Don't Leave Home Without It!
As much of a geek as I am and given to acquiring most anything that is electronic, I was slow to adopt using a PDA or Personal Digital Assistant. A PDA is a very small special purpose computer designed to make your life more organized and efficient. Frankly I was very happy with my little paper Day Planner™ and over the years amassed quite a pile of them in the top drawer of my desk, some of them going back into the 1970s. Today, I truly can not operate without my Palm™ PDA.
A PDA can perform several functions. This week we will discuss the basic features like the calendar and address book. Next week we will look at some neat expanded features like on line newspapers, picture albums and specialized software.
There are two main types of PDAs. The Palm™ operating software-based models and those that use scaled down Windows™ operating system. I use the Palm™ but most of the features are very similar across platforms.
My PDA is a Palm™ Tungsten Model /e and is about three years old and cost about $125.00. It is about the size of a pack of cigarettes but only about ½ the thickness. Don’t let the size fool you, it is a very powerful tool. Right now I have all my contacts in the address book. There are over 1000 different names with telephone and fax numbers, email addresses, home and business mailing addresses. Some entries even have birthdays, kid’s and spouse’s names and other personal information. Of course all is searchable with the touch of a button. All entries can be edited and updated.
The calendar can be displayed in day, week, month or even year format. After entering an appointment in the calendar you can ask the PDA to remind you with an audible alarm a few minutes or a few hours before the event. It can remind you of birthdays or other special events from data in your address book and remind you a few days in advance to send a card. For example my Palm™ reminds me of my wife’s and kid’s birthdays five days in advance.
The small video screen can display full color images and text. The size of the text can be adjusted so even my aging eyes can read it easily. The device is battery powered and is charged up each day when I “synch” it with the computer. All the information `contained in my Palm™ is also available on my desk top PC. Each morning I connect, or “synch,” my Palm™ to my PC and the two devices exchange information. So if I added an appointment into my Palm™ it now shows up on the calendar on my PC and visa versa. If there is a conflict it alerts me. If I added or modified an entry in the address book on my Palm™, say a new telephone number, that number is now also updated on my PC.
Having all of this information at my fingertips is a great time saver. Gone are the days of pencil scratched paper address books with old telephone numbers crossed out and illegible addresses and zip codes.
In the next entry I will take you on a tour of my personal model and tell what software I carry in the palm of my hand (or at perhaps in my pocket.)
A PDA can perform several functions. This week we will discuss the basic features like the calendar and address book. Next week we will look at some neat expanded features like on line newspapers, picture albums and specialized software.
There are two main types of PDAs. The Palm™ operating software-based models and those that use scaled down Windows™ operating system. I use the Palm™ but most of the features are very similar across platforms.
My PDA is a Palm™ Tungsten Model /e and is about three years old and cost about $125.00. It is about the size of a pack of cigarettes but only about ½ the thickness. Don’t let the size fool you, it is a very powerful tool. Right now I have all my contacts in the address book. There are over 1000 different names with telephone and fax numbers, email addresses, home and business mailing addresses. Some entries even have birthdays, kid’s and spouse’s names and other personal information. Of course all is searchable with the touch of a button. All entries can be edited and updated.
The calendar can be displayed in day, week, month or even year format. After entering an appointment in the calendar you can ask the PDA to remind you with an audible alarm a few minutes or a few hours before the event. It can remind you of birthdays or other special events from data in your address book and remind you a few days in advance to send a card. For example my Palm™ reminds me of my wife’s and kid’s birthdays five days in advance.
The small video screen can display full color images and text. The size of the text can be adjusted so even my aging eyes can read it easily. The device is battery powered and is charged up each day when I “synch” it with the computer. All the information `contained in my Palm™ is also available on my desk top PC. Each morning I connect, or “synch,” my Palm™ to my PC and the two devices exchange information. So if I added an appointment into my Palm™ it now shows up on the calendar on my PC and visa versa. If there is a conflict it alerts me. If I added or modified an entry in the address book on my Palm™, say a new telephone number, that number is now also updated on my PC.
Having all of this information at my fingertips is a great time saver. Gone are the days of pencil scratched paper address books with old telephone numbers crossed out and illegible addresses and zip codes.
In the next entry I will take you on a tour of my personal model and tell what software I carry in the palm of my hand (or at perhaps in my pocket.)
Labels: Palm, PDA. CETconnect
posted by Jack Dominic at 7:29 AM
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