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Do People Really Use Their PDAs?
TAL asks: "With Dell entering the market with their new PDA, the PDA market appears saturated. I work in a high-tech industry and I see more people carrying their PDAs than actually using them. At the same time, I see many people actually going back to their paper planners. I've ran the PDA gauntlet myself and have found that much time is wasted syncing, charging and reinstalling the software. Have there been any studies on PDA turnover? I think the PDA has become more of a status symbol than a useful tool."
just to play missile command
-- Francisco Rivas C.
They're just status symbols. (because I don't have one)
sitting at the bottom of a box unused for the last year... good turn over... most of my toys don't last more than 6 months...
--- its to bad about the monkey, I kinda liked them
I use mine all the time.... to read eBooks /:)
Do People Really Use Their PDAs?
Yes.
(schedule, address book, tracking cash expenses, games during boring meetings)
ShoutingMan.com
I had it back in 97-98... tried to use it everywhere I could. Now, it just sits on my desk next to the real computer.
When I first got my Palm, people marveled at the chance to look at all the phone numbers I could store at one time. I even kept it in my pocket at all times and tried to incorporate it into my wallet (pretty tedious with the original Palm). However, within a couple months, I was only using it to play Galax. I eventually gave it away to my girlfriend, who also used it for a week or two before deciding it really wasn't worth it to have this giant thing for the purpose of only storing phone numbers and playing the occaisonal game.
So then I get a CE device from work. I thought I would give PDA's another chance. While this time, I had color and ethernet, and a decent media player, it fell prey to the same problems at before. I stopped using it within a month and it now sits in a drawer never to be used again.
I think PDA's are cool, but no matter how much I want to like them, they just aren't useful.
I use my Palm IIIxe constantly, and I don't travel a whole lot at all.
The built-in address book, to-do lists, and calendar are all I use it for, with two entertainment apps loaded on it. One is an app that spits out Homer-isms and Bart-isms from The Simpsons, the other is called Space Trader, very much like the old Elite from the Commodore 64 of yore.
Like a decent pr0n player otherwise what's the point of having something you can hide in your pocket until ahem... uh... oops never mind.
I use my PDA (Sony clie) for everything I can - japanese study, scheduling (classes, work, travel) - it really helps me to prioritize things, games, pictures, contact info, etc. It's hard, well terribly inconvenient anyway, for me to do without it these days.
It was definately a good investment in my case.
Seems people are trying ot find reasons to use their pdas once theyve got them. Realising they aren't as useful or as easy to use as they thought. My dad picked up one a few months ago and a lot of the price of the ipaq that he got seems to come in afterwards with memory expansions and interfacing wires etc. He doesn't need to interface it to everything, it jsut seems he needs to justify why hes got it and having gps and camera photos on their is really a status symbol.
Now if only I had a personal human analog assistant inputting everything into my digital one.
The law of excluded middle : Either I'm foo or I'm foobar
I sold my PDA. People who first buy PDAs vow never to part with them. Soon you notice them sitting on the desk all the time next to the desktop computer.
If a chair is thrown in a forest, and there are no witnesses, did Ballmer still do it?
I used my PDA for a little while my freshman year in college (Palm V), I'd take some quick notes on it and use it to store schedules, important dates and addresses. Aside from that I used it for games during boring lectures, or to beam stuff to other classmates about the teacher =]
Now it sits in my deskdrawer and I don't use it anymore. Batteries, syncing, and everything else weren't problems at all. In the end it was too cumbersome to enter data (even if you knew it well), and the software offered was minimal.
I probably would have been happier with a Windows CE device, since they come with a much larger, easier to use range of applications. It's hard to say. But, I don't miss it much.
On that note, how much is someone willing to give me for an old Palm V? =]
What?
But I work in a large (50k+) high-tech company and NOBODY in my part of the world uses paper planners anymore. Even our over-compensated super-high-up VPs etc. use a combination of RIM, cellphone, and Palm/CE devices to stay on track. When you're quadruple-booked for meetings all day in multiple geographic locations, paper ain't gonna cut it.
;-)
My boss wouldn't survive without his blackberry! I make do with an iPAQ and sync when I get to my desk. The only way I get work done is that I don't have a cellphone or a pager. My boss keeps threatening to get me one and I respond with threats to quit.
-----------------------
To understand recursion, one must first understand recursion.
I have a PalmIII which I used for about a year and a half. Eventually, the small screen, lack of a decent keyboard and the constant mess with syncing led me to simply carry my old but small Omnibook 800 around instead. I thus have a full Linux system (using the console only) with a far better screen and easy access to 'real' applications.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
Man, only two years of pda color releases here in the us and you're already judging the usefullness?? People only had (I STILL cant afford one) 24 months to figure out how to integrate this new complex device into their lives and pay back the cost through use? Or is slash just looking for sunday posts...
I'm only sayin.. you guys BEGGED (I did too) for the star trek type handheld.. anything to maybe power a portable version of your gear.. well.. progress takes TIME. remember VESA drivers? remember how long it took to get from hercules cards to color? dang.. you guys have been spoiled and get bored quickly now..
pm
pm
** "It's not my job to stand between the people talking to me, and the ones listening to me." -- Pego the Jerk
What are they, bloated pocket calculators, or lobotomized laptops?
Can't live without my PDA
Usually the people in the tech industry don't. They get them for a toy and then don't use them. I didn't use mine much, so I gave it to my wife. She uses it constantly and keeps a lot of info in there. It's much easier than the paper system she had before.
At my office the directors and VPs use theirs like crazy. They'd be lost without them. The guys on my team (network team) don't use them much, since we don't have all the meetings and contacts to track.
Well, I use mine, but the biggest bugbear is the syncing software. I have issues syncing with Mozilla mail, which by now may be easily resolved, but I got tired of dealing with it. My main use isn't notes and to do lists, but the calendar. I get disorganised on occasion, and having something that will beep at me when my next meeting is is invaluable, especially since my work uses a networked calendar program - other users add meetings for me and I don't have to note them... they just appear.
You can't beat the convenience... until a dead-tree-organiser can tell me where I'm supposed to be, anyway...
Around the same time, several people at work got the things. And like me, all but 2-3 dropped out of sight.
It depends on the mode I'm in.
Sometimes I'm fortunate enough to be working on one project with undivided attention. Then I usually don't carry my PDA -- it's easy to remember what I should be doing.
When I'm in my more scattered mode (meetings-R-us), my PDA is a godsend, keeping me on track.
In the past, I've always carried my PDA while travelling because of the address book feature. But I've just purchased a cell phone (Motorola V60i) that allegedly syncs to my Windows address book, so the PDA might not be as necessary for this purpose anymore -- we'll see.
I have no idea how I got along before I got one. Mine isn't even a good one, Just a Visor Handspring, 16-bit grey scale, but damn is it useful. With my Nokia 3360 I can connect to the internet via infrared on the pda and phone and use PalmVNC to control my servers from anywhere. Also, the the infrared is hella useful as a universal remote control.. Between omniremote and pmremote I never have to miss my favorite shows whenever I'm around a public TV. I also use J-Pilot + the Keyring plugin to carry a nice encrypted list of l/p combos and general server info. I jot down notes on it all the time. I can also use the phone book etensively. I don't really use the scheduler at all, cuz I have no schedule :)
:)
But the BEST use for my pda I've had so far is basically as a gameboy
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid.
I've always thought of them as glorified day planners without the quick ability to jot notes and flip through pages. I don't think i'll buy one untill they can take dictations kinda like the ones on star trek.
----
Go canucks, habs, and sens!
1. It's easier to bring a synced PDA of information to do quick errands than it is to enter said info into a laptop. As in, I'm more likely to use a grocery list ina PDA that fits in my hand than bring the iBook.
2. I don't tend to install many applications beyond the included suite. So far, the only things I've installed on my PDA since I got it are: an enhanced calculator, an eBook reader, and a couple of text games. If I need a full office-program or media apps, then I bring the notebook computer.
As for paper/pencil, I tend to lose the pieces of paper easily, whereas I'm more likely to pay attention to a piece of electronics gone missing. Yeah, the PDA also won't handle a bunch of the accessibility functions that the iBook does, but for me, it's easier than lugging a several-pound book or relatively large notebook while on the go.
This
The reason I've stayed with my now old-school Palm IIIx is because it's invaluable to me. It doesn't have wireless or color, but it has my life on it. I now don't forget to carry the appropriate piece of paper or list with me because I always enter these things into my PDA. I'm currenlty 2700 miles from my home, but my PDA has all of the information I might need for my work or personal use (family phone numbers, infrequently seen friends who I thought of seeing because I was near them, and I had there number). It's also got important work information and useful lists. I can pop into a record store and pick up a new album on my list. I can also pop up several useful astronomy applications and get some casual binocular observing in, and log the results.
My IIIx is very useful because it's simple, reliable and omni-present. I carry it everywhere.
C8H10N4O2 | Developer > Code
I only know two people who frequently use a PDA. One is an independent lawer (he is the only employee at his "firm"), and the other is a minister.
I think part of what makes it useable for them is that their "home" and "work" e-mail systems, calendar, contact list, etc are one and the same. That seems to me to be the best use case.
I know I used a PDA until I hit the corporate world. I'm religious about keeping work and personal mail separate, same with contacts...so there is no way for me to keep everything in sync. When I was in college, my PDA was great...now it just sits in a box unused for many years now.
Yes, I use my Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 a lot. Mostly for e-mailing, chatting and surfing the world wide web using wifi. Wireless is a technique which is about to prove it's capabilities, which it really has. This afternoon I was at a very big computer exposition, everywhere I went I had uplink and was able to communicate with the rest of the world.
Why I don't buy a notebook? Because I really hate the size of a notebook, a PDA is so handy because you just put it in your pocket and pull it out wherever you need it.
I'm not sure where you're getting this sense that PDAs are particularly difficult to maintain. I happen to own a Kyocera QCP-6135, which is a CDMA phone that runs a complete version of the Palm OS; I spent perhaps 20 minutes installing the software and linking it with our Exchange server at work; I spend about a half-second hitting the sync button whenever I put my phone into the charging cradle, and I haven't had any trouble whatsoever keeping this setup working.
One thing I will say is that having a PDA integrated with the phone makes it a great deal more usable; not only is my list of phone numbers always up to date, but since everything is in one unit, I don't have a separate Palm to justify leaving at home.
Only on slashdot can a posting be rated "Score -1, Insightful".
I've used my palm Vx nearly everyday for last 3 years. The ONE thing keeps me using it is the rechargeable battery, and LONG battery life. If I had to run out to buy a set of AA every week I would have stopped using it. The Long battery life of 3 weeks on a full charge is great for extended trip. Palm Vx and mobile with infrared means I can keep checking emails quickly and easily.
Avantgo is another program for adding value. Free editions of all main magazines and newspapers. Defiantly payed for itself that way.(Economist, Wired, Guardian, BBC)
per mere, per terras
I picked up a PDA on the cheap (Palm iiixe just before they killed the line) and used it for quite awhile. Ultimately the lack of a backlit screen and constantly having to replace batteries made it more trouble than it was worth. I used rechargeable batteries which helped with the cost, however this meant that "replacement" was more frequent. Once or twice I would actually lose my data because of this, so I had to go through the process of reinstalling all my software and then syncing back up.
/awfully/ tempting since you get Internet access on them as well. I may eventually get around to picking up one of these, however the time I would spend re-inputting my data might remove some of the utility/value--at least at first.
Finally I decided it was more trouble than it was worth. A backlit color PDA with an internal rechargeable battery would be much more useful to me, and I imagine that if I had one of those I'd still be using it today. Also, those Treo's have been
If you work in an office where you have to go to a lot of meetings, they're invaluable, since your entire schedule is with you at all times.
I find the Palm units superior for this functinon.
I've owned every kind of PDA, and most ended up in a drawer. The Palm is the first one that I've used every day for almost 2 years.
Oh, the games are a definite bonus.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
I got a PalmV about 2 years ago. In college I find it extreamly useful tracking my schedule, homework, quick notes to myself, professor's contact info and office hours, etc. I seriously couldn't live withough it. However durring the summer durring my internships I find it quite useless. I no longer have such a complex schedule and all the company info is already on my PC. So why bother with the PDA? A PDA's usefulness depends really on what you need it for.
I've carried my Visor to and from work every day for almost two years. At the beginning, I used it constantly: the calendar, the todo list, etc. Now I use it only maybe once or twice a week, but on those occasions, it's fantastic. It's my definitive repository of phone numbers and addresses (I manually "sync" to my paper address book at home occasionally), I keep all of my infrequent calendar event in there (when was that concert again?), and I keep a bunch of Twain/Poe/Doyle short stories on board for when I'm bored in the dentist's office.
So, it doesn't *need* to be a life-defining piece of hardware to be essential.
Oh, and Bejeweled. Can't forget Bejeweled. Stupid, addictive game...
I've had my Vx for over 2 years now. I use it all the time. I never had to reinstall stuff, and syncing only takes about 10 seconds, much faster than re-entering data from paper to my desktop. that's for sure.
To keep a portable copy of the ridiculous number of meetings I get scheduled in Outlook, and to download websites (like Slashdot:) to read on the bus on the way home.
Well, I got mine to keep track of addresses/homework, but when you can play so many games and emulate game boy games, I don't see why you need it for your addresses. I have had a blast developing on my palm... I got linux to work on it, but I ditched that after missing Zap!2000.
No you don't understand. People don't use them because they're not good enough. They need better ones, yeah, like with more features and functionality such as playing mp3s, hard drive storage, full-keyboard, compact-size, wireless communication, etc, etc. And when the next one comes out, that one will suck too. It's never enough!
If people carry them is because they use them. Sure, you can carry some gadget for a week for its novelty factor but if you don't use it sooner than later you will stop taking it with you.
Having said that PDAs are not for everybody. Unless you spend certain amount of time away from you desk and in need of contact information, scheduling or some specific application maybe a PDA is not for you.
Personally I love my XDA especially because I have my email always updated anywhere I go. I don't use it as a phone very often but when I do it works very well although certainly not as well as a normal cell phone.
I think the big point is that the cheapest PDAs get used the most. Why? Because when you buy one for $50, it ain't cool enough to be a status symbol, so you must have bought it to use it.
Now, people who buy those $500 macro-computer type PDAs, they're usually just big penis extensions.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
I have a sharp zaurus sl5500. I use it as much as i can! Its not just a pda its a linux computer in my pocket. I can understand palm devices getting boring but with a zaurus its never boring.
Here in Europe they never had much success because cells completely took the scene and most people need nothing more than a phone number repository which already comes in most cells anyway. Business people could make good use of one but usually carry a laptop so that's it; PDA's are just the poor man's laptop. I would have it run some super-sexy calculus program, something like a light mathematica, but I guess they lack the horsepower; where I see a market is in warehousing, portable billing, and the like
Mi domando chi à il mandante di tutte le cazzate che faccio - Altan
- Meeting schedule always handy even when I wasn't at work (plus beeping reminders).
- Todo list always handy (plus beeping reminders).
- Games to play during boring meetings.
- Email Inbox always available
- No more scrabbling for a pen when I want to get a girl's phone number
reason I stopped using itBefore I had this job, I couldn't live without my Palm IIIx. Coupled with my call phone, I could export X sessions (via VNC) and check on things whether I was next door to the office or a thousand miles away. I no longer carried paper around (still needed pens and dry erase markers).
My current employer believes that PDA are evil since "terrorists and criminals" use them. It has been quite an adjustment for me to go back to "legacy" paper and pencil. My coworkers don't understand my whiteboard graffiti.
Use mine all the time, e-books, web when away from my desk, and even as remote for the tv, wouldn't be without it, thinking about a 400Mhz one now.
I have a Palm OS based PDA, and I have to say that I am using it more and more often. At first I bought the thing more or less as a geek toy (hence going for the colour screen, even if it meant it was more expensive), but I have found it to be of great use.
Not only the usual basics, agenda, planner, but also checklists of things to do that you can actually archive (and not just dump on top of that pile of paper that is already eating up more than half your desk), but for me, most important was to have a database.
I have been collecting Sci-Fi books since I was about fifteen, and used to keep track of them in DBase, keep a printed version of it with me, whenever I went into a used bookstore, so I knew I didn't get titles double (which is hard to keep track of once you go over a thousand).
Now it's so much easier to have it all in a small carrying form (instead of a bulk of papers you have to scribble the new titles on untill you do a new printout), a quick search to see if I already have the title of an author.
Also, I use it to keep track of the things I order at the comic shop, to see when I ordered something, and if it should have arrived already. And with a few touches to the screen, I change the order list into the list of comics I already own if I need to make sure I should backorder anything.
So yes, it started out as a toy I wasn't using too often, all I did was write some appointments in it, but now I'm using it quite a lot.
(As a side note, I have heard that the use of the PDA depends a lot on how easy it is to access, and that some PDA's are just so slow that you rather find the information some other way. So your question might actually result in different answers for different models and PDA OS-es)
Hmm-- I am all for Public Displays of Affection. And yes, when I get the chance, I use them ;-)
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
I just got a cellphone module for my Handspring Visor. That nice address book becomes much more exciting when you just hit a button to call the number.
~ Patrick
to view pictures of naked, shaved pussy.
On top of that, the PocketPC devices-- despite being way more powerful and generally cooler-- are much less suited to the basic tasks of a PDA (storing numbers, calendar, etc.) They're just too big, eat too much battery, and the software isn't as concise as Palm's.
I really thought my shiny iPaq would be a great replacement for my Palm and my laptop, with it's ability to handle an 802.11 card (and Ricochet back when that existed). Turned out that it was an enormous and inferior substitute for both, and it crashed a lot with the network card in. Now I don't use either, because I'm dissatisfied with the inflexibility of my Palm and the flaws of the PocketPC.
and have for years. Works great. Also carry around and use my iPod all the time. Looking forward to the two being combined in the next several years.
sulli
RTFJ.
I thought they were fashion accessories for vapid marketing types?
I had a Palm III once (received as a gift), but there was nothing I could do on it that I couldn't do with a notepad and pencil. Now it sits in a drawer with run down batteries, like 75% of a PDA's i'd imagine.
I have not yet seen someone in the technical world (which I work in) use one for any extended period of time. However, the real estate agents, doctors, college students, and other busy folks I sell them to seem to use them a whole lot. Another big difference is whether it is a palmos based model, or not. The WinCE models seem to be much higher on the list of discarded PDA's. Too many toys, not enough real work.
Lately, though, I find that my Palm Vx sits in its cradle most of the time. I still need the planner, but a palm-top is just too big a pain. I'm so keyboard-centered. I can use Graphiti just fine (faster than I can legibly write), but it is still to much of a shift.
For my next laptop I'm seriously considering an ultra-light such as the Fujitsu P2000 series. My previous laptop was a Sony Z505ls, and it was almost small and light enough. Too bad the base battery only lasted a hour and a half. Reguardless, something with the following features would be perfect for me:
Best fit I know of is the P2000 series. I think I could work with that. The Apple iBook is in the running, but all the samples I have examined have seemed cheap and fragile. Perhaps just perception. The keybards do have a lot of flex to them, though. Yuck. Also, sigle button "mouse" is a pain. (yes, I know I can define keys as mouse buttons. so what. when I'm using the pointer I want to use the pointer, not the keyboard, and vise versa)
Anyway, that's my take. I still like the Palm the best of all the PDAs I've tried, and I still go through stages where I use I quite a bit. Perhaps if it were even smaller and lighter, like the new ones.
You think so? I think atleast here in Finland the trend is beginning to reverse - if you carry a communicator - like I do - that is a sign of you being just a workhorse :) If you have the luxury of not needing it - then that's a real status symbol :)
Anyway, I don't think just the PDA functionality would be enough a reason for me to carry it. But when it is at the same time your only phone, and a use anywhere SSH client then there is enough value.
Sounds dangerous to play MC in a meeting... I can just see your panic as you frantically try to save your cities in the end-game. Does anyone notice?
;)
P.S. Will you share the source?
Geeky modern art T-shirts
The automatic alarm feature on the PalmOS is incredible. I have some issues with UI, but overall I've loved using my Samsung I300. However, I just bought a Sony Ericsson T68i with Bluetooth, IR port, Calendar, and a camera. IMO, the PDA/Cell Phone convergence is most important. I HATE carrying around 2 separate devices when one will do. BTW, email me at if you are interested in purchasing my I300 :)
--Joe
"How would this sentence be different if pi equaled 3?"
I Guess you've never used YAPS(Yet another password safe). It has saved my but on many occations at and away from the office. :)
i bought my first pda relatively late (when the palm Vx came out), but i still use it all the time. sure its a little more difficult to read or enter text than a regular old planner...but it can fit in my pocket and hosts a number of programs that i see very useful to me. first and foremost, vindigo is by far the most useful application to have especially if you live in a higly urbanized area (like new york :)
avantgo is also a very useful tool. i stopped subscribing to the nytimes, wired, and the economist because you can get almost the same amt of content on ur palm. same goes for pcworld, etc.
you can also synchronize all ur financial accounts from ur yodlee account into ur palm. very useful
finally, with more and more devices coming out now that have more memory, wifi connectivity, pda phone combinations, mp3 players, etc..., i see less of a need to carry more and more devices, when you can have everything in one package.
unfortunately i still only use a palm Vx...anyone wanna buy me a new pocket pc?
PDA's will possibly be useful for the long haul if they would keep slimming them down, upping the battery life, but most importantly, they ALL... and I mean ALL Of them, have to have at least 802.11 but preferably some kind of always on cellular (or other type) connection to the net. The net is what makes most every computer useful, (what do you do with your PC when your net connection is down?, other than play games). So a PDA without a 24/7 nailed up connection to all your other PCs, office, home, and web, to me, is just really missing the boat. And Im not talking about some deck of cards sized wart you can plug into the top. It needs to be inside, invisible, and functioning all the time. Then Id stop putting mine in a drawer.
I'm Rick James with mod points biatch!
The real obstacle is carrying it. In order to justify using it, you basically have to commit to having it with you all the time. It's very all or nothing. Since my cell phone keeps phone numbers, I don't really need a pda anymore, and I don't mind carrying my cell phone. However, I HATED carrying my pda. It's way way way too huge. Even my cell phone is almost too large, and it's one of the smallest on the market.
Basically, the only thing I used my pda for before was storing numbers. Since I have a cell phone, I don't really need it anymore. PDA's generally have an advantage over cellphone in the synching department, but that's about it. They're way too cumbersome to take notes. And, now that most cell phones give you voice memos, you can leave yourself a voice recording of a telephone number or the name of someone you met, which is infinitely superior to using a stylus. The only improvement over that, would be voice recognition that would automatically convert a memo that contained a telephone number and a name into a contact entry in your cellphone.
My dad bought me an ipaq (3635 I believe) when I was in my last year of high school. I wrote down every assignment, I set dates to do projects, when they were do etc.... I never lost anything again. In the summer I bought a (1) gig micro drive for it to play mp3's while I walked around my lake.
In college now, it is like my best friend. I store a backup copy of class notes; many of the handouts (posted online only) are in Word format so I download them to my ipaq and read them off there. I couldn't do it any other way. The only time I print anything out these days are when my professors ask for a physical copy. I can play games in between classes. Listen to music when I work out, take notes, highlight handouts posted online. I store my daily assignments and tasks.
When I am driving home from class and I forgot to do something, I would pull out my ipaq press the record button on the side and talk to it. When I get home I usually take a break before starting my homework and sometimes I forget what I was supposed to do. I play my recorded message and do what I was supposed to.
I do so many things on my ipaq I couldn't even name everything. I don't think I could ever go back to pencil and paper again. I do other things like securely store my passwords, I have phone numbers in there, email address's of friends, family, people I am working with on a project etc... The ipaq was by far the greatest school investment for me...
Also my ipaq case stores my College ID, Drivers License, Credit card, $40, and a phone card. So I don't have to carry around a wallet. My ipaq is truly an all in one device.
I'm just waiting for the new ipaqs to drop a little so I can replace so I don't have to carry around a wallet. My ipaq is truly an all in one device.
I'm just waiting for the new ipaqs to drop a little so I can replace my older one and at the same time replace my cell phone.
mainly just as an offline browser (read AvantGo).
The one thing I did that I found more useful was write (with some help from a friend) a tool to get data from our group calendaring program (CorpTime) and page me 30 minutes before a meeting. I almost always wear my pager mainly because it is so small. When PDA's get that small I think they will be more useful.
--
Billwashere
I have several clients who might as well have had their PDAs surgically grafted onto them. The first thing they need installed whenever they get a new machine is Palm Desktop.
I had a PDA for awhile, and there were a lot of neat things you could do with it, but it never really stuck with me. Toward the end of my use of my PDA (an older Palm) all I basically used it for was to play chess in the bathroom. Addresses I keep on my laptop, which is almost always on (or closed and asleep for quick access). It's much easier to take notes on my laptop than my Palm. Syching was always a pain in the rear.
Guess it just depends on the person. Some people just love them. Some people can't stand them. Different strokes for different folks. *shrugs*
Item 1. should have read:
Other useful apps:
None of these are forced uses. While I can obviously survive without them, they make owning a PDA worthwhile.
I'm also a bit baffled by the poster. Charging a PDA only wastes time if you sit there watching it charge. I haven't had to reload software that often on my Palms. Syncing may take a few minutes, but I don't sit and watch it either.
They key to a PDA is to find a useful application for what you do. For me it was programs to help me learn Chinese, but there are programs for lots of other areas of life. Go to Palmgear and find something you can use.
I have a few friends who use the phone adapter on their Visor (adding a speaker and antenna). Every time I call them (or vice versa), they're using their PDA. They also use it for everything people use the 2 inch LCD phones for (calendar, alarms, phone book, etc).
In the meantime, I have a 2 inch LCD phone, so I don't use my PDA nearly as often....then again, it's a Palm III with 2 MB of storage. This becomes a lesson in futility if you want to use AvantGo, Vindigo, and 3-5 games at any one time.
If I go out and buy a newer 8MB PDA, I'd probably use it more often. Then again, I'm also a guy who would whip out a GameBoy on a busy bus/train, instead of stare out the windows...so I might not be a totally unbiased sample for whether the average Joe uses his PDA.
Mordor...a magical, mythical land where women are more rare than dragons--but where every man would rather find a dragon
I was one of the early adoptors of PDA's. My US Robotics Professional model served me well for many years. I upgraded to a Handspring Visor last year, but after many technical problems, I have since left the PDA world.
Here's why. The PDA market has gone in a direction that is completely wasteful in my world. Color screens? Why would I need to color me phone number list? mp3 support? That is what my iPod is for. While Bluetooth will be nice for sync-ing the information, almost all other 'connectivity' devices are too much.
Prices have gone from 'too high' to 'outrageous'. I just want a durable device that I can keep in my pocket, ease of data entry, well planned UI, and a game or two to pass time.
I don't need video editing. I don't need movie playback. I don't need web browsing. I don't need IM features. I don't need SD or PCI cards. I dont' need high res screens. I don't need 90% of the crap they are trying to sell me (yeah, sure, it would be nice, but for $400 you can get laptops these days off eBay that do more for less.)
With as much as tech has progresses in the last several years, a well built, basic planner with Bluetooth connectivity, decent memory, and relatively easy interface shouldn't cost more than $50-$75 bucks.
I'm honestly thinking of finding an old Palm/US Robotics/3Com Professional because it did everything I wanted (ok, no Bluetooth, but work with me here)
Stop trying to feed me my home entertainment system/computer/media center/gaming console in a cigarette pack size case. We're not there yet and that's not what I'm buying a PDA for. I want the PIM features without the bloat for cheap. That's it.
As with any information system you get as much out as you put in! Besides I can have ebooks, games etc anywhere without the bulk of a laptop. I don't like the trend towards phones though. The great thing about Palms were they were cheap cutting edge pocket computers at only £200ukp or so. These days the prices are reaching those of laptops. Not good.
I agree, PDAs constitute more of a status symbol than an actual helpful tool. Whenever someone I know gets a good job in the tech sector they always are very quick to tell about their PDA the company gave them.
I do admit, there is a bit of the status symbol element involved--all the other computer science majors have PDAs, I don't want to be the only one without a PDA. However, the usefulness factor far outweighs the status symbol factor.
Eagles may soar, but weasles don't get sucked into jet engines...
im a really forgetful person... so i like to keep a pocket-sized memo with me wherever i go.
:\ ) and it was really convenient... plus i could keep a bunch of contacts and ideas on it, as well as my reminders and to-do list.
:\
:(
sometimes my reminders get way too long to manage, or crossing out "done" items make the pages all messy. a pda would do.
i once owned a pda (now my mom owns it
now, for new contacts i add while outside, i use my subnote if its with me -- which requires me to wear a bag of some sort... way bulky compared to a pda.
the downside of pdas now imho is the stylus input is tooooo slow. often the text input makes mistakes, and i spend double the time just writing a short note down. thumb keyboards are just about as slow. with shorthand i believe most people can probably write at 30+ wpm.
so you have those pocket keyboards... but it defeats the point of jotting notes everywhere.
so now the zaurus with a keyboard behind it looks cool. gotta master one hand typing so i can finally quickly jot things on the fly
yeah sometimes it actually takes me less than a minute before i forget something on my mind
I'm a teacher/tech and I originally bought my Palm so that I could have a schedule that I could carry with me (I don't carry a bag, and day planners kept getting lost -- I have actually lost one Palm too -- my keys are now on one of those little tethers attached to my belt, as I slowly lose my mind. I'm not even 30, but senility is kicking in. :)
I've been using mine for about 3 years now, and that was after having kept my calendar almost entirely in my computer for the 5 years prior to that.
What it comes down to is: if you have to schedule meetings on the fly, or if you have to consult your calendar to find out what happens in 10 minutes, the PDA makes a huge difference in your quality of life.
Where I've found that the interest has dropped off is in all the "other" features of the PDA -- basically, I need it to store addresses and calendars (and to play Solitaire). I use it for nothing else. I tried other things (eBooks, etc.) and just found that I didn't use it -- and it made syncing just way too painful.
Several of my friends (also teachers) have found that they just love their PDA's for that reason -- rather than trying to figure out when they can meet with a student/administrator/parent based on a dim recollection of their calendar, they can just haul out the Palm and _look_.
The big bugaboo for me has been syncing -- iSync from Apple has been great, in that all my computers, devices are talking to each other (which is very, very cool). The downside is having to buy into all the other crap -- iCal particularly. I'm on the verge of writing my own ICS interface just so that I don't have to have my time wasted by watching iCal think.
I have a Zaurus PI-6600, the Japanese model. I solely use it for the Japanese dictionary. I used to store phone numbers and addresses, but not anymore. I remember the last time I stored a phone number in it. I had been trying to meet a certain woman for 3 or 4 weeks, then when we met, she came up to me and asked me if I wanted to go out, and boy was I happy. Showing off, I put her phone number in my Zaurus right in front of her, and said I'd call her that evening. Unfortunately, my Zaurus died and wiped her number. I never ever saw her again. Since that time, I make sure to store all IMPORTANT data on nonvolatile storage: a little black book.
I've got a Motorola PageWriter 2000X, a big, clunky clamshell 2-way pager with some PDA features, and I wouldn't be without it. The ability to use the device to communicate, store email, etc is what makes the difference. I store all my notes, contacts, and other needed info so they are always available and it sits in a holster on my belt. The 2-week run time on the rechargeable battery doesn't hurt. Unfortunately it doesn't run PalmOS or allow me to 'surf', so I'm lusting for the Kyocera Smartphone.
I got a Palm m100, cripes, 2 years ago. It has been in constant use ever since - as a calendar (God how nice this is compared to paper calendars!), with Keyring it's extremely extremely useful for storing all of these millions of passwords! And, of course, plucker and avantgo are good for web stuff and electronic books. On lectures and in train and stuff, I take notes and write stuff with the memo pad. Most recently, I've been simply writing down my payments in memopad so I can enter them to gnucash on my home computer.
All in all, extremely useful little thing. I'll never go back to paper calendars!
These days I'm carrying around a Sony SJ-30 model, running PalmOS 4.1. Color, 16 megabytes, hi-res screen.
What do I use it for? My calendar and address book, certainly. As a diabetic, I use it to record all my blood sugar readings. I have a very nice multifunction scientific calculator on it which I use all the time for anything for simple math or better. I have several games on it. I have a dozen e-books on it, which I read whenever I've got an idle moment. I have a dozen of my less-used passwords stored on it in a triple-DES encrypted form using Gnu Keyring. I use Plucker to download and carry around web clippings from national newspapers, and the Austin Chronicle's movie listings and reviews. I have several technical references stored as well, along with some utility calculators for special purpose conversions.
I carry my Sony around with me all the time; I would feel rather naked without it.
- jon
Ganymede, a GPL'ed metadirectory for UNIX
From my experience:
PalmOS based devices are useful tools.
WinCE/PPC based devices are status symbols/paper weights.
Here's my story :
I started with a Newton 100, moved up to a Newton 130 (backlit screen, yow!), and later migrated to a Sony Magic Cap.
Howly cow! I still remember that interface, especially the abstraction of the local area net (i.e., you'd go outside and look down the street at all the buildings - other computers - you could enter).
Anyhow, this led to a flirtation with the Palm camp, and I used pretty much anything they sold including various Visors once the two co-founders had left the building.
AND THEN
I bought a Compaq iPaq.
I admit it; I was seduced by the colour screen, the generous amounts of RAM (64 MB), easy connectivity.
But something happened.
I had to reset the box a lot and resinstall sw. And the box lacks a built-in search function. Shees! To search my notes for a particular name I have to purchase a third party tool?
Ok. But then there was another problem? How the hell do I get my name and address data out of iPaq and Outlook? I've never found an easy way.
I like the iPaq for its form factor, the colour screen, and relatively fast processor.
What I don't like is its apparently the roach motel of PDAs; get your data in and it ain't coming out.
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well, i just dropped for a Fujitsu table, since it is light enough to carry around, actually has a real screen, and functions as a full computer. the oqo (http://oqo.com/) sounded cool, but is likely vaporware. and, the ibm version is nifty (http://www.research.ibm.com/resources/news/200202 06_metapad.shtml). i did have a newton, and would have loved a more capable machine with a bigger and better screen, though it wasn't all that useful when syncing is such an error prone process. i do not get syncing! i want a machine that is fully functional, portable--light, and useful as a desktop when docked. for now this (http://www.fujitsupc.com/www/products_pentablets. shtml?products/pentablets/st4000a) is what i got.
I use my iPaq all the time. I don't even work since I'm disabled, but I use it to store all my contact info, which comes in handy during medical appointments when doctors want to confer with others. I would forget all my various medical appointments etc. without it. And I have alarms set up to remind me to take meds on the strange schedule they require. Also I play MP3s and games, of course. I have software to track diet and exercise, but havent been disciplined enough to use that much yet really. I listen to MP3s and play games or read ebooks while in waiting rooms.
This space available.
The only actually useful pda was REX, which was credit-card size and so quite portable. Most versions were read-only indeed, which was a good thing, since paper seems to be a better solution for writing...
I bought mine (ipaq 3835) to play with linux. I did, it was fun. But now most of the time it stands on its craddle, and I don't play with it anymore. That's how we use toy, eh ?
There are 3 main uses for a PDA...organizer, entertainment, and net access.
As an organizer, I find that it's just not convenient enough. As a previous poster had pointed out, the interface is far too cumbersome (unless a real keyboard is added, which makes me wonder why I'm not carrying a sub-compact notebook at that point).
Entertainment is pretty much limited to games that aren't much better than the ones I play on my TI-89...so why carry another piece of hardware? I'd rather have a good calculator that plays lame games than a crappy calculator that plays nearly-lame games.
Portable net access is the only decent use of a PDA. Checking movie times and e-mail while on-the-go just turns me on. Logging into a shell is a bit of a pain however...
Personally, I'd rather shell out the extra cash for a decent cell phone and sub-compact notebook. Sure it costs more, but you get FAR more functionality.
I have a friend who worked in an office where several people had identical PDAs. There had been problems with people picking up the wrong PDA after meetings, so he asked my wife to engrave a design on the cover of his, to prevent this kind of confusion.
He sketched the design he wanted, then fished the PDA out of his bag. The thing was covered with little yellow post-it notes with phone numbers, addresses, and appointment times scrawled on them. There must have been 6 or 8 at least!
I'd been thnking about getting a PDA myself, but that made me think again.
Quidquid Latine dictum sit, altum videtur (anything said in Latin sounds important)
Some people find PDAs userfull some don't. They will realy take off when you can get realiable fast internet acess (1X networks). Then you will have email, web browsing, and all the other stuff.
Sure, I do. I'm a man who takes sexual pleasure of collecting data. That's why I love my PDA.
----
I have an Handspring Visor Edge.
I make full use of it. I keep mileage and billing records on it and use it to update contacts. When I am out in the field servicing computers and networks I can add or update records on the fly. For me the unit is vital to the way I run my business. I've tried to keep paper records but never was very organized. I know many people that don't use them but that is not true in my case.
Go ahead, mod me. I'm not a Troll, I am an OGRE and you had better say "Sir" when you call me that.
Slashdot, home of supporters of free software, free music, and free speech.Except for Moderators that disagree with you.
I bought mine a while back and I use it every day.
I use it with MS Money so I when I make a purchase I can put in the amount spent and when I get home it syncs up with the desktop and my finances are in order.
Mainly use it to read ebooks, and to store contacts. I dont use my cellphone for that because its a real pain the ass to transfer information from a cellphone to something else.
Also makes a great mp3 player, and remote control.
I used to use PDA's for note-taking. I've had lots of them, starting with an old Zaurus OZ-7000 (the old one with pen support for ink and a keyboard), and moving through the original Newton, a couple of Palms (a Professional, a III, and now a Vx), and assorted other devices (I have a Zaurus 5500 now, and I just recently sold a iPaq that I'd been tinkering with). They all have had different strengths and weaknesses - but none of them turned out to be great note-takers. So now I look at them more as organizers, and I have dealt with them accordingly.
Nowadays,, I just use them as extensions of my brain - to hold things like documentation I need to refer to often, as a password vault, and for appointments/phone numbers. These are all the functions I can't readily remember off-hand, and PDA's are good for that. I'd ditch the Palm, but it has two strengths for me - it's tiny and it's the only thing I own that can sync with both my Windows PC at work and with my Windows and Mac systems at home. The Zaurus I use because there are things you can do with it that make it a very handy network admin's troubleshooting tool.
But ultimately, the two devices I get the most handheld use out of are just two simple devices that are nearly read-only:
My iPod (which I dump the vCards out of Entourage and onto, keeping my phone list up-to-date).
And my new Sony T68i phone. Bluetooth rocks for easy sync with my Mac, and although I can edit info on it (theoretically), it's a lot easier to just download it all periodically. The phone is small, and it's always with me - so why not keep my contacts list on it?
The thing is, I'm using my devices for purposes that would easily be solved by a cheap pocket calendar/address book - except if I did that I'd only have my data in one place with no backup, ever. And I know I'd lose it quickly. The ideal device hasn't been invented yet, but when it is it'll be a small, inexpensive, Bluetooth-connected organizer that can sync with any PIM on any platform, automatically. Before Palm decided that they were going to chase Microsoft into the expandable enterprise device market (with the high prices that go along with it), it looked like they were heading there. Now I'm not so sure. But I don't think that PDA's are the be-all, end-all that they're made out to be, even though I'm such a big user of them.
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
I didn't use my Handspring for a while because I just didn't need it - I was doing tech support, and really had no need to keep track of anything more than I could write down on a wall calendar.
Now I'm in grad school and use it all the time, mostly for to-do lists and to keep track of class changes. I find myself using the Palm Desktop software on my laptop more than the actual Handspring, though. The Handspring screen is too small to look at everything I need to look at for scheduling - although it's still good when I don't have my laptop on.
to help navigation in a foreign city, which is cool and wonderful, until someone stole it.
If i lost my clie tomorrow then i would have a new on on order within hours. how long would you wait to replace you PDA
So you're asking a bunch of nerds who by definition don't have too many friends and who are rapidly hidden in their workplaces when guests arrive, whether they have any use of personal data organizers, so you could make a conclusion that PDAs are worthless? ROFL.
This being said, I use my Pocket PC rather extensively, but my favorite app by far is Pocket Excel, which I use to keep track of my historical gas mileage, expenses, soccer game scores and many other things, and calculate all sorts of statistics from those. Rather geeky...
Playing Doom comes second, and looking up phone numbers comes third.
When men used to be men
My 6035 works as a wireless modem (though, at 19.2, only in a pinch), keeps my contacts synchronized between work and home, tracks my fueling on my car, has a copy of the Bible for those less hectic moments.
The keyboard is really useful. You can go to a meeting and take notes without a wall of laptop screen separating you from the customer. Mailing your raw notes to the attendees can be a little tricky.
Additionally, when the meeting devolves into a talking head show, you can write those brief little "howyadoin'?" emails, while appearing to be productively occupied.
I won't be ready to live without my 6035 until I've got a 7035 in my hot sweaty.
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
I use mine all the time--I'd never remember a meeting without it. And since I don't have a cellphone, I use it to store phone numbers and such too. I find that I rarely have need to sync it any more, but I still carry it with me (and use it) all the time.
And my PDA is ancient: a Palm Pilot professional (1MB RAM, no infrared), which still works great.
#include <sig.h>
That about sums it up for me. I have owned a palm but finally settled on an Diamond/Psion Mako/Revo for two major reasons.
1) A real, usable keyboard.
2) A landscape screen that lends itself well to calendars.
All I ever use it for is a calendar that syncs with Outlook.
I've praised the HP 200lx in the past, and while I will not claim that it is the most powerful palmtop in the world, it is certainly no executive toy. This is a truly useful and intelligently designed piece of equipment, despite being nearly 10 years old, and I use mine constantly.
The PIM software is absolutely amazing. It was designed by Lotus (as in Lotus 123, which is also built into the 200lx), who were purchased by IBM. Since the 200lx is out of production, perhaps HP/Compaq or IBM could release this great "abandonware" PIM suite so that it could be ported to a more modern platform. Let's have a truly useful modern PDA, for a change!
When I first got my Palm people marveled at the chance to look at all the phone numbers I could store at one time. I even kept it in my pocket at all times and tried to incorporate it into my wallet (pretty tedious with the original Palm). However, within a couple months, I was only using it to play Galax. I eventually gave it away to my girlfriend, who also used it for a week or two before deciding it really wasn't worth it to have this giant thing for the purpose of only storing phone numbers and playing the occaisonal game.
So then I get a CE device from work. I thought I would give PDA's another chance. While this time, I had color and ethernet, and a decent media player, it fell prey to the same problems at before. I stopped using it within a month and it now sits in a drawer never to be used again.
I think PDAs are cool, but no matter how much I want to like them, they just aren't useful.
Easier than taking a paper back places when I need something to read in a waiting room, airplane or where ever. There's a lot of good stuff on Project Gutenberg that I haven't read.
Also all the normal stuff, calendar, phone numbers, a few games for emergency time killing & quick notes. I only take it places when I might really need it.
It seems some folks have a compulsive need for this thing. It's attached to them like a big hairy wart.
It's three years old, black, 8MB, has been kept for most of the time since arrival (Christmas present -- thanks mom) wrapped in a functional but very ugly blue neoprene case from BodyGlove. Has lots of important stuff on there, so I have religiously changed the batteries, complete with a little ritual, white hat of worship, incense, etc.
Finally, the handspring modules are all obsolete, so I picked one up at Wal-Mart for $10, and now my visor is actually backed up -- amazing!
Note: the first time I put in the backup unit, it gave me an error message and I nearly expelled some body fluids. The 2nd time, in this case, turned out to be the charm. Now I just have to find some old Visors on eBay to one day replace this when the inevitable happens.
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
1. Wake up @ 6:30 am & hit the sync button on the craddel.
2. Preset daily alarm goes off 4:30pm for me to lock my file cabnet for the night
3. 7:30pm Place device back into craddel..
4. repeat
The whole process of Sync'n the thing is totally useless unless I'm stuck in a meeting on an given day. Then I'll actully check into what ever I've downloaded off Avantgo. I don't need it as a rolodex since my cell phone has all the numbers I could ever possibly want. Now if I could just remember to lock the damn filing cabnet I'd toss the whole thing.
At one point I even bought one of those real expensive Rhino Skin metal covers, and added another 2 lbs to it's weight.
Humm... Guess I should sell my Palm & Handspring stock tomorrow.
when they ban enctryption only criminals wi$21*J *#JF$%!@#$':
PDAs are the SUVs of the computer industry.
They are too large, too expensive,too slow and use
too much energy.
Also, just like SUVs, most people don't use them for thier original purpose. 9 out of 10 times I see someone useing a PDA in a meeting, they are playing a game.
--T
http://www.theMediaBunker.com
I have tried to switch from my Newton to CE, Palm, Handspring. None have done the job of Apple, until now. I have been trying the Zaurus and have found that except for battery life it competes well against Newton. With the 5600, I may switch.
I think pda's will start being used to run business specific applications soon... I'm currently in the middle of a project that involves making a web based application that will run on a PDA to handle work orders and time reporting for employees. They seem to be getting more rugged (The one i'm working with now can be dropped from 10 feet onto solid concrete and it will still work fine) and with 64 megs of RAM they can run pretty decent applications. Once companies see the value of PDA's and ways they can solve their business problems I think they will really take off... As for personal use I have absolutely no use for one... I find my laptop to be much more useful.
A few months ago I bought a Clie N760 (before the NR70 or NX70 came out)...It was basically the top of the line from sony at the time and the mp3 functionality weas the prime motivator...
Basically now I have a very expensive MP3 player with a few addictive games. Yeah I throw addresses and such into it, but mostly because I don't have anything as convenient on my PC (though the thing lives near my pc unless i'm using it for mp3s, so the numbers could be there 95% of the time)...Besides, phone numbers live in the cell phone...
Occasionally when I get busy I'll use the todo list, but again, I tend to leave it around the PC so I may as well get a todo app for the PC.
Essentially It is a $400 device serving a $150 function. It's cool and fun to develop for and yada yada, but It isn't as useful as its price tag.
Brian
I use mine *constantly*. And it's certainly not a status symbol - it's an original Handspring Visor Pro, purchased at pre-release time. It's been beaten down with heavy use, covered with scratches and looks damn old-fashioned and cheap compared to the Compaq etc. units everyone seems to have now.
I take notes at meetings, run my schedule with the datebook+ in conjunction w/ Outlook (w/ Samsung Contact on the server side), read e-books, even check transit schedules with the thing.
I know a lot of people have trouble with "graffiti", but I mastered it pretty quickly. I actually had a Palm exec once tell me that I was the fastest graffiti user he had ever seen.
Only problem is that my on-paper handwriting has gone to sh-t - I often automatically do the one-stroke partial letters used by graffiti without thinking!
I use my BlackBerry from RIM all the time.
Cell phone, wireless email, calendar and WEB.
when I use my pilot mostly is when i refer to commands I use on a system once in a while. It is
easier to carry a system administration reference
on a palm Vx instead of a whole bunch of books and
notebook papers. when I bought my Linux zarus
I taught I would replace my pilot with it. this
turned out not to be the case there is way too many differences between the pilot and the zarus
the zaurus uses too much power also.
But, my Palm V has been very useful in simply keeping my phone numbers, travel arrangements, appointments, meetings, and to-do lists in a place where I can access them quickly without booting up my laptop. I still enter everything in Outlook, then sync the data to my Palm V.
It only has 2M of RAM, so I can't load a significant number of games or other applications. But as an extension of Outlook, it meets my primary requirements.
Second ... I use mine to: track my schedule, track my tasks, track my weight, track my diet, track my exercise, read my Bible (in Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic and English), listen to mp3's, and keep notes. Oh yeah, I use it as a shopping list too. And it has a calorie database for my diet. And I play video games on it. It goes everywhere I go, remembers everything I can't. It has a company phonebook imported, and I"m more likely to use that one than the web-based one.
Geesh... How could I live without it? It must be confessed, however, that I'm ADD, which makes external organization very important. But still... Join the revolution!
"He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. " -- John Calvin, commenting on Genesis 1
had a palm pilot pro, a palm IIIx and now an ipaq 3xxx (not clue which model is......the one with bluetooth)
As a replacement of a pen/paper diary they are crap...if you use them as something else (read emails or whatever) that might work for you.
I tried to use the ipaq as a "portable" hard disk for documents (64 meg via bluetooth), but I quicly got feed up with it and bought one of those key rings usb, much smaller and faster....
...is to play solitaire on the crapper at work.
Does it take a bit of time to input data. At first, then I got familiar with the handwriting recognition and it takes no more time than scribbling a note on a scrap of paper. Unlike paper I now get an alarm, and the data gets synced to my workstation.
I introduced my wife to one -- she's always been a highly organized person -- and it was amazing what she does with it.
The people that don't think it's worth the time? I've observed that there are two kinds that really can do without: those that are already organized that don't see a great advantage to learning a new method; and those few whose boring lives are so predictably mundane & repeatable that they have nothing to organize. Then there's the other type that think they don't need it -- they're the folks that are late for everything, wasting the valuable time of other people when they aren't ready or forget.
It just takes a tiny bit of effort at the beginning. Even a tool as simple as a hammer has a learning curve!
"Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever." --Napoleon Bonaparte
on one of these things? with all the fancy formulas and macros? How bout other office documents?
I use a Hewlett Packard HP48 calculator for a PDA because it has everything I need. Back when HP made handhelds (ALL HP calculators and handhelds are discontinued), it supplied a disk with the Mac/PC serial connection kit with FREE HP48 programs and utilities. I used HP's Appointment Calendar program written RPL (Reverse Polish Lisp) and frequently transferred the data file to and from my PowerBook 520c using the BBEdit text editor to modify the appointments. I did the same thing for a third party Rolodex program called 'Roldx', written by some Brittish guy. This was the perfect toy for any math or science geek. I also had a VERY cool Periodic Table of the Elements installed. When I needed to take notes, I used a another third party text editor that wrote data files as standard ASCII text, then zipped them through the serial cable to the PowerBook. I still use my HP48 calculator nearly every day, AND it's very kind on batteries.
It's too bad HP discontinued their calculators. The problem was is that they were built too well and last forever. I'd still buy more if they ever came back (original HP48). I have yet to see a device with this flexibility and versatility with similar battery life.
I suppose the perfect PDA would combine what I wrote above, with the convience of the Apple Newton Handwriting recognition (with user-definable hand strokes; I will NOT learn Graffiti or any other chicken scratching to enter info into a PDA), the iPod's automatic battery charging when connected to the firewire/USB port on a Macintosh/PC, and intelligent syncing between other devices through radio frequencies (cell phone names and numbers).
I finally bought into the PDA market a few months ago with a Toshiba e740 (this is a PocketPC with built-in wireless).
I knew when I got it that it would be partially for the fun of it, but the practical side was useful as well. As my mind slips on remembering all the little details, the PDA is there reminding me. I sync it with my desktop daily (having a fulltime job, this isn't a "chore", as others have noted, I'm in front of the computer anyway). It's good for keeping all those phone numbers of people I rarely call, but really need the number when it comes up (most recent examples are the landlord and frequent flyer numbers).
But it's also the non-PDA features of this new generation of devices that makes it all the more useful. I can sit in a starbucks and surf the internet (yes, this has been useful once or twice). I walk to work, and use WMP constantly to listen to mp3s along the way. This is also useful at work when I want to listen to music without bothering coworkers (I have normal speakers on my desktop). Those with Palms (excepting Sony) just don't know what they are missing.
I have never had trouble sync-ing, or moving it to sync with other computers. It's a solid little device that I see becoming a much more common appliance in the future (as desktops already are now).
It seems that a lot of people have PDAs that they don't use. Anybody want to donate them to an...er..."greater cause" (read: me)?
I spent a lot of money on my handspring. Then I spend a lot of time entering information in it; things to do, addresses, important dates and so on. Then I hotsync and I am all set to go.
Then I forget the bloody thing at home... It drives me nuts.
I bought a PDA about a year ago. It was cool at first, but I got bored with it after about a week. I took it back so I didn't feel I wasted $200 bucks for something that was just gonna collect dust. I don't really have any use for a todo list or an electronic calendar. I can usually remember my appointments or jot them down on a scrap piece of paper.
At the hospital where I work, people use them all the time (meetings, schedules, to-do lists, flight information). Personally, I use a Newton 2100, but most people I work with use something much smaller.
personnaly i bought a Palm IIIx and after a year sold it and went back to pen and papers... (agendas) Syncing is annoying and the palm lose everything if you don't have fresh batteries.. i cant forget it in a corner for a long time. I did read some eBooks but it's not really worth it. I did have some fun with the software available but after a week you do something else :)
The T-mobile sidekick is finally a PDA that i like. Along with the typical PDA functions, there is browsing the web, AIM, and a cell phone. Makes it a more useful tool (for wasting time most likely, but still).
"Martha Stewart can lick my Scrotum......do i have a scrotum?" -- Sharon Osbourne
My dad's company upgraded to newer devices so we got to keep the old Philips Velo 1, which I tried to use but had no good use for.
As soon as I hit college for the first few months I found myself unable to keep up with all the appointments. I was constantly getting emails about all sorts of things and the scheduled times were changing and I never knew when things were happening anymore, so I started using Outlook and copy/pasting the original email text into the notes section of each appointment.
After awhile I found myself booting up my laptop everytime I forgot what my next appointment was. I could have written down all my appointments, but knowing myself I would always leave them behind in my room as I shuffled out to get to class on time.
I bought a Palm OS device knowing that I would always grab it by habit with my wallet and keys as I would run out the door. Plus I would sync it to my computer by habit every day. By making it of more value than pieces of paper, I found I would treat it much better and never leave it behind, lest I lose my investment.
I think there are two main problems that prevent people from using their PDAs to their potential.
One is that people don't sync their devices up and therefore the info becomes obsolete and by then it's no longer a useful tool to have around. I love having everyone's phone number in one place, but it's even better to have all of them in two places and know that both are updated. Plus, if I lose either my Outlook data or my Palm's memory, I know I can get it all back from the other, so I trust it more.
Perhaps the main reason people don't use PDAs, though? One word: batteries. If the batteries aren't recharagable, then it's an expensive hassle to keep it up. By tossing it in the hotsync cradle when I get in every day, I've never had to worry about it croaking on me.
My final verdict is that you probably don't need one. I always advise people not to get one unless they really plan on using it a lot. I personally do use mine a lot and it's really helped me out. However, anyone who has to ask if they need it or not probably does not.
I design user interfaces for a free network management application,
mostly for logging passwords and login names. I use it as an address/phone number database as well. It is invaluable to me for login/password info. If it ever dies or is lost I would be at a terrible loss. I guess I should go make a backup right now :-)
I use my PDA (Jornada 690) for writing and that's about it. With the external keyboard (which has very nice action), it's almost as good as working on a full size machine and I can take it anywhwere. Even if I don't have the external keyboard with me, the built in keyboard is just big enough for pretty quick four-finger typing.
As for the PDA functions, I've got one recurring entry. It screeches when it's time to go to the gym. That's it. I don't keep contact info there (that's what my phone is for!). I don't schedule meetings or do email or sync with outlook. If I remember to sync avantgo, I'll have news for the day. If not, oh well.
The biggest issue I have with PDAs (and other similar devices) is that they are usually quite expensive pieces of hardware to replace if they get damaged (and if they get damaged, chances are your data on there is toast as well). Why carry around a $300 toy that does the same job as a regular paper planner?
I've got the clip-on organizer for my old StarTac phone. Now, I don't use it a whole lot. I put notes into it, which isn't the easiest, since its has one of the scroll-and-select alphabet things. Most of the time its easier to just update the computer, and sync it up. Which is nice, the TrueSync software has an online app that I can update at any time, it just doesn't go into the phone right away.
Now, this PDA doesn't have a whole lot of features. Its got a calendar, phone numbers/addresses, and todo list/notes. Its convenient when I need it. Its also nice to have something that holds a little more info, like addresses and email. But in the end, what I really care about is that its small. It just clips on the back of the phone, which I'm carrying anyway. Its not some large, obtrusive hunk of plastic that's too big for my pocket. I only take it off when I use my other belt clip, or a different back style accessory.
Its small, convenient, and the few features it has are exactly what I want. What more can I ask for?
Yeah, i've got a palm3 that i upgraded to 8M. Used to use it all the time, and then just got tired of lugging it everywhere, changing batteries, sync'ing, etc.
So I put it away for a while, and recently drug it back it, upgraded to 4.1, downloaded a bunch of freeware, and now i use it for the most popular function: playing games while on the toilet.
Support FSF: Stop thinking with your wallet, and think with your imagination. (cc/non-commercial)
While not strictly a PDA, the RIM BlackBerry has recently replaced my iPAQ which I had for several years. In fact, I'll never go back - the killer app for a PDA is having email and a "live" synchronised appointment book. That way, my admin can add/remove/change meetings and send me a quick email while I'm anywhere in the US, which I can respond to. It even works at 35,000 feet!
Do I miss the colour touchscreen of the iPAQ? No. Do I miss any applications? Well, now that I have AvantGo on it, no I don't. Do I miss handwritiing recognition? Hell, no! (In fact, I can't imagine a worse thing to do with a laptop than take the keyboard away and use only a pen - are you listening, Mr. Gates?)
While you still do have to sync the RIM occasionally to clean out the mailbox and to get contents synchronised with Outlook, it is by far a more "connected" device than either the iPAQ or Palm. And to me, that's what matters: connectivity.
Sadly, as The Register is fond of pointing out by calling them "Lawyers in Motion", RIM has a habit of suing any other company that tries to bring "push" email to PDAs. Nevertheless, it is 100% clear to me that all PDAs (and probably mobile phones, too) will work like BlackBerries in the near future.
This is not to say I wouldn't love to find them more useful, but until they get the human input interface working in an efficient (read: USEABLE) manner, I'm going to have to say they're fairly low on the usability scale.
Now what would be REALLY useful is if there was some sort of voice recognition, combined with the ability to record several hours of meetings clearly while in a large room with a lot of people. Oh, and it would actually have to work, rather than be a "marketed feature" That's important.
This isn't meant to be a marketing ad for Tosh!ba, but I have been recently using their e310, and before it, I used to be one of the aforementioned users who would use the PDA and then forget about it. I really like the way the e310 works, it has a great color screen and the battery lasts a long time. I use my infrared keyboard to take notes into it during meetings and such, and it works incredibly well. And it will play mp3s! .doc's that i can make with it.
I'll admit though, it does run *nix PC 2002, but it's nice having the
Just my 2 cents..
Only if you consider those IT professionals "people"...
I'm a writer, and I use my Handspring Visor Edge with the Targus foldable keyboard Constantly. It's much easier and more portable than dragging around a lap top, and the rechargable batteries have saved me tons in AAA's.
If you count a device that's always with you that contains phone numbers, appointments, and a calculator as a PDA, then I've been using one since 1989. Some people have been at it longer than that.
This is no trick, and I am talking about electronic solutions, not a clipboard with a calculator strapped on.
I'm talking about Casio databank watches. My first two both had body failures where the pins for the band are held in, but the actual brains never failed me. The models they started selling around 1997 have EEPROM so you can even change out the battery without losing the data. I've done it twice and it functioned as advertised.
Now they're hawking yet another version that will receive WWVB from Fort Collins to sync the time. Considering how much time my current watch gains in a month, it might just be time to upgrade again.
Four watches in 13 years doesn't seem so bad. Total investment? About $400, plus another $5-10 for those replacement lithium cells.
If you always wear a watch anyway, why not?
...as a glorified alarm clock
Got a Psion Revo a few years back with the intention of using it to dial up to work and perform basic tasks via telnet, check email etc. Since my mobile phone company (Orange) decided to charge for 0800 data calls, that soon went out the window (my company wouldn't reimburse the calls). So I *tried* every-so-hard to use it for PDA-type stuff - Agenda, Jotter for notetaking, Word for meeting minutes/complaint letters etc. However, it's difficult to do those sort of things when you simply don't have the full, go-getting lifestyle required for such tasks.
Yes, nowadays I use the Agenda to remind me to get a haircut, buy a birthday present, tax the car etc but it basically boils down to a glorified alarm clock. (Which, I'd like to add, it does rather well - I'm one of those people who needs a good kicking in the morning to get up, and the Psion dutifully does that with its "gets louder the longer you leave them" alarams.)
Best 200 quid alarm I ever bought.
And I think that's the problem: some of us buy such items simply because we like gadgets and we never learn that we don't actually need one.
[Trouble is, I want a Zaurus, but just know that I'd never use it and thus feeling guilty for having one.]
I'm a college student (in my 4th year of undergrad) and I use my Handspring Visor Prism all the freaking time. I used to have a paper organizer, but I'm very disorganized and wouldn't always write in it because I'd run out of inserts, or lose it, or it was too big to carry.
With my PDA, I can stash it in my backpack - or even my pocket. I never worry about losing it, because it cost me so much that I know its location at all times. I never have to worry about running out of inserts or paper and etc.
It helps me keep motivated to use it because by pulling it out in class I can assert my geekiness and show up all those n00bs around me.
I don't have anything installed on it, however, except what came on it. I only use the HotSync for charging it, which lasts me two or three weeks.
As for other stuff, well, I've been thinking about getting some games, but all the games worth playing seem to be for Win CE/Pocket PC machines. My friend's iPAQ has an NES emulator, and I'm all jealous. I've had real difficulty finding a warez version of the Liberty emulator, too.
I tried getting porn pics on it with the PhotoAlbum, but they're so small that it's hard to make out any juicy details. I could get a SmartMedia expansion for the Springboard slot and watch porn movies, but the sound is very low quality, and that's what does it for me. This still leaves the question of where I'd masturbate with it? I'd be worried about damaging it during the process anyway.
So yeah, I just use it for organizing. It's good for that.
The real killer for PDA use is a bad heyboard, or bad pen input (remember the newton?). My favourite PDA is my Psion 3C, simply because of the great keyboard. The point of owning a PDA is tat it's easier to use than paper. If you're scratching away in graffiti at 3wpm, you might as well use a Day Planner and write at 20wpm.
I use my iPAQ every day. My mind is always full of random thoughts, so I write them all down so I don't have to remember them.
ToDo list, Grocery list, Gift Ideas, Personal Goals, Movies to Rent, Books/DVDs/Music to Buy.
Also, it is a good way to keep all that information that you don't usually need, but is helpful to have.
Car Maintenance Records, Calling Card Numbers, Phone Numbers, Addresses, etc.
While I am taking classes, the 'Tasks' section is an excellent way to keep track of long term and short term assignments, projects, etc.
I used to use little notepads and a pen, but having it in electronic format helps. Much easier to sort the lists.
-Foose
I use mine all the time. Mostly to scan for unathorized wireless in my areas of responsibility (military bases), but also to telnet/terminal into switches and routers to make changes, scan the nets I run, scan suspect hosts on those nets, email....occasionally chat on #zaurus....and play Ultima VII, gameboy games, MAME, mplayer for some of the movies I download and want to watch at work while waiting for something. Read books and use a combination of plucker and sitescooper and read it all with opie-reader. Beats my old PalmOS devices HANDS DOWN.
And it's Linux!
With a wireless net t home, I use it do almost ALL of my email, except for th odd M$ attachment (even then it comes iwth built-in apps to handle those).
I love it. Use it all the time. Zaurus 5500 is the way to go.
I work as a waiter in a restaraunt and my shifts start and end at random times and are prone to change on a day-to-day basis. Then I work a side job designing web pages and setting up home networks, so client meetings and work times must be arranged. On top of that I am a college student, and my class / study / exam schedule may be almost as variable.
Before my palm I was missing exams and losing jobs. Now, the schedule function on my Palm m500 really helps me to keep it all together.
And when I am out with my girlfriend and we decide to catch a movie, I pull out the palm and fire up an app called "Showtimes" which tells me what is playing, and when, and where. Invaluable!!!
I don't use it for everything though... I keep all my phone numbers in my cell phone's memory. I keep all my e-mail contacts in Eudora on my PC. I keep the grocery list on a pad of paper attached to the fridge...
I really don't have a need for a Palm. I can keep all my numbers in my cell phone and anything else gets put on post-its in my wallet.
Of course, and I highly suspect it, I may be talking out of my ass. -oqti
I've been using my Sony Clie every day for the last 6 months. In the past I've owned 2 palms, a Newton, a cassiopeia, an ipaq, and the clie. The Newton was probably the most useful - except for the size. It's size made it nice to write on, but a pain to carry around (still a beautiful piece of technology though). The Ipaq has a great screen, but runs wince and I can't easily carry it in my pocket. The best organiser I've ever had has been the clie. It's got a nice clear color screen and fits in my pocket. The case is pretty scratched from my keys. It has been a pain getting it to sync with Linux, but it's working now. If you have a device running PalmOS, I'd defintely recommend installing DateBk5.
I got my PDA primarily so I could have easy, light weight access to all those little bits of information that occasionally come up: Phone numbers, addresses, which was the last issue of Girl Genius that I read, etc. I bought my Handspring Visor two or three years ago, and even then it was an older model. Today, I take it everywhere I go - because I need it: It reminds me of things I have to do. I have ready access to all those little bits of info I mentioned. I can actually answer my parents when they ask "are you doing anything the weekend of ___?" Not to mention being able to catch a little reading while I'm waiting in the lobby at a restaurant.
I don't use it 100% of the time when I'm on vacation, but when I'm doing stuff, yeah, I use my PDA; it's my to-do list, and I sure can't keep that on paper.
Handera 330. Wonderful gizmo; I read books on it, because the "wide" orientation and higher resolution make it pretty practical to read. Baen free library has become my new favorite web site.
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
I use my PDA constantly. No not every minute of a day, but whenever I need to write something down quickly or get a phone number or even waste a few minutes. My Calendar is there. Contacts, maps for when I go out of town (Pocket Streets), MP3's occasionally, and some games. I also have vxUtil on there which is a nice tool on and off the network (Ping, spread ping, capture html, time synching, and when off, I can figure out netmasks and ip address ranges with ease without having to sketch the patterns out. Calculator is in there too and I save all my travel info in there (Hotel number, Airline, Gate Numbers...). I also use it as a laptop replacement on the road so I don't have to put up with the inane rule that says I must remove my laptop from it's case. With the PDA stuffed in my camera bag, it just goes right thru. I have a modem, WiFi and soon hope to get a ethernet card to sync avantgo at work. I use it to read on the bus too. There are so many uses I can't name them all here. I say go with power because then it will become more of a necessary tool. Some folks don;t use the calendar that much. If that's so, then get a powerful one rather then a palm. PocketPC's are right on the brink of being just fine for most uses. IM's are very useful for keeping LD bills down low. Now if only more airports had WiFi in them.
Gorkman
As a long time techie, I think PDA's have limited usefulness. They aren't for John Q. Public to keep track of his limited contacts and appointments.
I see Corporate Sales and Executives using PDA's frequently. This is probably due to the large number of business contacts and frequent appointments they have.
Your average techie has typically only a few meetings a week (if that), and probably less than two dozen business contacts. A paper planner serves the techie better as it is more convenient due to the reduced management overhead of paper - i.e. you don't need to recharge, sync, or perform software updates on paper.
I've owned an array of PDA's from the original Palm's through the latest Compaq iPaq. After the novelty of the new gizmo wears off (usually in under 2 weeks) it gets put in a desk drawer and forgotten.
Techies know that all PDA's are too underpowered to be a primary computing device, and are too cumbersome to manage the limited contacts and appointments of the techie.
I'm sticking to paper.
I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
- Surrogate laptop.. until I become re-employed (and buy my iBook) it subs as a laptop.. ok, more of a compact email/web terminal. Between PalmEudora and AvantGo/EudoraWeb I still manage to get my various mail/web fixes. I only wish I could find a better NNTP client than the few out there so I could sync ASR.
- Along those lines, AvantGo is great for snagging latest site content from news.com (I can hear the hissing here), AnandTech, BBC, Kernel Traffic (hey, you can roll your own), etc. Nice to read online content while sitting at a park, waiting at an airport, before going to sleep.
- With pocket telnet/term programs, it makes a GREAT serial console in a pinch. I've used my Palm to reconfigure ethernet stacks and capture kernel oopses (doing that right now to debug an aic7xxx error).
- Yes input can be a little cumbersome, but you can pick up a keyboard for ~$30 these days.. and I do a few journal entries.
- I think I have the PDF for Linux LVM1 and a set of release notes for Tru64 in there.
- When all else fails, I have a good Euchre program and DopeWars.
:)
So yes, I still use my Palm. It's not as fancy or new as the latest crap, but for what it is and what it does, it is and does better than I expected.-'fester
The PDA I use is a Newton MessagePad 2100. It's an awesome tool. I carry it around with me most of the time. I take all of my college lecture notes [1] on it using handwriting recognition (which comes in incredibly handy when you are trying to find something- don't just page through, do a full-text search!); I use it as a 'net pad with 802.11b (regular ethernet when I'm at school) and web browsers, irc, email, telnet; I use it for data collection any analysis with a spreadsheet; I use it for writing papers, between NewtonWorks (WYSIWYG) and a small TeX interpreter; I use it for coding, in Forth, Lisp and NewtonScript, with and without the keyboard, whether I'm just trying to find a number quick or writing a full blown application.
:)
That's most of what I do. I never sync. I backup onto a memory card, but a Newton does not need a desktop to be useful. I had to use a desktop in order to put on the driver for ethernet, but past that, everything else I've been able to install using it. Unlike the 3600-series iPAQs (are they still this bad?) I get a lot more than 2-3 hours of battery life, so I only have to charge once a week. I usually get a few weeks out of a charge of the NiMH battery if I'm not doing much with the wireless ethernet... if I am using it for an hour or so a day, about a week.
A while back, I tried both a Jornada 720 and an iPAQ 3150 to replace the Newton, and for doing real work it just isn't practical yet for me. Someday, my own PDA environment/OS Dynapad will be mature enough to be useful, but not for a while. Until then, I'm going to stick to the Newt, preferring to have a PDA be a computer that supplants some of the activities I do at a desktop or laptop rather than being an overpriced electronic organizer or status symbol...
[1] But I stopped putting them up online- no one wanted my messy notes.
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
I have no use for a PDA at the moment, but I am sure I will get one later on. I still wear those CASIO Databank watches and I usually store important data in it. I use brief messages for schedules. I don't have a lot of appointments.
Other information are stored on computers like in e-mail archives, text files, etc.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Between Bejeweled, Dopewars and Backgammon, I don't think I'll ever be able to go to the bathroom without my PDA again.
I would be surprised to see people go back from a PDA to paper for planning. From what I have seen, people who make effective use of a planner/planning system (Franklin, Getting Things Done), make the transition to a PDA very well and would never go back. People who do not work well in that structured of an environment (and I'm one of them) won't find the Palm/CE device to be a magic bullet that makes them more "productive".
Do People Really Use Their PDAs?
Yup. Downloaded internet sites (Slashdot, Cnet.com) via AvantGo, eBooks with Documents To Go, word processing with keyboard attachment and Documents To Go, a graphing calculator substitute (Easy Calc), assignment tracking (To Do List), and the occasional game of Mine Hunt.
At our school, we don't earn a degree when we graduate—we earn pi/180 radians
I'm not the office going type. i don't carry a beeper unless the job requires it, i don't carry a cell phone because I don't like people to get a hold of me when it's convienient for THEM. I carried a cell phone for a while on the premis that it was for emergencies only (car accident etc) but that got old, especially when I looked back at the previous 25 years of my life and realized i didn't need one then, why should I now?
I don't need a PDA. The important phone numbers I need I have memorized (all 4 of them plus 911). My calendar is basic, nothing I can't remember.
I have a simple life as do most people. These gadgets just make things more complex to us simple folk. I can acknowledge there are people who could use this stuff but honestly, I'd rather have an iPod. It does all the basic functions your typical PDA does plus plays all my music.
I've never understood the fuss over these things. Maybe some people like being bothered 24/7. I'm sure arguments can be made one way or another, i just don't see how these things have significantly improved peoples lives. If anything I think they degrade the quality of life. Email 24/7? Phone calls 24/7? Being paged when on the toilet? Nah, it's my life, I'll talk to you when I feel like it, after I take a shit.
I get to work at 7 in the morning. By 8 I'm in the truck going everywhere (I program HVAC systems). Without my Visor, I'd never get through the day. Need to know when the last time I calibrated a sensor? Look it up in the Visor. Need to fill out my time sheet for last week? Just print a copy of my weekly calander. What was the password to that router that I set up two years ago? Look it up in the Visor. Opps, forgot my checkbook and need to make a deposit. Look it up in the Visor. I've been using Palm based PDAs since the Pro. I gave my original to my son almost a year ago. He uses it to keep track of his cartoons and play games (he's 8) but I'll bet he uses it for tracking school assignments before to long. In my world, the key is to keep it on me at all times, that means a geeky belt pouch. Sometimes I wished I had to wear a sports jacket. :)
Every person telling a "I don't use my Palm" story is a person that hasn't used Vindigo.
:)
I agree that using a Palm to hold phone numbers and addresses is a waste of a device. Paper can do that. The useful part of a PDA is it's extension of your computer.
When I first got my Palm, and saw all the fancy net-capable ones as well, and each time I needed directions, I wished I had one. MapQuest was the part of my computer that I wished I had with me when I wasn't at my computer. Vindigo does that for me.
Vindigo costs me about $25 per year, and I can load any collection of cities from their list. I mostly just use Atlanta (since I live here), but load vacation cities when I travel. The information they have on each city contains (but probably isn't limited to)
-every resteraunt and bar, with address and phone number, organized by price and location and genre
-movie times and locations and summaries
-maps of the area, with the ability to zoom in and out, AND give walking or driving directions from any location to any other. This feature is linked with the above databases of addresses.
Now, the information is never completely up to date. It only updates when I synch. But I never need information that's newer than a week old. I needed connectivity on my Palm, but I was ok with a week lag.
Most of what I use my Palm for is Vindigo, now. I still hold phone numbers and addresses and stuff, but when I leave my Palm in my other pair of pants, I can get by without everything except Vindigo.
Sam
(Usual disclaimers apply. I don't work for Vindigo. Just a happy customer.)
I bought a foldup keyboard and I am using it as a cheap laptop. I take all my notes on it and such. Not bad for $150+$70.....
It's also much smaller than my laptop. What is really cool is being able to read books, play games, or do e-mail on the run. Sure, a laptop could do it better, but it's harder to carry around and I can't really afford a decent laptop.
Hehe, I'll sell my Palm III with sync cable to the highest bidder. Email for info: mrh2k2@cox.net.invalid (subtract the ".invalid")
Well, I thought at this topic a lot. And what I get is that that almost all the current PDA are not convinient at all.
I have been using Psion 3A for 4 years already and just love it. The main its drawback is its size. But its size makes it useful. It holds only 2 megs of memory and has passive mono screen, but with decent resolution. And it has just excelent UI, not a fancy stilus but thoughtful hot keys.
BTW, I think that keyboard is just a vital part of PDA. I saw how Pilot owner tried to write down my phone number and it was an miserable show. It was the last time when I thought of buing Pilot. When I looking for a person in a database I just type 4-5 letters of his name and press enter. And how pilot guys do the search?
And Psion has an excelent scheduler, just almost perfect. UI rules. As you can imagine it has some problems but they do not spoil it to much. Its alarm policy is very smart, it is very important, and it sounds very loud.
It runs solid rock stable for years.
So I use its Database for contacts and as a jotter (second file), schedule on a regular basis, calculator when I need it, expences in a self made electronic table, e-tables for a train timetables and etc., I wrote several texts in its text processor during long waitings, and several waynotes during vacations. Actually I use only two external apps, one is a solitare game (very seldom) and text file reader, with the latter I read several books.
So just recently I wanted to make an upgrate and found that there is on the market is not as useful as my Psion. So I'll stick with it for some time further.
After all I think that its is very important to a person to have PDA with himself all the tiime, at least out of home, and to make himself get used to it. And of course I think that keyboardless PDAs just useless, just useless...
I use my PDA (Handspring Visor) daily. I have a program that converts units back and forth, which I use incessantly. That way, I don't have to remember how many PSI in are in 1 Torr or 1 bar or 1 megapascal. It's a wonderful utility that saves my brain from having to remember silly little details like that.
I also use the RPN calculator, so a) I don't have to lug around my HP and b) I don't have to turn my brain around to use algebraic notation on other calcs. I love it.
I also use it to organize myself, by making lists of things that I need (like a grocery list, but for books and movies and such), so I don't have to remember all the authors who I want to check out.
Showtimes is also a superb utility. I never have to look in a newspaper to find movie times. I can do it, instantly, out in the world when my friends and I spontaneously decide "Hey! What's playing tonight?"
Basically, I use it as a swap file for my brain. Anything that's not important for me to memorize, but I do want to have quick and reliable access to, goes in the Handspring. The ability to replicate that data back to "secure" storage (on my PC) is absolutely invaluable. If I do happen to lose/break the thing, I know that 99.44% of the data I had on it is just waiting there for me to go grab another PDA. Try doing that with your Franklin Planner. : )
However, I'm curious as to the motivation for this question of "Do people use PDA's?" I mean, I use mine. I love it. What I can't figure out is why MY experience in any way informs YOUR experience. If you've tried using a PDA, and it doesn't suit you, why do you care if it suits me? I mean, it seems like the only purpose of the question is to reinforce the stereotype that PDAs are just useless status symbols. Me, I don't give a damn about status symbols. My PDA is a tool. The fact that it doesn't have color, or rechargeable battery pack, or a zillion-gigahertz processor, in no way impairs its utility to me.
Now, I think the more INTERESTING question would be the turnover rate for PocketPC versus Palm. I believe that PalmOS is far better at doing basic organizer tasks, and PocketPC is good at doing fancy-schmancy fun toy tasks (whose luster quickly dulls). I'd be willing to wager that more people stop using PocketPCs than stop using Palms, on a per-capita basis.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
I recently replaced my m105 for a Sony NX-70V, purely for the whiz-bang factor. I can live without the keyboard, but the other capabilites strike me as handy. I mgiht have to give up and buy a cradle for the office, though.
I used my first Palm extensively at my first job, where *everybody* had one. Meetings, deadlines, contact information, *everything* went into the Palm. And then I got laid off. My current office is big on Blackberries, but they haven't issued me one.
Canthros
I found that using an iPAQ was a waste of money and time. I bought one of those back when they were still $550 for the 16MB version. At first I was using it all the time for meetings and MP3s and reading news while on the john. I discovered over a long weekend that once you loose battery you lose EVERYTHING. Your books, your news, your software, your mp3's. Everything. What in the hell??? I am a software engineer by trade and I work on mobile devices for Motorola and I can tell you that when our devices loose battery you DO NOT lose your data! What kind of idiots designed and/or managed this thing? It's exactly this kind of crap that makes PDAs ususable because they fail badly when you get a cheap one. However when you get an expensive one you really don't get a good feel for whether their expensive by design robustness or simply marked up. Give it about a decade. If PDAs are still around "they" might have gotten the cost of good design and components down far enough to produce a very robust PDA that won't pass for a "racoon coffin".
The next remark is false. The previous remark is true.
most people buy it just for the "gee-whiz" factor of it. Or they just want to be james bond (I am sure sales of gadgets go up after a james bond movie).
I have never bought a PDA but I have received 2 in hand me downs from my dad. I had a Palm IIIx a few years ago when I was still in high school but rarely found any use for it. I tried using it while I worked a technician during the summer but it wasn't so useful that I would bother carrying it arround with me everywhere.
A few months ago I got a Sony CLIE and its awesome, its smaller then my old IIIx and its easier to use with one hand thanks to the jog wheel. Anyways now that I am in college I use it everyday. I have my workschedule in it, class schedule, assignment due dates, test dates, etc. I don't really use it for phone numbers or anything since they are all in my cell phone, but they are all in my palm also.
I don't like inputting data into it, its much faster to jot down on piece of paper and then input it later in Outlook and synchronize.
I do use the memo pad in my palm to jot down something when I don't have pen and paper with me though.
I would be interested in seeing how a viewer only PDA would work. Viewer only as in no input on the PDA itself, only on your computer or via an optional thumb keyboard or fold out keyboard.
So that I can keep my input device in my bag or briefcase and my viewer in my pocket.
I know a lot of sites like this one, support AvantGo.
Do people still use this? I know it used to be fairly popular.
Have you ever tried doing something on those gizmos ? ... ) will be flops.
If you travel and you want to do something serious you have the laptop.
And for an agenda/phonebook plus simple text email you can use a mobile phone.
They're trying badly to invent something new to bring fresh money on the technology market, but the reality is that those ( PDA, tablet PCs,
I don't have one (yet) but my fiancee uses hers all the time as a physician's assistant. She's got a database of pretty much every prescribable drug, along with all their interactions. Plus a pretty handy program that walks you through taking a patient's history. She says these programs are godsends.
:)
But yeah, she looks for video games for the thing, too
I personally have gone through a Jornada and a Palm IIIe w/ a lot of reason to schedule tasks and use utilities. I found the palm was useful when working on a team where exchanging information such as server passwords, subnet addresses, cd keys etc. was necessary to do quickly. Other than that, both PDAs took so much time to configure, often crashed and were so incompatible with the software and formats I usually work with - I just stopped using them.
I've never posted this on slashdot in related articles, because so many tech. zealots go crazy when you say great new technology is actually inefficient - but it's the absolute truth.
I even know software developers that coded a lot of utilities to make their palm databases sync properly with authority databases and even wrote their own utilities for various markets. Even with thier abilities and the amount of time they spent developing for the Palm to save time -- the ultimately gave up on using it.
I remember pulling my IIIe out in my engineering class and my teacher said, "Oh, I see somebody has a lot of money". That pretty much sums up the reasoning for most peoples tech. purchases.
Just my two cents,
Ace
The only thing I've actually used my Handspring for is storing phone numbers. However, I am in the process of developing a JTAG flash programmer module for it as part of my final year project, so in that sense it has proved useful.
...and I'd be lost without it. I run hand-held databases; photo libraries; e-books, etc. I use a Palm m515, and love it. Started over two years ago, and can't conceive of going back to a paper planner, which I had used for more than five years.
So lets see - using my PPC, Bluetooth card and my T68 GPRS mobile I can connect to the net from anywhere, send and receive email with attachments, use any of the IM clients that run on PPC (such as MSN, Yahoo, ICQ etc) even use IRC if I need to reach people who are only reachable there.
/. that "PDA's are not worth using" escapes me. Simple fact: it depends on what YOUR needs are. If you need a PDA, use one. If you buy one as a gadget and get bored with it, this is your business but DONT say that they are not useful as they obviously are.
Also being a musician who produces music for a singer friend of mine I have in the past downloaded some of my tracks from the net used the PPC to play them back using Windows Media Player one night when the CD player broke down at the venue she was singing.
I can connect wirelessly using 802.11b at work, synchronise my work mail, notes and calendar with my desktop at work; I can even admin a windows server using the Terminal Services client, wirelessly. I have every note I've even written about server setup procedures to hand, in a searchable form. I have an eBook reader, and MP3 player. I have the ability to use the web from anywhere.
Nah - not worth using.
I suppose a lot of what I use mine for relies on reasonably fast wireless data access, but I forget - you US types dont WANT wireless data services like GPRS do you? (Or is that just Qualcomm shareholders?)
Seriously - how someone can post on
I keep most contact information in it. If I leave the house for anything important, it's a good thing to bring along. Additionally, the games are good at suppressing some forms of boredom.
They're also great electronic book readers.
I'm thinking of upgrading because I need a status symbol. See, I'm a technology consultant who comes in and lectures businesses on how they can improve workflow blah blah. Anyway, I went to some small town in Pennsylvania the other day to explain to people who are mostly computer illiterate how I can make their computer systems better, and one of them whips out a Palm that's at least 2 generations ahead of mine.
So yeah, I need to upgrade my PDA. And my cell phone, a Nokia 5000 series being held together with a purple rubberband.
I have a Palm III (2MB of RAM), and I use it for the following:
- Address/Phone/Contact Info
- Note taking if I forgot my laptop or didn't want to lug it. (Graffiti is as fast as pen and paper - and a lot more legible in my case - once you get used to it).
- Transit Schedules & Trip Planners (MBTA Commuter Rail schedules have been available via a free-as-in-beer Palm app for about 1.5 years now, with bus and subway coming out soon).
- Storing maps. (Save those GIFs from Mapquest and convert them to Palm format - yes, it's monochrome, but it's still readable). (TealPaint)
- Reading PDF Documentation when I'm on the go. (Acrobat Reader for Palm)
- Reading HTML/Text docs when I'm on the go. (iSilo).
- Creating a shopping list, and then checking things off and keeping a running total as I put them in the shopping cart. (Shopper, I think it's called).
- AvantGo for several web pages (including Slashdot), though AvantGo has started sucking more lately, so I don't use it as much as I used to.
- Checkbook/Finance.
CNET's download.com Palm section is your friend. This is all done with free (beer or speech) applications, and, with 2MB of RAM, all these apps, 200 addresses, a bunch of notes, and all that stuff, I still have 700KB free.So really, if you claim your PDA isn't useful, you're just not trying hard enough. If you don't like carrying it around, that's one thing - but don't say it's not useful.
There is no sig, there is only Zuul.
Seriously. I hear more and more of my friends and co-workers say that they actually enjoy reading on the PDA. Especially with the new bright color hi-res screens. I've been reading on a Palm device for about three years now, and will always look for electronic texts first because of convenience, portability, and book storage. In the last year I got a color clie with a big memory stick and have become a mobile library. ...yeah, I use mine.
As for personel organization, I think that some of the PDA devices are too much PDA and not enough computer to make them very attractive. IMHO small light Palm OS devices rule the useful space. Great for organization, carrying pictures and small family movies, and provide excellent little games, and document/spreadsheet transfer and edit.
..uses his for the sole purpose of calculating sight marks for archery.
Nifty little program that takes into account, arrow weight, draw length, draw weight, etc, and generates precise "pin" lications for various target yardages.
He has never sent an email in his life, but somehow figured out how to install the cradle, select the correct COM port, install and synched the device. I was impressed.
I used my cell phone (Nokia 7110) instead, just to keep track of phone numbers and jot down notes. Then I got my Nokia 7650. I carry around a cell phone all day anyway, but this phone also doubles as a very capable PDA. I can even play Doom on it.
The classic PDAs are converging with cell phones to create a new class of devices that people actually do carry around and use everyday. The sheer volume of phones produced by the likes of Nokia and Sony Ericsson will ensure that prices will continue to fall, the devices will become smaller and more capable and the traditional PDAs will morph into cell phones or disappear.
And remember kids: Never trust a computer you can actually lift.
I was in the same boat with my first few PDA's. I found their usefulness was only as good as my willingless to carry an extra device around -- and I was constantly leaving it in the car or at home where it was of little use to me.
Then I got my Samsung I300 and I found that I couldn't live without my PDA. I always had it with me when I needed it because I always had my cell phone. It gave me the same functionality as a Palm VII (full wireless internet) but the plan was integrated w/ my cell phone.
I use MS-Outlook constantly at the office (there is not even a close 2nd for group schedule and task colaboration, don't get me started on crappy open-source alternatives) -- so it's genuinely wonderful to be able, quite literally, take outlook w/ me. If I drop a note into outlook, it goes with me. If a co-worker schedules a meeting w/ me, it goes with me. Getting directions from someone over the phone? I type it into an Outlook note while I'm talking to them it goes with me when I leave. I simply don't have to touch paper anymore and it's CONVENIENT.
I would be lost without my PDA -- but ONLY because it's integrated into my cell phone and I never have to worry about whether or not it's going to be useful because I know that I've alwayd got it with me.
-- People who hate Windows use Linux. People who love UNIX use BSD.
..using their pdas/handhelds, how about donating them away to some of us poorer /.ers?
:)
Seems some of you have as many as a couple sitting in drawers, on shelves, in the closet, or wherever; seems like such a waste. You wouldn't get any sort of good resale value on older pdas, but you could find a nice financially challenged college student (cough) who could use them for school and such things.
Think of the children!.. Or at least think of me
I am BelDion's
I've used a PDA for the last 10 years. I have never used a paper based organizer. I despise them. That said I find that I am not that religious about using a palm device. I don't have to be. I find that I tend to store all my contacts there and usually important events such as birthdays and doctors appointments. Ocasionally a non-recurring meeting that was planned well in advance.
I've given up using a seperate PDA in favor of a cellphone with a decent PIM. Most recently a Nokia 7160. I like it because I always have it with me, it let's me carry only one device, and there's no freakin stylus involved. I find that I use it quite frequntly now. Unfortunately there are very few cellphones with good PIM's built in that are also easy to use.
I've had a palm device since the HP 75LX which I got to replace a Casio electronic rolodex. I beleive that it was the first Palm device to hit the market. It was replaced by an HP 100LX, which got replaced by an HP 200LX. Then I started buying Palm's. The last palm device I used was a Palm V. All of them now sit in a box in my basement.
Personally, I find my PDA to be obscenely useful. I carry it with me everywhere, and on the few occasions when I've forgotten it I've been completely lost. I use the thing primarily to keep my schedule... Between the hours I need to keep for my students, and my constantly changing schedule at EB, I have a very hard time keeping track of where I'm supposed to be. I also put any phone number or email address I've ever used in my PDA, so they're always quickly available to me. I have Docs-to-Go installed and use it to store my gradebooks for my classes, and use Avant Go to grab the news from several places. Finally, I've got a couple ebooks and a game or two, for when I've got nothing better to do.
This is my second PDA now. The first one was a handspring visor, and I have to admit that I didn't find that one terribly useful. It wasn't a matter of what it can/can't do, but simply the size of the thing. The visor was too big to carry around with me constantly... My m505 is much smaller and I can easily fit it in my pocket along with my wallet and a pen. Portability is a major issue with me...and I honestly find this thing far more portable than the paper implements it replaces (notepad, calendar, paperback, address book, newspaper, gradebooks).
I'm not sure really how "visible" such use is though... It isn't like I walk around constantly looking up addresses, or checking my schedule every 2 minutes. When I need the info, I look it up. I don't make a huge show of it either.... It isn't as if I'm waving my PDA around and screaming "look at me, I'm using a PDA!" That's really what makes it so useful to me... The device can do so many different things, but it's completely unobtrusive. Far less obtrusive than carrying around all those other items with me.
I don't know how the majority of people use theirs...or don't... Maybe they are predominantly a status symbol, but I find mine to be a lifesaver.
yrs,
Ephemeriis
"Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde
I have one, in fact I have 2, an ipaq and visor prism, neither have ever been used for anything other then using my wireless devices (omnisky for visor and goamerica for ipaq/laptop). Comes in usefull for checking movies, directions (gps for ipaq is nice, street level mapping). For the most part, I use it to write SMS messages and send them via my cell phones IR, its much much much easier then typing on on the damn phone itself. Putting names and numbers into the phone is also easier using ipaq. Also. further more, since I have a fancy phone (well I have had 2, previous was Ericsson T68i, current is Samsung SGH-S105). Both these phones support full colour pictures (T68 supports 256 colour images, the SGH supports 65k colour pictures). The samsung also supports ring tones. Why pay insane amounts of money from cell phone sites to SMS these items to your phone, when you can just beam them from your IPAQ, Visor, and send them directly to your phone.
:)
Point being, PDA's are not neccesarily strictly for appointments and buisness purposes, they have good recreational and Private uses too
I came, I conquered, I coredumped
With dozens of operating systems and hardware configurations to choose from, the PC market also appears to be flooded. Do any slashdotters out there actually use their computers, or is it more of a geek status symbol?
"Quoting famous computer scientists out of context is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming." - K
I use mine mostly for the to-do list, calendar and address book features. I took notes in class for a little while but I stopped after a while simply because I never really take notes in class (the same thing happens to my paper notebooks... I start the year taking notes and end up doodling in them)
My father-in-law owns his own small HVAC company and he uses it to take pictures of furnaces, make lists of what still needs to be done or picked up at the supply house. He also uses it for a call log, ie. when someone calls, he records the date/time name phone # and description. He used to use an old date/address book but has recently upgraded to a clie.
I also know of a bunch of other people that use there's. Everyone I know that uses it on a mostly daily basis uses the PalmOS.
-Chris
I used to own a palm iiie and i ended up selling it because it was collecting dust. I had the 14.4 modem for it. On trips when a loptop wasn't necessary, I brought it and it worked as a decent AIM client but it was a pain in the ass to poke in the little characters (forget grafiti.) I also had a few games for it but nothing too exciting. I've been looking into the color HP jornadas with the built in keyboard but for $400 for one on ebay, I'd rather just have a smaller 500mhz laptop. As for dates, phone numbers, etc on the palm- I never used those functions and i can go ahead and tell you unless the pda market comes out with voice recognition software, writing on a napkin or your hand works much better. :)
For me, it's a perfect sync between home, on the run and work.
When the pc at work fries, got the info.
When the PC at home fries, got the info
When the palm pilot dies, got the info.
Personally I have become more organized, kept in touch with people more, kept track of things more (like passwords, obscure info like new language phrases). All in all, I still have an old palm 3x, and it performs it's function PERFECTLY.
What I agree with, is that no-one should have to spend $1000.00 on a PDA, only to have it fall by the wayside months later.
Unless you're rich, which I'm not.
Yo Grark
Canadian Bred, with American Buttering
Canadian Bred with American Buttering
a set of $200 rebates finally convinced me to try an IPaq 3835. I thought it would end up in "the investment closet" with most other gadgets but I actually use it all the time.
I'm big into lists so it's perfect for that as well as managaging all my random ideas, code problems/solutions, contacts, etc...
I have a comparison of the IPaq with my old paper planner at http://www.antiauthority.com/ipaq/
IMO palm (and linux for that matter) are for people with too much time on their hands.
frixion
---- suck it trebek
From the Department of Odd Coincidences. I've never seen the Palm Tungsten banner ad on Slashdot before, but it seems to be hanging out on top of this thread right now...
Just so I'm not completely off-topic, I have a Palm IIIx which I don't use anymore. The calendar/reminder features were nice, but my latest cell phone is a much better repository for contact info, even if it's hard to sync. Otherwise the lame Palm software was a turn off (yes, I guess I should have tried the million bad shareware apps, but I've played that stupid game on every desktop computer I've had and don't want to play anymore).
I replaced the Palm with a Compaq iPAQ. Now, this is plenty powerful, still good with the syncing (yes, pretty much requires desktop Windows, but I pretty much use desktop Windows so this is a non-issue for me). It's fun to carry music and pictures of my kid. But the darn thing is so battery-hungry that it would never make it through a day away from my desk, so I rarely use it now either.
It's quite easy to lull myself into not using my PDA more and more, since I'm always welcomed by a massive TODO list I've entered, when I pick it up.
Despite that, I think PDA usage will really take off when a cheap wireless broadband solution arrives.
-jc
I skimmed through a bunch of comments and it seems that most people seem to be saying that they do not use (or no longer use) PDAs.
I use mine, and I use it daily. Entering data and appointments is sometimes a pain when I am away from my computer, but the PDA makes for a nice central place for all of that (and more portable than a paper planner).
Most of my use for my PDA (now a Sony Clie PEG-T665C) is for simple planning and addresses. I thought long and hard before buying my first PDA (a now retired Hanspring Platinum) since most of what I needed it for could be duplicated (for a lot less) by a electronic organizer.
I finally got the Handspring because none of the organizers would synch with my Mac.
Since then, I found one other thing that made the decision to go full PDA (over an electronic organizer) a good one - I now have a cell phone cable that can attach to my PDA, which means when I travel (once or twice a month usually), I can check my mail anytime I have cell phone reception with SprintPCS.
I also listen to MP3s while on the go, and can play a simple game or two, all for a small size investment (over having a paper planner, an MP3 player and a GameBoy)
So the reason I stick with my PDA is that it does what I want, and is expandable/versitle enough that if I need it to do something else, there is a good chance I can find a solution using the hardware I have.
- (c) 2018 Hank Zimmerman
PIA:
1. Size. Tungsten is still to big. Get them down to the size of a chapstick and then I'll carry it all the time.
2. Fragile. Can't sit on it.
3. Interface. Grafitti sux. Keyboard sux.
Useful:
1. Avantgo for meetings.
2. Reminders that wake you up in the middle of the night.
3. Password database.
Actually, I use my cell phone, pager, *and* my PDA. Imagine that! It's pretty nice to be able to download driving directions from Mapquest to my PDA, and have a full set of directions to wherever I happen to be driving. It's also nice to have the password to every machine at work encrypted in my pocket at all times. It's also nice for writing notes down on. I feel bad for people who use their PDAs as cock-hangers; they're actually pretty useful when you're not using them in a futile attempt to score chicks.
- A.P.
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
Consider the trend though. Any time a new technology comes out, it becomes the Next Big Thing!, everyone who is somebody buys it, and most of the people who bought it decide they don't want it after the return period expires (IE, 30 days in the case of Fry's, 90 in the case of Target... you get the idea). Those who tend to keep address books on paper may take this if they are anal, those who would keep dead-tree books if it weren't for the hassle of having to periodically sit down and organize the thing will probably flock to them, excepting those who are somewhat clumsy and accidentally break them.
As far as I'm concerned, it fills the application of a laptop, but again, it's convenience sized. Granted I can't do things like play Doom on an airplane or full on desktop publishing, but for that I have a confuser at home. (I still can't play Doom on the airplane, though - nor do I think I would want to.)
This sig no verb.
Meanwhile, I think I'll go for Siemens ME45 mobile phone. It should be pretty rough, it has a simple calendar that I can syncronize with KOrganizer. I'll use that until PDAs get good enough.
Employee of Inrupt, Project Release Manager and Community Manager for Solid
My doctor uses his PDA all the time (Handspring Visor Deluxe). He has the prescription drug database springboard module. Every time I see him he has it on him, and whenever he prescribes me something, he whips it out and starts writing on it just about as fast and accurate as on paper. Looks up drug he wants to prescribe, looks at side effects and all that stuff, gives me an overview. He commented that he wished it had a little reciept like printer he could print the prescription on and then simply sign it. So yes, he uses his.
Me on the other hand. I do try to use it, and it seems every time I start getting data into it and finding it useful, something happens. Like my harddrive crashed that I hotsync to, and the batteries died and I lost everything. Then it went into the drawer for about 6 months. I've recently pulled it out and started using this app on it called FreeCoins. It's pretty slick, I use it to manage my monthly budget.
I think they're pretty useful. The biggest drawback I think everyone can agree on is the size and storage issue. It's just a pain in the ass to carry on your person. I mean I've already got a wallet, cell phone and keys. I bought one of those PalmWallets or whatever to keep my visor in, but well, it just buldges out of my pocket. When someone makes a PDA thats about as thick as a few credit cards and just as durable and flexable, then they'll be extremely useful.
..There's a-dooin's a-transpirin'
My first PDA was an Apple Newton. I loved it, or so I thought. I used it for a while but then stopped.
I think PDAs are for certain types of people, I'm not one of them. Most people use them for little more than over-priced over-powered addressbooks.
I got a Cassiopia years ago, and I really liked it. It broke after awhile and I didn't replace it for a long time (since I didn't get the replacement plan, I broke the screen dropping it)
:P Perhaps if I was a more organized person in general, but I'm not.
:P
Later I got a new one, and the replacement plan, with the idea I could replace my broken one and have two, but by the time I got around to it the Cassiopea was already obsolite, so I got a nice iPaq with 64 megs of ram.
Anyway, the point of the story is that i have two nice WinCE PDAs, and I never use either of them, although I did use the planner a bit at the beginning of the semester.
I keep phone numbers on my cell phone, and planning... well, I don't really do that
A bit later I got a nice little Sony Vaio SR, which is small enough to take almost anywhere where I might need some mobile computing.
Ah well.
I do remember playing a game of Metroid on the can once using an NES emulator on my iPaq, though
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
I've been using Palms for over 5 years now and haven't been without one except when one's been broken and the new one's on the way. Started with a Palm Personal, and now I'm using the $50 Kyocera 6035 monochrome smartphone.
Can't live without it, or at least I can't work without it. All my phone numbers are in there, password reminders, trouble ticket confirmation numbers, my schedule, my to-dos and scheduled calls for the day, my friends' birthdays, recent customer call notes (I sync with ACT), my shopping list (silly as it sounds), the name of the guy at the auto repair place who gave me an honest estimate a few months back, the name of my barber...
And since I'm a real estate agent nowadays, my financial and loan calculators are there, as is a wireless MLS search applet so I can look something up if I'm driving or walking past it, local movie listings (synced automatically from Yahoo). And also thanks to it being a PDA phone, I can also quickly check, read and send email using both my personal and business accounts. A Palm with a 9.6kbps data connection is an awful SSH client and web browser, but I have those, too, and just used both a few days ago to recreate a mail account I'd misrouted the night before when I set up some spam filters and notifiers.
Putting this latter batch of stuff aside, I find the core functions indispensible. As a phonebook, addressbook, to-do-list and memo pad, it's great. You wouldn't want to write a book or take serious meeting notes with a stylus, but for the quick jottngs you'd otherwise scrawl on napkins, post-its and business cards, a good PDA is hard to beat. And it's smaller than any of those other things. It's been years since I last drove past a supermarket or drugstore and cursed myself for leaving the list at home.
As for spending lots of time syncing and messing with software, you sound like a Linux hobbyist who installs and recompiles new apps every day. If you use your computer rather than tinker and play with it, what maintenance is there? Maybe once a year I install some new stuff that needs to sync and spend a few minutes checking the clocks and looking at the settings, but that's about it.
I've had some games over the years, but really, apart from something stylus-friendly like Scrabble, PDAs are terrible for games. And why anyone would want a fragile, touchscreen MP3 player for 2-3 times the price of a much more rugged one is beyond me. If you don't need an organizer, don't get a PDA. They're organizers.
I read about a dozen posts describing where many PDA's now sit inactively.
Myself, I can't really waste the funds on a PDA, but wouldn't mind trying one. I've managed to get this far in life without one and I suspect I can get a little further along. I'm not really sure HOW much more mileage I can squeak out.
Right around the corner I'm sure there is event I just can't truely enjoy without the use of mobile palm sized computing power. Sure, its all fun and games until someone loses a meeting schedule!
I'm just PDA impaired. It is something I have to learn to live with.
I hope the other geeks won't laugh at me in the office!
"You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours." -- Yogi Berra
Over the years I have used rigorous paper planners (migrating todo items every day), to using a variety of PDAs.
I have also over the years used several note-taking approaches, mostly paper, some electronic.
As I look back in time the best PDA I ever had was the HP 200lx. It was simple, effective, and I got wicked fast at typing stuff in, even to the point I could almost take notes with it.
The 200lx wasnt perfect though, it was a bit big and definitely slow. I would have easily gotten another 2 years out of using it if someone had actually maintained the sync software so it would have worked with outlook, but I digress.
However things have changed in the world around us. Back when my 200lx was the weapon of choice I attended a lot of meetings, you know the old fashioned face to face ones in conference rooms, and laptops were very expensive & heavy then.
Flash forward to the present, laptops are plenty cheap (900 for a nice Compaq model in todays paper), most of my meetings are now virtual over the phone & netmeeting/webex (thus Im sitting at my desk in front on my computer), wifi is exploding (thus if you do actually have a meeting in a room you likely are bringing your laptop with wifi with you...)
Presently I carry a PDA with me every day (a palm vx) for stuff like todo lists, phone numbers, orgcharts, etc.
Im looking to upgrade my PDA soon to a Palm Tungsten model as soon as somebody gets a clue and makes a CDMA-1x phone with bluetooth support. I personally really would like the ability to check stock quotes & read slashdot from my palm when Im on the road.
Long term Im holding out a lot of hope for the new clamshell Sharp zaurus recently announced and only available in Japan.
It doesnt look perfect either though, I still wish they would have made the keys smaller and made room for a numeric keypad and just acknowledge that people will be typing with their thumbs (ala 200lx and rim). Sharp also seems to have missed the boat and didnt include bluetooth or wifi built into the unit (Truthfully I would prefer *both*, though I appreciate the price/size issues, but I think I might prefer bluetooth).
--John Cavanaugh
I've had about four Palm PDAs in the last three years (trading back and forth to find the one that worked for me) and ended up with my Handspring Visor. As a student, I use it daily to keep track of assignments, type notes (with the keyboard) and games, of course. However, it's getting old and slow now, and is starting to fall into that category of "too big to carry around all the time, too small to leave at home, so I'll just have to find some way to keep using it". It's been great, but I've felt the need for something a bit more exciting. Among other things, Graffiti sucks.
:)
So if I asked you what handheld has built-in handwriting recognition that WORKS, has a long battery life, a great OS, two PCMCIA slots, a big, high-res screen, and was only the size of a pack of notebook paper, what would you think it was? A new Sony? New Pocket PC? New Palm?
What if I then told you it was four years old? What would you think then? Can you guess what it is?
Sure enough, it's the Newton Messagepad 2100, and it doesn't leave my side. Sure it's bigger than a typical PDA, but it's not intruding on the PDA space; it's intruding on LAPTOP space. It's smaller than a laptop and has a longer battery life, plus the awesome ability to include handwriting (converted to text) and drawn diagrams together seamlessly--and yet it weighs 1.5 pounds and can do most of what I use my laptop for.
So yes, I use my (big) PDA constantly. I never touch my laptop anymore... when was the last time a Palm device would make you say that?
Although I'm not sure how it affects the eyes, I love to use mine at night to read. The screen lights up and I'm able to get some late night reading done without disturbing my wife.
I'm very busy and forgetful at times, so the pop up reminders are very useful for not forgetting things.
Also, I've never been able to keep an address for more than a month. Now I have no problem finding addresses & phone numbers.
I love mine.....
To take notes in class/keep track of important syllabus dates/keep track of professorial contact information (no more rummaging through a folder full of syllabi when I want to find out what my prof's office hours are!) when I was in school.
To keep track of my work schedule, when I was working.
To play games, or read the news (via AvantGo) or ebooks when I'm bored or selling plasma. (Thank God for Blackmask.com!)
To balance my checkbook. (In fact, with the QuickMoney/MicroMoney software I use, it is my checkbook, or at least my check register.)
When I was working as a delivery driver, I had an Excel spreadsheet in DocsToGo which I used to calculate flawlessly how much money I was making in tips and how much I owed at the end of the night.
To keep track of phone numbers/addresses...comes in handy when I'm doing a Christmas card list!
To keep track of important dates--now I remember my parents' birthdays/anniversary!
To scribble down grocery list/notes/reminders that I don't want to forget
To control TV sets/DVD players/VCRs wherever I go. (For this purpose, I bought a universal remote when I was in college--to control the bigscreen sets located in dormitory lounges--but if I'd had the Clie with its built-in universal remote software, I could have foregone that.) Often startles people when I'm able to adjust their sets without ever getting up. :)
I honestly don't know how I got along without this thing.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
I have an old handspring that I got as a tip for fixing someone's computer a while back. Nice little PDA even though it's not color or backlit. Still, it sits on my shelf gathering dust cause I have a laptop that I use more, just glad I didn't have to pay for it.
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
I use my on a routine basis to sync my calendar in Outlook with my Entourage Calendar. Both sync with it (even though they don't sync with each other). It's about the only useful thing that I use it for.
I use PocketSCUMM to play all my favorite classic lucas arts adventure games. So far Ive goten Monkey Island 1 and 2, Sam & Max, Indiana Jones (4), and Day of the tenticle working perfectly on it :) (With sound...Some with voice if I put the monster.sou (or compressed mp3 versions) files on my memory card)
I have found many uses for my iPaq. It's a b/w one so it has longer battery life than its color counter parts..
I thought I'd be using it as a scheduler and task manager, but it required too much discipline.. maybe some day I will get around to use the feature.
But it's pretty useful to use it as:
* a contact manager(wish I had better contact managing software though, pocketpc one sucks..)
* a mp3 player(with 256MG cf card and cf expansion)
* a voice recorder(for quick memos)
* a ebook reader
* a note taker..(with stowaway keyboard, I can't type faster than I can write, and the result is more legible later..)
It has its shortfalls(like mysterious crashes.. memory wipeout when battery goes), but it's pretty good device to have.
Personally, I think the reason why a lot of people are carrying and not using their PDA is they probably didn't have a specific use in mind when the purchased it. If you got your PDA because all your friends or coworkers were getting one, you're not likely to keep using it.
/. and other sites, mostly news, during downtime.
Simililarly, if you got your PDA for the rather broad purpose of "simplifying" things into one small little gadget, you're probably going to revert back to your old paper equivilant eventually.
I've used my PDA (Palm m105, choosen for 8mb and relatively low cost after two rebates and employee (retailler not Palm) discount) every day since I've gotten it. Being a student, I got my PDA to keep track of homework assignments (DueYesterday is a wonderful free program). I also use AvantGo on it to read
My friend, when he heard that I got a PDA, within a week went out and got the identical model. At first he used it. But after awhile, he stopped using it, then he stopped carrying it.
Moral of the story? Don't spend $150 (my friend didn't get the same deal I got) for a gadget just because someone you know did.
CitrusTV (http://www.citrustv.net): the Nation's Oldest & Largest Entirely Student-Run Television Station
I simply can't get along without it.
It keeps my schedule and reminds me of events. It tracks what I need to do on a daily basis. Keeps me entertained (games but mostly eBooks) while standing in line.
In a pinch, I can use it to dial into my ISP and check my mail.
But overall, I tend to agree with the original message. I am one of the few people at work who actually uses his PDA. Most of the rest of my co-workers just leave them by their desks.
But I feel that it's not a problem with PDAs in general. Many people have been given these as perks at work and they have no idea how to use them. WinCE devices are notoriously poor on battery life and, so, have limited usefullness when away from the desk.
It was a hand-me-down from my girlfriend, who'd graduated to something more powerful. I spent the first few days re-organizing things to match my own mental categories, instead of hers. That forced me to really look at how I organize stuff, and at the whole concept of organization in general... a concept I've always been fairly poor at.
The "Expense Book" I immediately threw out... but things like the Date Book, To-Do List, and Memo Pad, I wind up using constantly. Typing stuff into memos, in particular, is much easier for me since I've got the foldable Palm keyboard. Like many geeks, I type much faster than I write, so the keyboard is a godsend; all I need is about 12-by-6 inches of space to set it up in, and I can enter text nearly as fast as I can on the standard 101/104-key board.
I've also got it loaded with about a dozen hacks to tweak its behavior to "just what I want" (like us OSS types are used to...). TealScript and TealEcho to make entering Graffiti easier, and to make it understand my graffiti instead of Palm Corp.'s; McPhling for easy context-switches; FontHack123 to get a smaller screen font on there and so pack more info into the same space; etc., etc.
Honestly, my life has gotten fantastically more organized since I got my Palm, and its use has become a standard operating procedure for me. I'm not about to give it up. And, with only a IIIx, it's not a "status symbol" either-- not in San Francisco it ain't!
Kai MacTane: Web developer for hire in San Francisco
REX was a good compromise for me. I started with the Palm (the very first generation) and found it lacking a hearable alarm and a few other things. I was mostly using it for storing phone numbers and some appointments (sync'ed to Lotus Notes). It was a chore to carry around in your pocket.
Then I settled on the PCMCIA sized REX for a while and it met my purposes - small, had what I needed, but I still couldn't hear the alarm beeps (my audiology friend said my ears were functioning within normal parameters of "20/20 hearing"). Manual data input into the REX was pretty sad. Sync worked fine.
Then came the REX-warmed-over-for-Motorola-StarTac (it fit on the back of the phone and can dial out from the REX directly). That was better, but the appointment book wasn't well integrated (they should have connected it to the phone ringer). And I had bad experiences with StarTac after 3 phones, so I gave that up and went with a different phone. And they discontined the REX after I gave mine to my brother. I thought they'd integrate it with a few other phones - I wish they did, but they didn't (tho some phone manufacturers started implementing some functions).
Currently (for 2+ years now), I am PDAless. I am waiting for a phone with the integrated features (mostly address book and appointment sync) that is the size of a small phone - not the mostly-PDA-sized small brick. I am not a power user of PDAs, but I appreciate the basic integrated functionality. I haven't looked hard in the recent past for a suitable PDA. My adopted daughter has a Sony Clie' with camera and mp3 player, she uses it for school homework reminder, appointments, and with a 128MB memory stick, to listen to music and take a picture or two occasionally.
-srr
I'm a Junior in High School and I've got a Handspring Visor Deluxe with the Stowaway Keyboard. Both fit together in my pocket and I use it for taking notes, keeping track of homework, and the occanional game. I also browse Slashdot with AvantGo (no, not wireless internet, it downloads in every time it syncs.) It works great, I only have to take written notes for math, and I can start writting essays and stuff in school. I take the Visor everywhere I go, as I keep lots of phone numbers and addresses on it and I can always play a game when I'm bored.
On the other hand, I know several kids who have PDAs and never use them at all. As someone up above said, different strokes for different folks.
Well, relatively so. I had a palm-pilot pro in 1998, and a Casio proprietary-os crapstravaganza before that. The palm pro had a modem, and I was able to telnet into my university and check my email remotely on this device I had picked up for $100 used- it was pretty sweet since I travelled a lot of time and couldn't afford/didn't want to carry my own laptop.
:) Zap!2000 and Dragonbane were pretty sweet ways to spend time on the T. Also got the NYT front page articles and the regular suck.com essays through Avantgo for a while, but suck is gone now and the NYT stuff was just a little too insubstantial.
:)
Eventually sold it out of a desperate need for cash, but soon after bought a IIIe. It met my needs and was great for taking notes in class and I even used it to do some of my SICP homework using LispMe. Also played lots of games on it
The display on that one finally gave out after 2+ years of faithful use, so I picked up a used m100 on half.com for about $60, and it's the best palm I've had so far, because it has all the features of the palm pro and palm III, but most importantly it gets the hell out of my way- it actually fits comfortably in a shirt pocket, where the others (especially after adding a faux leather case) were just far too bulky. The only downside is that the graffiti area seems to be smaller and as a result I make a lot more errors, meaning less wpm.
But I use it all the time, especially as a nag machine to keep me on time for appointments and project deadlines. Plus I still play some games (bejeweled and pocketchess 1.0 - if you can still find it - come highly recommended). But I can't imagine giving up battery life for features on my electric planner- palmOS has really not been improved on since palm pro, it's just been gussied up to keep pace with wince. And I especially can't imagine not being able to replace my batteries with a fresh pair of AAA's on the road- the systems with the built-in batteries may save you money on batteries (unless you're using the same 2 pairs of rechargeables you bought 3 years ago like I am), but when you're on the road and your batteries are drained there's just nothing you can do.
Wow, I didn't think I had that much to say
microsoftword.mp3 - it doesn't care that they're not words...
I still put appointments, numbers, and sometimes exam dates in my Visor but I've found that I never actually LOOK at the information once its in there. The phone numbers are all out of date, and the one time I used it to get a final exam date I found I had entered the WRONG date and completely missed the exam.
I saw someone mention using the Palm as an ebook application, but I find the screen too hard to read on my visor and the backlighting on it is utterly useless. I do have a dedicated eBook reader, the old Rocket Ebook, and while reading on the ebook is NICE (just as easy on my eyes as a real book), the fact that I can't really take it to the beach and the fact that they don't really make books for it anymore (thanks to RCA) means that its still paper books for me.
Anyway, I love my Visor but I just really don't have a use for it yet.
As a student, you are often faced with changing schedules and time-juggling. PDAs fit the bill of organizing deadlines very well.
Another aspect has not really been touched on. As an 'old hat' at typing, I've reached the point where I can type faster than I can write.
The foldable keyboard that works with the palm IIIxe is a marvel. The most significant note of the keyboard is that it is almost silent. No key noise!!
And, unlike a laptop, the palm and keyboard can be closed so one fits in each pants pocket. With a battery life of longer than 3 hours, long classes dont ever drain on battery life.
Color? dont need it.
Raw ability to enter large amounts of Text? Just what I need.
When I found TopGun SSH and a wireless ISP that would dole out a static IP (Omnisky -> Earthlink), deciding to buy a Visor (Jan 2001) was a slam-dunk. The PDA lets me remote admin no matter where I am. No laptop. No cables. Nothing but net. :)
I use it pretty well every day, I repair clocks for a living and use my Palm Vx to store my customer details in, the database has been transfered from my Amiga1200 onto a pc then onto the palm, I have no use for a laptop in my work.
I can track my clients by job number, name or job description,there are nearly 3000 names in my address book, some going back 12 years, I also have a few handy programs install to show things like moonphase to set those clocks that have that function, the palm clock is hotsynced to the computer clock which in turn is synced to a atomic clock by ntp server
I also have my dvd colection, facts and figures of various clock makers, a conversion program for weights, measures, distants etc. as for games I have couple installed but rarely play them
this is my second palm and I would not be without one now
I got a Palm, figuring it would be useful, but I rarely use it. It would probably get used a lot more if it was easier to sync. (The iSync beta just ain't there yet.)
But with the holiday season coming up, giving it away as a gift is a great idea. It's fairly new, and my dad's quite the road warrior (much more than me). Maybe it would be useful for him. Thanks!
My biggest selling point was essentially the density of information that I can get on a palm. I can have all of my classes and appointments for the rest of the year, all of my phone numbers, most of my class notes typed on the Stowaway (best $150 CDN I ever spent, now I just need to learn a good equation set so I can type my calculus notes to), full dictionary and prescription reference, and a game to kill time. To have all of this with me in dead tree format would require another backpack, but instead I can just slip it in to my pocket.
And I know that it's not just the wow factor of having all of this with me. Two weeks ago, my backlight died, probably due to condensation from the regatta I was at. On a Visor Prism this is devastating, because you can't see anything without it. I call Handspring, and for $25 I have a brand new one at my door in four days. Yay customer support! I had everything on my computer, as I'm quite happy to sync when I get home every day, but those four days without my palm were surprisingly difficult. I grabbed a little notebook to scribble everything into until I got my palm back to life, but I didn't have any of the references that I would normally consult several times a day.
So yes, some of us are using our palms.
I use a a Sharp Zaurus SL-5500. I am fortunate to live in a city with bountiful open wireless nodes, which I mapped out on bicycle with the kismet/kismet-qt WLAN sniffer. I mostly use the PDA to ssh to my servers and check my mail. I have even scripted out and submitted batch jobs for my cluster. I occasionally take it to a cafe and read /., but the WLAN card knocks the battery life from ~8 down to ~1.2 hours. I only take a laptop along when I know I'm going to code. I like the weight reduction, since I go everywhere by bike.
First entomology, then virology, and finally bioinformatics systems. Bugs follow me wherever I go.
Oh, this is about PDA's? Well that is pretty much the same situation. I will use a PDA in which is not outdated in every aspect in 3 months. Now I don't mean not as current with respect to things like raw speed, memory or storage capacity... no I speak of incompatabilities which leads to the biggest issue.
I am therefore not one of those who help push the industry TOWARDS such standardizing... I am merely a hopeful user.
I started with a palm m100 my frosh year of college, after two weeks it was attached to the sync cable for the rest of it's life.
About a year ago i bought a used palm-smartphone used when my old phone died. I now keep everything on it. I use it to surf when bored in class, to keep track of my schedule and random meetings, to remind me to acually go to class, keep track of how much junk food I really didn't need to buy, and send e-mail. I also have it set to synch up with evolution, and then my schedule gets posted on my website daily.
Nobody wants to carry around two devices, so the cell phone will always win over the PDA, if you can't beat them, join em.
It's great to be able to schedule meetings when you have ten different people to see in a day and you can't get back to your laptop to see your calendar, and you're too coordination-challenged to keep the pages from falling out of a loose-leaf organiser.
The most important feature is being small enough to fit in a pocket. If you don't have them with you, they're useless. Basic Palm V is good enough.
Thou hast damnable iteration, and art indeed able to corrupt a saint - Henry IV, Act I scene II
I use my Ericsson T60-D cell phone for most of the stuff people use PDA's for. Its got a simple calendar that alerts me when it's time for an appointment (good for classes, since it has a reoccuring appointment option), not to mention a fairly robust phone book that handles e-mail addys as well as multiple phone numbers. It's also got games, timer/stopwatch/alarm, wap browser, different modes (profiles), and quite a few other things useful things. But most of all, T-9 Predictive, so you don't have to use multi-tap to send SMS, e-mails, etc. (Though it lacks a color screen and an OS that I could hack...) Cell phones seem to be making pretty nice PDAs now-a-days.
I LOVE how my Visor Neo and 3360 talk!
Its' great- get my meetings for the week (or whatever) from outlook.
Download to either my Visor or my Phone. Turn on IR in both- send.
Or, jot a meeting note down in my Visor (easier to write more), beam over to the phone (vibrating alert is much better- sometimes I can't hear a little "beep beep beep!" but I will feel the buzz in even the noisiest environ.)
I've used it for all SORTS of games, I use it for shopping lists, for DVD's-to-be-rented list, X_mas gifts, to do for work and school, and my new favorite:
I write down info about good inexpensive wines (from NYT or Wash Post)- then when I'm in the wine store if I see a name a do a quick find- Which Louis Jadot wine was recommended? Oh! It was the 2000 Bourgogne Chardonnay! (which Montgomery County DLC had on sale!)
and if/when I get wireless web on my phone you'll have to show me how to get the two working together.
P.S.- bejewelled is the first shareware I've paid for! I really love that game.
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
I think, it all comes down to what you are do for a living. Having a PDA just for playing games is certainly not the right reason.
First step is to store lots of telephone numbers, sort them, categorize them, etc.
A big leap forward then is to replace your calendar. Having been a project leader at occasion, the one and only thing that I ever needed and ever had with me was my trusty Palm V. I synchronized it with Outlook and never got too late (or nbot at all) to any meeting.
Next step was to have serveral version of our project time schedule in the PDA and synchronize it with MS Project.
I could go on forever, it seems. The bottom line is, that I have owned my Palm V for 3 years now and not one single day I regretted the money I spent. It's not only a cool thing, but really really useful. And helps me being effective at my job.
Excellence: Moderate (mostly affected by comments on your karma)
Well, i bought a Palm m515, but it was overkillf or me, so now, I've cleaned it out, put it on sale, and using Apple iCal on my TiBook instead.
Works for me...
I use mine quite heavily. If I didn't have it, I'd be late for every meeting and always referencing my text books. I also use it for leisure, dowloading the daily news and a butt load of games on it (which I then play in the meetings I would have been late for).
"We shall party like the Greeks of old! You know the ones I mean." - HedonismBot
send them my way!! thanks.
I just use mine for the Address Book, the Datebook and the To-Do list (well, the last only for a shopping list for groceries). I lost it for a week once and was completely lost.
--
If I actually could spell I'd have spelled it right in the first place.
I got a Clie (the color one without the mp3 player, before they had the fancy flipping ones) last December, and still use it all the time throughout the day.
:)
I have a killer homework application that makes it super easy for me to keep track of all my assignments, my address book has the phone numbers of all of my relatives and friends, i keep track of my checking account with it, and i write down general notes with it (i'm almost as fast with graffiti as i am with a pen and paper) constantly. Oh, and let's not forget that the games make for good entertainment during down times in class.
If for some reason i leave it at home before school, i feel naked the rest of the day. I don't know how i got along without it.
"Upon attaching the waterblock to my penis, I began to notice that I know nothing about computers." -- JRockway
I'll possibly be developing a wireless PDA attendance system for work soon, but I think while the latest generation of PDAs are much "better" than the Newton, its just meant it's taken longer for people to decide that they don't really have a need.
Post the question again in six months...
No real geek would actually have any addresses to store. I have a Sony clie and I love it! Todo, memos, calender and addresses are all nice, but even better are AstroInfo for those times I'm outside at night, Acrobat and iSilo to read ebooks, Avantgo to read news when I'm bored and away from my computer, and documents to go to edit Word or Powerpoint. I can even give a slideshow from my PDA. As a nice bonus, I can listen to mp3s on the clie (though I prefer my Mp3 player). Just need to get some map software so I dont get lost. It has built in battery with a power adaptor that plugs into the PDA or the cradle. I boot up my computer, hit the hotsync button and painlessly sync my data, get news from the internet, and charge it.
I've always had a problem with keeping organized, keeping prioratized, and just remebering stuff. At first I started off with a paper organizer, and my watch, but good luck, there was either not enough time or too much time, all the time. While I would plan out events for the week, I found my time slots for them were not very realistic, and erasing and rewriting them took forever. So I started using my PIM on my computer, organizing was much better, but I had to copy down everything the night before, and it took a lot of time. So I said, let see about getting a pda.
... well .. really was annoying.
.. pretty old, but the block recogniser made writting easier, but it still wasn't comfortable. Not to mention I started using it during the commutes to read ebooks, and with the 8 megs of ram, there just wasn't space to hold more then two books on there. So once again I began my search, and really lucked out.
My first PDA was a palm device. As I started using it I really liked being able to sync to my PIM and keep track of everything. Then I started realizing what else I could use it for, including news and taking down meeting and project notes. As soon as I started this, I really started getting fed up with graffiti. Its supposed to be quick, but man did my hand cramp. And frankly with all the notes I was taking the batteries were constantly dieing. I always wondered why palms never had rechargable batteries. I also found that it was hard organizing contacts and then I started wanting to write emails to people while sitting in the street car, or in a particularly boring meeting. Trying to write the email into a note and then copy&paste it to an email
So, I saved up some money and I got my first PocketPC. It was cheap and old, but at least I got my email and I wasn't changing the batteries every 16 hours. This thing ran WinCE 2.0, so
Compaq was selling a limited dual-lot of 3700's when the 3800's came out, so for about $350 I got two ipaqs. One went to my girlfriend, one to me. This killed one of my other problems. Namely, my girlfriend wanted me to know her schedule even tho I had no access to it. Secondly with all the programs and accessories for the ipaqs, I was very happy. Transcriber is about 95% accurate at reading my handwriting, so I no longer adjust to the ipaq, it adjusts to me. I can send voicemails, and emails from just about anywhere. With the sync-charger cable I can charge anytime I am near a computer. Frankly, life is grand, I am on time, I meet my obligations. Sure, its not an endall, but it helps me organize my life. Could I go without it? Probably, now that it has coaxed me into a technique for organizing my life. Would I go without it. Not likely, it saves a lot of space by replacing all my notebooks, organizer, a magic email terminal that I never had, and any book I may want to read.
Code softly but carry a big magnet.
I have a handspring visor deluxe. Best thing about it is the springboard port. Stick my $30 eyemodule in, and I got a pretty decent digital camera to take pictures or make stop motion animations when I'm bored. Stick in my $70 GPS module, and I got an awesome GPS with a great big screen to go geocaching (www.geocaching.com). On top of that, I read the news on it every day, and read ebooks while on the subway. And if the thing ever breaks... it's gunna cost like $60 to replace it. If your PDA is useless, chances are you don't have much imagination. I reckon it's one of the best toys I ever bought.
1. Nokia Tri-band GSM phone 6310i (phone calls, modem for iPaq)
2. Blackberry (Exchange email, calendar, tasks)
3. iPaq 3800 (ebooks, web surfing, games)
4. Samsung Yepp (mp3 player)
5. Magellan GPS (navigation while driving)
After using a Blackberry with our corporate Exchange servers I found my PDA was pretty much useless in comparison.
Once I get the GSM/GPRS module for my iPaq, I'll probably be using that most of the time. The only missing device is GPS.
that my Palm, despite having a larger screen, faster processor, and gobs more RAM, can't do a fraction of the math my HP48 could.
If it did, I'd probably use it every day.
Those people are supposed to use their PDAs the way they are really used, they are made to accompany the technology of desktop computers and compromised to function as small computers. They are NOT for luxury. It is just on how you handle it that makes it very functional, it doesn't actually waste time. =)
. I work in a high-tech industry and I see more people carrying their PDAs than actually using them.
;-)
Unlike a paper organiser, a PDA will beep to notify you of an appointment. That's the reason why I don't bother with paper - I'd write stuff in the diary, and it would remind me that I'd missed something a week later when I looked at it again... Some people adapted to slavishly checking their paper organiser every hour or so - I'm not one of them.
The main reason I use my PDA is as a pocket computer - Tide Calculator, Astronomy, Bird Checklist, Date difference calculator, plus the more traditional phone book, appointments (with alarms) etc.
I think PDA marketers realise that calling them organisers is a great way for geeks to justify to their boss why they need to buy a pocket computer. (Let's face it, what geek *doesn't* need organising...
Certainly no use for real work -- for that I hump a laptop with me everywhere (and I do mean *everywhere*) -- why settle for 2nd best when you can have the real thing?
Rich people are eccentric. Poor people are strange. Me, I'd be happy with odd.
I work in a high- tech industry and I see more people carrying their PDAs than actually using them.
there's *always* ego adopters out there; you gotta look hip to tech to move ahead.
but forget them for a moment and step away from your desktop and watch pda use. it's about portability and minimum pieces.
tech friend of mine jumps on the ferry to come visit, he brings his pda. right now it's his one piece walkman, digital photo slideshow and storage, address & phone number book, and notepad.
it makes things very convenient for him. soon it'll let him leave the separate cellphone and camera at home too, and let him handle his work email while travelling instead of having to do voice. he can just put the pda in his pocket and head for the ferry, as easy as grabbing his jacket.
which he does more because it's less hassle now, both in ease of assembling devices and for keeping in touch like his job and life demands. that extra flex is worth the few hundred. it's a big quality of life dividend for the money.
if all you do is sit at a desk and drive home to your family in the burbs where you have another desktop, then you don't need it. but for those of us who have long public-transit commutes to work and to socialize, it's the tool.
think tokyo lifestyle if you're not immersed in the north american variant.
read SmartMobs if you want to think more about the new things the new methods are allowing.
the big question is: how much has your sexual life improved since you own a PDA ?
I purchased a Handspring Visor Deluxe in December 1999 and have been using it constantly since.
Initially, it was a replacement for the Franklin day planner I'd been carrying around for years which not only contained an address book and a day-planner, but also contained all my credit cards and cash. So, I had to make a slight adjustment to my lifestyle and start carrying a wallet again.
The Visor replaced the Franklin planner very effectively. It comes in handy every time I need to look up an address or telephone number. However, just like in the old days of paper-based address books, there still isn't a magic way to keep entries up to date.
I also use the Visor to keep a running to-do list. This is something the Visor does 300% better than any paper-based planner I've used before which gives you a new to-do list to fill out each day.
Two years ago, I was diagnosed with type 1 Diabetes. I found a PalmOS program called Glucopilot which helps diabetics track their blood glucose levels, diet, and insulin dosages. This has come in very helpful in helping me get control of my health.
In the last year, my company bought reconditioned Visor Deluxes for each of my business partners. When we met for weekly status meetings, we would beam the meeting agenda to each other so everyone had the same memo document in front of them.
So, in summary, my PDA has changed my life for the better. While the Visor has been great for me, I'm starting to wonder if it's time to move on to the next level. I've been eying the new Zauruses (Zauri?) in this regard.
I have had a Visor since 2000 (upgraded to a Visor Edge this year) and have found it useful for the usual things - and ESSENTIAL for one thing.
I have a spreadsheet on the Visor (mapped to a button) which has my entire planned budget for the month, and how much I've actually spent. By just spending a few extra seconds entering the expense each time I buy something, I always know EXACTLY what I can really afford and how much I've already spent.
I never planned for this to be my #1 application but I would be a financial wreck without it. And I can't do it on paper because the spreadsheet updates itself instantly as I add purchases.
It's already saved me far, far more money than the few hundred dollars it cost.
-R-
"The United States... A for effort, F for
execution."
That is the cruelest, most dastardly, evilest... I can't go on...
I liked the idea of having contact+calendar info with me, but a Palm thing always seemed excessive for that. Now that I can carry my music and my contact+calendar info it starts to become compelling.
The reason I use my PDA all the time and not a pen and paper planner is that it bleeps.
A comedian once described his paper agenda as "a book we use to keep track of the appointments missed".
With a PDA the thing starts bleeping obnoxiously until you pick it up and see that you have a meeting with your boss in five minutes... Haven't missed an appointment since I bought a Palm Vx a couple of years back.
this is my third year of college using my Newton emate, and I couldn't live without it. I take all of my class and reading notes on it, read ebooks on it, and write most of the first drafts of papers on it. kind of big to qualify as a real pda, but it was cheaper than laptop and has much better battery life. I had a palm m105 for a couple of weeks before the emate, and all I really used it for was showing off, even with the folding keyboard, it just wasn't that practical.
"It's the year 2000, where are the flying cars?"
I see a bunch of students using them nowadays and for the most part they could do the same with paper planners. Some students, myself included, use them for taking notes during class, especially those long, boring art history classes where I only have to write down names and styles.
I also found that a paper planner was too much of a hassle for me, bent pages, illegible handwriting, etc. The biggest drawback was it not having an alarm, with a memory which is all but shot, I need the alarm to remember basic functions (like class and work)
But as my theoretical OS instructor says, when you turn on your PDA you turn off your brain.
I couldn't keep track of all the girls I met at the bars without it.
OK, maybe not. But I did use it constantly for keeping track of assignments, class projects, and meetings. Of course, I also used it for the occasional game when class got really boring, for keeping some lists of computer lab locations, UNIX and vi reference guides, etc. I stopped using it after I graduated and found that my schedule just wasn't busy enough to warrant it. Plus, I had to recalibrate the screen every few days and I swore it ate batteries faster the older it got.
I got my dad a cheap Palm (don't remember the model) two years ago. He's a school psychologist and has tons of meetings at all the different schools in the district and has hundreds of contacts to keep track of. He considers the Palm a God-send.
Personal Display of Affluence? Sure I use it (snicker)
I use my PocketPC to remind me of meetings, important events, etc, both immediately prior to the event, and to be able to tell at a glance whether or not I am available at a particular date/time.
I am on call for systems support at work, and having the PocketPC and my bluetooth mobile phone means I can dial into work and use Terminal Services to fix ailing servers without leaving the pub/club I'm in when I'm out.
If I'm sitting in a bus, train or plane, I can play games, read an eBook and/or listen to MP3s.
While I'm driving, my GPS CompactFlash card and software can help me out when I'm heading somewhere I've never been before. As an added bonus, there's no "steal me!" in-car GPS system advertising itself to thieves. I can even use this feature while hiking through the mountains, as long as I'm careful with how much exposure the PPC has to the elements.
I recently bought a PDA (Toshiba e335 PocketPC) to replace my paper planner. I am better organized.
Used, but not as a PDA. I know a bunch of people with PDAs, and they use them. They just don't use them as PDAs. Some use them to take notes in class. Some use them as a calculator or gaming device. Very few people I know actually use them as a phone book/scheduler. PDAs from my perspective are usually used as cheap portable PCs with less power and less features. They are often used for what the tablet PC is designed for, but they cost far less.
One day I will have one small device that is a PC/Phone/Wirelessly Networked/MP3 playing/Calculator/Gaming Device/Pager/Digital Camera. Then I will need no more.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
I'm a student, and I use it daily. It is practically an extension of my brain.
PDAs banned at local high school to prevent violence and jealousy.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
I bought a Palm IIIe about three years ago and I still use it every day. In my office we do almost all scheduling of meetings and time using Outlook/Exchange. I don't think it is much of a hassle to sync once or twice a day. I also keep all my phone numbers in it. I cannot count how many times I have been on the road and in need of a number from the office. One top of all this I have recently begun using the task list to remind me when about dealines and other things I need to do. I guess I could use paper, but it is much easier to type/write it in, than to have to decrypt my handwriting. I did try to use it to take meeting notes one time. That is one area where I still prefer to use the old fasion pencil and paper. I could not write the characters fast and accuratly enough to keep up with the meeting. I may get one of the new laptops that flip over and become writing tablets, but not until they become a lot cheaper.
I don't have a true PDA, but the calender funciton of my cell phone (Motorola T720) is actually decent so I have started using it, even to my own surprise since I never had great experiences with mobile databank devices.
Perhaps some day a PDA is useful enough to justify the costs over pen and paper, although I see more future in the hybrid market (cell phones with PDA functionality). We all have a cell phone anyway and there's no need to carry a second devices for simple stuff as notes, calenders and addressbooks. For more serious stuff, I'd consider a laptop right away (where the tablet PC is indeed a cool hardware idea).
If you don't believe me, you can see for yourself in this video of a Jeff Hawkins' lecture.
If you don't use a PDA, ask yourself how many meetings do you go to in a week? How many phone calls do you make in a week? How many different people do you call in a week? When I was in product marketing at Cisco, I would often have 20 meetings in a week, and 25 voice messages to return at the end of a day.
PDAs are great for executives, marketing, and sales people. They are constantly interacting with other people. Engineers may spend more time in their cube cranking out the next great piece of software. The more meetings they have, the less productive they would be.
In fact, I just used it to look up my Slashdot password. :)
:)
... umm .. interesting ...
I use my Handspring Prism for the following things:
1. Beeping at me when I have a meeting to go to
2. Reading books - once you get used to the small screen size, using Weasel Reader is almost better than paper! And I have a copy of the Douay-Rheims Bible in there too.
3. Keeping passwords. I use a program called YAPS by Markus Bosshard. Very secure 'cause it's attached to my belt, and requires a master password, which I won't tell you.
4. Talking to people. I have the VisorPhone module and I love it. (I bought it before the Treos came out, and it's still cheaper.)
5. As a calculator. It can't beat a real 48G with real buttons, but Russell Webb's RPN is quite nice.
6. Keeping names and addresses.
7. Taking short notes and keeping lists. For example, I have lists of movies I want to see, CDs I want to buy, shopping lists, etc.
8. Playing games, occasionally. Sometimes a game of Drug Wars is a very relaxing way to while away the hours
Syncing is much less of a problem since Handspring got off their butts and finished their OS X Palm Desktop release; and I use iSync, iCal, and Address Book. Works pretty well.
My first "PDA" was a Casio Digital Diary, which I got for a high school graduation present back in 1992. I used it constantly. Everybody thought I was nuts for having one, but the "Digital Diary" concept has always greatly appealed to me.
The most unusual use I found for my Casio was when I lost my voice due to a really bad cold. When this happens to me, I quite literally can't talk - I can't even whisper without difficulty. So I tapped out what I wanted to say on my Casio, and showed it to people. Way better than carrying around a pad of paper, but the reactions I got were
I have a Casio Cassiopea EM-500, and at the moment it serves as a very expensive alarm-clock (tapping buttons in the morning to stop it when your half asleep is very effective at waking you up). A games console (Mame, NES, Sega etc). A web browser (ah except i lost my Infrared phone so not anymore). With some more memory i could use it as an mp3 player, or run doom or quake on it. The calendar function is to messy for me to bother using, i have my phone to keep phone numbers (which is the more logical place for them). And notes are much better on paper, not on low res screens. Really the problem with these things is the clumsiness. When you grab a scrap of paper or a notepad you really dont care, its just a case of scribble whatever down, but with a PDA you have to take more care, its a droppable thing so you have to hold it carefully, and it usually takes more than one attempt at entering data (yes even with the better handwriting recognition installed). tapping a keyboard is not too bad, but its still hard. I think the people to blame are the designers, they have no concept of designing a piece of software that anyone will actually use. Ive seen so many scheduling programs, all the way from that old data-bank watch to the newest PDAs and every single one looks identical to the other, they just don't work for everyone.. or infact most people. Its about time the software changed.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
ha. Yeah, I use mine all the time. It's a low-end Palm from like 2 years ago, $150, 2 megs of RAM or something, who knows. I never sync it to anything other than to back the stuff up now and then. I bought it when I moved to NYC, and there's no way I'd be able to get myself around town without it. Everytime I go someplace I might wanna find again, I'll add it to the address book. It's got all my contacts in there, sorted, and then I use the memo pad constantly for notes. It also has all my computer account info in it. I've got some games on there I don't use, not much into games. The only app I've added to it that ever comes into play is the NYC subway map thing, that's great.
G. Ratte'/cDc "I don't know what your problem is, but I bet it's hard to pronounce."
I use my PDA for multimedia apps...mp3s, games, ebooks, flicks, etc...but I store phone numbers in my cell phone, write email on my PC, and wirte notes and task lists on little bits of paper.
Why? Because little bits of paper are always charged up, compatible with any OS, easily copiable and can site in my pocket all week without a cracked screen.
I think more development should be performed to make a PDA like multimedia device -- or to bring more minor PDA like features and an Open OS to things like mp3 players (zee ipod) and mini DVD players. That's what I really want out of my PDA anyway. Tapping away at a meeting i get less done with more ridicule with no added benefits.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
When I 'lost' my last phone I switched toa kyocera 6035 with built in palm. I doubt they're making them anymore because they're large and heavy (bugger than either a palm or phone.) But they did an admiral job briding the two, so I can tell who's calling and look up numbers quickly. Really, the only reason I like it is because I can play rogue... However, I haven't seen anyone mention the iPod. I think the potential here is: its really hard to write notes and stuff on a tiny little pda screen, and hooking up a keyboard is usually more time consuming than just jotting down notes on paper. The iPod just doesn't even give you the opportunity - it just says "here's your data. Sync from your desktop. DOn't even think about maniupulating the data, you don't have time. You're busy!" The only problem with that model is that I now have to carry a phone and the iPod with the data. It'd be nice if someone would come out with a phone with a 20gig hard disk and the same attitude. Pop it in its (firewire) cradle to charge, sync with the address book and music library, and move on. Once, we were all excited because the network was the computer and we could access our home direectory from any desktop. I predict in a few years we'll just have our home directories in our pockets.
I use mine all the time, plus, if im in a fix. I can ssh into our system and reboot boxes etc with it.
I bought mine with the sole intention of trying to make simple games on it. After a few attempts at a Diablo 2 port (You can run around a basic grass level with a necromancer, never got beyond that), I basically gave up on it because it never seemed to be as handy as the old pen & paper combo. Of course, this may be due to myself owning a pen knife that was much cooler then the PDA itself :)
OtherTechGuy: "I got the newest Palm"
Me: "I got a pen knife"
OtherTechGuy: "So..?"
Me: "I'll cut yah"
OtherTechGuy: "Here..take the Palm pilot..." (nervously hands me his PDA)
could you do that with a PDA? I thought not. Now mod me up, or i'll cut yah.
---- Anyone can act smart, but it takes a smart person to act stupid. ----
I would really like to know.
Computer Associates?
Then I bought a paper address book. It doesn't require batteries, upgrades, software and doesn't crash or lock up. I decided to switch to paper and pencil when I tried to synch my palm pilot after the battery died. The software on the system thought it needed to base itself on what the empty palm pilot had, which was nothing. So, both my computer and my palm pilot lost everything.
Now my palm pilot is a glorified grocery list. I can check off stuff as I buy it, then next week I can uncheck the stuff I need to buy again.
Outdoor digital photography, mostly in New Engl
It is very simple: PDA is for disciplined and organized person. If you are not this kind of person, you will not use PDA. Buy you would not use paper planner either.
Since I was 7 years old I used to have small address book with friends contact information. Since I was carrying it in my pocket all the time it got worn down and approximately each year I had to manually copy to new one. I did that for 10 years. Then I got Citizen electronic address book, Casio digital organizer, Sharp Zaurus, Windows CE machine, Palm III, Palm V, Sony Clie and now Treo. I certainly use PDA a lot. I have few hundreds contacts there, my passwords, birthdays, appointments, todo list, powerful calculator and much more.
My wife keeps all phones she needs to know at 1 page
attached with magnet to fridge door. She does not use even address book in her mail client. She would not use PDA ever.
Basically my PDA gathers dust because of a lot of little things, not any big one. Truthfully the Palm Tungsten and Sharp Zaurus are pretty close to getting me to upgrade but just aren't quite there. The biggest stumbling block for me isn't the device itself, it's the crappy integration with PC hardware that kills the deal. It's just too inconvenient to use the desktop software I want to use, so I don't bother.
Heh, lately I'm having this eiree feeling that OSDN has contracted some of it's newsfeed to corporate interest. Lots of not so stealthy info-mercials and ask-slashdots that sound like consumer surveys... Bah, maybe I'm paranoid...
Mi domando chi à il mandante di tutte le cazzate che faccio - Altan
A bunch of us fellow owners got together (online) and hacked at this device to the point where virtually all WinCE MIPS apps run on this little guy. DivX, MPEG, WMV, MP3, MIDI, Excel spreadsheet editing, Word doc editing, surfing the net via wireless adapters, or cel phone as ISP, game emulators, etc. etc.
There's another group on the verge of getting Linux working on it.
True, out-of-the-box the BE-300 is a POS, but with the eXpod replacement OS (WinCE), the BE is fantastic.
:P
To catch a glimpse of what a "Tricked out" BE can do, stop by my BE-specific site, BE-FREE http://welcome.to/be300/
The BE-300 is a real everyday workhorse, even if Casio didn't intend it to be anything more than a glorified color Pocket Viewer.
The single most useful feature of my PDA is the planner alarm... I wouldn't be able to maintain a schedule without it. I never got into the habit of checking my paper planner regularly, and I have a real serious tendency to let the rest of my day slip my mind when I get into a project... my Palm III's little chirp (custom-made with some MIDI software, so I never confuse it with someone else's PDA) sucks me back into reality and keeps me from missing meetings or jobs for sheer forgetfulness. I love being able to let my mind focus totally on the now, knowing my "assistant" will notify me when I should be doing something else.
When I first got my Palm, it was my toy... but now it's my tool. I've been able to afford my PDA on a student's salary by always buying behind the tech curve (still on a Palm III, use WriteRights from Fellowes to preserve screen life). I only sync about once a month, and on full-backup (Palm overwrites computer)... that way I never have to ask myself "Now where did I put that phone number?" I could lose some data if my Palm dies, but there's always paper if I have to...
So I'm one of those people who keeps his public life in a little belt pouch on his hip. It frees me from having to keep it in my head all the time... in fact, the faceplate on my Palm III pretty much says it all.
"My other brain is organic."
Take care,
Mark
There is a solution...
I use a Newton 2100 and I have everything in it going back to about 1997-- contacts, school notes, letters, e-mail, appointments, jots about this or that, maps and sketches, books, birthdays, archived usenet posts (yes, I read usenet on my PDA), old Web content (archive that too, if it's useful enough) etc. etc. etc.
I'm running out of space once again (right now I am at 44MB of storage) but thanks to the ATA driver for Newton, I'll probably be picking up a 128MB CompactFlash card for it soon.
I'm so worried about losing my Newton that I have two backup units sitting in a drawer, just in case.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
Maybe my threshold is set too high, but I'm surprised more people haven't talked about paper planners. I use a Franklin planner and I love it. I started using it in college and still do. No handwriting recognition tricks, plenty of space to take notes for the day (need more space? add an extra page, it's not that hard), a to-do list that forces you to be aware of your to-dos because forwarding them up a day requires you to re-copy them by hand...
While I admit it would be nice to have the data in electronic format to easily transfer to other uses, I don't really feel the need to invest in a PDA. It just seems to inconvenient. And I'm no luddite, I couldn't live without my cell phone, which stores the phone numbers I need and I like to use. Though I'd like to get one of those Java-enabled phones and play with that a bit...
Oh, and for those who said they like to use the PDA as a gameboy: I don't dispute this use, but I have a gameboy advance (and I'm 26 and unashamed) and use it all the time. There is no comparison for the games -- they are great. No, I can't pull it out in meetings, but it's not like people don't know when you're playing PDA games.......
"First you gotta do the truffle shuffle."
HP Jornada with a CDPD modem.
Schedule, contacts, email, web, notes, time accounting, tasks, and e-books. I couldn't live without it. I'm on the road a lot and it means that I am never out of touch. It turns all of those little 5-10 minute waits during the day into productive time. Catch up on email, news, stock quotes, etc.
I also categorize my contacts. Before I visit a site, I review the names of everyone there. That way I always remember everyone's names.
My contact list has been electronic for about 7 years now. I've got thousand of entries. Even if someone's information isn't totally up to date, it has helped me many times. Last week a name came up that sounded familiar but I couldn't place it. Did a search and found that I bought some instrumentation from him in '96.
I also love the task list. As things pop up, I put them on the stack. Once you get in the habit, you don't forget to go back and take care of little details. It's nice to pull up a project and see that you have 10 outstanding items that you need to tackle.
The overall package is a lot bulkier than I would prefer and the battery life on the CDPD modem could be better but it is so useful that I put up with it. I also crave a much faster wireless connection. I have an 802.11 card that I use at home. That kind of speed everywhere and I would be in heaven.
Syncing hasn't been a problem and the Jornada has been rock solid reliable.
I would love to have a PDA with all of the capabilities that I currently have but in a Palm V form factor (with a higher res screen). I'm waiting for bluetooth PDA's and phones. I could axe the CDPD modem and just use the cell phone in my pocket. Probably next year.
...if those who no longer find their PDA's useful actually use paper-based organisers. My hypothesis is that those who are organised (or anally retentive enough) to write To Do lists, put all appointments in a diary, and colour code their revision timetable, will actually use their PDA's for those functions.
As ever, technology must meet an actual need if it is to be used. Anything else is cool for the first month or so, then sits in the bottom of a drawer gathering dust.
I'm currently enrolled in college, and I find my PDA the most useful thing I've bought other then my computer. I take notes on it (I also have a portable keyboard for the thing), I draw diagrams, I play games during class, and it doesn't take up that much in the way of time to sync since I already had a memcard from my digital camera - I just store everything on that and not care if it is synced or not.
--- Ãther SPOON!
I thought it was just me! Over the Christmas holiday last year my Palm's battery died. My backup, which was current, scarcely recovered half the data. I still haven't gotten around to rebuilding it and I can't say as I miss it all that much. In fact, the only thing I do really miss is the e-books but I prefer the paper (read - NO BATTERIES) kind. I think I'll just wait until Apple comes out with the iNewtPod before I buy another.
I need and use my PDA because I can't remember shit. I use my beloved Newton 2100 on an almost hourly basis during the workday. I work at a Las Vegas showroom/theatre and the PDA keeps track of the production shows, corporate events, employees/network users, and how much time I spend on various projects.
The offices are filled with HP 2100 printers with infrared ports, so I can print off an email or task list for others just by pointing the Newton at a printer. With the WiFi card I stay shelled into the firewall server to respond to IM's or Emails, and thanks to VNC I can make changes to the Exchange server on the fly.
At home the PDA continues to serve for remembering what the heck is going on next weekend, for keeping track of my user base, and changing the channel on the TV when the wife stashes the remote on her side of the bed.
But, what it really boils down to is that if I didn't have the Newton, I'd still walk around with a paper notebook in my back pocket. At least the Newt allows me to play an mp3 or flip on the backlight to use as a flashlight in the depths of the unlit storage space at work.
I'm a new University student, and my Palm V is a life saver.
:)
I got it from a friend of my dad's in early OAC (Ontario Academic Credit... grade 13 essentially) when the company they were working for went bust and he didn't need his any more. I picked up the portable keyboard discounted from a nearby RadioShack (~$60CA) and, as I said, it's saved my life.
As a geek, my handwriting isnt the best. So by taking all my notes (less Math and Physics) using the combination, I could carry all my notes for the 3 subjects that weren't math realted in my pocket. It was sweet. I could study (not that I did) for a test absolutely anywhere. And, they were the most organized and thurough of anyone in my class. I could even type up what my teachers were saying as they were saying it without having to condense the info.
That's only for notes, too. I kept all my tests, due dates, assignments, marks, etc on it. No more forgetting about anything.
Finally, if there was a particularly boring class, I had a few games to keep my brain from metling.
Now in University, I still keep all my notes and dates on here. Not so much my marks anymore. Don't want to get depressed all the time
If I didn't have my Palm, I dunno what I'd do... Well, I'd have to take notes on paper, but the detail would go down so much I don't know how I'd cope.
Plus, if everyone else considers it a status symbol, then heck, I'm even more better off... if that makes sense.
I find that I work much better with a PDA... I have an awful memory and never used to remember phone numbers or appointments unless I wrote them down immediately. Now my PDA lets me do that. On the other hand, a friend of mine who has a better memory never uses his - except for tetris and IR pong, of couse. On the other hand, I have a Handspring Treo, so it also operates as a phone and portable web browser/e-mail client, so that makes it particularly useful...
I've used a lot of PDAs and they have all been crap.
Especially the latest offerings from Palm, HP-Compaq, etc.
PocketPC sucks - a crippled Windoze.
There are two main problems with most PDAs - screen size and handwriting recognition.
PocketPC just adds unreliability and unusability to the list.
Now, there is one PDA that can rightly call itself an Assistant. One PDA to rule them all.
The Apple Newton 2100 MessagePad.
This baby has everything - large screen, the best handwriting recognition ever to grace a computer, a huge base of applications to choose from, PCMCIA slots for storage/wireless/bluetooth etc, IRDA, a fast ARM processor, an in-built OO scripting interpreter and a bunch of peripherals.
The best thing of all is that these beauties are 7 years old and are dirt cheap on eBay.
Because of the failings of current PDAs, I have reverted to the Newton, along with thousands of other savvy people around the world.
I wouldn't be without my Newton now, it keeps me organised, informed and entertained.
You can never beat an original.
Hey, maybe I should do an Apple ad?
I've gone from the Newton to Palm III to two Handspring models. When I started to find myself regularly writing Graffiti symbols on paper, and finding myself completely unable to remember a damn thing without my PDA handy, I gave it to my wife to play card games on and haven't used one since. That it was able to affect my basic ability to remember things scared the hell out of me, frankly.
I stuck with a paper calendar on my wall for quite some time, but recently started using iCal for that, and the OSX Address Book for contact info. But I haven't found them causing any problems remembering things - probably because if I'm not at my desk I still have to rely on primitive technology (my brain). The only mobile device I rely on is my cellphone, and I find myself entering numbers manually more often than I use its phone book except for numbers I only call once in a great while.
They look fantastic but are completely useless for anything justifing the cost!
I use mine as virtual post-its for passwords, logins, funky UNIX command usage info, etc.
;)
I also use the address book feature for phone numbers.
Of course with all that sensitive info in it, it never leaves the house.
there are three real reasons i keep my pda on me 24/7:
1 i use a visor+visorphone. it's my only phone (i cut my landline years ago)
2 i have gone back to college and i use it to keep track of assignments. translate the whole syllabus into 4.0Student and i never have to look anywhere else to see what my next assisgnment is - or how well i'm doing in class.
3 email and websurfing at any occasion. this may sound sick, but the next time you're sitting on _The_Can_ ask yourself, "would i mind being able to read slashdot and read/reply to my email whist i sit and meditate"?
- im just sick of fixing windows all the time -
Oh, wait. A Series 5 isn't a PDA, it's an actual computer that does, like, useful stuff and that I can type on and even program. Never mind. ;)
You must think in Russian.
I really only use mine as an encrypted password store... gnukeyring. I have no idea how secure this is, but it has to be better than using post-it notes....
I would really like to use it for my addressbook, as so much more info can be stored than in a standard phone, but I can never find a good "master" source of the data, that farms out to different devices, and a good way of keeping the data synced.
I've said this to people everywhere when this subject comes up; My iPaq is never getting off of my desk until it has wireless highspeed internet access ANYWHERE. Once these things are sub 200 dollars and the high speed wireless kicks in, then, and only then, will you get this oh-so-coveted critical mass of users to push pop up ads to.
The "Pocket Query" value-added feature that lets you request **hundreds** of cache pages in an ebook every night is worth its weight in paper... and if you put your PDA in a convenient waterproof bag, it's a lot more friendly than a bunch of paper when you're paddling toward a hydrocache in the middle of nowhere.
I tend to use mine for todo lists of offbeat items, like lists of books, CDs, DVDs, etc. that I want to pick up when convenient (i.e. I happen to be in a store, prices are good, and I have a few dollars to spare.)
It also lets me use the company categories on the address book to break down the list a bit. It's handy to be able to see the contact points for an active client site.
I tried using the todo lists to manage project/job tasks, but found it was too much hassle. I usually have some other todo facility for projects, whether it be a project management utility, a project status spreadsheet, or just a todo.html file in the project directory tree.
Other than that I installed some games I never play, an improved calculator that I rarely use, and just stopped trying to find "new uses" for it.
It's an address book and meeting reminder tool, with bonus reminder/todo lists. It's enough to be worth carrying around more often than a pager or a cell phone.
Some people like to be available for contact anytime anywhere (pager/cell-phone.) I prefer to maintain a personal life unless I'm providing formal offsite support to a client site. Leave a vmail or email message, and I'll look into it when I get back.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
I keep a Palm PDA with me, but it's such a hassle keeping it in sync with outlook at all times.
I'm waiting for a reasonably priced bluetooth solution, so the synchronization process becomes transparent.
Actually, the same problem exists with Outlook, which I use in the office, the web-based project management software I use at home (Phprojekt), and Palm desktop. I wish there was a common interface for transferring data between the three (plus other PIMs), and keeping everything in sync.
Anybody know of, or is interested in developing something like this?
I mean i use only a PDA as most people for its schedule (and the subway map).
... i wish it could have a GSM addon to be the real one cool stuff we might have been waiting for !
That's why most Pocket PC are no use at all because +EUR500 for a pressbook and diary is a bit expensive.
By the way the new clam Sony Clié PEG is quite interresting
in general, planners are only effective if you carry them 100% of the time with you (while you're awake).
For me, the Palm, even the V, is just plain too big.
Something the size of a credit card just might do it for me, but I think there'd have to be a much faster method of input than the Palm's handwriting mechanism.
I used my Palm for a while, but the combination of replacing batteries, and having this extra big device to carry around (on top of my cell phone and pager) was just too much of a PITA.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
I've had a Palm V, then replaced it with a Vx when those arrived, and now I'm seriously considering moving to a Palm m515 for the extra storage space (8MB is no longer enough; 16MB plus a 128MB MultiMediaCard should do for a little while...).
I find PDA's invaluable. I have a Visor, which is the 2nd that I bought after I destoryed my last one. I use it for everything. If I need to remember something, I put it in it. If I'm out with the little woman, or out and have nothing to do, I can read my e-mail/respond to it, read an e-book, or a PDF file.
:)
If I need something, say toothpaste, I put it on my list when I notice I need it, and when I'm at Wal-mart, I pull up my wal-mart list and purchase anything I need. I don't have to make a list at the time, or try to remember if I need this or that. Works great in the grocery too.
Go out to get records, I type it up with a folding keyboard.
Pocket quicken allows me to keep track of my finances, and with it, I never overdraw since I hotsync every morning.
Who needs a wrist watch? Big clock gives me the time, date, timers.
Games? Yep, although I need nothing major, a good game of ZORK, Chess, or such will tied my time over easly.
I have a word processor, database, and PDF reader on it as well.
I keep lists of passwords, and account numbers on it, so I can go to the bank, deposit some money and not have to wait for them to pull up the number, or give me a dirty look cause they HAVE to.
All this with plenty of memory left over.
I think the problem is, that people can't figure what to use them for, or is too lazy to set them up right.
I used the paper PDA, but not long. It's too bulky to use for normal things.
Once this visor dies I don't know where I'm going to go, but I'm hoping I can get a Palm, or another Handspring to replace it. WinCE? I won't even think of them. Palm had the right idea on ease of use.
Shadowwalker delaforge
The visor's improvements to Palm software were substantial and I completely replaced my paper planner. I had been using calendar creator plus to print a weekly view on 8.5x11 with hours between six in the morning and ten at night. I also kept a rolling do list on the back of the weeks. Visor's "floating events" with attached note pages took the place of the rolling do list very well. The contact list and calculator were also nice to have in the back pocket. It was also nice to have a word search, though it was not as good as grep.
The thing that convinced me to buy one in the first place was a conversation with a spacey peer. As we were talking, his little palm peeped and told him it was time to go to a stupid meeting. It worked better than paper. I was never late to a meeting.
I got fired anyway, but that's another story.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Hi,
I had a Palm 3c and a Newton, but I find that the iSync, bluetooth and T68 phone combo is the most useful to me when it comes to just keeping my contacts, todos and calendar together.
What I really want is basically a "super ipod" with a color widescreen (480x288) touchscreen that can play divx movies, music, have bluetooth, 802.11 and GSM (fone via wireless headset), have voice and handwriting recognition, for less than $1000. In theory, Apple can supply ALL the technology required for this device. In fact, they might be able to do it with a reduced-size Darwin kernel on a low-power PPC.. It should be able to use bluetooth keyboards and mice, and be attachable (via docking station) to KVM rigs, car stereos, and home stereos. It should be about 2/3 the length and width of the Newton 2100, and maybe just a little thinner, and feature at least a 20GB notebook HDD.
Do people really use their computers? Don't count time spent surfing, emailing, and playing games and most people use their computer as... a status symbol.
I use my PDA quite frequently. It's a Handspring Visor Edge, running PalmOS 3.5, and I have the SprintPCS Digital Link module connected to the Springboard slot.
:-)
Here's what I do with it (and these are things that I do on a regular basis, not just things that I did once or twice and can "say" that I've done).
* Use the address book to store contacts with names, telephone numbers, email addresses, websites, notes, and even IM screen names
* Use the appointment book to keep track of reminders for work, appointments with friends, anniversaries and birthdays, recurring bills to pay, release dates for movies... (December 18...)
* Use the integrated cell phone to make and receive SprintPCS phone calls - uses the built-in address book: I can dial anyone in my Palm phonebook directly, and I can see the name of anyone who is calling. No need to keep separate lists on my Palm and my cell phone: they are one and the same!
* Use the Digital Link's modem to dial in to my employer's Windows RAS server. When I'm on the pager rotation, I get paged for problems that can usually be fixed by restarting some service or another, or by checking various stats. This can all be done quickly and quite easily by connecting through RAS and then using a Palm SSH app to connect to which ever server needs attention.
* Use the Digital Link's modem to connect to the 'net and check my email, verify that my employer's website is working, and send/receive instant messages.
* Use AvantGo to read my favorite news and entertainment publications (CNN, New York Times, Reuters, Sci-Fi Wire News, The Onion, VisorCentral)
* Use the notepad to keep track of ideas, IP addresses, directions to various places...
* Use checkbook balancing app to keep track of all my atm and debit transactions, and the occasional checks
* Play Tetris or Solitaire if I'm waiting at the doctor's office, DMV, whatever
Things I do with it less frequently but that deserve mention:
* Swap out the SprintPCS module for my GPS module to do some Geocaching.
* On our honeymoon, I used the Visor as an alarm clock since our apartment in Spain didn't have one.
* Also on our honeymoon, used the Visor's built-in World Clock to keep track of what time it was back home.
* Use Vindigo to find interesting places to eat or shop (I used it extensively when I was in San Diego last summer at the Open Source Conference, to find places to eat and things to do).
There you have it... this puppy really gets a workout, and has held up admirably. The SprintPCS Digital Link is probably the best add-on I've ever seen, and what's more, Handspring was (and still is) giving them away for free! It doesn't work with Sprint's new PCS Vision, but that's ok with me - the speeds is provides are more than enough for what I need to do with it.
Looks like you abandoned the useful end of that connection. Where I worked they put in pop up screen that said, "Another application is attmpting to look at Outlook's contact information. allow this?" Yes it was a pain but it was worth it because Outlook never did a thing for me but my Handspring was very useful.
I imagine this pop up headache did not happen with WinCE crap, but I could be wrong. Microsoft would never use it's monopoly position to favor their own projects and programs, would they? When did it start taking ten freaking minutes? Because NT did not have USB support, I did all my transfers over a normal serial cable and it never took that long, unless I missed the stupid popup then the whole computer hung.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
I used to be a computer tech in a secondary (high) school in Oz and I have to say it was a LIFE SAVER. Being able to keep appointments that were minute specific and a log of computer troubles, and my e-mail!
:-) on his last birthday.
How ever I'm a [wank]e-Business consultant[/wank] now and drive a desk. Within 24 hours of landing this job, I stopped using my Palm M105 (2nd base model). Simply because I have all my needs at my fingertips now. I don't need to walk 400mtrs to check things.
I've passed my palm onto my fiances best friend and he's getting a huge amount of use out of it apparently. He's a doctor in training at the moment.
Another case study is my parents, my old man is a tradesman. Again, apointments and job history are what "rocks his world". Mum and Dad keep track of eachother by syncing their Palm (M100's) together. That way she can book the work and he doesn't double book himself either.
Gone are the little written notes and gone are the missed appointments.
I got him a metal case for his palm (He's destroyed 3 laptops in 4 years. Guess what he's getting for Christmas
To summarise, basically if you use computers and drive a desk, I can't see the use of one. But if you don't have access to a computer the majority of the time, a Palm (PDA et al) is an awesome asset.
(Adding to bloated threads is fun!)
I've been borrowing my boss's old Palm IIIx on and off for the past few weeks. The first word that comes to mind is "indispensable". Who needs a brain when you've got a Palm? I carry it with me where ever I go, and I don't have to worry about forgetting things anymore.
The Calendar, To Do List, and Memos are invaluable. I've only begun to play around with the Mail synchronization. The prospect of jotting down quick e-mails when I'm on the go and sending them as soon as I sit at my desk gives me little goosebumps. Mmm..
As other people have mentioned: I'm sure it's not as useful to people who don't have many appointments. I'm a student, but work schedules me for various jobs and it's nice to keep track on that information in a Palm instead of a stack of papers.
"I'll say it again for the logic-impaired." -- Larry Wall.
Why hasn't anyone mentioned the PDA/Phones combinations? I personally have the Kyocera Smartphone and find it extremely useful. With only one gadget, I get a date book/calendar, calculator, address book, note book, (limited) web browser, e-mail client, and e-book reader. There's even a VNC client out there for the Smartphone.
Why haven't the phone/PDA combos taken off more? size? price?
I work in a law firm where attorneys find their PDA's indispensable.
The ability to bill for time while away from their computer, then have it automatically applied the next time they sync has saved countless hours. Also, those equipped with Palm i705's can respond to e-mails while out of the office.
I personally use my PDA all day long.
1:In class, I use a fold-out keyboard and take on average 5-6 pages of notes; these are automatically synced with my system. I also take long documents that I have to study for a test and set these to sync so that I can read them while I have free time.
2:When walking to class, I use it as an MP3 player; I use a 128mb card which provides more than enough music. 3:When waiting for class to start, I use AvantGo to read the news that I otherwise would not have had time to do. Cnet, InfoWorld, CNN, NYT, Wall Street Journal...
4:At work I am bombarded with tasks, I can list these by priority and keep my grocery list tucked away under a different category.
Of course there's always the standard contact list and memo pads, but there's also a program called RJ-45 that I use to get patch cables crimped correctly, no matter how many times I try, I always forget the order.
Now I just have to wait until all the Sony NR70's leave the store shelves so that mine can "break" and under its replacement plan, have it replaced with an NX70 which has PalmOS5 and WiFi capability!
While my Palm IIIc only has 8 megs of RAM which limits the amount of software that I can run on it. I find that it's nice to have even if i don't use it constantly.
With powerOne Graph it doubles as a graphing calculator. With Quickoffice it does a good job of dealing with Word files and Excel spreadsheets. And of course with Tetris I can have some fun with it too.
Really, I know what I'm doing...Ohhhh, look at the shiny buttons!
Mmmm... handheld, modern, every Infocom game made, cooool.......
Yep, the Zaurus could be a nice (cheap) toy in a year or two.
What makes a man want to be a mouse? (Python's Flying Circus)
A friend of mine gave me her old Palm V. I like it, but I am unlikely to pay for a PDA. I use AvantGo to download news and I use Weasel and read a lot of books on it.
As far as using it as an organizer or any kind of "practical" use, that will not happen. And it boils down to one flaw.
Graffitti.
I hate Palm's handwriting recognition (or, actually, lack thereof). I still can't figure out why the Newton could recognize my regular handwriting easily (a friend let me try one once) and Palm, the industry leader, can't produce a PDA that can read anything other than a system that requires re-training to use. If I had something the size of a Palm, that I could turn sideways and write on it like I'm used to writing, I'd be using it for EVERYTHING, from addresses to memos, to even working on my writing in all the places I wish I could take my computer (like down to tha park along the riverbank).
As it is, even though I love using AvantGo and reading books on my Palm, it will never be useful enough to justify paying for one, just because Palm's been at this for years and still doesn't know how to make it easy to write on a Palm. (And I'm sure they won't bother with it until they start showing a loss due to this one issue.)
The other, smaller, reason is that, while I've seen KPilot synchronize my PDA with my desktop (like KNotes), I've NEVER seen KPilot actually transfer as much as one byte of info from my Palm to sychronize my desktop w/ changes on my PDA.
...the casio pocket viewer PV-S450 is a very good choice. Granted, there exist not so many apps as for the palms or the pocket pc's but with two AAA batteries this puppy can last (literaly) for months! How does it do it? Instead of using conventional memory, it has 4 MB of flash which does not need power to keep its contents when you're not using it. And even if you run out of batteries no need to reinstall anything...If you are using your PDA just to store phones and read e-books from the net, this is good (and VERY cheap) choice.
casio's site
Why don't ya just hand it over to a needy developer. Like me :-)
Davis Ray Sickmon, Jr - looking for something to read? Check out my three free novels at MidnightRyder.org
The reason is that people buy them because they're cool, not because they're necessary. OTOH, I must carry about 20kg worth of medical references on my CF card in my handera, which is a bit easier to carry around than all those books.
I've suspected I've had a low-level variety of ADHD for the longest time. I forget to do routine household tasks, because I'm distracted by the next shiny thing. Unless I have something written down for me to do, I'll forget to do it.
I have programmed my PDA to remind me to do dishes, vacuum, clean the kitchen, do my laundry, take my vitamins, go to class, and other regularly recurring tasks. They follow me from day to day, and don't go away until I delete them, or check them off as done.
I don't tend to remember non-recurring or long-cycle events either. I have yearly doctor's appointment reminders, holidays, birthdays, et cetera, as well as deviations from routine (such as when I'm supposed to pick up the kid).
In the past year, my room, and indeed entire household, have progressed from extreme untidiness and mass confusion into something that actually has places to walk, no risk of mice, and everything done with at least a semblance of timeliness. For the first time in my life, I'm setting aside time to do my homework.
For that alone, I could love the thing. The idea that it has an address book, games, e-books, et cetera, is just plain cool, even though I don't rely on those.
I use mine every day, because I need it. If I didn't have that, I'd be using a whiteboard, sticky-tabs, notes on the back of my hand, and innumerable lists.
I forgot to mention one huge thing I do with my PDA:
* Sync to my desktop systems at work and at home: At work, a Windows 98 machine where I sync with Microsoft Outlook. At home, a Mac OS X machine where I sync using iSync and OS X's built-in Address Book and iCal. Especially on OS X, the system-wide address integration is great! The buddies on my iChat buddy list are integrated with the system-wide Address Book, and they're linked with the same names, email addresses, phone numbers, etc, that are stored in my Palm and on Outlook at work!
As for how I came to actually use my PDA for things. The key is to be DELIBERATE. You can't just go and buy a shiny new thing, install some apps, play with it, and keep doing business as usual. I debated with myself for many, many months before making the purchase of my Visor. I went over the same question as everyone else - "Yes, it looks really cool, but what am I going to use it for?" So I talked to people who had PDAs, read up on them online, and researched various uses. Then when I bought mine, I made a conscious effort to maximize the amount of things I could use it for. Hence you get my previously-mentioned list of uses. Figure out what non-digital things in your life that it can replace, and jump right in. Printed MapQuest directions? Gone. Replaced with AvantoGo MapQuest directions, or written directions copied from emails and inserted into NotePad. Phone numbers, appointments, email addresses jotted down on paper? Gone. Do NOT say, "oh, i'll just jot this down on paper, and I'll get it on there later." You *won't*!! Put it on the PDA right away, the first time! No intermediate steps! I don't use a checkbook register anymore - I have the PDA with me at the store, at the ATM, at the gas station. If I absolutely don't have time to enter a transaction, I save the receipts til the end of the day, enter them into the PDA in batch, and then trash the receipts (unless they are for something I'll be reimbursed for, or other big ticket items).
1. Phone #'s always available
2. Beeping appointment reminder
3. Travel clock / alarm
4. Games
5. News (Avantgo)
# 5 comes in handy in situations where you need clandestine reading material at the office (i.e. not walking out of the john with the sports section under your arm; get my drift?).
I have one - a sharp Zaurus.
... gone, both blank.
I had been using it to note down philosopical ideas.
The other day I tried to back it all up, seemed to work.
Redited some txt files afterwards. A duplicate was created so I deleted the old one. Tried to reload it to check it
I doubt I'll use one again quite so much after this experience.
I'm not saying they're crap but all it takes is one bad experience and you immediately form an emotional bad one with that piece of technology.
This is why for example I have a deep seated fear of Windows and Word. I have nearly failed my degree and lost my job due to that combo so I don't want to rely on a PDA. Not even a supposedly reliable one.
People don't trust complex technology and rightly so. It has to be simple.
Thus, I may exchange it for one of those catalogue cheapo electonix file-o-faxes.
A blog I run for the wealth
Wait Long ! (And Prosper)
maybe i'm wrong, but isn't that what the preview button does? the preview button right next to the submit button? or do you want a forced preview?
Perl - $Just @when->$you ${thought} s/yn/tax/ &couldn\'t %get $worse;
I read all 4 harry potters and all 3 lotr books on my palm (all during meetings -- looked like I was working)....and you can bet your ass as soon as harry potter 4 comes out -- I will break that palm outta storage and use it some more.
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
After resisting getting a PDA and a cell phone for years. I bought a Treo and now I can't imagine being without it. Before I used to use my paper planner, but now its all PDA. ...etc. Its a snap and been of minimal hassle and utmost convenience. PDA/Cell phones are just the way to go.
As for hotsyncs, software,
My 2 cents
purchased a Toshiba e310 before my college sophomore year, gave it to my little brother because I couln't stand the pathetic battery life, buggy file transfer, and akward use - went back to my Tandy PC-6 for the occasional memo, other than that, I remember all my appointments / due dates / etc.
I use my PDA, along with a keyboard, to take notes during some of my heavier classes. I really don't need to carry a notebook to class anymore, excluding foreign languages. And I'm done with foreign languages after this semester.
Generally speaking, yes, I could get along without my PDA (and had to when I cracked the screen), but I'd rather not have to deal without it. I've also got a few hours (via a CF card) of music on it, which is great for keeping me awake during some of the more boring classes.
I might get flamed for this :( But I'm a PocketPC and Windows user.
;) Okay graphical sites are bad, but in general it's a lot better than WAP.
;)
I use it all the time.
Synced with Outlook (which I don't use for email, I'm not *that* evil) it works beautifully. All my contacts are stored in Outlook and the PocketPC.. not only that but they also sync with my Nokia 7650 mobile.
Schedules are very useful. At the desktop, Outlook warns that I'm off for a driving lesson in 2 hours. Out shopping, the PPC reminds me and I grab a bus to where I agreed to meet.
Notes, brilliant. The handwriting recognition works like a charm (my handwriting is bad).
Web access, now this is where it really comes into its own. Enable bluetooth and it will dial out on my Nokia. Stick Nokia in pocket, open Pocket IE, look for whatever's required, or even visit Slashdot
Email access using the same technique? No problem.
Currency conversions... mine syncs the latest exchange rates over the Internet every day.
Photos.... Just take the flash card out of the camera, pop it in the PPC and say hi to a decent screen for displaying photos to friends and colleagues.
Got some MP3 files? Pop them on flash, it turns into an MP3 (or WMA) player.
Read ebooks? A waste on its own, but combined with all the rest it does, the functionality rocks. I can read Harry Potter on the bus to work without an annoying swarm of kids (it doubles up as a school bus) that noticed the HP cover.
Then you have the recreational stuff of course... where would I be without Hexacto Lemonade to pass away the lunch hours
Use it? Hell yeah!
Maybe you're just using it for the wrong purposes, or simply have a Palm?
When I arrive at work I hand it to my secretary who synchs it to the front office machine. Thus my staff can see what I've booked myself for, and they can book me things, whether I am in or out. Doing it with paper didn't work well, and this does. We share the view of the diary around the network using VNC, but one day I must get it synched to Evolution or something. A lot of my colleagues working in hospitals use theirs to exchange lists of things to do, and keep useful amounts of reference material on them as well, but my key use is shared diary.
.... to make sure its also a cellphone.
Smartphone PDA's, whether they are Kyocera Smartphones, Samsung Smartphones or PocketPC Smartphones, ensure that your PDA is always with you.
In my case I have the Kyocera 6135. Its a PalmOS Smartphone. I'm eagerly awaiting the 7135. Anyways, its become indispensible to me now. I use it to keep all my contacts/phone numbers handy. I have about 400 stored in my Addressbook. My Datebook is filled with repeating items that all have alarms. My ToDo list makes sure I get things done. My MemoPad is what I scribble any note I need onto.
Then there's the software. A TON of eBooks. AvantGo is used for reading dozens of news papers on the go. I have weather programs, IRC apps, and a lot more. I couldn't do without my PalmPilot now. Paper planners disgust me. I can't carry one of those around everywhere! Plus there's no instant searching of what I would have in there and it doesn't do anything other than what its made to do.
I can understand people not wanting to carry around a cell phone AND a PDA, but when youre cell phone IS your PDA you really have no excuse, thus you get more use out of it.
And yes it works excellently as a cellphone. Clear calls, long battery life and easy to use interfaces. Reliability is tops as well.
Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
It absolutely only depends on the way you live your life. The PDA is a good solution for some people, and a really crappy one for other people. This was illustrated to me with my ipod.
I got one as a cheap bonus with my ibook during my senior year in college. I used it *everywhere*. Since I walked to and from everything I did, it was permanently inside my jacket, frequently synched with my newest music, always synched with my contacts.
Then I graduated and started driving to work every morning. The ipod immediately offered me nothing. Sure, it can play in my car stereo, but with a 20 minute drive, I may as well play MP3 CDs. I didn't use it for months.
Now I've got a new job where the commute includes a 40 minute ferry ride and a 15 minute walk, each direction, every day. I'd shoot myself without my ipod. But I never use the contacts/scheduling features because I can do all that with my PC at work.
Blah, blah, blah. The point is, PDAs, or any other such device, are useful if your life fits their uses. They don't conform to you. You shouldn't conform to them either. If you're a homebody, drive only between work and home, or home and the bar, your PDA isn't going to do anything for you. If you constantly find yourself not having your information when you need it, get a PDA. This is, at max, like 5% of the population.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
Now, I probably wouldn't use all the of the organizing apps if I had good handwriting and rudimentary math skills... But I don't, so the PDA is really useful for me.
>|<*:=
I bought my PDA (Second hand Handspring Visor Prism) thinking I'd set all my appointments in it's diary - but found I'm just too disorganised genearlly to make good use of one..
Instead I've found it invalubale for keeping track of time spent on differnet jobs (Self employed - IT maintainence for different places) and for keeping track of the miles travelled in my car.
For these purposes my PDA is an essential now - I couldn't go back - as for the "Planner", when I get organised I'll give it another go...!
I must admit, aside from storing necessary information on systems that I'm currently working on, or acting as a chord dictionary; the only real use my Visor has is to annoy and frustrate people.
Example: I head down to the bar w/ my Visor and find a good place to camp (preferably between the TV & the bartender). When the bartender aims his remote at the TV to change the channel, I lock onto the signal w/ my Remote app and save it. A few minutes later, I turn my Visor's IR port towards the television and set a script to continually change the station every 5 minutes or so.
Once the bartender is swearing loud enough... I offer to "take a look", fix the problem and drink free beer for awhile.
And yes, that's free as in beer AS IN free beer.
#SickNotWeak
I have a Handspring Visor (the "deluxe" one that you could probably buy on EBay for about $50 by now). The schedule is fairly useful, as is the address book. However, I find that the killer app is my outliner, a product called ThoughtMill. It is absolutely the best way for me to organize ideas, lists, etc. I've used it for everything from shopping lists to outlines of technical documents. I also keep notes on obscure Unix commands and Perl debugging info in it. The Palm OS's search feature lets me find anything in ThoughMill (or anywhere else) quickly.
I'm not a big fan of the Palm method of syncing. Instead, I have a plug-in backup module (for Handsprings only) that creates a full image of the everything in memory. I've had to use it to restore the backup twice already (both times my fault).
Oh, I also play Minehunter obsessively.
We could make PDA's actually useful if they weren't just "one more thing" to carry around. I think that if there were a way to make direct monetary transactions between PDA's they could become a device that, like a wallet, is considered almost essential to modern civilized living.
It's only good if you have it on you, where you can whip it out at a moment's notice. I carry mine all the time, so I would have 3 bulges in my pocket... Wallet/cell phone, PocketPC, and.. umm...
The PocketPC has soo much going for it, from maps (PocketMap), AvantGo (the killer app IMO of PDA's), games, MP3 player (just don't forget the headphones), and all the usually PDA stuff.
Waiting in line? Whip it out and play a quick game of Bejeweled (another killer app!). Lost? Load up PocketMap.
But I couldn't do any of that if I didn't carry it with me, at all times. Sure, there's the chance it could break/get stolen, but that's with all tools. If you don't use it, no matter how useful it *could* be, it's just a waste of money.
It's not quite a PDA but I do use my Nokia 7650 (http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,,137,00.html) as a PDA. It has full internet access thanks to some custom browsing software and I can read my emails any time I want. The best thing is that you can program the phone in Java and C/C++. (http://www.forum.nokia.com/) This is a major bonus for geeky programmers like me who like to create stuff. :) :)
The processor is really quick as wel and it can run Doom without problems.
Martin Piper
Owner - ReplicaNet and RNLobby
And yes, I do make rather good use of it. As well as the usual agenda/address book/notepad/games, I can do all my email on it (via mobile phone when not at home), route planning and GPS mapping, along with coding in Perl, Java, and its own built-in language; and play games like Infocom adventures, crosswords, and even a Doom engine; plus it has several hundred MBs of books, TomeRaider files and other reference works like the IMDB. I can view PDFs and pictures, handle zip files, and use FTP and Opera. But my most-used app is an off-line reader (OLR) for the CIX BBS, which I use to download and read messages and compose and upload replies - in my case, several hundred messages per day, maintaining a messagebase of around 60MB. (Disclaimer: I'm a co-author.) And all this with a touch-typeable keyboard and battery life of 20 hours or so.
(* It's a shame more people didn't realise their full potential, or they'd still be making them... :( )
I could do much of that on my desktop machine, but the convenience and time-saving of having it all with me on the train, on holiday, or just out and about, is something I couldn't be without.
So, just a status symbol for me? Don't think so :)
Ceterum censeo subscriptionem esse delendam.
My Palm Vx is the first diary I have used for more than 6 months. The alarm feature has been invaluable . I can schedule my life better than ever before. And my bus commute is often spent using LispME or , until I recently got a winner, iRogue
Slashdot: Where nerds gather to pool their ignorance
It doesn't have wireless or color, but it has my life on it.
Your whole life... Wow, and I can't even fit my entire Pr0n and MP3 collection on my desktop system with an 80 GB drive. Oh wait, actually that is my life. Now that is sad...
From excellent karma to terible karma with a single +5 funny post...
I support over 900 ipaqs and am suprized by what the clinets are placing on these things. Just wish the activesync program was not prone to failure. BTW its not games, its documents they carry throughout the day. I would agree that a few buy them and and then put them in a drawer, but the same number are at the other end of the bar curve and pushing for more connectivity. Its nice to look up a phone number or check out a map (from streets and trips) to see where you are when you are lost. Try that when all you have is a state map!
What for?
Contacts.
Calendar.
BART schedule (You wouldn't believe how useful this is).
Password storage (encrypted, of course).
Calculator (Don't laugh, I'm bad at math).
Of course, it helps that it's neither big nor heavy, runs forever on a pair of AAAs, and syncs well with iCal and Address Book.
Understand where I'm coming from:
After a couple of setbacks, I received a used Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 at an Ebay auction. Being a typical geek, I could not wait to fire it up and hack around on it. Little did I realize, the package did not include the AC adapter. Now I have a sweet little Zaurus that is as dead as a doornail. The adapter cannot be found at retail ANYWHERE (except in NYC, but I'm not that desperate). I have an adapter on order and should hopefully be here by the middle of the week. In the meantime, I have a paperweight.
Then I see this thread and I will weigh in with my answer: I pretend to use my PDA.
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
a friend of mine has black and white palm, he showed me a little program that turns the his palm into a mirror that he can use on the go.
- PDA [palm OS 5.0]
- Cell phone
- Keyboard
- High speed internet access with flat rate data plan
- Color screen
- MP3 player
- Memory expansion [ie Memory Stick, SD, etc]
- Be able to clip to my belt
We are so close. The Kyocera 7135 is almost there, but lacks a mini keyboard. The Treo 300 is close too, but lacks an MP3 player and memory expansion slot.
I have been holding off on buying an MP3 player, one of those new phones that comes with games and even a snazzy new color pda. Unless I find everything all in one, I know it will just collect dust after the first month.
Live web cams
I am a blacksmith, I make stuff by heating it red hot and hitting it with a big hammer. My computer's sole work related function is printing official looking invoices.
I bought a palmIII off my programmer neighbor when he upgraded about three months ago. It is my new brain, I think it saved my marriage and my business.
I have carried a big paper organizer for years and I never used it effectively. I use the all of the basic features of my palm daily: appointments and mileage in the calendar, my six different to do list categories, the memo pad is on whenever I check my messages or talk with a client, and of course the phone book.
I could go into lengthy detail about how I use each feature and my plugins, but the essential point is that I now have the information where I need it, when I need it.
I have to go from my home office to my workshop and to jobsites, so it's great to have all my info right at hand.
Half the time when a curious person asks about it I say they don't need it. If your calendar never leaves your desk the PDA has no advantage. Hell, I've been looking for an excuse to upgrade but it seems that 2mb and no grayscale does everything I need.
I use mine. There are several reasons I chose it over paper.
:)
1) Paper doesn't beep at you to remind you. I have a horrible memory. I need reminders. Paper in my pocket is useless if I forget it is there, and time consuming if I have to read through them all every hour or two to see if I am about to forget something
2) PDA holds a lot more information, and that information is backed up onto my computer. Paper doesn't survive the washing machine or the rain (if it REALLY rains, which is a possibility in Florida, lightning capital of the world). Yeah, I could drop/smash/wash the PDA, but the data has multiple presences.
3) PDA has games and ebooks for when it isn't beind used for useful purposes. Can't play backgammon on paper. Paper has no AI. Can't play puzzle games on paper, except the ones I make up myself. What fun is that?
While I do use my PDA, I will admit that a lot of them are junk. Who needs a $500 PDA? I'd rather have a used laptop for that price. I spent $120 on my PDA. Even then I was a little upset about the loss of funds (I'm a poor unemployed college graduate, and I missed the tech boom) but I know it has helped me remember things that I otherwise would have missed.
No kidding. I didn't know you would need heavy gloves for a PDA, but I'm not surprised trying to run one ("ran" one?) would be a waste of time.
Picking nits for fun and pleasure. Move along.
is one that I can:
1. Keep contacts and appointments
2. Listen to my MP3/WMA's
3. Look at pictures
4. Play games
5. View/send/receive messages and email
6. Browse WAP sites
7. Store my personal files (resume, keys, etc)
8. Take voice notes and simple jots
9. Take small digital pics
10. Guide via built in GPS and maps
If you give me all these features in one PDA, I promise...
I PROMISE...
promise...
that i'll wait another year for one with even more features...
Saying that you can do everything you can do with a PDA with a pad of paper and a pencil is completely CLICHE. It's more a "status symbol" saying you don't need one, and that you use paper and pencil.
It's going to be very hard getting honost results on any poll about who uses them becuase 'the man' doesn't want that data to become public no matter what it says.
Personally, I use mine for all the stuff they market them for, plus reading eBooks and astronomy stuff. Given time a lot more people will have PDA's than computers, once they replace the need for a computer. They are already as powerful as some sucesful personal computers.
Really, I'm suprised slashdot would stoop to this level. Maybe it's a joke and I didn't get it?
M@
Krispy Cream is people
I use mine all the time. I use it for writing, maintaining my contacts, sending email, posting to my journal, ad nauseam. I need a new one though -- mine's way obsolete.
I tried Palm's a couple of times - regular and wireless - and found them worthless. I am now using a Blackberry which wirelessly syncs with my mail, calendar and address book. I find I can't live without it. I have stopped taking my laptop on short trips. Once my staff and I worked out the idiosyncracies (I am a Fed CIO) I offered it to my executives - figuring they would prefer this to lugging a laptop on short trips. Most - but not all - love it. Now that the infrastructure is up I am extending the offer to other staff and the darn things fly out the door faster than we can get them in. Traditional PDAs never caught on like this - it is the wireless marriage to the one true killer app (enterprise email/calendar)that makes the difference.
It does get a little annoying to see everybody typing away at their little keyboards in meetings - but maybe that says something about the meetings.
Don
I use mine everyday at work for taking quick notes, usually just one or two words at a time. Its better than going through a pocket notebook a month in my opinion. Plus, I get to play games whenever I'm bored. Basically, I feel weird if I don't have it on me. Now if my palm only played mp3s...
I don't know how I'd survive without GNU Keyring... I've got something close to 100 passwords in there. There's no way I could come up with & remember that many secure passwords.
How do I have that many? Well, let me list some: email, work machines & servers, client servers, online banking & brokerage accounts, paypal, stupid online stores (who I don't want poking around other stores guessing at my user/password to see what kind of info they can find out about me), etc.
- passion
I have been considering getting a lowend sony clie for use in (high)school. There are a couple kids in school that use their palms to take notes in class. They use the 90-something-dollar foldable keyboard and type away as the teacher lectures on about a world war.
I got a Visor Platinum (currently about $100 second hand), and a VisorPhone (got it free from Voicestream with 1 yr contract). Although none of both devices are particularly slick or expensive they do an excellent job of a communicator that otherwise costs $300-$500. I have all of my contacts on it, receive and make an occasional phonecall (where the coverage is good the quality is pretty good too). I also read an eventual ebook, study my vocabulary from it (SuperMemo), enter a couple of alarms and appointments that I have to definitely attend. Also, at work I make occasional notes in it, instead of trying to find pen and paper somewhere, and then losing the sticky note and trying to find it. Never had a paper organizer (got extremely annoyed by having to additionally "organize" my notes. Finally, the combination of Visor+Visorphone is Irreplaceable when writing text messages (sms): let me tell you, sending an sms by writing it in Grafitti is MUCH faster than punching it on a cell phone.
I used a Palm III for several years. I took it to every meeting, scheduled all my appointments with it. Used the To Do lists extensively and exported the completed tasks to a web app I wrote so managers could keep tabs on what I was getting accomplished.
It was awesome really. Having all the information at my fingertips made me much more productive especially for those problems that come up once in a while but not often enough to remember exactly how it was solved the previous time. A few taps of the syllus and there's the solution from six months ago.
Then one day, I bought a laptop and started carrying it everywhere. I haven't touched my Palm Pilot much since then, except for digging out some contact information stored in the address book.
The Palm was much more compact than the laptop, but it's hard to code on a Palm.
dp
---
http://insipid.com
I had one of the first models of Rexx, this was a PCMCIA card with *very* basic functionality. It was a read only device, a largish LCD screen took up most of the card, and 5 buttons down one side. it would synch with my outlook (i know, but i'm forced to use it by an exchange server) and allow me access to my diary, contacts and notes. Contacts let me keep track of plenty of phone/fax numbers, diary would give me a little *BEEP* as a reminder - and the notes were usefull for silly things like shopping lists, software install-keys and very small ebooks (the rexx only had 256k). This was an ideal device as it lived in my wallet - it was a crapy design, cause it lived in my wallet. Went and sat on the fecking thing didn't i? If they ever bring out a fat arse-proof Rexx put me down for one!!!!
---
I didn't post this, a big boy did it and ran away!
Tried it for a year. Buttons started to die.
Oh yeah, you can't kill motel cockroaches with a PDA either. But you sure can get with a "classic" sized franklin planner
I always said I will get a PDA when I can talk to it. Just recently my wife decided I need to be more organized and bought me a Zaurus for my birthday. After I won bonus points several times for remembering things I usually forget she is convinced it is worth its weight in GOLD. Now, for my opinion, I use it when we have meetings with high profile people ... not to impress them ... but to make th turnaround time from meeting to minutes as short as possible. My boss have noted my use of the Zaurus NUMEROUS times and always reminds me to take it out when we have a meeting.
... it has an INTEGRATED KEYBOARD. If you are thinking of buying a PDA ... do not get hosed into buying one with a stupid stylus interface ONLY or even one that can have a keyboard plugged into it when it is sitting on a desk ... buy one that a keyboard built into it ... it is definitely worth it and will prevent your toy from falling into disuse.
The reason why the Zaurus outperforms the PDAs of my coworkers so easily
Frans
Life's like that
See title.
And that is not only for this.
I just can't get in to convergence (I don't want to carry a palm phone or PPC Phone all the time, even if I can changes phones with a SIM chip), but I will say that Bluetooth makes it all pretty sweet. When you can dial your phone and send and recieve SMS from your Palm/PPC it is pretty cool. If you have a BT headset then you basically have a smartphone, since you can make and get calls without taking your phone out of your pocket/bag. And then Friday night, at the club, you can leave the damn tricorder at home so you don't look like a total geek...
So I kinda used my PDA before, but once I was all hooked up with Bluetooth the PDA became much more useful.
"Where quality is like a dead stinking rat - you just can't miss it."
Wait... makes too much sense, and the numbers would come close to reflecting reality.
Never mind.
Is this thing on? Hello?
I first got a Palm 1000 back in 1996(?) when we were writing software add-ons for our main product to sync contacts with PDAs. The programmers were looking for an internal alpha tester, and nobody else wanted the gig, so I did it. At the end of the alpha, I refused to give the Palm 1000 back!
I had grown too attached to it, so I got to keep it. From there I went to a Palm Pro, and Palm III and now a Handspring Visor deluxe. I keep meaning to trade up to a color unit, but the battery life isn't there yet for me to actually do so.
But, to answer the original question, Yes I Do use it. Every day.
I keep appointments, phone numbers, notes (and have a fold-out keyboard in my glove box in case I am somewhere I will need to take lots of notes), some games, 2 different time-tracking softwares, a mapping software that I keep a map of the city in (kicks total ass!), bookreader software with usually at least 3 books loaded, and other little things. Once I thought I had lost it, and I was frantically looking for it and seriously considering going to Staples THAT NIGHT and dropping $250 on a replacement, just because it's that important to me.
I've been using a PDA since the original Palm Pilot debuted in 1996. Since then, I've upgraded to a Palm Vx, but I've always been very pleased. Truly, I only use the basic functionality of the system (e.g. contacts, appointments, to-do list, and notes) and having ready access to that information anytime, anywhere has been a tremendous benefit. Additionally, being able to sync with Entourage (for Mac OS X) and beam records (e.g., my business card) to other Palm users is of equal importance.
:-)
It's ironic, but when I first started working for my present employer back in 1997, I was the only person using a Palm PDA. Slowly but surely, dozens others have adopted this techology, including people in sales, marketing, engineering, and management.
Now, I'm looking forward to the introduction of the Kyocera 7135 so I can combine my Palm and mobile phone into a single device.
Ron
My memory is terrible, and I am not a very organized person. I got burned too many times forgetting appointments and losing notes. I tried the paper daytimer, but that required me to look at it every day to make sure I wasn't forgetting any appointments - I just couldn't trust myself to look at the daytimer every day.
After a series of terrible mishaps, I bought myself a PDA for the sole reason that I can set it to beep me when I need to be reminded.
That simple feature has saved my life many times. Now, I put everything in my PDA, because I know that it will remind me. I had a hard time being consistent with the daytimer because I had no confidence in it (or rather, in myself).
If someone tells me something, I put it in a memo. If someone gives me their phone # or address, I put in the address book. And if I need to remember an appointment, I put it in the datebook and set an alarm. It works, and it's wonderful. I never owned a daytimer that beeped and reminded me of things. I laugh at people who find no use for a PDA.
BTW, mine is a Sony Clie.
but a question of style. My style used to be to rely upon my wife for tracking every bit of important info. Phone numbers, dates, to do lists, she had it all up in her head. Sound weird? Well, maybe it was.
The point is, some people don't like to be organized and others do. If you like to be organized, the first trick is to find a system that works for you. Any time management class will teach you that. What works for 95% of the world may not work for you which is why we have options.
If I carry my PDA with me on my belt clip, I find that I will use it often.
Snychronising is quite fast. You should only synchronise with one computer to avoid slow sync ... (which as the name implies ... is very slow.) slow sync happens when the markers (technically known as sync anchors ref: http://www.syncml.org) don't match ....
At one stage, my belt clip broke and I couldn't find a replacement ... for about a year ... so I did not use it for a year.
I am currently using a very old model ... the palm IIIx ... it is monochrome ... so last about 1 month .... uses standard AAA batteries .... so don't need to recharge ... just replace ....
but I have no clue why people who aren't interested in the scene gets them, except for special tools such as idrema photogenics (art package) which seems to entertain the people with some skill for drawing stuff... They could be pretty powerful as synths if there was a music keyboard that could hook up to it which would also be able to record a pretty ok quality soundstream on the go (not through the mic though).
:) You're not going to add that many contacts on a business-trip anyway. I'm increasingly getting the all-in-one computer package as I get more involved in dealing with it but there is very little software to support that side of it.
If you're just keeping track of phonenumbers, nothing beats a printout of your address book in text format
The last time I had a PDA must have been about 15 years ago. (Was it even called a PDA then?) Ya, it was the same size they are now, but held about 60 phone numbers, a few dozen lines in up to 5 different ToDo lists
So I have a theory called "PDA relativity": PDAs are really a lot less big and bulky now, only because that measure is dependant upon the amount of information it can hold and how powerful it is. Don't look at actual size by itself. .. beats that puny keyboard.
I'm considering buying a new PDA after my 12 year absence from them. I mean, now you can write on them
BTW a friend of mine finds his PDA useful for downloading movie listings onto (amongst other things). Whenever the group is hanging and we decide to hit a movie, he always has the list of theatres, movies, and showtimes for the entire Greator Toronto area available; even with reviews, number of stars, and the whole shabang. Very handy.
I've got a Palm Professional that I bought in 1997 that I still use every day. I use it almost exclusively for the calander, because it can do something that no paper organizer can: beep 5 minutes before I have a meeting. Otherwise I get working on something and completely forget. I mostly store phone numbers in my head or in my cell phone. I've tried several times to put my todo list into my Palm but I always find it too cumbersome and revert back to paper notes. But for storing my calendar, I consider my Palm essential.
Then there is my wife, an RN. She started out with a Palm to keep contacts and her schedule. After a few months, the calendar didn't get updated anymore, but she still carries it everyday thanks to ePocrates, a really comprehensive medication database.
If all you can think of to do with one is the typical PIM stuff, and you are not already disciplined with something like Day Timer, you might not get much real use out of a PDA. But if you can find the right apps for the right PDA, you might find a very useful tool.
Really, I don't think I could:
I'm on the move between three different locations regularly. I've had Wi-Fi access points installed at all three locations. This allows me to:
Constantly get eMail even when I'm moving around the buildings (not between building, just within each one, which is the majority of the time) and of course I can answer right then and there.
More importantly, I have an IM client, so it's a step above eMail.
Even more important, I have Telnet, FTP, VNC and other utilities, so I can deal with any issue that arises no matter where I am (yes, I HAVE restarted crashed web applications while sitting on the john!)
Note-taking on my SL-5500 is incredibly easy, and since I have worse handwriting than a doctor, this is invaluable to me. Even when I use my old Casio E-125 I can still be more effective than without it just using the on-screen keyboard (I can probably bang out 25 WPM with 98% accuracy I'd guess).
It's very nice to be able to play a game of Tennis while waiting for meetings to start (assuming I have my 125, Scrabble when I have the 5500).
In short, I suppose I could make due without one, but I can't imagine how!
If a pion (n-) collides with a proton in the woods & noone is there to hear it, does lamdba decay into the source pa
Seems to me that this is the second artical with flagrant gramatical errors. Maybe the lime light ain't so good for the nerd culture.
I've been using a WinCE device of one sort or another for 5+ years. I've found that I use the Pocket Excel the most as it is handy for a lot of the everchanging information I need at hand. Working in a MS Office oriented company, it is simple to organize my calendar and contacts. I depend on it daily. However, I feel that I am the exception. Most people I know that have PDAs rarely have them within reach. If it's not handy, it's not useful... Mine is an old iPaq 3150, mono, 16 MB, etc., but it gets the job done. While I'd love to upgrade, I can't justify the additional cost to do so. John Ellis
My PDA is a Visor Edge. It's small (skinnier than the Visor I had that I broke), synchs with Ximian Evolution well, is rechargable and does exactly what I need a PDA to do. Namely, to make my telephone list available quickly while I'm out of the office. It also lets me jot down pieces of information (like who told me to do what and when and whether I did it) so that I can document my work.
I dropped my first Visor and broke the glass face and even though it was insured (and replaced in 3 weeks) I had to buy the Edge because I simply couldn't do my work effectively without one. I found the Edge on the 'net as a refurb for about $120 (8mb RAM) and have never, ever regretted buying it; not once!
My feelings on cell phone/pda combos is that I prefer to have one of each. If the cell breaks (and two of mine have had to be replaced) it's only $80. If the Edge breaks it's only $150 or so. If I had a Treo and it broke it would be $500! And I'd be without both a cell phone and a PDA until I got it replaced!
I never could use the paper planners very effectively... mine was so bulky that I kept it in my car and it was never where I needed it. The replacement Visor went to one of the guys at work who never had used anything like an organizer before and now he uses it in just the same way I use mine.
The Visor (or any Palm) is perfect for my needs but I must confess to a lust for a Zaurus.
No one ever had to evacuate a city because the solar panels broke!
After years with my Newton (then Palm, Zaurus, back to Newton, yada yada) I've found the most useful attribute of a handheld is it's connectivity.
I'm now carrying a Hiptop device from Danger, now being sold by T-Mobile as the Sidekick. It's got lots of nifty quirks, the flip screen and the scrollwheel-centric interface especially. But the thing that makes be carry -it- instead of my dear Newt is that it gives me email, instant messaging and such NOW, not when I "go online" or sync or some such.
It's always on, and that makes all the difference.
Patrick Curtain, Husband & Father ( i also write software )
I think a PDA's usefulness is related to your location. I don't need a glorified calendar, but on campus and in my living room, I have access to an 802.11b network. That makes a pda excellent. I can sit in the student union and surf the web while I eat breakfast in the morning. That's nice! Although handwriting recognition isn't good enough to want to write slashdot posts on it.
Seriously. I'm a programmer, and you can't cut code on a PDA, and given the TiBook is in my backpack all the time, a PDA just seems like a waste of time and money.
ToDo Lists: paper (could change, but never found a ToDo list program I really liked).
Calendar: Yahoo (pages my cellphone with nice reminders).
Contact Info: Mac Address Book and Cell phone. Would be nice to
I must admit I was almost seduced by the latest Sony PDA's with the swivel, full screen LCD and camera, but it wouldn't be much use. My Canon Elph makes nicer pictures and is portable.
I'm waiting for the next gen of cell phones that will sync with blue tooth, and will carry my ToDo Lists and full address information, and maybe my calendar. I don't need easy Input, just a super fast built-in bluetooth sync (ahem, Nokia and Apple, get yer act together!).
Winton
I use it for notes, phone numbers, appointments and email. I prefer it to paper and there are some places my Powerbook doesn't go - or get used, anyway. Like the passenger seat of a Camaro in downtown.
i think the problem is that people view pda's as electronic organizers, which they aren't, and not as portable computers, which they are.
Karma
I have used my Palm III every day for the past several years. Every morning I check my calendar and to-do lists. I keep important info in the memo section so I dont have to try and remember myself. When I travel for work, I use the expense program to track how much money I spend so I can get reimbursed. And of course, I use it as a phone book. When I'm taking a driving trip somewhere, I download mapquest maps and directions into it. In short, I would never dream of going back to the bulky Franklin Planner I carried around for years.
I hate to say this, but YOU are a useless tool. There, had to get that off my chest
-Anonymous Troll
I used my Palm to handle all the issues of finding a job and relocating. I've tried every kind of paper organizer under the sun, and my Palm was the first that I actually used. The paper ones just mouldered. I later upgraded to a Handspring with more memory (my Palm only had 2mb, my Handspring has 8mb), because I was bumping into the Palm's memory limit with some of the third party software I'd installed (specifically: AvantGo). I used my Handspring extensively when I bought my house.
I find my Handspring to be invaluable when I'm on a customer job site. I can track issues in real time in an easily-retrievable format (as vs. little scribbled notes). I can put action items on the board, and check them off as they're accomplished. Etc. On the other hand, in my day-to-day life as a software engineer, I find that our internal Sourceforge installation is far more useful for keeping track of what work needs to be done, what issues are outstanding, etc.
In short, if you're out in the field touching customers, a PDA is invaluable. If you're involved in a major life-changing event such as relocating or buying a house that has a lot of things that must happen in a scheduled manner and MUST get done as planned, a PDA is very useful -- it kept me sane both during the house buying and relocation experiences. If, like most Slashdotters, your boss locks you in a cube farm at the back of the building and occasionally slides pizza under the door, and relocating for you is a matter of tossing a duffel bag into the back of your rusty old Toyota Corolla and driving to the new city, a PDA is of little usefulness.
And whatever you do, avoid the techie-toy syndrome. Buy the cheapest one. Upgrade only when you exceed its limits. I promise you that this will be a long time -- the cheapest PDA's on the market today come with 8mb of memory, I think I'm using maybe 3mb on my Handspring even with close to 5 years of data in it. My brother talked about getting one of those big fancy PDA's that run Linux. I said, "Big, heavy, bulky, unproven, sucks battery power." I'm actually thinking of *DOWNGRADING* my PDA... I have the color Handspring, that I got as a refurb at Fry's for $150, and it's big, bulky, and sucks battery power (on a recent 3 day trip to a client site I sucked every bit of juice out of its batteries tracking client issues and resolutions and planning meeting notes etc.). A thinner monochrome PDA would not only be easier to carry, but would also be easier on the batteries.
Send mail here if you want to reach me.
Pros
-Used for reading books and using astro programs
-Clie memory stick (64 mb) with tiny vaio (integral stick port) is awesome.
-I know everyone in my brothers' company used to use Blackberries all the time for email.
Cons
-Have lost important info several times since if I read for too long, the battery goes dead
-Use only the monochrome US version despite owning color Japanese version, due to batteries again
-No security of course though I think about it a bit when entering a credit card number or a password (yeah there is software but..)
-Always think how it would be 10x more useful with wireless attachment to my CGI todo list but always have something else I want to buy when I have the free cash. (That's my fault sure).
-No Perl on it, have to use CodeWarrior to build useful stuff
-Too slow to use and can't handle drawings or Japanese like a Zaurus could (even Japan version input method is about 1/100 as useful).
-No keyboard
I have had my Visor for about a year and a half. I keep all my normal schedule, meetings, stuff I need to do, homework dates, test dates, holidays, birthdays, etc in it. Teamed with Outlook Today I forget very little of all the stuff going on in my life. I find it most helpful with reminding me of things that are due in a few days that I would not notice until the day of if it were not for my Visor. I also find it handy to have all my contacts information in there on those rare times when I do need to know someone's number.
Switching to Linux can be an adventure!
I'm waiting 'til they reach the brain implant stage.
Play Command HQ online
if you have trouble remembering things, then you *may* need a Palm. You will never need a Pocket PC, because honestly, if you need to run Excel, Word, and crash (and get infected with virus type stuff) you should have a laptop....
However, as someone who has trouble remembering things, I can vouch for the fact that I have the hardest time remebering TO JOT THINGS DOWN INTO MY PALM. And even more importantly, I forget to look at my Palm.... because I forget I have to.
Is this me being st00pid? most likely... but maybe we just haven't had enough time to incorporate having an "extra brain" into the way we think.
Watch our kids, they will tell us if PDAs a re something successful or not.
Department of Homeland Security: Removing the rights real patriots fought and died for since 2001
I have a Kyocera phone/Palm combo. I use the PDA built-in all the time! I think it does help that it's built into my phone too though. Being a college student moving every year or so to a different place, my cell is my only phone, so I literally do carry it everywhere. Since it's with me all the time, I actually use it all the time. And not just for games. I use it for memos, addresses/phone # (integrated with the phone part--very handy!), task list, web browsing, etc...
I love it!
---- Move SIG...For great justice!
Background- first year engineering student. I don't have one mostly because I find that I'm taking my laptop with me to meetings or other times when I would need the calendaring, contact list, or task list features. (I suppose that might make me a nerd). This is partly because it's just useful to have for taking notes, or a quick email followup to someone not at the meeting (actually, for getting people not at student government meetings to volunteer for tasks, IM is great), and partly b/c if the meeting's boring, I like to have something else to do (email, read news). For the times when I'm not carrying my laptop, it isn't that bad to just go and write something down or put a phone number in my cell phone. What would make me get a PDA is a decently priced ($450) PDA Phone with reasonable data input and battery life, as well as 802.11b support. It's getting close- there's the Smart phone (Kyocera, I think...), Audiovox Thera, and Tmobile Pocket PC phone edition, Handspring Treo, but there still isn't the "right" one. I need something that will replace my phone (with the same, or close to the same, talk and standby time and not too much bigger) and would mean that I don't have to carry my laptop around quite as much. I'm hoping they get there within a year, 18 months is probably more reasonable.
I used to be extremely disorganized, very ADD. Then I started using a cheap paper planner and I would split tasks into little squares that I could check off to make myself feel like I was making progress. Then a girl made fun of me because she thought I was using different shapes for different tasks. Really, my squares were just messy and looked like triangles or squares, but it seemed like a good idea, so I started doing that, too.
Thus, when palms came along they were perfect for me. I bought a Handspring Visor Deluxe (green) as soon as they were available. It lasted me a couple years, then died a tragic death by sliding off a hood onto concrete.
I was so naked the next few weeks. I couldn't remember my fiance's cell phone number. I forgot what I needed to buy or do. It was hell.
Now I own a sexy flip-around Clie that takes grainy pictures, and it is so much fun, I don't know how I lived without it. I'd upgrade to the newest Clie if I thought it would be stable.
I dont know about you guys but my zaurus is for 2 things, hacking it up old skoool, and PacMan durring Comp Sci Lecture!!! Nick D
Home Sweet Home Linux
I started with a Palm Professional. The screen was horrible, so a year or two later I got a Palm V. I liked the screen, but a few months ago I was yearning for something more. Better screen, more RAM, more processing power, and also more expandability.
The iPAQ 3900 series came out, so I bought one with Bluetooth. It's expensive, but I'm a programmer and I love the toys. I played around with some Palm programming, and someday I'd like to tackle Pocket PC.
But what I've found, is that the better the PDA I've had, the more uses I've found for it.
The main use is just to always have a notepad around. I keep lists of everything (shopping list, important numbers, etc.) in my PDA. Contact information is also useful.
Another thing I like is having material to read. Instead of having to pick up a magazine at the dentists, I can catch up on content *I* want to read. This is much better with the iPAQ and its near-eBook capability.
I've started using the calendar functions more and more, linearly, with time. I don't really have that many meetings, but I put in things like to remind me when to renew driver's license, etc. The things that you really forget if you don't think about them.
With the iPAQ's multimedia capabilities, I can store some photos of the wife and baby, and also sound clips. That's the old photos in wallet trick.
Video takes too much memory still. But MP3s are a nice option, if it were more convenient to play them (UI-wise).
Games are OK but I prefer to play at home and instead do reading on the run.
So I've found that the better the PDA, the more I use it, and the more uses I find for it. Slowly it is becoming like a mini laptop.
I find that it takes discipline to force yourself to carry it with you, and to use it. It's too easy to just grab a piece of paper to note something down. If you always use the PDA, and always have it with you, that's the first step.
Another important thing is to use a decent input system. Graffiti is nice, but the Pocket PC lets you choose your own input system. Find one that works for you. If it's too hard to input, you won't use the PDA, so it is crucial that you can input your stuff fast enough.
My biggest complaint about the iPAQ is just the bleeding-edge of it all. It can play movies, but I can't script an MP3 playlist playback, or a slide show of my photos. I want a big button on the Today Screen that goes to my shopping list, another for baby pictures, and another for my favourite playlist.
I tried Bluetooth, but it is one hell of a hassle. Even after setup and configuration, things just take too long. Why does it take ten seconds to find my transceiver? There's nothing else here!
I really want text to speech (for listening to books) and speech recognition (for navigation and input), that is convenient and free. I know you can solve a lot of these issues I have by buying more stuff, but really I paid a fortune for the device, I shouldn't have to pay more for things it should have. I tried IBM's voice software but it isn't really usable.
--
Marc A. Lepage
Software Developer
I've used first a Newton then Palm IIIx ( I still have it, the screen cracked and has been replaced) then two handspring Visor Dlx's (one is a backup) CompUSA had them on sale a year ago with a rebate and they worked out to be free with the rebates. I use software on the palm to keep track of customer visits and what I've done. It sync's with quick books and to do billing takes under 3 minutes per week. It's gotten so that when I write the letter "V" I write it backwards. (Palm users will understand this) I used the contact/address/phone quite a bit also. I keep notes on customers and other usefull info here. I can't imagine doing my job without some sort of assistant like that. I'm thinking of going the IPaq route soon. There are some cool toys for that box.
if you hippies think ur so hot
I use the calander and contacts function all day long. I keep a excel spreadsheet of my lab Sync'd with every bloody piece of info about 160 servers and the environments they support, as well as regularly use the terminal services client to access the machines in the rack with out having to go find a monitor and sit down, not to mention Tiger Woods Golf :)
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
I have owned a Visor Platinum for the past year and a half. As a student in high school, I use it to keep track of assignments, take notes with my stowaway keyboard, keep my class schedule, and use it as a timepiece. I also keep a number of games (Zap2000, anyone?) and OnBoardC on it.
Sure, people may say, "whoa, look at that thingamajigger!" but I use it because it keeps me organized.
I use my palm to keep track of meetings and phone numbers.
Like everyone else.
However, the thing that keeps the palm in my pocket is a program called 'Pocket money'. For me, it was the greatest thing since sliced bread, and arguably the best $30 I ever spent.
All I use it for is keeping track of my money. What's in savings, what did I write this check for, what was this charge on my credit card. And balancing (or reconciling) your accounts is very easy.
It has helped me catch someone who stole my credit card number, and it let me catch (just this month) a vendor who posted a charge several times to my account.
www.catamount.com for more information.
Zapman
I have a Handspring Visor Neo, nothing too fancy. I use the address book, calendar, and memo pad all the time, although I was doing OK keeping that stuff on paper before. But then I got a Chinese/English dictionary for PalmOS, and suddenly didn't have to carry around my little hardcopy dictionary, and found the PDA very convenient in that aspect. It also has Chinese character recognition so I can look stuff up either by pronunciation or by writing. I've ended up using my PDA more than I expected to.
Of course, another advantage over paper calendars is that if I have a meeting scheduled regularly (e.g. every week), I just need to put it in once and can tell it to repeat that item at fixed intervals until a specified ending date.
I have used every brand of PDA over the years, from the Newton 110 on. This is why I can say with absolute certainty that the Sidekick (made by Danger and offered through T-Mobile) is the best yet. Always-on internet makes synching a thing of the past, and the browser and IM client are honestly useful. The always-on internet is truely a big, huge, happy addition to the PDA concept, an addition that indeed transforms the things into something unique, useful, and even important.
With the promise of Danger pushing over-the-air software updates to the device, and the upcoming developer kit, I am honestly thrilled to own the thing, knowing the the very device I already own witll get more exciting and useful as time passes.
There are some legitimate uses for PDAs, primarily having to do with what they were designed for; storing phone numbers. I used mine as a graphing calculator while I was taking Calculus, which for me justified the cost. I've even developed some of my own software for Palm and put it up on sourceforge (shameless plug: minibar).
When it comes down to the bottomline though, PDAs are more toys than they are tools. It's not that they aren't capable of being useful, but the killer app for a handheld device just doesn't really exist. You have your class of native applications like Address Book and Datebook, which are pretty much all replaceable by a paper equivalent. Then there's a class of applications that allow integration with existing desktop software (excel, word, outlook), which may be somewhat useful if you need this info on a handheld device for some reason, but laptops are much better for this and have fewer synchronization problems.
What does this leave you? Entertainment. Games are a huge chunk of the handheld software market, and the drive in the hardware seems to be more towards multimedia applications. Whether the marketing depts for these devices will ever admit this is another story. For some reason the word "productivity" makes it much easier for people to part with their money.
Guess why so far I haven't bought a PDA.
;)
If I wanted a cool, geeky but otherwise
useless tech toy I'd own one. But I don't
--- Eat my sig.
Taipan.
-----
PGP Key ID 0xCB8FF658
I must say, i love my pda. Im a student and it really helps me keep track of whats going on with school. Its got everything I need.. email, web, games, etc... I had to save up to get mine but it was well worth it imo.
Sorry, I fat-fingered the last post. Anyway, I'd like to see for myself whether the newer PDAs are all that. I want to see all those excess iPaqs on eBay within 24 hrs to drive the price down so I can afford one! 2001.09.11 God bless America rm -rf /bin/laden
My first handheld was a Palm III I got secondhand from a friend who got a Visor. It had a digitizer problem, but beyond that it was fine.
;)
It soon died, however, and could not be resuscitated. So, as my graduation present, I got the Palm m105.
What can I do that I use regularly with even the wimpy m105? Let's see:
- Check email and compose them for sending at next sync
- Read Slashdot, The Onion, and a few other sites via AvantGo
- Use Note Pad. OFTEN.
- Games aren't a feature to be overlooked. Once in a while you just need to kill a bit of time.
- Store technical documents, like cable pinouts, language references, etc. in PalmDOC, iSilo, etc.
- Read ebooks. 1984.
- Use the darn thing as a watch.
At least for me, phone numbers are useless - I have a cellphone, and of course it holds them too, so I'm better off putting them in there.
Is it perfect? No. Is it worth the now $100 or less for an m105? Easily. You just need to experiment a bit.
Remember that a Palm is a computer. When you buy a new computer it can take awhile to become useful. You'll download lots, delete half of it, and probably crash it once or twice. Make it a part of your routine to sync.
Ok. I'm done. Tear me to shreds.
I can't live without mine, it reminds me of birthdays, my g/fs period, stores phone #'s and an endless ammount of passwords (for work, different roots/backup passwords on every machine). I jot down ideas i have, work on song lyrics while Im waiting for an oil change, about the only things I wish I could do that I couldn't is load a serious videogame on it (something with a story) and have a basic midi sequencer that I could mess with ... At one point I had a databse of my consle systems / games in it so when I saw an intersting game (say on a shoping trip) I could tell if I had it ... but that is *serious* nerd stuff. For me the birthday reminder (a GPL BTW) is a killer app, it makes me the perfect boyfriend/brother/son/friend.
That being said, *most* people dont need palms. The reality is that most people can remember everything they need to know ... When the day comes that they can't, we've got problems. The argument that it can remember phone #'s is pretty much useless, anyone with a palm has a cell phone with an address book. The reality of the situation is handhelds need to come up with a killer app that makes people need them again. Cell Phones stole *just* enough wind from the palms sails to make them pointless for most people. I think the killer app will actually be something like the Cybiko except for adults ... but thats a story for another long winded message :)
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
in 1999, i use sharp zaurus 5800.. big and 'unfriendly-os'.. not too usefull... since then i moved to palm III, IIIx and last IIIc.. i used it often to look up names and appointment (using a pim called actnames.. fat better than the palm-os built-in pim) --for storing phone number, i used a nokia 7110.. and only 250 of 1000 slots used so far..-- read offline net using avant-go and read harry potter while on the bus from and to work..
in 2001 i sold my IIIx and moved to diamond mako... the battery-bug killed me.. and since then I'm still wishing to have a palm again.. or maybe clie for its crisper screen...
my conclusion: pda can be use effectively if the person's need fits on what the pda delivers...
fvck b3ta!
I think the PDA has become more of a status symbol than a useful tool.
Most of IT is bullshit. Bullshit keeps the world turning. Bullshit is what allows OO fans to reinvent dead "network databases" from the 1960's and call them "OODBMS" and sell them as the "greatest thing".
This is not a good time to pop small bullshit bubbles like PDA's. Wait until the economy is better. I have kids to raise. Please stop raining on our BS parade. If a PHB wants to pay me to write a PDA MIS application, then let him/her. When the economy improves, then I might feel like trying to inject some rationality and logic into the mix.
But not now, please. Let the BS wheels turn out green.
Table-ized A.I.
My Newton and I were the best of friends. Devoted. Inseparable.
... an alarm clock. His outpost was a lonely little nightstand 6 inches away from my bed. The Newt went along to be whatever help he could on the new job. I thought ... anything I can do to help my crippled friend. But the lengths Newton users are willing to go is THE REST OF THE STORY.
... faithfully waking me up at the break of dawn.
... not once did it fail to remind me of an appointment or refuse to take notes.
... I don't think I mentioned that the Newt ... my faithful friend for all those years ... is back in full use! Wonder of wonders! Two incredible people have breathed new life into his little green soul. Yes, Hiroshi Noguchi wrote a wireless lan driver for my mute green friend - now he spends all day talking on an Airport with the help of an old WaveLAN Silver card. And the syncing? Nicely taken care of by John Anderson at Everchanging Software. And that my friends is .... THE REST OF THE STORY!
So when my green friend had trouble syncing to more and more advanced versions of the Mac OS, I did everything I could to help.
After a while I was certain his career was finished. Then I thought of another job
The Newton had nearly become used to sitting alone in a room everyday while his place was taken by a flashy new Palm. Days became weeks, weeks became months, months became years. For almost 2 years the Newton sat
How sad I thought. For 5 years I'd used the Newton and his predecessors... he never lost data once. In 5 years even with bumps and drops
Now
Cake or Death? Cake Please!
I use my PDA religously, I'm lost without it. Grocery lists, to-do lists, minor project planning. There's a nice set of open source applications which include a nice database application.
:-)
Avantgo replaced my daily newspaper and it's much nicer to enter the bathroom at work with a PDA in my pocket than a newspaper in my hand if you know what I mean
Once PDA's incorporate reliable voice interfaces in conjunction with wireless services they'll really become ubiquitous.
-- Good judgement comes with experience. -- Experience comes with bad judgement.
I used it for a while, but always kept a paper planner for the ultimate backup. Now, I keep that as a master and put everything into Outlook or Yahoo and just have them send reminders to my cell phone. Now my PDA is one less thing to carry.
I used my PDA for a little while my freshman year in college (Palm V), I'd take some quick notes on it and use it to store schedules, important dates and addresses. Aside from that I used it for games during boring lectures, or to beam stuff to other classmates about the teacher =]
Now it sits in my deskdrawer and I don't use it anymore. Batteries, syncing, and everything else weren't problems at all. In the end it was too cumbersome to enter data (even if you knew it well), and the software offered was minimal.
I probably would have been happier with a Windows CE device, since they come with a much larger, easier to use range of applications. It's hard to say. But, I don't miss it much.
On that note, how much is someone willing to give me for an old Palm V? =]
I still use mine. Not every day, but several times a week. I use it for addresses, phone numbers, appointments, outlineing ideas & notes (the only software I've bought for it does outlining).
I'm lost without it as my portable memory. I don't see the point in trying to put a whole PC into a tiny handheld - the interface is too limited & it sucks down batteries like nobodies business. The folks I know who've dumped their PDAs entirely are the ones who only ever used it to keep phone numbers, and they all have cell phones now (I don't - but that's my atavistic quirk), and their phone handles that.
I think cheap PDAs (< $250) will have a place for a long time to come for people who don't need to haul around a whole computer all the time, but need to keep track of more than a list of phone numbers.
I received a newton messagepad120 as a gift for chrsitmas a few years ago, it's large, it's bulky, but I love the handwriting recognition. I use it all the time to read edgar rice burroughs books and other things, I also take notes for my classes and play lunar lander on it. and the best part is that since the newton "died" a few years ago, all the software is free for the most part, and so much is available out there, it's lovely.
why does the porridge bird lay his eggs in the air?
With this software:
Pocketlogger
However I'll be moving to a standalone engine management system soon, so its not really of any use to me anymore.
I was an early adopter of the Newton MP 2000 ($1100 USD!!). Starving athlete my ass! I wanted one, and did not regret it until it was stolen in 1999(boo hoo).
In the intervening three years I have become a full time PC desktop and networking support tech in local City Govt. We are exposed to lots of palmtop testing opportunities for our urban planning inspectors. I have seen and supported many Palm variants as well as the nice new iPaq and Sony handhelds. These are all very nice and synch well...BUT:
I just re-purchased a Newton MP 2100 and can't wait to get my PC dongle so I can load it up. It's only after being separated from it that I realize how good it is still. For thos of you who haven't seen or test-driven it please try one if you can. Get a trashed one for 10.00 just to look at if you have to. The Newton 2.0 systems are what PDA's should work like...even if colour and size could be tweaked a little (thinner - not smaller!).
Anyway...Heft aside...the Newton is fantastic for note and drawing uses...I can take written and text notes with little trouble. Once you tune it to yoru Handwriting it pretty much runs 80-90% accurate. The spellchecking and word checking tools are a double click (tap on the misspelled word) away, so correcting the mistakes is very easy. You can actually put the HW Recognition into a cursive mode of printed mode as well. I tend to write in the non-conversion mode so it miniaturizes my written text for reading later if I'm in a hurry.
To finish - I use a blackberry for synching my GroupWise tasks,To-Dos, and Agenda (Calandar). But I think I'll be leaving that in it's cradle in favour of my newton again if I can get the tasks and to-dos to synch (we'll see)
If you are a systems administrator and can't make use of a Palm/Visor level PDA, you are a technofeeb and should not be in this line of work. (The blind, handless, MS stricken, etc. are obviously excepted.)
A dead tree dayrunner is not going to beep when you need to be at an appointment, tell you which appointment, or location/directions if its offsite.
The To-Do list is the most awesome organizing tool there is. People bombard you with a bunch of things to do in a day, you scribble them down, and prioritize them. (You can also attach alarms to them, if needed.) What may not occur to users is that one can also use it as a form of task journal. (Create a group called "Done", move the completed todos to "Done". If needed, add a timestamp, and write a perl script to generate billable hours).
You can also use the Todo list as portable documentation library. Keep handy the remote activation sequence to a powered down ES4500 ( ~P ), or a complete listing of OBP commands, Veritas command list, etc. etc. I probably have a hundred cheatsheets in my PDA. (I used to do this exclusively with the Memo feature. But I find Todo groups accomplish the same task, and I can dig up docs quicker.) One can attach "Memos" to the Todos (which then merely become titles or keywords), and use the Organizer program to cut and paste documentation into the Memo.
The phone/address book is obvious in its benefits, as is mail, calculator, or expense tracker. If you work in an international shop, the city time app comes in handy. This merely covers the applications INCLUDED with the PDA.
With Vindigo in a major city, you have the equivalent of an online street map, with a listing of restaurants, ATMs, movie theatres & movie listings. With a program like Secret!, you can keep all your pin codes & passwords to various machine, and it will be encrypted data.
With Avantgo (or plucker), you can read web content offline. (Handy for killing time on the 1 hour subway commute.) With a doc reader, like plucker or iSilo, you can keep HOWTO files and other documentation handy for reading. I keep the entire PERL command reference in my PDA! With iSilo, it organizes the information by its weblinks. When I'm not reading stuff on the PDA, I like to brainstorm and scribble down design notes of systems or programs. (I could even script on the PDA, but I'm pretty tired at the end of the day.) And yes, there are games too.
With a modem or wireless internet accessory, you may even be able to vnc or telnet into your machines if you're at a party and get that *(#$#%^ page.
I don't understand why some techies would have difficulty picking up graffiti. Its all block letter shorthand. You may have to memorize 5 unique strokes for letters, or 15 if you want to do punctuation as well. Take the one day effort to learn. Play the giraffe game. Before I had exposure to the PDA, I thought learning graffiti was going to be onerous. I was SHOCKED to find myself functionally writing with it in 1 hour. (Granted, its difficult to transcribe at lecture speed. Boo hoo, you might not be able to use the PDA for lectures notes.)
Its an awesome device for system administrators.
There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
I've had an iPAQ for the last 2 years and desperately want to convert to Palm because my primary OS is Linux and PocketPC doesn't sync with Linux.
I use my iPAQ mainly for two things...
1) schedule/contacts (obviously) and
2) mp3 audio player (that I connect to my car stereo so that I don't have to burn any more CDs - much faster and less hassle)
So the only set-in-stone requirements I have for a PalmOS PDA is that it should:
1) audio output
2) support a standard high-capacity storage medium (I use the IBM 1GB Microdrive).
3) sync with linux (as far as I know, PalmOS is the only OS that has mature sync support for linux)
The closest thing seems to be the Sony Clie NX-series, but I can't justify dropping $600 on a PDA just so that it will sync with linux If the Clie supported SmartMedia and CF cards, it would be well worth the money, but that would just be too easy.
I work in an educational office building, and all the big wigs and their secretary's have and use their pdas daily, they do help keep things running smoothly. From taking notes (with those interesting fold up keyboards) to just taking their calendars to a meeting and telling everyone their available for lunch next wednesday. I think the majority of people who would use aren't tech people, we only have them to know how to use them so we can keep all the non techies working. Personally...Dopewars of course
is that they aren't made with techies in mind. If you think about, they are only "business tools" for executives. No self-respecting techie can use it to compile code, manage a network, or download the latest source.
The ideal PDA for a techie would have the following features:
-A command line with an easy to use text input system. Screw those on screen keyboards, give us a projected KB or better yet Dasher with headmounted eye tracking. The best format for data for a true techie is plain old text.
-A context sensitive command line. If you use a command with lots of output, the screen uses all of it, but if the command only displays a line or two, the output is formatted to fit at the top of the screen whil all screen controls are beneath. If you have large volumes of out put, you can split the screen up and shift between the two screens with a simple screen control.
-Remote compiler options. Imagine being able to code on the PDA and then submit the code for remote compilation on another machine on your network running a compiler daemon. Then the result is shuttled back to your PDA for testing.
-Network management tools. Being able to remotely administer your big machines with the PDA would be VERY useful. Combine that with eye tracking and you would be able to do real work while you're stuck in that boring meeting.
-A monocular eye display. That way you wouldn't be married to the tiny screen on the PDA for everything. You could use this and get a full rez 800x600 screen!
-A camera/sensor mounted to the other side of the visor so that images could be superimposed in real time over your virtual display. This would be used to "see" wireless network signals as they move through the air. Allowing for better configuration of wireless devices.
-Bluetooth for shortrange communication between you and other techie's PDAs.
Think about it... the PDAs of today don't have any of these abilities. They are too focused on business, instead of what eeally counts: computing for computing's sake.
I use mine for automotive electrical troubleshooting with a card that turns it into a 2-channel oscilloscope. Then there's the OBD-II scan tool adapter that I use to interface with vehicle computers for more diagnostic work at the vehicle computer level. Then I use it to play solitaire when I'm not working on cars. What a useful tool.
So, I come from a different world than most of you posting on this thread. From a medical perspective, a Palm is invaluable. Knowledge, especially drug databases, are invaluable to have at your fingertip....especially considering how bulky equivalent paper sources are. 100 percent of young physicians carry handhelds. That's right, everyone. It's a big market, and only going to get bigger. We need and use handhelds on a daily basis. They are currently too unweildy and insecure for patient care, but that should change within the next 5-10 years. Look for official handheld usage at major hospitals within that time frame.....anyway, just giving a different POV.
Elian Paiuk
I am an extreme PDA user. Slashdotters who get by without a PDA (or a thick, heavy, insecure and unbacked-up paper planner) may either work all day at a desk (and thus have their machine calendar at hand), or have good (young) memories, or have relatively straightforward lives. The grayer I get, the more I need my PDA. If I forget it, I'm basically 30% demented.
... HandSpring devices with bad memory ...
So what killed PDA use for middle-aged folks like myself who are often away from a desk? (And yes, the PDA is dead.)
A collapse in reliability.
The first and second generation Palms were manufactured in the USA. They were ultra-reliable and very rugged. Data loss was rare. Then came the PocketPCs. Microsoft and Compaq pushed the envelope too far, producing very ambitious devices that could not be manufactured at a competitive price. So they cut corners to trim their losses. Anyone try the early iPaqs for long? If you drained the battery you lost EVERYTHING. And, with that screen and memory/CPU combo, it was easy to drain the battery.
The PocketPCs looked great though, and they sold buckets (though most of those early buyers will never buy again). Palm reacted by cutting quality. Power switches that stopped working after 6 months on the V/Vx and m5xx series. The IIIxe with its notorious total data loss problems. Clie dropped its warrantee to 3 months
Again and again, I heard from people who'd put a lot of data into their PDA, and then lost it all. Even those who had synched shortly before a crash find the experience intolerable. People will tolerate a desktop that crashes (though Win2K doesn't crash on me). They won't tolerate a PDA that wipes data.
In the end, the collapse in quality control meant that PDAs started to get a bad name.
The final blow was synching a corporate Palm with an Exchange server. Microsoft, strangely enough, doesn't make it easy. The Palm/Exchange data models are different enough that only a lightweight or an expert Outlook user will be able to work around data model distinctions in the long run.
I just hope that someone keeps manufacturing something like my Vx (now running with software hacks to get around the defunct on/off switch). If not, I might as well check myelf directly into the nursing home.
john
[meta: 021124, jfaughnan, jgfaughnan, Palm, Palm OS, PDA, PocketPC]
John Faughnan
jfaughnan@spamcop.net
Bah! You forget the real point. The question really wants an answer that says, "Techies need PDAs that are geared towards them". This is a conclusion I cam to long ago. Current PDAs feel limited. I used Windows Terminal Services to connect an iPaq at work with one of our servers, but when it came time to try some command line, it was really awkward. They need to make a PDA that works for real techies. Who cares if it makes workk flow smoothly for non-techies. That doesn't address the real, imporatant need.
Vital for my home and work.
Am a freelance theatre technician and all of my suppliers, technicians, and client contacts are there. Can beam directions and contacts to other techs (who are similarly equipped at my repeated suggestion).
Mine was theived a month ago and had to borrow back the wife's. She misses hers dreadfully for appointments, etc.
She'll often "book" impartant events directly in my desktop software - more reliable than a "my mum's coming for dinner" statement just before I pass out in bed. For me seeing (in pixels) is believing, and remembering.
I previously had a Visor Deluxe but now I use a Visor Prism. Although I do use the calenders, datebooks, and other of the built-in software in the handheld, I mainly use it with my springboard modules.
I have an mp3 player for my Visor, so I listen to music whenever I want to (on my Visor with headphones).
I have a digital camera module (eyemodule) for my Visor, so I can snap pictures on the go..
I have a GPS module for my Visor, so I won't get lost and know where I'm going.
I have a digital voice recorder module for my Visor, so I can record music/voice anytime.
I haev the Targus Stowaway Portable keyboard for my Visor, so I can type up reports in class, sync them to my PC, and print it out at night.
I wouldn't say the PDAs are useless or close to the point of being it, but many people and myself included, use the PDAs like gadgets, and not really as a *replacement* for a pen/paper day planner.
http://www.palmzone.net
I think people who are most likely to make use of PDAs are the ones already organized, who use paper schedulers, notepads, and notebooks to keep their life in order. My life's a mess, and I never bothered to put what I should on paper, or kept a schedule, and for me or anybody like me, a PDA probably would be a "gadget purchase" that will end up collecting dust in the closet. This'll be true, no matter how good the tech gets, hand writing and voice recognition and all that, some people can manage it and some prefer to let that type of stuff fly. I think it's more personal working style than the actual tech.
I won a Palm IIIx a few years back. Worth about $300 at the time. I never got into it, it was jsut cool to have a PDA. Mainly I used it as a shopping list at the grocery store. I thought the Palm OS sucked big time. Plus I never had use for a "planner" anyways. I don't have lots of appointments and one one I do have I keep in my works groupware.
I sold it on ebay for $100, good deal for me and the buyer. I have been looking at a Pocket PC. Since I use a Windows OS on my desktop it seems to fit well with a Windows OS on a PDA. Plus teh Pocket OS has "useful" apps like Pocket Word. On my Palm I could never read anything, it was useless.
I used to use a good old paper diary for everything. Eventually, I got a Handspring PDA (one of the first Visors--I still have it and still use it). The reason why I changed to a PDA is that I was scared of the consequences of losing my diary. The PDA is backed up. The data is sync'ed to my computer, which is then backed up to tape. It doesn't matter if I lose my PDA, I still have all my contacts and appointments. I deliberately use a PDA which uses AAA batteries, I can get these anywhere, and the PDA lasts for a month or more of normal use on one set of batteries (important when I'm off in the boonies). Add in the few extra programs I find useful (AstroInfo, TargetPlot, TideTool), and the fact that my paper diary wouldn't beep at me to remind me of appointments, and there is no comparison.
a.
I own a Palm V. I bought it 5-6 years ago, haven't used it much until recently. I replaced my college planner with my PDA. It's a hassle to write in grafitti since it's not always accurate and obviously it's not as dynamic as paper. My cell phone is more useful as a phone book than my PDA since it can make calls directly. It isn't that useful for me. I do have snake on it though and occasionally play that. I think PDA/cell phone integration will be more successful than a standalone PDA if a phone PDA is as good as a standalone PDA.
--tomkit
The day that I got back, I *knew* I had to get a Palm. Took care of all the details for moving from Canada to the US (numbers to call, appointments to keep, things to do, packing lists). Paid for itself many times over I'm sure.
Since then, there's never been anything as crucial that I needed it for. The to-do list grows forever with trivial little things I'll never get around to doing. The address book gets filled with phone numbers that are obsolete before I ever use them; some of the names I don't even recognize. Got a IIIc, never found a use for the colour besides Bejeweled. Synching has become a hassle with 2 separate computers to keep up-to-date plus an iMac that I can't synch to yet. (Bought the Palm serial-to-USB cable, dead on arrival, smart move spinning off the HW unit Palm!) Haven't found any free e-book sites with *interesting* content.
So I would say, in fast-paced times of turmoil, the PDA is great. When you have time to kick back and relax, when things are going good, there's not so much call for it.
As a medical student, PDA's are invaluable for keeping logs of procedures and for reference and drug tables. 70-80% of my class and the residents and interns above us use them daily. It saves huge amounts of time from going to the library to look something up when you can have the answer at the bedside.
i currently use my PDA for school. i have installed OCTAVE (matlab type software) and GNUPLOT. i have a zaurus SL-5500. http://www.octave.org/ http://www.gnuplot.info/
To snooze just answer "No" when it asks you something
like "Cancel alarm?" and it will repeat it in 10 min.
>>> much time is wasted syncing, charging and reinstalling the software
I wonder why people wants to sync data from the start.
You got your information portable with portable device
and want to loose that feature by syncing it with
some nonportable machine? Hmm.
You should *never* sync. At least, never try to sync
notes, schedule data, and use PDA as a slave device.
To keep information portable and standalone, you
should either 1) save and keep it within portable device,
or 2) store it on network server where it is IP-reachable
24h/365d. In the latter case, PDA is a gateway to the
Internet - I know Palm lacks both features: reliable
storage and communication device. This is because Palm
is built on different concept (which is OK) - everything
on Palm is just a cache of its host machine - but this
is why I never use Palm.
I think it'll be really nice if there's a PDA that
can be used as a filesystem once attached to a PC.
In that case, we can just edit *original* data on
a PDA instead of doing tedious copy-and-copy-back
syncing. PDA is what extends your memory (or at
least, a gateway to it), PC is not. Trying to use
PDA as a slave device to PC just doesn't work.
Regarding charging, I rarely do charging and battery lasts
nearly a month. And even if battery runs out, my PDA still
saves everything on flash memory - so no data is lost.
I use my Sony Clie for reading Avantgo channels every morning on the train, while listening to MP3's. Use it at work for storing tech info like Router configs also. It was quite pricey but was worth the price as it beats the pants of my original HP Jornada 545.
*blip*
Appoinments *taptap* New Appointment *taptap*
Music class *think* Macaroni cheese*erase*
Music class *think*think* Mime clown *!*@#*&&*/!* *erase*
Mus- *beeep - battery level down* *!*#&$^*/!*
*bli---p*
As for how I cope with life's milestones: pen, paper and a memory trained by Latin vocabulary.
If I forgot it, it wasn't important.
If it was important, then it is the couch.
If it is semi-important, I jot it down appropriately so it can forget itself
If I completely forgot it, I can blame it on the fact I don't have a PDA.
- address book
- calendar (also doubles as an "urgent"
version of the "to do" list)... in my job I get
a lot of little meetings set up at odd times
- shopping list
- recording spending (I amuse myself sometimes by going back and computing my mileage
from past months)
- Vindigo! (especially for restaurants
and movie show times)
- The dictaphone feature comes in handy,
for instance when trying to remember where
your car is parked and your hands are quite full, but the dictaphone button is easy to operate. Also makes a decent clandestine spy device though I've only used this to get a few laughs once or twice.
- Photos of wife and kid
:)
Less often, but still coming in quite handy:Sure, I could duplicate a lot of these features with a pen-and-paper system, but knowing me I'd always forget to bring my paper organizer just when I really need it. The IPAQ on the other hand, is now indispensable to me (I made a strenuous effort in the first month to really move all my other organizational systems onto it, and forced myself to use it exclusively... it got a bit tough, especially with all the data entry, but it was definitely worth it. It helps to do the data entry on a bigger computer and then sync it over).
That said, a lot of people wouldn't get much out of a PDA, particularly if they always work at just one location, since it would then be more logical to place all your calendars, phone books, reference materials, etc. there. Plus you have to be sort of geeky to insist on using it to run your life. :)
Terry
My work purchased some new IPAQ's a couple of months ago to develop wireless gis applications (projects that I will be involved in in the new year), and I get to look after one.
:-), all sorts of stuff. Lots of things that I would never usually get around to reading, becuase I don't like sitting in front of a desktop PC any longer than I have to. But with the PDA, if I see something I think I might want to read, I can download it, and read it over a beer in front of the TV at night, or in bed, or whenever I've got a few minutes to kill. Its not as good as reading a real book, but its much better (and much more convenient) than reading off a desktop monitor, or even a laptop for that matter.
:-)
I use the one I have mainly for the calender and to-do lists. I like the way calendar appointments for the day are displayed on the main desktop (palmtop?) screen. I also use the alarm function occasionally to remind me of stuff. I've never used an electronic organiser before, and I was previously sceptical about them, but now that I've got one, its definitely improved my personal organisation at work. If/when I have to give it up, I'll probably buy myself a cheaper Palm model.
I also use it, like a lot of other people, for reading. Not so much e-books - man pages, Java API docs, articles pointed to on Slashdot
I also find it very handy for copying files from work to home, or vice-versa. A floppy can only hold 1.4Mb, I can squeeze 50Mb onto the IPAQ if I have to.
My main complaints about the PDA stem from the fact that it runs Microsoft's PocketPC OS. The calendar and stuff will only synchronise with Outlook 2002, which, being a Linux desktop user, I don't use (I'd love to get it to synchronise with something like Evolution or Korganizer). Also, I can't use the USB connection, since it requires MS's ActiveSync software (but I've got it connected just fine to Linux using PPP over the serial port, and 115Kb/s isn't too slow for most things - even copying a 30Mb file onto it at work to take home is ok, if I remember to start doing it an hour before I leave work).
Maybe one day when I get brave I'll blow away PPC and install Linux
Nobody'll ever get to read this comment, unfortunately, but I've found an absolutely indisposable app for my Palm - GNU Keyring. Essentially, you use it to securely store account/password combinations. It has its own passphrase which you use to enter the database, and timed lockouts. Everything is stored with RC5-64, IIRC. Plus, it has a built-in password generator which can create random passwords with/without a-z, A-Z, 0-9, symbols, and other stuff, between 4 and 20 characters in length. It makes "secure" web browsing a lot easier when I don't even have to try and remember passwords for my online banking and such.
/.ers.
Yeah, a single password is a single point of failure, but since the data is stored on my person, encrypted, and password-locked by me, if someone were to get at my account information, I'd probably have more to worry about than someone making a mess out of my credit. Combined with JotLoc (or a superior gesture-based device security system - I'm sure mine isn't that great), it'd take a rather monumental effort to get at my data.
I also use it to store license keys for software I frequently install. It's really really handy.
Oh...and of course, since it's open source, it'll settle the stomachs of most
"Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
I use my Palm many, many times each day. It took over the functions of my rolodex, organizer, task list, alarm clock and TV remote control. When I lost my Palm VII recently it was nearly catastrophic. However, all my data had been backed up and was easily restored to the new Clie I now carry. Spending 90 minutes teaching myself to do graffitti writing was probably the big turning point. It amazes me how many people have these things and don't even know how to beam an address. Also was thrilled to discover that I could beam #s to the Nokia cel phone from the Palm ;-).
So what...people end-up not using them in the end. My wife bought a PDA from the store for one reason...we compiled the dillo web browser with transparent opening of bzip'd HTML files (my feature) and we use it to store all information of our cooking recipes. Data is kept on two software RAID partitions of a solid-state flash disk. People are jealous because our kitchen counter next to the re-frigerator has a cute little base stationed PDA, a toaster oven (not yet linux-powered), and a bowl of cooking utencils. So sue us, we have a neat and orderly counter-top with beautifully-formatted cooking instructions. Now the uber-geek question...should we convert the HTML cooking recipe database to latex document format? YES!!
In my pocket all the time. Of the 4 Basics, I use:
***** Calendar. I live by it. If it doesn't beep at me, I don't make the meeting.
***** Address Book. If you're not in there, I'm probably not calling you.
*** Memo. Some facts I live by are in there, but I don't access them that often. So it's an average of 1 star and 5 stars.
* To Do List. I really need a 2-dimensional list. Hard to organize.
** Note Pad (Sketch program). Useful, but not critical.
Beyond that, I have an astronomy program, games, the Bible, and Documents to Go. (DtG lets me carry my budget spreadsheets with me for reference, etc.)
No 24/7 internet - no 24/7 in my pocket.
girl
I use my Sony Clie all the time. The big jump for me from my visor (which I hardly used at all) was the compactness, the colour screen and the hi-res display. the faster 66mhz precessor helped alot too.
IMHO palms are great, the think that alot of people don't to thought that really makes them is download other applications! Agendus is far better that Datebook, YiShow is a great Desktop manager, I have so many really useful programs and alot of great games!
So yes, some people DO use PDSs - ALOT!
I don't have any of the problems you mention. The Psion runs for about a month on two AA batteries. It is my only calendar and contacts database so I don't synch it with a PC. And once software is installed on it, that software tends to just work.
But eventually it will give out of course. I just hope that someone launches a decent PDA before then.
My opinion? See above.
If you don't have a job, or if you work in a fixed location a PDA is probably not a useful tool. But if you travel a lot or go to a bunch of different client sites a PDA is darn handy. I have a Casio E-200 and use it every day.
I have all my contacts in it. I have a pocket mapping program in it. Try finding a street you've never been to before in a strange city...paper maps can't show you where something is just by tapping in a street address (or linked addresses in your contact list). Nor do paper maps tell you where restaurants and the like are.
I got tired of carrying a full laptop every time I flew somewhere and have gone to just traveling with a PDA. Load up an SD card with MP3's and you have music for long airplane flights. Denver's new airport has free 802.11b access and I was able to receive some important email and reply to it. Granted you're not gonna type a book on the on-screen keyboard, but quick replies are fine...
I also use the voice notation feature quite a bit, and when I sync to my desktop, those voice notes are available through outlook.
Just like using a filofax or dayplanner, you have to have discipline to use technology, and I think most people are just too undisciplined.
Current stats: 600 addresses, 115 date book items (I purge the old ones from time to time), an encrypted database with erm... encrypted stuff, my expenses, memo's on everything I need to remember: ip-addresses, technical documentation, shopping lists, movies I want to see, stuff I've loaned, stuff I've borrowed, lists, lists, lists...
I used make a todo list every day on paper and it was a pain to carry over the old stuff every day. I got a Palm as soon as they became avaible (1996?) and never looked back!
I must admit that a number of my friends bought one and do not really use it, but that's mainly because they don't carry it, or because they don't have a lot of stuff to keep track off.
I use Palm Desktop not Outlook, so syncing is a breeze.
Last time I got a phone number (central station): She told me the number, I typed it in my cellular phone, and saved it. I was about to tell her mine, when she said: "Just ring me". I did, and then she had my number.
....of course, I found out later that this woman was already married.
Fast, efficent, cool. She wasn't even a geek chick. And hot and beautiful, and....
Ah, the irony.
My paper agenda does not beep, my palm does. That makes a HUGE difference if you have meetings but may be absorbed in something else and therefore may forgert time...
Sig (appended to the end of comments I post, 54 chars)
I just replaced my Palm 3C, after it literally fell to pieces after 3 years of constant use, with a Zaurus.
Stuff I use it for:
- appointments. I frequently have appointments weeks in the future, so I'd have no chance of remembering them without either a diary or PDA
- addresses. Also, phone numbers, friends' Web sites, birthdays and the assortment of crap info that is a part of life
- scooped Websites. Praise sitescooper!
- share prices and portfolio
- various games
The Palm with the collapsable keyboard replaced a laptop; I still laugh myself silly watching people carting 2kg laptops to meetings, then having to interrupt everyone to plug them in when their batteries start to run down. The battery on my Palm ran for a couple of weeks without recharging... I'm hoping a Zaurus kbd comes out sooner or later.
I use my zaurus as:
A serial debug console, a sketchpad, to play doom, and as a C64 emulator.
One thing I _don't_ use it as is as a personal organiser. The Zaurus is a tiny "proper" computer (like an iPAQ, but better).
If I wanted an organiser I'd have got a palm pilot.
Who commute. Imagine you spend a hour or more each way each morning and evening stting down and basicly doing nothing.
With a PDA and a line you can read news fresher then teh papers, play games, organise your day.
Then there are the things there are just too crumbersome to carry as paper, like a whole address book, a dictionary, graphic/business calculator.
Then theres the entertainment value of PDAs that have built in FM recievers and MP3 players.
Sometimes I wish I was a plumber, then I'd know how to deal with other people's shit.
So I could log in through the serial port and ... err... log out and log in again and ... err ... run 'top' to see what was happening and ... ... reinstall wince.
Pocket Outlook is pretty good.
So is avant go.
I also figured out how to get FOP to make PDFs of Project Gutenberg texts that read nicely with Pocket Acrobat, but that was for the challenge rather than any great desire to read Alice in Wonderland on the bus. Anyone wants the code, let me know.
Well, maybe PDAs are symbols for someone, but my Palm IIIx is definitely a mere tool. I tend to read a lot of research papers, so Plucker comes handy; I use Address Book to store *all* my contacts; Date Book to remind me of important events, lunch-time, and as an alarm-clock; Keyring to store my passwords (I have dozens of them); to look up a word in a dictionary; to pin down a passing good idea; to plan and track various activities with Progect; to play an occasional game of chess, etc.
Once, I found myself jobless in a foreign land, without PC and with net access limited to Internet cafe. Palm was virtually a life-saver there, so I spent two months hacking a pet project in Lisp in city park while waiting for leave-money to arrive.
Lisp is the Tengwar of programming languages.
Clie t615 screen legibility greatly enhances ebook
functionality, I would use it for pron 'surfing' in the bathroom too, but cant figure out how to adequately hide the pron from the curious admirers of the Clie. So, Avantgo and DopeWars occupy most of my stall time now. Parens as a calculator replacement, and Documents-to-go for Word/Excel, and now Adobe Acrobat, are all killer apps for me. Using the Clie as a tv/vcr/dvd remote control with jog wheel channel surfing is also a major use. Dont have to hunt for the remote any more. Re the typical PDA uses - it never clicked for me till I started using the global search button, then found it to be very useful. Now I dont have to enter addresses systematically, they can be free-form format cut-and-pasted off of laptop email files and websites straight into a memo, much faster entry. Palm Desktop functionality and simplicity makes a great alternative to the Outlook horror, too.
I use my Palm m505 all the time, for all the basic stuff like address book, schedule, alarm clock... but also because I write PalmOS software, and if I find the apps that I use to be lacking of something, I could always write my own tools that do what I want. For example the built in note pad app is really weak, I mean come on, a black & white note pad app on a color device? That is too damn simple for me. So I wrote my own program http://www.sproutworks.com/sproutpaint that not only lets me draw in color but also has some other stuff like a customized UI, that will be user editable (kind of like skinning but you can draw your skins within the app itself). When I add some networking code like the ability to draw a color note and email it or send it in a multimedia SMS, then I imagine it would be really
If I get really ambitious I will write a hack to change all the UI widgets, because they all use mostly 2 colors (no shading), at least on the PalmOS.
I guess I'm just a geek, but I spend a lot of time dreaming about apps for PDAs and new PDA hardware and stuff. Once I can plug in some 3D glasses and use a virtual monitor, maybe I will end up using a PDA more than my other computers. Who knows?
I think this stuff will be way cooler when all cell phones start becoming smart phones, and then we can actually start using all that wireless stuff for useful things... like a p2p cell phone/PDA network that goes everywhere where there are people.
SproutWorks Software Design
I use a Psion netBook to send and recieve mail while on the move, occasional browsing plus all the usual games, ebooks, datebook and contact stuff. The real bonus for me is that I can store other information for access anywhere and if necessary encrypt the really important stuff such as bank details, passwords, card details etc.
It's quicker to switch on the netBook to record details of lottery syndicate payments made to me than it is write things down then lose them.
The latest facility added is that I can now create PDF file from the native applications and mail them out or better yet print them on whatever OS I happen to be playing with at the time knowing that they will look correct. This all allows me to creat documents on the move rather then being tied to a desktop PC. All of this in a sub-sub-notebook form factor with really long battery life, no delicate hard drive and a rock solid OS.
I've had one or two difference PDA's -- they're just a pain in the butt. Until people get out of them more than what they put into them, they'll never be useful.
It's lovely. I write a lot, and that little metal fold-out keyboard goes great with my Handspring. Since it's a BW-screen (and uses plain AAA batteries which are easily replacable), I get lots of mileage out of it.
All my addresses are on it. All my telephone numbers. A couple of books (Jack London!). I even use the calendar. And the calculator (a lot!).
If you have one of these CE-toys with a permanently backlit color screen and x MB of RAM, no wonder you can only use it for an hour or so before it goes belly-up.
Free PC version of ChipWits at http://www.breueronline.de/klaus/chipwits/
I'm a soon to be layed-off employee of BellSouth. At BLS, every management (i.e. non-union) employee is issued a RIM/Blackberry device (the small ones). I found them hugely more useful than a PDA, even if all you use is email. I sold my Handspring and don't plan on getting another. With wireless email, you can do anything.
However, the dark side to all of this is the concept that you are *always* accessible. 24/7. Vacations. Holidays. Your bosses NEVER leave you alone and your colleagues are even worse!
And since the RIM tells your sender that you read the email, they except a response quickly. Those expectations can make having a blackberry hell.
... And I imagine practicing lawyers use them quite a bit too. In law school, it seems every yahoo used to carry around a laptop, but the damn things, no matter how much you spend, are still heavy, bulky and awkward. Now, people carry PDA's with foldable keyboards, and hence the problem disappeared (as well as proving cheaper for poor students).
Sure, i (still) have a Palm IIIC, but a baby of a friend of mine spilled beer on it (this friend was drinking the beer, not the baby). Of course it was just a little bit too old and the insurance gave me what they tought it was still worth (a pathetic amount of money, the bastards). It used to be my agenda, clock, well.. the works. I still miss it very much :(
I actually sync my calendar and mail to it.
I can write mail on the train and sycn/send it
when I get into the office. The calendar is very
useful as well. I am more proud to add that I can play majhong, asteroids, missile command, space invaders, bridge, hearts, and block party as well
as use the pda version of acrobat.
I could live without it if I hand another hand
held game toy.
forgivness is easier to get than permission
I use my Palm Vx as an organisor. Sure, the palm doesn't sync Outlook contacts properly, but KeyContacts solves that.
Apart from that, if you have AvantGo installed then you can get TV listings, Film Listings and even read Slashdot on the go.
Useful for train and tube travel.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
I thought I would find some real-world examples of Sharp Zaurus usage, but all I see is proprietary Palm, Palm, Palm...
I don't own a PDA, but I've been struggling to justify getting one for some time now. I've suspected that if I got one, 99% of what I'd do with it is administrative: configure, personalize, enter stuff. And of course, the occasional game. The other 1% would be legitimate application.
Now, you sons o' #%&*es are just verifying that lack of justification. Well, I'll show you
I'm gettin one anyway. Just to spite you. It'll serve you right. You'll be sorry.
You'll all be sorry.
Research shows that 67% of those who use the term "research shows", are just making shit up.
I think PDA's are the greatest thing since sliced bread. No, none of them are perfect, but they are all better than the old daytimer ... and you realize that the first time you lose either of them. Credit card+sync=back in business.
None of them yet fit my idea of perfection, however. PDA's should be *peer* clients of my scheduling system and not an anjunct to my PC.
Palm has TCP built in - great now it needs to have IPSEC and a radio built in.
I did walk down the road of building a generic hotsync application on a unix host. First it identified the Palm ID, retrieved the profile of what had to be performed on said Palm device, then did it.
It was a very cool personal project, but once I got beyond my personal device and my wife's, I realized I would need an army of programmers to build all the ramifications of different conduits to make it work.
But this is what some corporate entity needs to do!
I'm waiting to buy a PDA. I dont want to carry around more stuff. Once PDAs and cellphones are built into the same unit, then I will use it. I like the idea of the PDA and I am willing to change my work style of make sure I use it. But I can't stand the thought of carrying two devices.
I know there are a couple of models already available in the US that have both the PDA and cellphone together. However, the PDA OSes and features are out of date. And they dont work well all of the time
this is really a matter of personal requirements. but i wouldn't be without my Nokia 9210. espicaily the PC emulation for running a dos shell (we have a need for legacy systems), plus telnet and e-mail on the move, then theres the movie player, web, mp3, and games for the train home. personally, i never use the (dis)organiser, or diary, functions, but word is handy. ok its a little chunky for a phone, but its alot more versatile than those stylus input devices. (bleh :p ) and full (usable) keyboard kicks ass.
hahaha, i laugh at those who have to carry two devices. nyahahaha.
This should be good for a laugh, but one of the biggest uses i've seen by PDAs are by the people with the least status to symbolise. Having a PDA means that they have an alarm to tell them when to take their meds, that they have something to put all their doctor appointments in, and that those with ADHD can have something to keep them occupied when they'd otherwise be going crazy looking for something to do. (or bothering you on the train, if you're unfortunate enough to sit next to some of our patients.) It allows for medical record keeping, so we encourage the use of ProfileMD or similar applications, and it allows for keeping things like journals of conditions. It also allows our doctors to keep the enitre PDR on cartridge so that they don't have to be thumbing through books in front of a patient. It lets the patients have it on cartridge too, so if the doctor's got no idea and starts spouting medical jjargon, the patient can look it up. I'd be lost without mine, because i can't carry too much stuff and it lets me keep my info all in one place. On the other hand, if i lose it, i'm screwed for however long it takes me to get a replacement and download the info again... So i see them being used all the time, but admittedly in a very small and specific cross-section. They are allowing us to have a 'reminder' nanny for the patients that need them, once everybody's trained to always look everything up. And it lets us beam data back and forth. Readable data, which comes in handy when trying to understand the inevitable medical glyphs that doctors and nurses are famous for... It's a big day when a patient shows up on time and has taken their medication and remembers the instructions you gave them last time, because you entered it into their PDA. If we could only get them for the blind... But i don't see a lot of turnover at this level, because people mostly need something that works and then they stick with it. At that level they don't care about upgrading, and the docs are too busy. They upgrade when somebody buys them a new one. Interestingly enough, drug companies were handing them out like crazy two years ago- Lilly was handing out Da Vincis, some of which turned out not to work at all, and there were Pfizer drug ones that said things like zoloft on them. This was about the same time that there was the huge flap about companies handing out camcorders and vacations? It caused quite a stir, especially when it got out that whole shipments of them were duds. Who needs a PDA that says Prozac on the front, anyway?
"I'd say 'Have a good time,' but arson is still illegal.
Jornada 720 + 256Mg CF
g e/default.asps .asph tmlk Tools, including Nslookup,Time, Portscan, Ping, Trace Route, Finger, Whois and a subnet calc (vxUtil)r e Shell v1.5 (sshCE)x t editor (Vim)
Built in Software/Applications (Highlights)
MS Access
HP ChaiVM (Java)
Internet Explorer (pocket word cannot display tables, so I convert some word docs to HTML)
Terminal Services Client
Additional software that I really use:
Ebook/eNews reader (Mobipocket)
http://www.mobipocket.com/en/HomePa
Mpgs And Avis (PocketDivx)
http://www.projectmayo.com/
Citrix Client
http://www.citrix.com/download/ica_client
Mobile phone management and tools (PhoneTools)
http://www.bvrp.com/
IP phone (SjPhone)
http://www.sjlabs.com/products/sjp-ce.
VNC Viewer
http://sorry can't Reminder site
Telnet/VT100 client (vxHP)
http://www.cam.com/windowsce.html
Networ
http://www.cam.com/windowsce.html
Secu
http://www.movsoftware.com/sshce.htm
Te
http://www.rainer-keuchel.de/software.html
I'd forget to do things without my PDA. I need it to carry around phone numbers and shopping lists and things to do and books that I see mentioned places and would like to order when I'm next in a bookstore and things like that.
It runs my diary and stops me being double booked and beeps to tell me it's time to set off to places and it's somewhere to write down IP addresses and it generally keeps my life together...
It's searchable for when I forget where I stored something, it's backableupable by sticking it in the docking cradle, it's insured in case I lose it. It doesn't need my full attention to work it, it doesn't hang, it doesn't crash. Seriously: a handspring visor, had it 2.5 years now, never had software issues. Mind you, I've not installed much because the diary/notepad are enough to do what I need it.
And, and this is I've worked out, the killer feature:- I only own *ONE* of them. I used to find if I wrote stuff in notebooks or on bits of paper, it was always a bit of paper that was somewhere else... my life used to be run off a ton of scraps of paper and I'd end up not doing things because they weren't in a list I was currently holding... and shopping lists are only useful if you can REMEMBER TO TAKE THEM TO THE SHOPS. The visor is a uniquifier: If the appointment isn't in that diary, I won't be going to it. And it's unique enough to remember. It lives in my bag with my purse. If I forget the visor I've probably forgotten my credit cards as well...
Highest and Best use for PDA: Reading cached slashdot during boring mandatory meetings!
Starting with a Palm IIIx when I was a consultant for a rural library... graduating to a Handspring Visor and now a Kyocera 6035... I use the darn thing all the time... waiting very impatiently to see if the new Kyocera color device is as useful as it appears in the ads! :)
...brig
Not only is my PDA handy for addresses and appointments, BankBook is the only tool I've ever used that's resulted in balanced checkbooks every time.
-- When I grow up I'd like to be a systems defenestrator.
I used to have a Palm Pro and later a Palm III (Both obtained for very little - One was a hand-me-down, the other was a garage sale bargain) - Most of the time they amounted to toys.
Eventually, I got a serial cable for my cell phone that allowed me to use it as a modem. I started using my Palm III a lot more. Unfortunately, it was a bulky and unreliable (The Palm III connector design is crap...)
Halfway through the summer I bought a Kyocera 6035. Combination of PDA and CDMA cell phone.
I now use my PDA all the time - And not as a phone. The utility of a Palm increases drastically once you have a wireless modem for it. WAP on small-screen phones sucks for "wireless Internet", but PQAs and EudoraWeb (At least for mobile-oriented sites or ones that naturally have clean HTML anyway) are wonderful.
I also find the ability to set arbitrary alarms (i.e. meeting at 9:30 AM on Nov. 26, as opposed to "start beeping at 9:30 AM every day") to be indispensable, since I easily lose track of time.
I also use my Kyo for jotting down quick notes, as I'm more likely to have it with me wherever I go at work than a pen and paper.
Thanks to spam, I can't read email from my phone yet - I just need to find a good web-based IMAP email solution that cooperates with mobile devices. (IMP is wonderful, but is WAY too bloated HTML-wise, and SquirrelMail makes Apache go postal on my machine. ThinAir can't retain user settings reliably, and GopherKing also goes postal when trying to contact my IMAP server.)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
As opposed to carrying around a paperback book and trying to improve yourself a little ...
They are great for some, and not for others.
As to screen getting scratched with Graffiti
Sadly, the one thing lacking in most Palm PDAs is a more scratch-resistant coating. I suggest you get a screen protector.
You have two options:
Cheapo screen protectors (CompanionLinks, WriteRights) - Most people I know prefer the former, because the WriteRights don't have very good transparency. CLs don't last as long but are dirt cheap.
Do a search for "G2" screen protectors. These are thicker and stiffer than the "held-on-by-static" cheapo protectors. One side has a scratch-resistant coating. (There's a person on the Kyocera 6035 user boards that doesn't bother with those dual-function pen/stylus devices - He just retracts his pen and uses the tip, no scratches yet.) It's transparency is great - It's almost impossible to tell that it's there. I bought mine 5 months ago and the only scratch visible is the one on the Graffiti area that was there before I was able to get the protector.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
I got a Visor Platinum for Xmas just about 2 years ago. This was after spending a couple of years waffling on deciding whether I wanted one or not. My very first impression of them was that they were just geek status symbols.
:)
At first, I didn't think I was going to get much use out of my Platinum, but once I started playing with it and using it, there was definitely potential in it.
The real kicker for me was when I bought a copy of QuickOffice and got myself a Stowaway keyboard. That combination has allowed me to pretty much do away with carrying around my laptop, especially for work, where I do a lot of data collection during equipment testing. Now instead of lugging around a big laptop, I've got my Visor and folded up Stowaway, which isn't much larger than the Visor.
If you can find that 'killer PDA app' that makes it useful, then it becomes an indispensible tool. For me, it was Quicksheet. For others it might be something else...document editing, bar code scanning, databases, whatever.
To the people who bought a PDA that just sits unused in drawer, take it out again, dust it off and browse sites like palmgear.com or whatever PocketPC software sites there are. Think about what else you would want to do with it besides the standard PIM functions. Chances are there's probably something out there that will let you do it.
Or else send it to me
"For I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and Long Words Bother Me"
Sounds like the RIM BlackBerry, which apparently is nicknamed CrackBerry by users. :)
As to phones stealing some of Palm's sails - Well, the Palm's revenge is coming. The latest trend is integrated PDA/phone combos. It's amazing how much more useful a Palm is when it has a built-in wireless modem.
Yes, most such combos suck. The Samsung I300 series and Handspring Treo Palm-based phones all require you to dial on the screen. This is a Bad Thing. No tactile feedback, and inconvenient. All of the CE devices have the same problem, and they have horrible battery life too.
There's one exception: The Kyocera 6035. It was designed to be a phone first, and then a PDA. I've had one for 4-5 months and it ROCKS. I didn't use my Palm very often before I got it, but the ability to do quick phone number lookups and check movie schedules/weather/TV listings when on the go is wonderful. PDA-wise it's about equivalent to a Palm IIIxe - OS 3.5, 8M RAM, greyscale screen.
The next two convergence devices to look out for are the Samsung I500 and Kyocera 7135. Both are "clamshell" style phones, with numeric dialing. (Samsung fixed their biggest flaw) Color screen, 16M RAM each. The Samsung has a size advantage (smaller) and a faster CPU, the Kyocera has the advantage of an SD expansion slot and MP3 capability.
For more on the Kyoceras, check out http://www.smartphonesource.com/
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
- as a password storage device. All of my passwords are randomly generated form numbers, characters, and symbols, and I have a different password for every service I use. Some passwords, for services such as Slashdot, are used infrequently, and I do not remember them.
- as an address book. My address book has 188 records in it. About half of them I only use once a year (dentist, etc). Three quarters of the rest I use a bit more frequently, but not "often". Many of them are out of state. None of those can I remember.
- as an appointment reminder. As bad as my memory is, my internal clock is worse. I'd miss every haircut appointment if my PDA didn't remind me.
- for notes.
- as a calculator
- Solitaire.
I actually get a lot of use out of the MP3 player, too, but I could live without it.The biggest feature of any PDA, I've learned, is size. I started with a Newton, with which I had a similar experience to others who've posted: carried it around a lot at first, but then started leaving it in the car, at home, etc. The Palm III was the first that I carried with me regularly; the Palm V was in my pocket constantly. A few months age, I bought a Clie T665C; it is almost small enough, but not quite. I'm going back to the Palm line. If the PDA is obtrusive, it ends up being useless (for me, at least).
I use mine daily... actually I utilize mine a lot and have done for about 3 years or so.
I have a PocketPC-based device... a Casio E-125 to be precise... that I use for just about everything. I store hand-written notes in it (got two years worth in there right now, many of them migrated to a few CF cards I have laying around)... I read Ebooks on the plane or when bored... I use "find on map" with a St. Louis map to find the location of my next appointment (it's a recent feature release from Microsoft that works great)... I keep my appointments in it of course... and I've got about 5000 contacts stored in there.
As for the "waste of time syncing the data"... well it's just a matter of educating yourself to stick your PDA on the cradle while you're working on your PC... that way it's synced and charged when you need it.
Since I also back it up weekly I don't really fear losing the data in there either.
I purchased the new Sony Clie NX70V after owning a Pilot 1000, a Palm iii, and a Palm Vx. This puppy is my new "Information and Entertainment Storehouse"!
It has 11MB usable internal RAM and I hav a 128MB Memory Stick. Among other things, I keep:
-2 versions of the Bible for study
-addresses & phone numbers
-schedule
-several work-related technical documents
-several games
-several MP3 files (playable with the Clie's Audio player)
That leaves me with just enough space to keep one of several 1/2 hour Simpsons episodes downloaded from ClieFlix (a 1/2 hour episode with no commercials is about 50MB)
It's very useful for both entertainment and work too.
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
The ex-sales guy gave a good, yet buzzword filled presentation. I really don't remember what he said, but he said it well. He looked at the crowd, was comfortable, and had good presentation skills.
The ex-engineer got up to give his presentation, and instead of just knowing the material, he had kept all his notes on his Palm. (and pointed this out to emphasize the fact that he came from engineering). It went like a bad high-school speech. He kept looking at his Palm, trying to read it, the light kept going off, and right in the middle of the presentation, he had to stop talking and restart the Palm and then find his notes again. It was really sad. I don't remember what he talked about either, just that it was an awful presentation.
I am a gadget person, but I have avoided getting a PDA. I did buy one for my wife, and she uses it somewhat, but she still relies on her regular planner for jotting things down, etc. I think the Handspring is really only used for an address book.
Gadgets are cool, but they aren't essential. And if they are essential to you, then you should probably just put it down, and step away from it. Try going a day without it. I am all for technology, but you have to be able to do things yourself. I went and saw a movie this weekend, and the lobby was full. It was weird - about half of the people were all f'king around with their phones. That glazed look as they were staring at their little screens, or yammering on endlessly about NOTHING. I feel a rant coming on, so I'll try to supress it, but what the hell do 17 year olds need to talk about constantly! Every time I overhear a "conversation", it is about absolutely nothing. People have forgotten how to use their brains. My wife and I have one cellphone, and it is off unless we are making a call. She has had people actually say increduously "I can't believe you don't leave your phone on!". Yes, there is a time and a place to use one, and at these times they are invaluable - unfortunately I never see that. I see people yammering about who is dating who, and how many times they took a crap that day. NOBODY CARES!
Bottom line is I think that people are becoming more and more like sheep, and they will follow along with the crowd. Why else would a 14 year old need a cell phone? To fit in, cause all the other kids have one. I think PDAs were a nice attempt at tech, but ultimately all they do is shackle you down, and once you have plunked down the cash for it, you feel like you have to use it.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Your opinion of your Palm will change drastically from the first moment you combine it with a cell phone for wireless data.
Movie listings, TV listings, email (Thanks to spam, usually just sending a quick note and not receiving), weather, phone directory lookups - Everything changes when the Palm can connect to the outside world.
My Palm sat idle for 2-3 years in college. Eventually, I got a data cable for my cell phone and hooked it up to my Palm - From then on, I used it a lot more. (Unfortunately, not as convenient as an IR-capable phone)
Eventually, I upgraded my Palm and phone at the same time to an integrated device - It's impossible to beat the convenience of a good convergence device. (The key here is GOOD. Many of the integrated devices such as all the CE-based phones and the Samsung I300 had severely crippled phone capabilities. I think even Treos require you to dial on the screen.) I have a Kyocera 6035, which is the only integrated Palm/phone to have a numeric keypad on the face of the flip so you can easily dial your phone without loading a dialer app or even opening up the PDA. It's *wonderful*. Yes, it's large for a phone, but considering it replaced two devices I was carrying around before with only one, it's taking less space than seperate phone/PDA.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
I bought a Palm Pilot Personal the day they arrived at CompUSA here in town. For a while I found it difficult to use for the same reason I found day planners difficult to use -- it was awkward to carry. Then I bought a belt pack for it. Since then it's been with me daily.
:-)
I upgraded to to a Pro, then a IIIx, then a Visor Prism, which I still carry. All appointments are on the Prism, all my addresses on on it, birthdays, a database with machine info for about 150 machines here at work, I keep track on my bank checking and savings accounts, a database of NPR stations around the country -- and really, that's just a start. Oh, and the time-waster games I keep for those moments when I've got a few minutes of time before meetings. (And during boring meetings.
It's a rare day that it doesn't get pulled out and used several times. I don't have a desktop organizer to which I sync -- it's all on the Prism. And the Prism gets carried anytime I leave the house.
I have a hard time saying that it's indespensible to me -- but without it I'd have a lot harder time keeping track of the information I use -- worse, that information would have been difficult to move when I changed positions, as I've done over these last years. Some of it I wouldn't have at all -- like the NPR stations.
It's also provided me with several thousand dollars of income over the past three years since I released some software for the device.
Me, I don't really think of it as a status symbol. Carrying both a Prism and phone on my belt doesn't seem to be a status symbol. It's too blase for geeks and too geek for everyone else...
Sean.
The "enhanced" screen on the IIIx and above units was the worst mistake Palm ever made - They are plain and simple a bitch to read. Basically, starting with the IIIx, the Palm inverts everything when backlit. BackHack returns it to the "old" III-and-before behavior, which makes things much better.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
I am sure that the tag paragraph for this thread is true in many cases. Boys and their toys but I have been using various Palm PDAs for 6 years or so now and I would find it very difficult to get by without it. I attend a lot of meetings through out the day and would easily miss some without it handy to remind me. I know I could get by with a paper-based system (and used to before I got my first PDA) but then I would have to keep track of my schedule in two places. Online (outlook) because that is the calendar that the office has access to, for scheduling new meetings and then also in my paper based schedule so that I do not loose track of my schedule when I am not in front of my PC. My PDA just simplifies this sort of activity tracking a great deal. I do wish that it were easier to use it for more complicated tasks (like note taking) but that is not really its' primary purpose. Scheduling and contacts is. The Palm has been stretched to do other things (some of which it has adapted to better then others) but at least in my case, it still excels at scheduling and contact management.
Would I ever go back to paper? Not as long as I also have a PC. Let technology do what it can to simplify my life so that I have more time to deal with the rest. Just my 2 cents.
I have to use this cause I can't afford a real sig...
Since I got my Kyocera 6035 I use my PDA all the time. It is great having all my addresses, meetings, etc. integrated into my phone. On top of that, I use my Internet access with a VPN client and manage servers, routers and switches via telnet, 5250 and VNC clients. I also use remote hot sync through the VPN. I can't wait until the 7135 is available. Here is a review of the 7135.
Use it all the time. Used paper organizers before, but with the amount of information that I need to keep, papers just wont cut. Having the paper organizer stores all my info would led the organizer being too thick with papers that it could not handle.
And with all the databases that I have, the calendar that stores everything since I bought it last year, I dont think its possible for me to get back to papers. Sync is not much a problem, as long as you dont wait.
And yeah, the alarm function is very usefull for ppl who schedule on the fly much, as you tend to forget most of the things as its keep changing.
Handspring sell a case (number 3012W) here that includes a space for a paper pad and pens. Don't know what this says but it must say something!
Do People Really Use Their PDAs?
Quick Answer: No!
Longer Answer: Not me, I rather spend my money on buying membership access
NO! NO! Please don't mod me, I'm too young to die a troll. *click* Oh the pain, the pain...
I'm developing an application that will let people in the field use laser range finding binoculars to determine the position of things of interest. The PDA will receive the binocular readings and GPS data and calculate the position from that. It'll then transmit the location plus some other data back to a central location. The PDA makes a lot more sense than humping several pounds of fragile laptop around in the bush, especially given all the other stuff they have to carry.
We have Compaq iPaqs with 802.11b networking where I work. I got a chance to try one out last week. Using the command line is a pain with the on screen keyboard. There is no way I can really write scripts or code very easily or quickly with it. In fact, I've had more luck writing code/scripts on my alphnumberic pager. Since real techies have little or no need for PIM functionality, PDAs are essentially cool toys, but not real useful to a hardcore techie. I haven't seen many other people posting about thing. Most people seem to rave about being able to keep schedules and contacts. Maybe if you're a marketroid or management, that makes sense, but if you are a hardcore coder, it's useless. The only other way I think a PDA would be useful to a tech is as a portable storage device to transfer data. I think it would be cool to be able to carry source that you copied from a machine at home to work and vice versa. Of course it would be even better if you could edit the code on the bus to work.
Un-news
I have been using Palm IIIx for about 2 years now, and I live by it. My appointemnts, reminders, data everything is in my PDA.
:) Zaurus rocks.
I still remember how freaked I was when my PDA broke. I spent the whole day finding ways to salvage data.
Next day, I ordered my Zaurus
I have gotten rid of paper in my personl life due to my PDAs use. Paper is too cumbersome, ineffective, cluttery and environmently determental.
I cannot imagine a day without my PDA.
http://www.ajaygautam.com
If you're not using your PDA as a PDA, have you recycled it into something cooler, or at least used it for something like a desktop "digital photo frame" (The Sony Clie has a "Photo Stand" application).
I've read hundreds of books on the Palm/Visor in the last two years and ALL FREE. Most were linked from online books in text format. Download 'em and run 'em through MakeDocW, which automatically puts them in the Install directory for next sync.
I got a Helio when it was discontinued and cheap. I downloaded the software, and installed a bunch of things that I really did use: Scientific Calculator / Tetris / Ebooks, and a bunch of classic literature from Project Gutenberg. (O'Henry's short stories were *great*!)
That said, here are some things I'd love to see:
(1) An applesoft-level basic computer programming language, with easy program transfer, PDA-to-PDA and PDA-to-computer
(2) A good machine-language debugger, and "Beagle-brothers cheat sheet", such as Apple used to have, or such as I got between Dr. Norton and DOS DEBUG. I also want a good link between this and the basic language.
(3) A better way to type, when I want *fast* data entry. When I turn my pda to the side, I can use one hand on the lower control bar, and the other on the screen. I can easily get a typing resolution of 4x4 on the right hand, and 1x4 (maybe 1x6) on the left hand. Give me a good typing program, and a cheat sheet that will help me begin, and I could go to town. [Hint: control keys I want on the left are: SHIFT... triple click for caps lock. FORMAT ADJUST for equation editor style changes, FN like the apple key on macs, and 2 ALT CHARs that with FN can turn my 4x4 keyboard into 4x4x8=128 immediate key options. Add in double- and triple- click combos, and there is enough there to type anything I want.
I note that if I am using DRAW, and hold down a finger on a spot, a dot appears. Tap a different spot with another finger, and a line draws halfway there, and then back. That should be enough to turn the thing into a decent keyboard.
Give me those tools, and I'll really be able to use my PDA. Until then, it's TETRIS / EBOOKS/ SCI CALCULATOR.
I've owned three PalmOS devices over the years and I would hate to live without one. However, I don't think PDAs are for everyone. Too many people are thinking "hey, neat" and purchasing one without thinking about why they want one and what they're going to do with it.
When I purchased my first PalmOS device, I had a number of very specific goals: I was already carrying a little addressbook in which I recorded appointments, phone numbers, addresses, and various notes (shopping lists, books to consider, ideas for stories). I knew I needed the book (it replaced my existing habit of having pockets full of scraps of paper with nodes), but I had problems with it. I was frustrated that as the book filled and the year passed, I needed to purchase a new book and transcribe everything into it. (I could get a book with removable pages, but they were too large to be comfortable to always carry.) The book certainly wasn't large enough for my never ending stream of notes (my list of restaurants, movies, and video games that others have recommended I check out, my notes of my flash of insight into something I'm doing at work). Also, as a geek, I was uncomfortable having that one book not be safely backed up somewhere else. (True, I could transcribe it, taking up my time, or photocopy it, but if I lose or damage the original my restore process involves buying a new book and transcribing.) Finally, my little book couldn't remind me that I was missing an appointment.
So, when I looked seriously at my first PalmOS device (a Palm III), I knew specifically what it would do for me. It would hold as much information as I could practically throw at it. It would be backed up to my computer frequently, ensuring the safety of my data. I would never transcribe by hand from one source to another, once it's digital I can copy it easily. And it can beep when appointments come up. Sure enough, it worked perfectly.
Of course, once I always had a small computer at my side, I started doing additional things with it. While I'm not a big fan of reading books on the small screen, when I'm forced to wait for something (picking up a friend at the airport and the flight is delayed, doctor's appointment, etc), having something to read of my choice is certainly convient. And it turns out that with the keyboard, it's still much smaller than a laptop computer, but powerful enough to do real writing on.
In fact, the only thing I dislike about various PDAs is the size. Most PDAs, including much of Palm's line, are uncomfortably large. As a result, I upgraded to the much slimmer Palm V. I know other people who purchased the Handspring Razor for the same reason. These days any PDA is more than powerful enough for my needs. I don't need 16MB of memory, 8 is plenty (and if I'm a bit more picky about what books I upload into my PDA, 2 is plenty). I certainly don't need color, I'm just reading text. I need a long battery life and a small size. I will not trade any battery life or size for memory or color.
Sure, lots of clueless people purchased various PDAs but have no use for them. But there are plenty of people who love their PDAs, use them frequently, and would be very disorganized without them. I know. I am such a person.
Search 2010 Gen Con events
I find I can't go shopping without HandyShopper on my Clie.
Wonderful free software, and the only thing I've installed that I use more and more instead of less and less.
A: Yes. Next question.
Nathan's blog
can be described as a small organizer/calculator. I use it as a graphing calculator, to store phone numbers, quick notes to myself, gate codes at friends apartments etc.. I also use it to read books from Project Gutenberg or sometimes to check out the news/weather.
Well then you ask, why is it better than a paper organizer with a book and calculator? Two reasons, size and the ability to back it up! I use the m500 solely based on the fact that it is the smallest palm I can find. Its thinner than any of the other ones (including the m505/m515) and marginally larger (wxh) than some of the newer sony's and tungston's. The thickness is the most important dimension because I have big pockets but I don't like it sticking out. Anyway, it can also be backed up which is good since everyone looses those little pieces of paper they write things down on, the whole organizer, and every couple of years even the nice leather ones look crappy and need to be replaced. So, instead of copying a bunch of crap, I can just pick up a new pda and sync it with my old data.
Crashes? I think i've seen two of those, both related to a little application I wrote. I don't stick a lot of software on it, so I guess I've been lucky to use mostly bug free stuff..
Its definitly a tool for the geeks though, most normal people i've seen using them are just using the keyboard mapping. Hopefully at some point palm will do the CE thing and provide a switchable input area. For a while a lot of managment types were using them but they seem to have given up on the whole idea. These people would rather just pick up the phone and call their personal slave to remind them of appointments, phone numbers, etc. So for those people a PDA was basically just a status symbol until they discovered that most PDA's are hard to carry without a bulge.
Palm i705?
Also, the upcoming 2.5G (Sprint Vision/Verizon Express Network) PDA/phone combos fit the bill.
Devices include:
Samsung I330
Kyocera 7135
Samsung I500
Usability-wise I wouldn't touch the I300 series, but the Kyo 7135 and I500 are looking very nice.
I have a Kyo 6035 - Most of what you want, although not always-on. But it does have a built-in CDMA modem.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
From your description, a Kyocera 6035 (or the upcoming 7135) is exactly what you want. Especially if you don't need color.
Unlike a lot of the PDA/phone combos out there, the 6035 is a phone first and PDA second. (Read: It's the only PalmOS phone with a physical numeric keypad for dialing.) The upcoming 7135 will be the same.
I have a 6035 and absolutely love it. Palm-wise, it's closest to a IIIxe. (8M RAM, OS 3.5)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
There are a lot of areas that Vindigo simply doesn't cover.
That said, AvantGo provides a decent amount of Vindigo functionality for free, and until recently, was about the only thing I used my Palm for. (Mapopolis is the other thing I used) Mapopolis allowed me to get away from carrying around a monster atlas of my county and neighboring ones. AvantGo stored movie times, weather, and all sorts of other stuff.
These days I hardly ever use AvantGo - I have a Kyocera 6035 (Phone with a built-in IIIxe equivalent) - PQAs now rule supreme. I've got TV Guide, MovieFone, a custom PQA I wrote myself to look up people in the Cornell electronic directory, MapQuest, and many others.
I've found myself using Memo Pad and Date Book at work a lot - I have a bad tendency to forget meetings.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
so I use it as phone, calendar, light browsing for specific info, ssh into my server, email during meetings, alert pager for when things go wrong, note pad for the unimportant details I wouldn't normally remember, etc. etc. now if only it could do all this and handle MP3's... that is the last function it needs to be complete. then I will turn into a ball of light and become one with the universe.
I used to have a job where I was never at my desk - I was either in meetings or on the production floor or working on a piece of equipment .... I would often have to find info, schedule meetings, call people, ... when I was nowhere near my desk. I used an hp200LX (an ancient DOS based PDA) that was very good, then 'upgraded' to a Handspring when the powers that be demanded that I keep my calendar up to date in Outlook.
I used the PDA a lot in those days, both for work and for personal use. I had all of my social and weekend activities scheduled in, I had all of my friends and families contact information, birthdays, ... entered in. I even had all of the recipes I like to cook programmed in (it is amazing how nice it is to be able to decide you want to cook something and just stop by the store to pick up the ingredients without having to go home and look up the recipe first.) I was completely addicted to the PDA and couldn't imagine how I had
survived without one. I was sure that even if I didn't need one for work I would continue
to use one.
I used the PDA almost daily for about 5 years, and then I changed jobs. I do a lot more programming now, and spend a lot of time at my desk. Meetings are either routine and planned long in advance or else impromptu 'are you available now ?' meetings. I slowly started to use the PDA less and less. It is now sitting in a drawer at home and hasn't been used in over a year. It turns out that my old job's requirement that I be able to schedule meetings at any time and keep my Outlook calendar up to date was in effect paying the overhead of carrying the PDA around and constantly entering information.
Once those requirement were gone, it turned out that all of the 'essential' additional uses I found for it are not worth the overhead of carrying the thing around.
I don't use it much for the intended purposes - I still tend to be terminally late for almost everything.
But, I use my m500 daily. Keeping track of things that pique my interest, ebooks (got over 50 full books on a MMC card, currently struggling through The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbon), news (Avantgo), and lots of obscure stuff; I'm also studying for my HAGAR exam - a flight rating for hang glider and paraglider pilots - using Adobe's PDF reader. I even keep my flight log in the PDA - my last flight log was stolen along with my truck and glider; now even if this one gets stolen (or crushed), I'll still have a backup on my computer.
There's some really cool stuff too - Planetarium let me find the moons of Jupiter the other night while checking out the Leonids, and I've got a special program to run diagnostics on my AWD Eagle Talon - it'll even plot engine parameters in realtime so I can see if I've got my boost turned up too high.
I specifically stayed away from the color PDA's because of battery life problems; forget the bloated WinCE devices. Although my PDA has survived several crashes so far, paragliding and otherwise, I'm still thinking about an Ubercase - solar powered and waterproof would be just about perfect.
I'd be lost without my Palm Vx. It's rugged enough to carry around in a pocket without fear. It recharges on the cradle most of the day, so I never have battery problems. It travels in a suit pocket all day and in a back jeans pocket outside of work and it's never failed on me. I use it for: Calendar - every single appointment. It serves as reminder, planner, alarm and timelog. I do "7 Habits" with Outlook and this keeps me on track. Since I don't sit in an office all the time, I need those reminders. I log the TV shows I want to tape/watch at the start of the week so I can catch them. I don't regularly watch TV, so without a reminder I tend to miss things. Contacts - aside from the normal ones, I keep the company phonebook on mine. It's invaluable for all those times you have to look up meeting attendants or place a quick call when out of the office. It's saved me from many a crisis by having everyone's #s while offsite. I've done support calls from a ballgame by looking up the appropriate people's home numbers and connecting other callers. Avantgo - When I have to eat lunch by myself or get stuck in a drive thru line, I catch up on headlines. Also invaluable for company bathrooms sans reading material :) I also use the Email feature to handle all my non-crucial email in these same downtimes. Ebooks for the same.
I keep scads of company info on hand so I don't have to make a long trip back to my office when something comes up - phone system programming manual, server passwords, website passwords, phone lines, etc.
I keep personal notes at hand en masse. IE., multiple web passwords, instructions for checking my home answering machine remotely, song ideas that come to me, possible set additions for my guitar performances, movie trailers that looked cool to rent later, credit card #s, etc.
Most of my documents, memos, etc. start here and then are later transferred to a proper format for finishing. My best ideas always seem to come when I'm away from a PC and I can never find paper/pen when I need it.
I keep an ongoing gift list for all family members on it and make a note everytime someone mentions something they'd like. Shopping gets really easy at holiday times and everyone compliments me for "always remembering".
I keep it to scrawl URLs noticed in books/magazines browsed in a bookstore to avoid buying something unnecessarily.
I keep a version of the Bible on it to use during church. Very handy when you're juggling kids and really don't need an extra book to carry everywhere.
I keep Mapopolis with highway maps of the counties I frequent. When you're in an unfamiliar area and only have an address to go on it can be a lifesaver.
I keep a noisemaker (theramini) to amuse my younger children. When you have one in an "almost crying" situation where they need to be calmed down, I can make a couple of weird noises and instantly distract them.
I keep a couple of games on there for the kids' too. If you're a parent, you understand what happens when you get stuck somewhere without suitable kiddie amusement.
And finally, everything's nicely password protected with a third party utility so I don't have to sweat if I lose it. As well as the personal assurance that it's all backed up somewhere.
You could not convince me there's a better way of doing things.
To be fair, my wife rarely uses hers. The prime difference is that her job is not as schedule-oriented and she doesn't like reading on the small screen.
That Register article is such BS...
I'm in the US, and I want wireless data. No, I don't want GPRS. GPRS is a dead-end technology with no upgrade path. CDMA2000 is far superior - Backwards compatibility with cdmaOne, higher capacity, less frequent dropped calls. Face it, CDMA is superior, even Europe now concedes it by basing their 3G technology on a (badly implemented) CDMA variant.
While the European providers are struggling to provide 3G services without going bankrupt (They need to buy new spectrum, completely replace 100% of their infrastructure, and replace all phones, essentially they need to build an entire new network from scratch), existing CDMA providers will upgrade as the need and demand arises, since cdmaOne phones will work on a CDMA2000 network and vice versa. The upgrade from cdmaOne to 1xRTT capability has been simple and easy for service providers, and they can easily roll out 1xEV-DO when they want to, without forcing a full handset upgrade. 1x-EV-DO handsets will work with older infrastructure (even cdmaOne base stations) and 1xEV-DO base stations will work fine with old cdmaOne handsets. GPRS providers don't have that luxury in the W-CDMA transition.
Also, W-CDMA and CDMA2000 have already faced each other in direct competition in Japan - DoCoMo's name is mud thanks to W-CDMA. Their competitor, KDDI, has 5 times as many 3G subscribers as they do now.
I want high-speed data. I just don't want it for $99/month. (But this is going to change soon - Sprint already has reduced pricing on their Vision plans and Verizon will almost surely follow suit soon.)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
I'd like to off-topically point out that "see left frame for link" is a good example of one of the problems with frames. With framed pages linking directly to something is hard.
Search 2010 Gen Con events
Whenever the issue of the use of PDA's come up, a good chunk of slashdotters become flaming neo-luddites stating that the functions of a PDA is easily replaced with paper and pencil. They sound a lot like the following quote:
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
-- Ken Olson, founder, chairman & president of DEC, 1977
The basic fallacy in both outlooks is the assumption that Mainframe=PC=PDA. The PDA performs a variety of simple tasks any one of which could be replaced by a simpler tool. The reason the PDA is useful is fivefold:
1. The PDA being a general purpose computer can perform dozens of separate tasks eliminationg quite a bit of the impedimentia of everyday life.
2. The PDA can perform databasing, calculation, and access very large data sets, providing added value to each operation.
3. The PDA knows what time it is, where it is at (w/GPS), and can access the internet (either offline or via wireless).
4. The contents of the PDA are digital data allowing it to slosh instantly back and forth between the PDA and the desktop. Try to do that with handwritten notes, checkbook ledgers and adress book entries.
5. The PDA is always at hand meaning that you access and enter data immediately greatly reducing the probability of losing or confusing the data.
I actually carry 2 PDAs on my belt all the time.
My Visor Pro does all of my tradtional PDA tasks, since it runs 2 weeks on a single charge and runs the Palm OS. I use it as an:
-eBook: holding half a dozen novels on removable Smart Media flash. Last year I finished off all of the Harry Potter books while waiting in holiday airport lines.
-Newspaper: using sitescooper to dump my favorite websites each moring to iSilo
-Timer/Stopwatch: Using BigClock I have four alarms and four highly flexible countdown timers or countup stopwatches.
-Mapbox: I use mapopolis in conjunction with my plug in GPS to navigate the city, and Solus Pro to navigate fixed routes during trips.
-Locator: I use Vindigo to locate movie times, resturants, and other points of interest (On trips I have ended up giving locals directions).
-Shopping List, Smart Checklist: HandyShop provides an excellent checklist for shopping, packing or any checklist oriented task, which in turn may be reset at the end of a task.
-Ledger: I use Pocket Quicken to record my transactions as they happen, Quicken on my desktop then allows me to reconcile against my daily statement.
-Diet and Exercise Log: I track my weight, dietary intake and exercise.
-Ephemeris: I have a full star chart and planet rise and set times within my palm.
-Scientific Calculator: Smaller and cheaper than a plotting calculator but with more functionality.
-Address Book, Notebook, Scheduler: Very handy although not the defining function of the unit.
The relative lack of software and limited battery time of my Zaurus makes it my secondary unit but it really shines in several regards:
-Web Browsing: With 802.11b access at most Starbucks locations, and Opera as the default browser the Zaurus is ideal for browsing on the go.
-Travel Newspaper: Since the Zaurus has broadband access and the capacity to capture content on it's own It's perfect for getting plenty of reading for the plane while passing Starbucks.
-Programming: Python, Perl, GCC, Octave and Gnuplot 'nuff said.
-Photo Album: I can immediately access the contents of my digital camera and show pictures of high quality to other people.
/. I have spent the last year using my Visor and decided at the start to drop using all paper alternatives.
Item 1 to go was the snoopable calendar on the desk. -didn't miss it a bit
Item 2 to go was the items in the databank in the watch, it's only used as a calculator now. -I do wish I could sync it with the Visor, but that's ok the visor is with me all the time.
Item 3 to go was the little notebook for mileage on the car. -This has been great Fuel Log http://palmfuellog.sf.net gives me instant stats and graphs
Item 4 to go the ultra dangerous list of over 150 id's and passwords for work, personal stuff. -I'll keep a PDA forever for these ever changing pains in the neck, some change several times a day.
I haven't missed or been late on an event in the last year.
The wall calendar in the office sits there nice and pretty, and unless the picture on it is particularly unpleasant it might not get change to the next month until halfway through the following month.
You use an RPN calculator but won't learn graffiti? Hve you even looked at graffiti? Do you use your 48's silly alpha key for your PIM stuff?
I own a 48gx, and a Palm IIIxe. I used to carry my 48 with me everywhere, and wished there was a good palm-type PIM software for it. Since I am out of school and have no need to carry a symbolic solver/3d grapher with me, my palm goes everywhere.
I can sync it to Outlook at work, Linux at home, beam contact info to and from my phone, connect to the world via IR/cell phone. And I paid less for my Palm than the 48. Next time i crack my 48's screen I will be upset, but for $30 i can replace my palm.
Give graffiti a try, it is even more intuitive than RPN, and equaly suited to the niche it fills.
And go buy a Palm from ebay for $30, you already blew $100+ on a calculator....
And I love my 48
Can you imagine a Beowulf cluster of it? No? That's why :)
and she uses it when I'm not busy fucking her.
I resisted the urge to get a PDA until I found the Kyrocera smartphone series--a cell phone with an integrated PDA (Palm OS). I'm a computer geek, but I will only carry one frickin' geek tool. I refuse to weigh my pockets down with a phone, a pager, and a PDA. But one device for all three? I use the hell out of it. And Kyocera's next smart phone model will play mp3's and have GPS. A la Tolkein, one geek device to hold and bind 'em.
I have a Pilot 1000 with the PalmPro 1MB upgrade and a cracked screen. I got my wife a PalmPilot Professional. I got a Palm IIIxe to replace my cracked 1000. I cracked that too :-( and now2 I have a Handspring Visor.
:-( A PDA just won't do it for her.
I live & breath with it. I mostly use the calendar, address book, strip (to store passwords), and freecell. I sync to evolution. I also have the POSE emulator so I can have readonly access to my strip passwords.
I don't have to worry about losing an appointment card, etc.
I've also read books at various times. And taken notes at usenix and such. I'll tend to use the laptop in that case.
My wife, she uses her Franklin planner. She takes lots of notes and needs to refer to them for CYA stuff at work
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I use my Handspring Visor and keep it with me or near at hand all the time.
I use it:
I use my Palm III (got it used) all the time. And I really only use it for the basics. I have a very nice shared calendar/contact program called WeSync (no longer supported or available) that keeps the contacts and calendars of both myself and my wife in sync. I also use Pocket Quicken for keeping track of my petty cash (yeah, it's overkill, but I damn well know where I spend my money!).
I have a couple of games, but I pretty much just play solitare on it while waiting at doctors' offices.
Apparently, of the rich, by the rich, for the rich.
> ran the PDA gauntlet myself and have found hat much time is wasted syncing, charging
> and reinstalling the software. Have there been any studies on PDA turnover? I think the PDA as become more of a status symbol
With battery life getting better all the time and easy to use software that automatates backup when your battery dies (Pocket Backup) I wouldn't really call it running the gauntlet anny more....
--
Nic
I use my Handspring Visor Platnium for a while now. I have owned 2 palm III's both broke from face down falls, one fell from my full hands on the way up the stairs to the house; the other fell within the beltclip holder about 13 ft while I was doing some work on a sissor lift in the warehouse.
As I work at a walmart in the reciving area on the Inventory Control Team. The management use palms as well to track various things. As the Christmas buying season is near our store has rented 78+ cargo containers to hold excess inventory buildup for the holidays (yay thanksgiving is almost here we can empty about 12 of them Friday morning). The management occasionally takes a walk through the trailers to examine contents, verify locking mechnisims and check for leaks, ants, and free space and recommend condensing into other trailers. After they do this they run across me and beam me their notes. This helps our team out tremendously as we dont have time to check what trailers have changed as there are 3+ teams (ICS, auto, stockers, unloaders & dept mangers) that work through them.
Im always using my palm to record my schedule (3 weeks at a time), Im always writing down upc's item numbers and other work related stuff. When im on break I go through my palm annotating changes to trailers, noting pallets Im required to remove from loft spaces or add to loft spaces.
I have a yahoo account which I can sync my palm to/from. The yahoo acount is tied to tv.yahoo.com where i can add tv shows to my schedule with a click then sync. Only thing is the sync sofware only works in windows (i havent tried emulation yet). With my palm synced to the net, my yahoo messengers will alert me of schedule stuff while im online (windows and linux, i love yahoo for being the only, abosolute only company to write their own IM for linux). I just wish they would create a sync program for linux to sync to my yahoo calendar.
DRACO-
Consider yourself blessed if you are sneezed on by a dragon and only get wet, it could have been a fireball.
I have a casio e125 that I use all the time. Im extremly forgetfull, so the to do list and alarms really help. Also I use it as an mp3 player, digital camera, and to play emulators. However Ive been looking into moving towards running Linux instead of ce, anyone care to suggest a distro?
I use a handspring visor. I found Avantgo, and it was amazing. Work wouldn't let me use internet, so I would sync and download email and Slashdot ;)
I found that Handspring was giving away the SprintPCS cell phone springboard module, and ordered it just for the cost of shipping. Now I have AIM (only IM I could find for PalmOS), email, and web browsing in real time. I love it. And it's my cell phone to boot, so my address book from Outlook is direct linked (had to use MS Outlook for work connectivity, and just kinda kept it for the palm). It's really nice.
Seems people are trying ot find reasons to use their pdas once theyve got them
s/pda/cell phone/
I dislike having to carry all that crap around with me. it takes a damn purse for wallet, keys, glasses, pda, cell phone, vitamins, band-aids, etc etc etc.
Do I use it? You bet! In order, I'd have to say the uses are: scheduling/Phone, shopping lists, Ebooks (Plucker(Yay, full 330 support!), Jpilot and Cron ROCK too much for one hand!) and the occasional game.
First PDA: a Palm 1000, bought on clearance a few weeks after I lost my 'Little' black book (2"+ thick) containing dates, scheduling and contact information (Phone numbers up to 4 years old, pending appointments for the next year.) The realization that the info sometimes really IS worth more than the container was kind of sunk home.
Most recent PDA: Handera 330 - It fixes most of the problems with previous palm models (inaudable alarms, crap backlight, storage limits, screen, battery life and recharge issues) while remaining compatable with the longest (to date) line of Palm peripherals (III series) and accepting the most popular of the new portable interface standards(CF and SD).
Next PDA: Who knows? Won't buy a Sony(Got burned out on their squeeze-the-turnip thinking with Beta, don't see them doing anything diffrent with the Clie line.), Not interested in the Tungsten or the WinCE platforms untill they get a battery life of over a week on a charge. We'll see.
D rainage
A ppendage
What, you think I'm going to put my girlfriend's number in my address day planner so the wife can find it???
I like my Palm with upgraded Blowfish encryption.