Do I need a PDA, or, Recommend Me Some Tech!

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m a journalist, so I interview about five or six people a month. I tape all of my interviews with an old-fashioned tape recorder, but it’s been acting up lately, so I want to go to a digital voice recorder.

Well, thought I, since I don’t have an mp3 player and I’ve got several gigabytes of mp3s on my home hard drives, why not get something that’s a good mp3 player AND a digital voice recorder? This would, of course, require lots of storage space.

In what at first appeared to be an unrelated note, I also need a new cell phone, as my current 3-year-old model is now cutting out intermittantly and cannot send or recieve text messages. My SO’s phone includes a small scheduler, and as I am increasingly in need of organization and am currently toting around a calendar and a bunch of small notebooks that I use to jot down facts and ideas and such.

And, to add even more confusion to the proceedings, I’ve been thinking about getting a laptop. I’m a writer, and I’d love to be able to sit under a tree and do word processing and/or surf the web from my couch.

So can I get all of those things in one package? Should I even try? What is the optimal hardware configuration for my needs? Do I need some kind of PDA device, about which I know next to nothing? Anybody got any recommendations on specific brands to look at or avoid, or for general shopping tips for portable tech? Please note that I am not a rich man, but I am willing to spend money for good tech that will last me for a few years.

Note that I am perfectly willing to separate out the various components. I’d love a tricorder, but if it’s going to break the bank or get too kludgy, I’ll compromise.

The Dope steered me toward my current car, the glorious 2001 Honda Civic which I love as if I gave birth to it (even though I am male), so I’m turning again to you for advice. Thank you, in advance, for your thoughtful answers.

2

You may not be a rich man, vibrotronica, but you are one freakyass mind-reader!

I was going to post an OP very much like this. I think I need a PDA, my phone is dead, I don’t know where to start. Wah!

So, instead, I’ll just sit back and watch this thread with beady, greedy eyes.

3

It’s not an exact fit for your needs, but I recently needed to get organized and decided to buy a PDA, since I’m a gadget-lovin’ geek.

I ended up getting a Palm Tungsten C for 50% off, and after a month of use, I’m ready to marry the darn thing–

  1. It’s got a miniature keyboard, which I use to write notes much faster than with the Palm’s “Graffiti” handwriting recognition thingit.

  2. It came with a program called “Documents 2 Go,” which lets me create, view, and edit MS Word and MS Excel files on the PDA. I usually use this for taking notes, but viewing spreadsheets and Word-formatted documents is a plus.

  3. It’s got a pocket for all my Hi Opals!

  4. It’s got built-in WiFi, so I can surf the net when I get near a hotspot.

  5. I got an external 256MB SD RAM card, downloaded the RealPlayer for the Palm, and now can listen to MP3s. The speaker is tinny and mono, but it’s good enough for my minor needs.

  6. It’s got a high-res (320 x 320) color screen, so I can load it up with digital photos and view 'em.

It isn’t integrated with a phone, and it doesn’t have voice-recording capabilities, but I know other PDAs do; use this as a starting point for how much functionality you can find on the market. The MSRP of $400 is a bit high IMO, but for half off, I sure ain’t complaining.

4

www.oqo.com Supposed release date is october 14th(a few confirmations here and there, it’s still not on the website). Don’t bet on it though. It’s been vapor ware for 2-3 years now. It’s supposed to deput at just under 2 grand, but it will do everything you want(except phone, unless you do VOIP) and it’ll fit into your (large) pocket.

I believe the nomad zen has a record function. The ipod has a record function as well, but I believe you need to buy a seperate proprietary microphone.

One can make any PDA into a VOIP phone so long as it has wifi. Since i’ve never used any wireless internet I really have no idea what the coverage is for PDA’s. Then again there are always PDA phones.

5

Piping in with the fact that I’m no longer recommending the Tungsten C, after my screen broke for no good reason after 6 months of use (in the 4 years that I’ve been carrying PDAs around, I never broke one before this one, which I treated more gently than the others because, well, I’d spent $300 on it and I was damned sure not going to break it). I’d highly recommend a hard-case for it, especially if you’re putting it in your pocket.

So now I’m left scanning ebay for a cheap Palm W so I can swap the screen out.

The W has an integrated phone, but not as much main memory or CPU power as the C (which does, in fact, have voice-recording capabilities, but only supports mono sound output).

-lv

6

Shouldn’t it still be under warrenty?

7

I might recommend a voice enabled blackberry, depending on your service.

It’ll do just about everything on one platform, plus, if ye be intrepid enough, ye may even find ye can write on it, too. Look Here for comparisons.

8

Regular warrenty doesn’t cover broken screens. And Palm reserves the right to send you a “refurbished” unit in replacement of your broken one (with who knows what wrong with it, the internet is full of horror stories of having to send units back and forth three or more times before you actually get a working one), so I’ll be damned if I pay them to fix it. AND, they won’t sell you a replacement screen directly, and the only source I’ve found for them want $40CA to ship one from Canada (on top fo the $180CA price).

Luckily, there appear to be a gut of palm W’s on ebay in the low three figures, and the screen isn’t equivalent to the C, but it’s compatible.

Which all contributes to pulling my previous recommendations for the Tungsten C.

-lv

9

Yeah, I’ve heard some folks say that is (was?) a common problem with the C. Others say it’s no worse than any other PDAs, and some said Palm fixed the problem in later production runs. Shrug I figure I’ll take my chances, given the discounted price I got.

I did get a Rhinoskin leather case for it, which was recommended for its strength, and I’ve slipped some extra reinforcement into the flap that covers the screen. Primus willing, it won’t go snap anytime soon…

10

Fair enough, but the main problem isn’t impact, it’s twisting. The case isn’t (wasn’t?) study enough to avoid putting torque on the screen. On the first production run, there are stories of people who broke the screen by pressing the ‘9’ key too hard.

-lv

11

You’ll forgive me if I don’t test out this theory right now. :wink: