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Looking at getting a new phone-pda combo, any suggestions on the following?


Shadowdh

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  • 2 weeks later...

I finally got a Touch Pro2. I was ready to upgrade well before it became available, but the Touch Pro's teeny screen wasn't really to my liking. Even the TP2's is a little on the small side (3.5" 16:9ish vs TP1's 2.8" 4:3ish), compared to my trusty Palm TX (4" 4:3ish), but it does the job.

Even though winmo6 is probably dead in the water (we'll see what Windows Phone Classic Series turns into), I'm still glad I got it. The keyboard is dreamy, and I suspect whatever my next device is it's going to have a hard time measuring up in terms of layout and build quality.

Although I didn't anticipate the tilting screen would be my favorite feature, it has turned into just that. I read everyday on my TP2, and I've taken to holding it with keyboard out and screen tilted in portrait, what I've come to call book form (mirroring a Nintendo DS term). I turn pages with the arrow keys, and it's really far more comfortable as a reader than any PDA with a dpad ever was, though I was initially skeptical about the absence of one.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I´m planning to try Pleco, but I don´t have windows mobile pda/palm/iphone/ipod touch... So I´m thinking about buy a windows mobile... phone? just because of pleco (I hate apple from the bottom of my heart) I don´t know what good windows mobile phone or pda at reasonable price alternatives can I find on the chinese market... Perhaps some of you guys can guide my path :)

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A year ago I had the same situation - in order to be able to use Pleco I had to get a windows mobile phone. After reading different forums etc. I decided in favor of one of the HTC phones, and soon after bought HTC Touch Pro (水货 or a gray product. Legally in China you can only get 多普达 Duopuda - HTC brand for the maindland market). Never regretted.

Read more:

htc.com - different HTC models

taobao.com - will give you some idea how much they could cost in your nearby mobile market.

If and once you get your HTC: http://forum.xda-developers.com/index.php

this is a bit geeky stuff - among loads of info, also lets you choose a new OS for your phone with all the newest MS, HTC and other applications. I do it every month...

p.s. if I had to buy now, perhaps I would choose a phone without a sliding keyboard, which though is very convenient but makes your phone bulkier.

p.p.s if you are studying chinese, then Pleco is a must-have.

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I´m planning to try Pleco... I´m thinking about buying a windows mobile... just because of pleco (I hate apple from the bottom of my heart)

To Loriquero:

I'm a Linux user. I understand your feelings toward Apple, as they must resemble mine toward MS. I was never close to owning an Apple product, as the reasons to avoid them would be similar. Yet, for Pleco's sake, I finally bought an iPod Touch. Conclusion: Hate the company or not, iTouch+Pleco is poetry in motion, man. I posted a review in the chat subforum here.

I've never used a windows mobile device. Yet, reading reviews, on the pleco forum and elsewhere, I feel safe in my disbelief that it could be as good as this.

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Thank you guys :)

I was doing some research and it looks like the there´s two close rivals in the windows mobile field; the Samsung Omnia and the HTC touch/hero... I think I will take a decision next month!

Querido: Actually, is not apple as a whole that I hate; the feeling came mainly from my personal experiences with Itunes (the crappiest piece of software that I have ever tried in my life), still I can´t handle it; looks that my PC doesn´t like it either... I know, people are constantly telling me about methods to avoid Itunes and stuff but... Why should I bother even trying this when I can get other hardware that works like a average and convenient USB pen drive?

In the price factor field; an Itouch looks like a fair deal; but I still wanna buy something that I will carry with myself everywhere, and I usually hang out just with my wallet and my cellphone; an average MP3 player doesn´t work for me...

I would totally buy a Pleco version for Nintendo DS (even though doesn´t have phone functionality) or an android phone; but there´s not, and looks that there´s not gonna be... for now.

Right now I´m studying a master degree and the average chinese electronic dictionary I´m used to carry with me doesn´t feel efective anymore :( So, I will definitely give pleco a try.

Thanks again for the input.

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The HD2 is easily one of the best WinMo devices out there (very fast, very thin, very durable, good battery life despite thinness, fantastic looking screen). If you want something smaller or need a stylus, the Diamond2 is nice. And as far as keyboards go, the Touch Pro2 is king (extremely comfortable to use, though not for 40wpm crackberry speed demons). A smaller TP2 is coming out soon, called the Tera for now.

The HTC touch is kind of a budget option (and the Hero is an Android device). Nothing wrong with budget if it suits you. Omnia comes with a UI overlay called touchwiz that gets mixed reviews, and I don't know how easy it is to turn it off.

Pleco was a big part of my decision to go WinMo. If they'd had an android version, I might have gone a different direction.

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As I mentioned in a different thread, in its current incarnation, I don't find the iPhone/iPod version of Pleco to be as good as the Palm version. Note to Pleco lovers (among whom I count myself a member), this is a relative statement - it's still very good, IMO it's just not as good yet. When Pleco's flashcard functionality comes out for the iPhone, things may be different (Heh, it must be tough when your biggest competitor is your other product :D)

Anyway, the WinMo version will also suffer from some of those same issues I mentioned in the other thread (not a dedicated device), but it does still have flashcard functionality - which is a really useful feature because you don't need to spend any time at all creating flashcards - just click a button and they are created and can be tested with whatever combination of character/pronunciation/meaning you like.

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The HD2 is easily one of the best WinMo devices out there (very fast, very thin, very durable, good battery life despite thinness, fantastic looking screen).

I second this... my hd2 is just getting better and better... started watching Chinese tv today (cctv 4 and 9 plus a couple of other channels is all I can get at the moment on this app I have, I am looking for a better app to give me access to more channels)... Pleco really flies on it and the only problem I have is with the IA feature which is sorted by a work around... Movies and tv episodes are excellent to watch and the big screen makes reading and viewing a real pleasure...

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I second this... my hd2 is just getting better and better...

Envy ..... Jealous ..... Envy ..... 又羡慕又妒忌 。。。。。

A friend of mine showed me her new experia (with keyboard) and she just loves it. I think it is a bit bulky and it does not look sleek enough. She claims that it is a new model, direct from Japan ... is there a new experia?

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  • 3 weeks later...

I just stumbled across this interesting thread right here, and the questions discussed are kind of similar to what I've been asking in this thread. http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/25016-nokia-n900

(To the powers that be: feel free to merge or delete my previous thread).

My questions, in a nutshell, are all about the Nokia n900 which seems to be all the rage in Europe. Hoping one of you tech-savvy folks has an n900?

Question 1: Most important of all: Will plecodict run on it? That's the only thing that counts, really (and: will I have to get a new PLECO version? Probably, since I have the Palm version right now. Although I'm always on a tight budget, supporting the pleco-team is probably worth it).

Question 2: Will I be able to input Chinese? Can I operate the 谷歌拼音输入法, has anyone done this?

Question 3: Will the phone work in China? How about GPS? (Of course I'll get a Chinese SIM card).

The above thread makes me wonder: Should I be getting the HD2?

My first and only cell phone so far has been the Sony Ericsson K 750c -- so I know next to nothing! :help

Thanks -- and I'm hopefully not spamming this thread? :oops:

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Question 1: Most important of all: Will plecodict run on it? That's the only thing that counts, really (and: will I have to get a new PLECO version? Probably, since I have the Palm version right now. Although I'm always on a tight budget, supporting the pleco-team is probably worth it).

Question 2: Will I be able to input Chinese? Can I operate the 谷歌拼音输入法, has anyone done this?

Question 3: Will the phone work in China? How about GPS? (Of course I'll get a Chinese SIM card).

1. I just had a quick look at the phone and it looks nice... but I see it runs a linux based operating system (Maemo) so not sure if it will run pleco which is only out for Winmo, Palm and iPhone(y)... you should ask Mike over at Pleco and he could clear that up for you...

2. I use Sogou on my HD2 and its really very good... easy to use, big clear input and has a really easy and fast switching from Chinese to English... but again I use a windows based phone so it might differ slightly for a linux one...

3. as for the phone working in China, it will no problem, as for gps that should work fine (tested my old TyTNII when I was there and it did fine)... you can get gps maps and software for China, Mapking is the main one I know...

As for getting an HD2 its totally up to you... for me it just keeps proving its metal... now that I have found the answer to the IA problem I had with Pleco its all gravy... big screen for watching tv/movies, great for reading books and Chinese plus I now use it as my mp3 player too...

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Thanks for your help!

I did get in touch with the helpful folks at Pleco and apparently the Linux based Maemo system might cause Pleco to have a few glitches, which makes me think I should start looking at getting the HTC HD2 as well. After all, what good is a smart phone without Pleco?

Cheers,

Randall

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After all, what good is a smart phone without Pleco?

this is exactly my thought, Pleco has proved far too indespensible to not have on a smart phone... :clap

Now that I have found many great links for chinese podcasts on this site (so awesome) I use it more and more often...

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I'm really hoping someone makes a winmo emulator for android, along the lines of styletap. I do want to get back on to a living platform that isn't restricted out the wazoo, but randall is right. Pleco would be hard to leave behind, and mike has been adament about not developing for android.

Either I end up having a dedicated Pleco device, or I dual boot. Being able to run winmo programs on android would be very, very helpful. Probably not very likely, given that Android development is moving really fast. You typically only get emulators on platforms that need the boost.

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  • 2 months later...

Hey everyone, can you tell me addresses of the stores where I can buy HTC, Dopod or some other devices in Dalian? I believe I saw one HTC store somewhere around the Shengli Guanchang, but I forgot where exactly and still can't find it... So if anyone can help me with this, then please let me know. Thnks for your attention)

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  • 5 months later...

The new HTC HD7 that runs on Windows 7 has been launched in HK -> http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/zh-hk/default.mspx

It looks good, and is not that very expensive (HKD 4999). But it seems to be quite different from my Samsung Omnia i908, which runs on windows mobile 6.1 (e.g. now you need to use the Zune programme to move files), and it does not support Chinese input !!!! I would love to have a new windows phone, but these features have stopped me.

Views?

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  • 7 months later...

Am looking to get a smartphone, a big reason is to use Pleco: my question is about the screen size: the phone I'm looking at has a 3.7 inch screen, about the same as an iphone, but I'd prefer a smaller phone, 3.2 inch. Any thoughts on whether the 3.2 inch would be a bit cramped for using Pleco? Thanks.

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