Lots of things have happened since I last posted my entry.

- I've quit my position as Moderator of Airfagev because of some immature people who think they rule the website.

- I got my Mitac Mio 558 Pocket PC, but became disappointed after learning its battery life is less than spectacular.

- I've done a lot of crazy things for the past 2 Mondays, and they happen after downing several bottles of beer without any sleep.

- Our house dog died after staying us for 6 years (i hope he's in a very happy place now)

My two different PDAs met for the last time: The Mitac Mio 558 Pocket PC and the Palm Tungsten T 

Was in a very good mood a couple of weeks ago because of the Pocket PC I bought in eBay. Despite of the incident I've encountered in Airfagev, my new gadget made me happy for the next few days. It really feels good to be back in the wonderful world of Windows Mobile, I tell yah. But I stopped smiling when I learned that the internal battery of the Pocket PC is defective. I shouldn't be affected by it, but for some reason it's draining my external battery, faster than usual. It's a very cool device and I really have no intentions anymore to change PDAs but battery life is important for me too. Well, yeah I bought an extra battery but I'm not contented. So now my Mitac is in the marketplace waiting for its new lucky owner.

Gadget talk later.

Right now I just feel confused.

Mixed emotions are currently filling up my veins. I really don't like to sell my Mitac Mio 558. It's my first device that has everything on it but the primitive bluetooth software and the poor battery life are the main reasons why I had to sell it. One of the reasons why I quit using my Palm is its battery life, and history repeats itself with the Mio. For some reason, the defective internal battery has got something to do in draining the external battery. I talked to a technician in Quadtron, Mitac's Philippine distributor and he said that some parts of the motherboard may have something to do in getting the battery drained so quickly. I can have it checked, but I don't think it will get resolved. Only solution is to get a working Pocket PC with no defects.

My brother is interested in the device and I would love to sell it to him since I'm assured that I'll get to see the unit everyday. Being a family man, he doesn't have that much luxury in spending for gadgets. If I only had enough money, I could've let him pay me by installment, maybe next time when I get filthy rich.

The "lucky" person who bought my pocket pc has been bugging me since midnight of yesterday. He sent me an SMS again this morning and I agreed to meet up with him in the afternoon so he can check the unit. He doesn't seem too friendly, I actually find him a bit weird. Why? Because the videos that he played on the Mio were full of animation with no people in it. Just background music. Forgive me, I find it hard to explain at this moment, but taking a glimpse of the videos he's watching gave me the creeps. After explaining the features of the unit, he asked about the other accessories. I told him they were at home, then he said he's gonna buy my unit. I was quite surprised. That was fast! I was expecting to sell the unit at least later this week. Actually, it's really okay for me not to sell it even if it means that I have to make do with its less than spectacular battery life. But what can I do, he's already paying for it. So I went home quickly and got the rest of the accessories and went back to our meeting place. I later learned that he's gonna use it for preaching. Coincidentally, my first pocket pc, the Asus A620BT was sold to a preacher and he's way too friendly. This person who bought the Mio already knows a bit what to do with the gadget since he currently own a HP Jornada.

Honestly speaking, I wish he had bought a different unit like a HP Ipaq 1940 or a Mitac Mio 336. I doubt that he's going to use the built-in WiFi feature, nor even the USB host. Oh well, it's too late for me to realize that, as everything happened too fast.

Without much fanfare, and wait, I immediately bought a HP Ipaq 2210 Pocket PC, a few hours after I sold my Mitac Mio 558. While I was fixing the other accessories of the Mitac before I gave them to the new owner, I gave Howard (m|ph editor and part-owner of Games and Gadgets / Digital Walker stores) a call to ask if the HP Ipaq 6315 is still available. Too bad for me, the deal was already set with Byron (fellow forumer in Pinoy Windows Mobile) who is raring to purchase a great device for only 15k!!! Lucky guy, I thought, but I am happy for him since he's been using his outdated Ipaq 1910 for the past 2 years and it's really about time for him to upgrade. I was kinda interested to get the 6315 not only because of the very low price offered, but also for me to have an opportunity to familiarize myself with a Pocket PC Phone edition. My friends in the Windows Mobile world knows that I shoo away Pocket PC phones, due to the fact that I had a bad experience in using an O2 XDA 2 which kept on doing a hard reset everyday.

After I was paid by the new owner of the Mio, I immediately searched for an Ipaq 2210 at bidshot.com. I used the "force" to check which owner has a good Ipaq to sell. I picked a no. to call and to my surprise a lady answered the call. I rarely see ladies owning a Pocket PC. I only know one and that is my girlfriend who happens to own an Ipaq 2210 too. Anyway, I agreed to meet up with her in Marikina even if it's very far from where I live in. The unit doesn't look brand new compared to the Mitac but at least there are no defects as of this writing. She said that it lasted for around 2 days even when she used it, so I took her word that there's nothing wrong with the internal or external battery. It's expected to last 2 days since the battery of the 2210 is only 950mAh, compared to units with higher capacity like 1200 or 1300 mAh that could last up to 4 days without charging.   

Like me, the owner of the Ipaq was having second thoughts in selling the device. She also liked using the Ipaq but she's contemplating on buying a XDA II. As usual I gave her my personal opinion on the XDA but I guess she'll be fine with it once she buys one. And because I always spread the word of the Gospel of Windows Mobile, I offered her free services if she needs help with the XDA.

I feel I'm gonna be happy with my Ipaq this time, even if it's too soon to say (I sometimes eat my words when it comes to gadgets). It's the smallest Pocket PC I've owned, (the smallest PDA I've had was the Tungsten T). Ipaq accessories are easy to find, even if they're not from HP. It has some of the features I need which are the CF and SD dual expansion slots and a Widcomm Bluetooth stack. A WiFi card can be purchased in the future if someone is going to sell his. For now, I just want to buy either a leather case or an aluminum case to protect the Ipaq and a 512MB SD card.

My PDAs in order: Asus A620BT (8 months) -> Palm Tungsten T (1 month) -> Mitac Mio 558 (1 week) -> HP Ipaq 2210

I changed my blog layout for the third time since I started blogging last June of 2004. I need a bit of a change here so I can encourage myself to post my thoughts. Lately you've been reading a lot about mobile technology. So what I am going to do is to create new folders specifically for other topics to avoid the mix-up with my personals.

The whole afternoon was quite an irritating one because of the rhinitis that I'm suffering again. Haven't taken any medicine yet but I'm already feeling drowsy so maybe I'll just need some sleep to make this  go away. I still went to Park Square 1 with this condition to buy a case for my HP Ipaq 2210 Pocket PC. You see, HP only included a cheap nylon slip-on cover which can destroy the rubber sidegrips of the Ipaq. Just keep on pulling it up and putting it back on the cover could ruin the sidegrips so I have no choice but to buy a case for it. There are two choices, the classic leather case and the aluminum case.

The Krusell Leather Case for HP Ipaq 2210 Pocket PC

I have high regards to Krusell for their quality leather cases. Off I went to Howard's Digital Walker store and to my disappointment, there were no cases tailored for the 2210. But a leather case for the newer Ipaq h2100 series is available so I figured that maybe they'll have the same fit. It did, and I like the way it looked on the 2210. The case however is slightly higher but it's not that noticeable. The hole above doesn't match with the headset jack of the 2210, but that's the price to pay since it is for the h2100 series anyway. Flip the cover and found inside are three small pockets where calling cards, credit cards or small paper notes can be slipped in. And there are 2 SD/MMC card holders for your extra expansion cards too! A belt clip is also included which can be detached so when you put it inside your pocket you won't feel any discomfort. The price for this gorgeous leather case is at 1,800.00, but since the store is offering a huge 50% discount on all Krusell products, it was sliced to 900 bucks only!

The Aluminum Case for the HP Ipaq 2210 Pocket PC

Before I went to Digital Walker, I dropped by Mobile 1 first to check on what's left in their Sale basket. There's only one available for the 2210, and it was the InnoData Aluminum case. Common perception about this case is that it is shock-proof. That is not true, but it is indeed crush-proof so there are no worries when it gets squished. I felt the 2210 was really secured inside the case. It's tightly placed inside and when the case is closed it looked pretty slick! Inside the case has one SD card slot for an extra card that you might have. I kinda liked this one, and for its sale price of 1,500.00 it's kinda tempting to buy.

So which one I ended up buying? Like what I've said, I considered buying the aluminum case already since it's the last stock. But I considered factors why I shouldn't get it. I find the case kinda slippery and I am worried about the device slipping from my hand because it isn't shock proof and could affect the pocket pc's performance. And you can't attach the cradle to it when you need to sync. You'll have to pull it out of the case and put it back once you're done syncing, and that's what I'm trying to avoid. I called up XSite Mobile in Megamall to check if they have cases for the 2210 and they said they only have the aluminum case which costs 1,800.00. In the end, I went to Digital Walker and bought the Krusell instead. 

Aside from the leather case, I also got myself a Brando Sync and Charge cable. It wasn't part of my budget but add its price of 580.00 to the 900.00 leather case and it's already like buying the aluminum case! And the 20 bucks change I had was used to pay for my parking.

Next in my list is a 512 MB SD card. The lowest price I've found is in PC Options Gilmore for the amount of 2,200.00. Just imagine this: I bought my PQI CF 256 MB card at their store for 2,500.00. Now it is priced at 1,300.00 and the SD card I'll be buying is even cheaper than the 2,500.00 CF card! Last on my list (that I really need) is a CF WiFi card and I'm hoping to get a 2nd hand for a cheap price.

Painstakingly transferred all the tech-related articles to my new category called "Anything Tech"

New look, new category!

There might be another new category but I may have to do it another time. For now, I need some sleep!

Here I go again. It's already 4:06 p.m. and I've been awake more than 30 hours since I woke up yesterday at 9:40 a.m. Some of you might be asking what I have I been doing since I woke up yesterday. Here's what happened:

9:40 a.m. - Woke Up. After waking up, watched TV for a couple of hours then took a shower.

12 nn - Ate lunch at the club

1 p.m. - Went to the Office to surf, chat, download applications for my Pocket PC

2:30 p.m. - talked to my girlfriend in Australia

3:00 p.m. - Went back to the Office to surf again, read our documents at work, finished the Minutes of the Meeting

6:30 p.m. - Went home and tried to sleep.

7:30 p.m. - still tried to sleep

11:30 p.m. - Gave up trying to sleep, ate dinner and watched One Tree Hill

12:30 a.m. - Went to work

2:00 a.m. - Started working

11:00 a.m. - Ended my Shift. Started with our Post Shift Meeting

12:00 p.m. - Ended post shift meeting

12:30 p.m. - Went home and ate lunch

2:30 p.m. - Accompanied my mom in Philam Life Tower

4:18 p.m. - Doing this blog...

Okay, okay I need some sleep. I will right now, but I have to wake up at 6:30 p.m. so I can attend mass at St. Jude, go home, then go to work to get my salary, then go home again, then go back to work before 1 a.m. for my coaching session with my boss.

I guess I should be called 24-Hour Man!