Although the x50v isn't exactly the piece of shit that I was expecting (it is, after all, a Dell) it most certainly is a disappointment. Only from Dell could one receive more than he was anticipating, yet still be disappointed. This plastic brick was certainly worth what I paid for it on Ebay, don't get me wrong, but I pity the fool who pays retail for it. The x50v's good looks, perfect size, rubber hand grips, and crisp screen promise so much more than it delivers. It's horrible implementation of a horrible operating system makes for one of the most frustrating experiences an end-user could suffer. This is the whore of PDA's - looks great, costs just-over-right, but disappoints in the sack. What is good about this lump? Just look at it! I wet myself just pulling the plastic off. And the VGA screen has almost none of the pixelation that the usual PDA screen suffers (until you fire up Internet Ex-fucking-Splorer - more on that in a minute). The cradle is a wet-dream come true, holding the unit at just the right angle and heavy as a glass bong. My only gripe is with the power button - I personally prefer power buttons on the side where I can activate them with my left thumb. Minor detail that is. Clearly, the brains responsible for the outside of this unit got their shit together. The turds responsible for the software, on the other hand, should be dragged out into the street and shot. This is not entirely Dell's fault, as Microsoft wrote the operating system. But Dell did make the decision to use Windows Mobile 2003 SE, and not something else (Linux?), so they are responsible for all the fucking annoyances, bugs, and 'undocumented features'. Also, while HP and Mio have improved on the worthless OS by adding third-party software to the unit, Dell pisses on its customers by including demos! Axim Record Button Does Not Work I have had my Axim X5 for four days and find that the record hardware button will - Dell Axim X5. Button will not activate. 2 Press the power button to turn on the device. If you remove the main battery, the internal backup battery can last for up to. 30 minutes in 'sleep' mode. Do not remove the main battery if the backup battery power is low. By default, the device turns off if the device is left unused for a period of time. See 'System Tab' on page. Aug 21, 2006. Anatomy of the Dell Axim X51. Battery Reset. Cradle/sync cable connector. Wireless Light. The Power On Tab lets you set which buttons will turn on the PDA. The Processor Tab lets you choose between the. If your business distributes the Dell Axim to. Between landscape and portrait mode when you press one of the hardware buttons. To enable this. What the fuck?!? That's like saying 'We know this sucks, but we're too shit-brained to really do anything about it'. The hand-writing recognition software recognizes English handwriting like I would recognize fucking Chinese handwriting. You want an N: that's easy! But what if you want an H? That's easy too- just draw an N! The letter F has to be by far the easiest letter to draw, as every fucking T, S, and K returned an F! That's exactly what it had me saying out loud each and every time it happened. The librarian had me forcibly removed after only 15 minutes of 'typing'. Microsoft's idea of an office suit is like Jackie Chang's idea of a business suit: nice and pretty and so packed with bullshit features that it does nothing right. You want to open Excel spreadsheets? Great, just drag them on over from your PC. When you open them on the Pocket Piece of Crap you find that all your graphs and functions are gone. No big deal, because you don't really need that stuff on the go. Don't even think about opening them once again on the desktop: Activestink has actually converted the motherfucker to PocketExcel format and Big Bad Desktop Excel can't read that! PocketWord is no better than PocketExcel, but on that subject I'll bore you not. No, lets discuss PIE: Pocket Internet Explorer. With it's built-in WiFi and bluetooth I was just itching to get this baby online. And fucking itching some more. I could not get PIE to pull up a webpage despite the fact that the router is about 3 meters from the toilet and I was showing a perfect signal. So I said fuckit and tried to connect via bluetooth to my N-Gage. Now, I might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I do know how to make a wireless connection. The damned x50v had managed to baffle me like my Fedora box never has. I was getting impatient fast. So I shoved the Axim back into it's cradle and connected via my Win XP Virtual Machine running in Fedora. Got online instantly. Only to discover that PIE interpolates each pixel in each image to four times its original size on VGA devices. I cannot begin to describe the outcome. Some dipshit dumbass idiot in Redmond managed to make Pocket Internet Explorer the single worst fuck-up that has yet to blame Microsoft on its 'About' screen. You remember the slutty little blonde that you'd smoke pot with while skipping school? The Axim reminds me of her. Great to look at, even better to fondle, yet I wouldn't want to live with it. That's too bad- its looks and the hardware specs promise so much more. With no fucking brains in the box, though, the Ax is just a money pit waiting for the end user to throw third-party software at it. All in all, Dell's x50v was worth the cardboard box it came in. But just barely. Software that I use: • PDAC Hebrew localization software (Garbage, loaded with bugs. Every version is worse than it's predecessor.) • Microth Claviature (Great soft keyboard.) • Microth InPad (Best soft keyboard ever, even for Hebrew. Very similar to handwriting recognition software.) • Resco Explorer (Great software, horrible customer support.) • WebIS Pocket Informant (Great program, great forums.) • Tillanosoft Softmenu (Excellent, simple program.) • Tillanosoft PocketTweak (Does all that is necessary.) • Ilium ListPro (Best. Ever.) • Yadabyte TomeRaider3 (Unpaid for, I suffer the 1:5 page loss. I don't think that this program is worth $30.) • Phatware Phatnotes (Not really all that useful now that I have ListPro.) • Two Stunads Spacetime (Very good graphing calculator. Very generous developer, as well.) • Spb Diary (Very good Today Screen plugin. Only one that works well with Hebrew.) • Spb Weather (Very nice, integrates nicely with Diary) • Card Export II (Never got it to work. Tech support did try very hard to help, however. I should have asked for a refund, though, as the $12 went to waste.) • HaaliReader (Great text reader, too bad it does not support UTF-8 and therefore won't work with Hebrew) • CabInstaller (As I install all software from cab files, this is great.). Dell has done a very good job on its latest Pocket PC-based PDA, the Dell Axim X30. Its numerous and impressive features include the newest Intel processor, the PXA270, designed for cellular phones and PDAs; Bluetooth, a first for a Dell PDA; 802.11b wireless; and the new Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition for Pocket PC operating system. The best part? It all comes at a bargain price of $349 (direct). In terms of design, Dell didn't break any new ground: The X30 looks exactly like the Axim 3i. The flat stylus is reasonably comfortable to use (though we prefer weightier round ones), and the there's a handy SD IO slot for expansion. At 4.6 by 3.0 by 0.6 inches (HWD) and 4.9 ounces, the X30 is just a bit larger than the 4.6-ounce HP iPAQ 4150 (4.5 by 2.8 by 0.5 inches. But the X30 costs about $100 less. We are very pleased to see Bluetooth support, a first for Dell's Axim line and an increasingly important feature for mobile devices. The X30 also has 802.11b wireless connectivity and includes the Dell WLAN utility, which lets you set up your 802.11b connection, find access points, enter WEP keys, and test the signal strength. In 802.11b testing, the X30 was impressive, maintaining a signal as far as 180 feet from the access point. By way of comparison, the iPAQ 4150 topped out at 100 feet. The device has a button located in the front that lets you toggle both Bluetooth and 802.11b on and off. Although this is a great idea, the feature could be better implemented, since getting the combination of wireless that you want can be confusing. For example, pressing the button when no wireless is active turns on both 802.11b and Bluetooth; pressing it again turns them both off. If you want just Bluetooth enabled, you activate it in software. But you can't turn on just 802.11b through software; instead, you have to use the hardware button, which turns both on. Not exactly user-friendly. The X30 uses the new 624-MHz Intel PXA270 processor, which is designed for better handling of multimedia applications and wireless connectivity. While the palmOne Zire 72 was the first PDA to use the new processor, the X30 is the first Pocket PC handheld to have it. The X30 is also the first Pocket PC PDA to run Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition for Pocket PC. The new version of the OS offers several improvements, such as the ability to view in landscape mode and support for higher-resolution screens (up to 480-by-640). The X30 doesn't take advantage of the latter feature. The screen is bright but delivers only 240-by-320 resolution. The top-of-the-line X30 (which we tested) has 64MB of RAM, 64MB of ROM, and comes with a cradle. The midrange version ($249) makes do with a slower processor (312 MHz) and does not have a cradle. The low-end model ($199) is bare-bones, with a 312-MHz processor, 32MB of RAM, and 32MB of ROM, no cradle, and no wireless. All told, the high-end Axim X30 is rich on features. It's a little larger than the competition, but considering all you get, it's a steal.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
January 2018
Categories |