Active Sync 4.0 for your Axim, but only ...

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Over Christmas I fell for Dell's advertising of their Axim handheld, after parting with almost £300 for the PDA + 512Mb SD card, expected to just feed the CD then plug 'n play. Didn't take long for the message to screen up, stating Active Sync 4.0 only runs on Win XP. I repeated this exercise on the PC at a local observatory with Win XP, same message. Luckily a laptop was also on-site with XP and service pack 2. Now that worked. Meanwhile, as my pc's and laptop have win 98 se and win me, unless I fork out almost another £90 I'm stuck. I thought about just sticking a modem card in the Axim and swap files across the 'net with FTP. Is there an FTP program for the Axim ? Like the curates egg, the Axim is beguiling in parts, should I stay with it or bungle it all back to Dell. They should state in their ads the limited Windows versions the synch software will work with. I'm not a happy bunny :mad:

[AnswerDude]

What Axim model do you have? Only the x51 and x51v require activesync 4.x. You can use older activesync 3.8 with older models.

Total Commander has ftp client built-in;
http://www.ghisler.com/pocketpc.htm

And if you have usb sd card reader that plugs into desktop usb port, you wil be able to transfer files and install program that way. Simply copy files to the storage card, and obtain .CAB file installer that runs on the ppc itself instead of desktop installer from the software developers. But you will not be able to sync PIM (contacts, calendar, ...) with the desktop without activesync.

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I have the 624 Mz Axim - the card reader could be a useful, albeit, slightly untidy solution. Am not too worried about synchronising calendars etc., I can live with file copying. I tried Activesync 3.8 to no avail - that's progress. I'm wanting to use starmaps on the device, tried two small pc apps - starry night backyard, and another called cybersky I think it is, neither worked. Another lesson learned about non-portability of windows applications. The axim screens up **images I've taken through telescopes rather well, but I want it to do rather more than serve as a portable photo album. Landscape mode helps show word and excel files more effectively.
Meanwhile, thanks for the card reader suggestion.


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