c860 vs 6000

[StM]

I'm another person planning to buy a Z, and have been hesitating between a 6000L and a C860. I was somewhat biased towards the clamshell, and reading this thread seems to have amplified that feeling. I do have a few extra questions though, concerning the C860 (hope you can bear with me - most if not all of them *are* newbie!):

1. I've read that you can "brick" the thing if you make a mistake updating the ROM. How much of a danger is there really? What should I watch out for? (I am a professional UNIX developer, but my current experience with PDAs is, well, zero.)

2. Which ROM would people recommend for starters? What I want to do is some text editing/emailing, some Web surfing, perhaps a few games. I'd like to run X if it's practical.

3. How much of a nuisance are the Japanese characters on/near the keys? In particular, did I get it right that the Ctrl and Alt keys are not marked in English?

4. How well does it work with Bluetooth? What card(s) is/are recommended? Any success/failure stories?

Thanks much in advance!

                                                                                                             Stefan

[patrickq]

> 1. I've read that you can "brick" the thing if you make a mistake updating the ROM. How much of a danger is there really?

Not much danger, really.   The ROMs don't touch the bootloader, so you "always" have access to the service menus.

>2. Which ROM would people recommend for starters?
In your case, pdaXrom for sure.  Check that forum.  ver 1.1 is at RC2, and looks very good.  Only thing I don't like is that you pretty much have to do everything as root.

>3. How much of a nuisance are the Japanese characters on/near the keys?
None, Ctl and Alt are where my fingers expect them, with pdaXrom at least.

>4. How well does it work with Bluetooth? What card(s)
Don't know

FWIW, I'm very happy with my clamshell 760.  

HTH,
Patrick.