[8125, K-JAM, P4300, MDA Vario Software Upgrading] WayneLBurnham:
First post...be gentle? :) OK, that last reply scared me..

There is something wrong with using 2Gb miniSD (or the 4Gb I have enroute) for your main aux memory? Or are you saying you should just use a limited special one for backing up the ROM (and maybe some other stuff like tweaks, system settings, main apps, etc.?

I took about 2 1/2 weeks reviewing all the available PDA's. I hadn't looked at them in...wow...3/4's of a generation, when I used to use the hell out of several just for TTD, contacts, critical path and letter writing. (The last one I think was a Sinclair - and it died in the early '90's! There wasn't even an available internet then, and none of these even had mass storage devices!) Well, I am returning to a more similar life to that time and knew I needed this, so I started at ground zero and read easily a hundred reports and comparisons.

After this time, I was pleased to find out the MDA - offered by my current carrier (which had supplied a decent enough cell modem service over a regular low grade cell) was one of, if not the best, choice, feature wise and in the opnions of users, until you got into the still $1750+ micro laptops.

I ordered the MDA yesterday for too much (existing customer - $225 with another free phone and a better rate plan thrown in), and ordered a 4Gb miniSD ($111), a ThinkOutside foldable BT keyboard ($106), a Holux GPSlim 236 GPS receiver ($105), a 2300mA battery ($80), a docking station ($40), an aluminum case ($35) & a screen protector ($15). I have the tips and tweaks post from mehayuk, and several others from here, the writeups on C/Net (my original source), the articles from the British "coolsmartphone" site and the Russian "mobile reveiw" site - and a couple of others - and read them all before making my decision. As the big memory card won't be here until long after the phone, I had already planned on getting another cheapy 1Mb (or even lesser one) from Wallyworld for $55, like I use in my camcorder and camera - to aid in setup and initial use - but now am concerned there are optimum ones to use?

(I didn't buy EVERYTHING available for it! I didn't get the Ottercase, a waterproof BT headset or a car mount or at least three or four other things.....YET!)

This site, which was recommended by a poster on C/Net, has dwarfed the sources of physical knowledge on these silly things, and I was reading through more and more articles, waiting for my phone to arrive to follow Mehayuk's intitial startup checklist of settings and alterations and grab all my initial software - both free and paid - when I saw this memory thread I had passed over before.

Oh...BTW....

Background:

I'm a dropped out BS/CSE student over a generation ago (about Jr. level - 80ish hours done) who uses - lives on - cheapy laptops and boxes - for recreation and unrelated hobbies - letter writing, surfing, chatting, collecting, buying - but I used to avoid anything to do with the devices I was using till they broke until recently. As a student, I did more programming than the egr side, and wrote drivers and such for the primitive devices of back then, utlities for mainframes and of course all sorts of high level programming, so I am familiar with this world, but not anything in any kind of recent..."ness" :)

Uses for the PDA:

I've had a laptop I connected extensively via cell modem for over 5 years - to date, all on slow speed services, first with Sprint and now T-Mobile. I do VoIP on both Messenger and Skype over it (yes, it works on that slow cell modem - although "iffily" on Skype.) I intend to use this PDA for the same functions, even if with different software, and to generally replace my laptop in day to day use - and leave it on, plugged into the DSL line, at home. I am really looking forward to no wires, to being able to carry my computer and all else on my person and not in some case or bag - and the high speed of Edge when I can use it.

The phone and music/video uses to me are much, much lesser importance - I never even answer the phone until they leave a voice mail! I don't have a single computer game loaded on a single machine.

My main motivation for deciding to get this though, was to once again get the efficiency in day to day life, especially with a huge looming retraining (and partial return to the stuff I left in college....last....century....) from where I've been wasting my life for twenty years, and get back into the mindless robotic effective existence of "Living By The TTD List and Critical Path" which worked so well before. :)

So - after that long introduction that has people looking for the a tall chair and a short rope or a cyanide bottle - please tell me more about mini-SD recommendations for general use, for special use, etc - and if using the 4Gb one I have coming or even a 2Gb one is really a problem.

BTW, any sources on a cheap but effective card reader and card burner (or "cloner"), with utility software, for the miniSD cards and the SIM?

Thanks again for the great source of information. I will definitely donate to this site!