I gave up on the Palm OS long ago. Despite a fantastic initial design, they hadn’t offered any major innovations (for me) since I bought my first Palm Pilot years and years ago except color screens. My particular Palm Pilot has been functionally dead for the past few months, largely thanks to an erratic battery. (The major problem was that the battery would drain to zero while the unit was turned off after just a few days. Given my own erratic powering habits, that was just unacceptable.) So that was my third and final Palm OS device.

Just this morning, I decided that I wished to return to using a handheld computer, particularly for taking notes at lectures and such. I used to do that with my Palm fairly regularly, but I’ve been using my computer instead for the past year or so. Although my computer is lightweight Dell Inspiron 700m with an extended 5 hour battery, I wanted something even more portable. So I decided to switch to a device running Microsoft Windows Mobile. I also wanted regular (i.e. 802.11b) wireless capability.

So I bought a Dell Axim X51 520MHz. Here are the basic specs from the Dell web site:

• Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 software with Windows Media Player 10 Mobile
• Powered by the Intel XScale PXA270 Processor at 520MHz
• Brilliant 3.5″ color TFT display
• Integrated 802.11b and Bluetooth Wireless Technologies
• Packed with 64MB SDRAM and 128MB Flash ROM
• Integrated CompactFlash Type II and Secure Digital / SDIO Now! / MMC card slots provide flexible expansion
• Removable Primary Battery with optional High Capacity Battery
• 3.5mm Headphone / Headset Jack for Headsets to support VoIP and voice recognition applications
• Built-in microphone and speaker for easy recording on the go
• USB Cradle including Battery Charging Slot
• Sleek, stylish design

I should be receiving it sometime in the next week or so — in perfect time for OCON!