O2 Xda Atom Exec Review

An anonymous reader writes "CNET has posted a full review of the new O2 Xda Atom Exec smartphone device. They were very impressed with the handheld, giving it their 'Editor's Choice' award. From the article: 'On its own, the Exec is a highly impressive, push e-mail enabled smart phone, but if you already own the first Atom, its upgrade worthiness is questionable.'"

Re:Handwriting recognition

[glesga_kiss]

Like your other reply, I too bought a device with a slide out keyboard. I've never seen anyone regret that decission. You might be able to use handwriting for text messages but you do not want to EVER try it with vi over ssh. ;-) Also, imagine an "rm -rf" mis-recognition...

Mind you, there are some neat bluetooth keyboards you can get, such as The Virtual Keyboad [virtual-la...yboard.com], so it's not all lost if you don't have one.

I've been using my phone/pda for a year or two and I still think it's one of the coolest and most useful gadget I have. Google in my pocket, access to my home linux box, a camera and an mp3 player. Everything I'd ever need most days. One piece of advice though; get one with WiFi, this is an absolute must. It's much faster than GPRS and it's free most of the time.

Re:But does it run ...

[Chanc_Gorkon]

Linux PDA's have not always been expensive. In fact, although not a PDA, the Nokia 770 is only $350. The big issue is WHY IN HECK ISN'T SHARP SELLING THE ZAURUS HERE!

Right now, if you want Linux on a handheld, you have to have one of four things: a Nokia 770, import one of the Zaurii from Japan(EXPENSIVE because you have to import it), flash linux on a perfectly good iPaq or other handheld or possibly installing desktop linux on a Sony UX180. That's it. Anyone remember the Agenda VR3? No I did not think so....

push e-mail enabled

[sgt scrub]

*** RANT WARNING ***

I think this "push e-mail enabled" market speak has been repeated one time too many. People actually believe it is some magical, only available via crackberry and crapchange servers, functionality brought via the heavens. It is called IDLE. IDLE has been available via IMAP for years. Lots of years. Many much more years!

type this to see for yourself.
telnet your.imap.server 143
a001 CAPABILITIES
* CAPABILITY IMAP4REV1 IDLE NAMESPACE MAILBOX-REFERRALS BINARY UNSELECT SCAN SORT THREAD=REFERENCES THREAD=ORDEREDSUBJECT MULTIAPPEND LOGIN-REFERRALS STARTTLS AUTH=CRAM-MD5 capabilies ad nausium....
a001 OK CAPABILITY completed

and that is from plain old uw-imapd

wooo woooo i have puuuush technology on my internet!