Music?

[golly]

Hi All,

I'm hoping to buy a PDA (possibly Tungsten T3 but depends on advice). I've previously had a mini disc (until it broke) and want to play music on a pda that I was thinking of buying anyway.

How is this best done? How much can an average pda store? Is this possible to do? Does a pda have a line in (ie. can i record from the radio and for how long?). Can I put CDs on to it to record? What is the sound quality like?

It would make a lot more sense for me to buy a pda which could do this rather than buy a pda and another mini disc player or mp3 such as an ipod.

Is this sensible and what is the best way to do this?

Thanks in advance for the advice

[mnj.lim]

You should probably consider battery life and MP3 software availability. Palm/Sony almost always last longer on a single charge than PocketPCs, but the newer Palms: Tungsten 3, Tungsten E, Zire 71 only last about 3 hours on full power. Tungsten C lasts about 8 hours when the wireless is turned off and would be ideal for MP3 playing, but its software and accessories are geared towards the businessman rather than "fun". Sony have a wide range of PDAs which are multimedia-oriented, but in my view, they cost a bit too much. I suppose you can get battery add-ons that cost ~£100 that double or triple the run-time of the Palm before you need the mains. Which option you go for depends on where and when you want to listen to MP3 tracks.

[golly]

what about recording onto the PDA to listen to - does it allow for much to be stored or should I look at a card to plug in (how much do these store in minutes wise?)

[mnj.lim]

Tungsten3s have 64 MB RAM, of which you have 51 for your own use. I don't know how much MP3 data you can store for that, but I would recommend a card add-on for greater flexibility. The cards don't cost much nowadays.