Bagel Belly Blog

PDA perfection?

For some time now, I've been struggling with the curse of every geek: too many devices to carry around, too many devices to choose from. Over the last decade I've tried a myriad of mobile computing, telecom and organiser devices, and not one does everything I need.

Life was much simpler back when all I had was my filofax. You can't argue with a bit of paper and a pen. Other than the fact that if someone nicked it or you lost it, you were stuffed.

Things were pretty good when I had my Pilot 5000. As handy as a filofax, and I could make a copy of the information on my desktop computer. It was a great device.

When I added a mobile phone to the mix things started getting complicated. Do I keep my phone numbers on the phone, or the PDA? The phone I had at the time didn't have an infrared port, so there was no easy way to synchronise the numbers between the two. I opted for transferring all details from the filofax to the PDA, since at least the PDA could be backed-up onto my desktop computer.

A year or so later, I got my first laptop. This added another factor to the mix - store numbers on the desktop computer, the phone, the pda or the laptop? Syncing between laptop and PDA worked fine, so the laptop and PDA became my repository of contact and schedule information. Most of the telephone numbers I rang I could remember, anyway.

Not long after, I got a Palm Vx through work. This was slicker and faster than my old Pilot 5000, but the new design called for new interfaces - the various gadgets I'd bought for my P5000 were no use! That really annoyed me. I couldn't even use my old P500 cradle at home as a spare.

I then upgraded my mobile phone to the wonderful Nokia 7110. Through the magic of infrared I could now sync all three devices! Unfortunately, as a linux user, I couldn't synchronise my phone directly with the laptop, but I could go via my PDA and the wonderful GSMTool.

Life was good, but I was running short on space in my pockets. Carrying a PDA and a phone was a little cumbersome, especially with a heavy laptop on my shoulder too. Syncing my phone to my PDA, my PDA to my laptop, and then my PDA to my phone again was a pain. I decided to get a keyboard for the Palm Vx, so I could leave the laptop behind. No chance! Because Palm in their wisdom changed the interface design on the new generation of Palms for the second time (the m500 series), add-ons like keyboards for the Vx are now difficult to come by and far too expensive. I swore I'd never buy another Palm.

The [Sony Ericcson T68i/Nokia 6610/Nokia 3650] seemed likely to solve all my problems, with built-in calendaring and contacts as well as infrared. Unfortunately, syncing them to a linux laptop didn't work very well. So now my phone is the sole repository of contact information again.

Which brings us to the present, where Handspring have brought out the Trio 600. It looks good, and it represents the best of both worlds - a mobile phone and a PalmOS pda, and a keyboard.

Unfortunately, I don't like Palm (who own Handspring), for exactly the same reasons as Andrew Oliver. And I doubt the future of Palm for the same reasons as Russell Beattie.

Argh. What to do?

Posted by savs at September 25, 2003 2:49 PM