Eben said:
Thanks. Okay, now I'll probably sound dumb, but: what's the difference between a pocketPC and a pda? The operating system? Apparently this DRM thing is supported on PalmOS, but not on at pocketPC.
'PDA' stands for 'Personal Digital Assistant' and is a generic term for any small, electronic organizer. Palms fall into this category, as do Pocket PCs, but there are others, too -- I think Symbian is #3, but I've never worked with it. Technically, if your cell phone has a phone book and calendar on it, it could be considered a PDA, too.
Palm OS devices (by Palm, Handspring, etc.) are the leaders in the market, right now. They've been around the longest (of the 'successful' PDAs; don't bring up the Newton), and have an established following.
Pocket PC devices (iPAQ, Axiom, etc.) are newer and are still gaining market share. They are specifically designed to work with Windows ('cause the OS based on Windows CE).
Which is better is personal preference. I like the PPC better because it does work better with Windows, it's quite a bit easier to program, and the interface works better for me (I actually dumped my old Palm in favor of a Franklin planner because of the interface -- I felt like I'd outgrown it after 3 years). I know quite a few people who prefer the Palm OS, though.
DRM will work on either one. I don't know the readers for the Palm OS, but I use MS Reader on my iPAQ. So far I've only downloaded open/free docs, but that's by choice, not need. It's a matter of what I think of DRM and the value of electronic documents than anything else.