[legoman]

I have a Palm IIIxe and have to come to really depend on it. I carry it with my in my pocket at all times. I love to have all addresses and phone numbers at my finger tips at all times. But the real value added to me is its ability to beep and remind me of meetings, birthdays, to do's, etc.

Re. Software: After an initial spurt of trying out all kinds of software I have settled down to this:
- Diddle Bug for quick, scribbled notes and countdown timer
- DateBk4, the best money I ever spent on shareware. Gives me the indispensable weekly overview and, most importantly, to do's with alarms on them
- Bubblet, the addictive game for planes, airports, and any other time of boredom

Less used: NeoCal calculator and unit converter, EuroWort dictionary.

Essentially, the core date book and address functions are the most useful to me, but unless the Palm applications have improved an upgrade to something like DateBk4 is highly recommended.

 

[phonatic]

DiddleBug... it rocks. I don't use it much, though.

DateBk... I am totally happy with the Handspring-supplied version, though I have supplemented it with Palm's freebie Dual Date, which syncs your schedule with that of a partner/spouse/whatever. Very handy.

My main app is the Oxford Chinese/English Dictionary. The handwriting recognition is a huge advantage in looking things up.

Beyond that... e-books, BigClock is handy, X-Words (a Scrabble clone), Z-machine games, pedit for notes and code editing, LispMe for running a bit of Scheme here and there. The Handspring-supplied calculator is also great. MessageEaseKB is a nice, free alternative input system, much faster and more accurate than Graffiti, though there is a learning curve.

I could see a Palm being a useful thing for DIYers... there are some very good graphing math packages for free. Hm, wonder if anyone has ported Spice to Palm...

Could I live without it? Sure. It's more than just a toy, but it's a nice toy, too.

 

[RacerX]

I switched from being an 8 year Palm user to Pocket PC. I now have the Dell Axim 5 and I love it. I have a 256MB SD card for storage and a Socket WiFi CF card for wireless connectivity.

Mutimedia apps work great with Pocket PC. Consequently I use my PDA to do the following:

1) Contacts, Calendar and other PIM functions
2) Read the daily news using AvantGo
3) Watch and listen to the news using Microsoft's Synch & Go (it downloads NBC's Nightly News, Today Show segments, NPR radio headline sand other "channels")
4) I have 4 downloaded books on my storage card
5) I listen to about 3 hours of music using PocketMVP and my Eggos
6) I can stream music files or listen to internet radio wirelessly through the WiFi CF card.
7) Play Monopoly
8) Surf the Web using my DSL connection and wireless network
9) Show off my family pictures using Rescoe Picture Viewer
10) Impress chicks with my nerdiness.

 

[elrod-tom]

Quote:

Originally posted by RacerX I switched from being an 8 year Palm user to Pocket PC. I now have the Dell Axim 5 and I love it. I have a 256MB SD card for storage and a Socket WiFi CF card for wireless connectivity.

I've seen a couple of folks who had these as new toys, having never used Palm, but haven't seen anyone yet who has switched. From a distance, I like what I see. I'm curioius what made you decide to change. What is it about your newWindows PDA that you feel is superior to your Palm PDA. For me it would have to be a lot, as I've got a lot of time and $$ invested in Palm.


Quote:

Originally posted by RacerX 10) Impress chicks with my nerdiness.

 

[legoman]

Yes, Handspring licensed some version/part of DateBk for their DateBook+ I think, so they have floats and I think the week view so DateBk is probably overkill for Handspring owners

 

[john_jcb]

Another feature that I forgot to mention with the SX56. I think most have this at least I know CE devices do. It is the ability to record your voice. This is great when you have ideas but do not want to take the time to enter a note. I find myself using it more and more to replace the notepad that the unit has.

 

[skagen]

Handspring Visor Edge - 1 yr old. its indispensable for me. I'm clumsy as hell and this thing is like a tank, especially with the metal flip cover that comes with it. Pretty slimand timeless good looks. And the way its built, you dont need a case. So its really small in real-life usage.

Apps I use most, in order of usage:
1) Dictionary, Edition 2.0) (an English - Norwegian dictionary)
2) Memos / Notes (synched from Outlook)
2) Action Names (address book)
4) Calendar
5) Calendar
6) To do list
7) Metro (public transit directions)
8) SF Cave (game)

I don't think theres any black and white unit on the planet that I would trade this thing for. People said it was unreliable, but I've nveer had any of the unreliability issues that some people say they had with it (fingers crossed!). The also said it wasn't really thin because of the explansion sled, but I've never needed that thing ever.

However, if I had budget for a color unit, I would get one, since I'd like to use street /subway map applications more. But I don't think I like the size/style combo of any of the color units that I've seen, except the Palm Tungsten model that slides open.

But until I come up with that kinda cash, this Visor Edge is really unbeatable. It may not be new or "sexy" by todays standards but its passed the test of time. This is the "Volvo" of PDA's.

 

[RacerX]

Quote:

I'm curioius what made you decide to change. What is it about your newWindows PDA that you feel is superior to your Palm PDA. For me it would have to be a lot, as I've got a lot of time and $$ invested in Palm.

Dolllar for dollar, the Dell was able to do a lot more than a Palm OS unit. Besides the PIM functions (which the Palm handles very well), the Pocket PC devices handle mutimedia apps exceedingly well. Displaying and/or playing pictures, video and mp3s are all effortless. I now can carry around hours worth of information and entertainment with me. Expanding capacity beyond the built in 64MB is quite easy as the Axim has both Secure Digital and Compact Flash slots. Did I mention the color screen is beautiful?

MS Office apps also work very well with Pocket PC (without 3rd party software required).

My cost after Dell's rebate was $249.

 

[N@Z]

I'm a Gadget person I have to admit. I don't think I'd know what to do if I lost my Palm Tungsten. Probably lots of sticky PostIt notes all over me to remind me what to do! Before that I used a Nokia 9210 communicator & before that an Ericsson R380 communicator (handphone+PDA function). I went for the dedicated PDA route as I intend to get a bluetooth enabled mobile phone to communicate with.

Besides the basic PIM functions I use the, scribble note pad & email function alot. Although I don't have access to the net directly I HotSynch it with my PC so whatever that was downloaded to the PC will be in my Palm for me to read/compose on the go. The bluetooth function will be what I intend to use more in the future hence a lot of wireless communication. Solitare gets used alot too while waiting around!

 

[BDA_ABAT]

Can't do without: portable keyboard.

I'm one of those clumsy left-handed folks that never quite got the "graffiti" handwriting thing down. Kept taking notes that ended up WAY scrambled (but made for entertaining reading later).

Keyboard is especially useful when attending a meeting and need to capture more than just a quick phrase. The keyboard adds to the bulk of the unit, which I was initially against. But, I've accepted that added weight/space because of the increased functionality it brings for me.

One of my collegues recently got the Clie' with the digicam built in (can't remember the model). He was very excited to show me pics of interesting cases he had seen in the emergency department (as well as the ability to document what was happening with those folks).

Actually, the better question to ask is why you decided to go for the Clie? What do you hope to do with it? What info do you wnat/need to have handy?

There are a plethora of apps for the Palm OS... gettting to be more so for PocketPC but no where near the variety of the Palm.

Bruce

 

[raymondlin]

How do you get news to the Clie? I got AvantGo but have no idea how to get it into the clie!

Edit, Done it now! and it's wonderful!

 

[raymondlin]

How do one turn off the general Beeping sound when you click on an icon in the Sony Clie? Palm OS 4.1 ?

And how do I read Ebooks? anything I need to install?

 

[legoman]

Quote:

Originally posted by raymondlin How do one turn off the general Beeping sound when you click on an icon in the Sony Clie? Palm OS 4.1 ? And how do I read Ebooks? anything I need to install?

1) In the older Palm OS it used to be under Prefs (one of the applications in the Systems category)

2) I use CSpotRun, but I am sure there is more sophisticated stuff these days.

 

[Schrieks]

(After proofreading this I notice it's terribly disorganized, but may be of use to someone)

I got my first PDA in 1991, before the term "PDA" was coined. I have used them almost constantly since then. I have had 8 since then: 1 was left atop a payphone, 1 fell 3 stories to its death the day after I got it, 1 I sold within a month to get a better one, 2 had messed up LCDs after nasty falls, 1 doesn't come on since I jury-rigged a battery pack that it didn't like... The others had plenty of service life. I mention this because it looks like I upgraded about every 15 months, but it's really that most of them didn't survive my butterfingers very long.

I used to use the contacts list and the note taker primarily, then those and the calendar, then not the calendar, then games and the others... I'm rambling, but the point: I love gadgets and the list of features I use vary by what is happening in my life. I assume this will be so for you, too.

CURRENTLY, my PDA is primarily an eText reader and note taker and secondarily a contacts DB/ birthday reminder.

I have read probably 30 books and countless articles on my recent PDAs. On my Psion Revo and my (recently messed up) Sharp Zaurus, I transfer txt files and read them in Word or OpieReader, respectively. I also read magazine articles. wired.com has the full text of their magazines online, and sciam.com (Scientific American) has many of their articles online. mobile.theonion.com has stuff, and there are many more out there. When I find a long article I like, I copy and transfer it to my PDA.

I read on the subway, on busses, standing in lines, waiting at stoplights (kidding!), and any other place that I would otherwise be bored and my full attention isn't required. I must recharge a lot, but it's worth it.. Man, keeping up to 1000 average-length novels in txt.gz on my 128mb card is very inspiring (I have only had at most like 12, though)

It's can be time-consuming to copy and paste articles to your PDA, but for me it's worth it. on sciam.com, for instance, I find an article I want to read, then I press the Print-version link and then when I see the clean page of text, I hilight it and copy it to my text editor for cleanup and formatting, if needed. Then I transfer over. Blam. Quite easy. I have tried using Plucker and weasel and a few other ebook/etext makers, but I prefer my way.


Some good links for material to read:
Project Guttenburg http://promo.net/pg/ has a ton of old public domain eTexts
wired.com
sciam.com
http://www.thislife.org/pages/trax/text/sandlin.html This is an amazingly readable short novel-length article about war in general and WWII specifically. I don't have the patience to read this enormous bit of text on a CRT, but on my PDA I have read it about 4 times. I cannot express how much I enjoy reading this one.
mobile.theonion.com
PM for more recommendations, if you like.

Um... if you have any difficulties with formatting the text so it's presentable on your PDA, PM me and I can write you a little script (in JavaScript) that will format the text.

 

[bangraman]

I'm less lost these days without one as I was, since I can walk into any Internet Cafe and access all my contacts, calendar, what I did with whom, etc but still it's fairly indispensable.
I'm due to receive the big daddy of the Clie line, the NZ90V on Monday with luck. I've had a Psion Revo up til now, which has taken umpteen trips down concrete stairs, drops, even one unintentional drop-kick. It's never crashed the entire time I had it either. I'm not expecting the Sony to repeat this trick, but even since I saw the first information on it on a Japanese site the specs just stayed in the back of my head until I HAD to buy it. (The W1000-factor, you might say

) Bluetooth, 2 megapixel camera, built-in keyboard, swivel display, compactflash slot (with software soon available to use it with any memory card instead of Sony's proprietary cards) etc etc etc. Amazing. I hope it works for me.