Hand-held devices for learners

[Claire Bowern]

Hi Andrea,
I have a Dell Axim from about 3 years ago. It can do all of the things 
you mentioned. Audio recording and playback is good sampling-rate-wise 
(anything from 11,000 Hz to 44,100), but the speakers and microphone are 
so bad that there's not much point, really! It has a 3.5" screen. I have 
trouble viewing pdfs on it because I'm always scrolling around the 
screen, but words docs and images are fine. It allows compact flash card 
storage. I have a 1 gig card and that's more than enough. Disadvantages 
are that it's on the expensive end, it's on the large and heavy size 
(maybe more recent models are better) and various things like a wireless 
card usually have to be bought separately. I bought mine as an 
alternative to taking a computer to the field and it worked very well 
for that. Incidentally, I think if I bought a new one (which I guess I 
will eventually) I would probably buy a Palm of some sort. There seems 
to be a bit more flexibility with the software for a start.
Claire

Andrea Berez wrote:
> Hi Claire, and others
> She didn't say what "inexpensive" means, but I would assume that USD300 
> would be a reasonable target.
> 
> I wouldn't be surprised if Palm Pilots or Pocket PC's came to everyone's 
> minds, too; can anyone recommend specific models?
> 
> Thanks,
> Andrea
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ***********************
> Andrea Berez
> Research Assistant
> The LINGUIST List
> andrea at linguistlist.org
> ***********************
> 
> On Mon, 14 Aug 2006, Claire Bowern wrote:
> 
>> Hi Andrea,
>> What sort of price range is "inexpensive"? Most of the things I can 
>> think of are at least US$200 - Palm Pilot or PocketPC PDA sort of 
>> things. Is that the sort of thing your friend is looking for?
>> Claire
>>
>> Andrea Berez wrote:
>>> Hello List,
>>> A friend of mine is working with an elder in her community to learn 
>>> her heritage language, and has asked for a recommendation for a 
>>> hand-held device with the following features (in order of priority, 
>>> high to low):
>>>
>>> 1. Inexpensive
>>> 2. For viewing Word documents, pdfs, and images of scanned paper 
>>> materials
>>> 3. Capable of "handling audio" (she wasn't more specific than this; I 
>>> assume she means mp3 playback or the like, but she may mean 
>>> low-quality recording as well)
>>> 4. Internet capable
>>>
>>> If you can suggest such a device, I would be much obliged. Remember, 
>>> it's not necessarily for fieldwork, but rather for convenience.
>>>
>>> Best wishes,
>>> Andrea Berez
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ***********************
>>> Andrea Berez
>>> Research Assistant
>>> The LINGUIST List
>>> andrea at linguistlist.org
>>> ***********************
>>>
>>
>