So if I buy a pda for my trip to s america and it's got wi fi will it just conect to to the internet at any hotspot or do I have to have my own server?

The PDA will connect at any wifi hotspot, with any router, where ever as long as it is not password protected (if you have the password then you can connect). You don't need your own server for it, good luck. If you got any more questions i'm kinda a tech geek so feel free.

Thanks for that buddy any advice on which one I should buy? It seems to be a bit of a mine field. I want to run a blog or web site email have a look at the internet ie sites like this and download my pictures and video. Thats about it i guess!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry it took a while to write a response and i'm afraid i may not be that helpful because i haven't kept up with that many PDAs lately, but i'd probably do some research to at companies websites to see if their product could do what you wanted, check out Palm, HP, if you want a phone too, check out the iPhone (only if you're daring though haha). I only include the iPhone because it has a full internet browser, unlike all other pocket PCs which have a crippled browser, but else then youtube and quicktime/itunes videos the iphone wont do too much multimedia (the internet on it although full, doesn't play flash or anything like that) and the other downsides are that it is so new and you need to use AT&T. And unfortunitly most of the things you want to be done are all on smart phones now, meaning you'd have to upgrade to a more expensive phone on a more expensive plan, but you'd get email, web, multimedia features, the whole shebang. So i guess the bottom line is just research and find out which one you think would be best for you, go to your phone provider and explore details, ask friends, etc. Sorry i couldn't help more, if you narrow your options down feel free to post em and i'll see if i can help you pick from there, but until then it's all you. Again, feel free to ask any questions and i'll help the best i can. Best of luck,

Explorer

Hey there just seen this sorry for the tardy response.

I would avoid Palm if I were you - I have a TX and I love it to bits - for everyday life it's my best friend, email, web, calendar, contacts etc... but then I took it on the road with me and discovered 2 things

1 - Wi-Fi doesn't necessarily work with the browser
2 - The browser is really rather crap.

In essence what that means is that if you sit down in an internet cafe and connect to the wi-fi (that's the easy bit) then fire up the browser - the browser should accept a re-direct from the router to take you to the relevant payment / registration page.. however... the palm browser wont accept that re-direct and you have to try asking what the address of the page is, and in most cases the poor guys working at the cafe have no idea what that is.

The other bits are that the browser is very limited javascript wise, flash wise and many other modern 'essentials' that you need to run your blog from your browser.

I have no idea about the Windows based PDAs sorry!

For my money I'm going to get one of these...

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...ghlight=laptop

For £150 is cheaper than most PDAs and it's only very very slightly larger / heavier - plus it has a fully featured browser (firefox), skype, and email clients... not to mention a proper keyboard and OpenOffice.

Hope that helps.

m

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