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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 /:)
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.
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...
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.
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'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.
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.
- 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 itI 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.
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?"
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!
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.
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:
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.
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...
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.
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
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.
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)
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."
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
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!
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
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
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
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).
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.
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 :)
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.
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'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 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
- 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'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 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!
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 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
...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.
..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.
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
Wow, I haven't noticed any mention of "ToDo" lists. This is my personal PDA "killer app" - over 3 years on a Palm V and now a 515. I use the todo list in DateBook5. Whenever I think of something I "ought to do sometime" I slap it in there and it carries along on my schedule every day until I finally finish it off. Once I put something in that ToDo list, I know it will get done sooner or later. I wouldn't bother with paper because there's no decent way to carry over items until I do them.
The key to PDAs ia "small and light." My first PDA, a Psion 3a, fell into disuse because it was a hassle to carry.
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
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
- Golf scoring - Intelligolf
- International travel - currency conversions, multi time zone clock, etc...
- A specific task list - I hate forgetting something on my Home Depot shopping spree
Otherwise I find I have either my laptop and iPod with me and the Palm is just redundant.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?"
I use mine also to track cash expenses, scheduler, address book, notes for notes, games to pass the time, and now, ebooks, courtesy of the Baen free library and my recent purchase of War of Honor (with the CD of books included.) I also use it to hold dumps of text from my computer, and important bits of info (like how much 16mm Kodak film costs vs. 35mm, IP addresses of machines I administer, etc.)
I'd never go back to a paper planner - if I lose or accidentally destroy my palm pilot (which is 6 years old by the way, an original 512k USR Pilot upgraded to 2mb w/ IR), I have a spare I bought off of eBay for $40 sitting in my desk drawer, ready to be resynched with all of my data. If I manage to kill my spare, then I have a great excuse for picking up that Sony Clie with the WiFi card slot and the nice screen for eBook reading, which would then let me play mp3s while on the road... If I lost my paper planner, I'd have to shoot myself, unless I made scans or photocopies on a regular basis of the stuff in it. You don't know what panic is until you loose that faux-leather patterned Dayrunner, with your entire life stored in it. With the electronic equivalent, I just keep it hotsynced regularly. Much better.
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'
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
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
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.
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'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...
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.
Yeah, but it's funny: I never used to use the TODO function until I started doing mayor projects (i'm not talking school stuff here, I'm talking thousand person events). Then I 'discoverd' that ToDo was a real lifesaver.
-- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
. 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...
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.
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.
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 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).
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
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. ----
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.
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.
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 Just Bought a palm Vx on ebay for my wife. its old but its better than the new junk thats not rechargable, etc..
I bought another one for myself a month ago after I lost it in ohio.
Yes, shopping lists beamed to her are excellent.
Plus at work it synchs with my meetings from Outlook, then alarms so I dont forget to go to them. Then the location is in the pda. everyone at work uses them.
plus when I get paged, I do a search on the number and see who it is.
million uses. if you cant find one, you must be on vacation.
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.
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.
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.
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...).
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.
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.
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!
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.
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
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).
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.
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.
.... 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 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
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!
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?
- 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
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 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
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.
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.
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!
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 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
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 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 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 the first (USA) zaurus lying around somewhere.. it has a few neat features, but the thing is a bit heavy and bulky.
The coolest thing is that it has a VT100 terminal emulator and the serial cable can be used as a null-modem!
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.
Taipan.
-----
PGP Key ID 0xCB8FF658
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
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 just want to add my vote to the 'yes - (well - kind of)' column.
I've been in a never-ending quest for the perfect PDA. Initially I wanted to replace my diary, phone book and paper note book. I started out with a Newton (the original model) but the handwriting recognition sucked (for a lefty anyway) and it was slow and the battery life sucked. But the OS rocked. Why is it that no-one else has done the newton thing where you can type 'lunch with Mark' on the notepad, tap 'assist' (or whaterver it was) and bingo, there's an appointment scheduled with Mark Whoever for 12:30?
Anyway, I gave that up much to my wife's chagrin as I'd convinced her to buy it for me as an engagement present (she still won't let me sell it).
Next was a paper diary. It was fine but I wanted alarms and a properly sorted phone book. Also, having a single copy of my data worried me.
So then I tried a Psion 5 - for about 2 days! I was still on the 'replace my paper notebook' strategy and I wanted the Psion for its keyboard as I'd hoped I'd be able to touch-type on it. But the keyboard was too small and the feel was awful. So I sent it back.
Next was a Cassiopeia E-10 - one of the first gen WindowsCE systems. This was really good. WinCE isn't bad and my employer used Exchange so it all fitted pretty well. But the battery life was atrocious and I could never use the backlight as a result. Apart from that it was good. I liked Jot too.
After that I settled on a Palm m100 which I've had for about 2years. It's an 8MB m100 and it did pretty much what I wanted it too - which by now was reduced to diary, phone book and AvantGo. Oh, and it was terriffic once as a serial terminal when I was deploying a stack of HP systems! It was worth it just for that. It's a good little unit. Not fast but with good battery life and it does what I need it to. It's platform-independent which became important when I left my Exchange-based employer and worked for myself (I based myself on Linux and now OS X). I tried a Palm Vx for a while but I think the m100 is more sturdy. I've dropped it a few times and it's never complained.
I still have my m100 but I also now have an Ericsson T68i. That, coupled with my bluetooth adapter for my iBook, iCal and the OS X address book has seen me move all my phone book to my phone (logical huh?). Synchronising the two is a piece of piss and my phone is _always_ with me and now I jot down appointments, reminders, tasks and stuff as they come to mind. The palm's really too big to carry around - compared to the phone anyway. The phone has some shortcomings - I can't snooze an alarm and it doesn't (yet) sync with my work PC (which runs Notes). And it'd be really really nice if I could get AvantGo on it! I miss my daily AtlasF1 update going home on the train.
I considered a Treo but they're too big. So's an O2 or any other PDA/phone combo. The size of the T68i is a real plus.
Anyway, to sum up, my quest for a paper notebook replacement isn't over but for now it seems the best thing a PDA(/phone) can do is organise my phone numbers and my diary and web channels. Maybe a TabletPC might help on the note book side? But it wouldn't replace my PDA
Why would anyone want to use a text editor that is not vi?
*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.
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 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.
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 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 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 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 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 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?
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'm glad you're getting such full usage out of your Palm but do yourself a favor. Upgrade to a model with a rechargeable battery. This AAA stuff is insane. Just put an extra charger in your bookbag/briefcase and you're good to go.
Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
Hee hee, ha ha. But some of us actually do fully use our PDA's. To me the biggest barrier to wider acceptance is the input method. I find that those who have PDA's with built in keyboards use them more and need less help then those who are stuck solely with Grafitti. You can blame Palm for that, they simply did not do anything to improve Grafitti after the first version.
Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
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.
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'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
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?
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 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.
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.
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