Hey y'all. I'm thinking about several purchases on the personal electronic side of things. In no order of preference one of them would be a personal handheld computer/comm device. I am more interested in power and capability rather than diminutive size. Like a "Q" or one of the other bigger offerings.
Any relevant suggestions and requisite backing positive experiences would be helpful. I know that there are Blackberrys, HP, Compaq and the like. Ease of use, reliability and intuitive interface, good warranty are more important than great price point/bargain. However, if the said device is a great unit and comes at a great price, well, that would be all to the good of course.

The second would be an iPod/portable music device. I would like something larger than the 4GB Nano. I reckon 8/10 to 20/30GB would be good. As above, ease of use, intuitive interface and reliability are more important to me than "just a good price." Wrt this pmp (portable media player), flexibility of capability in handling the most music formats, best freq response with sound shaping are more important than just flat out storage capacity. If I can't listen to the sound "my way" then storage capacity means diddly.

Thanks in advance for any/all input.

Even though I hate iPod batteries, I've gotta say that the scroll wheel and iTunes makes things easy. iTunes kinda forces you to organize your music according to artist or group, but a lot of times I cheat and just group a bunch of songs into a category as an "artist" just because of how the browser works in iTunes. The interface is very logical.

When you plug in your iPod, you handle the music on it just like you would handle another playlist in the interface.

Actually, the battery in my latest iPod mini (green) has been good so far (beyond expectation). I think I just have to stop dropping it... :taunt:

Sound quality-wise, I didn't notice anything bad about it when I still had headphones > apple ear plug garbage (I lost those headphones :(). The quality of the earphones that come with it probably cost them 50c. :rolleyes: So you'll definitely want to get something third party as far as head phones go.

If you get the video iPod you can also download mp4 videos onto the device and watch them whenever you're stuck somewhere (like on a bus or waiting around). My friend has one, and it's pretty slick with a bright LCD and in colour.

As far as music format goes, I don't think it supports ogg or anything like that. iTunes will try to make you convert wma to mp3 or AAC before putting them on the iPod. There are some good conversion tools to do that in iTunes. If you're ripping CDs, you can make some really HQ compressed formats.

Ta for the info, S'AL. Much appreciated. I can't wear those in ear "head phones" as they really bother my ear canals. I have a 3 year old Sony Discman and purchased better headphones right away for the Discman. I listened to several and the one I purchased was Panasonic Shockwave set with foldable ear pieces and in-line volume control. I believe they were around $32.95 plus tax or thereabout. When I move up to a more sophisticated player then I may also "pop" for a better set of headphones. Or not. ;)

Same here. I can't stand the ear plug stuff, even the "higher quality" ones. Besides, they fall out of my ear too easily, they don't sound as great, and I hate having them in my ear. :mad:

/ rant :p

Yur, I hear you on that. LOL. Seems the aperture to my ear canal is too small for most of those rascals, hence they either pop out or give me an ear ache from having to wedge them in too tightly. Phooey. Regular headphones, s'il vous plais. Merci beaucoup. /foreign gargling. <----joke. :D

haha

Now where is Firewire with all his handheld gadgets? ;) I've only seen my boss use a blackberry, and he seems to be able to use it without problems. He's not a techie geek at all either, so it must be good, right? He mainly uses it to check e-mail and for taking calls.

Hors de combat, c'est possible? LOL.

I had a Fido HipTop (aka Sidekick) actually. I am thinking about snagging a new BlackBerry sometime soon. Since I LOVE my Nokia, I was thinking this...

http://www.fido.ca/portal/product/handsetdetail.jsp?id=nokia_e62&lang=en&cat=1

I hear Jim Basilie has his tit in the ringer. Had to step down as Chairman or some such shit and has "misplaced" $250 million. Hmmm, hard to miss that type of dough without some fancy mechanical pencil action going on. I can see Rev Canada sticking their oar in pretty soon along with the Ontario Securities comission. Ah well, such is life when you're filthy rich. Not all strawberries, cream and making a run at Penquins. :taunt:

That unit looks nice but I'm thinking PDA and phone/camera/MP3 player all in one. Is there such a gizmo/whizmo?

The Nokia N90 series is quite nice. I almost bought one in HK.

Hey, SF, thanks for all the info and leads. Much appreciated.

Best thing to do is to spend some time playing with a few. Don't pick anything until it feels intuitive to you, not to the guy telling you about the features.

Thanks. Already there with that concept. I don't listen to those fools unless: 1). They really know what they are talking about. 2). They don't have a sales agenda/quota I can sniff out and 3). They are out of diapers and can actually ambulate and make decisions on a moral basis of their own accord. "Pack" thinkers are anathema: All my buddies have them/want them..... Lemming mentality not accepted.
I figured out what you were saying years ago with the early h.h. address books. Casio and Sharp were the early big players back then Casio were slightly cheaper however the Sharp were totally intuitive and based on logic (at least to my way of thinking.) The Sharp items you could NOT use for 3, 6 months or longer and would still be able to pick them up and use 90% or more of their capabilities because they were thought out/engineered well. The Casio on the other hand would frustrate the crap outa you after a week. Each time you left it for a while, you had to go back to the instruction booklet and look up how to do some particular task. A real pain in the ass with ANYTHING to my mind. <Side note: I'm the type the goes thru instruction manuals (after intially playing with any item) at least three times: quick highlights, full read, and then highlight/make notes of all pertinent/key areas/commands/instructions.>

If an item has many features or is quite complex I will check the instruction booklet before I buy the product. If the instruction booklet is a mish mash and all "over the map" I then have grave doubts about the purchase. Being a son/grandson/great grandson of Engineers has taught me (or is hardwired in my head) that if it isn't logical/intuitive it is going to give you grief. ;)

I think you're the first man on earth that's EVER admitted to reading the instruction manual!! Congratulations!! LOL, just kidding ;)

My husband won't read the instructions for anything in the world, so it wouldn't matter if they were a "mish mash."

And you knew this before you married him??? LOL. Just kidding. My best guess is probably not. :D

At to admitting it, well it is no "admission" per se. It's the truth. Sometimes if my "Spidey" senses are tingling I'll even read part of the manual before the purchase. <Horror of horrors. I may get drummed out of the "man" club for that. ha ha ha.> Just to make sure that the product is "workable." If the product manual is a total mish mash or a hash-up, then I may pass on the purchase as the product may be a representation of the manual. Or not. :D

<You also have to realize as the son, grandson and great grandson of Engineers, not reading the manual is a major no-no. Ha ha ha. It's in the blood and there is bugger all I can do about it.> :taunt:

:lol: They certainly make for great bathroom reading material. :teeth:

They make great backup "Material" if the roll runs out too :lol:

Nur, forget that. I have better things to do in the....let me rephrase that. LOL. I'm usually not seated long enough to start reading anything. When I sit, I s*it and that's that. :lol: Then it's flush, wash and rush off to whatever else needs attention. No time for bathroom reading. I do have a "sandwich" bag with all/most of my manuals stashed in it. Well read and well highlighted.

I'm waiting to see how the first generation of the iPhones do in the market.

They aren't out yet, are they?

http://www.iphonefreak.com/2007/02/iphone_release_.html

The CAN release hasn't been announced yet I don't think.

Rogers apparently got the go on it. Along with number portability, it should mean a lot of new customers for them just because of that phone. The phone is rumoured to be severely locked to provider so unlocking it for another GSM provider may mean disabling features. It'll be interesting to see what kind of piece of crap it turns out to be, but people will buy it anyway because its all pretty. I'll stick with my NOKIA's. Last time I heard, NOKIA made phones, not MP3 players and computers.

Apparently down in the US, Apple wanted all control of warranty issues and hardware distribution. This can mean poor service for the customer because the provider will not be able to step in and assist the customer on service issues with the hardware. Handset crap out? Talk to Apple. Wait weeks for your phone to come back.

Monopoly=Fascism=Overpriced=Arrogant attitude. I'll let the early adopters be the early bleeders. :taunt:

That's how I do it...most of the time. ;) Since when did Apple ever become a monopoly? I thought "arrogance" was just one of the requirements for buying one of their products. :taunt:

That's how I do it...most of the time. ;) Since when did Apple ever become a monopoly? I thought "arrogance" was just one of the requirements for buying one of their products. :taunt:

You see anyone else other than Apple making their comps??? ;)

lol ok ok, so they make their own stuff, but they don't have a monopolistic hold on the computer market. :taunt:

No, just the Apple market. :D

I'm sticking with my Motorola v635i for awhile yet. As for future purchases, I'm looking more towards buying a Canon EOS 5D. My latest purchase was a MacBook Pro 15.4" 2.33Ghz 3GB of RAM. ;) I'm just waiting for the cheque from payroll so I can go down and pick up my order.

I've not used the MacOS since '97. Should be interesting.

have fun with the interface. :D My bro just got the MacBook 13" 2.0Ghz 1GB RAM, and the UI can be really slick.

have fun with the interface. :D My bro just got the MacBook 13" 2.0Ghz 1GB RAM, and the UI can be really slick.

Careful. Don't slip. Slick OS :lol:

BeOS was the best OS I've ever seen. Too bad no one wrote any apps for it.:( :( :( :( :( :( :(