Still way way too many for a new HP product. There will probably be a HUGE refurb sale very soon on these at the HP site, as so many people are returning them.

I can’t imagine anyone just living with the bugs at this price.

I wouldn’t Plunk down a lot of Money for them. I still think they have a lot of bugs and I hope HP fixes them.

Diz

gummi bear fingerprint

“Matsumoto tried these attacks against eleven commercially available fingerprint biometric systems, and was able to reliably fool all of them.” reliably seems to be 80% of attempts. Even Bruce Schneier was impressed.

and note this involves lifting latent fingerprints, *not* merely working with a cooperative subject… It was back-to-the-drawing-board news back in may 2002; makes you wonder why a new device even bothered…

In any case, I was debating the 5455 as well – it’s similar to the Toshiba in many ways. I do like the transreflective screen, but the form factor and style of the Toshiba – plus the CF – won out. I had a bad history with iPaqs, as well, and that had an impact on my decision.

Glad I went with my choice. Besides, the Toshiba’s case goes so well with my Ti Powerbook.

Speaking of which – PocketMac works pretty well!

Originally posted by Frito Bandito
[B]Are you talking about the comments under “Judie’s Gear Diary”? If so, then wouldn’t it make sense that they were made by her? Why would you think that someone named Chris made them?

The 5455 sounds like a dud. I am glad Julie and Judie told us that before I plunked down any money. [/B]

Fact is, they were made by someone…. and Way way after all the walls came crashing in from the hundreds of postings on brighthand. It was good to see that she agreed with everything that everyone else has already been saying about the 5450/5455 for the past 2 weeks or more.

Consensus all the way around. This is a DUD. AVOID it like that plaque.

The 5455 sounds like a dud. I am glad Julie and Judie told us that before I plunked down any money.

They are simply a small sampling and reiteration of the hundreds and hundreds of posting at brighthand completely trashing the Ipaq 5450/5455.

Thank God for early adopters with review sites. Saved me tons of money, and saved me $700 just last week.

Skip the 5450/5455 completely. Force HP to fix the HUNDREDS of errors and problems before pluking down a single dime for this current piece of trash.

Thanks for this site to help inform me and others.

Diz

Originally posted by Dizzy Devil
[B]I heard that the Finger print scanner can be bypassed/Hacked by something like chewing gum or silly putty.

I do not have my Eval to test this on but our Security guy assures me he can hack in in less than 10 minutes.

Anyone here anything about this? We have a lot of VP’s that will be carrying these.

Diz [/B]

There is no way this could happen. People seem to think this type of security can be circumvented because the perception is that you press your finger on the screen. This couldn’t be farther from the truth.

There is a little sensor under the D-Pad which you drag your finger over. The sensor reads the temperature difference between the ridges/peaks/valleys in your finger. No one else will have the same fingerprint and temperature profile as I do and silly putty or gum certainly won’t have it either.

Originally posted by ChrisSpera
[B]What site did you find this on? Can you post a URL?

I’d like to see that list of known bugs/ issues. I have a long plane ride coming up for the holidays and need some good reading material.

Christopher Spera [/B]

http://discussion.brighthand.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=66672

That is for the first half of the thread. They also started a part II because there are sooooooooo many complaints and issues.

Looks like very bad news. I am glad I waited one more day to Not buy so I won’t have to deal with these for a while.

Originally posted by rbright
It took me a week to find a site with a thorough review and discussion group. Check it out before plunking down the money for even one of these bad boy (girls).

What site did you find this on? Can you post a URL?

I’d like to see that list of known bugs/ issues. I have a long plane ride coming up for the holidays and need some good reading material.

Christopher Spera

I WANT THE DETAILS!!

If you have a security guy that can break the biometric security; then:

1. I want to know how to do it.
2. We need to define a work around.
3. We need to get the information in front of HP via EVERY Pocket PC MVP on the planet.
4. We need to push for some sort of IMMEDIATE ROM upgrade from HP.

We have DBA’s that will be carrying these here at the office (as well as VP’s) so they can do remote DBA work from any point in the office. The only way we were able to get these in the door was due to the biometric security

I knew that a device was susceptable to theft because of its size; but I was certain, based on information I’ve heard, read and seen, that tho a device was stolen, it would require the thief to do a hard reset on the device to be able to use it. If this is not the case, then I need to know how your guy can beat this.

Kind Regards,

Christopher Spera

Originally posted by Dizzy Devil
[B]I heard that the Finger print scanner can be bypassed/Hacked by something like chewing gum or silly putty.

I do not have my Eval to test this on but our Security guy assures me he can hack in in less than 10 minutes.

Anyone here anything about this? We have a lot of VP’s that will be carrying these.

Diz [/B]

I wouldn’t invest in many of these for your VPs yet. Have you read the pages and pages and pages of bugs and problem issues with the 5450 and 5455 yet? There are about 30 pages of bugs and technical problems on the brighthand site.

It seems the wi-fi, the bt, the screens, the biometrics, the speakers, almost everything is completely falling apart. The bios needs an immediate update, etc.

It took me a week to find a site with a thorough review and discussion group. Check it out before plunking down the money for even one of these bad boy (girls).

I do not have my Eval to test this on but our Security guy assures me he can hack in in less than 10 minutes.

Anyone here anything about this? We have a lot of VP’s that will be carrying these.

Diz

The screen is similar to the 3900 series iPAQ, and it looks/ appears to be the same. The 48 MB ROM is a draw. I know this is going to/ should be upgradable to the next version OS. The Wireless 802.11b, BT are a draw. I don’t have that in my 3900 without the PC Card Sleeve and the proper PC Card (I only have an 802.11b card) Serial and Consumer IR come with the 3900; and Nevo is awesome!

The biometric finger scanner insures that even tho my gadget may get stolen, they won’t steal my data. They’ll have to hard reset the device to get past the scanner.

I think I want to wait until after Santa has come and gone before I shell out the $$ for this baby.

Christopher Spera

Originally posted by rbright
[B]Has anyone tried the VoIP (Voice over IP) feature yet? This sounds like an awesome feature if I can make calls over the net while I am connected to my LAN. Is there a charge for this service? Is the transmission clear?

Thanks. [/B]

You can do VoIP on your computer now, or any PC that can connect to an IP based network. There Phone2PC (or something like that) is a VoIP app that I have used to place IP based calls on my broadband connection to the ‘Net. The quality there wasn’t bad; and the rates (no it isn’t always free) were reasonable.

I don’t know if there’s a specific VoIP app that comes with the 5455; but I would THINK that it should give the same basic quality as any other VoIP Phone app: the quality of your IP signal will effect the quality of the call.

Christopher Spera

Thanks.

Originally posted by rbright
[B]Have you tried the BT yet? Do you have a BT phone to try it with? I wonder if I had a BT earpiece, BT phone in my briefcase, and my Ipaq 5455 BT, if they would all work fine together.

Any ideas? Any updates on your experiences to date with the new baby? [/B]

This combination works great you just need to use mPhone 2.5 or Running Voice GSM. There are others but I have found that mPhone 2.5 is the best solution. It gives you the ability to dial a contact from your Pocket PC. The application then releases the peer to peer BT connection so that the Headset and phone can talk. Works great.

http://www.mobem.com for mPhone 2.5
http://www.pocketpresence.com for Running Voice GSM (Their website seems to be down at the moment.

Any ideas? Any updates on your experiences to date with the new baby?

Originally posted by rbright
[B]Okay folks.

How is the bonding going this weekend? Been pretty quiet about it, is it because you are absolutely mesmerized, or because you don’t want to tell us had bad it really is?
[/B]

Wow – those are two extreme opposites. I would say that it is more in the middle. I have had a few glitches with it this weekend – such as the WiFi deciding to completely quit working, necessitating a hard-reset, and losing the programs I put in File Store – probably because of the round-about way I tried to do the hard-reset (by “failing” the biometric scan seven times), but otherwise I am having a good experience.

Originally posted by rbright
I am on the verge of buying one, as this one finally seems to have all the right tools (except telephony). Just very curious about the instant messaging,

It works really well with my home’s 802.11b setup.

Originally posted by rbright
handwriting capabilities (does that include translation of handwriting to text?),

The 5455 comes with the same handwriting recognition and virtual keyboard programs that all other PPCs come with…

Originally posted by rbright
and memory, battery life, etc. oh, and what about Wi-Fi distance?

Memory: It comes with 48MB ROM and 64MB RAM

Battery Life: I am still running tests, but so far have got over 5 hours playing MP3s. I did find out that the battery monitor program I was using was giving me an inconsistant reading with what the iPAQ’s built-in battery meter was showing – so I may have judged the battery a bit harshly at first. I need to do a lot more tests, of course…

WiFi distance: WOW – it is slightly better than the distance I get on my Fuji! I will easily be able to chat while sitting outside in the swing next spring (about a 45 foot stretch through a *very* well insulated house). I still get a 35% signal – not bad.

Hope this helps,
Judie :0)

How is the bonding going this weekend? Been pretty quiet about it, is it because you are absolutely mesmerized, or because you don’t want to tell us had bad it really is?

I am on the verge of buying one, as this one finally seems to have all the right tools (except telephony). Just very curious about the instant messaging, handwriting capabilities (does that include translation of handwriting to text?), and memory, battery life, etc. oh, and what about Wi-Fi distance?

Please oh please let us know soon.

Thanks.

Better resolution, but the color quality isn’t as good as the 3900. How disappointing.

This pending purchase is going to require some thought. Maybe the 5600 with GSM/GPRS when it is rumored to come out will be the better device to wait for…

Christopher Spera