The Future of the PDA 251
An anonymous reader writes "XYZComputing is taking a look at the future of the PDA and what obstacles might stand in the way of continued popularity. From the article: 'While is hard not to appreciate the PDA's ability to change with the times, it appears that its heady days of mobile dominance are coming to an abrupt end. A number of factors are competing in the mobile products field right now, all of which are vying for the same buyers. The most formidable competition to the PDA is the smartphone, but there is also pressure from small laptops, the upcoming UMPC, increasingly capable cell phones, and a few other takers, like portable media players.'"
The Original UMPC (Score:5, Interesting)
We really have not seen a whole lot of innovation in the PDA market aside from color screens and somewhat faster CPUs since Palm and then Microsoft entered the market. The first device that truly works as an assistant that is affordable will, like Palm did in the 90's take over the market again. Phone use will be required, but could easily function with a Bluetooth earpiece. It will have to have a big enough screen in portrait or landscape mode to surf the web (surfing the web on my Tungsten T3 sucks), will have to be able to plug into a projector and deliver Keynote (or Powerpoint) presentations, read and annotate pdf's, have an honest 4-5hr battery life (ideally more, but this will depend upon new battery technology or fuel cells), be rugged, have a decent way to enter information through a keyboard (real or virtual) and be reasonably affordable.
The Newton was the original UMPC and did many things very well (including handwriting recognition in the 110 and up), but were waaaay too expensive for their time. I had a 110 and a 120 that I used for years before they simply could not keep up, but that form factor is still ideal. Put a color screen in it, run OS X on a flash drive along with global band cell phone connectivity, 802.11 and Bluetooth and if you can sell it for $700-800 or so, you have the ideal PDA. That may be cutting the margins thin, but if Apple could sell it along with
Re:The Original UMPC (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:The Original UMPC (Score:5, Interesting)
I am of the opinion that USB flash drives are lame. Mind you, I have one on my keychain, and I use it, but that's only because I got it for free. The only kind that makes sense is the kind that's got a SD card (or similar) in it, and it's really just a tiny card reader. This was a lot less true when we didn't have access to $5 card readers, though. I got a several-in-one card reader (it says 7 in 1 or something, but it has four slots, they must be counting SD and MMC separately or something, which makes little sense) for free with my digital camera (from geeks.com) and you can buy them retail for under $20. You can order 'em off the 'net for practically nothing any day of the week. Also, many laptops now come with a memory card slot; usually this is SD/MMC, unless it's a sony.
It doesn't make much sense to me to have storage tied to a particular interface. At the same time, it is absolutely retarded that PDAs are commonly USB clients, but not USB hosts. There are existing silicon solutions that let a device be both, and if a PDA is supposed to be a computer, it should be a USB host. My PDA, which was $200 as a refurb, is a 400MHz ARM (xscale) with 64MB RAM. That's more powerful than the first three computers I had with USB (though not all of them put together.)
Re:The Original UMPC (Score:3, Interesting)
Or you could try this [dealmac.com] amazing little SD card that has a built in USB connector. One of the cleverest ideas of 2005 IMHO.
At the same time, it is absolutely retarded that PDAs are commonly U
Problem with PDA USB Hosts - battery power (Score:3, Interesting)
Obviously having to lug around a powered hub or search for a wall socket for your peripherals limits the usefulness somewhat. (Although there is a niche of battery-powered USB hubs.)
Re:The Original UMPC (Score:2)
That said, you're right -- there are a lot of things that the PDA ought to be able to do, but doesn't (<rant>like, for starters, syncing properly with my Mac</rant>).
Re:The Original UMPC (Score:2, Informative)
Re:The Original UMPC (Score:2)
Yeah, I have, and you know what I've noticed? Every one of them happens to be proprietary. Funny, that.
Anyway, what makes it even worse with regard to Palm syncing is that Palm is the only real choice for Mac users, because the only other PDAs around run Windows! I mean, I know Palm (the company) sucks, but you'd think Apple at least would pick up the slack and just write a damn iSync conduit that syncs straight to the PDA itself, instead of going thr
Re:The Original UMPC (Score:2)
Not mine. My Psion Revo runs EPOC (i.e. Symbian before the OS was sold to Nokia et al.) and you'll have to pry it from my cold, dead fingers. Granted, it doesn't sync with modern Macs (or modern Windows PCs) either, but it's the only PDA to hit the market in the past two decades that I've found usable: good software, good form factor.
Re:The Original UMPC (Score:2)
Re:The Original UMPC (Score:4, Insightful)
Anyone who takes planes frequently (i.e. salespeople who tend to own PDAs) might actually benefit from a device with more than 5 hours of battery life.
Re:The Original UMPC (Score:3, Insightful)
generic-man wrote:
That is one of the problems with the newer PDAs: shorter battery life, combined with non-replaceable batteries. I used to use two sets of rechargable batteries with my Handspring Visor and as long as I changed the batteries every other day I always had plenty of battery power. If my ba
Re:The Original UMPC (Score:2)
Because there's a huge gulf between the biggest PDA and the smallest reasonably-priced subcompact notebook. Believe me, I've checked. There are PDAs that are cheap but too small, lower-priced Tablet PCs (and the new Origami devices) that are too big*, and things like the OQO that are the right size but more powerful and way more expensive than they need to be.
*an "ultra-portable" computer ought to be as thin as a PDA, not 1" thick,
Re:The Original UMPC (Score:2)
I've also written an article [blogspot.com] or two [saugus.net] over the years and agree that there's a lot to be learned from the Newton MessagePad.
I wouldn't personally want OS X on it, though; a PDA-optimized OS like Newton makes more sense for the platform.
Recent developments in roll-out keyboards, projection keyboards, etc. would also be most welcome.
Re:The Original UMPC (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Defining Your Terms (Score:4, Insightful)
You end up with abortions like the Treo which is a really crappy phone and a pretty crappy PDA. Hell, you can't even get a decent simple phone with bluetooth without also getting the crappy MP3 player and crappy camera (and crippled bluetooth as well.) Furthermore, if you want to send an email they seem to want to tack on another $50 / month on top of a $60 voice plan. Considering DSL can now be had for $20/month, that's insane. Ya, it's wireless, but still...
Now that's not to say that someone couldn't do one of these combo units RIGHT, but given history it is extremely unlikely that we will see it done well in the near future. The cell phone companies just don't get it.
So anyway, I'm still waiting for something like a modern Zaurus which Sharp seems to have discontinued in the US for the most part. Nobody else seems to have anything close. Considering I can get a 1G SD card for $80 retail, these little 64M PDA's are just toys. Give me some ROOM man! Give my the ability to REALLY sync my mailbox which is running about 360M now... Frankly, I don't Need it to be a cellphone - not that I really want to put a brick up to my ear anyway, but I'd use it with a bluetooth headset. And VoIP over WiFi is mandetory.
Re:Defining Your Terms (Score:2)
What is so crappy about the treo phone? Speaker is not great, but it works.
What is crappy about the treo PDA? It runs the basic Palm PDA apps I need, calendar, contacts, memos,todo. I can use the stylus to control it or the rocker and keyboard.
Try the treo, it works pretty well. It could be better in area, but it is good enough and converged...
Re:Defining Your Terms (Score:2)
You've got to be kidding. The Treo is neither
Re:Defining Your Terms (Score:5, Interesting)
Know what I want? Components! Make a variety of displays that are basically thin clients (via X11-over-Bluetooth? RDP? Whatever, just as long as it's the standard). Make a variety of processing units. Make a variety of input devices. Make a variety of speaker/headphone/microphone units. Most importantly, make multiple brands work together seamlessly. Convergence? I want divergence by piecing together the set of interoperable parts that fit the way I want to use them!
In my dream setup, I sit down at a public access point and get my 8" screen and compact keyboard out of my bag. That's it. I'm set up and ready to use it. They both talk wirelessly to the real processor which is squirreled away in my messenger bag and only sees the light of day when I need to recharge it. If a cell or VOIP call comes in, it's automatically transferred to my wireless earpiece.
Us geeks will always have the iPod-sized processing equivalent of an overclocked Celeron, but Joe Businessman can buy a quad-Xeon unit and car battery on wheels to power it. Maybe I'm just going to the grocery store, so I'd only take the 3" touchscreen (so I can mark off my shopping list as I go). Have to give a presentation? Bind to the projector client in the conference room until it's over.
I truly think this is the future. I want a cheap Dell processing box that never leaves my shirt pocket, or beltclip, or whatever. I want a nice Samsung client to display it's output. I want a Happy Hacking portable keyboard for input. See, ever since Palm discontinued the IIIxe, their hasn't been a single model of PDA from any manufacturer that covers all the features I want. Dell might not make as much per individual item by selling the components separately, but I truly believe that they'd make a killing by hawking vast numbers of the smaller pieces. No PC maker that I know of sells monolithic PC-screen-keyboard-mouse desktop units, but that's exactly how they expect you to buy your portable electronics.
Wake up, Apple and Dell! There's a whole untapped market of people who'd love to customize their PDAs, particularly those people who have never used one (start off with a cheap CPU and upgrade it later if you like it). And the thing is that all of the hardware, software, wireless tech, and protocols are in common use that could make this happen today.
Treo (Score:2)
My Treo 650 does all I want, and technically it runs Palm PDA applications.
I still have my calendar, my contacts list, my todos and my memos.
But now I can make calls, take pics and movies, play games, listen to mp3s, edit word files, read ebooks and pdfs.
And the battery life is great. And it has a keyboard, so no graphiti. I thought I would miss it, but I dont. I still use the stylus for some stuff, but I don't really need to.
Whatever you call it, we now have convergence. Finally. It can be improved, b
What to call it (Score:2)
"Tricorder," perhaps?
Re:The Original UMPC (Score:2)
I am a firm believer that a pure PDA device should leave out the cell phone connectivity. Once you add that in, the only way you're going to be able to get one is through the cell companies, which will try to hobble the device.
Besides which, it's an added expense and power draw for the mobile device.
The key to good po
Re:The Original UMPC (Score:2)
Why stop there? Why not just separate out the functionality into a "screen" module (that would look like a PDA, but thinner), a "CPU/disk" module (that would resemble an iPod), and a "tranciever" module (that would look like a cellphone, but would also include Wi-Fi). They could all communicate via Bluetooth (or something like it).
The best part is, the parts could be mix-and-match -- swap out the PDA-like display for a head-mounted on
Re:The Original UMPC (Score:2)
You won't get a lot of argument from me, although with flash memory prices coming down as capacities increase, I don't see why devices can't have a certain amount of local storage for those times when they aren't near their paired storage module.
The wireless technologies would have to improve in speed, mind you. Bluetooth v1.x can be slow, and Bluetooth plus a hard drive could be a serious power drain.
But these issues are solvable, and I agree -- being able to have devices which can talk to one another e
Re:The Original UMPC (Score:2)
Actually, I wouldn't mind having a wired connection either, in most cases. The only thing that would really need to be wireless would be the display tablet, because it would be going into and out of a pocket or something instead of staying in a fixed location like all the other components.
Re:The Original UMPC (Score:2)
The two are probably the same -- it's probably just a matter of difference in how we are using the tools. For my part, I do the vast majority of my data entry in iCal and the OS X Address Book. It is rather rare that I do any entry into the Palm (or the cell phone for that matter).
The
Re:The Original UMPC (Score:2, Insightful)
But there will always be buyers......... (Score:2, Informative)
Many phones also have GPS too (Score:2)
Given that you pretty much need a phone, it makes very little sense to duplicate the comms capabilities in a PDA. As the copmms capabilities improves (better comms at lower cost), we're going to see more of a move towards a "thinner client" phone. Why have a whole lot of storage etc on your phone when you can just pull it off a backend server?
Phones are also far lower cost to the user because they can often be amortised as
Re:But there will always be buyers......... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:But there will always be buyers......... (Score:2)
Surely you mean the well recognized need for disintegration of portable devices, right? 'Cause the biggest problem with cell phones and PDAs are that they try to do to many different things. If a PDA would just focus on being a good display and pen-based input device, a cellphone would just focus on being a good tranciever, and an iPod would just focus on being a good disk and CPU, then you could hook them all up with Bluetooth or something and
Re:But there will always be buyers......... (Score:2)
Simplicity, price, and size please (Score:5, Insightful)
It doesn't even need a color screen, though grayscale would be nice just for legibility reasons.
A 20mhz or so CPU should suffice, if even that much is needed. It would be cool if it could fit in the credit card holder of my wallet (most wallets suck as it is, when you are limited to the subset of wallets that can carry a PDA, it becomes really hard to find a non-cruddy one), and has a week long battery life or some such. Oh yes, and STATIC MEMORY. Honestly, only 4 or so megs are needed.
Price? No more than $50.
Re:Simplicity, price, and size please (Score:4, Insightful)
Sync with a standard mini-USB cable, instead of a cradle.
Support charging rechargable AAA batteries when plugged in.
Use sane file formats for memos, notes, calendar entries, and addresses.
It'd be nice to support a mini-SD card for storage, so that you can replace it if it breaks by removing the card and putting it in a new one.
I think it would be cute to support Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, just so you could look weird in cafes, with a full-size keyboard for a computer the size of the numeric keypad. But that's just silly.
Re:Simplicity, price, and size please (Score:2)
Just an old DOS/Linux based computer. Weak processor, decent keyboard and screen, no GUI, something like emacs which can do pretty much everything you want to.
Re:Simplicity, price, and size please (Score:2)
Re:Simplicity, price, and size please (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, I never did a thing with the Clie that
Re:Simplicity, price, and size please (Score:2)
Re:Simplicity, price, and size please (Score:2)
Re:Simplicity, price, and size please (Score:2)
I never understood why the Rex didn't become ubiquitous and make the inventors very, very rich. Mind you, I had the same thought about the Crosspad which was an utterly brilliant piece of hardware doomed by some of the most awful pre-beta software I've ever encountered.
Re:Simplicity, price, and size please (Score:2)
Re:Simplicity, price, and size please (Score:2)
Price? No more than $20.
Re:Simplicity, price, and size please (Score:2)
I'd happily pay $150 if this was all integrated into a cell phone. But the Smartphones all seem to lack one of these basic features, or they add a ton of useless features which add tot he price.
Re:Simplicity, price, and size please (Score:2)
I forgot to mention-- many of these devices are available cheap from the Mobile providers, but they require a 2-year contract. In many cases, this isn't worth the trade-off.
Re:Simplicity, price, and size please (Score:2)
[1] 320x320 TFT screen, camera, wifi, etc. Sits in my sock drawer, unloved.
The PDA is dead! Long live the PDA! (Score:4, Informative)
"Increasingly capable cellphones", as the summary puts it, will be the real challenge to the PDA. Many people bought PDAs to be electronic datebooks, address books, and the like. Some people felt it worthwhile to carry them, others (myself included) found it to be a hassle. Cellphones, on the other hand, are far more likely to make it into our pockets. The natural evolution was to add PDA-like functionality. So PDAs evolved into cellphones or cellphones evolved into PDAs. I would argue that there are examples of both (the Treo being a phonified PDA and Series 60 devices being PDAified cellphones).
My take home message is thus: The PDA is not dead. It has merely evolved thanks to the advent of widespread mobile phones. If we look at some current cellphones, many have more power than the original Palm Pilots. About the only thing they lack is a more sophisticated input method (that may be arguable, though, when T9 is compared to Graffiti).
Some manufacturers will still make "pure" PDAs, but the PDA is not dead. The PDA has merely evolved.
Trust and usability problems. (Score:2)
Would you spend hours on the phone telling the phone company all about your friends and plans? No? Me neither. That is why my PDA will not be a cell phone unless I can install the software myself, like OpenZaurus. I have similar thoughts about trusting any information to Microsoft in any way.
Privacy aside, cell phone and M$ PDAs suck. M$'s handwriting recognition and interface continuse to be third rate.
Re:The PDA is dead! Long live the PDA! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:The PDA is dead! Long live the PDA! (Score:2)
A PDA needs to be mostly screen, and input area. That always makes for having to talk with a brick to your head. In my opinion, all the best mobile phones have been clamshell designs, which retain a comfortable angle between the earpiece and the
Re:The PDA is dead! Long live the PDA! (Score:2)
The other thing I'd like to see is foldable screens/input devices. Still a ways off, but it would certainly be nice to have a bigger screen when I wanted it that I could just fold up and stuff in my pocket.
Re:The PDA is dead! Long live the PDA! (Score:2)
What is so crap about the Treo? You don't like the single piece design? Is it awkward for you? I personally hate clamshell designs since they are apt to break.
Is the treo too big? For what it does, it is a great size.
Don't like holding it to your head? Get a BT headset or corded earpiece and mics.
PS- I love my treo, if you couldn't tell.
Re:Looks like PDAs already dead in Japan... (Score:2)
Re:Looks like PDAs already dead in Japan... (Score:2)
PDAs have their place. Not in my life, but plenty of people still seem to like them.
Error in the posting (Score:2)
Errr, shouldn't that be
the upcoming video iPod
New PocketPCs stink (Score:4, Interesting)
- NONE offer PCMCIA support (rendering my 5GB HDD useless)
- If you want 128MB or more of RAM, the highest resolution you will get is quarter-VGA (320x240)
- If you want VGA (640x480) resolution, the most RAM you'll get is 64MB
- Lack of accessories (e.g., high capacity batteries)
Thanks to Carly Fiorina canning the iPaq line (she basically brought back the inferior Journada line) expansion capability of the PocketPC is nil, and the quality has only gone downhill. I'm glad she got fired but she managed to kill the PocketPC platform just as it was gaining steam. I still use my 3670 but I need more RAM, higher resolution, a faster CPU, and expansion capability.
Re:New PocketPCs stink (Score:2)
- If you want USB host capability, forget about 128MB RAM, VGA, and by the way you'll be getting the slower CPU, too
I don't want my phone and PDA integrated. I want GPS at a reasonable resolution, I need to be able to take notes at a meeting, if I need to get on the web I should be able to use WiFi or Bluetooth and use a browser at a reasonable (VGA) resolution, plus why should I buy a separate MP3 player or portable DVD player when a standalone PocketPC is perfectly capable o
Re:New PocketPCs stink (Score:2, Informative)
- Bluetooth + WiFi
- 128MB Flash
- 520MHz processor
- USB host
ob (Score:2)
Re:New PocketPCs stink (Score:2)
Re:New PocketPCs stink (Score:3, Insightful)
If you want to use PCMCIA devices, you don't want a PDA, you want a small laptop.
There's no way you're getting a tiny handheld with a big PCMCIA slot in it.
Who cares? I've lot way too much data to trust the RAM for storage. Plug-in a CF or SD card for all the storage you could want. (I'm still pissed SD is getting more popular, when CF is more than small enough, and 50% less expens
Re:New PocketPCs stink (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:New PocketPCs stink (Score:3, Interesting)
Now, that is no longer the case. All files are stored on regular flash memory, and main memory is used for program execution only. My Dell Axim X51v, which has a VGA screen, comes with 192megs of flash memory built in. Th
Maybe a future, but more as a small UMPC (Score:4, Interesting)
Most of the current uses of a PDA will probably be ceded to smartphones (calendar, address book, tasklist, calculator, MP3 player, etc).
The one advantage that a PDA could have is that its form factor has traditionally been small enough to be truly portable and almost large enough that tasks that are next to impossible on phones' small screens (e.g., surfing the Web, using interactive applications) can actually be performed on them without too much user frustration.
Who really likes using the Internet on a phone? Does anyone think that tablet PCs are really that portable (without a laptop bag)?
Therefore I think there would be a market for PDAs with good sized screens and Wifi/cellular data connections. People would use them as an appliance to surf the Internet and for other applications that required more screen real estate than a phone has. The real killer machine would be about the size of a checkbook (so it fits in your pocket) and flips open to reveal two screens that fit up against each other almost seamlessly, thus doubling screen size.
I think UMPCs are too big, and smartphones too small to be truly portable yet usable Internet appliances. PDAs could fit that niche (thus blurring the distinction between them and UMPCs).
Re:Maybe a future, but more as a small UMPC (Score:2)
I carry a PDA (iPAQ H2200) in my pocket on a regular basis. I use it for playing music in the car (though a tape deck adapter - I know, how early 1990s is that?) and for loads of other fun stuff, like playing solitaire :) It has only internal bluetooth, no wifi, but I have a Sandisk 802.11b+128MB flash CF, and a 1GB SD card. The idea is that soon I Will be getting a motorola V555 which has bluetooth (essentially an updated V500, which is just the same as my V300 but with bluetooth) and I will be getting GP
Re:Maybe a future, but more as a small UMPC (Score:2)
Sadly, it's true. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Sadly, it's true. (Score:2)
True enough. I've yet to see a smart phone that handles the same sorts of tasks a PDA can handle as well as a PDA. Most of the smart phones I've seen so far are comparable more to organizers more than true PDAs.
It's interesting that you mention using PDAs as book readers. I also found that I use their book reading capabilities a lot. I use them not for just traditional free e-books [newtonslibrary.org], though, but also free in [ifarchive.org]
What about portable gaming devices? (Score:3, Interesting)
iPAQ hw6515 is a step in the right direction (Score:3, Interesting)
iPAQ hw6515 [hp.com] is a step in the right direction: it is a PDA with an ability to make phone calls. It has PocketPC OS with its advantages and disadvantages. You can make phone calls, surf the web, listen to MP3s, send e-mails, take photos and find out where you are - yes, it has a GPS module, too. The "qwerty" keyboard is quite handy and beats T9 systems without a doubt. The software has few quirks and takes few days to learn. Setting up secure email submission is difficult if not outright impossible but I guess this was never MS priority.
PDA? (Score:4, Interesting)
24 (Score:2, Funny)
Re:24 (Score:3, Funny)
PDAs Are Terrible, Where is Apple? (Score:4, Insightful)
I had a Newton long ago. It was a very nice device. It was big and heavy because it was ahead of it's time, but the interface was quite nice. If Apple were to release a new Newton (or whatever they decide to call it) that was nothing more than iCan and Address Book I would be happy. VERY happy. They could add more and make it a full-fledged PDA (SafariMini, iMail2Go, whatever) I would only be happier. Someone with a decent UI touch is badly needed. I've heard rumors that the touch-screen iPod will do this (we'll see if that even exists) and if it does I will gladly upgrade.
Or imagine how long it could last without a charge if it used ePaper? They could make it the size of a PC Card (like the old Rex PDAs) with a touch screen. Considering all the high-rez high-color screens we see out there (in phones, other PDAs, digital cameras, PSPs and DSes, etc.) they could put a great screen in there and have good battery life if they didn't go the ePaper route.
PDAs are OK, but they have enough problems that I can see why more people wouldn't want them (especially if your phone is half-decent and can sync with your computer, stupid Sprint crippleware LG PM-325).
Give me an OLD Newton. Same as it was. Just shrink it (as would be trivial with today's technology) and make it sync with iCal and AddressBook and I'd be happy.
Please Apple, give us a good PDA. You did it for computers, you did it for digital music players, do it for PDAs.
Re:PDAs Are Terrible, Where is Apple? (Score:4, Informative)
With just those two features in mind one could argue that they already did, and it's called the iPod. It has both a calendar app and address book app that synchronize with iCal and Address Book on the Mac. My brother uses an iPod in exactly this fashion.
Mind you, I'm playing devil's advocate here. I don't think the iPod interface is well-suited for PDA type functions, and I'd much prefer something that learns from the Newton [blogspot.com].
Re:PDAs Are Terrible, Where is Apple? (Score:2)
First, you need a cable to sync. I know people talk about BlueTooth iPods and say "Why use BlueTooth headphones?" and I agree. But if they put BT 2 in the next iPods (like is in the current Macs) it would be fast enough to easily Sync playlist data and add a few new tracks to your iPod fast (every time you get within range maybe?). Sure when you replace 6 gigs of music you'll want to use a cable, but when you add one CD it'd be great. It would make
So Fix the Thing with Free Software. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:So Fix the Thing with Free Software. (Score:2)
I use my PDA too much to spend 2 weeks+ fiddling with it trying to get some unsupported OS running on it (that rates it's self as unready for my device).
They look nice, but they really aren't an option for most users. Before I would switch, I would need my WiFi to work minimum, along with syncing to my Mac, which it didn't look like was an opt
PDAs just turned into phones (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:PDAs just turned into phones (Score:2)
PDA market won't truly take off until (Score:2)
Back when I owned PalmSource (Score:2)
That said, I should point out that my old Palm V still works fine - my son found it under a pile of books last year and asked if he could have it - he uses it as a PDA (plus it's got a nice gunmetal case that flips open he can stick some bills and his Boys & Girls Member Card in).
So,
Re:Back when I owned PalmSource (Score:2)
He can't decide?
Mobile phones are the future (Score:2)
By the way, same thing goes for the MP3 player, although that may take a bit longer.
Article BAD (Score:2)
Seriously - I have a Sprint 6700 phone. Its essentially a PDA with phone functionality - why is this not considered a PDA instead of a smart phone?
The PDA isn't going to die - its going to get subsumed by devices that offer more features. Duh.
A Great PDA (Score:2)
* Great media player capabilities: Though it won't play DRMed content, it plays standard Divx and MP3s with free software from the Web [corecodec.org]. (The video player software that came with it was some annoying proprietary thing. The MP3 player was fine, but the free media player I got plays OGGs too.) Battery life can be a problem with long movies, but not for episodes of The Venture Brothers [amazon.com], well if only there were some way to get episodes of that show in DiVX
Re:A Great PDA (Score:2)
phone, pda, laptop (Score:4, Insightful)
On the high end, small and light notebooks are good enough today that they work as real computers - I have a Panasonic R3, and it's my only computer. I meant to get a real desktop as a complement, but I just never got arond to it. Whenever I have my bag with me (and I usually have), it comes along. And it is a far better platform for "computing" than any PDA out there. If I were to get a PDA again, it would have to be something that complements this one on the low end.
On the other end, my current, normal (not a smartphone) phone is capable of most incidental things I need. Calling (not that I actually speak that often), email, music player, small text reader (directions, schedule and the like), alarm clock, dictionary - web surfing too, though I don't use it much. It's certainly not perfect - the screen resolution does equal that of my old PalmIII, and is in color and much easier to read, but is of course smaller - but it is always with me and it is _good_enough_.
A PDA would have to displace either my phone or my computer for me to consider one again. And to do that it would have to do what the lost gadget did at least reasonably well, and give me something extra - some compelling functionality that would make it interesting to switch in the first place. I am not aware of any such functionality today.
PDA needs connectivity (Score:2)
And no, paper and pencil notebooks don't cut it. The
Death to the PDA, Long Live the Cell Phone (Score:2)
Now what do we need the PDA for? Really? Stop being so backwards, PDA fan boys!
I still prefer PDAs (Score:2)
I got an Axim X51v as my first Pocket PC. Had been explicitly holding off for about four years because I do not need a gadget to remind me of appointments, phone numbers and the like. Instead, the things that got me wanting a PDA or similar were:
Why can so many 'tech' writers miss the simple... (Score:2)
PDAs were always basic 'PC' functionality that fits in the pocket.
The older PDA market was based on a simple fact. Portable processing power and storage managed with battery life.
If you play out battery life at the important item, phones are surpassing PDA technology of a couple years ago, and giving you 100% of the functionality. Look at the smartphone from MS even, it is a low overhead OS but you can browse the net with standard browser specifications a
Future = Treo form factor (Score:2)
I figure the next generation Treo, call it the Treo800, will have all the required checkbox features: bluetooth (headset, modem, keyboard, stereo audio), 3G wireless
If it doesn't fit in my pocket ... (Score:5, Insightful)
This is why I'd predict that the "smartphone" will win over the "PDA". The gadgets that are being marketed as PDAs now mostly are physically too large for the typical shirt pocket.
My wife even has a Treo, but she mostly leaves it home on the desk, because it's "too big", and carries a tiny cell phone that's just a phone. The Treo doesn't get used much, except for the few games she has loaded. (She loves the Sudoku puzzles.
For several years, I had a Kyocera smartphone, which I used a lot as both phone and PDA. At least I did, until it lost its calendar, and when I tried to reload from backup, it "backed up" its (empty) calendar, wiping out the backup. So I went back to a paper pocket calendar, which is more powerful anyway.
When it started dying, due to a company subsidy I got a CrackBerry. It also fits in my pocket, and is a fairly good phone, but otherwise not too useful. Now that I don't work there any more, and pay for it myself, I find that it's not worth the money. If you're not on an Outlook email system, its email is fairly cruddy and difficult to use. Its browsers are all cruddy, not much better than the initial Mosaic release. And our attempts to use it as a modem all came to naught. (Yeah, the salesmen said it would work, but after the company signed the deal and gave us developers the BBs, we found that RIM's CS people couldn't be bothered to answer our question.) So much for the idea that it would get our laptops connected where there was no wifi.
Frankly, the things are mostly a waste of money, unless you have one with software tailored for the one job you need it for.
I keep hoping the handhelds.org people will come up with a way to do a pocket-size gadget that does GSM/GPRS/wifi and can also talk IP across a USB and/or Bluetooth link. With linux on board, including ssh, I could program the rest of the stuff myself, and we won't have to deal with the obtruction from the phone companies who insist on locking us out of the most useful stuff.
Yeah, I know; I'm dreaming. There's no way the US phone companies will allow a pipsqueak like me to use "their" infrastructure for my own development purposes.
Re:If it doesn't fit in my pocket ... (Score:2)
Your wife must not appreciate the convergence of the Treo. PDA, MP3, camera, word editor, excel editor, pdf viewer. It may be a bit bigger than a standard phone, but it does everything.
Convergence (Score:2)
The SPPP is basically a:
PDA with more power and a GSM phone plugin
or
A phone with morepower and a touchscreen added
or
A miniaturized computer stripped of some functionalities, but added a touchscreen and a GSM phone plugin.
Sooooo all in all, every device is slowly becoming another. The phone is dead by the way. Yea
What about battery life? (Score:2)
Unfortunately I was disappointed to find that none of the newer models, Palm or Pocket PC, use regular AAA batteries anymore. Rechargeable is supposed to be more convenient, but I like my battery life to be measured in weeks, not days or hours. I can easily go 4-5 weeks between battery changes with my Visor, but with one of the new color PDAs I'm afraid this would be cut much shorter.
Maybe I'm in the minority, but I like
PDA future = bright (Score:3, Informative)
However, I am currently in the market for a PDA for my mother to travel with, for 3 months, to Africa and Europe. She has just bought a nice new Digital camera with a 1GB SD card in it.
Here's why PDAs are important: SIZE AND WEIGHT!
For a 3-month trip, for a 70-year old woman every single gram of weight is important. A laptop is simply out of the question, as she'd throw the thing in the rubbish after 3 weeks, I'm sure.
What she needs is a device with the following attributes:
1) Small
2) Light
3) colour screen of at least half VGA resolution
4) hand writing recognition
5) WiFi
6) Bluetooth
7) At least 2GB of storage
9) Email
10) Web surfing
11) MP3 player
12) Diary/Blog functionality
13) SD card reader
14) Image slideshow
15) Screen orientation flip
16) Fast recharge
17) At least 6 hours battery life
18) Ability to open most "common" file formats: PDF, Word, Excel etc.
19) Voice recorder
Of lesser importance, and able to be performed by a different device are
1) Very small and light, yet full size keyboard
2) Ability to dial-up to the Internet via GSM or Analog cellular connection.
features which are currently not available but would be desirable:
1) Projector, such that the cigarette-packet size object can create a screen of 19" (or larger) size at resolution of at least 1280 mode.
2) Biometric security: finger print enables device after powerup.
3) User swappable battery - or preferably, methanol based fuel-cell.
Currently, I am leaning towards the PalmOne "LifeDrive" with 4GB of disc space, and the iTech Virtual Keyboard, which uses a low power laser to project the KB onto a surface.
I feel that these two devices, along with a bluetooth-enabled GSM cell phone (which she already has), coupled with the WiFi and Bluetooth offer a traveller unparalleled connectivity and productivity at a very low "footprint". When space and weight are considered, the PDA definitely has a niche, but in the future, as fuel-cells allow faster processors, it's only a matter of time til the PDA is a full-featured PC, with USB2.0, firewire, built-in cellphone, projector, and incorporates a VKB - all in a single device.
Can I order mine now please?
Re:PDA? What is "PDA"? (Score:2)
Re:Death to the PDA, Long Live the Cell Phone (Score:2, Insightful)