[geeks] what's the best pda?

[Michael Parson]

On Thu, Dec 28, 2006 at 10:08:41AM -0800, Jon Gilbert wrote:
> Alright I haven't used a PDA since the Palm IIIxe, which I hated  
> because the memory would be erased after 5 minutes of no batteries,  
> or if you put the batteries in backwards. But I liked its durable  
> construction with the folding door that flipped over the screen (a  
> feature which the Apple Newton also had). But the memory being erased  
> twice on me was too much, so I switched back to good ol' paper pads  
> with Pilot G2 pens.
> 
> But now it's been 5 years since I've had a PDA and I feel like  
> testing the PDA waters again. Surely with the pace of technology,  
> there is something now in the PDA market that has memory which can't  
> be erased so easily, and which is at least as durable as a Newton or  
> IIIxe. So here are my requirements.
> 
> The device should have:
> * a decent LCD with a plastic or metal door that closes over it which  
> is built into the device (i.e. I want it to be durable enough to  
> survive in my pocket without any extra case).

I don't know of any Palm devices that have the screen cover any more.

> * relatively thin and compact.
> * prefer Li-Ion replaceable battery, though AAA's would be OK i guess.

The Palm Treos have replaceable Li-Ion, dunno about their other offerings.

> * prefer true handwriting recognition (but could live with graffiti).

Anything Palm is going to be graffiti or keyboard, I've not used the
Windows Mobile stuff enough to know anything about their handwriting. 
But then you'd be running Windows. =)

> * has bluetooth and wifi.

None of the Treos have wifi, the Lifedrive has both.

> * supports MacOS X.

Missing Sync. (third party Mac Sync software.  Not cheap, but it does
what you want it to do)

> * accepts SD cards.

I think most of the Palm stuff has SD now.

> * comes with a USB (hopefully 2.0) dock for syncing.

They all come with a sync cable, cradles are available for extra $$.

> * a decently loud speaker for alarms.

I wake up to my Treo grabbing my mail in the mornings.

> * headset/mic port for VOIP would be cool (not sure if they have this
> yet).

Bluetooth.

> I don't care so much about it doubling as a cell phone or having a
> QWERTY keyboard (if it's bluetooth I can just get an external keyboard
> for those times when I need such functionality). I don't care about
> it being a music player in any way. I would rather it had really
> good handwriting recognition than QWERTY, since I have very good
> handwriting and I'm fast with that.
>
> If there is no device that matches most of these basic criteria, then
> what kind of crack are the hardware developers smoking? Thanks.

I've been a Palm user since the IIIx to replace my aging Newton 130.  I
was real anal about the batteries, so I rarely lost info due to this.
I did have problems with the Treo 180 needing to be hard-reset a few
times, which was highly annoying if I was away from my desktop and
couldn't do a restore.  When I went to the 600, I got an SD card and
some backup software that could restore the device from SD.  I recently
upgraded to the Treo 680 and have continued this practice.

For the screen protection, I think most people that want this just buy a
third party case for it.

-- 
Michael Parson
mparson at bl.org