Ok dopesters, I am looking to buy a PDA for the ever busy Mrs. Amp but do not have enough knowledge on them to make an informed decision. So I need your help. What do you guys, and gals, recommend or use?
She isn’t going to need anything fancy, just something with and address book, calender, notepad, text conversion and maybe a game or two. It would have to be able to synch with a desktop. She won’t need anything with internet access or e-mail. A color screen would be a plus.
I have a handspring Visor. Runs on the Palm OS and can hook up to a whole bunch of neat-o expansion deals.
The Visor Edge is the toy of my dreams at the moment, but I adore my Blue Visor Deluxe. (Plus I have a full size folding keyboard for mine. That helps a lot.)
Good luck!
I’ve got a Palm V and I love it, although my biggest complaint is the screen. I’m always tilting it to find the best viewing angle. It can be backlit for night use, but it’s too dim to help out during the day. A lower model Palm might be the way to go. Mine has all features you mentioned except text conversion (not even sure what that is), but I’m not sure if the lower model Palms have 'em as well. I think they do.
I have to say that now that I have one, I don’t know how I survived without it!
Not to hijack, but this just goes to show how non-techy I am, despite my adoration of my computer and the internet.
My first thought on seeing the thread title was “How do you rate public displays of affection?”
jayjay (the sex-minded)
When I wrote text conversion I meant when you write on the screen with a stylus and it converts your handwriting to text or can save it a a hand written note.
Everyone who’s anyone uses the Blackberry, AKA the Crackberry. [url=“http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/review/2001-05-07-blackberry.htm”]Check it out.**
I know the owner of Canada-based Informationlab. He tried everything on the market and settled on the Blackberry. He told me he never goes anywhere without it and that his laptop use has dropped by 50%.
Ha…stupid me…“PDA= public displays of affection”…now insert that into the subject title…
Oooooooooooh! Ooooooooooooooh!
[waving hands franticly]
“Pick me, Pick me”
I own and love my [“url=http://www.handspring.com/products/visoredge/index.jhtml”]Handspring Visor Edge. I started off with a visor Platinum and them upgraded to the Edge.
Here’s why Handspring is Better than Palm:
(I can make this compairison b/c my mom has a palm)
All Handspring Products come with USB Cradles, Palm comes with Serial unless you get the most expensive one. (this means that info transfered between your computer and handheld will go much faster
Handsprings computer s/w is much, much easier and intuitive to use. From the time I got it out of the box it took me less than five mins. to have my visor working, get the software installed on my computer and sync the two. When I set up my mom’s Palm, I swear to all things holy, It took thirty mins. and I screamed at the computer at least twice.
Handsprings has better tech support
Plus:
The other day a screw came out of my Visor so I called up Handspring and they sent my a Brand New visor, free of charge. I didn’t even have to pay to send the old one back. It was so easy! They are fantastic.
For these purposes get a palm os system, I wouldn’t consider the win ce for the above. That being said your main choices are palm and handspring. Is color a deciding factor or is size? I personally have the palm vx and the biggest + is that it is small enough to take with me (other models 3,7 would be too big and I’d leave them home more often). The m505 have gotten bad reviews and many recomend the greyscale model over it. Also check out the visor edge - Don’t know much about it but it’s as small as the palm V and m500, m505 units.
sorry, let’s try that Visor Edge link again
When I read this I was thinking “depends on what your aim is. If you just want to show a bit of affection, holding hands or a hug will do, but if you want to disgust everyone else in the room, you should start groping and french kissing.” Oh well, at least I’m not the only one who had no idea you were refering to a a piece of electronics.
What did you mean by PDA? I can’t figure out what the letters stand for, electronics-wise.
PDA=Personal Data Assistant
Chalk up another quite satisfied Visor Deluxe user (blue). Same OS as a Palm. Drawback - can’t upgrade the OS software. Plus - expandable port in the back that doesn’t require uploading more software and taking up memory.
Esprix
Let’s see, on the desk in front of me there’s an Ipaq, a Jornada, two Handsprings, a Palm and a Sony.
This, by the way, not because I’m the worlds worst gadget head - I’m working on an integration project, and I have to make sure the software is compatible with the lot of them.
Sounds like you’re coming at this from the right angle. You know want you want it to be able to do, and you’re gearing your choice around that. From that perspective, put me with the Handspring vote - they’re cheap, they’re robust, they’ll more than do what you’re looking for in terms of functionality and the battery life is excellent.
If you can spare more money, and want to buy a higher spec unit, look at the Sony Clie
Definitely stay away from PocketPC. PocketPC is a pain in the ass to use, and the battery life is dreadful. The only real reasons to use one would be the Ipaq’s excellent display, easily the best of the lot to read. Oh, and it’s better for net browsing -
Let’s see, on the desk in front of me there’s an Ipaq, a Jornada, two Handsprings, a Palm and a Sony.
This, by the way, not because I’m the worlds worst gadget head - I’m working on an integration project, and I have to make sure the software is compatible with the lot of them.
Sounds like you’re coming at this from the right angle. You know want you want it to be able to do, and you’re gearing your choice around that. From that perspective, put me with the Handspring vote - they’re cheap, they’re robust, they’ll more than do what you’re looking for in terms of functionality and the battery life is excellent.
If you can spare more money, and want to buy a higher spec unit, look at the Sony Clie 700. I just got one of these, and they really are a fantastic unit. Good build quality, easily the best screen of a Palm OS machine, and the ability to easily upgrade storage using memory stick. Oh, and they’re not too bad as an MP3 player as well.
PocketPC is a pain in the ass to use, and the battery life is dreadful. However, the Ipaq’s excellent display is easily the best of the lot to read. The bundled software is the most useful from a business perspective (pocket word and excel are actually good enough to create reports on, if you’re using a stowaway keyboard). The handwriting recognition is easier to learn than Palm’s Grafitti system. The mail client is pretty good, and the net browser is way better than anything you’ll see on Palm. Despite all of this, judging by your requirements, I’d still go with a Palm OS system - either the Handspring, or the Sony.
I thought it was personal digital assistant
Ehh, you’re probably right…I’m really not sure.
Anybody out there know for sure?
Never mind, Dave is right.
PDA=Personal Digital Assistant.
I looked it up in the Newton’s Telecom dictionary sitting here on my desk…
[sniff]
I’ll be crawling under a rock now
[/sniff]
I’m even worse. Whenever I see PDA, I think “pushdown automaton”. If you’re in the market for one of those, I definitely recommend the non-deterministic kind.
