I received a scary call on Thursday afternoon when my sister-in-law called to say my Dad had been hit by a tree while working in the woods. He is a logger here in Washington and is a cutter. It seems a 50′ tree broke loose after the tree he was falling hit it and it came down upon his back and head. He is lucky to be alive and suffered a broken shoulder blade, black eye, a gash in his head, some knee problems, and other bumps and bruises. He was wearing his aluminum hard hat when the tree pinned him to the ground. He was able to push it off enough to crawl out from under it and wandered until he found a coworker who rushed him to the hospital. He is now out of work for at least 8 weeks and longer if knee surgery is required. God provided some serious protection around him in this accident.

My family just returned from a weekend of camping up in the Cascade mountains and had a great time. My Nokia 3650 was great fun and I took a few photos and surfed wirelessly as we laid around the pool and sat around the table. The Bluetooth connection between it and the 2215 works great and the 2215 lasted quite a while.

I was up until about 2:30 this morning working on a couple of reviews that I have to finish soon for PDAGeek and boy am I getting tired. Oh yeah, I’ve lost about 20 pounds on Atkins and am working out of induction into a healthier eating lifestyle. We’ll see how it goes now.

I just found a great deal on a new CLIE TG50 for only $220 after rebate at Dell.com so I placed my order. I have been debating on getting one of these because I wanted Bluetooth on my CLIE. I could buy the MemoryStick BT card, but that runs about $130-$150 and for only a bit more I get the TG50 with the lit keyboard, etc. Dell has a great 30-day satisfaction guaranteed policy and this will give me enough time to try it out and see if it is a keeper. I have the CompUSA TAP on my NX and am saving that upgrade for something better in the Palm OS6 world in 2004.

Again, there will be no out-of-pocket cost for the TG50 since I will be selling my Newton 2000 and accessories for about the same cost soon.

I think I am going to sell my Newton 2000 and PC WiFi card because I just never use it and even though I like it I can’t keep everything around the house. If you are interested, feel free to email me.

It looks like I finally was able to get a Bluetooth connection with GPRS to my Nokia 3650, but I am in a place that has spotty T-Mobile coverage so I can’t test it until after work.

I downloaded some games to my Nokia 3650 and the Opera browser. Wow, this thing rocks!!

It’s been pretty quiet here on my blog today because I have been taking in all the Pocket PC 2003 news and tons of new devices being announced. I am loving my iPaq 2215 and can see myself keeping this for quite some time. The only frustrating part so far is that I can’t get my Bluetooth connection to my cell phone setup and I have been trying for over 2 days. I can transfer files to my phone, ActiveSync with my desktop and BT dongle, but when it dials up there is some setting that just isn’t right and it times out.

We have a Bluetooth discussion at our user group meeting tomorrow so hopefully I can find someone to solve my problem.

I’ve been playing with my 2215 now for a couple days and all I can say is this baby is FASSSSTTTT! It just screams and that alone is worth the upgrade to me. I love the small form factor and can’t get over how much HP packed into such a small device. I have WiFi going with my Sony CF card, but it requires a soft reset with the card in place to get it going. I’m sure it is a driver thing since I read other posts stating it worked easier for them. The connection setup was pretty involved for my card and is not for the faint of heart. Email through WiFi and Inbox is instantaneous and awesome. I can easily see myself keeping this device for at least 6 months and maybe as long as I kept my Jornada 568 (a year and a half). It has everything in it and is so small I will carry it everywhere with me. I can’t wait until Bellagio makes a case from it because their cases are very nice and priced low for quality leather. The Dpad is so fluid on this device compared to others I have tried. I am going to now buy a Simpletech 256MB SD card since my SanDisk card kind of bites and I can then devote the SanDisk to the Z and keep the larger one for the iPaq. I also may get G2 screen protectors, but the guy at Fry’s told me my plan is great to use when the display gets scratched with the stylus. He said they always do over time and I could bring it in for a new one since it is normal wear and tear. I like the G2s though and they are only $7 a piece.

Go check out these new iPaqs tomorrow and I’m sure you’ll fall in love with the 2210/2215. The only cons are the stupid plastic stylus (I am buying a PDAPanache one as soon as they make one) and the screen grid that is visible in the sunlight.

So last night about 9pm I came across a Brighthand post where the guy said he picked up an iPaq 2215 at a Fry’s in Wilsonville, Oregon. I went to the Fry’s site and saw that it was just south of Portland and was about 150 miles or so away from me. I then came up with the craziest idea I could to get down there and get a unit myself. Earlier in the day I called about 20-25 Office Depots, Best Buys, CompUSA, and Circuit City stores looking for the elusive 2215 and was intent on getting one into my hands before next week. I was so excited about the trip to Oregon that I woke up at 1 am and went into work in Seattle for 6 hours. I then called up Frys and the guy, Andrew, said they were very popular and were sold out. My hopes had just been dashed and then I asked him about the 1940 and 5550 series. He started looking around some more in his computer and then came back with a surprised reaction when he found two 2215s listed in the Palm section. I asked him to check the floor and see if there really was one available. He did and found that there indeed were two devices! I jumped in my truck and headed south. Just over 2 hours later I showed up at Fry’s. Wow, that store is AMAZING! I was pleasantly surprised to find the price of the 2215 at $379.95 (a $20 reduction) and also picked up an ac inverter (to charge me new baby in the truck) for $10, two microphones for my daughters’ karaoke machine, and a Belkin USB Bluetooth dongle to get a connection between my desktop, iPaq, and Nokia phone. And the good thing is I avoided paying the 8%+ sales tax I would have here in Washington.

I also bought their service plan for only $40 for 2 years since there is a Fry’s opening up here in Redmond in July and their plan sounded great. They said it covers normal wear and tear and is an instant exchange, no hassle plan.

I jumped in my truck and started taking photos and checking out the new device. It is very solid and surprisingly small for having 2 storage slots and integrated Bluetooth. It is strange to have both the left and right sides completely empty of any rockers, buttons, etc., but I like the rubber side grips and find them comfortable. The display is nice, but seems more washed out (white) than the 1910 and isn’t as good as the Tungsten C I am reviewing or the Zire 71 I reviewed last month. I like the buttons much more than those on the 1910 form factor, which is one reason I stayed away from the 1940 series.

I am off to play some more with my new toy, but can see sticking with it for a while like the year and a half I did with my Jornada 568. If you are looking for a PPC 2003 device, this one could be the one to get.

The seller has offered to refund my money, but has not since contacted me after that email. I won’t send it back to HP yet and have actually decided to try to find a 2215 like I have wanted since I saw the HP presentation in May. I called every Western Washington store and no one has it in stock, although I did leave my name and number with a few stores to call me as soon as the have one. I just saw that someone bought a 2215 at Frys down in Wilsonville, Oregon (about a 2.5 hour drive south) and am now planning on calling them as soon as they open at 8am. If they have them then I am leaving work to get one. I must be nuts, but I could get down there and back without my wife knowing during the day and by not paying sales tax I could pay for my gas. Isn’t it great to be crazy and young?

Oh yeah, I was able to connect my Nokia 3650 to the 3970 for about 20 minutes and it was a nice experience so it looks like I will stick with the T-Mobile unlimited data plan. I still have about 10 days to decide to keep it or cancel.

I received the 3970 from the guy on ebay yesterday and at first things looked good. Then the iPaq kept constantly resetting and wouldn’t work unless it was cradled. So, I fully charged it up (it was at 83%) and used it on the way to work. I was able to surf on it connected to my Nokia 3650 via Bluetooth. Setup for Bluetooth is still quite an effort and until it is made simpler then I don’t think your average user will buy into it. Anyway, things were going good until the end of my trip when the resets happened again. The battery was about 83-84%, so obviously there is a major battery issue with the iPaq. There is also a dark shadow mark visible on the center of the display. I contacted the seller, who has not yet responded, and have also called HP to get it fixed since it is still under warranty. We’ll see what happens, but it looks like I may have to leave negative feedback unless the seller can offer up some good explanation.

I just received my Nokia 3650 Smartphone (FREE after $300 in rebates) yesterday and then called up a contact I met on the PDA discussion boards I visit. If you want to get hooked up with T-Mobile service, email me and I’ll pass along my contact who was extremely helpful and very responsive. After I opened and charged the phone I started playing with it and couldn’t figure out how to get on the net. The t-zones application kept asking if I wanted to sign an agreement to pay $2.99 1MB service per month. The T-Mobile website wasn’t really clear if this t-zones was the same as unlimited data so I called their general number and some clueless rep. almost had me sending back the phone because he said it could only be used as a modem for PDAs and laptops under the unlimited plan and not as a stand alone data device. I called back my contact, Ashley, and he quickly straightened me out and I was off on my way to surfing via GPRS.

My signal is still almost nill at my home, as it was when I had the Sidekick, but with my home WiFi setup I really don’t need a connection there anyway. The speed seems decent and much better than cables connected to my cell phone. I haven’t received my 3970 in the mail yet so I haven’t been able to try out a Bluetooth PDA connection with the phone.

The new iPaq devices are showing up at Frys stores in California and Arizona and I can’t wait to see them close up. I am still considering a CompUSA trade for either a 2215 or 5550, but will wait to see how the Bluetooth connection works and if the devices are compelling. 128MB of RAM sure sounds good though.

The new NX80 and NX73 are now available for preordering on the Sony Style site, but neither come with integrated Bluetooth. This is kind of a relief because it makes my future PDA decisions a bit easier. Why upgrade to get a slightly better camera and only 5MB of RAM (maybe less than 1MB if you can’t use JackFlash on the new NX models)? I only occasionally even use my camera and it is not the major selling point for me. It would be nice to have a lit keyboard, but I would rather save my CompUSA TAP for OS6 models.

I am going to give the Bluetooth GPRS connection a try with my iPaq 3970 and if I find it to be fast and fun, then I may consider trading in my NX70 for a TG-50 and a new iPaq or something like that. I may also trade for the new iPaq 5555 and sell the 3970 to buy a TG-50. We’ll see later this week when I give the BT connection a try.