New Client and X51v Updates

There is a new Semagic client out that will let a person post to a blog (deigned for livejournal, but also will work with Blogger, MSN Spaces and MetaWeblog API) and includes such nice things as spell check, WYSIWYG editing, and other such things. 

Recently the author has added support for posting images to Flickr.com, Photobucket.com, or Imageshack (but no ImageEvent.com?)- and since I have been trying to update this blog with image from Flickr (their paid account is friggin awesome! unlimited storage, unlimited bandwith- and a 2GB upload/month cap)

Anyway: here it goes- a Test post:

   
Screen Shots of the X51v VGA Screen

Axim X51v update:

Ok, so I have had my Axim for about a week now; and I am pretty impressed - fast, great screen, awesome sound (the sound blows my G5 iPod away), and lots of expandability; I have a 2GB SD card (for music, videos, etc) and a 512MB CF flash installed (apps, DBs, etc).  I also purchased a (non-OEM) extended run battery pack from eBay- and luckily the Rhino case I bought from eBay was designed for this. I have an extra sync/charger cable, four extra styluses and some screen protectors on order (from eBay as well).

Pros:

• Awesome Screen
• Lots of expandability
• Great sound
• Integrated IE browser, Outlook eMail- add in a RSS reader and you are done
• Bluetooth connectivity
• Integrated 802.11b

Cons:

• Battery life is about 3 hours (or less) even when on standby- of course, I left Bluetooth and Wifi on and there were background apps running during this.  The extended run battery makes it last most of the day, so not really an issue.
• There is some incompatibility with Windows Mobile 5 and the older apps; I am probably getting 8/10 applications I test to run with no issue, but the other 20% are usually causing weird issues that require a rest.
• The screen has some kind of issues when used in landscape- I noticed this when playing Age of Empires; i had trouble focusing on the screen- kind of like being in a 3D movie with those prismatic glasses and sitting too close to the front.  I noticed this again when I played a video in landscape mode.  Everything looks fine in portrait mode- I am guessing the LCD screen was not designed to be viewed at this angle...
• I had an absolute nightmare getting ActiveSync to setup correctly:
• There appears to be an issue (which I sort of knew about) wit Dell USB ports- I could NOT get this to sync on my work PC
• There are occasionally issues with the Install and Windows Media 10 syncing files after everything else appears to be working; solution- uninstall and re-install; now it works great (I did use the MS website version the 2nd time and not the Dell CD version)

GPS Stuff:

I have tried iNavigate and had some issues (cannot find the VGA executable, but it will run when manually selected) and I had to rebuild XP to get MS Streets & Trips installed on my main PC (either Picassa or ACDSee 8 corrupted a good part of my HKEY\Local User registry- I am leaning towards blaming Picassa)- but both are installed (to CF) and I have been able to run them (iNav also has a great demo mode). 

So far both look like decent GPS programs (I am still waiting on my Pharos Bluetooth base) but iNav provides 3D driving and is a lot easier to figure out what to do if I do need to glance at it.  The audio prompts are also MUCH better on iNav as well.

Overall, this is a great Pocket PC.  It ran me about $400 with shipping and the extras from Dell- but that is much less than I could have bought a comparable HP off the shelf at Frys. 

In comparison to the Nokia 770, it is dramatically faster and will do all the functionality of the 770 for about the same price; the screen is sharp, but the Nokia 770 was much better.  I think the trade of speed and the extra application/game base for the Nokia's screen (and Linux) makes the Axim a much better deal.

The only things I would have added to make it perfect would be a camera (at least 2MB) and a GSM phone with EDGE support- however a Skype client may overcome the phone issue- so long as I can stay within range of a hotspot!  :o)