What is a PDA?

A Personal Digital Assistant is often referred to as “handheld.” At its simplest, a PDA stores personal information and synchronizes it with a PIM on your computer.

Note: PDAs require a computer

Palm- PC and Mac

Pocket PC- PC only

Best when used with a single -user computer (home¸ notebook, not department office). Calendar & Contacts can be merged.

What is a PIM?

A “Personal Information Manager” is a software program used to organize your calendar, addresses, and even written and voice notes. Novell GroupWise, Microsoft Outlook, and Palm Desktop are examples of PIMs.

What will you use it for?

Considerations:

Are you most interested in a mobile organizer (Calendar, Address Book)?

Are you interested in using a specific program/application (GradeQuick)?

Is there a specific piece of hardware you want to use? (probe/scanner)? What type of connection will it require (Palm Universal, USB, CF, SDIO)?

Do you want a small portable computing device for word processing, photos, MP3 or video files?

Memory & Storage: RAM and SD cards

Common Features:

Infrared transfer (“beaming”)

Synchronization

Storage: SD and CF cards (some PPC models)

Palm OS

Palm Desktop 4x 5x

Conduits

Chapura (for Outlook- Palm 4)

Outlook Conduit (Palm 5)

Pumatech Intellisync or Nexic Synchronis (for GroupWise)

GradeQuick

Documents to Go (for Word, Excel, PowerPoint)

Distinction: Automatic backup with each sync, lots of third-party software

Disadvantage: slow especially when using SD cards

Models: m130, Zire 71, Zire 21, Tungsten E, Tungsten T3, C, W

PocketPC OS

Outlook

ActiveSync

Pocket Word/Excel/Internet Explorer

Windows Media Player

Pumatech Intellisync or Nexic Synchronis (for GroupWise)

Distinction: Voice notes/recording, seamless PC integration

Disadvantage: Windows-based, more prone to freezes/crashes

Models: HP iPAQ, Toshiba (Audiovox), Dell Axiom

Advanced Features:

e-books

Readers:

Palm Reader Pro ($15), Microsoft Reader (free), Mobipocket Reader (Standard-free, Pro- $20)

Bible Reader- free, NAB $30

Creators:

Palm eBook Studio ($30), Microsoft Read in Word 2002 (free), Mobipocket Publisher (free-$1000)

pdf

Adobe Acrobat Reader for Palm and Pocket PC

photos

Photo, PhotoSuite, Pictures Image Viewer, IA Album

mp3

Windows Media Player (PPC only), RealPlayer (SD card required for Palm)

video

Windows Media Player, Kinoma

web clipping/web browsing

AvantGo, MSIE

Bluetooth- integrated or SDIO compliant card slot

WiFi (802.11b)- integrated or CF card (SD cards coming soon)

Coaching

baseball- ScorePad

Cell Phone Integration