I’ve been using PDAs for some time now, ever since I was given a PalmV back in 1998 by a colleague at work. I loved it - finally I was able to keep my stuff on me in a geeky and attractive tool. It was perfect.
Over time i have, like many many others, longed for PDA and phone to merge so I could get internet on the move and so forth.
Well, we’re obviously at that point, with pretty much all phones, let alone PDAs/SmartPhones being web enabled in one way or another.
Brilliant right?
Well, no.
Here’s what I think - all PDAs/SmartPhones suck in one way or another. None of them are perfect.
Currently I am using a Blackberry 7130v on vodafone in the UK. I have to admit it’s the one of the best i’ve used, and over my last machine, an Orange SPV M2000 running Windows Mobile, it’s a million times better.
But it’s the small things that annoy rather than anything else. The email, web, all of that are excellent and I really can’ find fault, but why oh why can’t I send files to the thing over bluetooth? You have to use a cable, which is crazy, and it only works on a PC, which isn’t much use to me on my macbook.
I’m dying to get my hands on a new Treo running the latest version of windows mobile, the one which doesn’t lose all the data when the power runs down as the SPV did (the end reason why I gave up using it and switched)- but I can’t see IT giving me a new phone after 3 months 
Perhaps the Apple iPhone will be the perfect mix? We shall see, but if it only bolts in to Yahoo! web mail, it’s not going to make much ground in a business environment.
For the record, these are the PDAs I have used over the years…
- Palm V (PalmOS)
- handSpring Visor (PalmOS)
- HP iPaq (Windows CE)
- Sony Clie (PalmOS)
- Motorola mPX (Windows SMartPhone)
- Orange SPV M2000 (Windows Mobile)
- Blackberry 7130v (RIM OS)
Howard
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