PDA experiences?

[Seonaid]

I've recently had the chance to mess around with a PDA and it's gotten me jonesing for one. However, I don't want to plunk down the money for something that I may or may not use regularly. I'm not really looking for advice, I guess, but more what your experiences with them have been. Did you find them valuable? Did you use them for non-play purposes? What kinds are good/bad?

I've used the LifeDrive, CLIÉ, and Pilot. I own a cell phone and will not be using the PDA for calling. Most likely, I'll use it for scheduling/personal organizing purposes and games (I really liked playing Bejeweled on the CLIÉ) and none of the more techy functions.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I've been using palmOS pdas for about a decade, and I have to tell you they are great! I use mine for all kinds of things (not least carrying masses of reference material, storyhours and literatures around with me to read.

I've never once regretted having one, and I've been through several up to now: from memory

Pilot 5000
Pilot Pro
PalmPilot III
Palm Vx
Clie 760
Palm Tungsten T3
Palm TX

 

[Umbran]

I tired to get into using a PDA when my aunt sent me a Handspring Visor as a gift. I really did try. But I found I just didn't have enough information that I needed organized and on my person to justify carrying the thing around. And if you don't carry it with you, it is, of course, worthless...

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I use a Treo 650, having previously used a Treo ... 300 (?) and before that, a host of different electronic organizers.

I find it invaluable. I have more than 200 work contact numbers, contact info for my "real" and "online" friends, a vast calendar, unlimited messaging with my wife, I get my work e-mail on it, lots of small utility programs (including a die roller) and even games like Monopoly, Bejeweled and Village Sim.

If I didn't carry an iPod already, the Treo would be phone, PDA and MP3 player for me.

I don't have a problem with the small keyboard, generally, but other keyboards are available that I could plug it into, if I wanted. I've also got a Bluetooth earpiece for it that I've yet to power up and set up, but that's also a good choice.

I couldn't imagine working without something like this.

 

[Mycanid]

Hey there.

I have owned three of them.

One was an early Sony Clie PEG S360 ... I used it for about 8 months before giving it away to a fellow worker who needed one.

The second was a Sony NX70V ... good stuff, but I found I did not use all the features it offered.

The final was an actual Palm. I got a Tungsten E2. I have been using it for a year now and have absolutely NO problems with it. It has a very long battery life (16-18 hours) and since I primarily use it for reading e-docs and contacts, etc. it is perfect for me.

Edit: I should mention that I use external keyboards with these things. My present keyboard with the E2 is wireless, but it works fine.

 

[ssampier]

I have an older PDA--Handspring Visor Edge-- I like it. I keep my contacts and to-do list on it.

However, I would like more functions and a different options for display. I have considered a Tungsten E2 for replacement.

I think the question you need to ask yourself, do your trust your memory or a computer to keep you organized? Second, do you type well with a keyboard? If so and you have good dexterity with small buttons, you may consider a pda with a keyboard (instead of bothering with the graffiti or blocks).

 

[Mycanid]

I have an older PDA--Handspring Visor Edge-- I like it. I keep my contacts and to-do list on it.

However, I would like more functions and a different options for display. I have considered a Tungsten E2 for replacement.

I think the question you need to ask yourself, do your trust your memory or a computer to keep you organized? Second, do you type well with a keyboard? If so and you have good dexterity with small buttons, you may consider a pda with a keyboard (instead of bothering with the graffiti or blocks).

Well my good sampier ... I have liked the E2, but I primarily got it for two reasons: 1. the long battery life, and 2. it has the "newer" type of memory that does not make your data lost if the pda runs out of power. For the uses you described, though, it seems pretty good. It has a slower "cpu", and takes a while, for example, to load pics. The color screen, however, is nice and sharp and clear.

I use the keyboard rather infrequently ... but I find it very useful as I have never been quite able to get the "hang" of graffiti (or the wonderful Jot program, which is far easier, IMO).

Another thing to consider, to get back on topic slightly, is that the recent Palm pdas that have virtual graffiti space (like the TX, for example) as opposed to "hardwired" graffiti space still have a fair number of bugs with the OS and the virtual graffiti space. I mostly found this out from a friend (who is a "power pda" user/tweaker, admittedly) who has almost been driven to insanity with these bugs. He finally had the whole pda replaced by Palm. So far he has not hit bugs ... yet.

I honestly cannot say much about the Windows devices (as made by HP, Dell and others) as I have never used them.

 

[Mercule]

I used a Palm III for about two years. I went through batteries significantly faster than "estimated life" because of the heavy use. Then me moved, followed by it breaking. Between the lag between me getting out of the habit of using it while it was in for repairs and actually having the computer in an inconvenient spot for syncing it, I pretty much stopped using it.

Eventually, I got an iPaq, which was way, way better than the Palm (IMO). It wasn't enough, though. I haven't even turned it on in two years or so.

I think the big factors are:
- No habit -- organization is a habit, big time. The other factors are keeping me from building the momentum.
- Location of "master" computer -- first, it was a desktop located on the third floor of my house. Now, it's a laptop that sucks to hook up to the cradle.
- Too many other gizmos -- I've now got a cell phone and an mp3 player. I'm not carrying that much crap around with me. And, if you don't carry it with you, you won't get use out of it.

Really, my hope is to get one of the newer PPC/phone combos with a hard drive. That would fill the role of all three devices. I've gotten into the habit of syncing my mp3 player, so it should be a simple trick to sync the phone/PPC, instead.

Now, if prices would just come down.

 

[Fenris]

Hey Seonaid,
I too wanted a PDA very badly. They were new and cool and I wanted one. But I wasn't sure I would use it enough to justify the cost so I held off and held off for years. I didn't want to buy a cheap one, like the system and regret not getting a nicer one, nor did I want to get an expensive one and have it become an expensive toy that got stuck in a drawer.

Finally my wife found a old Palm Vx on clearance at a store for $100 (this was several years ago now when they went for $300).

Elated I got it opened it, turned it on and.......

It said Hola! That's right it was a Spanish langauge Palm. Well several calls to Customer Srervice later, I had an English Language Palm.

I learned Graffiti and used it for a good solid year. I should say I was using a Franklin paper system before this. But what I found with the Palm was that it was a pain for me to wait to turn it on, enter the info etc. Plus, even though I had a super cool case, I like to keep business cards and scraps of paper with notes in m organizer. So my Palm had all these post-it notes on it!

Then one day it stopped. Oh it still worked, but it always thought it was March 12th. I would reset it and it would revert to March 12th. So I put aside.

I am now using an inexpensive, small paper calender from Franklin and it workd for me. I have a set schedule (Academia as you know) so I don't have to schedule a huge number of things. It's easier for me to write the two or three things I need. I don't refer to it often, but don't need to either.

Now I do miss extensive contacts and backing up the data and used the Palm Desktop for years after I stopped using the Palm.

So truly think about how much you will use it, what you will use it for. As others have said there are those that love them and can't live without them. I don't have many scheduling needs, so the usefulness is more limited for me. Nor do I have business contacts. I just wasn't using it enough to warrent the expense or time.

Figure out what you want, what you need and go from there. Even if it's just for Bejeweled

Oh I will say I used to have (and still have) an old Sharp Wizard. I LOVED that thing. 128kb, fold open keyboard, not a tablet style. That thing was easy to use and did enough that I could use it easily and quickly. If it could sync, I would still be using it. Got burned once though and it crashed and I lost all my data and contacts.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

Whatever you do don't get an iPAQ 1715. If someone give one to you as a gift, it's a paper weight. The things are completely useless. Tiny memory, buggy and tends to crash frequently, and the battery from Sony is faulty and overheats so much that it eventually stops working.

I also noticed that the writing to text is very bad about my handwriting which is odd. My handwriting is small but very precise yet the PDA would have everything completely misaligned to the point where parts of the letters didn't even touch.