ETEN M500: New Equipment Blog - Day 01

Well, I'm waiting... Julie shipped the M500 this morning 2nd Day Air, so it should arrive no later than Thursday, which means I'll have it for the Labor Day Holiday Weekend! I also ordered an extra standard battery and car charger for this device from eXpansys-USA.

This is a Phone Edition Device, just like my i-mate PDA2k, so I'll be getting e-mail on it as well as web access, RSS feeds, etc. The biggest problem with the device is the lack of a keyboard for responding to e-mail. I've gotten quite fond of the PDA2k's slide up keyboard, even though the slider is loose. Finding a way around this, was a concern to me. The device doesn't have a snap on thumb-board like the iPAQ 6300, and I'm not going to haul around a BT or IR keyboard just to respond to mail. That just doesn't make ANY sense.

I had thought about Fitaly; but decided against it. I just didn't want to tap and tap and tap, n' tap, n' tap... Too much tapping! Instead, I decided on Spb Full Screen Keyboard. At just $10US, its definitely the right price. Its also exactly what I was needing.

I gave this a try on both my x50v and PDA2k, and this should work out just fine on my ETEN M500 when it arrives.

What SIP's (Soft Input Panels) to you use for responding to mail on your Pocket PC Phone Edition device? Why not join in the discussion and let us know what you think is the best way to go when you don't have a built in keyboard.