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Fave All-in-One PDA for Worldwide Connectivity?

Posted by Cliff on from the world-travellers-with-disdain-for-local-cell-plans dept.

dr-vjk asks: "I just bought a new *unlocked* HP iPaq h6315 PocketPC. This phone/PDA supports quad-band GSM, Bluetooth and Wifi. This is a huge improvement over my old travel kit (Sony P900, h4315 iPaq, and Apple iBook). I needed an unlocked unit as the standard h6315's are locked to the T-Mobile network which charges over a buck a minute to roam outside the U.S. I have tested it in Europe and Africa with pre-paid local SIM cards and it works great. It works out of the box with GSM networks around the world for voice and GPRS for IP Data. I loaded SJPhone in order to access my Vonage account over WiFI (Skype doesn't work on this unit yet). It was great talking as long as I wanted with friends back in the U.S. with no concern for long distance charges. They could also call my Vonage number in the U.S. and my PDA would ring in Europe." "I would love to hear if any Slashdot readers have their own all-in-one device they would recommend for world travelers. At a minimum, I think such a device would need GSM, GPRS, Bluetooth and Wifi support. As a physician I need Windows Mobile for the O.S. today but would be willing to look at other solutions (especially open source)."

4 of 31 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Linux? by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 3, Informative
    A problem with Linux or anything else on this HP is the CPU. For unknown reasons, this model runs a TI chip - not an ARM/StrongARM/X-Scale variant.

    There is no port here for Opie, etc. In fact, I don't know if there is GCC/libc!

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  2. The HP is OK by 3waygeek · · Score: 2, Informative

    but the i-mate PDA2k is nicer. Unfortunately, no US operator is offering it just yet.

  3. Re:T-Mobile by tyen · · Score: 2, Informative

    T-Mobile -used- to but I don't know if they will anymore

    They just unlocked my GSM phone (a SonyEricsson T610) after six months when I requested it and explained I was out of the country and wanted to use prepaid phone cards. This was only two weeks ago. I believe their waiting period is 3 months. I just called 611 on my phone and hit 0 to speak with an operator, and said I wanted to unlock my phone.

  4. Corrections by drw · · Score: 2, Informative

    The TI chip used (a variant of their OMAP line of processors) contains an ARM core along with a DSP core. They are compatible with ARM processors. And all versions of gcc support it, well at least the ARM core.

    Also Opie, as with most Linux software, needs just a recompile to work on other platforms. I have developed and run Opie using x86, x86-64, G4/MacOS and ARM processors. The only changes needed for Opie on different devices is for hardware components such as touch screens, keyboard mappings and sound.