Do you use a PDA (Portable Digital Assistant)?

Quadophile

Quadophile

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Just curious if members here use PDA (Portable Digital Asistant) which could be in the form of Mobile/PDA, Pocket PC or Palm.

1) Which model/brand you own and what made you select it?

2) If you do use it what kind of work you do on it?

3) What software is installed on it.

4) Did you install any additional software for your needs?

5) Do you have any favourite software? If so, which one?

6) Which is your favourite site to download software from?

7) Do you pay for the software or you manage with freeware available?

If you do not own one and are contemplating getting one, do mention it in the thread.
 
I do indeed :) Its a Toshiba E400, was pretty cheap (£100) and does the job well. Price was the main factor when I bought this.

I pretty must just use it for organising things, like a high tech diary/planner. Its quite handy for university as I can just jot down coursework, notes etc... from lectures and meetings and then get them organised when I'm back home.

Everything on there is freeware :D I use Pocket Office the most, but I've tried a few free games (snails!) and Resco Pocket Explorer - they are pretty good.
 
Got an iPaQ 41...something or other. Got it from work and it tends to just sit on my desk. I haven't put any addition software on it and find I prefer printouts from mu Outlook calender rather than synchronising the iPaq. I would like to get a sat nav package for it though and then keep it in the car;)
 
my sister has an HP Ipaq H6340 kinda expensive but comes with every type of wireless connectivity and feature you can think of, its mainly used for a diary and GPS

the only bit of software that i've put on it for her is this, otherwise you have to wade through the menus to find out what the battery life is like

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/pocketpc/uptime.html
 
Nope, had one and couldn't gt on with it - I am a Filofax devotee and am totally lost without it!!!!!!

Gabs xx
 
I use a IPAQ 1940. At the time of purchase (approx 14 months ago) I knew exactly what I needed it for and found this to be the best value for money at the time.

Mainly used for Decompression Dive Planning, Outlook (Offline reading and Contacts), Dive related .pdf's. The calculator is used a great deal for working out partial pressures, maximum operating depths and best gas mixes :) Got a couple of cool poker games installed too!

I've tried a couple of free planning software but didn't get on with them. The PDA version ties in with my PC version also.
 
I will answer my own questions I guess :D



1) Which model/brand you own and what made you select it?

Acer N30b. I needed an organiser which I could easily sync with my laptop basically without frills attached having a good quality screen. Wifi, MP3/MPEG playability or Internet browsing were not my priority.

2) If you do use it what kind of work you do on it?

Mainly using Outlook for tracking appointments and tasks. A comprehensive contact list not just only phone numbers but full co-ordinates of contacts as a back up and handy to carry around where laptop is difficult to manage. I can sync my phone to outlook on my laptop as well as the PDA which is excellent. Pocket Excel and Pocket Word are also very useful sometimes. Besides, using Avantgo for selected websites for news, PDF viewer and a Pocket Dictionary.

3) What software is installed on it.

Windows Mobile 2003 Premium with MS Outlook 2002

4) Did you install any additional software for your needs?

Replaced Acrobat Reader 1.0 with 2.0 and installed Pocket Dictionary. Updated Avantgo with the latest version 5.7. Some other useful utilities were also installed, like XP style shutdown, Fastcleaner, Battery, Memory and Uptime display, replaced Active Sync 3.7.1 with 3.8, ezyUnZip and world time utility. I was really surprised to find out a Safe mode utility was also available just kie in Windows XP, It does the same job the one in Windows XP.
5) Do you have any favourite software? If so, which one?

Not really since it is a tool to get work done and not for anything else. All the software I use are basically utilities.

6) Which is your favourite site to download software from?

PDA Gold for Freeware.

7) Do you pay for the software or you manage with freeware available?

Software which requires payment are not what I need for this device since my requirement is fulfilled 100% by the basic utilities which are more than enough.
 
Does it have a VGA screen Quad? I've seen an HP version with a VGA screen and I was gobsmacked - the quality is simply amazing. If they made a 19" TFT version with the same resolution it would be the worlds best monitor without a doubt :D
 
I don't own one of those PDAs although I was really impressed by one the other day... well not really with the PDA itself, I was impresed witht the folding keyboard! the keyboard folds up to the size not much bigger than a Deck of playing cards. And when open it had all the keys you would need to takes notes and complete simple tasks
 
I think PDA's with a VGA screen are upwards of £200 unless I missed out on one. I paid equivalent of £150 for this one.

Take a look here for the Acer details

Review of Acer N30

If you do not want to read the whole thing allow me to quote what the reviewer says about the display.


The transflexive TFT display is amazing! The same way I praised the display in new LOOX 4xx, I must praise that in n30. With maximum backlight, its blinding, the colours are rich and clear, white is what I fancy white should look like. The size and other parameters are the same as in other devices - an 89-milimetre diagonal, resolution of 240 x 320 pixels, 65 thousand colours - the standard. The backlight is adjustable separately for battery and mains operation at 20 different levels. There is no automatic backlight adjustment to the surrounding light conditions. I tested the device outside, in direct sunlight, and the display was perfectly readable. Black borders around the display are adequately wide and optically merge with the dark grey frame I mentioned earlier.
Click to expand...

After having bought this unit and reading up on PDA's I think the best bargain out there at this very moment is the Palm TX. It sells for around £215 or thereabouts. It was not available in my area otherwise I may have gone for it, although I do not regret having bought the Acer N30.


Some links for the Palm TX for those looking to buy a PDA or as a nice replacement of an existing one at a budget price. Some think this is the best Palm ever, even if it is not it sure is a great WiFi bargain.

Review of Palm TX

Palm at Amazon.com
 
I used to use a Palm Vx for contacts and diary.

When that gave up the ghost I tried moving everything onto my Sony Ericsson P900 and I only wish I had done it earlier! There are a few drawbacks with the Symbian O/S but it does everything I want, and more importantly, it's really quick to sync up with my desktop.

Any other P900 / P910 users out there?
 
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