Palm Tungsten E vs Star Ruby

[Eraserheads]

Hi, I was hoping someone could help me decide between buying dedicated handheld chess computer or a low end PDA and chess software for it.

What about features?

And also important would be battery life and how fast it plays?

Anyone have good tips and advice for me?

thanks!

Also, is there a software for Palm that can emulate the MONROI chess move recorder (www.monroi.com US ~$350)?...without raising the suspicion of cheating? I know you can input your moves in HIARCS, but everyone knows that HIARCS is also a playing program. I need something that only allows input of moves.

[James Constance]

My preference is for a pocket pc with pocket grandmaster for playing games against or replaying unannotated games. (In the days when I used a palm, you couldn't copy pgn files directly to the palm, you had to import them to a pdb file - though I daresay that's changed now??)

I have an entry level PPC (IPAQ 1950) which cost less than 300 USD, with 300Mhz and excellent battery life, though negligible memory. Still, it is very strong, perhaps around 2400 -2500 ELO.

Personally, I wouldn't bother entering moves into a palm during an OTB game even if nobody suspected you of cheating, as it would be a distraction and it's easy enough to do after the game.

[mclane]

i think machines like the star ruby are pretty waste of time. the palms are stronger.

you can get chess tiger, genius, hiarcs and openchess with fruit.

and you can do lots of other things with it.

the mhz is faster, so the ELO is better.
buy the palm.