PDA's, who uses them, are they worth it?

[Bob Hawke]

I am curious about PDA, or Personal Device Assistants, you know, Palm V, Handspring Visor, Psion etc.

Would like to hear from people who use them. Do you find them useful, productive, what is your best choice, why?? Any information would be good.

I personally am impressed with the new Handspring visor edge, but I see other brands are coming onto the market with more and more features. Lets hear what you have to say.

[antonovman]

the psion revo works great
you can actually type out a flt report or anything like that as it has a full keyboard
i scan company docs in to my pc then move them to word or spreadsheet then xfer to psion, also theres a lot of aviation progs been written for the psions

[Mishandled]

I use a Palm Vx, and I find it excellent. The main two features that I use are the ability to sync e-mail and calendars with my desktop system, so I have an up to date agenda with me at all times, and I can view and respond to e-mail, whilst on a train plane etc. There are also a number of programs such as airline schedules, information databases that can be downloaded from the internet, which can be very useful. There is a Palm VII in the US that has access to the internet, which opens up the scope of the PDA, enabling you to book flights, hotels etc. This is not available in Europe yet, but given the likely advances in 3G mobiles, I think that this will be likely in the near future. In europe there is the possibility of accessing the internet via Avantgo.com or similar, but this is done by effectively downloading web pages to your palm through your desktop for viewing remotely, so this is not quite as good as an actual connection. Hope this is useful. (Oh and you can also get some cool games too, if thats your bag)

[KADS]

I have got the Visor. Very happy with it. Like a palmpilot but cheaper and more versatile...!

[CargoRat2]

Got a Palm V about a month ago. Excellent bit of kit.

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rgds Rat

[johntrav69]

Palm IIIx - excellent, but looking to upgrade to the new M505 with colour and more memory. Connects by Infrared to my Nokia and downloads my email. Lets me input all my flight times. Never lets me forget a Birthday or meeting, never lets me forget a phone number. Beams phone numbers by Infrared to my phone. Syncs with my desktop PC in seconds. Is small enough to fit in a shirt pocket. Is light and robust.
Downside - No keyboard but you can get a fold up one for the rare occasion that its needed.
Palm can be Operating system upgraded, Handspring cannot. New Palm M505 allows addons like the Handspring.

[sapco2]

I have the Psion 5 - works great!

[aerobat]

Psion 5mx, a really useful piece of kit.

[FE Hoppy]

Well......
I´ve had a psion3 and 5
a palm V
and I now use a HP Jornada.
so............
a)Psion great for programing, good spread sheet and word processing, has a useable keyboard, screen as crap and too heavy for a shirt pocket but ok in nav bag.
b)palm light, trendy, good software but limited functionality(don´t care if I spelled it wrong it´s a crap word),screen crap, lots of add-on´s but low mem. basic OS very good.
c)Jornada, I´m in love. A real PC in your pocket. A little heavy but the screen is great. windows CE3(hate microsoft but the whole software package cannot be matched.)outlook,word,x-cel,ie(use it with my nokia via IR and can surf,v-slow 9600baud, but good for checking e-mail),plays MP3´s (long live napster) even watch videos!!!!!
character recognition software is beter than grafiti(palm) and you can run the screen in panarama so you can write long sentences. I even have a flight sim for it.(never use it honest.)sync via usb or IR very fast.
DOWN SIDE $$$$$$$$or £££££££££.
I have a sony net walkman too and thats even sexier....

[Evening Star]

Bought a Palm Vx last week. Experience so far .... see the 'Really hate computers' thread on Jet Blast

[Floppy Link]

I use a notebook and pen. Works just fine, although finding batteries that fit is a problem.

[Wino]

Sony Clie is excellent.

HUGE memory, the MOST readable screen and its tiny, Uses thePalm operating system. Consumer Reports ranked it Number 1 as well.

Got all my info, plus the world wide Scab List, Company Ops Manual, and my Contract in it. VERY handy thing to have. Good search functions if you are looking for something.


Cheers
Wino

[Onions]

Palm Vx top piece of kit. Palmasutra top software!!!

[Bob Hawke]

Good comments so far, anyone had experience with the COMPAQ Ipaq models?

[johntrav69]

Try www.pcpro.co.uk (http://www.pcpro.co.uk) as they have reviewed it as well as some of the others. Also try www.zdnet.co.uk (http://www.zdnet.co.uk) under reviews.

[Gentleman Aviator]

Just ordered the new colour Palm M505.

Hope that it is as good as the reviews suggest!

GA

[Alpine Flyer]

I use a Palm PDA (Vx) and find it excellent, especially when used in conjunction with a desktop PC to update/backup data.

Very convenient to keep appointments, schedules, etc. Wish that the company would send the schedules in some computer compatible format, though :-)

Email is possible with a GSM phone but veeery slow until UMTS or at least GPRS come along. It takes ages to download mail so this is only if you really need to get some mail while on the run.

I use PalmLog Pro to track flight times mostly to be able to get totals and check for currency/legality. At last I'm able to answer the "hours flown since last medical" question........

I use it in parallel with a paper logbook which seems more "permanent" and "personal" to me than the printouts I could possibly create with the palm. If currency calculation, etc. is not needed I wouldn't go for an electronic logbook, filling the paper one is easier........

I hardly ever leave home without the PDA and it is much more useful than the Sharp "Wizard" I had a few years ago.

As for keyboard/no keyboard, that's the main choice to make. The "grafitti" handwriting required for all Palm-type machines is easy to learn though you keep correcting the occasional letter if you start to write quickly. No keyboard allows for miniature size AND a good screen, though.

Color is nice but not really required as the b/w units have the whole software optimised for the screen. Color units are battery hogs and eat up batteries fairly quickly.

I can recommend the Palm but you have to try if the "grafitti" feels "right" for you.

[???pax]

I've got a Handspring Visor. It took me a while to justify buying it in the first place but it's been money well spent.

The "HotSync" function is very good. I commute into London by train so if there are any E-mails to write then it's always handy to do them on the journey and then send them off as soon as I get in to the office.

The date book and the "Avant-Go" browser are pretty good as well.

[lowrider]

I've had the Handspring Visor for 3 months , got itfrom the carphone warehouse in a deal with a new nokia phone and hence got it for half price , if you count all the discounts.
Any way , brilliant , have just got it to connect to the web via infra red and the phone . This may be sad but I use Avantgo to store selected pprune pages for reading offline , 2 reasons , first I'm not yet on an unmetered isp yet , and second these pages can be read anywhere i.e. at work when quiet. It saves being sat in front of a monitor all night any way.
looking forward to trying the gps springboard module when they arrive in the uk
Must go gotta Hotsync......

[Julian]

Go onto

www.casioextra.com (http://www.casioextra.com)

THey are doing refurbished versions of the new Casio Em500 for £200 instead of the high street £450 !!!

Got mine and it looks brand spanky new to me.
You get all the wallet, charger, docking cradle, etc with it as well - plus some free comms software.

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Live fast..die young...leave a good looking corpse!

[PaulDeGearup]

I've got a Psion 3a which has my logbook, address book etc on it but syncing it with my PC is a pain ! I have to convert it to ACT then back into Outlaook ! Just bought a Jornada with a color screen which connects to the PC and can transfer all of my MS Word files and Excel sheets together with my Outlook data and I can IR it to my Nokia !

All this for less than £300 and it is TINY !