pda's going bye bye what do we use now????

[jorvin]

i am interested in a portable ballistics unit. but it looks like pda's are going to be like 8 tracks (going bye,bye) i am not ready to do/pay for a smart phone yet. what are our options. i know i can get a pda cheap but what if it breaks down? dell doesn't sell the axim anymore?? what are we going to use in the future?

 

[Boss Hoss]

If you are too cheap to buy a smart phone then you will just have to do without.

 

[jorvin]

nice boss thanks for all your help

 

[bigngreen]

I've been searching for a solution for this also but haven't really found anything that you would consider budget minded.
I will not get on of these stupid smart phones, sorry to those who like them, it isn't practical for me in my area anyway and I don't run software that is compatible anyway, the closest I would get is a iTouch but the temp rating is not low enough for my hunting. I currently run an Axim 51 and I think I'll likely up grade sometime to the Trimble Recon or something similar.

 

[vonb]

What about an iPod Touch? Should run the same apps as the iPhone.

 

[ICANHITHIMMAN]

IPOD touch or the thing in the longrange hunting store

 

[jmden]

Some of these PPC PDA's are pretty cheap on ebay...there's quite a supply of used PPC's PDA's out there (typically reccomended over the Palm PDAs), and many of them are pretty cheap. I've purchased several off ebay over the years.

 

[jorvin]

i've been reading up on this . and i think i am going to go with an ipod touch and knight armament bullet flight software. don't know if i need an ipod newer than first generation? but i think this is the way i'm headed

 

[royinidaho]

i've been reading up on this . and i think i am going to go with an ipod touch and knight armament bullet flight software. don't know if i need an ipod newer than first generation? but i think this is the way i'm headed

I think you're headed in the right direction regarding hardware.

I use an Ipaq which gives the 'too cold for the battery' warning and the battery life is very short. Have to recharge every night to ensure conservative use the next day.

I have a blackberry but there is no ballistic software for it.

I keep coming back to the Iphone or Ipod. One of these days I'll make the jump.

 

[trueblue]

I will be wacthing this thread closely, as my Dell Axim 51 is a pita for battery life.
I too need to find a better system than that.

 

[groper]

my iphone 3GS cost me zip, it was free with my phone contract.... i run ballistic FTE and it works brilliantly, if it had a anemometer, baromoter and LRF built in it would be a totally stand alone fire control system....

 

[jmden]

I will be wacthing this thread closely, as my Dell Axim 51 is a pita for battery life.
I too need to find a better system than that.

Wow...some interesting experiences with battery life, etc, from Roy and trueblue. I've got a couple of Axim X30's and the battery life is great--lasts for days/couple of weeks with normal use, which isn't much really. There are 'extended life' batteries available for these units that doesn't add too much weight or bulk ( extended battery axim x51 items - Get great deals on Cell Phones PDAs, Electronics items on eBay.com! ). I carry one or two when out hunting to back up the normal battery in my X30.

Talked to Gus last night at Patagonia Ballistics and, although not highly reccomended, he says it is possible to load LoadBase onto your PPC SD card to reduce the amount of RAM it uses up. I've done this with other programs to avoid sucking up RAM, so might give it a shot. I've had my Axim X30's for 3 years now and they seem to be working fine still.

 

[bigngreen]

Wow...some interesting experiences with battery life, etc, from Roy and trueblue. I've got a couple of Axim X30's and the battery life is great--lasts for days/couple of weeks with normal use, which isn't much really. There are 'extended life' batteries available for these units that doesn't add too much weight or bulk ( extended battery axim x51 items - Get great deals on Cell Phones PDAs, Electronics items on eBay.com! ). I carry one or two when out hunting to back up the normal battery in my X30.

Talked to Gus last night at Patagonia Ballistics and, although not highly reccomended, he says it is possible to load LoadBase onto your PPC SD card to reduce the amount of RAM it uses up. I've done this with other programs to avoid sucking up RAM, so might give it a shot. I've had my Axim X30's for 3 years now and they seem to be working fine still.

I'm going to get one of the extended life batteries and get my Axim better set up for next hunting season.
Interesting about Gus saying you can load LB on a card, I may give it a try. I'm really not hurting for speed though. Did you happen to ask him about loading it on something like the iTouch, I was trying to get tech specs on the iTouch but I can find anything that is very good, and I'm not giving up Loadbase for any other program. The Axim seems to be the most economical solution.

 

[Mikecr]

I think I'm gonna switch to one of these puppies for field use:
MOBALL

Takes AAA batteries, and I trust Bryan's solutions.