For the past two weeks or so, outside of work, classes, and politics, I have been frantically messing around with my newest obsession...kind of an old obsession, but some new life was breathed into it recently.  My PDA.

My love of the PDA started many, many years ago when I lusted over the original Palm Pilot 1000 in the local Office Depot.  The several hundred dollar price tag was just beyond my finances at the time.  I continued to research and long after these devices and watched as Microsoft got into the game with their Windows CE operating system.  Then after scraping my pennies, gift certificates from my birthday and Christmas, and a return to CompUSA, I had a couple hundred dollars and was determined to get my own.

I had originally wanted to get the Zire71, it was a decent low-end color PalmOS, since it was the best color PDA in my price range.  However, when I got to the store they had a clearance on the floor model AudioVox Maestro (which is really a repackaged Toshiba e570 with half the RAM).  It was in my price range and it was running the PocketPC2003 operating system, which for various reasons I prefer to the PalmOS.  For several years this was my machine.  I wrote research papers, played games, did Bible lessons, and played mp3s on it.  My only lament was the lack of wireless networking capabilities.  When the screen on it "mysteriously" shattered at work (while sitting in my desk drawer whilst I happened to be away from my desk).  I was longing for a replacement.

My brother came to the rescue with an old Viewsonic e37 he had lying around.  Unfortunately compared to my Maestro this was a cheap toy.  It had several problems, probably due to lack of use, the internal battery backup didn't work so if the main battery charge ran out it would wipe all your data and it never seemed to run Microsoft Word properly.  After the third time I lost an almost completed paper for school because of a crash, I stopped using the machine for anything other that portable solitaire and Bible.  So I started researching machines and biding my time till I got some $$ together.

I had several requirements that I wanted in my new machine.  Built in WiFi, built in Bluetooth, full VGA resolution, Windows Mobile 5 capable, and both SD and CE card slots.  Unfortunately, the trend in PDAs recently has been moving into the mobile phone/Blackberry market.  So the machines have been getting smaller and usually have built in cell-phone capabilities.  Personally, I wanted something with a large screen since I used my machine often for writing papers and taking notes.  I already had a cell-phone and was not interested in an all-in-one device.  (Although since my wife has recently gotten a HTC vx6800 the all-in-one capabilities are nice.  Still want a bigger screen with full VGA resolution though).  My decision came down to two older machines, basically the last of the "big" PDAs.  The Toshiba e800 and the HP hx4700.  Both machines sported large 4" VGA displays and had memory and processor statistics to rival any new PDA or Smartphone.  Both were no longer in production, but one factor sealed the deal for me.  HP continues to produce PDAs and Smartphones.  Toshiba has stopped producing them.  So I got on E-Bay and I bought my new baby earlier this year.

It was love at first sight.  I love the sleek black look and the display was everything I had hoped for.  My only problem was the one I bought was loaded with the PocketPC2003 OS.  I had read that there was a Windows Mobile 5 upgrade available and once I received the machine I went looking for it on the Internet.  That was when I found this forum.  Apparently there is a pretty active community out there that still love the big machines and want to keep them up do date as well.  So I found that I could upgrade my machine all the way to Windows Mobile 6.1.  After doing this I happily used my machine for several months, enjoying the wireless networking and playing around with all sorts of applications like Windows Live (which is awesome btw) and Skype (which is cool, but once I used up my free tokens I haven't used it since).  My only true lament over my PDA was that even with wireless networking I couldn't just connect to the Internet anytime I wanted.  This feeling was made worse when we changed our cell-phone plan and suddenly I could access the web anytime I wanted via my phone.  Then I realized a couple of weeks ago I should be able to use the Bluetooth connection between my phone and the PDA to give myself Internet access any time I wanted.

That was when the obsession started.  Over the past two weeks I have learned how to do everything from hack into my cell-phone's service menu (in order to change some key settings) to learning how to use the PDA's Bluetooth to sync up with not only my phone, but also my laptop.  I have reset my menus and loaded a number of tweaking programs onto my PDA and have created a machine that does everything I want (Now just need to get a portable Bluetooth keyboard.) >:) 

Well almost everything.  I still can not get my PDA to send text messages (SMS) through the phone.  Why would I want that you ask?  Because it is much faster and easier to type with the PDA's keyboard or transcriber than using my phone's 10-digit interface.  For whatever reason I have been unable to get the two devices to truly sync this function.  However, in my searching last night I found this entry in Wikipedia that outlines all of the email based gateways to send text message via email to their customers.  Not the preferred solution, but it works well.  So I added an additional text email to all my contacts whom I might text and can use the PDA for that function in the future.  I will continue to look for a way to sync the SMS services on the two devices, but until then my machine is wonderful.

Here is the current list of software loaded onto my PDA:

Google Maps for Mobile Devices - Just like the desktop version and if (when) I had (get) a GPS card it  would integrate with the maps.

Windows Live - I highly recommend this service for searching restaurants, movies, gas prices, etc.

Opera Mobile Browser - This mobile browser blows PocketIE away.  Tabs, Full screen, Zooming, Finger scrolling.  I can not praise this program highly enough.

Foxit PDF reader - excellent PDf reader and works much better than the adobe mobile reader I tried

SPB Pocket Plus - This is a front window (Today page) plug-in that transforms the look and feel of the PDA.  Incredibly customizable, integrated .zip functions, expanded close functions, and even some Pocket IE tweaks that make the program more usable.  If you download only one program for your PDA this is the one I recommend.

SPB Pocket Diary - This PIM (Personal Information Manager) plug-in collects many functions right onto the today page and gives them a tabbed browsing option.  Also you can read emails and get contact information right from the Today page.  No need to open other windows at all.

Well this is a long way to go to tell you that I really love my PDA and it gives me something to talk pleasantly about (ie not Politics) :)

Evil Out...