July 14, 2005

Why & How I Moved From Palm To Pocket PC / Dell Axim 50

For the last several years, ever since Handspring's Visor (Handspring nor Visor are around as Handspring was bought by Palm) I have used the Palm platform. My last few PDAs have been Palm M series PDAs which I had been very happy with. They were simple to use and did everything I needed - tasks, calendar, address book and memos.

However, I've realized that the battery on these PDAs does not last. After a few short months the charge begins to not hold and eventually the PDA stops working. I have now a mini-museum of PDAs that can not keep their charge.

Angered that I have to keep plunking down $200 or so for a PDA that SHOULD work at least for a few years, I made the HUGE leap to Microsoft's Pocket PC platform. After some research I settled on a Dell Axim 50 and I LOVE IT.

Microsoft's Pocket PC is a lot more complicated than Palm so there is a bit more learning one must do, however, after a day of playing with your PDA you'll easily get the hang of things.

With so much more memory and power I can listen to music (no need for an iPod) and watch videos. Via eBay I purchased a wireless WiFi SD card ($80) to compliment the built in Bluetooth capabilities on the Dell Axim.

I had (and am having) MAJOR problems brining my address/contact information into the Axim, however. I have brought the data into Microsoft Outlook, which Pocket PC uses for data management. When the data is viewed on my PDA I only see a few lines of information. For example, yesterday, I went to my bank and tried to use the Dell Axim to view my account number but I could only see the first few numbers of my bank's telephone number. The "note" field in my contacts is not coming out properly.

In order to get my calendar properly transferred from Palm to Pocket PC I had to first import the calendar to Yahoo, then download it as an Outlook calendar.

Overall, I'm pleased with the feature richness of the Pocket PC and since so many products go hand in hand with Microsoft Outlook I'll have access to more software add-ons that can enhance my day to day work. I am considering moving to Outlook completely for my email. Right now I use the powerful Mozilla Thunderbird.

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