I happily used my Apple Newton 2100 until its display got the
jaggies, meaning that the handwriting recognition became very
unreliable. I bought a Palm clone, a Handera, and it chugs along, but
it really is a relic. Black and White
display, and
stuck at Palm OS 3. What do I want in my next PDA?
Note: I bought my next PDA. If you don't want to wait, scroll to the second topic from the bottom.
Note: Ask yourself this question before you buy most gadgets,
especially a PDA. The answer has a lot of influence on what model you
will buy.
I used my Newton PDA for lots of writing. Lots of writing. I used my
Handera to write for a while (bought the
Wordsmith word processor), but
switched to my iBook's nice color display (and shorter battery life).
I want to get on the Internet. I would like to web surf, email, and
even IM. My Newton could email with Ricochet. I could make my nephews
groan when,in a movie theater, 5 minutes before the movie would start,
I could smile happily and announce, "I think I'll check my email!" And
I could do it! Whee. But my Handera has no Internet access. I want to
make my nephews groan again.
And I want the usual PDA stuff: address book, datebook, calendar,
alarm clock, some games.
I like the Palm operating system. Well, I like the GUI; I am just now getting back into programming and I don't know how hard it would be to program one. I might want to use Palm OS 6 if I were to try programming. No such unit on the market yet (Feb 2004).
I have tried playing with PocketPCs in Frys Electronics and CompUSA, and they make me do what their operating system is named: WinCE.
Maybe a Linux PDA will take off. Someday. I've watched the Sharp Zaurus units. But Palm is a better bet now. And I have Linux on my desktop, anyhow.
Portrait and landscape. Palm OS 5 and 6 both support this.
Screen diagonal size: 4.5 or 5 inches. With proper design, a PDA can
be a bit larger than most of the current models and still fit into most
shirt pockets. I usually carry mine in an Eagle
Creek Sidekick; a carryover from my Newton
days. Most people want to stuff their PDA into a pocket, so a 5 inch
diagonal
screen could be pushing it. As for me, I would love a PDA screen that
big.
The largest Palm display now is 480 by 320; the best looking one is on the Tapwave. But as long as I am dreaming, I will dream big. This size leads to a good writing experience (sitting for hours composing essays), and a halfways decent web-browsing experience. Which leads to my next PDA want...
WiFi for the web browsing. Although WiFi does suck battery. I would
settle for an SD WiFi card.
Bluetooth so I can dial my future Bluetooth cell phone from my PDA.
This would also negate the need for
my carrying connection cables on the road for syncing with my iBook.
A user-replaceable battery (I am dreaming again). I want to be able to replace batteries on the road. And a standard battery would be nice, although it would be hard to run this on AAAs and have decent battery life, or AAs and have decent pocketability.
RAM: 128 MB at least. Big enough for about anything PDA size.
A good loud speaker. Enough to wake me up in the morning as an alarm clock.
A microphone. I like to record sound files (although I should check to see if my camera can take over that job).
No camera. I have one already. I am not interested in taking pics of less than 3 mega-pixel size.
A thumb keyboard. Lots of people like them. I don't; I much prefer Graffiti. When I want to do a lot of typing, I connect an external full-size folding keyboard. I would prefer a wireless keyboard so I can use it with any PDA. There are a couple of nice ones (check Amazon for and other places for prices):
(Note: I bought a new PDA that is not on this list; see the next topic. I am keeping this section for history's sake. I edited the list to remove Toshiba and Sony, who are not in the PDA biz anymore, and added Hewlett-Packard, who still is.)
I like the following:
As for hardware (not the irritating PocketPC, WinCE-inducing OS),
check out the
HP iPAQ hx4700 Pocket PC. Nice 640x480 screen, nice size, lousy OS. How about a Palm clone, Hewlett-Packard?
I am still waiting to see what else comes out. I shall scrutinize
2004 for cool PDAs. Sooner or later, my Handera will die and I will
need a new one.
I bought a Palm Tungsten T5. My Handera started acting like a florescent light about to burn out whenever I turned on the backlight. You know, buzzing, flashing, and unlike a florescent light, an unreadable display until I turned off the backlight. So why did I settle for the T5?
I am now trying to use the $50 gift coupon code to buy a PalmOne WiFi card. Then I will try to surf the web with the T5. I do not have a Bluetooth phone yet. However, the Bluetooth seems to work. A cute salesgirl in a T-Mobile store sent me a pic of her cute little puppy from her camera phone.
In the next couple of years, I hope that after Palm finishes switching to the Linux kernel, palmOne will make a PDA that has 640x480 resolution, and even a hard drive. Hey Palm, you could compete in the music/video player market!
I am pretty happy with the T5 for now. The search for my next PDA is over. Now it is time to study Palm OS 5 APIs and see how the T5 works under the covers. Fun.
I found a nice site for accessories: Boxwave.
I bought the Cleartouch Crystal screen protectors. This is the best screen protector I have ever used. Tought and clear as, well, as crystal. Or really clean class. Or air on a spring day just after rain and the sun has come out and everything outside smells all nice and clean.
I am waiting for Boxwave to release a miniSync cable for the Tungsten T5; they emailed me and told me it would be about 6 weeks.
I will need to buy a power adapter as well with that cable, but that adapter can also work with other gadgets in the future (like a cool Bluetooth phone; not with my iPod, I asked). A nice adapter: the VersaCharger. Use a wall socket or a car outlet.
If I ever dislike the battery life, I can buy a Battery Adapter. I can charge from four AA batteries.