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Handhelds Hardware

The Evolution Of PDAs 144

Posted by timothy from the public-display-for-attention dept.
rbruels writes: "They first made their appearance as clunky high-tech note pads for Captain Kirk (embedded sound warning) and his crew, but back here in the 21st century, the proliferation of the PDA has become a real phenomenon. This story on Unstrung gives a good insight into the evolution of these portable devices, and the factors that will influence their growth in the years to come. A good read. (As a side note, I have yet to purchase a PDA. /me hangs his head in shame.)" More importantly than where they've been though, is what's next for PDAs. What features would you trade the baby for?
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The Evolution Of PDAs More

The Evolution Of PDAs

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  • Luxury!!! (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I had a Newton 100 [aceadvanced.org]...

  • Re:sticks (Score:1)

    by pez ( 54 )
    Funniest Slashdot thread ever. Seriously. (Coming from avid /. reader and user #54). Wish I had mod points today.
  • Well, I don't know much, but I do know that, back when I was youngun, I would see people holding hands, and sometimes I would see an occasional peck on the cheek. At most.

    But now? Now everyone is gropin' and palmin' and spankin' in public! I don't know why, but suddenly everyone thinks that it's just O-freakin-K to get all hot and bothered out in the town square. And I don't like it! Nosiree!

    What? Whaddya mean "not that kind of PDA"?

    oh.

    nevermind.
  • What features would you trade the baby for?

    Easy: I want connectivity and enhanced input. At the same time. My wish list has varied somewhat over the past few years since I picked up an IBM Workpad 20x (Palm3 in formalwear), but it all boils down to the same connectivity and input needs/wants.

    Over the past few years, some things have come close:
    • my first dip in the PDA pond was an HP-LX200 with a motorola PM100c cdpd (analog cellular-based) modem. The PM100c was externally powered so it lasted a while, and I got a hold of WWWlx browser for the HP. It was slick, dependable, and the compact keyboard was quite nice. It was very nice to pull up traffic maps with something that sat on my dashboard. If the service wasn't so dang expensive, I'd still use that combo today.
    • I really dig the Rex in concept, and bought a Rex3 when it first came out. The ease of data transfer by sticking it into a PCMCIA slot counts as good connectvity for that device form, but it's not an Itsy from Compaq. Input is horrible. Sheesh, how much would an accelerometer have added to the cost of a Rex? Even if it'd doubled the price, it would have stormed the market if it'd incorporated the "rock&scroll" input mechanisms.
    • Along with the rest of the herd, I bought my current Palm-compatible device and later a Palm keyboard. I periodically used it as a terminal, but whenever I was connected to something, I wanted my input to be better and faster. And besides, it's hard to type control characters using PalmTerm or DiCon when you're using it as a console for a Sun E4500. But the serial cable & kb are mutually exclusive, so I started to look for a keyboard+serial combo.
    • Then PalmV+GoType got me all excited until I realized that the serial-out on the GoType KB wasn't split or multiplexed, so I couldn't use a modem at the same time as the keyboard. Feh. Same for the NovaTel/Minstrel modems. How hard would it have been to put a passthru on the bottom of the Minstrel?
    • The TRG Pro is essentially a Palm3xe with a CF slot at the top and a standard palm3 connector at the bottom, so I could use a keyboard and a serial/modem or ethernet card at the same time. Bravo! this was the first real handheld that would give me connectivity and enhanced input at the same time, and was useful for me in a technical operations environment. But by the time this came out, I started pining for low-power ethernet cards or a 802.11 CF card.
    • The new Palm M5xx series and Handsprings are kinda neat, but why the heck did they go for a proprietary connector on the top? I can swallow one proprietary connector (the base serial connector), but two? Of course, the Handspring cellphone is a work of art -- if only GSM service wasn't crap in Seattle. (And doesn't the serial port on the Handspring hang when the cellphone is in use?)
    • Currently, the Handera, the new rev of the TRG Pro, looks like the winner. Serial connectivity on the bottom that's usable with inexpensive Palm3 devices, a standard CF slot for the high-end (microdrive, ethernet, forthcoming 802.11) devices, and a SD slot for instant backup (and some other proprietary crap I won't buy). And it's got a great screen. Now if the price would come down just a smidge...

    Well, at least there are some options now. I've held off for a while, but I'm heavily leaning towards the HandEra. But I won't sell my kid for it; not until a CF 802.11 card comes out, at least.

    Jon

  • The I/O methods have to change. Input should be done with voice commmands, and output done via a retinal scanning display. I think that eventually, PDAs can be built into glasses & later on, contact lenses.

    Oh, and eventually, I'd like a network connection that doesn't suck :-)

    --

  • Re:Bluetooth & cellular (Score:3)

    by Keith Russell ( 4440 ) on Tuesday July 31, 2001 @11:19AM (#2178822) Journal
    I wish Kyocera would bite the bullet and force their SmartPhone to use headphones. The way it's designed now, you have to be careful to avoid bumping the screen with your cheek as you talk. You've already pointed out the inherent flaw in holding the input device to your ear. And, even though the SmartPhone is a 2nd generation design, smaller than its predecessor, the Qualcomm pdQ, it's still too big.

    Most of that size probably comes from the cellphone-spec battery. Just eyeballing my phone and PDA, they're the same thickness. But the PDA's built-in MP3 player sucks the battery dry. (11 hours with the screen off, 3 with the screen on. Which makes me wonder why Sony bothered with visualizations. Guess some people are impressed with das blinkenlights.) Imagine what a dual- or tri-band cellphone would do for battery life. It could possibly survive as a digital-only phone, but analog? Fuggedabahtit.

    The pdQ/SmartPhone probably sounded like a good idea at the time, but in practice, it comes off as two devices surgicially attached, rather than designed as a single unit. Microsoft's Stinger sounds closer to the ideal, although the Pocket PC part is somewhat watered down.

    What I'd like to see is, ironically, a three-part design, but with a different segregation of duties:
    1. PDA: Any kind would do.
    2. Cellphone: Here's the tricky part. It would just be the antenna and battery. No buttons. It gets all its marching orders from the PDA. The Address Book's role is pretty obvious. Service providers could provide applets that automate things like voice mail without wading through "Press 1 to ..." menus. This way, the cellphone part can be made as small as possible and left in a pocket or purse.
    3. Headset: like you said, something small and rugged. Would also be used for audio from/to the PDA, depending on its capabilities (alarm tones, MP3s, text-to-speech, voice annotations, etc).
    All three would be connected by the wireless protocol du jour, of course. The failure or loss of the PDA would be an issue for the cellphone (voice-recognition dialing?), but this is just off the top of my head. I haven't written this on the back of an Eat'n'Park placemat yet. :-)

    We're not scare-mongering/This is really happening - Radiohead

  • Seems to be what you want: runs epoc32 - the latest version of what runs on the psions. Now in colour. The symbian doodah.

    check it here [nokia.com] - nearly identical form factor to the 9000.

    I own a 9110. The last of the non symbian breed.

  • I have just started to use my PDA for something other than my schedule.

    I have a digital camera that uses CF cards. I swap the CF card out of the camera, pop it into the PDA and viola, I have all the files.

    MP3's, etc are all on there as well. Nothing like sitting on long airplane trips w/MP3's, Spy Hunter, and Solitare ;-)

    My father recently purchased an iPAQ (I have a Cassiopeia). He just bought a 1G microdrive ($385.00 blew my mind) and stores TONS of crap on there. MP3's, pictures, games, etc.

    My Cassiopeia is slow as hell (especially during transfers, mp3's, etc) but his iPAQ is quite fast. I can only say that PDAs have come along way from the crap that Palm has put out (no comments on my opinion please)

    The space available these days for the price is amazing. That 1G microdrive is tiny. At this point in time I don't see the point to conserving space and features... 500k. Bleh.

    - Bill
    proudly transfering files to/from my PDA w/FTP w/o Windows :)
  • You had a mastadon? We dreamed of mastadons. We had to get up in the morning half an hour before we went to bed, write the entire contents of the Rosetta Stone in twigs in the Sahara desert, in a high wind. Then we worked 29 hours in the slate mines for you namby pamby slate writers, and when we got home, our mum and dad would kill us both with a eagle quill. But you try and tell kids that nowadays, and they dont believe you.
  • Alternately, I'd be happy with a pair of those Dockers Mobile Pants. [dockers.com] That way, I can still have my geeky PDA/Phone without embarassing "Palm Pilot Pocket Bulge". (I used to carry my Palm V everywhere until I noticed that all of my jeans had big rectangles faded into the pockets where my PalmPilot used to be. You just can't impress the ladies that way.)
  • Other organizers top out at 320x320 or 320x240; while that seems to be the limit of the density we can pack into such a small surface area, I sometimes need more.

    I want a PDA based on the OLED display tech IBM uses on it's "wristwatch linux" prototype...
    IIRC, it's something like 700DPI(!) mono,
    meaning that I could fit a lot of text on a 4x3 display...

    C-X C-S
  • As far as I've seen all of the discussion so far has been Hardware evolution of the PDA.

    To an extent I like the idea of a Bluetooth headphone for mobile ('cell') phone use. But what about when I head to a pub or club. I don't want to take my expensive PDA out on a night out, I just want my phone for calling taxi's, emergency, finding people etc.

    But then I do want to be able to sync the address book in my phone and my pda, not just beaming individual numbers etc. proper syncing, mirroring all little changes.

    Of course I want to sync both of these devices with the addressbook software on my desktop pc. Oh and the calendar as well (yes my cell phone has a calendar which I use). As well as my desktop pc there's the company groupware. When I'm in Hong Kong (for example) and I make an appointment for the 18th/Dec in Amsterdam, I don't want my secretary (heh, like i've got one) tomake me an appointment for the same day in New York. I want to sync my pda/phone with the company groupware wherever I am. I also want to be able to do this over the appropriate network for where I am, whether it be the cradle, bluetooth, serial (IrDA, PPP), ethernet whatever.

  • there's alots of solutions for syncing your newt, you're just not looking (or else you think they all died when the newton did).

    here's a couple of links to get you going:

    http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=101 95&db=mac [versiontracker.com]

    -- new software to sync your newton with MS Entourage (if you use something else, there's an option out there somewhere, i swear)

    http://talk.smaller.com/forumdisplay.cgi?action=to pics&forum=Newton+General+Discussion&number=1 [smaller.com]

    -- excellent discussion forum, always active

    http://www.info-newt.com/faq/index.html [info-newt.com]

    -- the most comprehensive listing of FAQs, software vendors, etc. plus links to lots more

    http://www.newtontraveler.com/ [newtontraveler.com]

    -- my newton site :)

  • I've wondered about this for years, having started with a PilotPro and listened to people whining about color, and wireless, and memory, and expandability...it's never enough. Nobody I know uses the color. Nobody I know fills their memory. I don't see too many people using the wireless (mostly because eto get it you had to sacrifice color, memory and size :)).

    I think it was Stephenson in Diamond Age where he talked about having a foldable piece of electronic paper you carried with you. You'd just tell it "Today's sports" and presto, there they are. I suppose you could take this to it's natural conclusion and make it interactive -- "Schedule, please." When unfolded it could be stiff as a board so you could write on it, ala Newton recognition (NOT graffiti!) It's got a wireless connection so it's always sync'd up to your main workstation (including the ability to switch from work to home as your proximity goes from one to the other). That's what I'd like.

  • I'm considering buying on of these. However, can anyone tell me if they succeded in making the Palm more secure? If it gets stolen, I don't want anyone to be able to read my stuff. Is there a single way to encrypt everything, transparently?

    I'd like to log in by specifying my password, work, log out. If the device gets stolen now, nobody can decrypt the data.

    Is that possible? Pardon my ignorance, but the reviews I read concentrate on other issues...
  • I am going to buy a PDA when two things happen
    • I can fit at least a single 80x25 color xterm window in it
    • It can connect seemlessly to my network (preferably wireless and not IR)
    And, oh ya - the usual - it should not cost and arm and a leg and it should last at least 24 hours on batteries.
  • The next phase is arriving. Porn on the PDA.

    http://www.generationpix.com [generationpix.com]

  • My Palm 3XE with the Rhinoskin sport case (polypropylene, foam and nylon cloth) has been dropped and thrown many times and is not the worse for wear. I did however break off the belt clip button on the back of the rhino case about the 3rd time I slammed it between my hip and a steel door frame.

    North-Central MA Geek in search of employment
  • My dream PDA would have

    Processing Power - enough muscle behind it to power several concurrent soft synths.

    RAM - enough to hold several audio files for a sampler application.

    Secondary Storage - enough to hold my own work, as well as a relatively large mp3 collection (I'm fickle with music and like to have a wide selection in my quiver

    Backlit LCD screen - something useable.. I'm not sure what would be practical but I think we're almost there already (given the app has a clever UI)

    When this comes together I'll jump in and get one. It'd be very nice to sit on the bus/plane/car composing music in a fully featured environment.
  • I have a Palm m505, personally. I love it, but I'd like easier connectivity. 802.11 support would be perfect. I'd love to use web clipping applications through my existing Internet connection(s) wirelessly.
  • They really need to read 'Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure' [amazon.com] by Jerry Kaplin [thestandard.com] and read how the first real PDA, the Go! was royally screwed (well, according to Kaplin) by Apple's 'assistance' pre-Newton and by Microsoft's Pen Computing libraries which seem to have been invented to be a spoiler for Go! and its successor the GRiD - I don't think they ever got used in a PDA and have very little relation to Windows CE. I read 'Startup' when I was trying to do a dotcom myself and it put me off completely. It's required reading for anyone who even thinks of taking on the big boys, even with things they haven't thought of yet.
  • Well, if by "wireless" you mean 802.11b, the prices keep dropping on 802.11b cards. At $90 for a low-end wireless card, plus $50 for the PC Card sleeve, it's not that pricey to connect an iPaq. I've seen a few with such a configuration. The whole mass is pretty bulky, and I imagine battery life is atrocious, but it works.

    As for CDPD (Ricochet, GoAmerica, et al) the prices are still pretty high. Give it a few years: the current state of CDPD is similar to the way cellular service was just a few years ago.

  • My dream PDA: expandable. (Score:3)

    by generic-man ( 33649 ) on Tuesday July 31, 2001 @09:59AM (#2178839) Homepage Journal
    I've owned a Palm organizer for about three years now (first a PalmPilot Personal, then a Professional, and now a III) and I find it incredibly convenient. However, the screen resolution has remained stagnant at 160x160. Other organizers top out at 320x320 or 320x240; while that seems to be the limit of the density we can pack into such a small surface area, I sometimes need more.

    My ideal PDA, which won't roll off the assembly line for a long time, would have an expandable display. I could leave it at the current Palm-like size to hold in one hand, fold it out to show wider information (for spreadsheets, week-at-a-glance views, etc) and fold it out again to read information newspaper-style. Given the recent advancements in paper-like display technology, I think that this could be done within the next 5-10 years. The shirt-pocket-sized form factor is still very appealing, even though most people don't carry organizers in their shirt pocket anyway. Still, it would be nice to have the option of display sizes.

    Oh, and of course it would have WLAN support. There's no use in a big display if there's no live information for it. :)
  • Then you may want to check out the PC-Ephone [pc-ephone.com]. Seems like it may do a lot of what you want. Problems? The two biggest I see are Windows CE and the price. Though the "base station" may be a bit bulky too.
  • The place for information about the ipaq running Linux is handhelds.org [handhelds.org], not ipaqlinux.com, which hasn't been updated for a year.
    -russ

  • Re:Text to speech! (Score:3)

    by Russ Nelson ( 33911 ) <slashdot@russnelson.com> on Tuesday July 31, 2001 @10:24AM (#2178843) Homepage
    The CMU speech folks, Alan Black and Kevin Lenzo [festvox.org], told me last Thursday that they'd have a package for the Linux iPAQ [handhelds.org] in another week. And it's going to be small enough to include by default.
    -russ
  • What would really be nice it to have a PDA that could perform my public key cryptography and signing for me. Right now I have to trust whatever machine I'm using to keep my public key secure, which limits me to using machines I control. If I could carry the key in a PDA. then I could sign/encrypt anything anywhere:

    1. Send document to PDA or create on PDA
    2. Enter passphrase
    3. PDA encrypts/signs
    4. Export document

    These steps could be laregely automated, and with bluetooth-like technologies, I might not even have to hook up the PDA to anything.

    I think I remember reading a paper related to this, but I can't seem to dig it up. I think that the authors identified a couple problems with using the Palm for this:

    • The Palm was way too slow---30 seconds for a 512 bit signature, and something like 3 minutes for a 1024 bit signature, if I recall correctly.
    • PalmOS is unprotected---I could run my encryption, but I couldn't run any untrusted software on the Palm, since it could steal the private key.

    One could also start using some sort-of digital cash system. (Probably something the government doesn't want you to have. :) Once you can do good crypto in the PDA, all sorts of fun things become possible.

  • The tiny screen is a good compromise for portability and battery life. Since they're already moving toward a general-purpose computing platform, it would be nice to have an optional peripheral that exports the display to a VGA monitor. They already have external keyboards available, so it wouldn't be a stretch to have it be an overlarge PDA or an underpowered desktop. :-)
  • Hey, I used wireless! With a Palm VII, and a III (had myself a CDPD brick). And it rocked.

    But the problem was cost. Double-digits per K in the case of the VII (unless I wanted to go $40/month for unlimited) or $40/month for the CDPD.

    If they could just get connection fees low enough, I'd consider going in again on one. Not until then.

    As for color, I used to hold the same opinion, that it was a cheap trick of no practicle value. Until I used a IIIc, and then later an E-115 from Casio. It just looks better, hands down and out. And if you do a lot of reading, that matters.

    Finally, memory. I have maxed out the 2megs on my Palm VII, and I desperately wished that I had waited until the VIIx came out. There's never enough memory, because more memory lets me do more stuff.

    Case in point: iPAQ. With a 1gig microdrive, I can run a very decent linux system. Why? 'cuz I'm a geek who likes toys, and who likes finding new uses for those toys.

    But geek types like myself are a very small part of the market. The closest thing I've seen to an ultimate geek PDA (in terms of functionality packed into minimal space) is the recent HandEra (formerly TRG). But even it is lacking features I would dearly love to have.

    So since this article seems to be more about wishes than realities, I'll toss my wish list into it: Color. Serial port. IR port. Maximum possible RAM. Flashable ROM (also large). CF slot. Expansion port. High speed. Long battery life. Running PalmOS, or Linux.

  • What I'd like to see is a constant connection between the PC and the PDA. In my experience, "Hotsync" type operations involve a temporary link to the palm, and then that link is terminated. With a wee bit of tweaking, the PDA's touchable screen could be useful as a secondary monitor. I know I've heard discussion of a secondary LCD screen being used for input and the like recently; why not use an already widespread device?

    The iPaq isn't too far off that. ActiveSync is always running. (And sucking CPU, which seems a bit much.) The device shows up like any other volume in the Explorer: you can control the filesystem of the iPaq from the desktop, albeit not the other way around. You can also mirror the iPaq screen to the desktop, but I'm not aware of any way to do the reverse.

    I suspect it wouldn't be too staggeringly hard to send taps on the screen to the desktop, but I'm talking from exactly no experience programming WinCE devices. I'm not so sure this is all that useful though: the screen is very small and it's hard to be precise, and the iPaq displays the "Today" screen by default when sitting in the cradle which is actually a rather nice feature.

    Eric

  • My wish list for the pocet PC:
    Cell phone. Simple plug for the earpiece /microphone is perfect (similar to hands free combo's now).
    Audio out for music. Using the same plug would even be nice, if the earpiece could be headset style.
    10 gig hard drive (Yeah, that's a plug for Serial Systems;)
    Digital camera. Small lense on the top, immediate viewing of the picture, it should be obvious.
    Audio recorder, doesn't have to be good quality. Again, same headphone, cellphone combo.
    Voice recognition as an option.
    A GOOD high resolution display.
    Long battery life (8hours at least).
    USB input, etc.
    CONFIGURABLE BY ME so I can load what I want! [Linux damnit!]

    I think all the technology is there, esp. since most of the functions could be done through software: mp3 player, cell phone, and camera could all be emulated with a good driver for the actual IO... and the right OS (any guesses?). Everything else I'd want they already do - organizer, email, office (not MSWord by the way), etc. Does anyone know why they haven't made these already? Seriously - it's not a market I watch.

    Ctimes2
  • Yes, but it seems he would use windows for that. Apparently, peeping floats his boat.

    Boss of nothin. Big deal.
    Son, go get daddy's hard plastic eyes.
  • By my opinion, we won't be seeing truly useful personal computing devices until they make them for $20-30/item (So that you can buy several, spread them out over a desk, and not be too worried if you loose them/somebody accidentally borrows them/break them/etc.)

    You mean something like this [howstuffworks.com]?
  • I remember reading somewhere that there were toddlers in Silicon Valley that could only read and write in Graffiti... *shudder*
  • Alternately, I'd be happy with a pair of those Dockers Mobile Pants.

    "Hidden Pockets on the inside for your PDA?" WTF?

    "Uh, hey... get I get your phone number? Oh, wait, gimme a second I gotta undo my pants real fast, and, uh... ouch!"
  • No one remembers Go Corp., PenPoint, the original source of the name ``ThinkPad'' (the first ThinkPad was to run PenPoint and was a tablet design), nor GRiD, or their Convertible and other pen systems, nor the Newton either.

    All got run into the ground 'cause they weren't controlled by Microsoft---see Jerry Kaplan's book _Startup_ for the insider's view.

    Sadly, no one is making a system I'd like to buy. It'd have to replace my NeXT Cube, ThinkPad w/docking station, Newton, NCR-3125, Wacom graphics tablet and Newton.

    I want:

    - pressure sensitive input (a Wacom stylus or something better)

    - docking station which uses the system as a display, a la the Mitsubishi Amity SP/VP

    - a drawing program like FutureWave's SmartSketch which really uses the pen

    - handwriting/gesture recognition

    - a NoteBook UI like PenPoint, or at least as good as the Newton

    - robust, reliable OS.

    The closest thing these days is the IBM ThinkPad Transnote :(

    William

    --
    Lettering Art in Modern Use
  • I wish I was moderating today. That one cracked me up.

    No matter how much horsepower you throw at it, voice recognition still sucks.

  • I'm not interested in having a handheld computer. I just want a magic notebook for phone numbers etc.

    I'm disappointed that almost all development of the PDA is in adding power and features. My old Palm Profesional had 500k memory, and that was 5 times more than I ever used. My new m500 is about half the size and weight but has 8Meg, and a bundle of new features.

    I guess memory doesnt really take much space, but I still wonder if it couldn't be possible to build a much smaller PDA if you just stuck to what the Pilot of 4 years ago could do, and focus on making it easy to carry around everywhere.
  • There's been lots of talk about open-sourcing the Newton, and there's several reasons why it won't happen: First, much of the Newton is based on licensed technology, so it's not Apple's to release. Second, even if Apple wanted to release the parts of Newton that are their IP, it's been reports that Apple can't even find the information its based on! I don't recall where these reports came from (if you have the energy you can search - but it's pretty old news for us Newtoneers). There was an attempt to re-create the Newton's interface (GNUton [sourceforge.net]) but it's a long way from completion, if ever.
  • all I want is a real, honest to god DB9 serial port, an open OS, lots of RAM and at least 32 megs of ROM, an expansion slot and a flash reader. Leave the specs for the slot open so that anyone can design for it, or just make it PCMCIA. I really just want that DB9. It would be sweet to plug into a router or a console port and just work away on my 640x240 screen in a pinch.
  • If you require the bandwidth of a chording keybd, you're not taking notes, you're taking a transcript, and you'd probably be better off with a tape recorder and a fast typist anyway, because obviously you haven't learned the art of summary, nor have the skill of memory, and you probably need someone to remind you about the 3:30 meeting as well, oh, and here's your presentation..

    Hurry.

    Sincerly,
    Professional Secretaries of America..
  • Heh....that is hilarious.
  • I've had HP95LX, HP100LX, HP200LX, HP320LX, Palm IIIx, Agenda VR3 and now a Yopy.

    None have the functionality that I want out of the box: reliable, syncable, contacts and calendar, email, web browser, easy-to-use notepad, and some means of always on internet access.

    So far, the closest to what I need has been the HP100/200. Wireless slow access was available, as was a text-only web browser. The Palm 3x is in second place.

    At this point (having had a yopy for 2 hours ) I'd say that the agenda vr3 is in last place. The best handwriting recognition was the palm, followed by the yopy.

    None of them fully meet my basic needs, let alone offer the nice-to-haves like support for the handykey, or a wireless retina head mounted display.
  • I work in a RadioShack store where we sell iPaq's and these things are nice. I was very impressed with the usuability and features they manage to pack into the little things, and the ability to install Linux on them doesn't hurt at all. :)
    Check out this site for more info on that: http://www.ipaqlinux.com

    We sell quite a few of them and as far as I know we have had zero returns. That's a good sign.
    A little websearch shows that you can get them in all shapes and sizes these days with a good spread in price: http://www.storescanner.com/cat/Compaq-PDAs.asp

    If you aren't already on the PDA bandwagon and are thinking of giving it a try, I highly recommend giving one of these baby's a look.
  • An 8.5x11 (or thereabouts), thin, lightweight, long battery life, fully capable computer. Good wireless network connectivity. Voice capabilities. Enough horsepower and storage to watch movies, listen to music, play Quake, use the Gimp, edit HTML, and monitor remote servers, preferably all at the same time. TV out, network jacks, USB, firewire, PS/2, IR, RF, etc. What I want is my desktop computer on a thin sheet of paper. Cheap enough to be disposable, rugged enough to use in the rain, and light enough to carry ten of them with me at a time.

    Something easy and cheap enough to be sent in the mail in a padded 8.5x11 envelope would be nice. A self contained presentation machine.

    Don't forget built in GPS with a load of GIS data built in.
  • "Durable (lexan coated?) enough to exist without a case."

    While Lexan is tough in one sense, it is subject to chemical attack. Ammonia, in many glass cleaners, does a number on Lexan as does citric acid. Also, Lexan isn't hard in the context of scratch resistance.

    Nylon, while not usable for anything needing transparency, is also tough, takes dyes/colorants well, and is almost immune to chemical attack (though that also means you can't easily bond it). Not tough enough? Reinforce it with glass fiber. 33% glass fiber filled nylon is some pretty tough stuff.

    ABS is another fairly rugged plastic. The colorants may be a bit more limited and there is some chemical activity, but this stuff is still a decent choice.

    The real trick may be to have designed strength a decent wall thickness so that if dropped, it can take it without turning to shards.
  • It's not just the PDA that needs to evolve but computing in general - it's time devices conform to how humans work instead of vice versa.

    I think the first thing to ditch is the attitude of one device does all things - too many trade offs ruin the whole package.
    In the article [unstrung.com] by Mr. Hayes the question is what does it take to get corporate types to ditch the laptop and cell phone?

    -So let's set our endpoints and monetary limits. Laptop $2000 and cell phone $150 (remember corporate i85 or nokia 7200 types). The user needs voice communication, text communication, web access, intra/internet file access.
    -Why does one device need to do this and do it as best in breed? It doesn't. What the user needs are these:
    1. Wireless headset - all voice comm routes thru it. This is what bluetooth was made for - use it. A simple slip over the ear or full headphone + mic or even a phone style hand set to chat with - use bluetooth and make any of the three types interchangable.
    2. A small data display slate - SMALL so it fits anywhere and is always with you. Now for network connectivity, this is key. Then the memory and storage capacity needs change dramatically. Remember, this is not the device I want to watch Star Wars or Gladiator on. It's basically a glorified 3x5 card. It needs bluetooth to interface with my head gear and to sync with some server somewhere that keeps my calender, contacts and tasks. Also, text messaging (SMS) is needed. So a cellular WAN aka GPRS or *DMA connection too. When i want to contact someone I do it from my contact list or an onscreen keypad. That's it. Make it the best-in-breed to do only that. Keeps the cost down and I can probably afford two of them. Now some would say why not Wi-Fi (802.11b) connection. The reason against is that Wi-Fi coverage is limited at this time. If it grows then by all means. That replaces the PDA and cellphone.
    3. Tablet PC/WebPad/Pen Driven slate. This is the laptop replacement. It needs bluetooth because the other two bluetooth accessories, besides the headset, anyone needs is a keyboard and mouse. All this internet access through bluetooth is just stupid. It not made for that so don't push it that way. When you think bluetooth think wireless USB. So my slate (or two) can sit on an easel on my desk and i can type on it and mouse and surf with it. For net access, this is where Wi-Fi is needed. Actually, 802.11a is the better net protocol - 54 Mbps, not conflicting with bluetooth at 5Ghz. When i need to go i pick up the slate and leave. All my work goes with me because i have the storage in the slate for offline work.
    I think these three devices replace the cell phone, PDA, laptop and desktop and they can do it for under the price of all four combined.

  • With my current gear, I really don't feel a need to upgrade based on what I've seen out there. But what I want more than anything is to be able to avoid having to carry multiple gadgets around with me, and to have good wireless internet access.

    So for me:

    • Start with the Kyocera Smartphone [kyocera-wireless.com] - phone and PDA in one not-obscenely-large device;
    • The ability to play mp3s and support for some kind of optional larger-capacity storage (e.g. CompactFlash);
    • A good-quality, well-lit color screen;
    • Easy expandability, using something like the Visor Springboard;
    • 10-12 hours of battery life no matter what I'm doing (playing mp3s while surfing the net, interspersed with longish phone calls);
    • Reasonably fast (solid 56K-plus) web/e-mail access, through a regular ISP (I don't want to be forced to use Palm's approved providers and/or websites or however they do it)
    • Finally, I'd like to sync reasonably quickly with my home/office PC wirelessly, and thus either save new info, or get back to where I was if I have a crash that wipes out data while I'm on the road.

    For me, until I can get all/most of this in one device that clips onto my belt, I don't feel a strong need to upgrade from the IIIx and a Nokia 5165.

    (I'll add here the caveat that I have comparatively little experience with advanced PDAs/phones/mp3 players, so some of what I want may be available, or may not be available for 20 years.)

  • All I want in a PDA is "Box"!

    Star Cops info [archivestv.net] and here too [aol.com]


    CSG_Surferdude
  • The 2100 was too big for a PDA. What I want is a StrongArm-based Newton with color, lots of expandability, and a full-featured built-in web browser, in the same form factor as a Palm. It should cost no more than $500 with those features.

    The Newt had the best PDA OS by far - years after it was cancelled nobody else has even come close.
  • I think that all PDAs, from the earliest to the latest, are really just attempts to satisfy our innate human desire for Tricorders.
  • uses a super-compatible (xml) format to store address info that would be interchangeable between cell phones, computers of any OS, and handhelds.

    SyncML [syncml.org] is exactly that - any compatible device (my shiny new 9210 does it :P) that can talk syncml can exchange contacts, data, and other personal info without problem. It's open too. Yum.

  • Re:I dono.. (Score:3)

    by acacia ( 101223 ) on Tuesday July 31, 2001 @11:15AM (#2178870)
    I totally agree with you here:
    There are a whole bunch of reasons why a PDA will never replace a laptop. I wouldn't mind replacing my Cellphone with a PDA, actually, assuming that I could just use a headset.

    I have an m505, and before that, I had a Palm V. I love both using both of these machines. Because my job requires me to travel a lot, and I am occasionally gone for a couple of weeks at a time, form factor and battery life are the most important thing to me. The IPAQ size is still too big and heavy, and the battery life is still terrible compared to the Palm, so that is what I went with when I upgraded this year.

    What I like about the Palm is how simple and intuitive the interface is. I don't need to know the internals, and truth be told, I don't really want to. I have several Linux and OpenBSD boxes for hacking and things of that ilk. I don't need spreadsheets, or presentation software (this is an organizer, after all, not a laptop) but I would like e-mail, and cell phone functionality. In the same form factor, with the same battery life. Somebody else posted bluetooth connectivity to a wireless headset, and I think that's a great idea.

    Where the Palm V fell short was memory. The m505 takes care of that. What's missing?

    Cell phone/wireless functionality.
    Ogg Vorbis Player
    About 1GB of memory for the Ogg Vorbis player ;-)

    Thinking back, I used to be terribly disorganized. I would have sticky notes and multiple 8x11 notebooks, filled with stuff that I could never find, and couldn't index. My boss and coworkers urged me to take an organizational class, and man, it was good advice. What I did differently, however, was I bought my first PDA (the Palm V) two weeks before the class, learned how to write well with it, and then used it as the basis of my organizational system. I took the class, but used the Palm instead of their materials. It worked out great! Now I have notes from every project I have worked on since 1999, all searchable, and always at my fingertips. Need to know about tuning Solaris kernel internals? No problem, did that in ... (you get the idea)

    Sorry if this ended up sounding like an advertisment for Palm, but I really love my PDA. :-)

  • Any chance of something like this coming to the Palm OS? I know Palm Inc has no sound, but I've got a Handera, and would love to have it read me a book while I'm in the car or where ever.
  • can you imagine sitting on a train (bus, whatever) and listening to everyone yammer into their Palm Pilots? What a terrifying vision...

    Of course, I haven't been on a public transportation system in like 4 months. Maybe it's like that already...
  • My personal opinion is that PDA's are going to make the same trasformation as PC's:
    From personal information storage and computing to communication devices.
    What do most of us use our PC's for anyway? Programing? Comon... Our PC's are nothing more then gateways to the internet, which is a communications medium. Thats why pda/phone hybrids are getting so much attention. I really wish I could afordably get my iPaq [handhelds.org] on to the internet wirelessly. It would quickly become a very useful device rather then just a mobile nethack toy. :)
  • Text to speech! [slashdot.org] Talking books, anybody?

  • The most obvious deficiency of this article is that it completely omits PSION, the UK company that invented the PDA in the 1980s. I've owned every one they made.

    Even more staggering is the subsequent failure to observe that it's PSION offspring Symbian, that's putting all the PSION PDA software into the next generation of cellphones. Checkout the new Nokias and Ericssons.

    The PSION/Symbian EPOC system is rock solid and light years ahead of Microlimp -- but data compatible with Redmond.

  • PHA! (Score:3)

    by Raymond Luxury Yacht ( 112037 ) on Tuesday July 31, 2001 @10:03AM (#2178876) Homepage
    PDAs... You kids these days have it EASY! Why, in my day we had to scratch our notes onto pieces of SLATE and carry that around! None of this mamby-pamby "put it in your pocket" stuff. If you wanted to carry 20 names you had to lug 400lbs of stone. But did we complain? NO!
  • Wand something smaller?

    Try the Rex 6000 - it a dinky PDA that syncs by slipping into a PCMCIA slot. It has a touchscreen and decent resolution but no backlight. Data entry sucks due to it's size - but for general PDA stuff it works great. You can also make your own applications for it.

    Homepage : http://www.rex.net

    CNET Review: http://computers.cnet.com/hardware/0-2709830-404-3 963993.html?tag=txt

  • 1. Keyboard.. I got into conputers because I can't write.
    2. Ethernet interface.
    3. TCP/IP..

    The fact that this machine does not exist is the reason I don't own a PDA.
    Just add an SSH client and I would be in heaven.

  • I personally never much liked the idea of speech recognition in PDAs either. Dragon had a beta version of such a system for the Apple Newton back in... 98? Never released though. As an owner and user of an upgraded MP 2000, it would've been fun to try, but not quite my bag.
  • PDAs have tiny screens and no keyboards -- the interface is too cumbersome.

    At the moment PDAs have small screen. But that may change. You don't need a big device to make a big hologram (that the future I think). PDAs DO have keyboards. You obviously haven't only seen a couple of PDAs. Also, you can get ad-on keyboards.

    You can't talk to your voice-enabled PDA during a meeting or on a busy bus so don't expect the interface to ever improve.

    Why? What makes you say that? Never heard of filters and directional microphones? I have a 20 year old dictaphone that can do this.

    PDAs appeal to techno-geeks and power-hungry professionals, but they don't appeal to the average Joe who still prefers pen and paper.

    Do a survey on that? Cellphones where only for yuppies, business men a few years ago. Now everyone has them.

    PDAs aren't powerful enough to do what a PC does.

    Sure, that the moment, a PDA can't do 3D modeling and video editing. But It can easily do the the more common tasks, like word processing, MP3s, PIM, surfing the web etc...

    PDAs aren't expandable.

    Yes they are. Go to palm.com, and handspring.com and se for yourself.

    Portable computers break down more and are more expensive to fix when it happens.

    My Vx has never had a hardware failure, and has only needed a hard reset once, when I installed a doggy program. I has been more reliable that ANY desktop OS i have ever used or any desktop computer/laptop.

    Most home users who want a low-cost entry point to the web will opt for the much-more-powerful console gaming system.

    Not everyone will want a gaming console. Not everyone is a young male.

    Dropping PC prices will continue to put pressure on the bottom end of the market, making the PC an attractive purchase.

    Not sure how that fits in here

  • Check out the Sharp Wizard OZ-770PC [sharp-usa.com], [Picture [amazon.com]], not exactly what you want, but maybe worth a look.
    • 240x80 LCD, proportional fonts
    • Full QWERTY keyboard
    • 3 MB of RAM
    • Serial port, IR port, speaker
    • Runs for months on a pair of AA's.
    • Based on a Z80.. yup.. Z80! processor @ 9.8 MHz. This means you can run Z80 assembler on it!
    • They also have an SDK with versions of BASIC and C for it.
    • Hundreds of freeware programs available for it at www.mywizard.com [mywizard.com]
    • Only costs $100

    It also has a really cool site dedicated to hacking/programming it, www.ozdev.com [ozdev.com]

  • In TNG terms anyway. They were commonly referred to on the set as "hall-passes" as extras would often be picking at one as they crossed in the background of a shot.

    While PADDa (and PDAs) are cool, what I really want is a fucking Tri-Corder. Not only did those things have amazing sensory capabilities, but great battery life too.

  • The evolution of the PDA really has no limits.

    One of the first things I learned about purchasing a computer was that no matter how large the hard drive space, no matter how fast the processor, no matter how much bandwidth you have on your connection, you will always find a way to use the power. The software knows no bounds.

    I found the same true when I got a Palm IIIxe last Christmas. At first, I only dabbled with it -- I took some notes, I downloaded a couple of simple games. But now, my entire life is organized on it. I have novels from Project Gutenberg and AvantGo web pages for reading material on long flights. Addresses and phone numbers. And recently, I discovered LispMe -- a Lisp/Scheme interpreter -- so now I can code, too! The calendar has every material appointment, and the Todo list has things to remember months in advance.

    I look at the iPaq and think, "What would you possibly use all that for?" But I also know that if I owned one, I'd think of something to use it for. I'd make it work the way I work.

    There really is no end to how far the PDA will evolve.

  • Re:My dream PDA: expandable. (Score:3)

    by Docrates ( 148350 ) on Tuesday July 31, 2001 @10:36AM (#2178891) Homepage
    You know, I think I have a better idea. Not as convenient, but maybe more realistic in the shorter term.

    How about a projector? what if the PDA had a small screen for when you don't have a surface to project on, and a little projector lens on the top that you can point to a wall or desk or whatever and have a larger resolution and a larger screen, then use the built in surface only to point and click (a la digitizer tablets)?

    if we can fit a high resolution projector in a VR headest (that projects directly into the eye), then maybe we can do this.
  • Bing! Give the man a gold star! I still think this market is driven by cost, not features. Palm obliterated the competition by creating something simple and cheap. When Palm started to dilute their product line with wireless, colour screens, titanium cases etc. they started to lose ground. Handspring (created by the Palm founders) has taken up the "cheap, small, simple" torch and is doing as well as can be expected in these tight times. The market has spoken, make PDAs simple and cheap!
    ---

  • PDA = Luxury (Score:3)

    by coupland ( 160334 ) <dchaseNO@SPAMhotmail.com> on Tuesday July 31, 2001 @11:33AM (#2178895) Journal

    Again, the mainstream press is trying to inflate PDAs into something they're not. Let me say this very clearly so it's not missed:

    PDAs will never replace a desktop PC.

    Here are some reasons this will never happen:

    - PDAs have tiny screens and no keyboards -- the interface is too cumbersome.
    - You can't talk to your voice-enabled PDA during a meeting or on a busy bus so don't expect the interface to ever improve.
    - PDAs appeal to techno-geeks and power-hungry professionals, but they don't appeal to the average Joe who still prefers pen and paper.
    - PDAs aren't powerful enough to do what a PC does.
    - PDAs aren't expandable.
    - Portable computers break down more and are more expensive to fix when it happens.
    - Most home users who want a low-cost entrypoint to the web will opt for the much-more-powerful console gaming system.
    - Dropping PC prices will continue to put pressure on the bottom end of the market, making the PC an attractive purchase.

    I could go on with dozens more points and I'm sure I'll be attacked by all the technology messiah's out there, but the fact is that they don't nor will they ever be able to give an ideal mix of low cost, low footprint, and high power. Because of this they will remain as fancy personal organizers for the forseeable future.


    ---
  • I think it would also be nice to have a new hybrid OS running the device. If they could take bits of PalmOS and bits of WindowsCE and bits of Linux, then you'd have a killer all-in-one device.

    Yeah, maybe we could put bits of xinu and qnx in there too, just to round it out a bit. And maybe some bits of OSX. Yeah, that would be really leet, dude! Now let's go haxor a gibson!

    By the way, look at this phone [nokia.com].
    ---

  • What is interesting is just to see the speed of advance in the technology. I recall one story from the 70s or 80s which was set about a thousand years in the future. It had a PDA like device with a 3d projector built into it, outrageous library connections and storage, etc.

    Suddenly this sounds plausible, given moore's law and all that, and likely to be developed in the lifetimes of most people reading this.

  • is talking teacher!

    "Let's do letters!

    U R A Q T"
  • Yum.

    Yuck, more like. Have you actually had a look at the spec? It contains hundreds of pages of superfluous crap. As seems to be usual for standards these days, it goes way over the top, specifying all layers from the bottom to the top, where it would actually be much better limiting itself to specifying a simple data interchange format, and letting the network people do the network stuff.

    I'm still feeling slightly nauseous.

  • Well, given that the Newton platform is deader than ---- shouldn't Apple Open Source the Newton development system?

    Who knows, with more software out there, maybe the Newton might become en vogue again.
  • No, I meant putting the development tools out there so that people could continue to build software. That's the one thing Palm's got going for it - there's free development tools, and people are going gung ho writing neat stuff...
  • I'd like a PDA that could hotsynch directly with my EPIRB so I could get my email when I'm lost at sea.

    Emergency Position Indicator Radio Beacon

  • What I'd like to see is a constant connection between the PC and the PDA. In my experience, "Hotsync" type operations involve a temporary link to the palm, and then that link is terminated. With a wee bit of tweaking, the PDA's touchable screen could be useful as a secondary monitor. I know I've heard discussion of a secondary LCD screen being used for input and the like recently; why not use an already widespread device?

    Of course, this is hardly an epiphany, and we'll probably start seeing stuff like this pop up soon, especially as more PDAs go to USB instead of serial. It will be nice to be able to tap "shotgun" instead on a nearby cradled PDA instead of remembering the number equivalents. Come to think of it, it would likely work in much the same way as Nintendo's promised support for the Game Boy Advance as an extra screen/controller for the Gamecube, although with the added bonus of touch-response. I could also see it useful for tablet-style input into a graphics program, the ability to add a real signature to electronic documents, a display for multiple clipboard contents, a constant terminal access point while the bigger screen handles the GUI, etc.

    That's in the near future, of course. In the long run, I want my PDA to predict the future and print free money. ^_^
    ---
  • Well, IIRC, some military and police SWAT teams use a throat mic to pick up and transmit subvocalizations. So rather than speaking out loud, you'd sort of softly hum them. I'm not an expert on the technology by any means, but if they're useful, clear, and quiet enough to convey commands in a high-tension stealth situation, they might be good for PDA communication. They don't, after all, need to recognize real English words off the bat; it could be trained to pick out certain distinct shorthand sounds instead, in much the same way as Palm graffiti doesn't need actual letters.
    ---
  • You had cells! I suppose next you'll tell me you had DNA, too, and could even so much as store what the hell you were for more than a generation. The luxury! Why in my day, wasn't nothing but primordial goop far as the eye could see! Wanted to store information? Good luck doing it before the Brownian motion buffetted you out of existence!

    DNA! A nice cell membrane to live in! That was the stuff we used to dream about...when we weren't worrying about having our existence swashed out from under us. You celled organisms don't know the meaning of data. You don't appreciate the luxury you have. DNA! My God, what we wouldn't have given for the mere thought of it.
    goes off muttering to himself.

    --

  • I work at the Health Sciences Center in our local university, and I've become something of a campus go-to-guy for handheld computers. We've got entire departments buying these things up by the TRUCKLOAD, deploying them to the staff and faculty, getting all hot and bothered over having these little things (mostly Palm M505s, but a few visors here and there... fortunately few iPaqs)... but no idea what to do with them. They jump the gun on the technology curve, and have a hard time settling in when their wallets catch up with their brains.

    Part of the problem is that I don't think the user base in general doesn't even know what these things are, what they're designed for, and what they're really like to use day to day. The idea of the tricorder may have given use a heads-up on what technology was capable of, but the flip side of that is that people expect all tricorder-like things to be FUCKING TRICORDERS.

    Here's what I tell people who ask me what kind of PDA to buy and what it's for:

    • The Palm Pilot is best likened to a collection of self-organized Rolodex Of Many Colors. Anything you can put on a post-it note, put it on a Palm-compatible device. It will serve you well, but you'll have to start thinking of information in bite-size chunks (like a fun-size Snickers bar).
    • Windows-CE devices are a scaled down version of Windows on a screen the size of an index card. Want a free demonstration? Go to your desktop. Change the screen resolution to 640x480. Now block half of that out and fire up Word and write your grant proposal. I mean, that's what you're buying a micro-PC for, right? To work on those important things in the few off-minutes you have in your busy lifestyle? Write write write. Erase erase erase. Squint squint squint. Happy with it? Fine, buy an iPaq.

    I can't imagine why Joe User would want to turn a Palm-type device into a replacement for the desktop. I've got apps (ThoughtManager [handshigh.com] comes to mind, Pocket Quicken [landware.com] too) on my Visor Prism that have done more for organizing my thoughts, ideas, presentations and life in general than ANYTHING my PC has ever done for me, and it's simple to use. I also don't have to worry about loading my Visor up with apps that, for some inexplicable reason, hate each other's guts and duke it out in the form of GPFs and incompatible DLLs (Outlook and GroupWise come to mind). I don't have to rebuild the OS everytime I add a bit of hardware with screwy drivers.

    I turn it on, and the information is instantly there in fun-size form. No wading through menus. No waiting for the desktop to come up. It's just THERE. With the right hacks and a little finger-training, I can find any information I want in three actions or less.

    That's what I want out of these things, and I think it's a common goal.

    Relating this to the Health Sciences field - ePocrates [epocrates.com] is a beautiful little app that maintains a portable drug interaction database. Our residents and other medical-type people swear by it, and it updates itself every time the user does a sync.

    Instant info, on demand. That's the Information Age - not MP3s, Powerpoint presentations (dear God, don't even get me started on these fucking wastes of time), voice recognition doo-dads that talk back to me and sound like HAL, or whatever. Just give me a place to put and organise my ideas until I get to the resources I need to make them a reality. Everything else is just a distraction - not bad per se, but it doesn't contribute to my productivity. Until you can fit something like that directly into my brain, you can replace my Visor with anything trying to be more PC-like when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.

    The Visor also has the added advantage of being a great platform for hobbyists to develop on - being able to beam a program around has, I think, done wonders for the shareware concept.

    /me ducks,
    Tatsujin

  • The future of PDA's (Score:3)

    by Bonker ( 243350 ) on Tuesday July 31, 2001 @10:09AM (#2178919)
    Along with the inevitable increases in speed and battery life, I think that we can probably expect the following advances in PDA technology over the next few years:

    - More non-volatile storage space so that video becomes viable. Reasearch into minimizing non-disk based storage will be directly funded by a coalition of 'adult entertainment companies' headed by Christie Hefner and Robert Guccione.

    - Vibrating batteries, as used in cell phones and pagers, will be modified for use with PDA's for those... long, lonely trips.

    - Javascript-enabled web browsers will be ported to PalmOS so that we can be etertained by browser windows that reopen themselves, or their affiliates pages, no matter how many times you try to close them.

    - New games will be written, targeted for PDA's that have touchpads or stylus interfaces. Players will be required to interact with in-game 'characters', either with thier hands... or their toungues.

    - The X-10 mini-camera will become ubiquitous in most PDA designs, but for 'recreational' purposes only. The forementioned industry group will take no responsibilty for sexual harassment suits centering around misuse of X-10 technology.

    - The popularity of Ascii Porn [asciipr0n.com] will skyrocket, creating a new market for fixed-width fonts.
  • I really want a PDA and I don't have any money for one yet, but I am thinking now that maybe I shouldn't get one. I am thinking back to Johnny Mnemonic, in which a person is used as a mule for sensitive information. Spies et al have done this for centuries but PDAs and laptops simply institutionalize the process in the corporate world.

    Insofar as most digitally stored information is carried on an Internet that ends in computers with plugs attaching them to walls, most of this mule stuff won't happen. People may still be yoked to information by their company from time to time..but with PDAs and laptops, companies can upgrade their security for confidential information yet still maintain it in a digital, transferable format.

    There are some of you right now, I am sure, who are forced to ride planes with dumb, dull, angry bodyguards all the time because you are the only person with the information who can explain it to other people who need the information and your company doesn't want to send it over the Net.

    I have no clue what can be done about this tendency, but the PDA-ification of our society makes it more likely. I am all for the human potential of portable information, but we have to smash the corporations and states that would like to make info-drug mules out of us before we can fully embrace this portability.

  • Actually, I have found that the battery life of my palmtop is not noticeable. It will go for about a week between charges. I can use either a rechargable battery or 2 AA batteries. Usually I pack the charger in my bag when I travel, although when I went to Europe I elected to use AA batteries instead of finding out the hard way if the power converter I picked up doesn't work or was misconfigured. I have found that a computing device can have as low of a battery life as about 16 hours and not be especially annoying if the battery is rechargable and there is a portable charging adapter.

    Granted, you never see the people in Trek charging those PADDs and such. I've always wondered if there is a good way to power a device remotely so that it wouldn't need to be charged. Without nuking anybody, wasting insane amounts of power, etc.

    I guess the rest of your post depends on what you want. I'm pretty happy with the functionality of my palmtop (It's a Nino, BTW) except that I wish I had wireless internet access in it and a lot more RAM on occasion.

    My experience is actually the linear opposite of yours. I was disorganized and I went to use the paper systems first. My main basis for comparison is a Franklin planner. I found that, because of the cooperation between the calendar and task list on a modern organizer system is a marked improvement on paper. Either way, I won't be going back to paper ever.

  • I dono.. (Score:3)

    by cmowire ( 254489 ) on Tuesday July 31, 2001 @10:24AM (#2178922) Homepage
    I dono if I agree with the conclusions of the article. Especially when they mentioned that the iPAQ has Pocket Excel and then said that there isn't any good spreadsheet packages.

    There are a whole bunch of reasons why a PDA will never replace a laptop. I wouldn't mind replacing my Cellphone with a PDA, actually, assuming that I could just use a headset.

    But a PDA, by nature, has to fit in your pocket. How often do you use a non-electronic information source that doesn't fit in your pocket? Most everybody does a large chunk of their actual work on a 8.5x11 pad, not a notepad.

    By my opinion, we won't be seeing truly useful personal computing devices until they make them for $20-30/item (So that you can buy several, spread them out over a desk, and not be too worried if you loose them/somebody accidentally borrows them/break them/etc.) And you won't see a single one-size-fits-all device unless you have a completely different and probably currently unatainable wearable computer.

    The reason why the palmtop market is a growth industry right now is because everybody is cashing in their franklin planner or other non-computing orginizational device and getting a palm. They are easy to use. The iPAQ is nice because it's flashy. Both the iPAQ and Palm have finally reached the required usability qualities, form factor, cost, and sophistication necessary to become useful. There's not much bang-for-the-buck left in buying a new PC or even a laptop; everybody who has one wants one and likes it.

    And, yes, Palm is in trouble. The framework that PalmOS was constructed on is getting limited. WinCE's problem has always been that it was more like Windows. Now that we are putting more powerful capabilities, the comprimizes and simplifications made with the Palm will result in some necessity for design changes.

    Now, I agree with the assertion that wireless LAN/Internet access is important. It still won't replace your desktop or even your laptop for most of the things you use your laptop for.

    But if you are talking about replacing your desktop, remember that laptops haven't even replaced desktops yet. The best bet for a true desktop replacements is a stack of PDA-like machines in the same form factor as a sheet of paper with good battery life, wireless, etc. Like I said above, it should be very cheap so you can have several. You still will have something that fits in your pocket, just like a palm or iPAQ. These are two different markets, it's just that nobody's made a non-laptop computer in a full-page form factor that people have latched onto.

    Pretty much, people have known this concept since the late 80s, at Xerox PARC of all places. But the technology is just not there yet. Trying to replace your PC with a palmtop is just a dead end that is distracting people from developing a PC replacement in the right form factor.

  • Re:PDA = Luxury (Score:3)

    by cmowire ( 254489 ) on Tuesday July 31, 2001 @11:42AM (#2178923) Homepage
    Actually, I have found that palmtops are slowly making their way from the techno-geek community to the real world. Mostly because non-geeks are being introduced to them by their geek friends.

    However, you have already hit most of the other issues on the head. ;)

    My argument, which has been repeated often here, is that an 8.5x11 PDA-like computer would be really nice and useful. Especially if it was more like $50 so you could have several of them, like pads of paper, and not wory as much if they got broken.

    This technology, of course, is not quite there yet and probably won't be for a while. While circutry follows Moore's law, displays and batteries, which is the main thing holding prices up and battery life down, are not subject to Moore's law.
  • Not a PDA, but has many of the features of one. Drop-resistant to 5 feet on concrete (I've tried it), thick ABS case, all components are shock-mounted, and the thing is sealed against jets of water (a higher rating than immersion). Its official purpose in life is a handheld barcode scanner/data recorder for industry. Oh yeah, it runs a clipped version of DOS and costs $3,000. That's before $1,500 for the development kit so you can write software for it.
  • That's all I want.

    The Nokia i9000 was the ideal form factor. But it was several years ahead of its time, and stupidly limited in its system compatibility. Now we'll never see it again.

    I can't even browse up a picture to link to. Just An old TalkBack review, a mention in a Slashdot thread, and something a furriner wrote [google.com].

    --Blair
  • Oh that's funny.

    I was kind of surprised that the i9000 had fallen off the face of the earth. But now I find out the 9000i is alive and kicking.

    Heh.

    And there were still three reviews of the i9000, available, too.

    --Blair
    "Oh, man. Diet coke, all up in my nose..."
  • I don't want voice recognition on any PDA until the PDA can read lips. I'm surrounded by people occasionally talking on their cell phones; the last thing I need is to have them all constantly talking to their PDAs! Besides, who are you talking to? The PDA, the person on the phone, or the phone itself? Or maybe your laptop? Or your car? Or your keychain? Hell, why not put voice-interfaces on everything, so we can relish the treat of hearing everyone talk to vending machines and elevators and doors, too!

    Shut up already and let me alone! If it can't talk back, you shouldn't talk to it. If it does talk back, then talk to it in private.

  • Um, given that this took a look at the history of the PDA, shouldn't they have at least mentioned the Apple Newton? I know it's been dead for a while, but Apple worked out a lot of the issues that Palm et al could build on later.

    Ah well, nevermind. Maybe I'll just swing over to one of those auction sites all the kids talk about and look under computer->fogey for any Newtons for sale.

  • Re:PHA! (Score:3)

    by tbone1 ( 309237 ) on Tuesday July 31, 2001 @10:09AM (#2178933) Homepage
    #include "Yorkshire_Accent.h"

    Well, we had it tough. We used to have to scratch our notes on a dyspeptic mastadon with a burnt stick. And just when you'd get finished, the mastadon would run for the swamp. If you didn't catch him in time, the carbon would wash off of his fur, and if you did catch him, he'd gore you with his tusks. Slate! We used to dream of slate.

  • Re:PADD (Score:2)

    by tb3 ( 313150 )
    Here's so info about the real tricorder [stim.com]

    Unfortunately, they don't seem to be available any more. Maybe they were ahead of their time?

  • Really, for all advantages miniaturization, telecommunications and computers bring us, a disturbing trend is that these technological marvels are making us work more, not less!

    A script for non-stop working goes like this:

    1. You access your files remotely - now you can work anywhere you get an on-line terminal;
    2. You transfer your work files to your notebook - you get to work wherever you can find a telephone / electrical outlet;
    3. You upload everything to your PDA - works as soon as you get an 802.11 access point.

    And there you are!! Pleae don't tell me it's just a matter of choice, that you can unplug the damned thing anytime, etc. You just can't! First you use it to check your emails, then you do something related to the mails you just read, pretty soon you'll be working at the beach or at the pub!

    I'm sorry if this sounds anti-geek, but I for one never take my work files with me, exactly because I've an identical setup at home (except for the slower computer :| ) So I protect my quality of life by having no chance of doing things off duty.

    Please consider if going out more, having some laughs with friends and doing some more exercise instead of looking at a small screen isn't worth leaving some of these geek toys behind. That's just my opinion, of course. But remember you can't upgrade your body as years pass.

  • What happens if you umount /me?

    Is that what happens after fsck /me?

    Or is that what happens when you sleep 8h?

  • Here they are:
    • uses a super-compatible (xml) format to store address info that would be interchangeable between cell phones, computers of any OS, and handhelds.
    • Super long battery life
    • Wireless email & clipped web for under $10 a month
    • SIMPLE (read: palm not windows)
    • Doesn't crash
    • Smaller than a palm V
    • Durable (lexan coated?) enough to exist
      without a case
    • GPS with an flashable location database


    Notice I didn't ask for:

    • Color
    • More speed
    • More RAM
    • Handwriting Assistant 7.0
    • Powerpoint


  • saving up for the 2 year old daughter (Score:3)

    by beanerspace ( 443710 ) on Tuesday July 31, 2001 @10:16AM (#2178947) Homepage
    So what I'm reading hereis that aside from putting aside $$ for my young daughter's college, I'm also going to have to allocate some funds so she'll be the geekiest kid in the class when she enters kindergarden. Great, anyone know where I can find some Veggie Tale skins ?

  • Bluetooth & cellular (Score:5)

    by ryanwright ( 450832 ) on Tuesday July 31, 2001 @10:02AM (#2178948)
    I'd buy a PDA; I'd love to have one. But I already carry a cellular phone and refuse to lug two devices around. Include the following features in a PDA & I'll bite:

    - Built in cellphone. I'm not talking about a bulky add-on module, and if I have to hold the whole PDA up to my head, you can forget it. Unless, of course, the PDA is the same size as a typical cellphone.

    - Bluetooth support for wireless earpiece. That way I can leave the damn PDA in my pocket and receive a call with a small earpiece. Not a full headset, just a little thing that sits in my ear.

    - Size. Keep 'em small. They're doing a pretty good job at this already.

    - Power. Give me enough power to run the thing for hours. Power for the cellular feature alone should be at least 8 days standby/4 hours talk, on par with current phones. And give me a nice way to quickly recharge my wireless headset. Maybe a small port on the PDA itself that can recharge the headset in a matter of minutes from the PDA's battery.

    While you're at it, make the headset strong. I want to be able to shove it in my pocket along with my keys and who knows what else without worrying about it getting torn up.
  • From the article: "However, no PDA, according to my research, comes complete with a spreadsheet or presentation application."

    My Diamond Mako (a psion revo+ clone, for those not in the know) has a built-in spreadsheet program, Sheet. It's fully compatible with Excel, very user-friendly, and I like it very much. How dare the author of this article claim that one of my favorite Mako programs doesn't exist? :-)


    USA Intellectual Property Laws: 5 monkeys, 1 hour.

  • Re:Change the I/O (Score:3)

    by Smedrick ( 466973 ) on Tuesday July 31, 2001 @10:20AM (#2178955) Homepage
    Input should be done with voice commmands

    People already complain about chatty cellphone users...imagine the flack chatty PDA users would get.

    Open calendar ... O-pen cal-en-der ... Ohhhh-pennn cal-en-derrr ... Motherfcker! Open the goddamn calendar, you POS!

    Hehe...granted, the voice recognition would probably be better, but still...

    --

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