just got a psion 7 - some questions

[justakid]

Hey all, I'm here in Australia and was lucky enough to grab a psion series 7 for $700au for my friend. I've only seen it on 2 online stores selling for over $1000, so i consider myself pretty lucky.

I was hoping you guys could answer me some questions.

1. i was wandering if the psion is compatible with kodak 8MB CF cards as I found a site on geocites which didn't say (it's pretty old)
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/1873/cfinfo.htm

2. are there any utilities/software is should get for the psion which will help in its maintance etc? its mainly used for wordprocess and diary type thing.

3. last of all i have been reading about upgrading the psion 7 to a netbook with some rom, I saw a site
http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=S7NBUPG&asource=TMP_PSION7
which sells the roms, dont ask me if they work or not though. Friend has only had the psion for little on a week.

thanks

[frankbryant]

The one essential that I have on both my psion 7 and revo is an unzipping utility. This will give access to nearly everything else that you could possibly want. I use RMRZip which has never let me down.

[diem]

1. The CF card will probably work. Most reputable brands work, the old maxim of "you get what you pay for" ws never truer than here. One thing's for sure, putting the Kodak card in will not break either it or the S7, so give it a go!

2. Utilities. I use Ralph Sprenger's shareware Backup program in conjunction with a 32MB CF card to back up the entire contents of my C drive - much faster than Psiwin! I'd also recommend Safeplace, a freeware encrypted database and Macro5 which is an immensely powerful program for 'filling in the gaps' in EPOC functionality, even if its learning curve is rather steep. nConvert is a brilliant utility for converting files between various formats - without this you are dependent upon Psiwin on a nearby PC for converting your EPOC format documents into Microsoft formats. Spacehog is a handy utility for discovering which files and folders are taking up the most space on your C drive. There are hundreds more programs out there - which ones are 'essential' all depends upon what you end up doing with the 7.....

3. The netBook personality module will turn a Series 7 into a netBook, meaning that you will be able to connect it to an ethernet LAN both wired and wirelessly (obviously you will need to buy a supported ethernet PC Card), and also it makes you able to upgrade the OS as Psion write newer versions. These are both killer features - the latest netBook OS has the wonderful Opera web browser built into it rather than Psion's own (terrible, by their own admission) Web program.

yan

[fladda]

Rember that all Series 7 motherboards are knobbled by Psion, so that there is only approx. 350mA available to the PCMCIA port. See FAQ on the psion website, and elsewhere for more details. Means that many of the higher powered PCMCIA cards will work on a Netbook but NOT on the Series 7. This is regardless of whether the Series 7 is fitted with the Netbook operating system card. Some 802.11b cards might have problems working in an upgraded Series 7 ??

FWIW my Lucent Orinoco 802.11b card works OK in my collegues 'upgraded' Series 7 (i.e. fitted with a Netbook operating system card).

About time somebody compared the motherboards for the Series 7 and the Netbook. Current limiting on the PCMCIA port is probably either a resistor or perhaps even a link ? Series 7 still reports that its an 191Mhz Series 7 when fitted with the Netbook operating system card. i.e. there is something in the hardware that tells the machine that its still only really a Series 7, and not a 'proper' Netbook.

On most Series 7s fitted with a Netbook operating system card, this current limitation is really the only practical difference
between the Netbook and the Series 7. If you ignore the labels and the colour of the leather case...

Ralph

[garyjenkinson]

Try Surfing around the following sites for Series 7 software:
http://pda.tucows.com/epoc.html
www.tomtom.com
www.pocketiq.com/home/
www.epoczone.com
www.epocware.com
www.neuon.com
ww.dreamspring.com
www.purplesoftware.com
www.foxpop.ndirect.co.uk

A very useful site for Sereis 7 owners is;
http://newth.net/psion7/index.html

Plus I would also try the moderators (diem & Mike Mc) own sites for other Psion info.

Hopefully, this will get you started, once you've visited some of the above you'll find some other links to other sites of interest, e.g. 3Lib, etc.

Good Luck,

Gary

[wanman]

Hi Justakid,

Firstly about your camera. Do you know what format it stores the photos in? If they are store on the CF as jpeg then you may like to get hold of MBMViewer from the following link. It will allow you to view these in glorious 256 Technicolor.

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/platodva/psion.htm

Second really cool piece of software depends whether you have a digital mobile phone with an infrared port. If you are then check out Phoneman Pro which will enable you to manage you phone numbers stored in your phone and sync them between that and contacts.

http://www.zenobyte.com/

Re the upgrade rom. If you bought your Psion brand new, make sure you check with Psion before buying one as it may affect any warranty you have. If they say it is ok or are able to give you any other information then post it here as we are all want to know !!

Regards

Si