As the holiday season draws to a close – it is time to plan the upgrade of my PDA.
At the moment I have a Dell Axim X51v PDA and a Blackberry Curve for email & telephone – and until now I have always had a separate PDA and phone as I have never found a phone with the capability of a high end PDA – until now.
PDA History
Over the years I have had a number of PDAs.
Psion Series 3
Psion Series 3A
Psion 5
The original Palm Pilot – with 2 MB memory upgrade from TRG
TRG Pro Palm – with CF card slot, I had a 32 MB CF card and a CF wifi card for it, clip on modem and a full sized remote keyboard
Palm Tungsten – I got probably the best folding keyboard with this PDA
HP Jornada WinCE – worse PDA I ever had
Dell Axim X30 – with wifi but only wep encryption
Dell Axim X51v – first one – this suffered a major memory failure so I bought the current Dell Axim X51v. I bought a second Dell X51v as I had invested in several sets of dedicated leads and accessories for the unit, and although it had failed I did not want to waste that investment.
The phone I had before my Blackberry was an MDA Compact from T-Mobile running Windows Mobile – but it had many short comings (however it is still in my desk as a spare unit).
The new phone / PDA combo I am looking at is a HTC Touch Pro (for the spec see www.htc.com) – it looks almost perfect for my needs, combining all the things I want in a single package. I will get the largest SD card I can for it and a spare battery but as it uses regular mini USB cables for charging and syncing, no more expense on dedicated cables and chargers. The last folding, full size keyboard I bought was bluetooth, so I am hoping that will work with the new handheld.
I am going to buy it (and insure it) sim and contract free. I have had really bad service from our telecoms supplier here in Lincoln, they even messed up my Blackberry contract, having promised it was a fair deal following a previous “mistake”. No names at the moment as I am looking into the options of reporting them for miss selling.
The plan is to but this sometime around the end of November – hopfully the prices will drop a little by then.
When I tell people we go camping for our holidays they always ask about the weather, and they can be very sympathetic when I tell them we had some rain.
Now as the Daily Mail has reported (for the record – I do not read the Daily Mail, Diana has been buying it because she is collecting the “Best of British” DVDs and the Children’s Encyclopaedia given away with it – but she cannot resist reading bits out to me, whilst she is reading it and I am doing something else. Just a moment ago told me about a woman who had sextuplets, I don’t care! And now she is showing me a photo of Fern Britain in a black bikini! Diana cannot bear the thought of simply buying the paper, getting the DVD, and then throwing the paper away).
Anyway back to my post, the Daily Mail has speculated that this will be the wettest August on record and whilst we have been away, we have seen some heavy rain. We put the tent up in the rain at Ayr, we took it down in the rain at Ayr, we put it back up and took it down later at the Dingwall campsite, yes, in the rain and we have put the tent up here in Beadnell Bay in the rain.
But we love camping. A couple of years back Diana found this great tent, made by Outwell and bought from Blacks, a Colorado 5. Two bedrooms, large groundsheeted living area, with large windows, storage pockets an entry door and a large canopy door on the side (for good weather). It is sometimes a challenge to put it up – it was raining and very windy when we got to Beadnell Bay and Jeremy had to hold the tent down to stop it becoming a big kite. But Diana, Jeremy and I can put it up in about 15 minutes which means we do not get very wet, The bedrooms and ground sheets are fitted once the main tents is up – keeping the rain off you. We carefully pack the car so we know where everything is and we can get the stuff into the tent reasonably quickly. Once we are settled in the living room is dry and warm – yes it really feels warmer in the tent compared to the outside, it is really well designed tent. So to be honest, although we would prefer it to be sunny and to only rain between the hours of 1 and 3 am and be dry by the time we get up, we do not care about the weather.
At this moment, whilst I am writing this on my PDA, I can hear the waves on the beach at Beanell Bay, as I could this morning at 6.30am when I was sitting outside the tent, in the brilliant sun shine, drinking my first tea of the day.
We stay mainly in Camping and Caravan Club sites as then we know the standard of site we will be using. They have very high standards of site and facilities, lots of hot water for the showers and washing up, clean working toilets, plenty of well maintained water taps and clean well looked after waste bins and even a washing machine and dryers if needed. And at every site we had ever been to with the exception now of Culzean Castle Site, helpful, friendly, polite wardens.
At the Culzean site we were treated to some spectacular sunsets. The Dingwall site, our personal favourite, was as good as ever.
We do not take a television or even a radio for use in the tent, although we all have various devices, PDAs, Diana has her laptop, Jeremy has his Gameboy DS, what we do most evenings is play cards or a family favourite Rummikub. WE spend time together without one of us having to go off somewhere in a hurry. I even severely restrict the number of business calls and emails I answered – leaving it to my Office Manager. We have quality family time.
So we like camping – we do not need sympathy if it rains.
PS I have posted this on my return home – and we did take the tent down in the rain at Beadnell Bay as well!
Bought an excellent book to read whilst on holiday – The Digital SLR Handbook by Michael Freeman.
I have a number of photo books by Michael Freeman that I used extensively when I was working in, and teaching photography. He writes really informative books on photography so when I decided I wanted something about digital photography he was the only choice for me.
Now for lots of good reasons I do not have a digital SLR but use a Canon Powershot S2 IS – an excellent bridge camera, quick to use, flexible, creative and light to carry when walking. Many things in the book were not applicable but it covered the things I want to get to grips with really well. Top of the list was histograms and exposure – and I have been working on that and have seen an improvement in the exposures. I also want to start to use Photoshop on my images and he has some good things to say about that.
The final thing I got from the book (so far as I have not read it all yet) is that my next camera is likely to be a Canon G9 so I can shoot in RAW. So out goes the idea of a Nikon P60 as a lightweight walking camera (lost interest in that when I found out it does not have live view of the exposure) and in comes the G3 – the only thing holding me back on that is that it uses battery packs not AA cells. Well I am not going to buy it tomorrow so by Christmas there may be something else on the market that does what I want in a compact digital format,
Compact size
Viewfinder (absolutely essential)
SD cards
AA cell power
Short zoom 5x optical at least
RAW and jpeg (now)
Image stabilisation
Live view
Manual exposure
Some useful modes – snow and foliage are two I use on my S2 all the time
I hadn’t planned to bring the Asus EEE on holiday – but at the last moment I threw it in the boot of the car (and as it is solid state I could throw it).
I do push my PDA to the limits and expect it to perform as a laptop but there are a few things it cannot do which the Asus can do when connected to the internet.
For the first thing I have been able to post to this blog – there is PDA interface to post to WordPress but it is limited – but using the Asus I have been able to post with images and manage my site, (I was planning to post my Coast to Coast Experience but the holiday seems to have got in the way of that happening – you will have to wait for that a little longer.)
The other thing I have been using our timeshare wifi for is posting images to my Flickr pages – www.clivecatton.co.uk – something that I get round to all to infrequently, I still have images from the top of Ben Nevis from last summer that I still want to post – this year the pictures are up there.
Anyway we are off camping again tomorrow so the Asus will go back in its padded backpack (Tamrac Travel Pack 71 – free with my Amateur Photographer subscription) and go back in the boot.
A client of mine is giving the Asus a real travel try out – he is having a months holiday in Australia and asked me to spec him a laptop for the journey so he could keep up with email and stuff for his business whilst away – as well as using it for Skype, editing the digital photos and other computer chores. I suggested the Asus – and when he returns I’ll tell you how he got on with it.
I sorted out several other hi-tech things he needed, he already had a Pocket PC for carrying his Outlook etc with him – we suggested and configured that for him. I configured a memory stick for use in a Windows PC with Portable Apps – but also as a storage device of essential documents which can be used in Asus under Linux. I backed his Outlook PST file this stick and uploaded the data to the Essential PIM Portable Application, loaded on the stick – plug the stick into a Windows PC to access your Outlook data whilst on the road. He also took an 8gig stick with him as a backup device for digital photos.
Business and personal “on the road computing” is something that I specialise in at Octagon Technology – and is something I enjoy setting up and using – it is also a good excuse to upgrade my kit on a regular basis!
We went to Elgin today – to see Elgin Cathedral. Diana had been there when she was six or seven and had been very impressed by it, so we were going back to have a look.
As we entered the town there was a sign saying it was an “Historic Cathedral Town” – and that was the the only sign we could see for the Cathedral. We parked and tried to find the Tourist Information – there was a sign for that and we followed it, but we could not find the Tourist Information. There were a number of information sign posts – showing where the post office, town centre and other things were but no Cathedral sign.
So out with the PDA, Memory-Map and the GPS unit – the cathedral was marked on the OS map and the GPS took us there. (See here for my mobile tech kit.)
There was sign for the cathedral which we found eventually, and if we had been coming in from the other side of the town we would have seen it – of course we would have seen it if we had given up, got the car and left Elgin to go to Aberdeen instead – as we were leaving the town!
Come Elgin council get your act together – it cannot be hard to put a few signs up – where the tourists can see them.
The Cathedral was impressive – we shall go back next year and have a good look round. The Biblical Gardens next door to the cathedral were excellent and well worth visiting Elgin for on there own.
Although I forward my business calls and refuse to do my email, the moment it appears on my Blackberry, whilst I am on holiday, there are times when a small problem at the office dealt with now stops it being a big problem when I get back. So I do need some computing device with me.
Now my wife brings both of her laptops with her and a bag full of paperwork she plans to catch up on. Meanwhile I like something a bit more portable – my Dell X51v PDA, with six gigs of storage in it and six gigs in the PDAs belt pouch, and a portable bluetooth folding keyboard,
Dell X51v PDA
So what can I do on the PDA
I synchronised it to my Vista laptop before leaving so I have the most up to date copies of my Contacts, Calendar and Notes from my Outlook, and the last two weeks email including the attachments. I also synchronise a folder of my most important work and personal documents (including a list of thing we want to do on holiday). This gives me access to both personal and business information I may need whilst away – in my pocket.
I have used ereader.com for many since I was first introduced to it when I had a Palm handheld – and I use my PDA to read book all the time. I purchased half a dozen books for the holiday – and I have about twenty other books stored on the SD card. I have used eReaderPro for many years as my book reader of choice. For large text files I need to read (help files for programs etc) I use ELFView.
I have some software that converts DVDs to a format that I can use on my PDA – so I loaded Series 5 of Star Trek “The Next Generation”, three movies and a documentary about the “Coast to Coast” Walk onto one of the compact flash cards.
I have several hours of Big Finish Dr Who stories and other various audio books and podcasts.
Lots of music stored on CF card.
I use TCPMP for watching and listening to things on my PDA – I have a very good set of in ear headphones in my PDA pouch.
Whilst away I have gone online, at various hotspots, and have downloaded a number of new podcasts to listen to – I use BeyondPod for this and as my RSS reader.
I have SoftMaker Office loaded for Word and Excel – and have been putting the final touches to my “Coast to Coast Experience” document.
I have XnView Pocket installed this allows me to review my digital photos on a larger screen.
Memory-Map is one of my essential applications add to that a bluetooth GPS receiver and a waterproof bag and it is a great navigation tool. The Memory-Map database contains walks I want to do, places we want to go t and notes about places we have been to in past – our favourite cafes, campsites and attractions.
Bluetooth GPS Unit and AquaPac
I have not got an FTP program loaded on my Asus EEE Linux laptop – so I used Total Commander on the PDA to ftp the photos for my blog up to the internet.
For fun I have a Star Trek web site (don’t look for it on the web it is stored on my PC at home) and I keep a synchronised copy of it on my PDA CF Card – I use PocketHTML to add to it and tweak it.
My son uses it to play Space Trader and I have Vexed installed.
The PDA has wifi so I can get online with it, browse the web and check my email, use Skype, RSS, get weather reports etc.
As this is such an important tool both for business and personal use the night before we left I used Sprite Backup to make two copies of the device which I put on two different SD cards just in case. In the past I have had my PDA crash when away and the Sprite Backup has allowed me to rebuild the PDA.
Life Venture PDA Case with accessories – headphones with pouch, spare PDA battery and cover, PDA charge plug and adaptor leads, spare stylus, memory cards, Swiss Card and a Victorinox pencil
Security
I have a password set on the unit and it locks itself after a very short period of inactivity. The backups are password protected and no sensitive information is stored on the CF or SD cards. If the PDA is lost and then hard reset to clear the password protection then all the sensitive data is lost. If the unit is synchronised to a new computer the password is again required.
A Real Job
I had a call from one of our major clients – and unfortunately I could not get anyone in Lincoln to cover it as they were all committed. So we found a McDonalds – free internet for 24 minutes for the price of a coffee and a bap. I used the Remote Desktop application that came pre-installed on the PDA to access their server. A call to the staff member with the problem, I changed some passwords and provided the help needed.
Now one small disadvantage is the size of the Dell X51v screen – it is a bit small so server screens are displayed with very small fonts (of course let’s remember the size is also its strength, I always have the device with me). I have a folding magnifying glass in my work kit so I can use that to see the server screens, as they are displayed on the PDA, better.
This is a small media case given away free in Amateur Photographer a few years back. I use it to carry some essential accessories for work – but they are equally useful when away.
Power
I have two spare batteries for the PDA, a standard and a high capacity (I have a high capacity battery in the Dell all the time). I carry the spare standard battery in the belt pouch.
High Capacity Battery – Dell X51v
To charge the Dell as I travel I have a mains charger and two battery back-up chargers. For the camping part of the trip I also have an in car charger – I use a USB plug and a Dell synchronisation cable for this.
AA Cell Emergency Charger
More About Charging
I have a bluetooth GPS receiver, an iPod Nano and a Blackberry all of which I charge using the same mains unit with a USB socket – I just need the right lead – and in the car I use a plug with a USB socket and the same leads.
Accessories, cables and chargers
The flat rectangle in the bottom right hand corner is a 2Ah rechargeable battery I got from Maplins – which I can use to recharge my devices.
Other Stuff
The Life Venture pouch I use is great for carrying the essentials (including, money, bank cards, business cards and a pencil) and protects the PDA. It has a very secure belt clip and a shoulder strap can be added if required. It is not waterproof so when I am walking I put it in a zip lock plastic bag to protect it.
The downside of the bluetooth keyboard is it uses batteries reasonably quickly so I carry several sets of AAA cells. The usefulness of having a full sized keyboard when I need to write or input a lot of data out weighs the battery use.
Other Backups
I have an eight gig memory stick with me which has copies of the installation CDs of company and personal software. I have my Outlook PST file stored on a CF card (it is password protected) and my collection of 50k Memory-Maps is backed up onto a DVD.
I also have my PortableApps memory stick on my key ring – I can use it on my wife’s laptop if needed.
Asus EEE
Since the beginning of the year I have been been using one of these laptops for support work – it is a lightweight and capable machine. I have the 4 gig model with an eight gig HCSD card for extra storage. I wasn’t planning to bring it with me but at the last minute I packed it – and now we have wifi in the timeshare house I am glad I brought it. I have uploaded photographs to Flickr and watched several things on iPlayer – things that I cannot do on my PDA.
If there is one problem with the small laptop is the small keyboard, for long documents it is hard work – but that’s why I have the full size keyboard for my PDA.
So we have been away for a week – and we have had some great weather and very bad weather. Put the tent up in the rain, took it down in the rain, put it up in the rain and took it down again in the rain. But we are now here at our timeshare in Aviemore – where it does not matter if it rains. But of course it is nice weather.
Something new at the timeshare this year is we have secure wireless internet in the house. No more looking for coffee shops with wifi or going to McDonalds or Starbucks, we now have it in the comfort of our house – so watch out for posts each night. I have my Coast to Coast Experiences to post as well as uploads to Flickr as I go.
Glad I decided the Asus EEE at the last moment – so I can make use of the wifi.
Anyway check out www.clivecatton.co.uk for new pictures.
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