PDAs the business traveller’s travelling PA

Anil Patrick R unravels what PDAs can do for the corporate road warrior

If you thought PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) are just alternatives to digital diaries, think again! PDAs are not devices that can keep just your appointments. Today’s PDAs are full-fledged computers in themselves, albeit a tad smaller. Whatever your PC can do, PDAs (also known as handhelds or Palmtops) can do it just as well.

In many cases, they do things better than your PC. You can install programs and games, make documents and presentations, send out emails, snap pictures, the list is endless. These capabilities make PDAs essential tools for the corporate road warrior’s toolkit.

Try picturing this scene. You are checking your email at an international airport or over coffee at an exotic hotel.

Sounds too far fetched?

Not really.

With wireless internet (Wi-Fi) access in the form of public wireless networks and wireless hotspots becoming very common across the world, this is very much possible.

The latest crop of handhelds is loaded with goodies like Wi-Fi connectivity, Bluetooth MP3 players and inbuilt cameras. PDA phones that combine a PDA and a cellular phone like the Handspring Treos and the Nokia 9210i are also available. The advantage of buying these PDA phones is that you don’t need to have two separate devices for the same purpose. The question that arises now is how to go about buying a PDA.

A time to buy

If you have decided to get a PDA for yourself, we recommend that you pick it up from abroad and not from the neighbourhood greymarketwallah. The reasons behind this are many.

Although most leading PDA brands are available in India through distributors, the range of models on offer are pretty dismal. Add to that the preposterous extra costs like taxes and duties and you can see how it makes more sense to source a PDA during one of your trips. Another setback to buying a PDA in India is the lesser chance of getting a bargain offer - be it price or add-ons. In this respect, places like Singapore are much better for good deals on PDAs.

Getting the right one

When it comes to getting a PDA, the first factor to look out for is the operating system (OS). The most popular OSs powering PDAs are the Palm and Pocket PC OSs. PDA phones use Symbian OSs as well. If you need your PDAs to communicate with Mac OS based computers, it’s a good idea to go in for a Palm PDA since Pocket PCs have problems on this front. However, Pocket PCs make sense if you are comfortable with a ‘Windows’ type of operating system. Choose the OS you are comfortable with.

Once you have selected the OS, next in line comes the price of the handheld. This is usually determined by the specification you want. If you need a colour screen, a faster processor and more memory, the price goes higher. Here is where you need to ensure that you go in for a model that has adequate memory (RAM) for your applications. If you skimp on RAM, it is definitely going to have a telling effect on the PDA’s performance and the applications you can run. So the more RAM, the better.

Next in line comes features like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is a good option to have considering the wireless connectivity options becoming widely available. Bluetooth helps the PDA to communicate with other Bluetooth enabled devices like cellphones.

Many PDAs these days come in with miniature or thumb keyboards integrated in them. Go in for a device with this capability if you are not comfortable with using the stylus or plan to enter lots of data. If you want the ‘full QWERTY’ experience, foldable keyboards that can be connected to the PDA is a good option. These keyboards are available as an accessory to most PDAs and are not very bulky.

Make sure that your PDA has expansion slots for adding memory and additional features. Different types of technology like Memory Stick, SD, and CompactFlash are available as standard in most PDAs.

These are the general guidelines you need about how to go PDA shopping. Some of the factors you need to keep in mind when taking care of your handheld can be seen in Caring for the PDA. You can also check out some of the popular PDA and PDA phones - both Palm and Pocket PC based models.

Handspring Treo 600 Treo 600 is a high-end colour PDA phone available in GSM and CDMA flavours. Powered by the Palm OS and a 144 MHz ARM processor, the Treo 600 has an integrated thumb keyboard, 32 MB RAM, and a digital camera. Price: Starts at US $449 (Source: www.handspring.com)

HP iPAQ h4355 The Pocket PC (Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003) based h4355 offers wireless connectivity using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. This colour PDA also sports a 400 MHz XScale processor, 64 MB RAM, 32 MB Flash ROM and integrated thumb keyboard. Price: US $499.99 (Source: www.hp.com)

Sony CLIE PEG-UX50 Built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth make wireless connectivity a breeze with this PDA. It has a mini keyboard and a built-in digital camera with MPEG-4 video record and playback. Costs a bomb, though! Price: US $649.99 (Source: http://sonyelectronics. sonystyle.com/micros/clie)

Sony Clie SJ22 The SJ22 features 16 MB RAM, and a 320 x 320 pixels resolution colour screen. This is a good entry level colour PDA. Price: US $149.99 (Source: http://sonyelectronics. sonystyle.com/micros/clie)

Palm Zire 71 Zire 71 is an entry level Palm OS based PDA with 16 MB RAM and an integrated camera. Price: US $249 (Source: www.palmone.com)

Handspring Treo 270 This entry level colour Palm OS PDA phone has 16 MB RAM and a talktime of up to 3 hours. Price: Starts at US $99 (Source: www.handspring.com)