[H-GEN] PDA choices

[Christopher Biggs]

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David Jericho <davidj at pisoftware.com> moved upon the face of the 'Net and spake thusly:

> I've finally decided to buy into the PDA idea, and I want to get one
> for myself. I'm not wanting to spend the $1000+ on a top of the line
> unit, so that puts my budget somewhere between the $300 to $700 marks.
>
>>From experience, I would prefer something from the PocketPC lineup[1]
> because I won't have to learn graffiti.

The modern PalmOs units ship with "Graffiti 2" which is in fact the
very same "Jot" recognition system used on Pocket PCs.   

The original Graffiti system was torpedoed by Xerox's patent lawsuit.

I still use a monochrome palmOS device (Handera TRGPro, now
discontinued), and have no compelling reason to upgrade.

If I had $600 bucks buning a hole in my pocket, I'd have a hard time
walking past the Palm Zire 71.   You probably won't have the budget
for any of the Sony models, but some of those look real cool.

The question you must as is what features will you need for your
chosen application?

I use mine about 50/50 for for

  a) project scheduling and ToDo list dinking (i.e. "planning" when I
       should be "just doing").   Fast CPU is probably the big
       requirement here (sorting, redrawing)

  b) e-books.  High-contrast screen, and possibly a wider-than-square
       screen (in landscape mode) is the big need here (my trgpro has
       a lousy-contrast screen, alas).

Consider whether you will want removable media, and if so, be aware
that each most devices lock you into a niche format.  Sony has its
"nice but strangled-by-lack-of-openness" Memory Stick, Palm uses
"small but oh-so-slow" so-called "secure digital" (which is just MMC
in drag).   You can get the odd device that supports Compact Flash,
which is what I use.   I occasionally back up my current source code onto my
palm, whenever I have an "if the building burns down tonight I really
do NOT want to rewrite that bit" moment.. :-)

--cjb


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