Do I need a PDA?

shootist16

shootist16

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I am considering the ruchase of a pda, well... pocket pc to be more exact. I don;t know if I really need one. I figure it will either be "how did I live without one" or "why did I spend my money on thius instead of more knives".

Under what circumstances would you recommend getting one?
 
I also thought of getting a pocket PC and I had a hard time justifying my need for it. In the end I decided that I didn't need it. I am not the type of person that travels alot and needs to be "wired" 24/7. I have my PC at home and almost every firehouse has one as well. My cellphone can access the internet and my email and if I need to look for something quick I can use that. I doubt that in my daily routine that I would need to access Word and Excel files, unless of course I was on the road for business which I am not. As cool and inexpensive as they are (depending on model), I found that it doesn't suit my needs or lifestyle. Put your money to something more useful....like another knife!!!!:D :p
 
Get a cheap PDA running palm OS. You will find 1001 uses for it. For me, being able to store all my filofax information in a system that gets backed up automatically, the ability to read the New York Times (among other papers) for free, reading ebooks at night with my wife asleep, a fullfledged appointment calender and address book etc, etc are priceless.

And if it ain't for you, you are out $100 - 150 most of which you can recoup if you sell it.

Seems like a no-brainer to me.
 
I second protodoc's recommendation. I initially did not think I would use one or like it much. I got a palm III what seems like eons ago. I continue to use it for all sorts of stuff. Go cheap or buy one second hand initially if cost is a concern and experiment.
 
Originally posted by protodoc
Get a cheap PDA running palm OS. You will find 1001 uses for it. For me, being able to store all my filofax information in a system that gets backed up automatically, the ability to read the New York Times (among other papers) for free, reading ebooks at night with my wife asleep, a fullfledged appointment calender and address book etc, etc are priceless.

And if it ain't for you, you are out $100 - 150 most of which you can recoup if you sell it.

Seems like a no-brainer to me.
Click to expand...

Protodoc,

I've just got a Palm IIIx second hand. What would you recommend for reader software so I can read ebooks ? I'd also like to read the newspapers aswell. Do you know any good sites about this ??

Thanks for your help.

Tardis
 
I had a pda for awhile... then I realized I could cary a notepad with me, write quicker on it than on the pda, and it was only 35 cents so you can treat it roughly and not worry about losing it.

I would say the only reason to own a PDA is if for some reason you couldn't have a desk calendar and you needed to make and keep alot of appointments or you couldn't carry around a little memo book.

Of course they do make cool ebooks. That is just about all I ever used mine for.
 
i tried one for about 6 months, and for me, it just wasn't that useful. maybe if i were in business or had lots of contacts to keep track of.

gave it to the wife to play games on :)

definately worth a try though...

Metis
 
I agree with the idea that it's hard to figure out how useful a PDA would be to you, just by thinking about it. I very reluctantly moved from paper to a PDA, mostly to have a smaller package where my calendaring, contacts, etc. were all in one place.

I didn't realize how useful the thing would become to me -- not because of the calendering and contacts, but because of all the other great features. If I hadn't looked around to see what else was out there, I'd have found the PDA only somewhat useful.

As it is, now I can't live without it. Coupled with a small folding keyboard, I now take all my meeting notes on it, isntead of lugging around a laptop like everyone else. I take my notes in Word and upload them to my PC. I also keep all my most-important word and powerpoint documents right on the PDA, so I have them all the time. I also download web pages to read offline when I'm waiting in lines, waiting for my wife shopping, etc. Lost? No problem, I have a map of the entire county on my PDA, including driving directions from one address to another, landmarks, address lookup, etc. I have several very useful calculators, I can download and read my email, I have all my important passwords and financial information in a triple-DES encrypted database, I have a bunch of games (hey, all work and no play, and all that :) ), databases that contain all kinds of useful info on many different subjects (area codes, zip codes, 800 numbers to hotels and airlines, etc.), etc. etc. etc. Plus, it's often useful to attach the PDA to a cellphone and browse the web or email wirelessly, or send email.

That really is just the tip of the iceberg. I have a ton of other good stuff on there that I use all the time ... of that's just nice to have, even though I only use rarely. I'm enough of a fanatic that I feel that anyone who hasn't found a PDA useful probably just hasn't looked closely enough at all the great add-ons you can get that make the PDA convenient.


Joe
 
I have a Sony SJ-30 that uses the Palm operating system. The Sony is my third PDA and I love it. The color is awesome. In addition to the calendar and address book I have all my firearms listed, my ammo count, my KNIVES listed, my favorite poetry, games, and so much more. I even have the NIV version of the Bible in my Sony. Also have pictures of my wife, family, and pets. To me the Sony has gone from being a toy to an appliance that is used every day. Sony has just lowered the price to $220. Check out the Sony's. I think they are great, and I couldn't do without mine.
 
The longer I own a PDA, the more uses I find for it. When my 18 month old Clie suffered a fatal accident a few weeks ago, I immediately knew that I would be buying a new PDA within 48 hours. The thought of being without a PDA was unacceptable.

Besides all the above mentioned features, I just today received a new 256 mb SD Flash memory card that will hold 4-5 hours of MP3s as well as the family photo collection for my new Tungsten T Palm device.

Think of it; a couple novels (e-books), a few hours of music, a newspaper & a couple magazines (Avantgo), some games, all your personal and work contact info for everyone you know, your schedule, reminders of everyone's birthdays and plenty of pics of your friends and family all in a 3"x4"x.600" package in your pocket. And unlike your old legal pad, providing that you sync to your computer once in a while, if you lose it or spill coffee on it, your data is still available as it's backed up on your computer. Try losing the legal pad and getting your data back...

I personally back my PDA up on my home PC and my work laptop so I have redundant data back ups.

I would disagree with the idea of buying a cheap monochrome unit when you can get a decent color screen for less than $200.00 (Sony Clie 615; no MP3 player but otherwise wonderful). The modern color screens make using the device so much better IMHO. Even reading the Wall Street Journal or an e-book is easier on the high res color screens.

You could even set up a custom Avantgo channel that would grab bladeforums.com news for browsing when you're standing in line at the bank or an airport.

This doesn't even address the rapidly developing wireless internet capabilities that are starting to be available for PDAs.

How could you live without one?

Just MHO.

jmx
 
You guys talked me into it. I ordered a Dell Axim. Wont be here for a couple of weeks, but offers a lot of bang for the buck.

Thanks for all the input. I'll let you know how I like it.
 
Originally posted by tardis
Protodoc,

I've just got a Palm IIIx second hand. What would you recommend for reader software so I can read ebooks ? I'd also like to read the newspapers aswell. Do you know any good sites about this ??

Thanks for your help.

Tardis
Click to expand...

As for news the best source is avantgo.com. Takes a while to set up but they walk you trough step by step. My favorite doc reader is a freeware pragram called cspotrun. Does everything I want it to and has a nice auto-scrolling function to boot.

Hope this helps.
 
Do you need one?? No. Would one be nice to have?? Sure. How about a pen and small pad(write-in-rain type, saw some at TAD's website) instead, and a new knife?? :) Another year or so and it will probably be cell phone/PDA/digital camera hybrids. All in one.


Blades
 
Let me admit here that I'm a total nerd. :)

I love my Pocket PC, even though it's getting old (Casio Cassiopeia E-125, with 150 MHz processor and 32MB RAM). I use it to take notes in class, to schedule everything, remember contacts. Basically all the stuff that even a Palm can do. But what I find really amazing about Pocket PC's is that there's hackish ways to accomplish on a PPC almost anything you could do on a normal computer.

I even use Vim, an extraordinarily powerful text editor, on my PPC. There's some other unix utilities that were ported to PPC, with the help of celib.dll.

I bought a keyboard for my PPC, and it has greatly increased my productivity. No more pecking/scribbling and slow OCR.

With a network card, wired or wireless, you can access the Internet in hotels, some airports, etc. Some new PPC's even come with built-in wireless, and even in though those that don't, you can easily install a card that gives you that ability.

For people using Avantgo, you might also want to take a look at its competitor, Mazingo. I registered early and hence have free Premium service, so I can sync all sorts of audio and video content along with text. But even if you just use their free service, there's quite a lot of channels, and I think that the interface is much better than the Avantgo interface that's all entangled in Internet Explorer and the PPC OS. Yuck.

I don't have a laptop, but this baby is close. I only wish the screen were bigger.
 
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