Choosing a PDA

M

mc gusto

25+ Posts
A few things:

I'll be a medical student in the fall, so I want something to take notes and keep records.
Phone is not necessary, though internet access is nice. Wi-Fi is a must.
Small, light, and accessible.

So far, I've really only looked at Palm's PDAs... Treos and Tungstens/Zires. I have no idea what would fit me best.
 
taking notes on a PDA would suck serious ***

get a laptop for chrissakes. There are plenty of lightweight portables available. Of course, I have none to tell you about.
 
My sisters are Docs and they both use the Palm OS. Apparently a couple of commonly used medical reference guides are on them and they can pull up patients info in the hospital on them.
 
I am posting from a Dell 700m.

As for notes, I meant patient notes, various random post-itable notes, and what I would put in a paper planner. Except now, I want to look cool and I decided to forego buying a new car. Thus, I have $500/month to spend on whatever the **** I want now. The PDA was first... I thought about getting a Blackberry or Treo, but maybe a Zire or Tungsten.. or Axim would work better for my needs.

pchorn, that answers a lot of my questions... thanks. unpainted, thanks for nothing.
 
i was looking at the lifedrive... just wonder how durable the hd will be considering, well, hd-based mp3 players still don't last very long.
 
well your very welcome
smile.gif


I was thinking you would be taking class notes...now that would suck

now that I think about it one of my buddies is a doctor so I'll ask what he uses. Now I recall him having a PDA for the very reasons you listed.
 
I've been a Palm OS software and content developer for the last 10 years-- but when my Palm Tungsten E got ripped off, I replaced it with a Dell Axim X30 with the fast processor. It feels cheap, but it's probably the best Swiss Army knife-type PDA I've ever owned. One of my motivations is that more of the places I frequent have WiFi net access, and the Dell has WiFi built in, while only a few Palms even allow it, and then you have to plug in a card that costs around $100 extra. I also got a thumbpad keyboard for data entry, which is fine for small stuff, but I'm not going to be writing any novels on it.

My choices for a pure PDA (no phone) would be a Tungsten E2, which sounds like a good improvement over the one I had, or my Dell Axim X30.

I agree with other posters about it being difficult to take notes on PDAs, especially in a classroom environment where you have to jot the info down quickly. Handwriting recognition is just not that good on either the Palm or the Pocket PC platform. I do use PDAs to take notes in libraries and such, to the extent I still have to do research from paper resources, but that's pretty rare. I've used foldable keyboards in the past, but the thumb keyboard I have now is fast and accurate enough for my needs.

If your primary goal is to take notes on your electronic device and cost is unimportant, look at the newer tablet PCs. Handwriting recognition on those is better than on PDAs with Microsoft's OneNote, and you've got a real computer to boot, albeit one that's expensive for the computing power you get.

I'd wait until Palm figures out the bugs in the LifeDrive before buying it. It sounds real buggy to me right now. Great concept, though.
 
I guess I should post that I chose a PDA... the Garmin iQue M5. Integrated GPS system into a PocketPC. It is the ****.
 
O.K., is it really worth buying screen overlays (protection sheets) for a PDA? Or is this just a big scam to sell parts to PDA owners?

Will a PDA screen really wear out or become too scratched up before the PDA gets so old that it's time to buy a new one just to keep up with the technology? Does anyone here use them?
 
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