more info:
pocket pc 2003 pro
w/outlook 2002
00023-524-577-281
x09-50650

regulatory model #: hstnh-h03c-wl

So, the short answer is ‘no, no SIM card slot’.

do this iPAQ 2215 Pocket PC have a slot for a sim card??

if yes please teach me how…

If you are referring to the failure for Calendar alarms to be fired, this is a well documented issue with the 2215 or with Windows Mobile 2003 devices in general (it doesn’t happen with 2003 Second Edition). It has to do with the number of appointments in the Calendar app and how long it takes for the maintenance tasks to be performed every day. There are even small ‘patches’ that you can make to your device to help eliminated the issue. FYI: I have all my Calendar appts from as far back as the year 2000…

Originally posted by TambourineMan
[B]Bob,

I am also interested in what carrier you are using that allows you to dial in to a dial up ISP such as Earthlink. Is that really a lot slower than a GSM/GPRS connection?

[/B]

You need a carrier that provides GPRS — just don’t use the service, use voice instead. I found out the hard way by cancelling GPRS (with Cingular), trying to save $6.99 their lowest cost GPRS, and discovering I could not connect because the “modem” part of the phonecall was gone. I called back and reinstated GPRS. Now I can dial out *and connect* to a dial-up.

I am also interested in what carrier you are using that allows you to dial in to a dial up ISP such as Earthlink. Is that really a lot slower than a GSM/GPRS connection?

When I first got my Nokia 3360 from AT&T (which uses TDMA) I thought I would able to do this. Nokia told me the phone was capable of this, but that AT&T had crippled the capability.

Come 11/24 I am dumping ATTWS because the cost of their data plans is too high. The problem is that I need a carrier with low cost data, but also at least voice coverage for my summer place near Bath, ME. TMO has cheap data, but is GSM only and cuts out 2 miles short. I am looking at VZW and Sprint, but your solution might give me other options until other carriers get their act together for a reasonably priced data plan.

I’ve looked at it closely ad the battery door of the 2210/2215 is made of metal. The bottom part of the body is finished in true iPAQ Satin finish and the top part is painted silver.

Now Looking at it closely, it does resemble the same manufacturing standards of the other iPAQs such as the 36xx, 37xx, 38xx, 39xx, and 55xx.

Now I remeber very well that there was a similar discussion about the HP Jornada 568 being made in plastic… which turned out to be wrong.

Now the Jornada 548 anf the Tungsten T or T2 may be made with stamped aluminum sheets… thin and requiring a backbone to support them… the Jornada 568 on th other hand was made of some lightweight alloy which was more of a cast alloy or a machined alloy, which gave the fel that it was made of plastic… because of the wholeness of the chassis.

The 1910, 1930, 1940 and 2210 seem to be made of the same process… the se of alloys for part of the structure or probably the most of it.

I wouldn’t discount the fact that the strength of the structure may be a result of such design… a cast alloy design.

But then again, I can be wrong… and using a continuity tester for the bottom half of the body to check if it would conduct electricity proved that it does conduct electricity… Good chrome plating on a plastic part? Or is it truly made of metal?

Also, pay attention to the detail. Look at the fine holes made for the mic. It would be very difficult to do something as fine as that on plastic… same goes for the notification light apertures.

Mabuhay! ~ Carlo

Maybe with time, Cingular will also offer “all you can eat”.

In general I liked the review of the HP. I would have liked to have more information on the Bluetooth capabilities which I understand is not all that important to you but is invaluable for some of us.

In regards to Bob’s comments about GPRS I am wondering who your provider is? T-Mobile now has an “all-you-can-eat” GPRS plan for $19.99/mo. Hopefully other providers will follow suit shortly. Also, not to beat the drum for Palm but, there are Palm devices that now have Bluetooth built-in or can accept a BT SDIO card. I played with a Tungsten T2 today and the BT setup was unbelievably easy. You answered 4 questions, 1) do you have a GPRS device, 2) what country are you in, 3) who is your service provider and 4) what phone do you have? In less than 30 secs I had a connection to my Sony-Ericsson T68i via BT and was surfing the web. I tried to do the same with an HP 2215 and was unable to connect due to not being able to figure out how to specify the correct phone number to dial my GPRS provider. I only wish Palm would put CF expansion slots in their devices and provide for replaceable rechargeable batteries.

To the poster that said “we are on the verge of replacing our laptops” I’d have to say, Not just yet. It is really apalling at how poorly the Pocket PC applications integrate with their desktop cousins. ActiveSynch seems problematic from what I have read on the net and neither Palm nor PPC devices are truely sufficient for serious web surfing due to the lack of Java support, lack of multiple browser windows, and versioning issues with Pocket IE. We are getting closer and I have high hopes for the future but I just don’t think we’re there yet.

Cheers
TC

The combination of small size, and DUAL slots sold me. I was very frustrated with my 3765 in that I could not run a wireless card and memory card at some time. The faster processor is nice as well.

I can tell I am in love, but then I always fall in love with my latest gadget for at least a month, then it is time for something new.

bl

Originally posted by Daniel Y
[B]Bob,

With Earthlink, is there an 800 number they don’t charge extra for — when you travel?

So it’s airtime on the cell phone plus the $22/mo for Earthlink unlimited service? Are those the total costs?

Also, should I be getting rid of GPRS, at least until there is an unlimited-use product arround at a decent price?

Thanks,
Dan
HP 2215
SonyEricsson T616 [/B]

Dan,

First of all, yes, Earthlink/Mindspring does have a national and international 800 number one can use, but I never use them. The reason is, the 800 number actually costs me more– Earthlink I believe has a small charge for using the 800 number. I have Nation-wide service on my cell phone and also Earthlink has a local number in almost every city in the United States. This makes an 800 number a moot point.

With straight dial-up, there are no hidden costs. Since I have free nights and weekends on my cellular plan, and unlimited dial-up via Earthlink, I could presumably stay logged on all night and all weekend at the basic phone and ISP charge.

I still have GPRS, but I must admit to being shy about using it now. Although there is no charge for a connection, any data uploaded or downloaded goes against my data quota. This month, I downloaded a few images and before I knew it, I was way over quota. I will explore GPRS again when they come out with a higher data allowance at a decent price.

For what it’s worth, I do not notice that much difference between straight dial-up and GPRS anyways.

With Earthlink, is there an 800 number they don’t charge extra for — when you travel?

So it’s airtime on the cell phone plus the $22/mo for Earthlink unlimited service? Are those the total costs?

Also, should I be getting rid of GPRS, at least until there is an unlimited-use product arround at a decent price?

Thanks,
Dan
HP 2215
SonyEricsson T616

I just recently bought an HP 2215 myself. This was after having a disastrous flirtation with a Palm Pilot (way back), and swearing never to own another PDA. One of my chief complaints back then was the inability to schedule appointments as fast as I would have liked to in real time. I see that the limitations of Pocket PC software don’t make it much easier. It still takes a while to schedule a simple appointment with a Pocket PC.

However, that wasn’t the real reason I decided to cave in. What I was looking for was a small and transportable device where I could check in on my emails and website from time to time while away from the office. I could do that with my old Palm Pilot, but the limitation was that I had to have a land-line to jack into to make a call to an ISP. Furthermore, Web browsing was dismal back then.

So fast forward to the HP 2215, and what you didn’t like is something I find indispensable. I’ve been using the on-board Bluetooth to dial up my ISP via my Bluetoothed Sony Ericsson cell-phone. I don’t even have to remove my cell phone from its case, and an acceptable connection is quite easy to establish as if by magic! It trudges along at an acceptable speed, albeit it is still a de-facto dial-up connection.

Ok, why not Wi-fi you ask? Well I learned an expensive and quite painful lesson when I first got this ensemble. I was so enamored with the cool GPRS connection that I surfed away merrily and found myself saddled with a $400 internet express bill for data!!! So, now I am using plain old dial up into Earthlink via bluetooth to my cell-phone. These days minutes are cheap, and nights and weekends are free. It’s fractionally slower, but it sure doesn’t cost an arm and a leg either.

So there you have it. I use Bluetooth every single day to 1) surf the net, and secondly to transfer files back and forth between my computer and my PDA.

I still wish there was an easy way to schedule appointments. In this regard Palm wins hands down. Otherwise, the 2215 is a winner.

In the review you make it sound like BT in stead of WiFi is a fundamental shortcoming of the Ipaq. In stead, it should be presented as your opinion, which of course you are perfectly entitled to have.

And regarding the phone: CDMA and TDMA phones as used in the USA, Canada and the rest of the Americas, will eventually support Bluetooth. It will just take longer, same thing happened with SMS, MMS, WAP, etc. That is just the result of a highly fragmented market (rest of the world is almost entirely GSM).

For the rest I like the review

I have WiFi at home and at work, and use it with my laptop and desktops, to avoid network cables running all over the place.

But the PDAs I sync them using bluetooth all the time, works just fine. And, I don’t surf the web with my PDA unless I am forced too, which means I am on the road. In that case the chances of having WiFi access are rmote (currently), but using bluetooth and my cellphone I can use GPRS just about anywhere. (Note: I could browse the web using BT if I wanted too, but I don’t

And using bluetooth gives me much more flexibility to use peripherals: I can also connect to my bluetooth GPS receiver, perfect companion for the navigation software (TomTom on the Ipaq, Digimap on the Palm).

After having used Ipaqs a lot at work, I am now on my second Palm, the brandnew Tungsten T2. Yeehaa!!!!

Originally posted by dequardo
[B]Thanks for bringing up the alarm problem. With enough discussion and ‘bad press’about this hoprefully MS/HP will respond more quickly than they otherwise would.

Mike [/B]

Don’t hold your breath – PPC2002 also had easily documented problems with alarms not sounding and Microsoft never even admitted them.

Jorgen

Yes it does. But my view on it is different!

I do not like the Palms — I broke several of them. Same thing happened with my first Pocket PC. Only the CASIO was comfortable.

I see the same trend going in Pocket PC’s to smaller and smaller.

OH NO!!

My HP 3835 WITH expansion sleeve is JUST the right size: small enough to fit comfortably in my pants pocket when I don’t feel like it being in a beltcase. But it is large enough that it is comfortable to hold, not going to get lost when in a bag with other things, and too large to “forget”. Besides, my Dual CF sleeve (normal cladding) gives me access to 2x CF cards without adding too much size. (a 256SD for programs and then 2x 512 CF — one for music, one for other documents)

I will admit the big dual PC card sleeve is about the max I want — I only use it when I need the battery time.

The screen could be larger (my eyes are getting older) and the entire device could add maybe 1/2 inch top-bottom, right left, and maybe 1/4 – 1/2 inch thick. I love the versitility of the expansion sleeves — something the newer models lack (although they incorporate a lot of expansion already with two slots!) The Dell Axiom is just a little on the small size (but I really like the Compaq expansion sleeves!)

I’m not really knocking — just trying to show that there is another side. Some of us don’t like the little ‘flimsy’ 1910 — or the other small devices. We aren’t going to put it in our shirt pocket!!

It is a replacement for a laptop, for me!

But then, that is why there are so many different

To correct, I have to make a backup with the Sprite software, hard reset, restore without any of the items from Outlook then resync. BIG PAIN.

Other ideas are welcome.

Great review Julie.

Originally posted by tthiel
I know about all the doodads and add-ons and have tried them all. The fact that is has an edit PAGE alone is ridiculous. But whatever, believe what you will. The fact that there are so many replacements for Tasks should tell you something….

….huh?

In case you didn’t notice the irony, TodoPlus IS a todo replacement, while we are talking about PPC built in Todo, and its today plug in capability. So if there is one thing not right or a crippled built in todo, that would be PALMs. PPC todo alterntive are far beyond what any POS apps can muster. PI and AF are example where advance todo functionality are sold as replacement. (eg. nobody will buy todoplus in PPC scene, since it’s what the built in app does)

1. afaik, todoplus does use edit page (or pop up windows)
2. todoplus does not have tap and hold and today’s page screen. Both facilitate short cuts and auto info display.
3. PPC todo are not bound by POS note size limitation or category limitation, it also support audio recording.

so the claim that todo plus can do more, or “use less tap” are pretty dubious, reading from todoplus manual.

PS. how did you use your PPC? I am curious now… and more specifically, what did you mean by ‘poorly done todo’?

Originally posted by Green1
[B]huh?

first of all it has today’s plug in, and there are several freebie to do plug in for even more elaborate filter.
second it has tap hold for quick line management and finally the edit page is all in one page. It is 2-3 steps to get anywhere. It is DEFINITELY better than todo plus, not to mention cheaper.

true enough there is only 3 priorities, but it has unlimited categories.

The usual PI/AF is the prefered method for more complicated to-do.

what exactly you mean by “poorly done”? you mean it doesn’t have cutesy icons on the bottom and use tap and hold instead? [/B]