PDAs, PDAs

isaac writes: "The cat is out of the bag! Palmstation has photos of the new PalmOS pda from Handera (formerly TRG of TRGPro fame). Features include a 320x240 screen with "soft" grafitti area, CompactFlash *and* SD slots, and Voice Recording. No word yet on built-in RAM or other capabilities - an official launch at Handera's website is rumored for Monday. The alleged name of this device is the "HandEra 330". Wish they'd do something about the name." There's also a combination PDA/phone that looks interesting.

Re:Another PDA Whoopee!!!

I have a Psion 5 with a built-in voice recorder, and it's VERY useful. Means I can make a REALLY quick note. Press one button until it beeps, then hold it while you talk. Boom! You have a note recorded. I can do that while I'm walking along, while I'm driving, pretty much any time I want. Far easier than opening it up and making a note.

Easier than making a note on a Palm, too. Used to have one, no way could I make a note while walking via graffiti, even after I've opened the cover, fished out the pen, tapped on the button, asked for a new document and started writing in slow, inaccurate Graffiti. While driving? Forget it.

These things are really, really useful. Might not fit in with the way _you_ use yours, but it fits in really nicely with mine.

Oh, BTW, you really bought that $2-300 device just to track appointments? Wow. Mine regularly gets used for meeting notes. I've written proper, formatted and spellchecked documents on it in comfort, too. On trains, in restaurants, in parks, absolutely anywhere. I've played games while waiting for things, I've knocked up spreadsheets. I've just got a new phone and so, when I've set up a few bits, it'll be surfing the web periodically and checking e-mail. Yes, I could do both on a Palm, but this is the _proper_ web (not clipped or synced) and I've got a keyboard I'm prepared to write normal length e-mails on. Which isn't a clip-on extra.

I honestly can't see why people are prepared to pay that much for that little functionality. I saw how limited it was and bought something I could do real work on, not just use as a fancy diary and calculator.

Re:Some thoughts.

Read on either PDABuzz, or a link from their discussion thread that there will be two options for dealing with "legacy" apps: 1) Scaling - zoom them by a factor of 1.5 to fit the square area above the soft Grafitti area. 2) Border - run at 160x160 centered on the screen with borders. Apparently 90%+ of these apps look and work fine in scaling mode. Robbie

Analogies

The analogies of the PDA to the PCs (and laptops) of 10 to 15 years continues, both in terms of clock speed and ram. The only major differance is the apparent lack of storage space (maybe I didn't look hard enough) conpared to the old PCs.

This is likely a plus, because you still have to coded semi-efficiently, instead of letting things bloat on your mass storage.

I wonder how hard this is for the MS crew.

:-)

Check out the Vinny the Vampire [eplugz.com] comic strip

more info

See these links (not href'ed for the goatse.cx intimidated):

http://www.pdamd.com/vertical/features/handera.xml

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/cn/20010420/tc/a_palm _from_the_plains_1.html

http://www.maximumpc.com/content/2001/04/20/12868

It has 8MB of memory, can use both CF and SD slots simultaneously, it has 2MB of flash ram, runs palmos 3.5 (custom version of course) with an update for 4.0 in the works, takes four AAA batteries (more power) but they are interexchangeable with a recharcheagble battery, offers serial (i.e. slow !) connectivity, compatibility with TRGPro and palm III accessories, landscape mode, 33MHz dragonball processor and will cost $350 (you can preorder it at the pdamd link above).
Seems like a very good pda... I've grown kinda attached to my visor deluxe with my keyboard and modules... I can't replace them all :(