reservation right now is how well the keyboard will be integrated. I also don't know if this will have Windows Mobile 2005 on it and it is better to wait for it since the release is imminent.

PDA2K battery tests and more Treo 650 ranting

I am running battery tests on my PDA2K today with the standard battery and 3300 mAh Mugen Power battery so I am using my Treo 650 as my main device today. The Treo 650 is a wonderful piece of hardware, but the phone issues (low speaker volume, low speakerphone volume, crackling, inconsistent sounds, etc.) are really unacceptable for such an expensive device. Palm die hards always claim that Palm devices are stable and laugh at Pocket PC. However, the truth is that the latest palmOne devices (Tungsten T5 and Treo 650) are less stable than Windows Mobile 2003 devices. My PDA2K has over 50 applications on it and it is rock solid and NEVER resets on its own. I have never once experienced a hard reset on it and it is very reliable. The phone functionality (volumes and no dropped calls) makes it the best phone I have ever owned as well.

My Treo 650 review is going live on Geek.com tomorrow. After the first two weeks of using the Treo 650 I was all set to give it a Geek.com pick, as I think I stated in a recent PDAGeek newsletter. However, after giving it longer to sink in and experiencing the substandard phone functionality I just could not award it a Geek.com pick with the current ROM. If palmOne releases a fix for the volume levels and memory efficiency then I would give it a Geek.com pick. I still really like it for data and it is a great Palm Powered device.

I would love to see a Windows Mobile Treo 650, as rumored online, but I would still need to see the good keyboard and directional pad integration to be sold on it. palmOne came so close to a wonderful, awesome device and I can't believe their engineers couldn't get the basic phone functions right. I have been emailing my palmOne contact with questions to see if there are any planned fixes, but haven't received any responses and am a bit disappointed in that.

PUSH email on a Windows Mobile device?

I like the PUSH email I get on the Treo 650 with Chatter Email, but since the PDA2K is a more powerful device with better phone functionality I looked around for a way to get the same functionality in it. If I had an Exchange server then I would be all set, but I don't have one at home and we use a Novell server at work. I could pay for a hosted Exchange service, which may be something to try in a bit. I found and tried the Smartner Always On email service, but it was not giving true push email and only attempting to connect every 5 minutes or so and the settings were limited with my current IMAP account. I do not need to pay another $13 a month for a hosted Exchange service since email is not vital to living or anything and the push functionality is just a fun, addictive feature to have.

The president of our company, one of my Windows Mobile Phone Edition converts, was chatting with me today and said he saw the new Audiovox model, similar to my PDA2K, in the Verizon store and plans to keep his Samsung i700 for another 10 months or so. I told him that was a good idea since Windows Mobile 2005 is coming out this summer and new devices should be ready later this fall and winter. He absolutely loves his Phone Edition and carries it with him everywhere. I too think my Windows Mobile Phone Edition is the bomb and think the only thing it really lacks is better keyboard integration. I would love to see a Windows Mobile device with the Treo 650 form factor and hope the rumors and speculation turn out to be true sometime in the future.

Ramblings of a mad man

I just signed up for the free Treo Road Show that is coming to Seattle on 26 April and plan on going to the morning show. I already have a Treo and know quite a bit about devices ;), but wanted to see if there are other ideas I can use to help justify their use here at work. As of now, I am the only one in my office with a Palm Smartphone, but I have convinced 3 others to use Windows Mobile Phone Edition devices and they are very happy with them.

I am torn between the Treo 650 and PDA2K right now since the phone performance of the Treo is disappointing and starting to bug me when I can't hear people speaking clearly on the other end of the line. I love the way I can control it with one hand and wish it had Windows Mobile on it. I used my PDA2K to write up and submit my blurbs on Geek.com today, but it would have been much, much more difficult to do on my Treo 650 since there are issues with multitasking and clipboard sizes. I have actually been considering getting rid of the Treo 650 and going back to the wonderful JAM, but I just need to be patient and hope palmOne comes out with a ROM update for the low volume issues soon.

I submitted my Treo 650 review last night and it has a couple of paragraphs comparing the PDA2K with it as well. It may go live this week or early next week. I also submitted 5 mini-reviews and am now focusing on getting the big Tax Guide, with over 50 products in it, ready to go live on the 15th of April.

Joel and I are throwing around the idea of doing mobile device podcasts every other week and I am researching tools that would allow me to create the podcast on my mobile devices themselves since I am such a mobile device geek.

I found out my company decided against the Tablet PCs for now, but I will be getting a Dell laptop later this month or early next month for my work use. This will be great since I need a laptop ready to go in case of a salvage emergency and it was a real pain to come in right before I flew out last week and try to get a laptop setup. I considered selling some devices and picking up a laptop for myself recently, but will see how this work one does first.

I need more hours in the day

I need more time in the day to get things done and 24 hours just doesn't cut it. I have to finish up the Geek.com Tax Refund Buying Guide by the 10th and have a ton of work to do. I also wanted to get my Treo 650 review up this week, but don't know if that will happen now. I have been feeling under the weather and just can't stay up late like I have been to get some writing done. I'll try to get my 650 review done tonight while my daughters are in Girl Scouts.

Treo 650 back in my hands again

Ok, now that I am home from my big salvage trip, I am carrying around the Treo 650 again. I am addicted to the push email feature of Chatter and also LOVE my black crocodile leather Piel Frama case. It is so much easier to carry around the Treo 650 than it is the PDA2K. However, I can't sell my PDA2K since it still beats the Treo 650 in a few areas and actually works a bit better as a phone (in the volume area). Thankfully nothing new has arrived on my doorstep this week as I have to finish up my Treo 650 review and get our big Geek.com Tax Refund Buying/Pricing Guide together so we can make it live on April 15th. Which reminds me, I still have to finish up my own taxes as well. Dang, no sleep this weekend for me :)