TO PDA or Not to PDA, That is the Question

pgodkin

hey lads,

Listen i was wondering if anyone could tell me anything about PDA's My sis is considering get one after she used one in work and doesn't really know anything about them the one she was lookin at was a HP one, that could play movies, mp3 word docs and was bluetooth
These ones?

Or these maybe?

What do u lads think

Any suggestions would be great

Cheers
Philip:cool:

El_MUERkO

I have a palm m130, dont use it much, my boss had a palm pilot but it dropped and the screen broke in half, luckily he kept it sync'd often so didnt loose to much info, to be honest my phone holds anything i need.

I suppose the new ones would be good for MP3's and stuff but I wouldnt fork out for one.

fenris

Depends on what you want to use it for, if it is just a glorified addressbook go for a palm, but don't expect much more from it.

My wife used a handspring visor deluxe for ages until she got fed up with trying to get it to recognise colons and semicolons (yep she really uses them), also she found that she spent the whole time playing catchup when she tried to use it to take notes in meetings as the input method is quite slow at real world speeds and prone to throwing up the wrong letters even with a lot of practice. Lack of memory and processor power are the real catches with palm type PDA's but battery life is great (days - weeks)

If you want a slick seemless transfer of info between PDA and windows PC then the PocketPC range is the way to go. I have used a Compaq IPAQ 3630 for approx. the last 3 years. Integration with windows is fantastic - calender, contacts, e-mail, word excel, task list - all work perfectly, and synchronise with very little effort. PPC's have enough processor and RAM to be useful, An example of my main use was to go to a customer meeting, with support contract (ms word format), contact/resolution times report(excel) individual case reports (word) all relevent emails with attachments (outlook). Be able to take the minutes (transcriber handwrighting recognition), record technical sections for later review and/or attachment to meeting report (built in voice recorder), send SMS for extra info and paste replies into meeting notes (sunnycom GSM manager). Prepare minutes and queue them for e-mailing to attendees (sitting in traffic on the way back to the office) and have them sent once I connected the IPAQ back up to my desktop or sent via GSM if necessary. My only gripe was battery life 6-8 hours of use max (it is probably better now). If you go for a PPC then get one with slots for SD memory, bluetooth or wifi biult in or a CF slot for a wifi/bluetooth adaptor. Input is better than the palm but needs training to get the PDA to recognise our handwriting when scribbled quickly. An add on Keyboard is very handy I used a targus stowaway for big documents. A high end PDA is almost a complete laptop replacement. Even watched Them Matrix and Blade on it during a flight to Chicago (2 gig pcmcia HD and battery extender)

If you are technically minded and don't mind a bit of tweeking to get things working then the linux based Sharp Zaurus SL-5600 is a great option. You will probably have to grab one from e-bay, I got mine for $300. Not as polished as a PPC but way more bang for your buck ! If you run linux on a desktop, use ssh instead of telnet and know why, know what warwalking is (Dublin is a surprisingly rich environment), are not intimidated by flashing firmware, think its cool to be able to ssh through 802.11b into a box and kill the process that is locking up the gui instead of performing a soft rest, know what a crosscompiler is, like the idea of apache in your pocket, can use grep, know what a symlink is, etc. etc. then a zaurus is the way to go. It is possible to use a zaurus without any of the above knowledge quite happily but it is not as smooth an experience as using a PPC for day to day applications, syncing with windows is not as seemless, you need more technical ability to get things done but you have far more options, there is a command prompt (bash), there is even a built in keyboard etc.

In other words figure out what you need followed by what you want throw in a dash of what would be cool and see what the result looks like !

As far as buying a PDA goes you will pay a big premium if you buy local, these devices are commodities, there is no advantage to buying local if the price is not right as their only support is to send it back to the manuf if a hard reset doesn't fix the problem.
Wait for the extra day or two, pocket the difference or spend some of it on accessories that you will end up buying any way !

Useful accessories - USB charging cable with car adaptor, battery extender, wifi CF card, SD card, external keyboard, wifi card for PC, bluetooth adaptor.