Cheap device for interrailing

Steveire

I'm looking for a cheap device that i can bring interrailing with me, to write emails on the train with. The last thing I want to lug around eastern Europe is a laptop, cos it's very stealable. Possibly some sort of PDA (I'd like to know if I have any other options), but cheap and feature-less is the key here. I only want to make text files that i can put together with photos in an internet café.

In summary, i'm looking for a device to write emails on (and maybe a blog). Preferably i wouldn't need additional software to run it. Any pointers?

Thanks in advance (and sorry if this isn't the appropriate forum).

Capt'n Midnight

I'm assuming you want to send the emails while out there.

The limiting factor is getting data from the PDA to the internet cafe PC.
So you are probably looking at carrying a USB card reader with you that reads CF / SD / MMC or whatever the PDA takes - maybe foreigh internet cafes have readers ?

I'd doubt they would allow you to install active sync and unlikely that they would have infra red. Older PDA's can use serial but not all internet PC's will have serial ports and again you have the problem of installing software. I don't know of any PDA that take USB sticks directly. PCMCIA adaptor for flash cards is probably out becuse you won't have the ports. WiFi / Bluetooth are probably out too.

If you are allowed to install SW then direct USB cable to PDA is best.

Anyone got any info on what resources you find in foreign internet cafes ? - to narrow the field a bit.

If the emails are wordy then something like a HP jornada might be better cos it has a keyboard - but it's heavier too.

Stick an ad on wanted once you've narrowed it down a bit.

Maybe SMS from mobile phone and roaming ???

beaker

How's about a basic PDA with WiFi?

You can prepare e-mails anywhere and then find a hot spot to get internet access to send them. A bit of research might tell you if there are any hot spots in the countries you will visit - in internet cafes or elsewhere.

As the Capt'n says, all other connection methods are potentially a major pain.

Also, I assume you are talking about photos from a digital camera. If the PDA took the same memory cards as your camera, you would be away on a hack...

Steveire

Stick an ad on wanted once you've narrowed it down a bit.

That's the plan alright.

If the PDA took the same memory cards as your camera, you would be away on a hack...

Why is that? I'd be able to put the PDA card into the camera and USB cable it over?

I'll consider asking a friend of mine if he'll lend me his nokia communicator. I think that'd do all i need, and i think it has a memory card in it.

beaker

Steveire wrote:

Why is that? I'd be able to put the PDA card into the camera and USB cable it over?

I'm thinking that you could take photos with e.g. an SD card in your camera and then take out that card and put it in the PDA so you can e-mail those photos.

I'm just thinking of it as an easy way to transfer photos from camera to PDA. I'm not sure you can do this by USB cable on most PDAs. Maybe someone else can clarify that?

Steveire

Say i got a camera with an SD card and a text editing device with an SD card, is it likely that i'd be able to plug whichever device into the USB port of the computer in the cafe without installing software? I'll be interrailing Poland down to Croatia btw.

beaker

I've read about people travelling and struggling with just this problem.

They find either:

a) crap internet cafes where 12 PCs share one dial-up connection and you are free to connect anything and install anything but there's no point because the internet access is so bad, or

b) great internet cafes with broadband access but there is no way they will let you plug anything in, let alone install anything.

This is why I suggested doing a bit of online research to see if there are WiFi hotspots. If there are, and you have a WiFi PDA, you are laughing...