cellphone tethering?

I'm considering replacing my Jornada 690 with one of those $100 CE netbooks, either CE 5.0 or 6.0 depending on which one I choose. What I'm wondering is whether I can use my old LG cellphone to get online (tethering) as I can with my XP laptop. Anybody know anything about that?

If the netbook has bluetooth it should be possible to connect to internet via your cellphone over bluetooth

Trouble is, none of the CE netbooks I've seen have built-in Bluetooth, and they only have an SD card slot. So I'd think that'd be a no-go unless someone can track down an SDIO Bluetooth card or Bluetooth USB dongle that works in Windows CE. (The latter is supposed to be supported in some Linux builds.)

I was thinking the USB cable, I never thought of bluetooth. I have a BT dongle but I doubt it has a CE driver.

usb is unlikely as no drivers for phone.... bt would be only option unless you have a phone with wi-fi that can act as network access point.

bt dongle likely won't have ce drivers so you would need to find one that has built in drivers (if there are any) shame none included bt for all the price adding it would be.

I would never replace my Jornada 728 with one of these big crappy $100 netbooks. I believe that this is the worst thing that China ever created... They are heavy, bad battery and mostly with no touchscreen interface. It's better to buy an Intel Atom based notebook.

Heavy? (not much heavier than my j728) Bad battery? (9-10 hours is bad?) Touchscreen? Who cares. Touch screens suck IMO. You keep your ancient 728, i've moved ahead with the times.

Cheers.

Only the RazorBook seems to have more than 2-3 hours battery life, unfortunately - and it only requires 5 V (as opposed to the 9 V required by the other models).

If I am going to get a device with netbook form factors I would definitely go for a "real" netbook, even if I have to pay double.
Touchscreen is very good in situations where using keyboard is not easy, e.g. in the dark, holding with one hand.Here handwriting recognition and touchscreen are a more natural ergonometric solution.
Still can't understand why the recent CE netbooks leave out touchscreen functionalitie which shouldn't add much to the cost.
It seems touchscreen on portable devices is the trend. UMPC, new tablets, fancy phones... Most average users would use and welcome it if available. Then again for programmers, hackers and gurus it's another story.
Bluetooth on CE is pretty easy to set up using CF or PC card adapters.

Edited by MrSB 2010-03-08 7:37 AM

I don't think the late CE netbooks are very *modern* either, apart from more RAM and a slightly better processor. Still not enough juice to handle high quality flash, h.264, blahblahblah. The specs are not very much different from my FIVE year old wm phone.

No, those cheap new netbooks are very limited... but for what I want (ebook reading, playing music through my home stereo, dowloading files from a digicam and browsing on the road) it seems, if not ideal, a notable improvement over my Jornada 690. The 690's browser is so old that half the websites I visit simply don't work, and those that do are painfully slow to load... and my Jornada has no USB, and archaic wifi cards (no WPA or b wifi).

Coreplayer adds flash capabilities to CD 5.0, and "real" (i.e. XP or 7) netbooks are not only conisiderably more expensive, but they have far worse battery life.

With wifi hotspots being so ubiquitous nowadays, tethering, while nice, is not really a requirement.

I suspect the people who are really disappointed with these devices are those who don't know the difference between CE and XP.

Edited by Dana 2010-03-08 12:38 PM

Dana, Agree with all you say above.

I would suggest you also look at the Nvidia Tegra CPU'd and Snapdragon CPU'd netbooks (or smartbooks as they are calling them) coming to market (while not available yet should be available soon). They will also provide the long battery life you seek but perform and lot better and be much better kitted out with wi-fi and bluetooth etc. etc.

John

Edited by mr-mac 2010-03-08 1:53 PM

I'm just saying, for $100 it's a steal. When i got my j728 it cost $200, then $40 for a wifi card, then $80 for a CF card. That's $320 total. It was fun for awhile, but no usb host, crappy screen (slow refresh rate and couldn't see in daylight) and old as dust software made it not so usable anymore. These cheap netbooks have built in wifi, built in ethernet, 3 usb ports, 1 sd slot, bigger and nicer keyboard, bigger and nicer TFT screen and better resolution for much less money with nothing else needed to buy. For something to just toss in a book bag or leave in your glove box they are perfect and don't break the bank.

Cheers

I agree with RTFM, in comparison, They are a cheap & viable alternative for an hpc like device.

Heck for $100, cant complain for what it does , theres a stack of em on eBay right now as low as 113.99 free shipping.

Edited by thcrw739 2010-03-08 9:42 PM

Sure, the prices of CE netbooks are unbeatable, when I recall the PDAs in their days of glory.
But I can imagine ordinary customers as well as power users will expect more from these laptop-like machines, as people will miss things the CE netbooks can't do - that's the clear difference, not just between CE and XP/Windows, but also CE and OS X, CE and Linux, etc. I don't think the late CE netbooks can replace the netbooks/laptops, at least at this stage. Low price cannot make up for too many compromrises.
(Can CE 5/6 really handle web pages as well as the netbooks do? I dunno. Please enlighten me.)
There are some real issues to worry about the CE netbooks, as some have pointed above. Lack of drivers (USB host, SDIO, etc) is a main disadvantage. Not so hackable as Linux. Much longer battery life... I would look more carefully here. Power get used up much faster with wifi and bluetooth on and working at full tilt. Also the many different ports and chips may also help suck up the juice. This is the case for the netbooks. The atom fantasy demystified.
Agree with RTFM about the pricing. I would never buy a Jornada for 200. I got mine for 60 and my MP900 7x. Frankly speaking, I think the prices are reasonable and justifiable by today's standards. Even cheaper than a Franklin dict on amazon, but can do X times more things. That's part of the excitement when I bought my CE devices. I know their limitations, and at the same time I know what they can do best.
"Good for you boy. But I love my netbooks..."
The same thing may apply for the comparisons between netbooks and "standard" laptops and between netbooks and umpcs.
Then again, the general market don't seem to be sold by the designs of the CE netbooks because of their limitations, even though the concept is beautiful. Their sales are telling something: the CE market in no ways can be compared to the netbook market, perhaps also true for the umpcs as well. The netbook consumers are more than a dumb mass, i believe.
Many people, such as me, will not care whether the machine is brand new or used, as far as it looks good and runs well.
On the other hand, I also think the "real netbooks" (definition, pls) also suck in some ways. Cheap plastic feel, poor keyboard, overheating, short batt life, no instant-on, and so on. Clive Thompson has an interesting view on the "netbooks".
Everyone can love their devices, any devices, without any doubt.
Opinions against ABC usually get bashed in a enthusiast/fanatic forum dedicated to ABC. So pardon my rambling.
Call me split mind. I decided to give up on my netbooks and subnotebooks and turned to CE devices. I "discovered"(so late...) that I don't need so much power. I just desire an inexpensive productivity device free of battery dreads, with instant-on, and fitting in my jacket pocket.
Back to the topic. If connectivity is an important factor, perhaps Smartbook G138 is also worth considering. It has a SIM card slot, a CF type I&II slot, good screen, super comfortable keyboard (even better that MP900's), sensitive touchscreen. And it is smaller than the late CE machines. And it can run Opera 8.65 too. But still no youtube and no flash 9/10 loaded websites.
If the CE netbooks/smartbooks are superior to what I imagine, do tell me and maybe i'll buy one in a heartbeat.

Edited by MrSB 2010-03-09 2:34 AM