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PIKOM PC FAIR: Getting a PDA to better organise your life |
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WHY do you need a personal digital assistant (PDA)? Do you need it to organise your life better and have fun to boot as well?
The first advice is to do some research and go to a retail outlet to test some of the models that you liked reading about on the Internet.
Try to join user group forums to ask the members’ opinions on what would be a suitable model for you based on your needs and requirements, or just read about their experiences and see whether anything strikes your fancy.
Some user groups you can go to include www.pdacrafters.com, www.kvpug.org, www.palmx.org, www.mypdacafe.com, www.i-symbian.com and www.clubppc.com.my. A PDA user friend can give you pointers as well.
It can be tempting to just go to PC Fair and make your purchase, especially since names such as HP are selling at special prices: the HP iPaq rx5700, for example, is going for RM1,688 and the HP iPaq rx4540 Mobile Media Companion is going for RM1,288; both plus vouchers and premiums from HP. But hold your horses! Remember this: a PDA can be an extension to your desktop, but never a replacement for a full-fledged PC. It can also be a mobile Internet device, phone or even a portable drive, depending on the specification and model. PDAs work as your office away from office for synchronising your personal information management (PIM) stuff such as to-do lists, contacts, e-mail and documents.
The operating system of choice seems to be Microsoft’s Windows Mobile for PDA phones and smartphones.
But there are other operating systems around as well.
PDA phones seem to be where things are headed to these days and it means one less device to carry around.
There’s almost hardly any standalone PDAs around. Let’s concentrate on mainstream PDAs, or in other words those running on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile (also known as Pocket PC) operating system.
Most PDAs today use a pen (stylus)-based input. There are some from HT C (or Dopod), O2 and HP which come with slide out keyboards or thumb-boards. Software keyboards, which require stylus taps are built in, but input is slow and painful. But there are third-party software such as Tengo, which allows faster intelligent keyboard tap-input.
Buying a PDA is a lot like buying a PC. So take note of the processor speed (anything from 400 megahertz/ MHz and above), memory (at least 64 megabytes), colour screen resolution (at least 320 by 240 pixels for Pocket PC), and expansion capabilities (take note of the type of memory card). The norm today is to have a built-in camera and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities.
But processor speed comes with a caveat: it usually drains power. This is why HT C has opted for a Samsung 200MHz processor in its Touch phone- PDA. It all depends on what you would like to do. Today’s PDA processors go up to 600MHz and throttles down automatically depending on usage and settings. Another thing to consider is that some PDAs today even have a dedicated graphics adapter built in to enhance graphical applications, such as for certain games.
Better specifications such as faster processor (now reaching over 500MHz), better resolution (now video graphics array at 640 by 480 pixels is available), larger memory, built-in Wi- Fi, Bluetooth and some PDA phones even come with built-in global positioning system and 3G support. But all that will mean that the devices tend to cost more. So, check your budget and see what fits.
If you cannot afford a PDA phone, manufacturers such as HP have a range of ordinary iPaq PDAs with built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth so you can still experience wireless Internet on these devices.
Common memory cards are Secure Digital and MultiMedia Card.
Some iPaq models also support dualexpansion: CompactFlash II (supports Microdrives) and SD/SDIO (SDIO means that you can use SD Wi-Fi card).
There are also PDAs with “nonvolatile” memory which makes sure data is intact even when the unit runs out of power. This can act as a universal serial bus flash drive to transfer data to a PC without installing driver software to synchronise with a PC.
Submitted Date: Aug 04, 2007
Source: New Straits Times
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