Ipod Touch as a PDA?

In My Humble Opinion
1

My beloved and much abused Palm Tungsten E is in its death throes right now and I am looking for something to replace it. I looked at what Palm has to offer and outside of their smart phones, they seem to think it is still 2003. I can’t get too excited to replace my obsolete PDA with something that seems just as obsolete.

So I was poking around online looking at the ipod touch as a replacement. Apparently the new software update includes support for Microsoft Exchange, which might mean that my company’s IT department would actually allow me to sync my calendar, contacts, etc. Under the old software it looked like it would only sync through itunes and there is no way I would have been able to get that on my work computer. Plus it now actually allows cut and paste, correct?

So has anyone here had experience using the touch as a PDA? Any pros, cons, deal-breaking drawbacks?

I like the form factor. It looks like it would slip in my pocket nicely. The app store looks great. The web browser looks great. How does the keyboard work? I’m not crazy about virtual keyboards, but fankly I was never all that crazy about Graffiti either.

Anything I should be wary of that would make it a sub-par PDA? Or is this a no brainer?

2

I have a second generation ipod touch, and it doesn’t allow cut and paste that I’m aware of. I use it mostly to access the internet and play games and music though, so there’s a lot of software I’m not familiar with.

This is the most stable electronic device I have ever used, though. The keyboard is just a touchscreen, so if you’re used to buttons it might be a bit rough for you. I had never used a touchscreen keyboard before I bought this though, and I picked it up in less than an hour. It has never crashed in hundreds of hours of use. The battery runs for 6 hours or more, even with graphics intensive games. For my purposes it really is perfect.

3

Is there a reason you aren’t just upgrading to a smart phone? Presumably you have a cell phone so why don’t you want to merge the devices? As you noticed Palm has understandably let the PDA product line fester because it’s essentially a dead technology, smartphones are PDAs. You can even get a smartphone and simply not connect it to a wireless carrier if you so choose, some Blackberry’s are configured as email-only devices.

The iPhone and iTouch do not copy and paste. Frankly I think that’s a deal breaker for any PDA like functions, plus the Apple software has a tenuous at best relationship with MS based productivity suites and personal managers. I find the touch screen keypad to be extremely cumbersome when it comes to actually entering anything that exceeds a basic text or twitter-length message. The PDA stylus wasn’t an improvement of course, but I think that if you really want to do a lot of messaging or composition you’ll end up frustrated with it.

If you are familiar with Palm products and liked their interface why don’t you look into getting one of the Palm smartphones as your phone/PDA?

Of course, if web browsing, gimmicky apps and games are your top priority then the iTouch/iPhone are first rate. As a replacement for a PDA I think it’d be a lot of frustration.

4

I used my iPod Touch as a PDA for a while, right up until I got a BlackBerry a couple weeks ago. It worked really well for me. I didn’t have any issues synching things, but I use a MacBook at home. Once I got used to the keyboard, entering things was a breeze. There’s a lot of helpful apps, too. I haven’t used it at all as a PDA since I got the Blackberry, though.

5

MS Exchange is supported; I use my iPhone almost exclusively for work email since I’m often up and about.

Copy and Paste is not yet supported. This is one of many upcoming features in the iPhone OS 3.0 software due out this summer. (ETA: Which will be a free upgrade if you have an iPhone, but $9.95 if you get the Touch now.)

Not that I’ve noticed, really. There’s an app for almost everything, which gives it an edge over a PDA’s built in software.

You get used to it fairly quickly. Autocorrect is a God.

6

I don’t really want a smart phone – I’d rather pay for a seperate device once and not have to worry about adding a data plan, and the smart phones offered by my carrier (US Cellular) require a data plan subscription if you don’t want to pay and arm and a leg for the device. They only offer a couple smart phones, and no Palms (though I will admit that the HTC Touch Pro looks pretty sweet). And changing carriers isn’t really an option because all the major carriers’ (verizon, AT&T, etc) coverage sucks where I live. They’re fine in Madison where I work, but once you get out in the boonies where my house is, their coverage is pretty spotty. US Cellular excels in coverage in rural areas.

I carry my cell phone with me everywhere but it is pretty small and light, and I don’t really want anything bigger as my always-on-me phone. With my PDA I mostly just use it at work or take it places where I know I will need it (think kids doctors appointments, shopping trips, etc.). The rest of the time I’d rather just have my cell – I hardly notice it in my pocket.

7

I know you said you didn’t want a smartphone, but on the size issue, a Blackberry Pearl might work. I used to have one, and it was the same size as a closed Razr. The dual-letter keyboard was surprisingly non-sucky when paired with SureType. It beat the hell outta screwing around with handwriting recognition.

8

Not to belabor the point but if you are paying $300 for a iTouch it seems a little odd to say that cost of the device is a deal breaker. Blackberrys and HTC Touches are all less than that.

It just seems weird that you’d prefer to carry 2 devices as opposed to one. One of the best things about PDAs is the reminder functions, note taking and ability to reference your calendar/contacts any time you need it. Most of those advantages are moot if the thing is sitting on a counter top at home. Also having a cell phone and PDA means you need to maintain 2 sets of contacts, which is less than ideal.

9

I don’t have an iPod touch, and I still use a Palm PDA (Tungsten E2). Palm doesn’t appear to support any of the non-phone PDAs any more, which is annoying.

The two things I can think of that you’d be giving up: the ability to beam stuff to another PDA user (if any - my husband and I both have Palms so we do use that facility), and if you happen to use Quicken / Pocket Quicken, that wouldn’t work on the Touch. From what I understand, the only support for Quicken on the iPhone is via a 3 dollar a month subscription plan (that’s over and above your iPhone data plan). On an iPod touch, that’d only work when you were connected via wi-fi - so for example entering purchases while you’re out and about wouldn’t work).

These may be complete non-issues for you. For us, they are dealbreakers at the moment. Aside from these, we’d probably be perfectly happy with the Apple technology.

10

If I could piggyback on this…I have a friend who is looking for a PDA but doesn’t need, or want to pay for, web access service. However, she wouldn’t mind if it doubles as a phone as long as the monthly fee isn’t too high. (She currently is using a pay as you go TracFone because she doesn’t use her cell phone that often.) She mainly wants something to use as an appointment/reminder device which can sync with her her home computer.

11

Just as a data point I replaced my own Palm Tungsten T3 with an HP iPAQ. The iPAQ has a Windows Mobile OS so syncs beautifully with my Windows desktop, including Outlook calendar, Notes, and Tasks. I don’t use the iPAQ for email, though. It also has Bluetooth and WiFi. It has handwriting recognition that is easier to use but less reliable than Graffiti.

It doesn’t have the “cool factor” of an Apple device, though.

12

She might want to look into an old used iphone, without a data plan. I have no idea how that’d be set up, hopefully someone else here can.

13

Cut & Paste, along with other things is coming in the upcoming software update.

14

Older model palms or ipaq’s should be less than a hundred dollars and will do all that she requires.

Declan

15

Food for thought. With the exception of phone and related data functions, anything said about the iPhone would apply to the Touch since the OS and applications are identical.

16

I used a Palm Pilot from the Palm V days, up 'till I got a Treo 650 some years back. It was very good at what it did, as a friend said when I asked his opinion: “The other phones are nice, but the Treo is the real deal.”

Now, several years later, I am an iPhone user and I love it. The two-devices thing was the deal breaker.

One key difference I found between my iPhone and my old Treo: Palm apps are ugly and snappy, while iPhone apps are elegant and … not snappy.

I tell everyone that the iPhone is slower at everything it does, but it sure looks good while it is being slow. No matter how lethargic it is I wouldn’t go back to the Treo. I then go to show them RotaryDialer and they are transfixed, agreeing that it is a gorgeous, if cumbersome, way to dial.

I took out my old Treo a while back and was so amazed at how “instant” everything was. Hit a button and the app instantly responds. Click on the app and it instantly changes to the next screen. Oh well. The iPhone sure looks good while it is being sluggish.

Another point where iPhone/iPod Touch come up short: no one has yet replicated the simplicity of Palm’s Hot Sync. With Palm, you could always get a special conduit to sync the data from any app you had, and you could sync over Bluetooth.
the iPhone and Touch took sync back in to the dark days of the mid nineties. You can’t sync over bluetooth. Any app that wants to sync needs to do so via Wifi, on demand, going totally outside of the sync process.

In other words, if I want 1Password to sync between my Mac and iPhone, I must start the 1Password app on both devices and then click “Sync” in 1Password on the phone. Totally uncool, especially if you have several apps that sync this way.

I have pretty much found all of the key apps I need for my life in the iPhone world, so I am totally happy. It may be slow, but it looks so good!
With the copy/paste/undo that is coming in the summer with the iPhone 3.0 firmware, perfection will have been reached.

(And they did it in a neat way: to “undo” you just give the device a shake).

17

Thanks for the responses. Yeah, I’ll admit it’s a little strange that I am looking for a PDA in a smart phone world. I’m not sure why I am so resistant to an all-in-one device (and as an aside, the reason I was leaning towards the ipod touch is that they have the 8GB model at Costco for $207 and I have a couple Costco cash cards I could put towards it).

I think part of it is that my cell phone gets a lot of abuse because it’s on me all the time. It’s bouncing around in my pocket when I’m out hiking or canoeing or working in the yard, and I don’t know if I’d want an expensive smart phone on me in those situations.

So in my head, cell phone = cheap, durable, easily abused thing I take with me everywhere, and PDA = expensive thing I use for work and appointments and such.

I haven’t ruled out a smart phone, but I’m not sure I trust myself with one.

But as it turn out, this whole thing may be moot – I asked our IT department what kind of PDAs they support now, since it’s been so long since I bought my Palm. The answer I got? “We’re sorry, but we no longer allow or support personal PDAs. Only company-issued Blackberries will be supported and allowed to sync with company computers.”

Well shit, that sucks. So when my Palm dies (any day now), I no longer have any ability to sync my work calendar to any device. I’m not a VP or a sales rep, so I won’t be getting any company-issued Blackberry. Which basically means that the productivity tool I’ve relied on for the last five years will go away soon and I’ll be back to, I don’t know…writing notes in a Franklin planner or something. With, like, a pen and stuff.

18

Well…

If you are able to install apps on your machine, you could do what I do and use a small app called Companionlink to push your work email/contacts/calendar to Google Calendar and Gmail, and you can then use the new Google Sync to push this data to your iPhone.

It’s not perfection, but it’s pretty darned close.

I only sync one way—publishing from work to Google, and then to the phone. That way I don’t get strange feedback loops going. If I want to schedule a meeting, I have to do it from my desktop machine, but I will always see the up-to-date meetings in my phone.

19

Alas, we aren’t able to install anything on our computers at work. I work at a subsidiary of a big corp and they have very strict rules about that sort of thing. In fact, they long ago blocked all access to Google mail, yahoo mail, etc. due to security/virus concerns, and you need admin access to install anything.

I get the reasons for the policy and all, but it kind of sucks because I would love to be able push my work calendar to Google and access it from anywhere I want.

20

Blackberrys are insanely durable. They take a pounding and don’t give an inch. They are every bit as durable as any cell phone I’ve ever had, and more durable than any flip phone ever created. iPhones and iTouches are about as durable as a Faberge egg.