As many of you probably know, I'm a tech geek and I've been through my fair share of handheld computers. I had a Palm Pilot back when they were actually called Pilots and then upgraded to the "3" version I think (can't remember exactly). After the novelty of those two wore off, I didn't really use them much until I my dad gave me a Palm VII that he won at a golf tournament. I played around with it for a while, but mostly used it for games. After I started having problems with it, I just gave up on Palms and stuck with my desktop computer. Then, about a year and a half ago at Fry's, they had a sale on the low-end Sony Clie (runs the Palm operating system). I picked one up and used it pretty religiously for a while, but one of the reasons I wanted to get the Clie was so I could listen to MP3s on it, but after buying it (and after reading some misleading information online), I found out that the Clie I bought was the last one without MP3 capabilities. So the Clie now sits in a box in the hall (anyone want to buy one?).

So, after that long story, what's my point? Today, I received my brand new Axim X30 with a 624 MHz processor (almost as fast as my computer and just a tad bit slower than my server). It has 64 MB of RAM, 64 MB of ROM and an SD card slot (my 512 MB SD card shipped today from Newegg). On top of all that, it runs Windows 2003 Mobile Second Edition. I was pretty fed up with the Palm operating system even though it gave me basic connectivity with my computer, it really didn't offer much more. With the sync capabilities of Windows Mobile with my Windows 2000 computer, I can easily keep track of my schedule, my tasks, and even my e-mail if I want. This is also my first handheld with a color screen and it is beautiful. Even though it's not VGA like the high-end Toshiba, it still looks amazing compared to the dull, lower contrast Palms I've been using. And the icing on top of the cake, it's got WiFi and Bluetooth built in. I plugged it in to charge the battery and since I couldn't wait for it to charge for 8 hours, I turned it on, and immediately was connected to the internet via the wireless router we have in our house. Now...to find open wireless connections near my work.

I haven't had a chance to fully play with the Axim, but I love it already and with all the great games you can install on it (think: NES emulator), what more could you want? It plays videos, has Windows Media Player built in (all kinds of audio formats) and once I have AIM installed, I'll be connected everywhere. Now...to learn how to type/write faster with the stylus.

URL: Dell Home Systems Axim X30