The Ideal PDA for Dave Strom

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.

What Do I Use It For?

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.

Palm OS

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.

640 by 480 Color Display

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 and Bluetooth

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.

Windows and Macintosh Connectivity

OK, I know that Palm OS 6 will not support Mac connectivity. However, another company (Markspace) is stepping in to pick up that slack. I expect that they will be able to sync just fine when the time comes, and that product is only about $30. Cheap enough.

Hard Drive

Now I really am dreaming. Palm OS 5 and 6 do not have hard drive support. But a little 4 gig hard drive would mean this could be a great MP3 player. Too bad I cannot splice an iPod with a Palm. Apple won't do that; they are still smarting from the Newton.

Odds and Ends

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).

What I Don't Need in a PDA

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):

Dave's PDA Former Conclusions

(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.

UPDATE: Dave's New PDA!

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.

A Few PDA Acessories

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.