Choose a PDA (Part I)
PDA’s have been organizing our lives since the mid 90s. Like all technology, PDA’s have advanced significantly in the past 10 to 15 years. They now feature synchronization with your home computer, built in cameras, and internet capabilities. Here are some of the features you should look for when shopping for a PDA.
First of all, consider what you want your PDA to do. Obviously, you want your PDA to help you with organization, but do you need it carry store large quantities of information, access the internet, store music, etc.?
You should also think about the PDA’s model features. For example, a color display will be clearer, but your battery life will be shorter, and the unit will be bigger and heavier.
What operating system do you want? Palm OS is faster and more popular and therefore is compatible to more software, but Pocket PC is easier to synch with office documents and has more memory.
Make sure to get a PDA with feature expandability to increase functionality. Expansion slots allow you to connect memory cards and additional features to your PDA to prevent it from becoming obsolete.
Comments
To select the right PDA platform, you need to first decide on the software tools you expect to use. That will probably drive the choice of the OS.
As for combo phone/PDAs, I would disagree that they ar going the way of the Dodo. Some people like them, some don't. For one thing, they make it hard to take notes while on the phone.
IIRC aren't PDA's (Non phone variety) going the way of the Dodo? Isn't Dell is wrapping up support of it's PDA's and Palm is getting rid of it's Tungsten line? Shouldn't we be paying more attention to Smartphones?
Ben_K I like your approach on selection, but PDA only units are a dying breed.
PDA sales drop by 40 percent in a single year, vendors bolt for exit
arstechnica.com/news.a...
Of course PDA only sales have dropped. The market for the phone combos had to come from somewhere. But that doesn't equate to their going away.