Hi guys.

I've often seen and thought about the threads on here discussing the merits of smartphones,tablets ect in a survival situation for use as an E-book survival library and similar purposes and I thought it was about time I gave it a try.

I found an old Dell Axim x51 PDA at a good price to try out the, I know its a bit on the old side but from my research the spec seems good enough to use as a stand alone E-book reader or media player.

I received it in the mail Friday and so far it seems to be working fine except I had to do a hard reset to factory default settings, which brings me to my question.

Does anyone here have any experience using these or similar devices and if so can you recommend any programs/software/apps for it?

So far I'm thinking of;

1. E-book reader software with at least PDF and Epub formats.

2. On board non GPS map program with maps of the UK.

3. Some kind of multi-media player with at least mp3 and mp4 formats.

4. Maybe upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.1 or 6.5 for larger memory card capacity?

Any other suggestions or ideas for software or hardware would be most welcome and I hope this thread with be of use to everyone else here.

My advice is to obtain the means to recharge it in the field.

Hi Wildman.

I've already been looking it that, probably just go with an extra battery pack at the moment. Living in the UK solar power probably is not the best choice, looking at hand crank generators with a USB output connector.

I think I know the PDA you have - I had one like it when they came out about 10 years ago. Not sure what you paid but I would recommend going with a cheap tablet and not even try messing with "old" unsupported tech.

With that, get some SD cards or a compact flash card as you will quickly need more memory and can load different things on different cards. A good map product is:http://maps.me/en/home I don't know if you can get it to load on your PDA but it works great on phones and tablets as an 'unconnected' map.

You may find this: https://www.bl.uk/collection-guides/digital-mapping helpful in finding 'generic' maps that could be loaded on your PDA. The device (at one time) I think came with a simple audio player but I'm not sure... it already has a jack for headphones so it was designed for it. Maybe the Dell support site has some info.

I am using a Samsung Galaxy tablet now - you should be able to get them (like the Barnes & Nobel nook) for about $100 US. With an up-to-date device you will have a lot better results.

I've got some older mobile devices I try to keep running and every year they get older the harder it is to keep them useful.

Just my thoughts - good luck!

Paul -

My wife had a Dell Axim. And I have a Palm IIIx. I don't think the question will end up being "What apps are recommended for it?" Rather, "Is there anywhere I can even FIND an app for it?" IIRC, the AXIM runs some outdated (and probably no-longer-supported?) version of a Windows mobile OS. Being Windows, apps were probably not free (not many of them anyway), and probably came with some type of copy-protection or register-to-enable scheme. Finding one of these old apps in the first place, let alone getting it "registered" and running on your AXIM, may be quite the task. Also, IIRC, the AXIM uses a removable battery pack. Any original AXIM batteries will probably be long worn out and useless. Can you even buy a new battery pack for it these days? Possibly a 3rd-party vendor from China might still make one. But if you have one of those, charge it with care. Old charging technology plus LiIon batteries plus made-in-China could spell disaster. I would charge it in a flame-proof metal container, away from anything combustible, and under near-constant supervision. If the batteries aren't LiIon, then that would be safer. I can't remember how the AXIM cradle hooked up to the computer. Was that via a serial port? Does your computer even HAVE a serial port?

PDA's were really neat gadgets in their day. But they are obsolete now. They've been gone for, gosh, about a decade now? These days, PDA's are to computing what Betamax is to video. I hope you can get yours working and doing something useful. That would be a fun project. But I would consider it more of a "hobby project" than something that will end up being real-world useful. You can probably buy an el-cheapo brand new tablet for $50 (American dollars) that will run rings around the AXIM. I seem to remember paying several hundred dollars for my wife's AXIM back in the day.

Agree completely. Just look at the Samsung Galaxy Tab A with a 7" -- Galaxy Tab A 7.0 was released in March 2016 with a 7" 1280x800 display and 1.5 GB of RAM. It runs Android 5.1 and obviously has lots of apps available. The 2016 version Tab A is currently on sale at Best Buy for $89.99, which is compelling. You still need to be able to charge it in the field, think Goal Zero.
A Galaxy Tab comparison can be found at /wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_Tab_series

Some people are amused by making old tech do new things. I am one of them. Much more entertaining (and educational) than whipping out a credit card for the latest i-thing; any schmo can do that.

There are still sites that have software for the old Palms, though you need to dig a little deeper these days. (I'm involved in one such site, and there are still new people registering and commenting on their "new" toys.)

I would not be surprised if there are enthusiasts still chatting about your Dell. These people know where to find software too.

Agreed. Much more entertaining and educational. But significantly less functional. If you want functional, sometimes you just have to be a schmo. I pulled out my schmo-card and bought a washing machine too, giving up on the washboard. The washboard does make for an entertaining and educational decoration though.

I'm not sure I'd trust my survival to old electronics, especially when newer, more capable gadgets are quite affordable. Your phone can probably outdo the PDA. Maybe you can use the PDA for reading ebooks or listening to music, but GPS? Perhaps not.

On the other hand, apparently our nuclear silos still run on floppy disks, and the world's survival depends on them.

I have a lot of low-tech stuff. My truck has a manual transmission and hand-crank windows. I don't use a automatic drip coffee maker to make coffee, I pour water over the grounds by hand. However, I have a lot of low-tech stuff. My truck has a manual transmission and hand-crank windows. I don't use a automatic drip coffee maker to make coffee, I pour water over the grounds by hand. But those aren't computers with software compatibility issues.

If the old tech gadget is running Linux or another open-source and low overhead OS, then it may be worth the effort. Can a Dell Axim x51 run some form of Linux or is Windows mobile the best least memory intensive available? It's not like a Dell Axim has a lot of memory to mess with. An old PDA with memory measured in MB rather than GB? I don't think so. It may be slow, but it has a low resolution display to make up for it. The most compelling reason to leave the old tech behind is batteries; they time out and when the time is up, they have trouble holding a charge.

I'm an iPhone/iPad user, but for a few apps I picked up an Asus tablet, ZenPad something, 8" display, lots of memory. The less expensive Samsung Tab A (smaller display & less memory) in my previous post would have worked just as well. There's probably a good reason a lot of app developers prefer Android -- cost and not having to deal with Apple.