+yorelken Posted August 13, 2003 Share Posted August 13, 2003 I am totally ignorant about palms, pocket pcs, etc. I would like advice on which unit to buy for use in geocaching. What is the main difference between a palm and a pocket pc if there is one? I would like to download the cache pages, or parts thereof, instead of printouts, and use it in the field. Thanks for any suggestions. I have a Garmin emap and am running Windows XP on my desktop. Quote Link to comment
+Rubberhead Posted August 13, 2003 Share Posted August 13, 2003 HP iPAQ 2215 Ducks - Flying, great tasting, geocaches of meat Quote Link to comment
+azmark Posted August 13, 2003 Share Posted August 13, 2003 Many Palm, Pocket PC debates, but if you decide to go Pocket PC the HP 2215 would be hard to beat. Good screen, fast processor, great expandabliity. And at $299.00. A decent price for a color unit. Quote Link to comment
+kevin917z Posted August 13, 2003 Share Posted August 13, 2003 if you want a unit to use just for geocaching like i do, and dont want to spend much, check out ebay. I bought a slightly used handspring visor neo for 25 dollars. It also came with a modem so i can check my email or surf the net at home or out of town. The 8mb of memory is more than enough i had 800 some geocache pages in it and still had room for several times that. It is nice to be able to just tap in the GCxxxx and have the page pop right up, or you can search for a cache by many other ways, i just find it faster to search by Gcxxx since the waypoints in my gps are named that way the processor on this unit is more than fast enough for just looking up cache pages, and the price was right, on ebay these units sell for 25-55 dollars on average, a 2mb unit will go for less. 2mb would probably store what you want but i would recommend at least 8mb, let me know if i can be of any help p.s. i bought this palm instead of an expensive one because i can see myself losing or breaking the palm while geocaching Quote Link to comment
+Joba and Geo Jake Posted August 13, 2003 Share Posted August 13, 2003 I am using my Dell Axim. I got it prior to geocaching but it has worked great. It is more than you need for ceocaching but I also use it daily for work. I had a palm but swiched to pocket PC platform because it was easier for me to use. If you are only going to use it for caching Kevin917z has the right idea. There are threads with good advise about ebay on this site and also at http://www.pocketpcpassion.com/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Be nice to your kids....They'll choose your nursing home. Quote Link to comment
+GeckoGeek Posted August 13, 2003 Share Posted August 13, 2003 quote:What is the main difference between a palm and a pocket pc if there is one? What's the main difference between Mac and PC? The Palm is a nice, simple yet effective interface. It's been around longer and so far still has a larger market share. You'll be amazed at what a Palm can do with just 8MB and batteries that can last for over a month (for models with monocrome screens.) Pocket PC (previously WinCE) is like desktop Windows. Requires hefty hardware and memory. Some find it a bit complex to work though all the menus. You can probably find a cheap Palm, but you'll probably have to lay out some bucks for Pocket. First I'd suggest you locate software then then pick the OS that runs it. Quote Link to comment
+kevin917z Posted August 13, 2003 Share Posted August 13, 2003 you can use many kinds of free software for the palm such as spinner gpxtohtml gpx to palmdoc plucker(viewer program for palm and sends pages to palm) and others (thats just what i remember off the top of my head) i personally use gpxtohtml and plucker, it is for me the easiest to use since i never had a palm before watcher is also a free program that you can use to view the cache pages from a pocket query, they are almost identical to the cache pages on geocaching.com Quote Link to comment
+Brainerd Posted August 13, 2003 Share Posted August 13, 2003 If you are just getting it for caching, I would recommend a used unit with at least 2 megs of memory. Be careful when lookinig at the color models. I have a Samsung Palm Powered cell phone (I300). I like it, but the color screen is not very legible in direct sunlight. Not a great thing when caching. The older non-color units will not have this problem. If you are getting one, and intend to use the other Palm features, which are great, then a newer model with a minimum of 8 megs of memory would be the way to go. Again, make sure that you can read the color screen in direct sunlight. Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves. Henry David Thoreau Quote Link to comment
+DBleess Posted August 17, 2003 Share Posted August 17, 2003 palm M130 or something similar works suitably. More memory if you want to benchmark too: http://members.cox.net/dmbleess/geocache/benchmarks.htm SA / PP-ASEL-I / Yahoo "SphinxXXVII" / ICQ 1916574 Quote Link to comment
+yorelken Posted August 17, 2003 Author Share Posted August 17, 2003 Thanks to all the above. I guess I'm on hold for a while. I dropped my digital camera and totalled it and just got the bad news about my car. It's been a bad week. I have saved all your advice and will apply it when I can afford it. Maybe wait for Santa? Quote Link to comment
+-=(GEO)=- Posted August 17, 2003 Share Posted August 17, 2003 HP iPaq 1945 here... It's -really- light and small and perfect to go caching with for that reason. I'd recommend a Pocket PC anytime over a Palm for a single reason: simplicity. All you have to do with a Pocket PC is to copy your GPX file(s) over and you are ready to go. With the Palm on the other hand, you have to run the GPX file through 3 conversion programs to get what you need. My 2 cents... Quote Link to comment
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