[TriLUG] Maybe OT: PDAs

[Ben Pitzer]

Doug,

My thought is this:  Handspring Visors and Treos used the Palm OS. 
While Palm may be the oldest that's still on the block, I disagree with
my old friend Mark's assessment that it's 'showing it's age'.  I think
that for the most part, it's still a viable, easy, straightforward user
interface, and can do the majority of things that you need it to.  There
are tons of apps out there for syncing to everything from Evolution, to
Outlook, to Quicken, to Lotus Organizer, etc.  There are also tons of
Palm apps there for use on your PDA that are very cool.  It's also an
open architecture, so folks are constantly writing new apps for the Palm
OS.  Windows CE is......well, it's Windows.  Don't expect any better
performance from it than you would from Windows 98 (although some say
it's as stable as Win2k, so you may want to decide for yourself).  If
you go with a Palm OS device, I'd say forget color (it just costs more
and doesn't buy you much in the way of functionality), and go for the
least expensive.  Most new devices these days have 8MB of memory, which
is MUCH more than adequate for all but the most intensive users.

Syncing any WinCE PDA to your Linux desktop will be difficult at best,
but the Palms do a great job with Evolution or jpilot with a minimum of
very well documented setup.

As for graffiti vs. a keyboard, it's going to be your comfort level that
makes the difference there.  You can get used to graffiti if you use the
Palm enough, and there is a virtual keyboard that pops up if you need
it.  I found the Giraffe game that comes native on the Palm a great way
to learn graffiti, much the same way that Minesweeper and Solitaire on
Windows taught many of us mouse skills (which was its original purpose. 
It just had the highly desirable side effect of being incredibly
addicting).

Well, there's my take.  YMMV, of course.

Regards,
Ben Pitzer


On Tue, 2002-09-03 at 11:50, Douglas Kojetin wrote:
> Hi All-
> 
> This might be a bit off topic, but I'll throw in an "on topic" question 
> at the end!
> 
> I'm looking into getting a PDA, and wanted to get some advice from 
> people on the list (who might have one).
> 
> I was thinking of getting one of the following:
> 
> Handspring Treo 90
> Handspring Visor Pro
> Palm m500
> Palm m515
> Sony CLIE PEG-T615C
> 
> 1) Any comments on the thumb-board vs. Graffiti?
> 
> 2) Anyone know which of the above can by sync-ed into Linux?
> 
> 3) How long have you had one?  I'm afraid I may stop using it after 
> awhile -- which would be a waste of money -- but I'm still tempted.
> 
> Any other suggestions/comments are welcome -- and if you feel it's too 
> OT, feel free to reply to me only.
> 
> Thanks!
> Doug
> 
> 
> 
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