any recommendations for PDAs?

I stopped by a Fry's Electronics, and the Palm Tungsten color version looked pretty hot, but the guy didn't recommend it because apparently the battery fails pretty quickly and it has to be sent back to Palm to be replaced... for $100. He said he was pretty darn happy with his HP iPaq. I did like thefact that it has a simple Excel and Word on it, so it'd be easy to xfer documents back and forth.

I definitely don't need one with a camera... and really would prefer that it's fairly thin and light, but if the features are worth it, I wouldn't mind a thicker one I suppose. I mainly need it for reminding me to do things, jotting down notes, etc. the HP one I looked at had a neat voice recorder feature, and its handwriting recognition software seemed pretty darned good. (better than the basic Graffiti I used on my old-- and crash-prone-- Handspring Visor)

anyway... any recommendations? I'm looking for one probably under $250... but could be convinced to spend a bit more.

 

check places like engadget or gizmodo to see the latest & greatest

 

YOu can't go wrong with the Ipaq, they have A TON of accessories for them at all the electronics stores (comes in handy when you need a new battery fast)..

I have a Dell Axim with wireless and blue tooth. It's pretty sweet and has great battery life.

YOu generally can't go wrong with an Ipaq, Axim or the Toshiba's.

Stay away from anything Palm based, they're old news now.

You might want to consider a Blackberry, they do a lot of PIM stuff.

 

If I was looking for new one right now I'd pick the Palm TX ($300) for its connectivity (both WiFi and Bluetooth). Windows Mobile devices are great for having the kitchen sink but Palm gets my business done and normally is either lighter/smaller and/or has longer battery life.

Not like I need VGA resolution in my calendar, contacts, memos, e-mail, and such. Might be nice for web surfing and photos but, um, that's what my real PC's are for.

 

buy a Palm if all you want is the generic calandar and low level functions that now are built into most cell phones. buy a microsoft based unit; hp, dell, asus etc if you want more functions but be ware the microsoft os is not stable. for example i have a good gps software in my iapq5550 (i use it alot) but it takes typically 2-3 resets to get the program up. its very difficult to put up with the odd software unless you are the person not bothered by this kind of thing, its really bad stuff here.

most pda's are visible in daylight at least compared to cell phone screens. there seems to be a balance between a pda's vga screen and more pda internal memory, opt for more memory.

hp does not make their own pda's and now a days most of their products are not the best value. palm may not be around soon. wonder when apple will come into this market if ever?

i know my pda would have never have lasted as long as it has with out its protective case. the case + pda make it more balky than expected.

you will need to sync up the pda to a computer, microsoft activesync is prone to odd behavior, backups and sync (s) are alot of maintance and takes a lot of time you could be doing other things.

wireless; verision has a good situation but its expensive. t-moble is lower prices but lower functionality. cigular has no wireless situation worth considering. wi-fi works well but uses alot of battery time. bluetooth has odd behavior. if you plan to combine your cell and pda consider you are locked into lugging around the heavy pda + protective case where ever you go.

where i am going... if all you wnat is calander functions buy an expenisve cell phone and link it to your home computer. again alot of low medium level functions are in modern cell phones.

reference:
brighthand.com ;pda etc
howardforums.com ;cell phones
mobileplanet.com ;whats 4sale, not the lowest pricing tho.

 

siemans sx 66

 

buy the audiovox harrier with the verizon internet package.

it uses tha pocket pc software, and it has highspeed wireless internet connection, and not like that blackberry crap, but real internet. i use mine to surf this forum all of the time.

it is only like $300 now. when i ought my first one it was 600 plus.

the service is 45 dollars per month, but you are allways connected to the internet everywhere. it is super convenient especially if you need it for business.