pocket pc questions

[Kimmi]

Hi.

I am interested in the pocket pc, but have alot of questions and a little confused about them...so maybe someone can help me out.

Are they also called ipaq, or is that a brand?
What is Bluetooth?
Can music and videos be played on an pocket pc?
Do music and video files have to be downloaded to play?
Whats the battery life average?
Can additional memory be added?
And they come with a memory card? Are those eraseable? Or can more than one be used?

Thank you, I'm such a novice about this stuff.
:confused: Kimmi

[AnswerDude]

-iPAQ is a brand. HP makes this popular brand of ppc. Dell also has its own brand called Axim. Other such as Toshiba, Siemens, Samsung and a few other also make pocketpc devices. PocketPC is also know as Windows Mobile.

-Bluetooth guide;
http://www.aximsite.com/bluetooth/

-Yes, ppc can play most of the popular music and video formats.

-Yes, Most people copy them to the unit or storage card. But if you have fast internet or local area network wifi connection, you may be able to stream them from desktop.

- That varies and depends on many function, more screen brightness or wifi/bluetooth will use more battery. Test report from this site http://www.mobiletechreview.com/ppc.htm
shows iPAQ hx4700 has 4.5 hours of actual use with the backlight set at 66% in a mix of tasks.

-If you mean adding memory to the unit itself similar to adding RAM on the desktop, yes, there're internet based companies offering this service for some models. Unless you are very proficient in eletronic, you will not be able to do this yourself. It's fairly expensive and most people will not need it.

-You have to purchase memory card seperately. There are times when a bundle type of sale that include storage card, but you can purchase them seperately anywhere else and probably at cheaper prices.
Both cf and sd storage card are erasable and rewritable. PPC uses these same types of card use in digital camera. Models will vary in term of what type of memory slot available. If you have more than 1 memory slot on the unit, more than 1 card can be used. Or you can carry multiple cards and use them one at a time, similar to floppy disk but smaller and much higher capacity.

[Kimmi]

And I've seen different prices surfing the web for ppc. Are the ones around $300 just as good as the ones around $400-$500. Which ppcs are better to?

Thanks
:confused: Kimmi

[AnswerDude]

More expensive models are usually faster and have extra features such as larger screen. But as long as they have same basic functions such as wifi or bluetooth and run latest version of operating system, there are other more important external factors such as what type of connection, location and speed of the connection. You are probably better off spending less on the ppc and spend extra money on 3rd party browser or faster internet connection.