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By Robert Nagle

Dell Axim X51vIt ain’t over until the fat lady sings…or until Dell runs out. A few months ago Dell announced that the Dell Axim PDA’s were going to end, and it looks like today or very very soon Dell will stop selling them on their website. Oddly, I just bought a brand new x51v a few weeks ago (to replace one which was stolen from me 2 years ago). Axims were still a bit too expensive, but the 12 ROM version had ironed out a lot of the WM5 bugs, plus the Axim had a lot of useful PocketPC software titles available. And although Axims lacked the improved telecommunication functionality of WM6, the specs for 2007 smartphones still don’t compare to the specs for the 2005 Axim X51v. And holy cow! 8 gig Axim-friendly CF cards are out there—that’s a lot of ebooks/mp3s/videos! It’s definitely time to invest in a PDA flash-to-PC file synchronizer.

I use the Nokia 770 for reading (RSS, ebooks and websurfing), and the Axim for accessing personal data and reading (to a lesser extent).

Unrelated: do you know Charlie Stross’s article about the ebook market from a week ago? Well, I read it and half-agreed with it, but I came across it again and found the 200+ comments insightful. Highlights include DerekBenner’s going into detail about NAEB (Not another Ebook–the Baen-endorsed/branded DRM-free Bookeen ebook device). According to Derek, so far there’s about 300 pre-commits (making it unlikely to meet the threshold for group discounts). Perhaps these buyer’s club discounts only work in countries with populations exceeding one billion.

 
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