My PDA, My Life

I just realised how life has been so dependent on gadgets. I depend on tools a lot for my work but most of them are gadgets and softwares.

My good ol' O2 XDA II - large screen, fast processor, big RAM

Two or three years ago my hands landed on a O2 XDA II phone which I only forked out RM400. My Dad gave RM200, Mom gave RM400 and my boss (at that time was Mr. Mok) gave RM200. Total: RM1,200 for a second hand PDA phone. Now, if you can sell it off for RM300, make a real big laugh! I bought it from Lelong.com.my - a place where bargains begin...

It was one of the best PDA - big screen, fast processor and by far the best RAM ever had. Too bad is only Pocket PC 2003 and not Windows Mobile. I had good experience with it - the only drawback is that all data will be gone if it is out of battery for some time. However, with frequent synchronization, my data are all safe. The only frustration was when you least expected it to wipe out everything and you have to reinstall all third party softwares..... again. This process could be as painful, if not more painful than formatting the PC.

That day when I came back from Singapore I realised I forgot the charger. Oh NO! However, not to panic - I got the cradle which could charge and sync the device perfectly. The happiness only lasted for 3 days and alas, the cradle went crazy and couldn't sync anymore - means no charging, too!

Panic! Now, looking around Cheras I could not even get the charger nor the cradle - this is too old a phone to look for its accessories.

Asus P750 - tempted to buy at second hand price of RM1,111 from Lelong - 3G, GPS, Business card recognition - all I wanted

My DREAM phone - but spending RM2,000 for a PDA phone with same platform wouldn't be much of a good investment particularly current phones can already fulfil what I need (eg the Asus P750 at half the price)

Would love to land my hand on this G1 Android - Google phone - something on a new platform. Available in Malaysia. Again from Lelong, it states a price of RM1,900 - RM2,300. Anyone thinks you want to throw away this phone, maybe you can throw it to my house at 25, Jalan Perdana 1/8, Pandan Perdana, 55300 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia!

So..... I got myself a PHONE! I bought the O2 XDA Stealth - second hand one (RM500 only!) as something I could use as spare for the mean time. I have been eyeing on the HTC Touch Diamond for some time and the new Google G-phone was also very tempting.

O2 Stealth - yea the sliding looks nice heh... and the keypad for easy texting - no more poking with stylus for sms! (the keypad was a blunder though)

However, my objective at that time was to have a phone up and running and transferred all data to so when my XDA II wiped out data, I will still be OK. So, the O2 Stealth. WHY this model - too short a research.

The first few weeks trying the new phone was a bit out of my patience boundary (the boundary was never large anyway!) The phone hangs, the battery life s**ks and it wasn't really such a great phone. But getting the Windows Mobile 5 phone for me to test on newer softwares than my XDA II can take, this was real worth trying.

After a few more days, my patience with the phone has gone to another level - I MUST upgrade my PDA phone! So I sms-ed that guy in PDA Concept where I bought the phone. I said - may I have Asus P525 (after some research - this is almost a similar phone but much better), and trade in this Stealth. I researched on Lelong.com.my that the phone can go around RM400 to RM550. He came back to me and said - I can take back the Stealth at RM350 and I am selling the Asus P525 at RM688.

What? RM688 - RM350 --> I will need to top up more than RM300, lose a phone and get another. If I only spend RM450 - I have 2 phones (means I buy a P525 from Lelong members).

So....

RM300+ for only ONE phone

RM450 for BOTH phones <---- and I still can sell the Stealth over Lelong at RM400 at least! I am also a Lelong-er, dude!

Anyway, thank him or whatever - I forced myself to learn upgrading the ROM and I did it all by myself. I was first attracted to PDA Concept because it was near my house and he provides LIFETIME SOFTWARE SUPPORT. I sms-ed him for help to upgrade the ROM but he never got back to me and he still calls himself Software Expert. Ahem....

Good or bad - I learnt a new thing so is GOOD! I enlarged my patience boundary so is also GOOD!

Let me try for a few more days to see how the new ROM works.... And I will use The Secret and Law of Attraction to attract my Dream phones which will drop from the sky right at my house!

Phew.... got some time to figure out WHY all the buttons of my Stealth are not working upon soft reset. I need to plug it to the laptop, do a soft reset and then voila, it works! Then if I unplugged it from the laptop, reset and all the buttons not functioning again. It was also the main reason I did a ROM update but alas, the same happened. I have tried uninstalling all software one by one to catch the culprit. But guess what, the Remove Program function does not have the CE-Star (Chinese software) in the list. You can only go to its folder, click on Uninstall. That was why I missed this software in my culprit-finding process earlier on.

Thanks to this forum, I finally realized what happened and I will try new Chinese softwares.