What is PDA? PDA buying tips

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What is PDA? PDA buying tips 


Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) or hand held computers are gaining more and more popularity these days. Using PDA you can gather and store information, maintain addresses, have to-do lists and reminder alerts and calendar.

Palm, Compaq, HP, IBM, Dell, O2, Dopod are some of the PDA manufacturers. Those who want a computer smaller than the laptop can buy a PDA. Since PDA and Desktop computer can be connected using serial or USB cables, you can transfer and synchronize data between these two.

Before you buy a PDA determine your objective. Do you want to just store your personal information? Do want to access email using PDA? Do you want to do networking using your PDA? Do you want a colour screen?

Keep all these questions in mind and read the following buying tips for PDAs
Size of PDAs

PDAs come in many sizes. Size of a credit card, your palm size, cheque book size and other sizes are available. The smaller the PDA, the more difficult it is to type and read from the screen. The bigger the PDA size, the easier it is to type and read but it is difficult to carry a bigger PDA as it won't fit in your pocket easily.

PDA Operating Systems

Initially, it was Palm OS which was very popular. Later, Microsoft introduced Windows CE and then Pocket PC and more recently 'Windows Mobile' operating systems for PDAs and it the most popular now.

PDA Applications

PDAs running on windows based Operating Systems such as Pocket PC and Windows Mobile have many applications. But since Palm OS was introduced earlier, there are more applications for Palm OS based PDAs.

Basic PDA applications

Address book, Mail, Todo list, Memo pad, Appointment and Calendar are some basic PDA applications. So check whether the PDA comes with these basic applications.

Monitor / Screen

Both colour and monochrome PDAs are available. It is better to choose the colour screen for your PDA. If you have to buy a monochrome then atleast get a 320x240 screen. If you buy the color PDA then choose the one 'Active-Matrix' display rather than the one with 'Passive-Matrix' display.

PDA Memory

PDAs with 32MB to 512MB memory are available. Some PDAs come with the memory expansion slots. You can use the Compact Flash or PCMCIA card memory to increase your PDA's memory.

PDA Ports

Only if you connect your PDA to your desktop computer you can transfer data between the two. There are PDAs with serial port or USB or Infrared transreceiver or Bluetooth facilities. If you buy the PDA with bluetooth and Infrared then it is a bit expensive but it is worth the money since you can connect wirelessly to other devices.

Battery

Some PDAs use AAA size alkaline batteries. Some PDAs use Nickel Cadmium (ni-cad), Nickel Metal Hybrid (nimh) or lithium ion batteries.

Keypad

Bigger PDAs have bigger keypads. Some smaller PDAs comes with the optional kepad accessory that can be attached as and when necessary. Some PDAs have handwriting recognition capability.

Internet Software

Your PDA should have internet connectivity capability so that you can check your emails wirelessly from your PDA. Some PDAs come with Wi-Fi inbuilt, so that you can connect to wireless lan APs and access the internet.