Assistant assistance required

[anthonyd]

I disagree with shaun!

Everyone I know who has one of those PDA phones cannot say anythign good about them. The screen is too small for them to be a good PDA and they are normally not very good phones. Also third party software (as is the case with windows and windows mobile) has a habit of causing hangups. This in my opinion should not be an option for a phone. If your phone has it's own proprietry operating system it normally works a lot better - the best operating phones are still the nokia's that came out before the colour screens - never hung! I also want a phone that I can make a call with as few button presses as possible - I dont want to take out a stylus and navigate a phone menu just to make a call!

Also disregard those people telling you that you need to sync with your PC every day because you can loose your data. Yes when the power runs out the PDA looses eberything. But every PDA I have owned has had software to backup it to the SD or CF card. Also these packages can be set to backup on a schedule so if you set it to backup every week (or every day if you want) then a power loss is not more disasterous then hitting the restore button!

Also you asked for a PDA to use USB memory sticks - not possible because USB is a master slave relationship and PDA's are USB slaves and hence cannot 'talk' to another USB slave like a USB memory stick. That said there are SD cards and CF cards that your PDA can take for extra memory and they are priced the same as USB memory sticks.

[Trav]

Mick

I'm no expert on this stuff. However, I've found www.cnet.com.au to be a pretty useful site for reviews of lots of electronic items, including PDAs. It is certainly worth a browse. For example, they thoroghly recommend the 02 Xda Mini II. Look under both the mobile phone and mobile computing sections.

Hope that its helpful.

Trav

[Cliff Rogers]

Notebook computer with MS Outlook 2003.
The calender function works well.
Back it up to a USB RAM stick.

The reminders don't work if it's not switched on so if you need a reminder/alarm clock for odd hours, get a mobile with that feature.

I use MS Outlook 2003 on my desktop & a Nokia phone with an organiser.
I don't have them linked together but I think it is possible to get a phone with software that will link to MS Outlook but I'm not sure on that.

I had a Palm Pilot I bought back in 1997 & it was good BUT... on 3 occasions it locked up & had to be cleared & reloaded from the back up on my computer.... twice while I was on holidays:mad: . I don't use it any longer as it is not reliable. My wife had a newer/cheaper model & it was always fugging up & forgetting. It is sitting in the bottom of a drawer now too .

[Wood Borer]

Michael,

I have a Sony PDA which I think you saw which I find very good. It is a Palm based PDA.

I have heard the Windows based ones regularly lock up and when you sychronise with your PC there have been reports of them wiping your Outlook contacts. I do not know if the source of this advice was from one idiot or many intelligent people. I do know of my bad experiences with Windows so I opted for the Palm.

I am happy with my choice. I know of quite a few MS Certified people who have also opted for a Palm based operating system.

It doesn't have a voice input to record memo's nor does it have a mobile phone, GPS or CNC router.

It does have Word and Excel on it plus a PDF reader and many other applications.

[E. maculata]

I'm like The Midgeman, had a PDA thingy, discovered I became a slave to it, went back to
#1-take everywhere diary
#2-Address book with all people in it
#3-large yearly planner on office wall accessible while at computer, office phone etc.

Works brilliantly for me, ahven't forgotten too many "high powered" meetingds lately.

[journeyman Mick]

Thanks for the replies all, I don't want a multi featured phone, I"ve lost count of the number of phones that I've gone through. This is why I started thinking about a PDA. I used to put a lot of info into my phone, contacts and memos etc. Then when the phone died I'd have to start all over again.
The trouble with diaries is that they won't squawk at you to remind you of things.
I don't want to cart a laptop around, too big, bulky and expensice and overkill for what I want. Also I can't really carry it on me so I will hear it when it squawks at me.
I currently use a digital phone and have a CDMA one for back up. There's places around here where there's digital but no CDMA coverage (and vice versa too and a few spots where there's neither) I've also just heard that theyr'e going to scrap CDMA in the next couple of years.

I may look into the phone option some more but I don't want to keep all my eggs in the one basket. Do any of the PDAs have a vibrating alert? Are their alarms very loud?

Mick (off to catch some sleep and then do some more PDA research)

[bitingmidge]

Thanks for the replies all, I don't want a multi featured phone, I"ve lost count of the number of phones that I've gone through.

I've heard you, but if you go through phones, you'll go through PDA's too!

This is why I started thinking about a PDA. I used to put a lot of info into my phone, contacts and memos etc. Then when the phone died I'd have to start all over again.

That's why I got the blue tooth with the sync capabilities. It's really not a problem anymore! Until I had that I had four numbers stored in my phone, I hate pressing all those little buttons!

The trouble with diaries is that they won't squawk at you to remind you of things.

But the phone will with the diary synched in.

I don't want to cart a laptop around, too big, bulky and expensice and overkill for what I want. Also I can't really carry it on me so I will hear it when it squawks at me.

Fair call except they are only a few hundred dollars more than a really good PDA!

I currently use a digital phone and have a CDMA one for back up. There's places around here where there's digital but no CDMA coverage (and vice versa too and a few spots where there's neither) I've also just heard that theyr'e going to scrap CDMA in the next couple of years.

About two to three years, if you are who you say you are, you'll kill a phone in that time anyway!

I may look into the phone option some more but I don't want to keep all my eggs in the one basket. Do any of the PDAs have a vibrating alert? Are their alarms very loud?

I chose the phone because I didn't want to carry round more than one basket!

Mick (off to catch some sleep and then do some more PDA research)

Good luck, and keep us posted on your decision eh?

cheers,

P

[anthonyd]

MIck,

There are some rugged cases for PDA's for people who want to take them into the workplace.

Checkout www.expansys.com.au they have a good range of PDA's and PDA accessories.

I would suggest that you buy a good screen protector film the day you buy your PDA - even the stylus eventually scratches the screen and they are expensive to replace. The best screen protector on the market is the ppctech ones!