As the owner of a Tapwave Zodiac, I’m pretty far behind the curve (or way ahead, depending on how you look at it) with regard to PDA/handheld/UMPC/convergent device development. I love these gadgets, mind you, but the last time I went to buy one I found such a dearth of Palm OS devices (you can have a LifeDrive, or a Treo, or, um, a different Treo, or, um . . .) that I got depressed and kind of gave up.

So anyway, I didn’t hear about the whole Origami thing until someone on Tapland mentioned it in passing, as it were. (Us Zodiac folks are always on the lookout for handheld devices with decent graphics, you see.) That, combined with a need to get my wife a new cell phone, sent me out looking at the market for convergent devices, SmartPhones, UMPCs, and the like.

As everyone reading this blog probably knows–hey, I said I was behind the curve–there’s an awful lot of overlap in these devices. There are smartphones with 4″, full VGA screens that run Windows Mobile 5; there are PDAs that have Bluetooth and WiFi built-in, but don’t have cell phone capability; there are UMPCs that (it seems to me) might as well be really expensive PDAs with slide-out keyboards. Or even without slide-out keyboards. And on and on.

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Many of you by now will recognize the name HTC as the abbreviation for the Taiwanese based company High Tech Computer. They are the world’s largest manufacturer of Pocket PC and Smartphone OS based PDAs, and as such they are responsible for many of the more recognizable devices which are rebranded by companies including Hewlett Packard, i-mate, Audiovox, and Dopod - to name a few.

The device we’ll be looking at today is known by several names including the O2 XDA Trion, the MDA Vario II, Orange SPV M3100, and the Dopod 838Pro. This review will specifically cover the HTC Hermes branded as the Dopod 838Pro; while some of its included software may differ from other branded versions, the general hardware specifications should be about the same.

Similar to the HTC Apache / Sprint PPC-6700 which I reviewed last year, the Hermes features a compact touch-screen PDA form factor with a left-sliding keyboard which only appears when needed. The Hermes is intended to function not only as the user’s mobile phone, but also as a fully functional PDA, an email and text messaging center, and a compact means to wirelessly surf the internet.

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Larry Liaw sent me a link that I think most computer owners will want to click because it tells if your computer is optimised to run the next version of Windows.

Click here.

I recently bought a Toshiba Satellite A-105, which I absolutely love. I just upgraded its RAM to 2GB and I thought it was 100% ready for Vista…it even came with a little sticker that touted “Vista Ready!”

I figured no problem, I’ll pass with flying colors.

Take a look at this - my video card failed.

click thumbnail to enlarge

Now doesn’t that just figure?!

Evidently I am not the only one, scroll down and see one of Larry’s forum member’s results. Poo!

Update: Larry just brought up a very good point - “for that Vista Ready testing tool, don’t be too [worried] about your video spec. since this diagnostic tool is issued by ATI… a Video card manufacturer”

Ha! Too true!! I wonder what they might like to sell me to bring me up to spec?!

Doug Moran reminded me last night that I have been severely slacking in my DualCor cPC updates since returning from San Francisco over a month ago. Wow time has flown, and he is absolutely right!

He said and I quote: “So anyway, aside from the stuff below, and my interest in how you’re doing with the Hermes, I’m also interested in how you’re doing with the cPC, which you haven’t written about since you got back from San Francisco. Ahem. Not that I’m eager to find out what you think of it. No, nope, not me.”

Well, regardless of the fact that neither of the screen protector vendors I’ve talked to (and taken detailed measurements for) have yet sent me a protector for the device, and I have therefore had to continue using a piteously small JasJar protector which makes the cPC look cheap and ugly, here is the device in question…

(shown next to a Treo)

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